Aj VI

The goblin picked up a large rock and tossed it onto a large flat stone. Nothing happened. The group behind him watched closely as he stepped up onto the stone. The group jumped in surprise as the goblin was skewered by a sharpened stake that was attached to a limb; it had sprung out from the far side of a large rock that the path sided. The stake hit the goblin in the chest with such force that it went through its body, and so rapidly that the limb hit the body before it stopped moving and knocked the goblin off the stake to sprawl on the path with a gaping hole in its chest.

Without turning his head Aj commented, “Well, that’s only goblins so far, I was hoping for a careless orc on that first trap. The next trap is a little trickier, I hope it at least gets the big orc, that would shake up the ogre and maybe he will go away. This isn’t the first time he has tried to find our lair. Last summer he followed visitors a couple of times, but didn’t want to stick his neck out. I would love to have him stumble into one of my traps.”

Hezekiah tried to increase his focus on the trail below to remember where the men had stood to protect the caravan as it entered the booby trapped canyon.

Down below the orcs marched two more goblins to the front of the group with the ogre following them. When the goblins had to pass their dead companion they hesitated, glancing around.

The ogre was taller than a large man, big boned and fat: grossly, hideously fat. His skin contained layers of cottage cheese rolls on top of cottage cheese rolls that were tattooed with a maze of black stretch marks that discolored the flesh. He had no ears, just holes in the side of his head, and no hair which made his sweat run without stopping. The tusks on his head would have reached halfway to his jowls, but his extra fat left them deeply embedded, causing the skin to gush out around them, and his eyelids hung so low that he had to raise his eyebrows to look through his small beady eyes. When he walked his big floppy four toed feet slapped the ground like cold, wet ham. Meb, then and there, named him the Great Ich .

Ich pushed the large orc out of the way giving threats and cursing the goblins, and ordered one of the goblins to start up the path. The goblin, connecting the distance it would go up the path with its life expectancy, started whining and shaking its head. Typical of all ogres, having no patience for others, Ich knocked the goblin to the ground and stepped on its back. He then took his club and smashed the goblins head, reached down, and stretched the crack in the head apart. Scooping the sticky brains out of the goblin’s head the ogre shoved the gooey mass into its mouth, and then licked the large globs off its fingers. Next he turned the head to the side and poked the eyes out, and holding them over his head, squishing them into his mouth as if they were a fine delicacy.

Sucking his fingers semi-clean the ogre smiled at the other goblins sending it the message that he enjoyed his little snack and wouldn’t mind another one. Then Ich motioned up the trail. The other goblin inched up the trail with a groan—edging to the side of the path. The goblin stepped into the water and followed the stream whenever it could. After about five steps it had to leave the water because the stream undercut the edge of the canyon. The goblin slowly started across a flat area between the twists of the stream. The large orc followed about five feet behind the goblin, stepping were the goblin stepped. As the goblin reached the far side of the flat there was a load snap and the ground below the orc collapsed. The orc had time to curse as it fell through the earth, it hit the bottom and started to squeal, but was quickly cut off with a “dguh”. The orc had fallen twenty feet to the bottom of the pit and through a couple of ropes that crossed the chasm. The ropes were attached to rocks, so that as the orc passed through them they were pulled by the orcs weight on the ropes, and started to fall with it. When everything reached the floor of the hole the orc was on the bottom, the life crushed out of his body.

Seeing this event take place just the way he had hoped it would, Aj turned his head in Hezekiah’s direction and commented in a quite voice. “Now, is the ogre smart enough to realize that the goblin didn’t weigh enough to trip the trigger for the pit but the orc was? If it thinks along those lines then maybe he will turn around and we will go get some sleep.”

Hezekiah asked in a whisper, “What silenced the orc?”

Aj answered softly, “The pit was about twenty feet deep, not easy digging in that canyon. Twenty feet is far enough to break bones, but the object is to kill. In the side of the pit almost at the top we carved ledges, and then set some flat stones on the edge that weighed about ten pounds.” Aj moved the fingers of one hand to show how they stood the stones up on the side by rotating only his hand. Not being able to move his hands as he talked annoyed Aj, but the necessity of remaining motionless so they would remain hidden was second nature to him. His patience in intense situations had saved his life more than once. “Then we strung some ropes across the pit, attaching them to those rocks. When the orc fell his mass continued through the ropes and pulled the rocks down on top of him. Those rocks fell about fifteen or sixteen feet before they landed on the orc. If you drop a one pound rock one foot it will hit with the force of three pounds, drop it two feet and it hits with the force of six pounds. Drop a ten pound rock fifteen feet and it will hit with enough force to kill an orc. We dropped four rocks that far. I was really hoping to get the ogre, but I think we got his right hand man in the big orc.”

Down below there were a number of squeals as a small group of goblins decided that the surprise of the trap ahead gave them a chance to escape the mob. Two of them stuck their knives into the orc watching over them and then the small group ran across the flat bench in an attempt to escape. Pandemonium broke out. As the goblins fled across the flat some of the orc-archers gathered themselves to shoot at them. Elsewhere along the trail the race war continued to break out. An isolated gang of goblins surrounded an orc, and with their knives, sliced and cut off chunks of orc flesh until one stabbed it in the neck. The blade hit the jugular spraying blood in the air. The gang had tried, too late, to use the same method of escape as their tribesmen, and before they could run the orc-archers cut them down. The trail was strewn with the bodies of massacred goblins. Of the goblins that ran off, two fell into a pit to their death, one was killed by arrows, and the rest escaped to the north. The orcs had fared better, just the unlucky were nursing wounds.

Ich seemed to gather himself after the slaughter was over. The frustration of loosing his cheap sacrifices to the traps of the canyon seemed to grow in him until he took a deep breath. He held it for a second, preparing for a frenzy, and then exhaled the frustration. There were no goblins to be victim to his release, and the orcs were too valuable. Ich stood quietly for a minute, thinking, then motioned for the orcs to start preparing the dead goblins so they could take them along. There was no need to waste goblin flesh, when it could feed so many. The orcs gutted the goblins; some sneaking an eyeball to see if it was the delicacy that Ich seemed to think it was. Others pulled out pouches to hold some of the guts. They would take them back to their village to feed to their young. Then they took some of the stakes that had been pulled out of the ground, and skewered the goblins bodies from head to tail so that they could be easily carried off.

Ich looked up the canyon at the huddling goblin that had walked over the pit without tripping the trap. The goblin had had nowhere to go, if it went up the canyon it might set off another, and if it tried to sneak out of the canyon the orcs would butcher it. Ich motioned the goblin to come to him. The goblin shook its head no. Ich slowly moved closer to the goblin signaling it to come to him. The goblin shook in fear. When Ich got to the stream the goblin streaked up the canyon until it came to a dead stop its face impaled on a spear.

Hezekiah had watched it step on the trigger, a rake-like contraption with a short spear attached to its handle at a ninety degree angle. When the panicked goblin had stepped on the rake, the spear, carried with momentum, rose up and struck hard enough to pierce the goblin’s skull.

Ich gave the goblin up for lost and, after looking down into the pit at his lost helper, went back down the trail gathering the orcs. Aj was right. The pursuers were giving up; the cost to continue was too great. Ich would waste goblins to find the entrance to the hidden cave, but would not risk his relationship as high chief with the tribe of orcs.

Aj and Hezekiah had watched the events below them happen in silence. Both were surprised by a slight snore that escaped from Meb. Lying down, out of sight and still, had been to relaxing for Meb. Their long march had been exhausting for everyone, but Meb had been scouting, before and after the train, giving him little time to sleep over the last five days. This respite, as exciting as it was, had put him fast asleep. Aj and Hezekiah let him sleep as they watched the war party below them head down the mountain, his quiet snores would not carry far enough to give them away.