The four that split up and followed the goblin tracks into the woods are not having a good time. Not because of the goblins, simply because of the challenges of carrying around 40kg of oil on their backs while walking the uneven forest terrain and trying not to get slapped in the face by low-hanging branches.

  Rabbit, as usual, can’t shut up: “Hey guys, do y’all ever wonder what it’d be like if maybe not everyone hated us? Like what if we didn’t get into a brawl at every tavern we went to? And what if-”

  Kale moans in frustration: “Aughhh god will you shut up man? I’m trying to listen for goblins with my one good ear.” He is holding the same barrel as Viper and Rabbit, and when he adjusts the weight on his shoulder it gives them both a good jolt of pain as the weight settles back into their shoulders.

  “What the fuck, man? I didn’t do shit!” Viper yelps out.

  “Cut it out little men. The tracks are getting fresh.” Thorvald stops the brewing argument while puffing out his chest to show how little the weight of the barrel he is carrying alone affects him.

  “Oh shut up Thorvald; we don’t all know strength magics like you do.” Viper retorts.

  Rabbit is about to say something again, his mouth having developed a stale taste from being shut for all of ten seconds, but Landyn cuts them all off:

  “Stop.” He whispers, a raised hand to make sure they stop right where they are. “We found em”

  In front of them the foliage is thinning. Young trees no wider than a man’s wrist are all that conceal their presence to the two goblin lookouts posted outside a cave from which comes a stream of water. The cave’s entrance is not big enough for men to enter, unless they crawl on their bellies.

  Landyn turns to his men and gives orders: “Viper, sneak behind one lookout and take him out. Rabbit, shoot the other before he yells for his friends. Go!”

  The previous petty arguing between them is all gone. Like professionals, they switch to working mode. They carefully set down the barrel away from loose branches that could snap and give away their position. Then, Viper, with the help of Kale and Rabbit, takes off his chainmail almost silently.

  Viper then sneaks expertfully behind one of the goblins. He gives Rabbit a nod and they both kill at once. A dagger through soft bone finds a small goblin brain and a wide arrowhead almost decapitates the other mid-sentence. Grins spread across the four men’s faces.

  What comes after is routine. No orders need to be issued, since they all know what to do. One barrel is jammed into the only entrance to the goblin’s den and another is shattered like a watermelon atop the other.

  “Light it.” A cold order by Landyn is quickly followed by enormous heat.

  They then cut down a few young trees and pile them onto the fire to keep it burning longer. No matter how big their den might be, the goblins will definitely all choke to death in there.

  They turn and leave. Chuckling, high-fiving and patting each other on the back all the way back.

  —Sunset, in front of the mass grave—

  The men they had had the church send over had already dug a rather deep and wide grave for all 43 men of the Knight Flayers. 44 now actually, since Jack has been added to the pile. Next to the mass of contorted limbs and flesh torn in battle, is the grave of Jon “The Cleaver”, their leader who shall watch over them in death as well.

  To the west, the sun sets, cradled on each side by the tall walls of the ravine. The path between the two walls of the ravine is still stained with blood and littered with the hundreds of corpses left by the army they had defeated, now picked apart by animals.

  The stench of rot is deafened by ash that sticks to their noses and coats their faces and clothes. The ash comes from behind them where a second sun seems to be setting, but it is just the forest having caught fire after their ‘goblin extermination’.

  The workers start piling dirt on top of the corpses. Viper and Kale grab Jack out of the sled. There is no respectful way of laying him beside his comrades. They swing him side-to-side a couple of time before throwing him into the mass of flesh.

  “May their dirt be soft.” Thorvald prays, gritting ash between his teeth.

  They stay there and watch until the last shovel of dirt is thrown on top of their many friends.

  Anna, or ‘Rose’ as Viper still knows her, offers silent comfort in planting her last flowers on top of their grave.

  The merchant did not dare say a word of complaint about the delay in his travel.

  They then drag their much lighter sled up the hill to the wall of the ravine from which they had watched most of the battle unfold. They make camp. They make a fire. They do not sleep. They do not speak. Ash still falls from the sky.

  After hours of tossing and turning in his tent, Landyn gets out from his tent and sits down on the edge of the cliff, right next to where Thorvald had dislodged a boulder to kill the charging knights. Soon, he is joined by Thorvald.

  The giant sits on the cliff’s new edge which he carved by himself just a few days ago. The stench of death and rot wafts up from the ravine below and it is at the same time washed away by a soft breeze bringing fresh mountain air.

  “Ah, a beautiful night, ain’t it? Why waste it in a tent?” He says, handing Landyn an open bottle of wine.

  Landyn takes it and sniffs the spirit only to wake himself before taking a big gulp that sticks in his throat a little. “Yeah… Why waste it?” He drinks another few mouthfuls before handing Thorvald his bottle back.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  “It’s bothering you, isn’t it? You’re drinking like you hate yourself again.”

  “Does it not bother you? Does it feel right to you?”

  “Yes, it does.” Thorvald’s face does not betray even the slightest lie in his words. “We all knew this was to be our fate one day. Only thing I regret is that I didn’t join them to our grave, but someone had to stay behind. To bury them. To avenge them.”

  “How can you say that? You know it’s not easy… How am I supposed to plan our next move without Gunther’s cunning? How am I supposed to lead you without Jon’s authority? How am I supposed to… go on?” Landyn’s voice keeps creeping closer and closer to it’s breaking point. He holds back tears with every word.

  “They were good men. And they taught us a lot. We’ll have to figure it out. We’ll rebuild, one day.” He takes another drink from his bottle and finishes with a deep sigh.

  “...Why didn’t you ever want to lead?”

  “Do you really see me as a leader, kid? I may have the most experience on the battlefield, but I was never good at keeping people alive. I was just good at killing. But you, you can keep everyone alive, I know it.”

  “I couldn’t keep Jack alive-”

  “He died in battle. Right?”

  “Right…”

  A long contemplative silence settles between them. Only sounds in the air come from grasshoppers and distant owls. Thorvald eventually breaks that silence.

  “You think the merchant’s guilds will get mad at us for what I did?” He points down at the huge boulder blocking the road, six knights and their horses squished beneath it. “What d’you think they’ll say when they see this huge boulder right in the middle of the road? Heh”

  Landyn tries to joke but no words come to mind. After his mouth hangs open a while he smiles and forces a chuckle through strewn out vocal chords which he then lubricates with more wine.

  Ash still falls.

  —

  Kale wakes and sits by the cinders still smoldering in the firepit. It is still night.

  He grabs a stick from the firepit and uses the charred tip to stir the coals and breathe some life into them.

  The crinkling of tarp startles him as Rabbit gets out from his tent and joins Kale by the faint glow of the cinders.

  “Hard to sleep here, eh?” Rabbit tries to start a conversation. He was never the kind to find comfort in silence.

  Kale only grunts in approval.

  “Well, I don’t think you’d like mountains much anyway. Considering how we found you and all…”

  “I don’t mind mountains. I just don’t like being buried under them.”

  “Right, right… say, what were you guys mining for down there anyway?”

  “Salt.”

  “Oh! That’s nice. I visited a salt mine once, you know? The air was so clean and healing!”

  “Didn’t really feel healing after spending a week in there.”

  Rabbit chews his spit for a second and lets the soft pulsing of the embers echo in the wind. Then he opens his cursed mouth again: “Really is a fuckin’ travesty we buried Jack with the others. Fuckin’ coward took the easy-”

  A swift elbow to the chin stops his ranting.

  “What the fuck man?” Rabbit asks, blood dripping from his busted lip.

  Kale shrugs with a shit-eating grin on his ash-smeared face.

  Rabbit punches him in turn. Then Kale turns the fight into a grapple and they both fall back, kicking up embers with their legs. A few more punches and kicks are exchanged, but none deal the same damage as the first blows.

  Of course, the others are woken up by the commotion. Viper and Eagle Eye step in to break it up since Thorvald and Landyn are still nowhere to be found.

  The merchant is still pretending to sleep, but Anna is peeking from her tent with her heart in her throat.

  “Fucking stop you numbnuts! You’re scaring Rose!” Viper growls while wrestling the two apart.

  “Shut the fuck up, sand boy! You don’t even fucking know her real name! What the fuck do you care if she runs off?!” Rabbits spits out these words along with blood from his burst lip, but to Viper it feels like he is spitting venom. His heart grows dark.

  Viper gets off the ground without letting go of Rabbit. He is not going to throw any punches anymore, it’s too late for that. With one hand grabbing by the neck and the other by the pants he raises the former poacher high into the sky and drops him with his back onto his knee. Rabbit’s spine shatters.

  Landyn and Thorvald came running but only arrived as soon as Rabbit’s back broke.

  “For fuck’s sake guys; I leave you alone for five fucking minutes and you break Rabbit’s back again?! Really?” Landyn says, like a mother chastising her children.

  “...He was talking shit,” Kale coos out like a crying puppy.

  “I told you guys to stop taking his bullshit serious… Haa whatever. Kale, Viper, you two are taking care of him until we find a healer. And you’d better good care of out only fucking crossbowman, alright?”

  “...Yes.”

  “You’re both on thin fucking ice!”

  Then he turns and walks away muttering his thoughts out loud ‘For fuck’s sake these fucking children! I’m gonna take the treatment cost out of their pay! Those fucking imbeciles!’

  Rabbit, incapable of shutting the fuck up as usual: “Welp, at least this time I can still use my hands! But you guys are gonna have to help me take a piss though…”

  Viper and Kale sigh and try to elicit some pity from their comrades, especially from Eagle Eye since he’s basically just a few months old because of his brain injury, meaning he’s quite gullible at the moment.

  “You guys are the ones who did this to him, don’t look at me.” Eagle Eye shrugs.

  ‘Fuck.’ They both think in unison.

  —After toilet duty, Viper’s tent—

  Viper slips into his cot, next to Anna. It’s clear she isn’t asleep, and he won’t be able to sleep unless he makes some things clear.

  “Rose, is it true this isn’t your real name?” He asks, his hand grasping hers.

  Her heart starts to race and she wants to cry, afraid that after her next words she may never feel the warmth of his touch again. “I’m Anna…”

  Viper’s muscles uncoil a little and she feels him become more liquid, more relaxed. It was troubling him a lot, but since she just said it without much difficulty, then it must mean everything is alright. He wants everything to be alright.

  “Alright then. Just don’t lie to me anymore… please.”

  “I promise.”

  They fall asleep in a tight hug. Their honeymoon phase is very much not over yet.