章 11: Chapter 10 Ashes

The goblins seeing Tect lose consciousness rush forward to help him. One of the goblins managed to bring a pack with a few cloth strips, they gently remove the crossbow bolts and bandage the wounds. One of the female goblins who used to work in a medicinal herb garden searches the nearby woods but only finds basic herbs for pain relief and some honey. When she returns to the clearing she uses two stones to grind the herbs and mixes in the honey, which is then applied to Tect's wounds. The goblins are confused, they can't remember anything after charging the gate with Tect… Normal Tect, not the muscle bound giant laying on a flat rock in front of them. Luckily as they entered the clearing they all regained their faculties and were able to set up a small camp, otherwise they would not have been able to treat Tect or keep him warm when he arrived. Now they were stuck waiting for Tect to wake up. Thankfully they didn't have to wait too long, just before noon Tect regained consciousness. The female goblin who had been watching over him ran over immediately, "Tect be careful, you'll start bleeding again if your not." Tect's vision was slightly blurry and it took him a moment to focus. "Moidra, what happened why did I pass out?" "It was loss of blood sir, you had half a dozen crossbow bolts in your back. You're very lucky they barely penetrated your flesh, if your skin and muscle weren't so damn thick any one of them would have killed you." Tect is confused, how was it possible to survive six crossbow bolts when a normal shot could sometimes pass clean through a goblin and kill a second? Then Tect reached back to feel his back and as he did he saw his arm, only it wasn't his arm. Startled he stood, and rose far too high, he got very dizzy, and nearly fell. "What was happening why was did everything feel so weird." Tect thought. "Moidra, what's going on? Why does my body feel so weird?" "I don't know sir, we can't remember anything between charging the gate last night and waking up here this morning, we were all hoping you had answers." This is Tect's first time noticing the look on the other goblins faces. They are scared, some are crying, some are frozen and staring into space. None of them remember the fight, some are covered in blood and don't know why, and it haunts them. Tect begins to explain what happened at the gate but doesn't know how he changed or why the others don't remember anything, to him it seems like the trauma must be causing amnesia. "Sir, What are we supposed to do now? We have almost no supplies, between the 25 of us we only have enough food for two days, and thats after gathering things from the forest around us." Tect was lost in thought for a moment, then he remembered he had a bag too. "Where is my bag? I had two in my tent and one was full of food, but I don't know which one I grabbed last night." Moidra walks forward holding a bag full of holes, "Here is your bag, unfortunately it didn't escape unscathed either." Tect takes the bag and frowns, as he opens it the smell of blood is strong, most of the items are covered in his blood, and unfortunately he grabbed the bag of tools he had prepared. A few hammers and chisels, a few medical supplies, and a few momentos from his life. As he pulled out tools to clean he noticed a glow from an old rolled up piece of hide. As he removed it from the bag two things caught his attention. First, the hide had no blood on it. Second the glow was coming from new writing on the backside of the hide. Tect unrolled it to read, the other goblins were very confused, they couldn't see a glow or any writing and it looked like Tect was staring at an empty page. Tect stared at the page for nearly ten minutes, he read it a few times but still he found it hard to believe what the glowing silver words were saying. "Hello friend, If you can read these words you have Awakened. As an Awakened Goblin you are hereby invited to join the King Candidate Training held in Mountain Heart. The scroll you hold has a magic compass, simply follow it to arrive at the nearest City portal or if you are near the Darh Mountain Range you may come directly. We await your arrival and wish you the best of luck in your training. Signed The Goblin Council of Elders in the year 125 Post-Transmigration."