The Goblin Nation

Once they were all together, Sun and his brothers walked on the wooden stage overlooking the ground. Behind them was the burnt remains of the former Chief"s building. The supporting pillars lean on each other, forming a skeleton of a pyramid. On top of the pyramid was a bucket full of dry sticks and leaves lit on fire, illuminating the backstage and casting Sun"s shadow over the crowd.

Sun stood tall in front of his tribe to hide his anxiety from them. He waved his hand, and the crowd became quiet.

Sun practiced this speech in his head over and over again, but he was still nervous when being faced by a square full of goblins, "My fellow tribesmen. I have urgent news. Many of you should already know, but to clarify any rumors you heard and to answer the questions you have, yes. The answer is yes, we found a frozen body belonging to a slave that escaped during the troll attack."

The goblins murmured while Sun continued his speech, "We don"t know what exactly happened, but we have and idea on who it might be or what it could be."

The goblins whispered to one another, "What could be."

"More boy slaves, maybe!" A female goblin yelped in excitement.

"Maybe dragon?" One male goblin asked.

"Dragon no real." Another answered.

"No! You wrong, dragon real."

The disagreeing goblins shoved one another while yelling. The audience around them backed away and watched the spectacle unfolding before them. Sun had to stop his speech and ordered his followers to break the fight.

A goblin up front yelled at Sun, "No dragon, no problem!"

Sun turned to Flute and whispered, "Are there actual dragons?" Flute shrugged.

Then Sun faced the crowd and said, "I wish I that could be the case. But we do have a problem. Smoke and I discussed the possible killer while burying the body, and we came to a conclusion. We believe that the one that killed the slave was a troll."

The crowd immediately grew restless with fear after hearing the word troll. Most of them were traumatized by the attack and could not handle the idea of another troll destroying their homes and killing their family and friends. "Everyone, please settle down!" Sun tried to calm them.

"Calm. Me no calm. Troll kill tribe again. Me can no calm!" A goblin yelled.

"I understand everyone"s afraid of the troll, but if we want to survive, then we must act now. The troll has yet to attack us, which could mean two things; it couldn"t find our tribe or the snowstorms we went through this month prevented it from attacking us. The snow brought us time to rebuild ourselves, but now snow seized to fall. We must ready our selves if we want to win against the troll."

The goblins stopped panicking when they heard the last sentence. They were surprised. "How Chief say that?" An old goblin by the name of Root asked. "Troll big. Chief won barely."

The loyalist got defensive when they heard Root. They were afraid of the troll, but they witnessed Sun kill it with his own two hands and stood victoriously on top of the body. They surrounded the old goblin, ready to beat him for transgression.

Sun and Smoke jumped off the stage to stop them from hara.s.sing the old goblin. Meanwhile, the goblins that did not take a liking to the new Chief started insults at the loyalist.

Stick and Rock stepped in with their followers to stop the crown from getting out of hand. The former a wall separating the two sides. The goblins shoved the followers, but because of their training, none of them surrendered an inch. The followers were using small clubs to beat anyone out of line.

The crowd could not penetrate the line. The loyalist laughed at the Chief"s antagonize for failing to break the defensive line. Their taunts made them bolder, but the followers" constant beating eventually lowered their resolve. The audience finally settled down, with only a few significant scuffles occurring.

Once a semblance of order was established, Sun returned to the stage. He stomped his feet in order to catch the full goblins" attention, "Everyone, please! We must work together. We can only win against the trolls if we stand together. I did not beat the troll because people ran away in fear. I beat the troll because of my brother"s help; because of Olhos" support; because of the goblins guarding the wall. I did not win. We won! And we can win again if we stand united!"

The goblins gave their full attention to Sun when they heard they could win. "We must not divide ourselves, or we will lose! Together we built a wall, and together we rebuilt our homes! Are we going to let another troll to stroll in our tribe and destroy everything? I say no, I say we fight! So, who will stand with me and fight!"

The loyalist cheered their answer to the Chief. They roared yes to the sky while jumping up and down with excitement. The ones that were opposed to the new Chief"s rule stood silently in the back of the crowd.

Dawn was standing next to Mabel on the porch of the large white boarding house. They watched the crowd get riled up by the Chief"s speech. Across to her were Flute and a tall hooded figure. Underneath the hood was none other than Sun"s mother. She left the barn with Flute to see the commotion. The idea of another troll attack made Mari anxious. She did not witness the troll destroy the town, but looking at the aftermath was enough to instill fear to anyone.

Sun healed miraculously when he turned into a red skin. Mari doubts another miracle could happen again. There are no records of any goblins stronger than a redskin, so Mari will have to heal Sun if he were to get injured. She pulled out the book that she found that taught her the spell of healing. She flipped through the pages pa.s.sing by the different theories involving magic and its ability to heal physical wounds. She flipped through the various herbs and healing compounds, methods for treating open wounds, and then finally, the different anatomies of the races. The last page featured the unknown race that once inhabited the forest.

She looked up and stared at the crowd of goblins dancing in excitement. She wondered how these creatures could defeat an advanced race when they don"t have the confidence to fight one troll. A troll is very formidable but an entire country could exterminate a population of trolls if they wanted to. Then she looked at Sun guiding the goblins. She felt her question was answered by Sun, for now.