Edmar squinted through the dim light of the Below. Tamas had said the goblins were close when he left. Yet, despite hours or longer of trudging, Edmar had not found them so far.
The Below was not as noisy as the jungle above, though that was at least partly due to the absence of the giants. Jarnsaxa and her family were earth-shakingly loud.
Still, there were the subtle rustlings of wind in the leaves and insects in the patches of grass. Edmar shivered nervously. It was also colder here, without consistent sunlight to warm the ground. Whereas the jungle had been sticky and oppressively humid in its heat, the Below was damp and chilly. He passed a thorny flower, ducking around its twisting vine.
There was the far-off sound of a waterfall as it fell endlessly from the Pink Sky World down to join the ocean here. He had been walking slowly and steadily towards it, having no other landmark by which to judge his journey.
The holes in the ground occasionally let in shafts of light from the Pink Sky, but the days and nights were so erratic that it did not seem a good measure by which to judge the passage of time. Mostly he relied on how often he became hungry.
He ate some juicy fruit he found, hoping that it was not poisonous. He had few other options. The trees and grass grew in places where the shafts of light hit during the course of a Pink Sky day, leaving the rest of the terrain of the Below rather barren.
Or perhaps the giants had stripped the land of all it once had?
Fifty giants would have needed a lot of sustenance. Hadn't Jarnsaxa said that the Pink Sky world did not contain enough for them? And it was teeming with plants and wildlife. To think the Below would be better…
He paused as a strange sight met his eyes. A ribcage, almost shocking in its size, was jutting out of the ground ahead of him, half buried.
A giant's skeleton? The backbone didn't quite look the right shape to be human-ish. It looked more animal than anything to Edmar. A skull would have been easier to judge the nature of the creature it had been.
With a heavy sigh, he sat down to rest with his back against one of the ribs. He was tempted to sleep, but he didn't want to be caught off guard by the goblins.
He knew they must be near. He'd found footprints that were roughly his own size, but shaped subtly differently. It made him wonder exactly how the race looked. He should find out eventually.
He'd thought he would find the creatures relatively quickly, but they were elusive.
He was so tired. He had no idea how long he'd been walking, and the fruit kept him hydrated and sustained, but barely. His own rations were spent, and his waterskin empty, hence his reliance on the natural resources of this world.
The only useful thing he had was his blade, which he kept drawn in case he finally met the ones he sought. If they were fierce enough to take down giants, Edmar needed to be wary and keep his wits about him.
Still, none had shown their faces yet, and he was so fatigued. The chill of his damp, cool surroundings was seeping into his bones. He chuckled slightly at the thought, noting the irony of thinking so while leaning against a bone much larger than himself.
With a wide yawn, he wondered if feigning sleep would draw out the elusive goblins. He can't have been tramping through their territory this long without them noticing. He was fairly certain of that.
It was very likely he was being followed. If he sat for a while and pretended to doze, he might lure them a bit closer.
His head lolled to the side slightly, and he reminded himself that he was only pretending to sleep. He wasn't actually going to…
Where was Tamas in all this? Shouldn't he be here helping? It was all his plan, after all. Why did Edmar have to do the dangerous dirty work of convincing these goblins to serve Tamas?
His heavy eyelids blinked, and he thought he saw a movement in the shadow.
"Tamas?" He asked. "Is that you?"
"Be careful, Edmar. This place is not so safe that you should sleep in the open."
"They're following me, I'm sure of it. Hiding would probably make no difference," He yawned and stretched. "Where have you been?"
"I have been helping the giants, but making a portal so large… it exhausts me. Especially from this strange world to yours. I need you to complete your task to anchor me here more firmly." Tamas urged.
"What does that mean?" Edmar rubbed his eyes.
"It means you need to wake up from this dream before you die." Tamas hissed.
The Commodore's son bolted upright suddenly from having slumped over onto the ground. A blade was at his neck.
He froze, his eyes focused on the hand that held a sword to his throat.
"What are you?" A raspy voice sneered.
Edmar's gaze slowly moved from the clawlike hand up its long arm and to a visage with engorged, colorless eyes, long, sharpened teeth, and dark grey skin.
"I am human," Edmar answered.
A rumbling of voices drew his attention to the fact that he was entirely surrounded. Not ideal.
"No, what are you? Are you a liar? A thief? A murderer? A good person?" The last option was given with obvious distaste. "What are you?"
Edmar considered the question. He was a liar, certainly. He'd been deceiving his family for a long time now. A thief? That depended on your point of view. Some would likely say he was trying to steal his father's power, while Edmar might argue it rightfully belonged to him as his birthright. A murderer…
He thought of Ishmael. His father's loyal right hand man since before Edmar could remember, now dead at his own hand.
Were these attributes virtues to the goblins? It seemed so. Edmar raised his chin in pride.
"I am a liar, a thief, and a murderer." He replied.
"Proof. We require proof." The goblin bared his sharpened teeth.
What proof could there be? The head of the one he murdered? A collection of stolen goods? A list of the things he'd lied about? Edmar heard a rustling just behind him.
Even in his sleep, his fingers had maintained a loose grip on the hilt of his blade. He tightened his hand and rolled away from the goblin, towards the sound of a footstep he'd heard behind.
The goblins were roughly human sized, though hunched over as if their spines were curved by years of crouching.
The roll caught them all off guard, as did Edmar's sudden lurch upward when he reached the feet of the second goblin. His blade came with him, and jutted through the lower jaw and into the creature's skull.
A strange gagging was the only sound the grey-faced thing made before it fell to the ground, dead.
Edmar hid his sigh of relief that he had hit his mark without being killed in the process, and leaned down to snatch the waterskin at the goblin's side.
At least, he hoped it was filled with water. Regardless, he took out the cork and took a long swig of the liquid, driving home his display of callous murder and thievery.
When he'd drunk his fill of what was definitely NOT water, but rather some kind of strong drink, he wiped his mouth on his sleeve and turned to the goblins' leader to see if his gamble had paid off.
"Enough proof, or you need more?" He gave a charming grin, hoping to have won over the group.
A stunned, heavy silence hung in the air as the large, colorless eyes of the goblins darted between Edmar and their fallen comrade. He suppressed the urge to apologize, or explain.
Sometimes, silence was strength. And so he waited.
After several seconds that felt an eternity, a sound like hissing rose from the group. Edmar froze his expression in place and braced himself to be attacked. The wide open mouths and sharpened teeth of the goblins were a harrowing sight.
The hissing slowly abated, and Edmar came slowly to the realization that it had, in fact, been laughter. He grinned wider and decided to chance broaching the topic of his visit.
"I have come to bring you news of the grand and powerful Tamas, who requires your allegiance and obedience." He tried to remember the words that Roy had used, and wasn't sure he was getting them at all correct. Still, the spirit was there.
"He requires it, does he?" The main goblin's large eyes narrowed slightly. "And for what reason? Why should we give it?"
"Should you follow him, you will all get to murder to your heart's content, and steal what you can take from a very rich kingdom."