Considering the fact that it was at least ten feet by ten feet and square, it was clearly insanely heavy, and I made a mental note to get it searched.
What took most of my attention, though, was the tiny corpse revealed underneath it. It had been crushed into the dark earth, likely killing it instantly, but enough of the body remained to make Lydia hiss in anger.
“You’ve seen this before?” I asked her, blinking in surprise, and got a nod in return.
“Forest goblin. Little bastards usually live in the deep woods. They kill travelers and loot anything not nailed down. They also raid small villages and cabins; they eat meat.”
“So, do we… eat meat, I mean?” I said, and then I understood the look on her face. “You mean sentient meat, don’t you?” I asked, getting a sick nod in return. Cam spoke up, disgust straining his voice.
“They need killin’, Lord. If we don’t, they’ll just keep breedin’ until there’s too many to face. They’re like a fuckin’ plague.” The taciturn man grunted and spat on the small corpse before turning back to watching the perimeter.
“We came for the crew and ship first,” I said, studying the nearby tracks. “If we need to kill them off, we will, but the ship’s crew is our priority, not meeting the neighbors.”
“I don’t think we’ve much choice, Lord Jax…” said a small voice from the left, my eyes found Miren where she knelt a dozen feet away, looking at the tracks in the dirt. She pointed at first one, then another, then a third. “This one’s a cave troll; me da’ taught me what they look’d like, so I’d keep well away from ’em. Most of these look like other goblins, judgin’ by that one’s feet; and this one?” She indicated the final clear print. “This one looks like a normal boot; might be a man or a woman. It’s too short to be a goblin, and they don’t normally wear boots, do they?”
“Too short?” I asked, joining her to inspect it.
It took a few seconds of looking the jumble of tracks over, but I managed to make out the ones that she’d seen, and a handful of others, thanks to the tracking training I’d been given prior to being sent to the arena.
“Goblins have really long feet, Lord Jax, narrow at the back and wide at the front, and you can see the claws…here,” Miren touched the ground gently, pointing out the short gouges near the end of several prints. “And here… but this one…” She pointed out another much wider and deeper print, which was almost triangular due to being particularly wide at one end. “This one’s a cave troll. Nothin’ like it, me da’ said, an’ I recognize it!”
As soon as I had the three prints fixed in my mind, a notification popped up:
Congratulations!
You have learned three new tracks and have increased your ‘Tracking’ skill to Level Two. Practice and learn to increase this skill further. Skillful trackers can grow in ability, until even the west wind could be traced to its home!
Once this skill reaches Level Ten, you may choose its first evolution…
I couldn’t help but grin at the skill increase, despite being aware that it was tiny. I’d literally only reached level two, after all, but every step was an improvement. As I looked at the muddy earth leading from the forest to the ship and back again, I concentrated, and a faint red glow began to outline certain prints as my visual augmentation kicked in, highlighting important details.
“Thank you, Miren,” I said, then looked over at Stephanos. “Have you got the tracking skill yet?” I asked him, getting a shake of the head in the negative. I waved him over, asking Miren to explain it to him while we searched the site.
I followed the cave troll tracks to the side of the ship, finding scratches and gouges in the wood where it appeared that one had tried to climb up the side. Smaller prints indicated where the goblins had swarmed aboard. I climbed up the rungs that had been built into the side of the ship and paused at the top, scanning the deck quickly to make sure there was nothing waiting for me before climbing aboard.
Lydia followed me while Bob clattered around the perimeter, looking for things to hurt. Once we were both up, we edged cautiously toward the nearest hatch. The ship’s deck was canted at an angle, but we were careful, approaching the edge of the open hatch quietly. As we drew near, we made eye contact and separated out to either side before moving to peer into the darkness below…
“E’re! I need that sword!” A voice called out from behind us, and we both spun around. The leader of the idiotic foursome had followed us up and was standing there expectantly. “Ya can’t expect us to be unarmed, now; yer promised us!” he went on in a loud, nasally voice, when a sound from below deck rang out, making it clear we’d just lost the element of surprise. I swore as Lydia grunted, shoving me aside and sending us both sprawling.
When we hit the deck, we started rolling, slowly at first as we thrashed about, trying to find purchase, but then faster and faster, until I slammed into the railing with a thump.
I saw Lydia coming and just managed to throw my naginata free before it impaled her, and she crashed to a stop atop me with a painful
