The Goblin Nation 15 A Stinky Solution

Salacity brought the brothers to the western gate. There they saw a line of bags hanging on the wall. The sandbags acted as targets for goblins practicing in archery. Five goblins were already there, shooting at the bags; four men and one woman. Salacity called to one of them to introduce us. "Come meet halflings. They newborns out to first hunt."

"Only four? Hope you all no die." Said one of the goblins with the spikey hair. "I Lite. I hunt many times. I know forest like my mama. And you?"

"I'm Sun, and these are my brothers, Rock,"

"Hi." Rock waved at them.

"Stick,"

Stick noded.

"And Smoke."

"h.e.l.lo, nice to meet you." Smoke walked up to him and extended his arm. Lite was confused as to why he did that. He decided to reach for it, and the two shook hands.

"You four no last long." The woman of the group said. She walked towards them during their introduction. She had light brown eyes and hair and fair skin for a goblin. She wrapped her arms around Lite's arms. "I Shuja. Lite and I are strong. We hunt always good. You halflings no nothing of hunt. Shuja bet four ran away when see hare." She giggles. Smoke and Stick did not find that amusing, while Rock was deeply insulted. Being called weak is one thing, but a coward is another. He stood up against Tama, learned to embrace his strength and flaws, and to forgive himself. But Sun was interested in something else, her name. Shuja sounded very familiar to him.

"Ok, enough. Halflings, come here." Salacity said. He led the brothers to the bags. He grabbed the bag and showed it to us. "Before you hunt. Salacity want see you hit bags with arrows. Go put bag over there." He pointed over to the table Cloud was sitting on. There was also another goblin wearing a helmet with red hanging chainmail on the back. Cloud was having a conversation with him, but the two stopped once the two brothers got to the table.

"Children, I want you to meet Olhos." Cloud gestured to Olhos. "He is one of the chief's loyal and strongest retainers. You can tell if a goblin is a retainer if they wear helmets that have red paint on them. These goblins carry out the chief's orders. You must always listen to them. I also have one, but I forgot it at my shed. I guess I was so busy with making your bows and spears that when I finished, I rushed back to the ruins and had them prepared on the table."

The four brothers were speechless. They did not know Cloud worked so hard on these weapons. "Thank you, Cloud. You didn't have to make us new weapons. We will be fine with the ones,"

"No! I had to make you new one. It's the least I can do."

"Cloud, you know new weapons waste time on them. They halflings. Chance, they all die."

"Trust me, Olhos, they will not die that quickly." Olhos looked doubtful over Cloud's statement. Usually, only half of a party made of halflings come back alive. That's because they are weaker compared to the other goblins. The more Olhos thinks about it, the more frustrated he was about Cloud's comment. He left slightly bitter. "By the way children. Do you see that goblin on top with the squarish red helmet? That's Dolce. He is in charge of this gate. He will be the one to take a portion of your game."

Sun examined the tower and the goblin on top of it. He was chubby but muscular, like a sumo wrestler but shorter. "I see. Is he strong?"

"Of course he is strong. He is one of the retainers." Cloud looked over at Salacity and noticed that he finished hanging the rest of the bags. "I shouldn't take too much of your time. I better get going." Before Cloud could leave, Stick walked to Cloud and asked, "Do you still have that stinky stuff?"

"Stinky stuff?" Sun asked.

Cloud was astonished by this question. "Do you mean the stink bombs."

"Yes, do you have some to spare?"

Cloud looked over his should then back to Stick. He pondered whether it will be a good idea to give them some, but Olhos' statement came to mind. They weren't weak, Cloud knows this well, but hunting is far different than fighting another goblin. The deers they hunt are aggressive and will headb.u.t.t you, even the baby ones. Giving them those bombs could help, but how they will use it is beyond Cloud's imagination. He could not think of any way they could use it to capture those deers since the sound and smell of those bombs would scare them away. But maybe they can.

"Ok, I have five left to give. Just be careful. The smell will linger for a week."

Sun got in between the two. "I'm sorry, but what are these bombs?"

Stick looked at Sun with glee in his eyes. "Those bombs are the answer to our problem."