NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 7 : Between the hunter and the prey …
Nathan woke up with the first ray of light, when his mind cleared, he saw Mourzuk already sitting with a group of goblins in a circle.
He could also see Grom and the former axe wielding goblin betrayer who was now armed with a bone knife and the new javelins by his side. He took his atlatl; bone knifes and javelins before casting his sight on the bone sword.
‘Yeah, I love you Dumbslayer but honestly you’re not really adapted to hunting…’
He stood up and joined them before speaking to Mourzuk.
“ _ Prepare some food for the goblins before the hunt. It’s unwise to fight on a empty stomach
_ Ok, boss.” Mourzuk answer was followed by a long yawn.
He then walked to the newly built oven. His face fell when he saw some fissures on it before he smiled brightly seeing the pot that did not crumble through the night.
He walked to a goblin sleeping near and woke him up with a light kick. As the goblin jolted awake, he spoke to him.
“_ waaa !
_ You ! Go wake up a few men and take them with you. You must fill those pots with water. If you break one of them on the way … you will have nothing to eat for a whole day, it also counts for every goblin who come with you. Understood ?
_ Y-yes boss, I understand, I careful”
Nathan then regrouped with the hunting group, with the new addition of Steeve to wait for his meal. As they were eating the goblins charged to bring some water were back with the now filled pots. When every goblin hunter was satiated, Nathan stood up to announce the start of the hunt, before departing.
“_ With this many well-armed goblins todays hunt should be easy ! But stay vigilant, a mistake could cost you dearly. Now get ready we are leaving !
_ Yes boss !”
As they walked in the direction of the burrow, he scouted two days ago with Steeve, Nathan was deep in thoughts
‘If I want to lead more people, I will really need to work on my speech skills. It’s not really my forte, Shit … I probably had no forte in my past life.’
When they approached the vicinity of their prey territory, Nathan signalled to the goblins behind him to slow down and be as silent as possible.
But when he was close enough to see the burrow, he suddenly heard noise of leaves rustling followed by the roar of a beast and the anxious yell of a goblin.
As he turned around, he could see a goblin under the paw of some beast who looked like the mix between a fox and a wolf, but bigger than a wolf, Its fur orange and grey. Just as he could see the beast rip the goblin’s head with its maw, he thought.
‘ah shieet, I fucked up big time.’
The whole hunting party was in chaos after the first goblin death which in turn led to the second one. The former axe wielding goblin betrayer rushed at the beast to throw his javelin almost point blank. The javelin struck true, but it also further enraged the fox-wolf beast who immediately lunged at him before shredding his neck. Nathan, Steeve and Mourzuk reacted almost at the same time and fired their javelin at the beast. The three javelins struck the target, but only Steeve’s one managed to wound it. The fox-wolf then pounced on a third prey, but this goblin pushed his javelin in the maw of the beast as he was mauled by its claws. The beast jumped back and decisively turned around to escape through the forest. Nathan immediately sprinted to the bleeding goblin to inspect his wounds and yelled new instructions to the group.
“_ Mourzuk ! Keep the goblin with you, tend to its wound a bring him back to the camp ! The others with me ! We must kill it before nightfall !”
Nathan did not even take the time to make sure the goblins followed the orders before chasing the beast at full speed.
When he almost lost it, Steeve came to his side with Grom who pointed to some blood stains on the ground.
“_ Boss here !
_ Show the way Grom ! The rest follow us !”
After following the blood trails, they found the beast resting in a clearing breathing intensely. Steeve fired his Javelin right away at the beast followed by Grom, Nathan and the rest of the party.
The beast let out a whimper before fleeing again. The first to react was Grom who fired again with his last javelin at its rear. When the hunting party caught up again, the beast was resting under a tree visibly immobile. Steeve instantly aimed at it before Nathan stopped him.
“Wait … Let it bleed, no need to further ruin it hide now that it is condemned”
After 20 minutes a goblin spoke to him again
“_ Boss, should we go and collect the body ?”
Nathan looked at him, crouched to grab a stone on the ground before throwing it at the beast. It fiercely reacted by pawing in the direction of the stone and viciously growled at the goblins watching. Nathan then answered the goblin.
“ _ You can still go if you want, if not come with me. We need to make a sledge to bring back its body to the camp. Grom, Steeve watch it, if it moves around kill it.
_ Ok.
_ O-ok !”
Nathan turned to Grom in surprise and smiled, who nervously smiled back.
‘It’s really spreading, I can’t believe that the first thing I took back from my previous life is this. Hope it will not be my only heritage.’
When Nathan was satisfied by his new sledge, he looked hatefully at the beast then at the sky before sitting on the ground
‘We still have time before night fall, I will not risk another goblin to make sure its dead. I will take your head around as a reminder of my lack of vigilance, bastard.’
A few hours later as the sun was steadily going down, Nathan threw another stone at the beast, who did not react, and ordered the goblins to approach cautiously. Fortunately, the prey was long dead. They threw its corpse on the sledge before Nathan yelled to signal their departure in the direction of the camp.
“ Stay on your guard as we go back ! You saw what this thing could do to your unsuspecting heads. We do not want another opportunistic animal who think we are easy prey !”
The goblins all nodded nervously recalling the way the first goblin died before spreading out in a circle around the prize of the hunt.
Luckily, there was no other attack on them tonight as they safely reached the camp. They were warmly welcomed by goblins who stayed back, Nathan was immediately approached by Mourzuk and Nubian.
“ _ Mourzuk ! How is the wounded goblin ?”
Mouzuk sighed
“ _ Unfortunately, I don’t think he will survive. I saw goblins with wounds like this, they all die with burning head as they let out some gibberish.
_ It’s a Fever… I should’ve obviously known sepsis is a thing here too.
_ A Fever ? A sepsis … Yes, those words do make some sense now…
_ Make sure to clean his wounds as much as possible throughout the days, keep him near a fire so he stays warm. And he needs to stay satiated, force mashed food and water through his throat if need be … but be careful to not kill him by doing this.
_ Will do !”
‘ Now that I think about it, I was overwhelmed with my memories, then the hunts and the work … how long has it been since my last bath ? I smell worse than sewers.’
Nathan stopped smelling his body as he noticed Nubian staring at him.
“_ Nubian ! Can you oversee the process of the beast we brought back ? I really need to sleep now
_ errr… I will do it you can go sleep boss.”
Nubian looked like he wanted to say more but Nathan was already walking to his sleeping spot.
When he sprawled on the ground he immediately slept.
