Realm of Monsters

In the late hours of the night, several cooks grilled eight deer carcasses over the fire pits while a few others roasted vegetables in large iron pans in a log house near the village square. With curious gazes, Plum and Tauri watched the goblins sit in small circles around the fires, waiting for some of the smaller and leaner goblins to serve them their meals. Skads were their name, or so Stryg had told her. Skads were goblins who had failed to find a proper tribal path and had been assigned whatever odd job the tribe currently needed. Serving meals was a common job for a Skad and one that wasn’t particularly respected if the quiet jeers the goblins threw at them were any indication.

While Tauri glanced at the surrounding goblins and their weapons, still tense after their recent skirmish a mere hour ago, Plum paid close attention to the way the Skads served the meals. The hierarchy seemed clear, the Mothers and the Chieftain were served first, then the hunters came next, and then the cooks themselves, though they were too busy cooking to even eat.

Tauri leaned over to Stryg and whispered into his ear, “They keep giving us weird looks. I don’t think they like us.”

“Who?” Stryg asked, though his own attention was on the Skads.

“Practically everyone, especially the hunters.”

“Yeah, that makes sense,” he said casually. Most of the tribe hated him and had made their feelings clear on that matter many times. To him, it was simply the norm.

“Are you sure we should still be here? I mean, shouldn’t we go before they change their mind and attack us?” Tauri asked warily.

Stryg shook his head, though his eyes stayed on the Skads and the food they carried, a hopeful glint in his lilac irises. “Chieftain Jahn gave us his word. The tribe will not harm us.”

“How do you know that for certain? They were just trying to kill us a few minutes ago.”