Welby opened his eyes and saw only gravel, he heard only muffled sounds and ringing. As if in a dream he stood up and brushed himself off, he was covered in dirt and loose debris. He even had to shake it from his hair. His head panned the area around him all hie saw was commotion he didn’t understand. Everything was happening in slow motion. What was everyone doing? He was sure they were all running but that didn’t make any sense. Muffled sounds penetrated his ears. Were those screams and explosions? It all sounded like someone screaming into a pillow. Welby wriggled finger around in one of his ears and moved his jaw in an attempt to pop his ears. It worked. Now the panic set in.

Popping his ears allowed a torrent of sound to invade his mind. Screams and cries filled the air, in the distance another explosion. Welby’s heart was surely going to burst from his chest any second. He desperately looked around trying to find anything that made sense. In his out of body like state he didn’t notice the armed man directly in front of the overturned table. It was Rezon and he had the sword from  above his hearth. Welby hadn’t noticed that before either. It must have been sheathed beneath Rezon’s long coat. Had he been standing guard over Welby this whole time? Rezon turned to check on his friend he believed to still be unconscious. When he saw Welby was up and appeared to be aware he wasted no time.

“Welby! Catch!” The final of gold liquid flew through the air with urgency.

Welby’s hands were surprisingly deft in this moment and he snatched the bottle with no hesitation. He also had plenty of practice saving glasses from drunk patrons.

“What do you want me to do with this?”

“Come with me and drink it when I tell you to. But only when I tell you or you might kill us all.” Rezon waved Welby to his side.

This was all beyond what Welby was ever comfortable with but he found himself standing at Rezon’s side facing a crowd of people that appeared more like a colony or rabbits all fleeing for a pack of hungry wolves.

“First things first is we’re finding your family.” Welby stared up at Rezon as he spoke. Rezon’s gaze never left the horrific scene unfolding in front of them.

“After we find them you and I will help deal with the threat.” Welby was sure he must have misheard this.”We help anyone we can on the way.”

“I’m not sure I’m your best option,” Welby’s voice faltered.

“There aren’t enough town guards and you have talent. I’m also not giving you an option. Just stay close, you’ll be alright.  Oh and here. You should probably be armed,” Rezon handed Welby a dagger. Welby prayed he wouldn’t have to use it.

They took a moderately quick yet cautions pace. They still had no idea what the cause of this was. They saw two more explosions in the distance. They city guard must have taken some of the fight to the perpetrators.

“Do you have any idea who might be doing this? Welby did his best to mask the fear in his voice, he failed.

“I have an idea. I’ve seen devices like these before. In the forests of Zul Dukh. Goblins,” Rezon’s voice was granite.

Welby had always heard rumors of goblins that lived in nearby mountain caves but always assumed those were just tales told to children to keep them inline. He never once expected to see any in person. Now he was going out of his way to potentially find them. And kill them. He tried to make himself brave. He thought of the heroic and intimidating things he would and say should the come across the beasts. Prays of never crossing their path also passed through his mind.

They searched the crowd for Welby’s parents. Like him they were short so it was possible to overlook them. In cases like this it doesn’t help to a halfling, you were likely to be trampled. They helped a few other amid the search, mostly those that had fallen in the chaos and could not regain their footing.

As they meticulously searched the area Welby called for his parents. With every unanswered call Welby’s heart beat faster and his focus on everything around him faded. Rezon, being acutely aware of his surroundings started to notice this.

“Stay calm Welby, we’ll find them.” He too began to yell their names in solidarity.

“How can you be sure, and if we do what state will they be in?” Welby made a vain attempt to remain cautiously optimistic.

Suddenly Welby saw a smallish figure lying on the ground clutching their leg. It was a woman and she was crying out in pain. Paying no attention for what was happening around him Welby rushed to her side. Upon getting closer he realized it wasn’t his mother, but a young girl. She couldn’t have been older than nine or ten. He leg had been torn open. Welby could see small metal fragments embedded in the gaping wound. Welby frantically tried to find Rezon.

“Rezon come here now!” he shouted when his eyes finally caught him.Rezon was already digging through his pockets when he reached them.

“Welby, brush and pick out as much debris as you can.”

Welby’s stomach turned at the thought of that. He knew it must be done though, so he took a deep breath and began cleaning her leg the best he could while Rezon tried to calm her.

“Listen to me, I’m going to give you something to drink that will take care of your leg. Just relax.”

“Alright Rezon i think that’s as good as I can get it.”

“Ok her it is, you have to drink all of it.  Please trust me.” Rezon handed the girl one of the vials from his home. It’s blue hue glowed like a star in his hand. 

The girl paused her crying just long enough to drink the entire bottle. Then what Welby saw next knocked him onto his backside. This girl easily had the worst injury he had ever seen and then he was watching it heal itself in a matter of seconds. The little girl, equally astonished, gingerly stood up, afraid her leg would burst open at any moment. When it seemed that her leg was stable she began to jump up and down on it. Perhaps she needed to test it out. She then wrapped her arms around Rezon’s neck.

“Thank you so much, both of you!”

“It was no trouble, do you know where your family is?” Rezon spoke softly, which was a surprising contrast to his exterior.

She shook her head and with that Rezon scooped her into his arms.

“Then I will be your bodyguard and make sure you get home safely.” The little girl smiled widely at this. Welby did not.

“Wait! What? You’re leaving!?” This was exactly something Welby didn’t want to happen.

“Don’t worry I will return soon. Keep looking for your parents. I will find you. Let’s go young lady.” The two of them disappeared into the stampeding crowd.

Not knowing how to react to Welby drew his dagger and slowly turned himself around. He had to find any sort of direction. Then the panic set in.

Why was he doing this? The drum that was his heart beat excruciatingly loudly in his ears. He wasn’t a hero, what could he do? The sights around him began to blur. Rezon was wrong he had not talent. His lungs struggled to retain enough air. Where were his parents? Weakness struck his hand and the dagger fell to the ground. He couldn’t do this. His eyes rolled and his head dropped. His body soon followed.

**********

Rezon jogged along briskly with the young girl in his arms. She had informed him that her name was Angelica. He had been informed of many things by Angelica that he could not keep track of. He was preoccupied any way on the status of the young man he had left behind.

The sounds of chaos faded slightly as he distanced himself from the town square. Rezon believed in Welby but was concerned that the current world around him would be too much for the halfling. For now though he had to focus on the precious cargo he was escorting.

“So how old are you sweet child?”

“I’m nine. How old are you?”

“Old enough. So what were you doing when all this commotion started?”

“I was near the band, dancing. My parents were getting food.”

“Well we will get you back to them so you may dance again.” Rezon was disgusted that this girl was just left by herself. Rezon would have to restrain himself if he met her guardians.

After a few blocks on a few different streets the two of them arrived are Angelica’s home. It was a small simple house from the outside. they passed through a small wooden gate that cordoned off a flagstone path leading to the front door that flung open without any warning. A scrawny looking silhouette stood in the doorway. For a moment there was silence and a feeble voice came from the doorway.

“Angelica? Angelica!” the silhouette of a man rushed at Rezon and he dropped the now squirming little girl on to her feet.

Angelica bounded for her approaching father as another silhouetted individual appeared in the doorway. Angelica was overwhelmingly ecstatic to see her family again. She was met by her father and mother, both now weeping on their daughter’s shoulders.

Unexpectedly Rezon was suddenly assaulted by her father. The man kept at Rezon with a full embrace.

“Oh thank you so much, how could I ever repay you?!”

Rezon pushed the man off and stared at him for an uncomfortably long moment.

“No thanks or repayment necessary sir, just doing what was right. I would never leave an injured child behind.” A big knowing and slightly threatening grin came across Rezon’s face. He then leaned in close and embraced the man.

“That’s your daughter you abandoned in the middle of a battlefield. I should kill you and raise her as mine. Fortunately for you I’m too busy at the moment.”

Rezon’s low methodical breathing into the man’s ear along with the now looming threat on his life made Angelica’s father begin to quiver slightly.

“Now laugh and thank me again.”

Suddenly the most awkward and unnatural laugh anyone had ever heard was loosed from the man’s mouth. He also stumbled through an equally awkward thank you.

Rezon released the little man from his friendly grapple and started to turn away from Angelica and her family when without warning something latched itself onto his leg. Rezon looked down gently smiling at the young face beaming up at him.

“Mr. Rezon, will you marry me? You are my hero after all.”

He gave her a little chuckle and knelt down to meet her eye to eye.

“Not today young lady. Besides, I am far too old for you. But I have no doubt you’ll make a deserving young man a fantastic bride one day.”

She frowned at this.

“Now I must be going. Take good care of your parents.” With that Rezon stood up and headed back in the direction of the square.

Rezon’s feet swiftly carried back toward the town square, his mind was fixed on Welby. He knew the young halfling was waiting and relying on him. An unbearably sharp pain unexpectedly shot through Rezon’s right thigh and he fell to a knee. His fingers gingerly caressed the shaft of the crossbow bolt now deeply embedded into the side of his leg.

Then the unmistakable guttural snorts and growls that comprised the goblin language caught his ear. Along with the padded hurried steps of goblin feet coming up behind him. With no concern for his own body Rezon tore the bolt from his leg, turned to his charging aggressor and firmly planted the bolt into the creature’s temple. The red of the goblin’s eyes faded as it went limp and slumped to the ground.

Rezon looked up as another bolt whizzed past his head. It cut through the air with a distinctive “thwip”. With almost no effort Rezon was up and upon the beast firing at him in a flash. His sword came in and slid through it’s sunken chest and the crossbow fell from the now lifeless grasp. He attempted to remove the blade from it’s host but it had apparently lodged itself deep. Rezon was forced to use the additional force from the bottom of his boot to dislodge the corpse from his blade.

Another pain struck Rezon now, this time a searing burning pain radiated from his other leg. Instead of a bolt when he looked down this time the beady red eyes of another goblin stared back up at him. It’s jaws were wrapped around his leg. A loathsome grin wrapped around its face as it gazed up at Rezon.

The goblin suddenly experience a white flash of immense pain and the pommel of Rezon’s sword cracked into its skull. The creature let out a tremendous scream, letting loose Rezon’s leg, which then pinned it to the ground which allowed his sword to plunge into the goblin’s chest.

There was a final goblin that Rezon was unaware of, at least until it let out a ferocious scream. Rezon turned to the source of the disturbance just in time witness another grotesque creature leaping in the air toward him. Sadly for the goblin leaping through the air doesn’t provide much a defense. It saw the sword rising to meet it felt the initial penetration of the blade enter its gut. An upward swing nearly split the goblin in half. This also sent the sticky unspeakable matter that made up a goblin’s insides burst through and splatter Rezon. He wretched slightly.

After a quick survey, realizing he was alone once again, Rezon renewed his pace back toward Welby. He wished he had a change of clothes.

************

“Welby? Welby!?”

The muffled sounds of a familiar voice made it to Welby’s ears. A hand gave light slaps to his face. Welby’s eyes blinked open for a moment and shut again. Another stronger slap came to him. His eyes burst open but his vision was still blurry. The figure called to him again and Welby forced his eyes to focus. A face he recognized stared down at him. Streaks from tears were the only clean places on his face.

“Oh my boy!”

Joran consumed his son.

“Dad?” Out of breath and barely coherent Welby squeezed his father’s hand.

“Oh Welby I thought you lost!” Joran released his son briefly so he could look into his eyes, he never thought he’d see them open again.Welby looked back into his  father’s gaze and smiled.

“Hi dad. When did you get here?”

“Oh I’m so sorry boy. Your mother and I got back to the table as fast as we could after the first explosion. When we arrived all we saw was a flipped over table and broken glass everywhere and you were gone. We feared the worst.” Joran pulled his son tight again and let out a sob.

“Where’s mom?” Welby asked, still very much dazed.

“She ran back home in the hopes that maybe you had escaped the danger. I stayed here in case you hadn’t.”

Joran helped right his son. Welby wobbled a little but was able to steady himself. With his father there things felt normal. His breathing relaxed, his heart regained its rhythm and his daze faded. Joran took Welby by the hand and started toward their home.

“Let’s get home before this gets any worse. Your mother will probably faint too when she sees you”

Welby’s feet became cemented to the ground and he released himself from his father’s grasp. He knew what he had to do and it destroyed him. Nothing would make him happier than to be at home, safe with his family. But what of Rezon? Welby would be letting him down, potentially badly enough to get Rezon injured or worse. The constitution in Rezon’s voice had already let him know that he would not be turning back. Because of that Welby knew that neither could he.

“I’m  sorry dad, but I can’t go with you.” Welby could not look his father in the eye, the pain was too great.

“What do you mean? Of course you can.”

“No, I have to stay here. People need me.”

“Your mother and I need you. Who else would?” Joran was shocked and anger grew in his voice.

“Rezon and I are trying to help the people still here.” Defiance grew in Welby.

“REZON!? You barely know him and you would choose him over your family?”: Joran seethed with anger now.

“He watched over me when I was hurt and was helping me find you and mom.He still needs my help.”

“Well where is he now? I found you collapsing, alone.”

“He’s returning a little girl to her home. She was badly  injured. We helped her.”

“I don’t care, you’re coming with me.” Joran would put up with no more and made an attempt at his son’s hand.

Welby dodged his father’s grasp and darted back to where he nearly had fallen. He quickly snapped up the dagger and now it pointed at his father. Joran stopped, appalled at his son’s actions.

“I’m sorry dad. My work isn’t done.”

“First you turn your back on me and now a blade?” the hurt mixed with fury in his voice made Welby’s blood run cold. He’d never experienced his father like this before.

“I don’t want to do this but your leaving me no choice. Now go back to mom. Please let her know I’m ok. I’m sure she’s worried,” Tears began to well in his eyes.

“I see,” with no further words Joran turned and walked away.

Welby wiped his tears and continued on in the direction Rezon went off with the girl. His mind both fumed and despaired. Why couldn’t his father understand? Welby had to push these thoughts from his mind for now though. There was too much going on and more people needed help. Welby was as confident in his decision that he could be.

After a few minutes Welby had helped a couple more people and was still struggling to clear his thoughts. He had noticed that the frequency of the explosions he was hearing had lessened. He hoped this mean the town guards were making headway against the threat.

“Remember when I said I thought were dealing with goblins?”

Rezon’s voice startled the distracted halfling. Welby turned to face the voice and his eyes bulged from his head. Rezon’s clothes were slick with a dark red, almost black liquid.

“Well I was right,” Rezon displayed his blood stained self to Welby.

Considering the idea of goblins attacking Wellspring sent a shiver through his skeleton. From what he had heard about goblins he understood that they were vicious, disgusting creatures ready to slice a throat at a moment’s notice. Another shiver.

“Luckily the task was completed and the young lady was returned home safely. Did you manage to find your parents?”

“Yeah, I found dad. It didn’t go well.”

“Well I’m sure he’ll come around. But we can worry about that later. Now the real ordeal begins.”

Welby swallowed hard and his grip tightened around the small blade in his hand. A fist had never so much as grazed his face before and now he was preparing to run head first into battle. The idea of conflict made Welby supremely nervous and uncomfortable. In his mind he would always be brave, but what happens in his mind and things come to in the heat of the moment always seem to be different. He was all too familiar with this. There was, of course, no going back now.

“Time to go boy.” Rezon gave Welby a slight smack on the shoulder and jogged toward nearby buildings.

Welby attempted to shake off some of his apprehension and took off behind Rezon. The sounds of fighting would soon be a constant ringing in his ears. The mere ponderance of what he was about to witness shook his very core.

They took a quick but cautious pace. As they went Rezon told the Welby of the goblin ambush he fought through after returning Angelica to her home. This just furthered Welby’s unease at what they were running into. Welby had always heard rumors that goblins lived in the deep woods and mountain caves near Wellspring but had always thought them to just be tales told to children to keep them indoors at night. Never once did he expect to actually see any, let alone go out of his way to slay some. He did his best to feel brave but every step he took toward their final destination his legs trembled a little more. Heroic actions and intimidating shouts ran through his mind, all of which Welby knew he would never actually do in the heat of the moment. Maybe the town guard would have dealt with the invaders by the time him and Rezon got there. His luck was not that good.

As they continued down the blacked out alleys and streets toward the sound of the town guard engaged with the invading horde Welby suddenly found himself face down among the gravel and debris from bomb ravaged buildings. He stood up but burning pain radiated from his nose and forehead, both of which met the cobblestone quite forcefully. He pushed himself off the ground only to be pulled back down, something had caught on his foot. Welby reached down to untangle himself only to fall back another time,this time in shock and disgust.

A grotesque clawed hand was slightly closed around his ankle. Attached was one of the terrible creatures that attacked Wellspring. It was dying and gasped for air while it grasped Welby’s foot, a spear had impaled and secured the goblin to the ground. Panic rushed Welby as he kicked and yelled to unlock himself from the goblin’s grasp. This was not a difficult task seeing how the creature barely clung to life. As he stared in equal parts astonishment and horror at the beast using the little energy it had left to reach for Welby he was suddenly snapped back to reality when a the booted foot of Rezon crashed down upon the it’s skull. The arm fell limp.

“Let’s go, there are plenty more of them up ahead.”

The image lingered in Welby’s mind as they continued on to a scene that would be sure to replace it. Fear and doubt rolled back into his mind and Welby started to lose the little assurance that everything would work out by the end of the night.

As usual Welby became to fixated on what had happened to notice what was happening. He continued to follow Rezon out of muscle memory more than any sort of cognitive thought. He nearly crashed into the back of him not noticing that he had stopped. Rezon stood at the edge of the defense of Wellspring a realization that dawned on Welby very quickly. A battle that was unfolding stretched out in front of them. He stared on as what had to be less than a hundred men fought off an undoubtedly larger number of goblins. The town guard were at least better trained and better armed so the exchange was not one sided.  

Rezon crouched down to Welby’s eye level and pointed across the skirmish to a catapult directed toward center of town.

“That’s our target”.

They watched as the catapult wheeled back then let loose one of the bombs that terrorized this town. The guardsmen were doing their best to push toward the war machine but were having little luck with the overwhelming number of goblins that surrounded it.

“Let’s go, we must disable that thing.” With that Rezon took off into the dark behind the enemy. They were far too preoccupied to have noticed either of them. Welby chased after him, hoping Rezon had at least the facsimile of good plan.

They halted again out of site of either side of the fight.

“So how do we stop that thing?”

“You’re going to use that dragon’s breath vial I gave you and torch that piece of kindling.” They began creeping around closer to the fight and closer to the catapult. “The fire should be more than enough to set it a blaze and hopefully it will ignite the explosives as well.”

Welby liked the idea of not running head first into battle but using an elixir to breath fire and burn down a war machine was a little much to wrap his head around. He waited a moment and weathered the fighting happening around them.  Sights that were before foreign to Welby now became all too domestic to him.

Men lay dead or dying out in front of him. Piles of slain goblins bled into the earth. There were craters with bodies thrown around their edges. The goblins must have used bombs to defend against charging town guard. The clang of metal on metal and men and goblin screaming alike hung in his ears. What shook him the most were the suddenly silenced screams. Those quickly hushed screams only meant one thing.

The ever familiar dizzy feeling started to creep back into Welby’s head. Though that feeling vanished with the strong grip of his friend’s hand around his shoulder. Welby turned to face Rezon.

“We’ll do this together. Don’t worry, you won’t be alone.” Rezon’s words, tone and demeanor did much to calm Welby’s mind.

“Now come quietly, we’re going to move around the edge of this and get behind that contraption. Then you’ll get just close enough to light them all a blaze.”

Welby let out a heavy breath and prepared himself. “Ok let’s go.”

“That’s the spirit! Now follow me. Silently.”

Silence wasn’t difficult for Welby. Being so small he didn’t make much noise underfoot and he was far too terrified to speak a word.

They successfully drew no attention, which wasn’t surprising considering the blades and bombs everywhere. Now Welby and Rezon sat just out of view of the watchful goblins carefully loading another bomb into the catapult.

“Airtight, wait until they launch this one and then we’ll move closer. We’ll move in closer. We have to be within 15 feet for the extract to work.”

A team of goblins was prepping the catapult. The longer Welby watched them the more disgusted and furious about them daring to enter his town he grew.These things were making a concentrated effort to destroy his home and the people he called his neighbors and friends. He would make them pay for the suffering caused. Fighting the urge to bull rush them and start stabbing wildly into their numbers Welby set his mind to the task at hand.

Another goblin carrying another bomb dropped it into the bucket of the catapult. A moment later it was flying through the air to its destination of destruction.

“Now!” Rezon whispered harshly to Welby.

Moving swiftly, but quietly, got up to a dozen feet away from the little monsters with the extract uncorked. With a quick motion Welby imbibed the gold liquid. It was oily and coated his mouth and throat in their entirety. It oozed down his throat and his chest began to sear with a terrible pain he had never felt before. Water seeped out of his eyes and through his squinting anguish he noticed a goblin had turned and now was staring at him with madness in every sense of the word.

Without warning Welby’s mouth was forced open but instead of the primal yell he desperately wanted to release a monstrous gout of flame burst past his lips. The heat was unbearable. The flame singed his face and the air around him was scorched. He thought he may never take a breath of fresh air again.

The burning sensation slowly dissipated. When it was totally gone Welby slammed his mouth shut and his eyes went wide. Everything in front of him burned, including the explosives. The ignited fuses caught Welby’s attention and he bolted into the surrounding woods. Goblins too ran screaming in utter terror and chaos. They had realized what had happened. The screams were abruptly replaced by a series of deafening explosions.

Welby poked his head back up after have dove to the ground. It appeared Rezon had the same idea because he was only a few feet away. He also noticed the still smoking corpses of some goblins that did not escape the blast and had been thrown through the air. Then a stampede of the terrified creators all ran past where Welby and Rezon lay.A

After about a minute the horde appeared gone and the two of them stood up. They turned to see the flaming splinters of what was left of the catapult. It blazed brightly, and for Welby, proudly. It was a signal flare of their victory. They approached the wreckage and among the destroyed machine bits of any creature to too close to the blast. They had made a crater easily 30 feet across.

A handful of goblins were too caught up in battle and far enough from the blast to be spared. But the explosion did prove enough a distraction to give the guards the openings they needed to cut down the stragglers.

In the end around sixty goblins were accounted for a killed but no one could really tell how many in total there had been. For the town’s part there were only a handful of guards and civilian militia slain in the battle. The real casualties came from the town square where about 20 people were killed.

The last thing Welby remembered from the evening of blood and pain was Rezon telling him to go home. So that’s where he went.