Chapter 1 – Part 5

Bresbin Delavane wiped the knife carefully on leaf as he slid down the branch from the squirrel’s nest. His feet made not a sound. He had chosen the spot because he thought if any of the druids that may be in the area would notice sound or movement they would think it to be the squirrels. Until that damned big bug had come creeping along he had thought the spot was perfect. Now the soft, slight, almost non-sound of the spider’s dead body hitting the grass below was thunder to his ears.

Bresbin Delavane was usually not seen or heard until he fired his shortbow from whatever hiding spot he was in. An Aundairian cavalry leader had discovered this when Bresbin had put an arrow neatly through the slits in his visor, killing the hardened battle leader as quickly and neatly as the goblin had killed the spider the following day.

The goblin moved carefully and softly, knowing that he had to approach upwind so that the great panther would not notice him, and more silently than ever given how good the wood sense of the druidess Pienna was said to be.

It took him almost a half-hour before he traveled the short distance to the thick oak that hid his small frame. On the other side, perhaps forty feet away, Pienna had most of her back to him, and was speaking with a strange creature.

After checking to make sure the great panther had its focus away from the oak, Bresbin inched his small head around the edge of the oak, peering intently.

It was a foul-looking thing, Bresbin could see that even from this distance. It was almost twice his size, and it resembled a loose, frigid mass of tainted water held in some membrane of slime and moisture. Streams and pseudopods of liquid flailed away from its shapeless body. Shapeless, but not unmarked. Dark malignant eyespots drifted loosely on its surface, eyeing either the human woman or the panther.

Bresbin focused, trying to listen. Two druidess and the thing were speaking in a language that he didn’t understand, but he was willing to bet was Aquan. The goblin suppressed an urge to frown, not wanting even the tiniest movement to catch one of the thing’s many eyes.

Bresbin didn’t really understand the purpose of his orders, but they were clear. Find out as much as he could about the druidess Pienna’s action at all costs.

Even if it meant fighting alongside Eldeen troops against the Aundairians.