Peace

"My king, our defeat at Fangfallow Fields was pure luck on their part. 

Please my king just give me one more chance" 

The goblin bowed down as low as possible with his forehead pressed aggressively to the wooden floorboards.

"My king, we could never have expected a biter awakening in their mix"

"You believe that absolves you"

"No, my king, of course not but please give me a chance, I will make it up to you."

"You miserable wretch! Do you even grasp the magnitude of your failure? My plans, years in the making, were crushed beneath your incompetence! The blood of our brethren spilt in vain, our enemies laughing at our feeble attempts. You dare to stand before me, drenched in the stench of defeat, as if expecting mercy?

I gave you power, a legion of MY warriors, and you squandered it all! The rats, those pathetic creatures, they should have been nothing more than fodder for our blades. Yet, here we are, licking our wounds while they celebrate their undeserved victory.

Do you know what this means for us? It means we are seen as weak, and vulnerable! They will sniff out this weakness and descend upon us like vultures. Our lands, our treasures, all that I have built, will be torn from MY grasp because of you."

"No, please no my king. 

I can make it up to you, I will do anything. 

Pleaaaseee"

tears emerged from his eyes as his begging became more and more desperate. 

His snivelling display was counteracted by the deadpan expression his king displayed. 

"Let me liv....."

His sentence was cut short by the twang of a blade. 

The fearful expression was replaced by shock for a brief moment. 

"I was not finished yet, my son"

The king glared at the new creature that now stood in the puddle of blood gently oozing out from the neck. 

"I apologise, Father, I could not bear to listen to this snivelling piece of filth any longer. 

Father do you think it hurt, his death I mean"

"I do not dwell on such matters"

"Hmm, I hope it did, I hope his last moments were in deep astonishing agony and that..."

He became giddier and giddier the longer he spoke

"SILENCE, boy. 

I do not care to hear your twisted thoughts. I called you here for a reason"

"My apologies Father" 

"You will kill this biter, the one they call ' the white devil'. 

Show our troops they are nothing but another rat dressed in wolf's clothing" 

An excited whimper escaped the younger goblin's mouth.

"It would be my utmost pleasure, Father" 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The camp fell back into normal motion after the battle had finished. 

We would be waiting for reinforcements to arrive from some of the clans before storming the city. 

It had already been a month since I had woken up.

My life fell back into a mixture of training and learning. 

Itch crackled his whip like a madman pushing us to work more and more vigorously. 

Many had fallen in the battle however most of our group had managed to survive the battles at the flanks. 

In the evenings after training Lorath would try to teach me more about the world. 

Occasionally I would convince him to teach me more about that shield he conjured during the battle. He dismissed it as mere lower-level tricks, even going as far as to lend me an orb of my own. 

The same orb he used to introduce characteristics to me in that first lesson. An orb of fire. I was to use it only in the circumstances where I believed it necessary. According to Lorath, I could only use it due to my innate characteristic however it would be far weaker than if he were to use it. 

The rest of the time he would bore me with history and geography.

He said "Knowledge is power, my friend" 

But to me, this sounds like bullshit. 

Power is power. 

I told him this once and he hit me over the head with his staff. 

He teaches me about the goblins and lands far over. 

Humans, elves, dwarves all types of funny-looking races. 

He recounts stories from his homeland Elarindor. 

He says it's a whole lot nicer this time of year compared to the verdant forests. 

I tried asking him why he stays with us rats despite being human but he averted the question. 

Elarindor is the closest 'developed' land to our lands. Apparently, we and the goblins don't count as being 'developed'. 

It's a human nation which spans much of the southern peninsula. They worship some sort of justice God called ..... um. It begins with an A. 

Religion was always a boring topic when Lorath was recounting it. 

Either way, Lorath spoke with a lot of vigour and happiness when recounting Elarindors stories. It seems he misses his home. 

Occasionally during our studies, I see him wince slightly at the mention of 'home'. It makes me wonder why he abandoned it while secretly missing it. 

Nevertheless, I have better things to care about than Loraths secrets. 

I walked aimlessly through camp. It was slowly beginning to warm up or, as Lorath calls it, summer. 

The daily hunt had long since concluded and food for tonight had been secured. 

It was boring. A sentiment shared by many of the other rats in the camp. The once-continued fires of war stirred vigour and excitement amongst the clans but the current embers bread boredom. 

Upon arriving back at my tent I spent my time training with thassius.

Itch eventually joined in however spent most of his time critiquing our skills. 

"Not likes that"

"No swings it like this yous bumbling fools"

I was not allowed to tell anyone about my percentage. Lorath would occasionally take me to a clearing far off from the camp where he would beat me up in an attempt to get my characteristics to react again. 

It had not worked yet. 

According to him, it was just a matter of time. I hope it comes bloody quickly so our 'training' together can come to a halt. 

Over the month I tried desperately to kill and hunt larger animals to attempt to drink their blood to grow my strength. 

The only creature that had worked was a particularly large bear that me, thassius, Twig and Sniffer brought down. 

I gained thicker skin and a minor increase in strength from that. 

As my thoughts addressed the last month's happenings I felt a slap on my wrist. 

"Focuses yous, lest yous go crazy again"

Itch just loved to mock me for my little 'berserk episode' as he calls it. 

I think he's just worried I'll become stronger than him soon and that whip won't be as intimidating anymore. 

The rest of the training went like normal with me and Thassius spending most of our time locked in various duels. 

Once the sun began to set we ate like beasts after our long training session before retiring to our tents. 

The mountainous peaceful life, while boring, was quite comfortable at times. 

I dreamed of that white room again today. The nightmare seems to haunt my dreams consistently. No one is present today. It was just me on my lonesome. 

I woke suddenly feeling pressure on my shoulder. 

Adrenaline racked my brain as I lunged at the creature which now stood to the side of my bed. 

"Calm yourself friend"

Lorath stood with a sly grin as if he knew this would be my reaction. 

"You my boy have a mission. tomorrow night you will sneak into their city. You must gather as much information as possible."

"Why me, surely Styx would do a better job"

"Ha, you think our king would trust that backstabbing little bastard? He trusts you because he can use your characteristics to track you down and kill you if you do anything stupid."

He sounded so unfazed when saying it. 

"Either way, good luck my friend"

Loraths body faded out of existence in front of my eyes. 

"Bloody bastard"

I reclined back into my bed and returned to my sleep. I will have to make preparations for this expedition tomorrow. For now, I need my sleep. 

Daybreak came fast and many rats returned to their daily chores. I used this time to sneak away and excuse myself from the camp for an early hunting session. 

I followed the path we had taken previously to the battlegrounds of our battle just a month prior. 

If I was to sneak into this city I would have to get a proper look at it at least first. 

It was not far at all only a 3 - 4 minute walk before is arrived back at the grasslands. The battleground still looked torn and battered by the stamping of feet and rotting corpses. Bones scattered the area with the chasm still intersecting the centre of the field. A brutal affair. 

In the distance, the large wooden walls came into view. The city looked large. almost a hundred times larger than the village had been. The only building I could make out above the walls was a castle which stood around the middle of the city. 

So this was a goblin city. If Lorath considered this as not being developed I wonder what a human city would look like. 

The walls, while solid and tall looked fairly climbable for rat claws. Stationaries would be hard to scout out during the day. I would have to find them out the hard way tonight. 

Once I had a proper picture of the city I retreated back to camp, catching a few smaller rabbits along the way to make my excuse look more valid. 

Arriving back in camp I went about my day like any other. Making sure my weapons were extra sharp. 

Daylight began diminishing as the moon took to dominating the sky. 

The time to act was upon me.