\u201c …it wasn’t your imagination. The plains are thick with goblins, especially along those dark gullys and river bottoms where no man has traveled in a thousand years. The natives learned to avoid the areas and the white settlers soon after. There are goblins and ogres all along there. No trolls though, no trolls…\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n — transcript of a raving madman in Watertown, SD<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know how long I sat on the deck. The moon wasn\u2019t bright, and the lights were off in the house by the time I pushed myself to my feet and kneaded my back which was still pissed about the sixteen hour drive. I hadn\u2019t slept since the night before last.<\/p>\n Somewhere in mid-stretch, I realized I wasn\u2019t alone. I\u2019m not sure what gave me the hint, but when I turned the direction my intuition pointed, there was a shadow where there shouldn\u2019t have been in the treeline next to the house.<\/p>\n \u201cWho\u2019s there?\u201d I said, glancing around the deck for some sort of weapon.<\/p>\n The voice that spoke was gutteral in a way that made me realize I\u2019d never truly understood the word. \u201cWe\u2019re not your enemy, Sean.\u201d The large not-supposed-to-be shadow split into two: one shorter than me and one… still quite large. The shorter one spoke again. \u201cWe\u2019re after the things that took your father.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThings?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDirt-eaters.\u201d He sounded hungry when he said it. He sounded like he was smiling.<\/p>\n There was a long pause while I searched for an appropriate response.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are directly the fuck out of your mind, aren\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n The larger shadow snorted in amusement. It sounded like a prize bull huffing to scare off predators.<\/p>\n \u201cYou father\u2019s missin’, yes?\u201d The short one said.<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad, yeah. What do you know about it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe know who did it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCall the cops.\u201d I thought about it. \u201cOr turn yourselves in.\u201d<\/p>\n The air actually got chilly. \u201cYou think we did it?\u201d<\/p>\n I shrugged at the open night, wondering if they could even see it.<\/p>\n \u201cYou think we\u2019re… dirt-eaters?\u201d There was movement I caught only a bare second before the speaker was holding me by the shirt and pressing me against the side of the house. I looked down into a face a good foot and a half lower than mine, covered in random smears of grease that ran into his hair and beard. The knotted tree-branch of the arm that held me was covered in grease as well, or tatoos, or both. His eyes were bright in the moonlight and I could hear his teeth grind.<\/p>\n \u201cBrock.\u201d The larger shadow, still standing near the trees spoke softly, but his voice seemed to vibrate in the ground. \u201cHe did not mean anything by it. Let him go. You\u2019re choking him.\u201d<\/p>\n The voice was right; I couldn\u2019t breath, but not because of the hand on my chest — the stench of sweat and oiled hair surrounded the short bastard in a miasma that made my eyes water.\u00a0\u201cTake…\u201d I managed to choke out.<\/p>\n \u201cWhazzat?\u201d He growled in my face. His breath was a whole new color in the bouquet surrounding him.<\/p>\n I shoved sideways on his arm as hard as I could, using whatever leverage advantage that my height gave me, and staggered away from him. \u201cTake a damn bath, you putrid son of a bitch.\u201d<\/p>\n Another pause, this one broken by a deep chuckle from the trees that his partner on the deck joined in on.\u00a0I glared while the chuckling died down. \u201cYeah, I\u2019m hilarious, I\u2019m sure. Who the hell are you?\u201d<\/p>\n “Allies, if perhaps not friends.” The large shadow took a step that carried it into the moonlight, and nearly to the edge of the deck.<\/p>\n It held a spear in its left hand and stood close to nine feet tall, but I found it hard to focus on anything past the curving horn in the middle of its forehead.<\/p>\n —-<\/p>\n Steven stared through the bars of his cage, looking at stars exactly the same as the ones he knew.<\/p>\n Which made it worse.<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t feel the pain. He knew it was there, but it wasn\u2019t active<\/em> unless he tried to scrape away the mud. They definitely didn\u2019t want him to touch the mud. He watched the stars and tried not to think about the sunburn feeling that itched along his skin.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s alright…\u201d<\/p>\n He jumped away from the sound behind him and turned. The space behind his cage was shadowed darkness but he could make out some kind of movement. He thought for a minute that someone had found him until he realized that the movement was constrained by a cage like his own.<\/p>\n \u201cWho\u2019s there?\u201d He tried to keep his voice pitched low.<\/p>\n \u201cT- ahh…\u201d There was a long pause. \u201cTed… Schafer? Do you know me?\u201d<\/p>\n He did, although not well. Schafer and his wife were supposed to have auctioned their farm and declared bankruptcy a month ago. Folks said they\u2019d moved.<\/p>\n \u201cI know you. What–\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s alright.\u201d The voice in the shadows continued while a hunched form Steven couldn’t make out shifted uneasily within. \u201cIt\u2019s alright if you want to… make noise. I watched them put the needles on you, and the mud. I know — know what it feels like for you right now.\u201d The shape shuffled back into the shadows. The voice already sounded tired. \u201cI just wanted to tell you that it\u2019s alright.\u201d<\/p>\n Steven watched the shadows for a moment in silence, then turned his back on the voice and sat back down.<\/p>\n \u201cHell if it is.\u201d He murmured to the stars. \u201cHell if it is.\u201d<\/p>\n —-<\/p>\n \u201cSo…\u201d I said, sitting on the back of a tractor in the machine shed and watching my \u2018guests\u2019, \u201cyou’re a dwarf from the nordic wastelands who\u2019s been fighting your ancestral enemy–\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDirt-eaters,\u201d Brock growled helpfully.<\/p>\n \u201cWhatever.\u201d I turned to his monstrous companion. \u201cAnd you…\u201d I\u2019d somehow managed to miss that it was wearing full fifteen-century samurai armor, but in my defense it was nine feet tall and did have a damned horn sticking out of it\u2019s forehead. \u201cYou\u2019re some kind of ogre wizard –\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMagi\u201d it corrected.<\/p>\n \u201c– Magi who\u2019s been working with him for how<\/em> long?\u201d<\/p>\n The creature made a dismissive gesture and stepped toward me. \u201cThe duration of my partnership with Brock is not relevant, Sean. \u00a0What is relevant is our partnership with you, one which can save your father. Also, please call me Bhuto.\u201d<\/p>\n I stared at the proffered hand — one that could easily palm my skull — and shook my head blankly. It was withdrawn.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat kind of partnership?\u201d<\/p>\n Bhuto straightened and adjusted his armor. \u201cThe only one which can save you father from these –\u201d he used a word that slid away from my mind like oil. \u201cWe should travel as I explain.” He appraised me. “Do you have a weapon?\u201d<\/p>\n For the first time in two days, I felt like smiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ~ The Talk ~ \u201c …it wasn’t your imagination. The plains are thick with goblins, especially along those dark gullys and river bottoms where no man has traveled in a thousand years. The natives learned to avoid the areas and the white settlers soon after. There are goblins and ogres all along there. No trolls … <\/p>\n