As we walked all day long, not a sight of prey appeared before us, not even Sorbet with his superior senses managed to pick up anything of interest. Night fell upon us, the cold hitting me in full force. I wanted to lay down, to rest with Sorbet covering me like a warm blanket but putting distance between myself and my formed tribe was more important. Thankfully the clear sky illuminated the woods quite well, coupled with my low night vision and I could see quite comfortably were I was stepping. Sorbet was the same being a wolf he had no problem walking around at night.

  Suddenly Sorbet stopped in his tracks looking off to the side and lowering his posture. I also made myself smaller following his example, he started walking towards the place he was looking, making sure to not make any noise. I realized that he wasn’t doing it to hide from our pursuers but because he had found prey. Sorbet kept his movements silent as he approached his target, I tried my best to mimic him minding where I stepped as we drew closer and closer. Finally, as he lowered his body down to the ground, I saw it through the darkness of the night, a rabbit eating some grass, weary of its surroundings.

  At the smallest of sound it was ready to jump and run away, and sorbet was ready to pounce at it and give chase if necessary. At that moment right before Sorbet attacked I remembered something, that a spear wasn’t just a close range weapon, it could also be thrown, in fact there was an entire Olympic sport around such action. I readied my spear, trying my best to imitated those athletes I saw on television from memory. I threw my shot, ripping through the air as it traveled to it target, missing the rabbit completely while alerting it to our presence.

  It run away and Sorbet turned to look at me, even thought I couldn’t see his face clearly I could tell that he was staring at me, judging me. “I’m sorry my boy, I wanted to help.” I tried to pet him but he refused, pulling himself away from my hand, breaking my heart in the process. He started walking once more and I followed, after retrieving my spear, with my head hung low. We didn’t find anything else and decided to call it a night, falling asleep for a few hours until the sun rose.

  The next day we happened upon another pond which solved our immediate water issue. Still I didn’t felt like this place was far away enough to set up a camp, in the first place how did those hobgoblins found us? We were a pretty isolated community, to the point that I didn’t knew if we even had any neighbors but those hobgoblins didn’t seemed the least bit surprised when they found us. Could they have happened upon our hunters and stalked them all the way back to the tribe? Then could everything be nothing more than bad luck, flipping the wrong side of the coin?

  Absorbed in thought I failed to notice that the sun was setting and that another day had gone by without the slightest sigh of prey. I wandered how our hunters did it, how they managed each day to return home with something, I guess their vast skills was what earned them the respect of the tribe. Another day gone, another night were I decided to keep moving embraced us. We kept moving under the shroud of night, illuminated by the moons and the stars, shining brightly on the clear sky. I hoped we happened upon a rabbit like last night, if we did this time I would leave everything to Sorbet.

  What we actually happen upon was far greater than a rabbit. Out of nowhere Sorbet tensed up, lowering his body as he started making careful steps forward. It wasn’t the same hunting stance as the night before, this time there was anxiety and caution mixed in. I didn’t knew what we were going to encounter but since he still marched forward Sorbet must have deemed it within our capabilities so I followed him, making sure to not make any sound. I suddenly saw lights flickering off in the distance, it started small barely noticeable but they grew as we approached making the obviously the flashes of torches.

  Civilization! I thought, now the question stood if they were a friendly one or hostile to poor little Signy. As we approached we came up the edge of the forest leading into a circular clearing. In the center of that clearing several large boulders were erected upwards, with symbols carved on the inner side, it looked like an even more primitive version of stone hedge. At the center of those stones stood a stone table and three humans in robes surrounded it, chanting in a language I didn’t understood, while on top of the table bellowed a sheep. It seemed to be a ritual sacrifice.

  I wondered If I should come out, show that I had no hostile intentions and hope for the best. Who knows I looked human enough, maybe it was enough to evoke one of those guys xenophilic emotions and I could live among humans. Alternatively I could wait until the end and see what they left behind from the offering. Back on earth when animal sacrifices were practiced they would usually leave behind the inedible and worst part of the offering and eat the rest but who knew, maybe this world’s humans were more pious and left behind the entire thing. Perfect for an opportunistic little creature and her wolf to fill their bellies.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  While debating what gamble to take something happened that emptied my mind of every thought I had in an instant. Suddenly, in the midst of their ritual chanting the symbols on the stones started glowing a bright red. At the same time an unnatural wind picked up, coming from the altar and pushing me and Sorbet back. The chanting picked up, more ferocious and loud than ever. What felt like long hours but could be longer that a few minutes of this culminated in one of the robed humans holding a knife above the sheep and plunging it into its heart.

  A loud noise and a flash of light disoriented me and Sorbet who cried out in pain, I was sure of it, a thunder had struck down from the sky, even if it was a clear sky with no traces of clouds somehow those humans had invoked thunder. By the time I recovered the runes had gone silent and the torches extinguished but the humans were still there, inspecting something that one of them was holding. I couldn’t make out what it was but I could see that the sheep was no longer laying on the stone table. It didn’t took me long to piece everything together and come to the conclusion that whatever that lighting was somehow transformed the sheep into the object they were analyzing.

  I knew it sounded crazy, but after what I witnessed it was the only conclusion I could reach. And here I thought that humans were in the stone age while they could use magic, fucking magic! I clearly confused them with the humans from my world, only the humans that I knew could achieve no such feats. Regardless I wanted to take a closer look on the object and maybe catch a feel of it. I waited until they were done inspecting the object and begun their trek back to their tribe when I and Sorbet started tailing them.

  Silent but rushing we closed the distance between us and them with each step. As they walked in the dark they seemed relaxed, betraying that they had done this multiple times before with nothing wrong happening, which worked perfectly in my favor. I signed to Sorbet to break off into two different directions so we could flank them and my smart boy understood me clearly. Coming closer and closer to them my heart started beating faster and louder to the point I thought it was trying to betray my actions. Was I doing the right thing? I could just leave them be and not get myself involved with what doesn’t concern me.

  It wasn’t just about my curiosity. I had a mouth to feed and I couldn’t leave this golden opportunity slip by me. This was the wilderness, it was all about survival, there was no place for me to be soft or adhere to the flimsy morality and rules I once held. After all I was just a creature, neither human nor goblin so why would I care about the fates of either species. Conveying to Sorbet the signal of attack we both struck at the same me stabbing one of the men in the heart from behind while sorbet jumped on the other mans back and begun mauling on his neck.

  The third man, holding the object of my desires, turned sharply, alert to the commotion, and targeted Sorbet, seeing him as the larger threat. Big mistake as I pulled out my spear and threw it towards him, from this distance and given how large of a target he was there was no way for me to miss. Even if it did hit him on the shoulder and wasn’t enough to kill him, it did gave Sorbet the opportunity to jump at him and pin him to the ground as he gorged at him.

  I let my boy eat in peace while I retrieved the long object from the humans hand. To my surprise it was a spear, made of bone it was pure white and throughout its length it was decorated with similar symbols to those the stones adorned. Despite of it feeling like dried bone to the touch it was both flexible and tough, making for a perfect weapon. I truly lucked out finding a perfect spear to use instead of my glorified twig. Still what I was most interested in was the other object the human was carrying.

  Ramaging through his robes I found it, a knife, the one he killed the sheep with. This was huge, even if it was a simple sharpened stone bound to a wooden handle, it was a tool I had neither the time nor the materials to produce myself. A knife was important in any survival situation, there were some many things that needed to be cut carefully, scraped, poked at, carved, the possibilities were endless. I searched the bodies of the other two and found two satchels alongside another two knifes, filled with various herbs I didn’t knew how to use.

  Emptying their content to the ground I wore them around my shoulders, they were also going to be very useful, now so I could carry anything useful I found and later for storage. While I was inspecting my loot with a smile on my face Sorbet had finished eating and was looking at me expectantly. “What? Didn’t I do a good job with that spear throw? I’m telling you, give me a couple of days and I’m going to be a pro at it.” He ignored my words and instead pointed his snout to the one I killed.

  I could tell what he was trying to tell me, I understood him perfectly. As if my mother he was telling me to eat. I felt like a knot formed in my throat now that this time had come. Somehow I could kill them just fine, I even took pleasure in stealing their belongings but now that came time to eat, to quench my ever growing hunger, now did my conscience made its appearance. At the same time my stomach started protesting, making sure I knew of its desire to devour them.

  At the end it was two against one and pulling out one of the knifes I started carving out the pieces of meat I wanted. Cleaning them of skin and fat under the moonlight I put the meat in my mouth. Human meat wasn’t the most sinful meat I had eaten in my life and I had eaten it before so I didn’t knew why I had such a strong reaction to it, maybe deep down the last vestiges of my humanity were still fighting, screaming at me that what I was doing was wrong.

  If that was truly the case then I couldn’t wait for the day they finally died out.