Tama

  I had no words. Watching Saki's reaction only reopened the wounds I thought I had closed. Tears filled my eyes. After a moment I mustered up the control to respond. "Please, Saki, Tama doesn't want Grok to die too. Tama is tired of her friends being hurt."

  Saki seemed in a daze for a moment longer before responding. Her voice sounded unnatural. "Of course, Tama. Let's go find Grok and talk to him. We can come up with a plan."

  "We can't stop the goblin army, Tama," Saki said quietly. My eyes widened and I went to respond, but Saki held up her hand before continuing. "But we can stay and help them with everything we have."

  I paused as I considered her words. If what Saki said was true, then there must be a way to beat the Lich! Saki would not send us to our deaths! I made a serious face and said, "Nya! We will kill the Lich, Saki!" I was fully confident that if Saki had a plan, we would win!

  "Indeed, Tama. Indeed," Saki said, a look of exhaustion on her face. She turned to face me and asked, "By the way, where is David?" She tilted her head at me slightly, her tail casually swaying behind her as her ears perked up.

  I paused for a moment as the memory of David naked fighting a bear resurfaced. "Well, David said he wanted to see the arena." I put my hands behind my back to stop it from touching down there. My cheeks flushed red as I imagined wrestling with David too... "Tama was watching him fight earlier."

  My tail swished back and forth. "The way his belly bounces when he swings." I giggled and began rubbing my legs together, it felt super good.

  Goblins showed up carrying the bandages and salve. I remembered having to use some of those on goblin kids when they would hurt themselves. The goblins learned to use them from as early as three years old.

  Saki started talking to the goblins, but the thought of David naked in the arena fighting a bear was making me so excited. Knowing Saki was okay and would take care of Tera made me feel better about them.

  I wandered back to the arena just as David strangled the bear to death.

  Tama - 10 years ago

  I woke up in pain, but that was nothing new. Sensei's training had been super rough since he had taken me in. Two years of extremely heavy workouts, sparring practice where he used a stick like a blade and beat me within an inch of my life. But probably the worst was the chores. The pain helped me grow. Sensei had said so. But the chores? He was just being petty!

  I sat up, looked around, and noticed three things. One, I wasn't in my room anymore. Instead, the forest surrounded me. My bed, room, even the cabin was nowhere in sight.

  The second thing I noticed was no sound. Well, none that was known to me. I heard birds in the trees and I could hear light deer footsteps nearby. But the familiar oinking of pigs and bok bok of chickens was gone.

  I looked down at myself and realized I was entirely naked. I had gone to bed in underwear at sensei's request, and now he had taken them off me? It was obviously him. If the goblins had taken me like they had a few months ago, they would have left the underwear on and I would be in a cage, not the open forest on the ground.

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  I heard snickers around me and sighed. The goblins may not have been the ones to kidnap me, but they were going to be my opponents today, it seemed. That was good. Goblins were easy to kill.

  I coalesced water around my now clenched fists. It also meant if I was lucky, one of them would have rations and I wouldn't need to find food quickly. Trapping was always a pain, and since sensei made me catch my own food every morning, it was nice to just take it from the goblins.

  "Finders keepers" is what my sensei would call it, even praising me on my ability to "scavenge." I didn't really know how many goblins there were. Sensei had said it was important to keep count. But I didn't see the point. What was the difference between one dead goblin and thirty? Aside from the possibility of rations, that is!

  The goblins quickly surrounded me and I lost count after eight. At least I tried, right? A few held spears, some daggers, one had a bow.

  The lead one stepped up. He was bigger than the rest but still young, most likely a group leader for the tribe. "Me is Grok! Grok iz kill you and brinz you hed to cheftain!"

  I rolled my eyes and snarked back, "Me name is Grok, me is stupid and dumb like all goblins, me is going to feed Tama soon with me food."

  Grok the goblin grimaced at me and I smirked back, taking advantage of the situation to jump towards him and throw a punch.

  Grok, unable to dodge in time, took the hit head-on and was thrown into a nearby tree, causing the goblins around him to charge me. I laughed as I jumped into the air above their spears and landed behind another one.

  I quickly made the water around my right hand sharp and stabbed into the goblin's heart, grabbing his weapon with my left hand and jumping back just as the other goblins reached him.

  I twirled the new spear in my hands and smiled at the goblins. "Thanks for the weapon, but Tama prefers daggers!" I leaned back and launched the spear at the goblin with the bow. The goblin had taken aim and was about to fire, when he saw the spear he tried to jump out of the way but was too late and was impaled on another nearby tree.

  Two goblins with daggers ran at me, but I smirked and ran at them yelling, "For snacks!" They flinched for only a second. I dodged to the side, grabbing the left goblin's left arm and twirling him. Grabbing the dagger out of his hand, I used it to stab the goblin originally on the right before kicking the goblin I had taken the dagger from in the chest.

  I tried counting again. This time I was able to get a better count with fewer living goblins. There was Grok, he had survived my punch, but he was missing quite a few teeth and his nose was broken. And there were three others. The one I had kicked was scrambling to her feet.

  The two remaining ones had spears. I laughed at the stupidity. "You can't be serious!" I said with tears of joy in my eyes. "You are no match for Tama. Just give up, give Tama your food, and Tama will let you live another day!"

  I twirled the single dagger in my hand for a moment as I waited for their response. One of the goblins with a spear threw the spear at me. I sidestepped the spear, grabbing it as it passed me in a twirling motion and fired it back at her. It hit her directly in the head, impaling her to the same tree as the archer.

  "Wait! Grok has idea!" Grok's voice caused me to pause, the dagger almost leaving my hand towards the last spear wielder. I turned to face him and raised an eyebrow.

  "You is alone in forest, you has no food or home now?" Grok asked. I nodded, it was true for the moment.

  "Then, instead of fight, we both can win. Grok take you back to tribe, he convince leader to feed and clothe you. Grok get praise for catching, we both win!"

  I considered his offer for a moment before saying, "What if Grok is a liar and tries to put Tama in a cage again?"

  Grok looked at me seriously and said, "On Grok honor, you no go in cage. If chieftain try, I will fight chieftain self. Grok honor!"

  "But Grok, we can't win against chief, chief strong!" one of the other goblins spoke up, the female goblin now without a weapon.

  "Does not matter. Grok need win, this is win. Grok do what Grok need to. Grok keep honor or Grok die," Grok said simply.

  At that moment, I felt for Grok and his people. So I smiled and nodded. We could both get what we wanted.