Wednesday 3 May 2017

Day 3 - Fatal Mistake

Day 3 - Fatal Mistake

Garry sat at his post.  Bored. He and his brothers had been guarding the back entrance to the mountain for days, it was the most boring dull area he had ever been.  Nothing ever happened, no-one ever left the mountain through this tunnel, and not once in the two years he had been in the mountain had he ever heard of or seen anything come through this entrance.
   
He sat with no lantern or torch, he had no need for them as he was a goblin who was used to living in dark places and over generations and developed the ability to see in the dark.  leaning back against the guard's nook that had been carved out by him and others over the last couple of years he wondered what he would be doing if he was not here.

As he thought and pondered this his head started to nod, he was tired, not physically tired, he had not been physically tired in ages, he was simply tired out of boredom.  Yeah sure they got paid to do what they were doing, but it was a pittance, and also they never really got to spend it.  The most entertainment it ever bought him was playing dice with his brothers back in the living space, something his brothers were no doubt doing now.

His head nodded again, bouncing off his chest and startling him awake. Only this time he could discern a faint yellowish glow coming from the entrance hall, surely not. What should he do, would it be one person, should he sound the alarm now so his brothers could run out. Would that give who or whatever was behind the torch more time to prepare for the battle?  Should he run?

Confused on what to do, he chose the next logical thing, he would pretend to be asleep, and maybe whoever it was would see him and try to simply sneak by, giving him a chance to see how many of them there were, which direction they go and then he could get his brothers to follow.

He leant back in the nook and pretended to be asleep, watching the approaching light through the slit of his eyes as it got closer and closer and brighter and brighter.  Finally it was more than a glow, he could actually see the flame now, the torch and the dwarf holding it, he still couldn’t see beyond that though, he still could not tell how many might be behind the dwarf.

He waited, he started faking a snore to try and entice them to be more bold, to try and sneak past that way he would be able to see how many there were.  Suddenly they stopped. He new they’d seen him, the glow from the torch was bright enough now it was reflecting of his leather armour and his rusty sword leaning next to him.

They paused for what seemed to be an eternity, he knew now there was more than one, he could here speaking, but still could not quite tell if there were two or more approaching, more than one was enough to convince him to stick with his current plan, only now he could not move or run as they would chase him down, he had to hope they would try to sneak by.

He waited. They started moving again, slower this time, cautiously, trying to be as quiet as they could. He observed they were quite good at it. Finally they were at the end of the hall, at his guard nook, they had to choose left or right. It appears they’d already made the choice before they approached as they where barely there a moment and the lead dwarf gestured to the left.

First Garry saw a tall gangly, yet young elf, then secondly another Dwarf, a female this time though. As the young Elf and dwarven maiden passed and moved out of sight, Garry waited and waited. What was the Dwarf doing?  Finally, it got too much for him, and he shifted his head ever so slightly hoping to see what was going on.

Then he felt it, the piercing sting of a cold blade passing through the gaps in his leather armor, into his chest, piercing his heart. He’d gotten it wrong, he should have gone and gotten his brothers when he could, he’d made a mistake, a fatal mistake. Then his eyes shut never to open again.

No comments:

Post a Comment