Chapter Four
The Edge
The early light of dawn peeks through the opening of the tent shining of Frey's face waking her from a deep sleep. She turns over looking out the tent at the light day growing brightly, not realizing what is going on through her waking haze. Frey begins to hear the crackling sound of the spell coming undone, staring into the brightening light a black hole appears in the light. At that moment Frey realizes what is happening, she jerks upright and yells for Lucerin to wake up immediately. Lucerin jerks awake to the sound of Frey waking him as she hurries to start packing up their camp. Lucerin jumps up and starts to help pack up.
"We slept to long, breakfast will have to wait awhile!" Frey exclaimed.
"Not to worry Frey, we don't have much to pack up we will be done with time to eat." Lucerin responded calmly.
"I don't see how the ward is already half gone, and the tent is still up." Frey retorted.
As they finally got their tent and other belongings hurriedly packed inside their space packs, the ward was all but finished and the last of the light was fading. "See Frey as I said enough time for a small snack as we start moving along again." Lucerin stated as he lit the fire light spell in his off hand. Frey nodded and gave a simple response pulling some dried meat from a small pouch and handing it to Lucerin before starting to some herself. Lucerin turned chewing on his morning snack and started walking south towards the border. Frey followed close behind chewing slowly on the dried meat. The dense dark of the forest wrapping thick about the trees around the two mages. Frey's thoughts begin to wonder through the dark once again, her grimoire floats up and starts to sift through the pages. The pages of the grimoire turning slowly at first start turning rapidly, seemingly endless the pages just keep turning faster and faster as Frey's mind cannot settle. Lucerin hears the grimoire flinging through its' pages, he turns to gaze at the spectacle behind him. Frey meandering forward chewing on the last of her meat snack, her eyes glazed over almost solid black. Lucerin stops walking and turns full on towards Frey, placing a hand on her shoulder, he stops her from walking farther. "Frey! Frey! Snap out of it Frey!" Lucerin exclaims as he starts shaking her. Frey's eyes shift towards Lucerin, she can barely see him standing there as if through a dark fog. She speaks out to him asking why he stopped but no words leave her mouth. Frey looks upon his face, seeing that he is speaking but hearing no words, she begins to look confused. Lucerin sees the change in her face and he tries harder to get to snap out of it. Frey reaches up with her hand lightly touching Lucerins face she can only barely feel him against her palm. The pages in the grimoire turning slower coming to a stop on a blank page. Frey gazes towards the book, emotionless her thoughts clear and the grimoire slams shut. Frey stumbles slightly closer towards Lucerin and her eyes begin to clear.
"Lucerin dear friend, why have we stopped? What is going with you?" Frey asked not realizing what had just happened.
"Frey your back I thought I was losing you to the dark of the forest. Yours eyes clouded over almost black, and your grimoire was turning through pages ever so violently." Lucerin stated looking very concerned.
"I'm sorry to worry you, but I was simply lost in thought is all. Oddly enough I remember not what I was even thing about. Come we must hurry on our way we are losing time." Frey responded in a rather cold manner.
Lucerin at a loss for word simply nodded and began walking again at a faster pace. After walking on and on for what felt like an eternity, Lucerin notices that the trees are beginning to open up getting farther and farther apart as they continue. As the trees get farther apart the air becomes easier to breathe. The denseness of the dark forest begins to lighten up bit by bit letting a small amount of light. Realizing that the edge of the black forest must not be very far from where they are Lucerin and Frey begin to pick up the pace. Not knowing what to expect at the edge of the forest their minds race back and forth at the possibilities of wonder and danger. As the suppressive dark lets up the firelight spells in the mages' hands illuminate more and more of their surroundings. Looking down Lucerin notices a large amount of goblin tracks, a hoard of tracks, far more goblins in one place than they had seen before. Goblins thrive in low light, are wary of pure darkness and avoid the daylight. Studying the tracks as they walk Lucerin discerns the direction of goblin hoard and stops dead in his tracks. Frey not noticing that Lucerin had stopped bumps into him causing him to stumble.
"Lucerin? Why have you stopped?" Frey asked confused.
"Look around Frey, do you see all the goblin tracks?" Lucerin asked in response.
"Oh my! There are so many more than I have ever seen!" Frey exclaimed as she looked around.
"We must find another route south. If we continue this way we will definitely run into the horde." Lucerin stated.
"Very well. Maybe we should head south west then, through trees to hide our tracks in case the goblins head back this way." Frey responded.
"Good idea." Lucerin said as he started south west off the path into the trees. With Frey close behind him, he looked to the sky with an air of hope. Yet still the sky remained dark and distant due to the forest. Frey and Lucerin continue walking at brisk pace, getting ever closer to the edge of the Black Forest. As the pair walk, they only seem to come across small creatures easily dispatched, as the largest monsters tend to stay deep in the woods.
After hours of more of walking they see a large fire in the distance, with shadows dancing ceremoniously around it. A moment of excitement hits as they believe it to be a camp of travelers. Frey and Lucerin pick up the pace walking even faster towards the fire and dancing shadows. As they get closer the fire gets larger and they begin to be able to hear some of the sounds. The sounds of drums beating in a barbaric tune now permeating the air, the closer they get the louder the sounds. The two mages soon begin to hear voices mixed in with the beating drums, and unknown guttural language they were unfamiliar with. But the way the voices sound was familiar, Lucerin and Frey halt in their tracks. Looking into the clearing from behind a massive tree, the mages can finally make out the people dancing around the massive bonfire. Goblins, an absolutely massive number of goblins, all dancing around the fire celebrating their successful hunt. Frey looks near the fire and sees several large beasts roasting on spits close to flames edge. Lucerin looking around at the goblins noticing that there are multiple different kinds of them. The highest number of goblins are the ones they are familiar with, simple small and dumb not more than children. He also sees about seventy or so hobgoblins, even a couple of champion goblins which were the biggest. Finally on a throne chair of bones an absolutely massive goblin king sat holding a barrel of alcohol in his right hand. The goblin king sat laughing and drinking, enjoying the festivities of his clan.
Frey moved closer to Lucerin shaking slightly and whispered in his ear "We need to leave now before they find us."
"We cannot turn back. We haven't the time." Lucerin whispered back.
"Listen to me! We cannot fight them; we don't even know what half these goblins even are." Frey retorted looking worried.
"That's exactly why we can't run away now what if they wonder into a village or town?" Lucerin asked.
"That is not our concern! We are not powerful enough to defeat this horde on our own." Frey pleaded with Lucerin.
"Maybe, not the whole horde but we can significantly weaken it and then get away!" Lucerin exclaimed.
"No, we cannot! If we attack them, they will surround us in moments. I will not become a goblin toy! I will not let them have me, and I will not let you back us into this impossible corner and get me violated by a horde of goblins!" Frey exclaimed just a little too loud.
Looking stunned at her outburst Lucerin responds "You're right, we need to get out of here. We can sneak around the clearing keeping low and hightail it from the other side."
At the edge of clearing the sound of Frey's voice reached the long-pointed ears of one of the small goblins. The little Goblin turns around and peers into the forest searching for the noise he heard. The little goblin walks slowly toward the edge watching and listening closely. With its' dark vision the goblin can see into the forest as clear as day.
Lucerin turns to look back at the clearing to make sure that they are still unnoticed. Still hiding behind the tree Lucerin cannot see the little goblin standing there staring in the tree's direction. Lucerin turns to Frey, thinking everything is clear he holds her hand, and they begin slowly walking crouched down around the clearing. As they come around a bit further before they reach the next tree and bushes, they hear a screech coming from the clearing. Turning her head Frey sees the little goblin screeching and pointing in their direction. The drums of the goblin party halt as more goblins begin to turn and look into the woods. The little goblin that had just alerted the horde bolted towards the humans eager to mate and devour. Panicked Lucerin and Frey bolt into the woods trying to get around the clearing and way from the horde. The other goblins take notice of the two humans and begin charging after them throwing anything they can grab at them. The hobgoblins and champions grab their weapons and charge in after the humans as well. The goblin king watches it unfold but remains seated, not interested in the humans he grabs one of his kin as it was running past him, and throws the little goblin at the fire and says something in their language. The little goblin shrieks stopping a few of the other goblins to help him serve the food from the fire to the king. About half of the horde has already charged off after the humans, the other half stayed by the king's order. The goblin king continued his party as if nothing had just happened, as half the goblin horde, run while shouting in their guttural language, chasing the two humans through the forest. Frey running frantically calls to her grimoire for assistance, the magic pages turn rapidly stopping upon the levitation spell she had used while fighting the chimera. However now the spell had an added line for faster travel, Frey held out her staff in front of her as she ran and chanted the words. Finishing the spell she lifts from the ground, and launches forward quickly leaving behind the goblins and Lucerin. Lucerin shouts for Frey to keep going telling her that she better not turn back. Lucerin holds his shield in his hand and chants a spell wall enchantment onto the shield, he then mounts the shield onto his back, creating a large magic wall between him and the horde. Lucerin slows his pace a bit so he can concentrate, he waves his hands before him and begins chanting a necromancy spell. Lucerins eyes glow smoky green, a greyish green fog begins to surround him. As the fog grows denser Lucerin guides the smoke into the ground, unsurprisingly the forest ground is littered with dead bodies and skeletons both buried and not. Lucerin smiles as the long dead bodies begin to pop out of the ground all around, most without weapons some with. Two of the goblin horde catch up to Lucerin and leap into the air to try and attack, alas the attack fails as they smack directly into the shield wall. Four warrior skeletons with weapons see the failed attack and go immediately to Lucerin's side and attack the goblins killing them quickly. The horde now seeing the rising dead begin to screech out in horror, half the pursuers turn back. One of the champion goblins that gave chase caught up to Lucerin and swung his mighty great hammer along the ground towards Lucerins back. The four skeletons were smash to pieces and the great hammer slammed directly into the shield wall on Lucerins back. The magic spell shattered and the force of the impact sent Lucerin flying forward through the air incredibly fast. The undead horde quickly overwhelmed the remaining goblins halting their advance through forest. The undead would be easily beaten however not before Lucerin and Frey would safely away from the Goblins sense and ability to track. Some distance away as Frey is flying through the forest, the sound of the goblins completely faded she hears a strange sound. Just then a large mass flies straight past her and crashes hard into a large tree. Frey heads towards whatever it was, and as she gets closer, she realizes that it is Lucerin. Frey panics and hurries to Lucerin, as she gets to his side he sits up and spits blood from his mouth and lets out a small painful bellow. Frey sets down and raises her staff immediately casting the best healing spell she knows. Within a few moments the blood fades away from Lucerins mouth and his breathing eases. Lucerin Smiles at Frey and thanks her for the healing. Frey helps Lucerin off the ground and the pair begin running south once again.
The duo begin to see a bright light coming through the trees.
"Look at the light, Lucerin we are almost there!" Frey shouts as they run.
"Yes, yes dear friend I see it!" Lucerin responds with excitement.
"Thank the gods we will soon be free of this dread place!" Frey exclaims excitedly.
Lucerin and Frey burst the tree line and pause, stunned by the beauty of the vast open plains before them. The two weary travelers stand slumped upon one another breathing heavily basking in the brilliance of the sun.
"Lucerin it appears to be midday, shall we break and have some lunch?" Frey asks exhaustedly.
"No, I am afraid we must push further away from the Black Forest. I still feel as though something is upon us." Lucerin responds in the same manner.
"Very well, then we should do to find a good sheltered place before nightfall. Wouldn't want something coming upon our camp, guided by the fire light." Frey spoke with slight anxiety.
"Very wise observation my friend, let us be away from here." Lucerin said in response. The two gathered themselves and began walking easily southward into the planes, snacking on some dried meat.