Waking up was not easy the following day; everything that had happened up until this point had hit me—getting sucked into a new world, surviving off of probably less than a thousand calories a day, missing my mom, and almost dying. My body and mind were exhausted. I looked around the room at my friends, and it was apparent on all of their faces that they were feeling it too. We needed today's hunting trip to be a success. Otherwise, it was looking like we might die of starvation. We needed money, more than we've been able to scrape up so far. For any of us to get better at our jobs, we needed money to pay our teachers.
To make more money, we needed to get better at our jobs. It was turning into a real catch 22. I knew that I had to keep the groups spirits up though so I sat up and yawned then smiled at the guys who were getting their gear on.
"Ya'll weren't going to wake me up?" They nodded their goodmornings to me and Derek grumbled something about being hungry. "It's alright guys we're ready this time we can do it!" The other two in the room could tell that I was not feeling well, but they appreciated the effort that I was putting in and managed to buck up a little bit.
"You're right Todd! We're gonna do great today!" Grace came walking into the boy's room.
"Geez, lady! I coulda been naked!" Derek half-joked to her.
"Sorry!" She managed to laugh out. "But he is right!" The other two girls walked in behind her. "We need to throw out any negativity we've been feeling. Today is the day we really start putting together our lives. We're ready." The entire group myself included managed a decent sounding cheer before the women left the room letting me get ready.
I threw on my clothes and stepped outside Grace and Sarah had already bound the stakes together with their belts so that it would be easier for us to carry. There were no more eggs for breakfast, so we ate some more bread. 'Geez, six people is a lot to feed.' We finished up quickly and then decided to be on our way.
It took us only two and a half hours to make it to Goblins Reach this time since we knew where we were going. We didn't have to make any stops to sell or buy anything either. 'Not that we have the money to do that anyway.' So we were there earlier in the day.
The sun still wasn't at its apex so I guessed it was probably around ten in the morning. We all got to work I started to dig the trap and the others helped by hiding the newly displaced dirt. After that was done Sarah started handing me the stakes. In order to get them to stand straight up, I would dig another very small hole and bury the stakes about halfway up then I would fill the hole back in with the stake in place.
Once I was satisfied with my results Derek and Tim reached in and carefully pulled me out so that I wouldn't fall on my own trap. We went over the plan one more time I could feel the nerves in the air, but my friends only showed faces of determination. We had to be successful today. The rest of us hid once again as we had a few days ago.
This time though everyone already had their weapons drawn. Laura had her wand out and whispered over to me.
"I promise it won't be like last time. I won't let you get hurt again." I was surprised at the level of certainty her voice had, and I thanked her. The group went dead silent after that, Derek had just left, and we didn't want to miss anything that could get him hurt. Sarah who was up in a tree close by took a deep breath and nocked an arrow. She was our lookout, making sure that we didn't have any extra company behind Derek there was no way we could fight two at a time.
The goblins were small, about two feet tall. But they were fast, smart, and more than anything cruel. They'd spent their entire lives hurting others meanwhile we hadn't even been in this world for a week and had almost no combat experience. The seconds ticked by as we all waited with bated breath for our red-headed friend to come running back. Tick, tick, tick. Time seemed to be moving so slow.
Our ears pricked up as we heard the crunch of leaves and twigs that once again signified that our friend was on his way.
"Do you see him?" Grace whisper yelled to the Archer in the tree.
"Yes he's not far now, but the goblin is right on his tail!" She whispered back. This was the moment, we'd be in combat again in a matter of seconds. My heart was pounding in my ears as I recalled moments from our last attempt at doing this. I felt my scar burn a little bit as a reminder of what could happen if this plan failed again. Tick, tick, tick. The seconds were moving faster now and we could hear the footsteps getting closer and closer.
Not five seconds passed by when Derek came running through the thicket, goblin in tow. He jumped over the trap that we'd set, but the goblin who saw the odd jump didn't react fast enough. It was too enthralled by the thrill of his own hunt. The sticks and leaves fell away with the weight of the goblin on top of it.
The monster fell and we heard a sick squishing sound. All of us aside from Sarah jumped out of our hiding place to look down at the beast. It was squirming around trying to prop itself up. One of the stakes had gone right through its abdomen. It looked up at us with venom in its eyes nashing its teeth at us. It drew its dagger and threw it straight up at Grace. She was ready though she moved her wooden buckler up and the dagger sank into it with a thud.
This seemed to infuriate the goblin who started squirming more aggressively trying to lift itself off the stake. Derek was the first to speak.
"Can I do it?" We all nodded our heads at him. We carefully lowered him down into the pit and he avoided the spikes. Derek drew his weapon and looked down at the little beast.
"It's our turn this time." He brought his sword up about to strike down and end the miserable-looking monster. Just as he did the goblin let out a terribly loud ear-piercing scream. It then smiled up at Derek in the vicious way that goblins do. Derek brought his sword down driving the point straight into its heart. The monster died quickly so Derek removed it and the stake and tossed them both up to us before having us help him back out.
"What was that all about?" We shook our heads or shrugged our shoulders. It hit me just then. 'We did it.'
"Guys we did it!" This brought a smile to everyone's face. 'No one got hurt this time, we killed it and no one got hurt!' The group let out a collective sigh of relief before starting to celebrate talking to each other about what we'd just done. It was then that Sarah let out a call.
"We have company! Hurry cover the trap!" Our eyes went wide as we realized what just happened. The goblin had signaled for others to come help. I immediately went back to trying to hide the hole.
"How many?" Tim asked, but it was clear in Sarah's expression that he wouldn't like the answer.
"Three! There's no time! Get Todd a weapon!" I grabbed the stake that Derek had brought out of the hole and readied myself. We all stood on the opposite side of the trap and hoped that at least one of them wouldn't notice the hastily covered pit. A few more seconds passed when the little green monsters came into our area two of them had clubs and one had a dagger.
There was a moment of silence as the two groups stared at each other. The little monsters looked at us with a hungry smiles. We readied ourselves raising our weapons, and they did the same. Just as the goblins started to move towards us however a shout came from behind me.
"Glacerius!" I looked behind me to see Laura brandishing her wand at the enemies. The goblins taking the first step was a mistake as their movement worked against them when her spell hit. They each slipped and fell to the ground. 'We can't miss this opportunity!' I didn't even have to tell the group what to do, however. We each sprang into action.
Sarah launched an arrow from her bow hitting one of the goblins in the shoulder. She immediately drew another arrow from her quiver and drew her string back. The monster snarled at the girl in the tree and turned its attention towards her. Before it could get to its feet however Grace and Derek leaped over the trap to get in the enemy's face. Grace immediately swung her shield up catching one of them in the face. She then ran passed them and her body started to radiate red energy she yelled at the three goblins. Their eyes were instantly locked onto her as if a magnet had pulled their eyes to focus on just her.
The three ran at her not paying any attention to what the rest of us were doing. The two with the clubs leaped into the air, which drew Graces' attention to block the incoming attacks. The goblin with the dagger was waiting for this, he ran straight in towards the middle of her legs. It was aiming for the same place that she had been injured on our first hunt. But we were ready this time.
Tim had already begun his chant to heal her from a distance, so when the blade hit her it quickly healed immediately. It was like someone had opened a zipper only to have it be zipped back up. The enemies hadn't even noticed our fleet-footed Fencer zip around to graces back aiming his blade for the point that the goblin would run through.
The goblin was still looking back at grace not even noticing the tip of the sword which was aimed straight at its chest. At this time Grace had lifted her shield to block one of the goblins jumping attacks. This left her other side exposed to the other goblin with an arrow in his shoulder. It didn't know that Sarah wasn't done with it yet though. The Archer let loose her arrow with a twang.
The arrow lodged itself with deadly accuracy through the ear of the leaping monster, it was dead before it even hit the ground. I was already behind the second jumping goblin by the time the arrow hit. I dug my stake into the ground and once the enemies club bounced off of Grace's shield it fell, impaling itself on my stake. It wasn't quite dead it was gripping at the stake poking out of him so Grace followed up with a swift swing of her sword lopping off the beasts head.
The enemies all laid dead in the area. Four goblins in total. The look on everyone's face was a mixture of relief and surprise as we surveyed the area. Sarah came down from the tree and we all stood there dumbfounded for a minute.
"Did... did we actually just do that?" Laura asked breaking the silence. This snapped everyone out of their shocked expressions and they suddenly changed into faces of excitement and celebration.
"Oh my god, we did!" Tim laughed out. It was still so surprising to me. We did have a plan, but just talking over things and giving each other tips off of what we saw from last time made that much of a difference? 'We got that much better?' The group celebrated for another minute. It was truly an incredible moment. We were more than just some people thrown together at that point.
We were a team.