Chapter 10: Tier 1 Gate (4)
The hobgoblin woke with a snort, stretched out its hunched shoulders, and cracked its neck hard enough to make a nearby goblin flinch. A morning routine.
Sunlight filtered weakly through the torn cloth roofs of the camp. Most of the smaller goblins were already up, clawing at food scraps, kicking each other in the shins over territory lines. A few dozed near the pit fire, pretending not to hear the shouting.
The hobgoblin stomped through the center of the camp, eyeing every group like it was mentally ranking them from "barely useful" to "next to be eaten." One goblin didn’t get up fast enough, it got kicked in the ribs and went flying into a pile of cooking bones. The rest snapped to attention after that.
The hobgoblin liked order. Though it didn’t know the word for it, it liked it when things were quiet in the right places and noisy in the wrong ones.
The patrols reported in with a few guttural grunts, nothing out of the ordinary, south path clear, no smoke from the mountain trail. Two Fangwolves were spotted near, probably earlier fights from something stronger, maybe. The hobgoblin squinted up at them and grunted in vague approval.
At the firepit, two smaller goblins were fighting over a burnt rat. The hobgoblin walked up, grabbed one by the throat, and flung it into the bone-frame tent. It collapsed the whole thing, which got a laugh out of the rest. The other goblin, sensing its moment, immediately shoved the rat into its mouth and scrambled away.
It wasn’t much, but it was a good day, the camp was stable, fires were lit, meat was drying. Nobody had tried to stab anyone in the back for a full hour.
Then a horn blew.
It came from the northeast ridge.
The hobgoblin froze mid-step, its nostrils flared. It turned its head slowly toward the source, eyes narrowing into slits.
A goblin scout stumbled over the ridge, pointing down the path with wide, shaking hands.
The hobgoblin didn’t wait. It marched past the gates and climbed the jagged ledge that overlooked the trail, its heavy feet cracking twigs as it went. The moment it reached the top, it looked down and saw the problem.