A Rough Night

The night must have begun quietly enough, because it was full dark when Grim awoke. He rose slowly, wishing he could just sleep all night. It was, however, unlikely that nothing would happen for the whole 14 hours or so before sunrise.

Floating out of the hut, he looked around to gain his bearings. The sky was indeed as dark as the forest, only with thousands of tiny specks of light obscured by an occasional dark cloud. The trees below were similarly dark, though the trunks of those nearest were dimly lit by dancing firelight from the fire pit at the center of the clearing. The camp was decently lit compared to the surrounding forest, but it was surprisingly quiet.

Glancing around, the goblins seemed to all be present, but none of them were talking, or working for that matter. They were looking about at the underbrush and forest, slowly gathering inside the square of partially completed huts. He could see one more had been completed since he went to sleep, bringing the total to two. As for why the goblins had paused their work, he didn’t see any particular reason. A few did look spooked though, their eyes darting around worriedly.

“Awwhoooo!” Came a lone howl from somewhere northeast of them. It was far off, but no less chilling for the distance. The goblin must have heard a previous howl, which would explain their unease. A few moments later, there was an answering howl from slightly closer.

The goblins looked like they either wanted to run in the opposite direction or hide in a cave. Grim’s old cave was unfortunately 200’ up a sheer cliff face. So much for planning. It wasn’t like they could all live up there, much less climb up and down multiple times per day. Maybe a rope or ladder or something else could be built to get up there more easily. Although a 200’ ladder would probably take too long to build. They needed a solution now and his best idea was to clump around the completed huts and make themselves difficult targets.

He almost directed them to do just that, but they needed the huts for future survival. It would be pointless to survive one encounter only to die on the next, and at least a predatory animal would probably avoid the tight space of a hut. His biggest fear was one of the goblins being attacked or taken in a way that the others would be unable to respond. In the open, that would be all too likely.

So he directed them to keep working as quickly and quietly as possible, with 10 of them forming a perimeter. None of them wanted to turn their backs on the forest, but they did so anyway when Charms added her voice in support of the plan. A few minutes later, when another howl echoed through the forest, the goblins still tensed and looked around, but at least having a plan and something to do seemed to keep them going. There were two more answering howls soon after, but again the goblins continued with minimal delay.

Throughout the next hour, the howls continued periodically, generally heading southeast until they faded out of hearing. The goblins had also grown a bit louder as they continued, apparently unable to stay quiet for long. It wasn’t too bad though. The noise of hammering and the occasional jokes and ribbing was comforting compared with the earlier howls. Charms would ironically shout at the ones that got too loud, but she did keep the overall noise level under control.

The third hut was soon completed, and another couple uneventful hours were passed without issue. After finishing the third hut, half of the builders were allowed to rest while some of the others swapped out with guards. Allowing eight to rest for a few hours would hopeful give them enough sleep without dramatically reducing the building speed. Constructing and guarding nonstop wouldn’t be sustainable for long, but hopefully the huts and later the guard platforms could be completed quickly enough before the whole tribe fell to exhaustion.

The fourth hut was finished in two and a half hours, taking longer because of having fewer builders. Now they would all need to swap out, some to sleep and some for the now diminished guard. The numbers after the latest shuffle were 13 sleeping, 8 building, and 5 guarding. Grim wished they could keep working until everything was done, but there was not a single creature in Arkus that could go without sleep, especially not after working for 8 or more hours with little rest. He would just have to be patient and hope that things stayed as uneventful as the last few hours. Of course, fate would probably not be that easy on a bunch of monsters.

As luck would have it, only half an hour later, there was another distant howl. A few moments later, there was another, and another. They were all far away and from the east. It sounded like the wolves found something or someone, and now they were probably giving chase.

A minute later, the three howls sounded again, closer this time. He waited for another minute hoping their next call would at least be in a different direction. It wasn’t. It was still due east and a lot closer. At this rate they might run into the camp in only a minute or two.

“Wake up. Wake them up.” Grim hurriedly directed the goblins. “Everyone form a circle around the fire, weapons out.” Charms, who was luckily awake, reinforced his words and made sure those that had just been woken up knew where to go.

While they were still milling about and gathering around the fire, the howls sounded again. They were southeast now, the prey likely turning away from Imporne, but a fourth howl followed soon after from almost due north. That was the side without any finished huts. Scanning the trees on that side, he saw nothing in the gloom between them.

A few tense seconds passed as the goblins continued to form up and ready themselves. Tired movements mixed with anxious expressions as they attempted to prepare for whatever might approach the firelight. Then, as they were settling in, a male goblin staggered out of the hut closest the north side, the one most recently completed. He was obviously male because his dick was swinging free beside his loincloth as he glanced back at the hut and grumbled something. Apparently the call to arms had interrupted something.

His partner in the act was just stepping out of the hut as well, readjusting her own scant clothing, when something large and dark practically flew out of the forest behind them. The wolf was silent in its leap, ivory teeth bared and pale claws extended towards the unlucky goblin who began to turn towards it. He had only barely turned towards it when it impacted him at full speed. Claws flashed and the goblin screamed. Everyone else froze in the moment, terrified of the beast that was as large at the shoulder as any goblin, their own animal terror echoing in their heads telling them to run or just stay away.

One goblin did not appear to share this feeling however, as he broke from the rest the moment the beast landed. Block charged it, growling his own challenge as he raised his club to strike at the wolf as it attempted to latch its jaws around the first goblin. Absorbed as it was with its prey, the wolf didn’t try to avoid the attack. Block’s club landed on its shoulder with a solid thump. The noise nocked the others out of their stupor, and Charms screamed at the others. “Attack it! Kill it!”

That was all they needed to push them into action. The huge wolf was only a few feet away from the nearest goblins, which had contributed to their sudden fear, but now it meant they could attack it from all directions in a matter of seconds. The wolf tried to grab the first goblin and retreat, but its exit was already blocked. The goblins proceeded to attack without any coordination, raining continues blows on the wolf as it lashed out against them as best it could. Many of its attacks were beaten back by the sheer number of goblins, but every time it landed one, blood would spew from its vicious claws and fangs. The goblins attacks were much less powerful, but possibly more dangerous due to numbers.

Maybe ten seconds later the wolf managed to claw and leap free of the knot of goblins. Its tail was partly limp, and its fur was matted with blood from both its own wounds and the goblins’. Its jaws were empty and its black eyes wild. Those goblins nearest to it attempted to turn and chase it, but in a couple seconds it was gone, vanished back into the trees.

Recovering from his own shock and his inability to do anything helpful, Grim surveyed the battleground. Two goblins were definitely dead and savaged, while at least three that he counted had significant wounds. There were some small bits of fur scattered on the trampled and torn up ground, amid dark red patches where either the wolf’s claws and teeth or the goblins’ daggers had torn into flesh. The slightly macabre scene made his stomach turn, he did not eat, but if he did this would make him lose his appetite. The speed of the encounter and the speed of the wolf was almost too much for him.

These goblins were now his minions due to his own desire, but he could do little if anything to protect them. All he could do was plan and think for them, and if this had happened so soon after he took control, then his planning must not have been good enough. Maybe they could hide somewhere, make better defenses, or find more monsters to join them, strength in numbers and all that. The wolf had just proven that numbers weren’t enough though. It killed two and a few others were near **** while it had survived. Maybe its near **** experience would keep it from coming back. It was ultimately just a hope though, and hope was never enough.

While he was going through the events, desperately trying to think of better plans and solutions. Charms took control of the immediate situation, tending to the wounded and directing others to deal with the corpses. Because they were killed by an animal, the corpses would take a few minutes to disappear, theoretically giving the animal time to feed or collect them later. Adventurers were difficult to deal with, but true predators would always be scarier.

A few minutes after the attack, Charms approached Grim by the cliff where he had settled down to think, maintaining Grim Visage as a near habit. “What now?” She asked, near emotionless. ”Most not sleep. Four dead.”

He considered telling her to just do what she thought was best, passing off the responsibility. He wanted to at least look confident for the other goblins though, and that meant always having a plan.

“Have them work on the other huts and the platforms as long as they’re awake. Also, make sure no one is alone, three or more together at all times.” He stated his orders in an almost resigned tone, trying hard to not sound outright defeated after his bout of insecurity. “That includes you, have at least one of them accompany you in case other predators come by.” He added after a moments thought. He didn’t want to lose Charms now that he had her. She was nice in at least two ways.

“Okay. We be careful.” She responded quietly, before turning back to the others and proceeding to walk around them. Talking with them and assigning them to their duties.

Grim pondered what all he and they could do for a while longer, but this whole situation was far outside his experience. He had ideas, but only one day of experience. Maybe he should have expected the loss of some of the goblins. They were generally one of the weakest intelligent creatures. He still disliked it though. It felt like a failure, and failure is something no one wants but everyone experiences.

He was just tired now, and only sleep could fix that. Hopefully the rest of the night would be quieter. He didn’t know what would happen next, but it would have to happen without him for a bit.

A/N: This one got a bit darker and later than I planned, but better late and gloomy than never. I see loss of some sort as a necessary part of teaching someone like Grim how to live. It will never get too dark or tragic, and I will do my best to present a variety along with more sexual parts. As Grim recently discovered, sexual parts are nice.