Lightning God

Marcus was on his eighth glass of wine, luckily it was an open bar, so he didn't have to pay for anything. He and Clair had been talking to her friends, if you can call them that, for the last hour. They were really just the other local business owners from around the same area as her. They all knew each other pretty well since most had been in business for many years. The only one that wasn't there was the local baker, it turns out that his wife had the baby. Then she found out about his affair and then proceeded to stab him five times before he managed to escape the house. He survived, but is still recovering. The wife got sentenced to hard labor, while the newborn child will be taken care of by its father and his new girlfriend. Marcus found that story sad, but ultimately very entertaining. He didn't talk much during the conversations, just mainly let Clair do the talking, while he listened.

"Mister Marcus! Mister Marcus!"

Marcus heard his name being called from over the music being played and the din of the crowd. He turned to see a blonde hair beautiful lady jogging over to him, sometimes bumping into people. A tired looking older man was coming up behind her, Marcus saw that it was Lord Bishore. He recognized the young lady as well, she was the very eccentric woman that was fawning over Sif, but he couldn't place her name.

"Haaaa, Mister Marcus! I didn't expect to see you here." she said while she was looking around as if she was trying to find something. She even did a lap around Marcus, seeing if what she was looking for was behind him.

"Where is my darling Sif at? Did you not bring her with you?" She asked in a dejected tone.

"No, I didn't. She didn't want to come." Marcus said flatly.

"Sylvia, what have I told you before! That is not how a proper lady is to behave, running and bumping into people!" Lord Bishore came up behind her with an annoyed look on his face.

"Oh, father, please forgive me. I just remember seeing Mister Marcus here with the most beautiful creature. I was just hoping to be able to see her again." Sylvia said, looking down at the floor.

Lord Bishore just let out a sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose. It didn't take much for Marcus to put two and two together. Sylvia would be Lord Bishore's daughter, the one he was supposed to guard during her trip. He was already starting to regret taking on the mission, but it was too late to back out now.

"You'll have plenty of time to... bond with Marcus's creature. He is one of the guards I've hired for your trip." Lord Bishore said, exasperation leaking out of his voice.

"Really!" Sylvia said, clasping her hands together and nearly jumping off the ground.

"Yes, really. Also I was going to tell him later, but seeing as everyone is here I'll just do it now. Marcus, I would like for you to act as Sylvia's personal guard during her trip, not leaving her side for anything. Do you accept?" Lord Bishore more demanded than asked.

Marcus was caught a little off guard by the sudden turn of events. Here he was just minding his own business, when all of a sudden a bouncy young girl came running up to him shouting his name. Now he was being assigned as her personal guard on top of it. Needless to say all the commotion had attracted nearly everyone's attention within earshot.

"Uh, I suppose that is alright. I'm assuming there will be extra pay?" Marcus managed to spit out.

"Yes, you will be paid a total of two gold coins per day, is that acceptable?"

"YES!" Marcus blurted out.

Lord Bishore winced a little from the volume of Marcus's sudden outburst. Marcus turned red in the face, realizing what he'd done. Sylvia was still bouncing around in excitement, She would be able to play with Sif for the whole trip, that was much more than she could have dreamed of. Sylvie suddenly wrapped her arms around Marcus, giving him a hug. She looked more like a small child hugging their parents.

"Oh, I'm sooo excited Mister Marcus! I can't wait to see Sif again!"

"SYLVIA!" Lord Bishore growled at her, prying her off of Marcus.

"You're embarrassing me."

Lord Bishore managed to release Marcus, then he dragged her back into the crowd, most likely to lecture her on proper edicate. Marcus looked over at Clair who had been silently observing the whole ordeal. She was glaring at Marcus like he had done something wrong, Marcus just shrugged his shoulders and finished his glass of wine in one gulp.

............................

John was in a tight spot, he was currently facing down a whole gaggle of goblins, or was it a herd, it didn't matter. His group had camped out near the base of a mountain about fifty miles from Jakarta. They were on a gathering mission, looking for special herbs. They'd made camp before nightfall and set a lookout for everyone to get some rest, but they soon fell under attack.

Goblins were humanoid magical beasts, much like orcs, except much much smaller. They were slightly more intelligent than orcs as well, being able to put on clothes and use proper weapons. They were short, only coming up to your waist, and extremely ugly. They had crooked faces with teeth sticking out randomly, green wart laden skin made them very hard to look at. Their hygiene was nonexistent, smelling like feces and blood.

John's party consisted of five people including himself, luckily there were no women, if there were they would surely be taken away. John didn't even want to imagine what it would be like to be taken back to a goblin camp. The lookout was laying on the ground with a crude arrow sticking out of his neck. The goblin archer made a very lucky shot, killing Niel instantly. The other four had their backs to each other in a circle, facing off against more than twenty goblins.

There was John, the swordsman, Henry, he was a ranger, Tim, the rogue, and finally there was Edwin, he was an all rounder really. Edwin could fire an arrow just as well as swing a sword, his job was to fill in anywhere he was needed. They were all breathing heavily with injuries all over their bodies. They'd managed to kill about six goblins, but that wasn't nearly enough to scare the rest of them away.

John didn't know where all these goblins had come from. He'd heard that goblins hadn't been spotted in this area for many years, they were really only seen deeper into the wilderness of the Frontier. Had they known that goblins were around, they would have never set camp up here.

The goblins had thick strands of saliva coming out of their crooked mouths, thinking of the meal that was coming up. They were known to eat human flesh raw, right off the bone. It was only a matter of time until they would all be turned into goblin shit, fertilizing the forest. John let out a deep breath, preparing himself to take out as many as he could before he died.

John opened his eyes, ready to focus, when he noticed something strange. The hair on his arms started to raise up, standing on end. Then he felt the hair on his head do the same thing, he looked over at the others and saw the same phenomenon. Then he noticed a strange taste in his mouth, almost like he had licked his sword. The sword he was holding started to vibrate softly, barely noticeable, little arcs of static were jumping off the surface of it. Then, suddenly, a blinding flash of light struck the ground, followed by a ear splitting boom, making his ears ring.

Before John could get his vision back, or his hearing, another flash and boom followed, then another, then another. It seemed like there were more than ten of these flashes and booms. John and his party were all on the ground covering their ears with their eyes squeezed shut. After a minute of no more flashes, they slowly opened their eyes.

Before them were the scorched corpses of goblins. All the goblins that had them surrounded were turned into pieces of charcoal. Edwin slowly got to his feet and walked over to the bodies, his feet making cracking noises as he walked. He looked down, the dirt had a sheen to it, he looked closer, it had been turned into glass. He poked a corpse with the end of his blade, part of it fell apart and turned into ash.

"What happened?" John asked Edwin, with shock on his face.

"The Gods answered our prayers." Edwin replied, falling to his knees and beginning a prayer.

Sif was looking down on the group of people she just saved. She thought that it was a good opportunity to exercise her magic, and a little target practice. Also, for some reason, when she spotted the goblins, an overwhelming feeling of disgust appeared in the back of her head. She just had to destroy them, almost as if every cell in her body was screaming at her to do so.

Now that she had used a little of her magic, she was getting hungry. She thought about finding some orcs in the forest, but then remembered that Marcus would be back shortly. She didn't want to make him worry, so she decided to get back to the house. She gave one last look at the group of mercenaries on the ground, they were all on their knees, singing praises to the Gods. She then oriented herself to the city and flew off silently into the night.

............................

"Ready to go?" Clair asked Marcus, her speech a little slurred.

"Ready whenever you are." He said as he helped Clair towards the door.

They had spent the last five hours socializing and dancing. Marcus, despite his size, was a very good dancer. He once had a girlfriend that dragged him to many dance classes. He really didn't mind, dancing was good exercise, and she was a knockout, so it was a win win. Clair was very impressed that he was so light on his feet, this earned him many compliments from her, and other women that took notice of him. It also earned him just as many jealous stares from the other men. Marcus just brushed those off and enjoyed himself.

They tracked down their carriage, the driver opened the door for them, and they clumsily entered. Clair had a healthy shade of red on her skin from the alcohol and the dancing. Marcus was almost in the same condition that he arrived in, the only difference being that he was just slightly buzzed. Clair was looking at Marcus with a hungry look in her eyes.

"You, Mister Marcus, are a phenomenal dancer."

"Well, thank you very much. I have a little experience with it." Marcus said, wondering what Clair was thinking.

"I think you deserve a little reward for showing me such a good time tonight." She said as she slowly made her way over to Marcus.

Marcus started to say something, but was interrupted by Clair putting her finger on his lips. She slowly got on her knees and started to undo the buttons on Marcus's pants. She looked him in the eyes with a sensual look in her eyes, she licked her cherry red lips as she liberated Marcus's member. Marcus enjoyed the rest of the ride home greatly.