Chess and Goblins

Gabur was a bit anxious. Trakk had the reputation of being a fair leader, but you never knew how a leader would react when he received bad news. But he had been ordered to report to the headquarters, and he could hardly refuse.

The small goblin had left the southern tower early in the morning, arriving to the city in about one hour.

The city alone was enough to make him feel uncomfortable: goblins had always been a tribal race, usually not having any settlement bigger than a few hundreds, but now, here they were, thousands upon thousands of them inhabiting the ruins of an old human city.

The sight was terrifying and exciting at the same time. Countless goblins were moving through the dusty streets, surrounded by huge stone houses. Most of the buildings were little more than ruins, showing little sign of crude repairs made by the goblins using wood and leather, and they looked terribly overcrowded, but to the goblins, who were used to live in caves and temporary camps, it was still a huge improvement.

Under the leadership of Trakk, they managed to live together in that place: each goblin had his own task, and there was a clear chain of command that went from the lowliest goblin whelp to the General himself.

It was something unheard of in the history of goblinkind. These radical changes made Gabur feel uncomfortable, but also excited.

He felt as if he was part of something bigger, a weird feeling that somehow reassured him... at least, until it meant that he'd be given responsibilities. Gabur hated being responsible for anything: it meant that his superiors would punish him if he failed to meet their standards, and Gabur didn't like that.

But leaving the city meant being on his own against all the other creatures that infested the forest, and Gabur liked that even less.

Trying not to get distracted by the activities on the street, the goblin headed straight to the headquarters: a stone building even bigger than the others. It had two wings, but one was completely in ruins, so only the other wing was inhabited. Still, it was the most spacious building in the town, and Trakk had decided to make it his own residence.

Gabur approached the front door, guarded by two hobgoblins. Both were still recognizable as goblins, having gray skins, big bat like ears and square, flat nosed faces, but they were much taller than Gobur and possessed characteristics of other races. One had human-like traits, like the straighter posture and more proportionate limbs, while the other one possessed the burly frame and scaled skin associated with the orcs. The human-hob carried short iron spears and was dressed in some sort of armor made of scrap metal, while the orc-hob wore a simple leather tunic and was armed with a huge bronze axe.

"Halt!" said the human-hob, blocking his way "What is your business here, gob?"

Gobur sighed. Why did it have to be so complicated? When he was part of a tribe, he could simply walk off to the leader of the tribe and speak with him. Now there were all sorts of procedure to follow, and he didn't understand half of them. Still, he knew by experience that it was better to follow those rules. Trakk was very fussy about the regulations he made, and was more than happy to punish those who broke them.

"Gabur, from the southern tower, sir." he said half-heartedly "Came here to tell the boss about all the fuss we had. Can I pass now?"

The human-gob frowned at his sloppy attitude, looking at him with disapproval, but the orc-hob simply laughed.

"Pass, gob." the big hob said "Boss is upstairs, with 'nother apprentice. Tell him 'bout the fuss."

Gabur quickly went through the door, secretly pleased with the sour expression the human-hob was making. He didn't like those that had evolved from contacts with the humans: they always behaved as if they had a stick up their collective asses. Sadly, not only the General was a human-hob too, but he was perhaps the one with the biggest stick in his buttocks.

He quickly passed through the main hall of the headquarters. It was a huge room, crowded with all sort of goblins talking with each other. They were mainly hobs, but Gobur could also spot several shamans, with their ornate staves and their robes, and a couple of winged gargoyles.

No one paid attention to him, so he headed for the stone stairs that would lead him to the General's office.

When he finally got there, he found himself in front of a wooden door. Which was kinda unusual: goblins had never used doors before. But the General was a weird one, and not only wanted his office separated from the rest of the building by a door, but pretended that everyone visiting him would knock before entering!

Still, it was useless to argue with him, and it was kinda dangerous to try it, so Gabur wouldn't be the one to disobey, and he just knocked, waiting for a response.

"Come on in." a quiet voice answered from the inside, and Gabur opened the door.

The office was a simple room, with only a wooden table, a chest and two crude chairs. A very young goblin, little more than a whelp, was sitting on one of them, trembling in fear and with panic in his eyes, while the other was occupied by General Trakk himself.

At first glance, the General was a human-hob like many others, and maybe smaller than most: barely taller than a standard gob, with only the posture and the proportion of his limbs revealing he was a hob. But the more you looked at him, the more it was clear that something was not ordinary. Maybe it was his piercing eyes, which looked as if they could see right through you. Or maybe it was the aura of absolute confidence that surrounded him. Whatever it was, it was a mesmerizing feeling, as if you were drawn to him like a moth to a fire.

And when he spoke, with his calm, polite and charismatic voice, all doubts would be lifted: he was no simple human-hob, he was a Goblin General, the first that had appeared in centuries.

"Ah, Gabur. What a pleasant surprise." Trakk said. He had the unnerving ability to remember the name of each of his subjects, no matter how much time had passed since he last saw them "You come at the right time. I think that young Druk, here, is in dire need of a pause. His game has been getting worse for a few minutes now."

Gabur looked at the poor, young goblin on the chair. Some sort of board was on the table between him and the general, surely one of the human games Trakk loved so much. Gabur didn't know about this one, but the board was covered in black and white boxes, upon which there were black and white wooden figures. For some reason, there were very few white figures and a lot of black ones.

The whelp seemed terribly scared, which was normal for an apprentice since it meant being put in a life or death situations. Apprentices had only two choices ahead of them: trigger their evolution or die.

And sadly for young Druk the odds weren't in his favour: among the dozens of apprentices that Trakk had taken, not even one had managed to evolve.

"So, Gabur. Do you have anything to tell me?" the General asked.

"Yes sir." the goblin answered, this time trying not to sound too sloppy. Unlike the guards, Trakk wasn't to be trifled with even in the best of times, and now he had to give him some bad news "The patrols have searched the valley, but they didn't find the humanoid and the dog-like creature that killed Braga."

"I see." the General replied, no trace of anger in his voice. Gabur was starting to feel relieved: maybe Trakk would leave it at that, and let the garrison of the southern tower resume their routine.

But his expectation were thoroughly crushed by the General next order.

"Increase the range of the perlustrations then. Explore the hills around the valley, search every nook and cranny. We must find those creatures."

"Uhm... why?" Gabur asked, confused and worried "I mean... there are the nightwolves and the King of the Forest and all sort of dangerous monsters on those hills. If those two creatures went there, probably they are dead by now, and any patrol sent there would risk dying as well..."

"Those monsters only come out at night." Trakk replied "Any sufficiently smart animal could avoid them by simply hiding during the night. The patrols will be okay for the same reason, if they just keep track of the time and remember to come back before sunset. Anyway, I'll send a few winged gargoyles south as well. They will explore the most dangerous areas from the sky, and they will report to the southern tower. Keep the state of alert until I order otherwise."

Now Gabur was just flabbergasted. This all seemed like a huge waste of time and resources. He had seen the two creatures with his own eyes: two weird reptilian/insectoid things, one vaguely similar to a young human female, and the other similar to a dog. As strange as they were, they didn't strike him as particularly dangerous... heck, most of the other creatures that infested the swamp would have made a snack out of them. True, the duo had managed to kill Braga, but that was mostly because the hob had been careless and his group was made of young whelps, too undisciplined to be helpful in a fight.

Certainly it wasn't worth risking the lives of the garrison of the southern tower (of which Gabur was part of) just to look for those two!

"Why do we even care about those creatures?" he asked, trying to sway the General "I mean... there are many worse threats. The orcs on the east, the King of the Forest in the South, the humans in the north... couldn't we, just leave those creatures be? We don't even know what they are!"

"And that's exactly why we can't leave them be!" Trakk replied, still calm but stern "I much prefer an enemy I know to an unknown one! Moreover, from what I have been told, the humanoid creature used weapons and the dog was protecting her." he made a pause, looking very serious "This is the worst kind of danger we could ever face: something intelligent, organized and unknown. They may not be a threat right now, but they could very well become one in the future. So it's better to play it safe and crush them right now!"

He looked at Gabur straight in the eyes, and all the replies that the goblins could have made instantly disappeared.

Very few goblins could argue with the General after he gave a direct order, and Gabur was not among them.

"Go now." Trakk ordered "Report my order to the commander of the southern tower. I'll send the gargoyles to him tomorrow."

Gabur instinctively saluted, and marched right out of the room.

As he was exiting, he could see the young goblin, Druk, looking at him with desperation, almost as if he was asking for help.

Sorry whelp, but better you than me. Gabur thought, before closing the door behind him.