Welcome to Gaia! ::

We were not two rebels, master and I. We were simply a king and his advisor in our own mobile empire. There was never a problem, all we ever did was correct according to our law. If those b*****d knights just could have minded their own buisness instead of deciding to raze our empire, everything would have been fine! I just cannot understand what it is with humans and the destruction of all they see as a "threat" to their little world.

It all began a few years ago when I was still a young goblin, living underground in a cave with my thirty siblings, my three mothers and my father. We were a happy family, as it seemed. We could play all day long and scare the elven children that entered our part of the forest. But as time passed by, we grew older and more violent. My brothers became hunters and bandits, slaying innocent bypassers to satisfy their greedy needs. My sisters set out to find a good goblin mate to settle down with and start a family. And in the middle of it all, there was I.

I was not at all like my brothers or sisters. I wished for neither gold nor family, I wanted something else. I just did not know what it was. One stormy night when most of my siblings had left home already, I was forced to leave. My father threatened to kill me if I stayed, ignoring the pleas of my mother. So what choice did I have? I left, not knowing where to go. I was alone in the world, and if things was not bad enough, it was winter. A stone cold, icy winter. Some claim that this winter was unnatural, and that it was somehow associated with the death of Seral Tergasal, the most powerful human necromancer to ever have existed.

Everyone knew I was not going to last long in this winter, except me. I was convinced that I could find my brothers and join up with them or in worst case, ask the elves for help. I was wrong. My brothers had been slain when attacking a nobleman's chariot by a group of mercenaries, and the elves were not as friendly as expected. In fact, the elves were far more deadly then the winter itself could ever have been for a goblin. Once again, I found myself helpless. The winter was growing stronger and stronger, until it came to the point where I could find myself not being able to move because of my frozen limbs.

There I was, lying beneath a snow-covered pine, frozen more then half to death. A lonely goblin, lost in the woods. I couldn't cry, my eyes were frozen shut. My whole world was covered in a solid black cover, burning my whole body away from the inside with a searing cold flame. The day passed. I remained in that place for hours, struggling for survival against the brutal nature I had stumbled upon. Then the night came, but I never noticed. However, someone else did. I remember the first words he spoke to me as clear as daylight.
-This is just pathetic. Are you dead? he said in a dark, wheezing voice.
Since I couldn't move or speak, it was useless to even try to communicate with the stranger. Still, he didn't leave. Instead he walked up to me and carried me away.

I don't remember how long I was carried, but it must have been for several hours. I woke up after what seemed like an eternity in a wam bed. I could feel a horrible pain as the coldness left my body, but it was worth it. My eyes was brought back to normal, as well as my body. I had been placed in a small, warm room with a heater next to the bed. My hero was nowhere to be seen, but I knew I had to thank him with my life. I could see that it was night outside, there was no sun shining in from the pale curtains that covered the windows. Voices of jolly human men and women could be heard outside the room, and it didn't cease.

When most of the pain was gone, I started to think. Where was my hero, and why did he rescue me? Goblins has no allies besides the orcs, and his voice was not that of an orc. About this I wondered for a long time, until I finally passed out from exhaustion. I slept a dreamless sleep, and woke up to the sun that shone in from one of the windows. It hit me in the face like a gentle sledgehammer. I almost leapt out of bed, but I stopped as I noticed that I was not alone. A tall shadow rose from a chair seated in the corner of the room. He was dressed in a black plate mail with a majestic azure cape. His face was hidden beneath a thick helmet, thus explaining why his voice sounded so different. His entire body was covered with armor, but still he didn't make the impression of a warrior or knight. He had no weapon.

- I thought you would never wake up, goblin, he said in the same voice as before.
I had been taught how to speak human by one of my sisters, but I had never actually used it.
- Me... too? I answered with an obvious glimpse of uncertainty.
The man laughed as he went up to me and put his metal hand upon my shoulder.
- Do you want to thank me for saving your life? he asked.
I did not speak to him this time, I simply nodded.
- Great, I have some work for you to do.
I looked up at him, staring into his helmet with my large red goblin eyes.
- Me... work? What work?
Once again the man laughed, and the helmet made his laughter pretty creepy.
- Every wizard needs an apprentice, and I will accept you as an applicant to this position.

He tossed a small brown cloak at me.
- Get dressed and meet me outside as soon as you can.
I nodded, and he left the room. I quickly put on the cloak he had given me, and the comfort was unexplainable. I had never worn such a soft piece of clothing before! I left the room soon thereafter, and entered the room where there had been a feast the night before. There was a terrible stench of puke and strong mead, both which covered the floor I was standing on, but it was still better then at home. There were four tables still standing, two had been destroyed. My hero was seated at the cleanest table, flipping through a deck of cards. I took my place beside him on a chair he had prepared for me.

He breathed heavily as he spoke to me.
- I am going to say a sentence in a, for you, unknown language. I want you to try and guess the last word of the sentence.
- Y...es?
He shuffled the black cards he held a bit more, then he took a deep breath.
- Geran, sranti, threntan...
I thought quickly. The sentence sounded like a sentence in gobblish, meaning "Mushroom, door, falling". Since it reminded me of gobblish, it reminded me that I had just been kicked out of my home. Therefore, I said...
-... grokkan!
Which simply means "alone" in gobblish.

The man reacted on the word "grokkan", but he did not say why. He wheezed, as he dropped the cards upon the table in a mess, face down. I looked at the chaotic mess of cards, then at the man who had dropped them. He nodded.
- Pick a card.
I nodded, and picked the first card I could think of. It was a card that had almost fallen of the edge of the table. I turned it face up, and saw a big picture of a skull. A grinning, white skull. I looked up at my hero with a questionable look.
- Pick another card.
I put the skull card in my left hand and picked another. This card was hidden between two other cards, but it somehow made me notice it. There was a brief moment of doubt, then I turned the card face up. This card had a picture of a man sitting on a large golden chair. He was wearing lots of unnecessary decorations, and held a large golden scepter. I was quiet disappointed, the card was uninteresting. My hero was stunned.

I could almost feel him staring at me, an eerie feeling. I held the two cards in my left hand.
- I chose wrong? I asked him.
He shook his head and responed with a hint of happiness.
- No! No, you certainly did not. I just have to ask... what is your name?
I had never grasped the concept of having a name, in my family we had simply yelled "you there!" and pointed at each other. Primitive, but effective.
- I have no name.
He chuckled.
- I just wanted to be sure. Let me introduce myself.
He rose to his full length and bowed.
- My name is Seral Tergasal. And don't worry, I am not as bad as in the stories.

The cards will be revealed later on, and the dialogue style is taken directly from another book I recently read. The beginning is just to make the reader aware of the fact that someone in the story itself is telling us about his life. The goblin thought the elves could help him, they had known each other since childhood after all. It's goblin tradition to get thrown out after you've reached a certain age, if you don't move willingly. I will post the rest of the story on monday or tuesday 3nodding