Dawn- An age of Darkness

"Damn you!" But no, not again.

I dashed forward, grabbed Gryole, hid her in my robe, and let out a pulse of hot, burning, holy light. It enveloped me and in a split-second spread through the air with blazing speeds- eradicating all the undead in the vicinity. 

I didn\'t know why but- for a second it was almost as though my feelings had returned, it was almost as though I was human again. The feeling dulled the next second but- I knew, they weren\'t gone, just yet. 

"Don\'t wander off like that." 

"Ri-right!"

When the goblin had first taken the front, she was being rather diligent. But after a while, when she understood there were other goblins in the distance, she took off and the undead around us took that chance to attack her. She was almost about to be eaten. 

And he would have been if I hadn\'t acted on impulse like that. Who knew there were undead even pretending to be just dirt beneath our feet?

But with that bit of light show, we\'d attracted the attention of other things- namely, the goblins in the distance. 

And with the undead gone, now nothing stopped them from surrounding us. 

The goblin with me, was still clutching on to me, tight. 

There were about twenty or so goblins surrounding us, weapons drawn. They mostly had crude stone weapons. I didn\'t see any hobs. 

"I\'ve just come to have a talk with your leader." I tried to raise my hands above my head. "I don\'t mean any trouble." I hadn\'t drawn my sword, there was no need. 

Yet.

One of the goblins came forward, ogled at the girl with me, stared at me. It had a large scar over its face. 

Our eyes were locked on. Its eyes darted, but it didn\'t look away. 

I didn\'t either. I had no reason to fear goblins or even remotely feel intimidated by them. 

I stared- no, I glared. Murderous aura leaked and I didn\'t hide it. 

It was either they\'d listen or they\'d die. 

It was fairly simple. 

And though the goblin growled, sweated, it wasn\'t backing down either. It was about to attack. 

And I guess that\'d be it for all of them. 

"Please take us to the one who\'s in charge here," Gryole screamed. 

The goblin that was about to attack me, took a step back, almost reconsidered everything and let out a screech. It was almost as though all the goblins were frightened of Gryole. 

No, that wasn\'t quite it. They were frightened but they were also acting like a bunch who just got a glimpse of their god: I guess this thing wasn\'t kidding about it being special. 

My best guess was, at first, they thought Gryole was also a human child, not their god or something. And that\'s why they were going to attack us- but once they saw her- their attitudes changed. 

The goblins grumbled among themselves and they turned their weapons down.

"Thi way hooman." The screeching one led the way.

I followed and Gryole followed me. 

So far, not a bad start. \'But how long will this last?\'

***

It was just down the mountain path.

Everything seemed normal at a glance. Just trees, some undead here, some undead there. A small cave, some rocks here, some large ones there. 

Everything was normal- too normal. And if life taught me anything- whenever something was too normal- it definitely wasn\'t.

The goblins were leading the way and they were dealing with the undead if any were stupid enough to cross our path- which most weren\'t. 

I was fairly confident in my powers as I was, so I didn\'t fear the goblins. Frankly, I didn\'t feel much of anything. 

The leading goblin, the screeching one, tapped on a rock in various specific ways, and about roughly a minute, the whole thing moved. A hole formed- it was the size of maybe two meters across. The path led underground. 

The goblins all went in and so did we. Inside there were three hobgoblins and as we entered, they sealed the entrance. None of them were acting hostile- that was a good thing. For them. 

Once the exit was mostly sealed, I kind of went blind for a second. But then my eyes adjusted pretty quick. Almost all the goblins jumped when they saw my eyes but they calmed down a second later. 

I guess even to goblins, undead were a scary bunch. 

There were pyres here, probably in case, some undead decided to invade. Or maybe goblins weren\'t a fan of darkness either. I kind of didn\'t know, I kind of didn\'t care. 

Gryole was still attached to me. I figured it\'d run off or something, but it still didn\'t. It probably trusted me more than typical goblins. 

I\'d never seen goblins fighting each other, or eating each other but there was no way to be sure of anything when it came to goblins. 

"Thi way." The screeching one kept on leading us. 

There were goblins everywhere. Some were large, some were small, some were just babies. 

Now that I looked carefully, this place was nicely built. Everything was made from clay. There was occasional other stuff like bricks and stones and even wood, but mostly just clay. The whole place looked more or less like an ant\'s nest. 

I\'d been to one colony before but that one just felt crude compared to this one.

The smell was kind of intense though: very sulfuric. These things had some sort of sewage system- but yeah, I could still smell a lot of things. They were hygienic but they could certainly use some help with how the place smelled. 

\'At least it\'s better than the forests…\' Then again, neither smell bothered me anymore.

And goblins weren\'t just roaming around randomly no, they were often roaming as couples and with children too. Almost like-

As the realization dawned on me more and more, I kind of fumed. But I kept it all in check. 

Right now, I just needed to deliver Gryole, get some answers, and move on to my primary quest. 

***

The corridors were also made of clay but those were hard clay. The ceiling was mostly clay but they used some sort of sticky black stuff to make sure it didn\'t fall?

Anyway, as we kept going, we saw more and more goblins. They even had houses for themselves and there were places for young goblins to train, play and there were even amphitheaters for sports! What kind of sports?

Yeah, I seriously didn\'t even want to think about those. 

Today I was going to gloss over everything. 

Or so I thought until I saw that.

Saw what?

A woman tied to a pole with barely any clothes.. Probably a demi-human.