Part 3

Back at the fort, the situation wasn't any better. The peace bought by the previous day's actions was shattered in the late morning when large group of goblins were spotted marching. While panic spread among the civilians, Tolle found himself in an argument between mobilizes villagers and wounded soldiers.

It was difficult to ascertain what was being spoken as everyone was yelling loudly at the same time. "You said we wouldn't be discovered here! What the hell is the army doing?! Where is everyone?! Can we even survive this?!"

Those were just some of the exchanges heard in the argument. Tolle had enough of it so he slammed his healthy hand and yelled: "Everyone! SHUT UP!" That drew everyone's attention so he continued speaking. "I understand we are in huge problem. That doesn't mean we have spare time to argue about it. Now, does anyone have any actual objections?"

No one spoke up. "If not, then shut up and listen. I understand that we are all afraid and we have no idea when will Royal Army from E-Libera appear. Unfortunately we don't have the luxury to think about it. If you can walk, grab a weapon, calm those panicking outside, hunker down and stay out of archers' sight. As for the rest of you, this is our only retreat point. Keep the entrance open, move wounded further inside and prepare mobile barricades. You understand? NOW GO!"

Tolle's orders were enough to give people something to do. So they obeyed without objections. Meanwhile, the goblins, uninterrupted by those inside, were allowed free reign around the fort. They started setting up the siege camp on the western side.

As the humans watched goblins slowly surrounding them, a lot of rustling was heard coming from the east. It was clear more goblins were coming from that direction. Several people, including Tolle decided to hide behind obstacles and peek through to see what the goblins will do. To their surprise, the first thing that appeared out of the forest wasn't a goblin, but Felsi.

Running all the way from Grimrock, she was covered in bruises, scratches, cuts and sweat. So exhausted from running, she ended up crashing into the prepared barricade at the eastern gate. Those present managed to grab her before goblins arrived and carried her inside the command room. The healer was also called to the scene.

It took a long time for Felsi to recover from exhaustion. After coughing a lot of blood, drinking a large barrel of water to replace the fluids she lost and getting her wounds treated, she was able to speak slowly. Tolle started questioning. "What happened out there?"

Felsi had somewhat of a hard time to answer. "Grimrock... destroyed... No... survivors... We... ran..."

Tolle had a worried look on his face. "Speaking of which, where are others? You weren't alone earlier."

Felsi had a truly sad look on her face. "Screams... Heard... screams... while... running..."

The implication was enough to silence everyone and leave her alone to recover. Half hour later, Felsi was finally back on her feet so she left for the fort wall to see what was happening. By then, the fort was fully surrounded as the two goblin groups combined forces. The scene left nothing to imagination. Even if every human present in the fort could fight, they would be outnumbered by 4 to 1 at that moment. And the goblin numbers continued to swell.

Felsi found Tolle staring at the scene, unable to do anything about it. He was slightly happy to see her walking about. "At least one good news today. How are you feeling?"

Felsi sighed and slumped her shoulders. "Terrible. Exhausted. Want to find a ditch for myself so that it would be easy to bury me. But I still have a duty towards my village so here I am."

Tolle nodded. "Thank you. I am sure it is extremely difficult after what happened."

Felsi dropped her eyes, unable to look at anyone else. "We ran as fast as we could. But they just kept following us. As others fell behind one by one, the last thing we heard screams. I... I..."

Tolle, seeing Felsi on the verge of tears, hugged her. "Please, not now. There will be time for that later." While not the most comforting thing he could have said, it was enough for Felsi to calm down. "Does that mean you had experienced something like this?"

Tolle stepped away after he heard the question. "I lost a lot of friends in massacre at Katze. The keep felt empty for a long time and few people that came as replacements never felt like part of the unit. All those lives and memories, gone in a single day. And I couldn't do anything but to cry in solitude as not to upset others."

Felsi chimed in with a sad tone. "At least, you will meet them again soon."

Seeing how both of them are quite similar, they became silent while watching the goblins prepare for the siege. After few minutes, Felsi spoke up. "We don't stand a chance, right?"

Tolle nodded. "No. Look at them. At this point they can shower us with arrows until we all perish. They are mocking us with all this siege set-up they are doing."

Felsi turned to ask Tolle the important question. "Can we even survive long enough until reinforcements from E-Libera arrive?" Tolle remained silent. As she noticed he was biting his own lip, Felsi realized the implication of that. "Do you even think they can win?"

Tolle turned to Felsi and answered her question. "I have no idea. Any confidence in the military that once existed was shattered. Even the new recruits and conscripts are too scared that they will end up on the wrong side of the horror again. It also doesn't help that survivors are too scarred from the massacre. One of them that returned back after the battle ended up hanging himself. The nightmares he kept having every night drove him to suicide.

Meanwhile, the Empire was left alone, the new Sorcerer Kingdom annexed E-Rantel and now we have them sending monster armies across the border. I mean, just look at it. Did they think we wouldn't connect the dots? It's clear that's all captured equipment that the goblins used came from our dead at Katze Plains."

Felsi looked at the siege camp again, this time with curiosity. "I am more surprised that they forged a proper army out of goblins of all things. I mean, look at them. If I wasn't seeing their green skin and their shorter stature, I would have mistaken them for our own army."

Tolle understood what she meant by that as he watched the camp being set up. "Yeah. I have to admit that I am curious too. How in the world did they instil discipline in a primitive race like goblins? And also, have they gathered all the forest goblins into one force or what?"

Felsi started to move away from the wall. "That's something we might soon learn."

Tolle turned away from the wall and asked. "And where do you think you're going, Cyclops?"

Felsi stopped for a moment. "Where else? To pick up a white flag and try to negotiate. Come on, I know you wanted to do so too, Sideburns. Or are we just going to make up nicknames for ourselves until they finally kill us?"

Tolle made a deep sigh. "Good luck out there." Felsi just nodded and moved along.

Few minutes later, Felsi came out of the cave with white cloth. After approaching the fort's entrance, she started waving it. People realized what she was doing and the one closest to her tried to stop her, but Tolle stood in his way. "Let her go. Right now, we need to buy as much time as we can. If you got any better idea, then speak up. If not, then drop it."

Despite clearly being unhappy on that decision, no one stopped Felsi. A minute or so later, a group of goblin shieldbearers appeared. Initially approaching with caution, once they saw that it wasn't a trap, they loosened up. And so, Felsi was taken away.