The Iron Teeth

Honor Among Thieves 4

After an uneventful night, Blacknail was woken up early the next morning and sent out to check the rabbit snares. He had done it plenty of times now and was no longer afraid of going out into the woods alone. His fear and been replaced by familiarity, at least as long as he was only making the short trip to the snares and back.

Blacknail yawned as he wandered through the bushes at the edge of the forest. His memories of his old life in the sewers had begun to fade. As dangerous as it was here, the camp had become his new home.

It wasn't like there was any possible way to get back there anyway. The sewers were many days away through the forest, and that wasn't a journey he ever planned on making.

His new life did have perks. For one thing, the forest smelled much better than the sewers.

He missed being around other goblins sometimes, especially the females, but in the sewers he'd mostly just fought the other goblins anyway. They'd fought over hierarchy, food, shiny things, mates, and of course just because they'd been bored.

Besides, even though humans were so big and scary they sometimes gave him treats and praised him. No goblin had ever given Blacknail tasty things, unless he'd beaten them up first.

The morning sun was shining sedately through the loose roof of leaves above him. It was a warm clear day without a single cloud visible in the sky. The morning birds sang joyfully in the trees either ignoring or ignorant of the goblin strolling along beneath them.

Blacknail stopped for a second to listen to the bird song and scan the grass and tall plants around him. As he stood motionless his green skin and hide clothes blended into the surrounding, camouflaging him.

After listening attentively for a while, Blacknail heard and saw nothing unusual so he continued his stroll. There didn't seem to be anything dangerous around.

He moved casually but kept an eye and ear open for anything out of place. If there was one lesson Saeter made sure he never forgot it was that no one was ever truly safe out in the forest. He would hate to let his master down by dying some horrific death.

The wary little goblin soon reached the snares, but just as he was about to get to work he heard an unexpected noise. What was that? Blacknail twitched in surprise and spun around. Was it a terrible monster about to leap out and eat him?

It probably wasn't; the grass under one of the triggered snares was just rustling. The goblin didn't think anything really dangerous could hide in so small a patch of grass. It was probably a bird or something.

Blacknail narrowed his eyes and quietly drew his sling anyway. Something might be trying to steal his rabbit! He couldn't see what was making the noise from his position so he circled around a tree to get a better angle.

As Blacknail watched, something started to try and climb the sapling a rabbit hung from. The goblin's eyes widened as he looked on in surprise. He had no idea what the freakish thing was.

How could it even move? It was just a blob of liquidy stuff! It was like a see though pile of snot with a bunch of weird shapes floating in it. Yet, it was moving and actually managing to slowly work its way up the sapling. It looked really wrong, like water flowing uphill but uglier.

Blacknail hit it with a stone from his sling just on general principles. The blob of slime quivered and froze for a second before falling to the ground with a weird muted splashing noise.

Had he killed it? He hoped so. Well, apparently he hadn't because as the goblin watched it reformed itself into a round blob and started oozing towards him with surprising speed.