[Sticks]

Episode I - Freedom’s just another word

Chidal woke up suddenly, from his reoccurring nightmare and sat up in bed.

He swung his legs out of the bed and tried his best not to waken his wife, who still seemed to be sleeping. He then sat there staring out into the night, through the dormitory windows at the two moons that were visible in the night sky.

A small tear glistened in the light of the moons and Chidal wiped it away with the sleeve of his nightgown.

Oh how he wished that nightmare would go away – especially as he knew how things had panned out in real life

He felt the soft arm of Fadol on his back

“Husband dear?” she asked, “Did you have that dream again” she enquired.

Chidal could only nod, he did not dare speak less he show too much emotion that was unseemly for a male goblin of his advanced years.

Fadol got up and sat beside him, and put her arm around her husband, “maybe we can see an elven healer” she suggested, “He might be able to stop the dreams”

“I keep hearing her scream” Chidal whispered, “I keep hearing her cry and my heart just breaks Fadol”
“I know husband” Fadol replied.
Chidal continued, “I know our emperor saved her, had her healed. I also know that he and his queen when they returned to the Realm of Mortals took her to be their very own and she is happy with them and a has baby brother”
“But her screams from when she was with us still haunt you?” Fadol asked
Chidal nodded, “I just felt so helpless” he whispered
“We did what we could husband dearest” Fadol consoled, “And as you say, she was saved and is now surrounded by love and free from pain”
“I know we did our best dearest wife” Chidal agreed, “I wish I could sleep a night with out the screams coming back”
“Now they have come husband dearest” Fadol replied, “Perhaps they have finished for the night, let us try and sleep some more”

The two goblins then climbed back in the bed and slept in each other’s arms, Chidal’s eyes glistening with tears of guilt.

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It was mid morning and a dry fine day

Chidal finished polishing the goblets for the umpteenth time, and they were as shiny as shiny could be, it seemed such a shame that nobody seemed to be interested in drinking from them anymore.

He packed them away in the cupboard sighed and sat down on a stool by the scullery table. He looked around to see what else he could polish or clean, but all the crockery, all the cutlery and all the cooking vessels had been polished and cleaned to with in an inch of their lives.

Maybe he could stock take the supplies

No wait, he did that when he came in, there was nothing, nada not a bean.

No point getting in food if it would just spoil waiting for non existent banquets. The only supplies were in their quarters, for their frugal needs. Even they had dwindled as the scullery slaves one by one were released and disappeared.

All that were left were Chidal and Fadol, the last of the scullery goblins. Technically they were not slaves, as a reward for helping a human child, they were declared free goblins, but as they had no other place, they elected to stay behind.

Fadol came in to the scullery carrying some napkins. “These are clean dear husband” she chided Chidal, “what is the point of washing them again”
“To pass the time until sundown” Chidal said forlornly

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Chidal jumped off of his stool and ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the front door. Maybe there was a meeting that needed their services at last

In the doorway to Chidal and Fadol’s shock and surprised was the chief of the clan that held stewardship of the citadel of the troll emperors, the Clan Chief of the Rachtal



Instantly Chidal bowed as low as he could, just like he had done when ever visited by the disgraced and dead clan chief of the Delethon.

“GET UP GOBLIN” The clan chief ordered

Chidal sheepishly stood up and looked up at the large troll, “My apologies my liege” he said nervously, “your predecessor insisted we showed our humiliation”

The clan chief wearily shook his head, “I am not like that traitor”

“My liege” interjected Fadol, “to what honour do we have your presence?” she asked, “Is there a feast you want us to prepare? We need to get word to send supplies and”

The clan chief interrupted the female goblin, “Mrs goblin” he boomed, “There is no feast” then the clan chief entered the scullery, motioned for the goblins to sit at the table and pulled up the large stool the former hobgoblin slave master used to use and sat down.

“What is it my liege” Chidal enquired, “Are you unhappy with our service?”

The clan chief shook his head, “I have no complaints against you, especially given your service to the princess before our emperor came”
“Then what brings you to the scullery?” Fadol asked

“Chidal and Fadol” the clan chief of the Rachtal started, “you have been faithful servants the longest, and have been away from your homeland for many cycles ever since you were pressed into service”

Chidal was nervous, he sensed a but there somewhere

The clan chief continued, “I feel that as we have learned to fend for ourselves as a clan, and our visitors who come from the Realm of Mortals bring their own supplies when they come, that it is time for you to be granted passage back to your homelands.”

Chidal and Fadol looked at each other in surprise; they had never even considered they could go back. Surely their village was destroyed in the civil war?

“My liege” Fadol responded, “We came here to save our son and his family from being bonded when his debts we high due to a failure of a harvest. What of that debt?”

“If anyone is still alive and hold’s your family to that debt, I am sure we have enough gold in the treasury to pay it off with interest” the clan chief countered then added, “But the war was so bloody, I do not believe that will be the case”

“But what if the emperor returns, or there is another convocation?” Chidal enquired.

“Chidal” The Rachtal troll replied, “the seat of government is no longer here. It is only two clans and the occasional humans who come here. There will never be a need for feasting here again” then he added, “If there ever is, the humans have taught us about a process called contracting out, and that is what we would do”

The Rachtal chief then looked at them. “Chidal and Fadol, when you get up do you not fill your days washing and cleaning, what is washed and clean”

Slowly both goblins nodded their heads

“Then it is settled” the clan chief continued, “At first light on the morrow, two beasts of burden pulling a cart will assist you return to your homeland, escorted by a troll warrior”

The two goblins were stunned, going home – at last a reality?

Slowly Fadol lifted her right hand, the Rachtal troll saw it and asked what she wanted to say
“Please my liege, before we depart”, Fadol nervously asked, “May my husband see an elven healer about evil dreams that plague his sleep”

Chidal just shook his head, “Dearest wife, I do not think our liege wishes to be troubled by our trivial problems”

“Nonsense” boomed the clan chief, “He will be sent round as soon as I leave here”

With that the clan chief left.

Chidal looked across the table at his wife, “I suppose we better pack then” he said wearily
“Yes husband dearest” Fadol concurred, “Even with the beasts of burden it must be at least two maybe three days ride back to our village”
“If it is still there?” Chidal replied
“But it has to be” Fadol insisted, “Our son, his wife and younglings, the farm”

Chidal shook his head and got down from the table, “I heard the war was terrible”

Fadol got down from the table too, “but husband dearest, we must not give up hope” she told him, but her heart was not really in those words. It had been many moon cycles since she last heard word of their village and like her husband, secretly she feared the worse.

It was about noon time when the elf came round and spoke with Chidal about his persistent nightmares of the human child’s time as a scullery slave. The elf listened as Chidal detailed the dreams that haunted him.

In the dreams Chidal described how he he saw the child beaten on her bare back with canes, or whipped. He always tried to get in between the cane or the whip, but his feet were embedded to the floor, so he could just watch the child suffer, scream and cry. He could hear the long dead hobgoblin slave driver saying that the child was a clumsy hobbit, but when he tried to say she was a human infant, he found he could not speak. As Chidal recounted the dream he had a tough time controlling his emotions.

The elf gave no trace of emotion, nor any clues as to whether they could be stopped. Chidal even told the elf that even knowing that the human child was now safe, well and happy with new loving and caring parents still did not stop them haunting his dreams.

Then the elf asked him about his family outside of Karam Tag Chou. Chidal frowned, what had that got to do with the dreams, but the elf explained that maybe he also felt guilty about what may have befallen his son and his family. Chidal admitted that he had tried to shut that from his mind, he had heard terrible things and like in the dream, felt powerless. It seemed like in the dream; he seemed to be safe from harm, whilst others were not so fortunate.

The elf then pulled from his bag a potion and got the goblin to drink it, then he pulled from his bag a strange contraption the likes Chidal had never seen before. The elf then went on to explain that it had come from the Realm of Mortals and was called a Dream Catcher



The elf explained that the tribe of humans that made it believed that it would not allow bad dreams to come through and only good ones.

Chidal took it and thanked the elf and then went back to help his wife pack.

Chidal found Fadol sitting on the bed, looking at the cases that had been packed and crying.

“What’s the matter dearest wife” he enquired
“This has been our home for so long” she sniffed.

Chidal sat down next to Fadol and put his arm around her shoulders, “I know Dearest wife, I will miss this place too”
“I’m scared Chidal, husband dearest” Fadol replied
“But the troll clan chief said we would have a troll warrior to protect us” Chidal said
“That’s not what I was thinking of husband dearest”

Chidal was slightly confused, so Fadol went on to explain, “I am scared of what we will find Chidal, we have not heard from our son in such a long time”
“But dearest wife, were you not the one to say how we should not give up hope?” Chidal asked
“I know husband dearest, and I have tried, but I keep thinking maybe the worst has happened”

Chidal hugged his wife with his arm, there was nothing he could say, as even he had taken the lack of news to mean something dire had befallen his son and the family he and his wife had had. While they were shut up in Karam Tag Chou, there was the faint hope that news had just been delayed or stopped, but now they were leaving, they would find out the cold stark reality of what had happened to their son and his goblin family.

Were they alright?

Had they been slaughtered either by orcs or trolls

From what he had heard, the goblin tribes had tried to stay of the war by trying to prove to the orcs they were not like the fairer races, but as they were of small stature, he had heard that strategy had not been totally successful, if at all. Even worse, some goblin villages were attacked by loyal trolls who had thought they had sold out to the orcs, which had never been so.

The orc clans had believed that the fairer races made the Mystical Realms weak, and their removal would make the Mystical Realms strong once more. Some had been told that by winning the war, they could claim the devices that allowed the crossing to the world of mortals and feast, as human flesh to some was an exquisite delicacy.

Fortunately all but three of the troll clans had united, and along with the Gnoll tribes, the orcs were forced to disarm on mass, thus ending the war

But what of his son and his family? They had heard nothing since the cessation of the war, and the lack of news was worrying

As they prepared their last meal in their home at the citadel, it was a bittersweet moment. They had first come here as slaves to the troll clan of the Delethon so in one sense there were going to be free. But this had also been their home for such a long time; they had even at times managed to have the human child stay in their billet when they could. Fadol would gently wash her wounds from her back and somehow try and comfort her. The place had happy as well as sad memories. And with in a few hours, they would be free, but free to do what?

Their last meal was a meagre affair, cold meat and ale, they did not have the heart to cook anything, wash things up, and put them away forever, so they both kept things simple. Then together the stood outside and watched the two suns set over the mountains,



Then they tried to get some sleep before trekking out and away from what had been their home for more cycles than they cared to remember.

Mercifully for Chidal, his dreams this night were not interrupted by the screams of the human child that had once been a slave with them. Either the elf’s magic had worked or the human dream catcher had done the trick, never the less his dreams were of his son, his son’s wife and their two goblin younglings. Even in his dreams he had anxieties as to their fate during the civil war

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Fadol woke first at the sound of the troll knocking at the door of their billet, and so she roused her husband and he got out of bed and opened the door for the troll to come in and start loading up the cart.

The two goblins got dressed and headed out to the cart which by now had their belongings.

Chidal helped Fadol onto the cart and then carefully locked the door of their billet, went to pocket the key as he often did and sighed. He placed the key back in the lock, as he had found it when they first moved in, turned and attempted to climb on the cart also, eventually having to be assisted up by the troll assigned to accompany them.

The troll found it relatively easy to get onto the cart and after and instruction to the hobgoblin in charge of the beasts of burden, the cart lurched into motion and slowly headed for the gates of the citadel



The cart passed through the gate and out of the walls of the citadel of Karam Tag Chou, Chidal and Fadol sat in silence as they sat amongst the bags carrying their meagre possessions for the first hour of the journey, besides the troll and the hobgoblin seemed to be having a deep conversation about the new order, how some of the fairer races had returned from something that sounded like second life, what ever that was.

Chidal and Fadol managed to resist the temptation to look back at the citadel as it receded into the distance. That chapter in their lives had been closed for them, and now they were on a two, possibly three day journey back to the goblin farm they had left many cycles ago. Both of the goblins had awful feelings in the pits of their stomachs, neither had heard in a while from the farmstead, even after the surrender by the orcs. Both anticipated the absolute worst, that their son and his family may have been slaughtered by the orcs.

“Say you two” the troll asked, turning his attention away from the hobgoblin, “How did you come to be in service of the royal court”

“We had to” Fadol replied
“Yes sir” Chidal jumped in, “My son Keval lost a crop due to a flood and was unable to pay the royal tithe”

“But if he was indebted” the troll asked, “Why were you in service to the royal court”
“We offered to go in his place” Fadol replied
“Yes sir” Chidal added, “I reasoned that if the penalty had to be servitude, my wife and I would take his place, as he had a wife and youngling”
“They would have been placed in servitude if my dearest husband had not offered” Fadol continued.
“Indeed, it is as my dearest wife says” said next, “we had had our time and I was certain Keval would be back in action”

“So” asked the troll, “what did your son say about this”

“He did not like it” Fadol replied, “He thought my husband dearest was sentencing us to our deaths”
“He wanted to go to a money lender” Chidal added, “or even search the mountains for the lairs that the dragons dwell to find the gold that they use as bedding”
“But my husband dearest thought those options were beyond a mere goblin farmer” Fadol replied, taking over the conversation, “So we went instead”
“Next harvest time, he was able to pay his tithe” Chidal beamed, “But we found service in the court quite amicable and so we sent word he was not to try and redeem us, lest he get into more debt”

“I know he found it hard” Fadol chipped in, “but we thought it was for the best, and by then they had another youngling on the way so they needed every groat”

“When did you last hear from them?” asked the troll
“five or six cycles of the four moons before the war was deemed ended” Chidal sighed
“They said it may have been because the roads were too dangerous for messengers during the last moon cycles of the war” Fadol ventured, but it seemed obvious from her tone of voice, even she did not believe this to be the case.

Something must have happened, and they were one period of day from finding out.

The rest of that day’s journey was carried out in relative quiet, as both Chidal and Fadol did not feel like casual conversation.

As they started leaving the mountains and coming to the plains, the scars of war started to show up, a burnt out settlement here, graves by the track way there. Sometimes the smell of death would still be hanging in the air.

At one point they saw what looked like the body of a dead elf, hanging from a tree, a clear case of lynching, but as they past the corpse it became apparent that it was a dark elf, known as a drow. An hour later they past the hanging dead body of another goblin, this one a female and Fadol admitted to feeling sick, as it looked like the same age as her son’s wife.

The troll got the cart to stop, and jumped off and with his sword cut the body down. Who ever it was she had been dead for quite some time. There was a plaque attached to her feet, and according to the troll, it had read “***** to the orcs” She had obviously been a collaborator, it had been quite common, the troll told the two goblins after he had built and lit a funeral pyre for it. Some of the goblin women who had lost their men folk would try and make ends meet, or save their younglings by trying to sell their bodies to the orcs, or even some of the troll clans who fought with the orcs.

The trolls would never take advantage, whilst the orcs had no qualms. Of course once the war was over, there would be bloody retaliation against anyone seen as helping or giving aid to the hated orcs. The point lost on these hate filled mobs, was that for the most part, the goblin females who did this were only trying to survive and hated the very orcs that they gave their “personal” services to.

Eventually the cart restarted its slow journey and they passed through the remains of a battle. There were orc weapons and troll weapons scattered around. The tell tale signs of old funeral pyres also dotted the land as far as they could see.

It was a truly horrific sight, but then all wars leave such scars in the landscape.

As it approached nightfall, they came to a river crossing. The bridge was made of stone, but there were signs of fireball damage upon it. Someone had obviously been using magic, which side, Chidal and Fadol could not tell, and they held their breaths as the cart crossed over the bridge and made it to a tavern. How it had survived, Chidal could not fathom, but then it did seem to be run by ogres and gnolls, who had somehow remained neutral in the conflict.

That night in the tavern, they took sustenance and the hobgoblin opted to sleep with his cart and the beasts of burden, which had been released from the cart and stabled.

The troll had his room, next to Chidal and Fadol. What the troll did after they ate, Chidal did not care, as he just spent the evening, with his wife, just holding each other. Fadol was quite distressed still at the finding of the dead goblin female. She had never seen a dead goblin before, or any dead member of the thinking races. She had seen carcases a plenty in the kitchens of the animals they served as food, but somehow this had been different, it could have been her daughter-in-law.

Chidal was just as upset, but he thought he had to be strong for both of them; after all he was a male, if somewhat elderly goblin, so he did his best to hide his own distress at what he had seen. However it did not bode well, for his son and his family, and neither of them could hide that from each other.

So in a fitful state, the two elderly goblins fell into a troubled and fraught sleep, in each other’s arms. Their life of servitude in the citadel of Karam Tag Chou was now a distant memory and another world a way, a world where they had been living an existence, cocooned from all the bloodshed that they had seen on their journey so far.

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Chidal and Fadol arose early as was their custom and crept downstairs to the main bar where an ogre was tidying up after the previous night’s carousing by the visitors.

“If you’re after break of day meal” The ogre gruffly told them, “then you’re out of luck. The gnoll cook is not here”
“We can do cooking” Chidal offered
“We were scullery slaves at Karam Tag Chow” added Fadol

“Oh were you indeed” the ogre replied with an air of disdain, “I bet you were kept nice and safe up there”

Chidal and Fadol looked at each other, it seemed to both of them that the ogre was resentful of where they had been, and perhaps he had lost someone in the war. The two of them decided not to press the issue and so headed out the main front door, but it was locked.

“I need to open that up” the ogre gruffly remarked, and then put his broom down and came across with a large key, unlocked and then opened the door. Chidal thanked the ogre and ushered his wife through the door into the courtyard and headed for the stables where the cart was parked, with the hobgoblin still asleep in it.

There was no sign of their troll body guard.

“Do you think we should wake him husband dearest?” Fadol asked.
“He might be angry is we disturb him too soon dearest wife” Chidal replied.

Chidal then turned his attention to the two beasts of burden in the stables, they were up and feasting on hay, a young female gnoll had put out for them. So they were better cared for then the tavern’s guests Chidal thought, but decided not to voice that observation. Instead Chidal greeted the female gnoll with a wave and she waved back. At least someone did not seem to hold their enslavement in the royal kitchens against them, but then as a stable gnoll, she was not that high up in the grand order of things at the tavern.

The two goblins then sat down on a clean patch of ground next to the wheel of one of the carts, which was a bit hard as both were getting on in years, and just held each other’s hand as they waited for the hobgoblin to wake and for the troll to come back from where ever he had gone

It was an hour before the pair of goblins were awoken up by the troll’s shouts. They had both fallen asleep against the wheel of the cart.

The troll had come carrying what appeared to be four large fish from the river. This would be their break of day meal, since they could not get one from the tavern.
“I suggested that I and my dearest wife could cook” Chidal told the troll, “but he seemed angry that we had been kept safe at the citadel”
“Was he indeed” the troll replied, “I will have to have words”
“Please sir” Fadol pleaded “We do not wish to cause more ill feeling by creating a fuss, can we not cook the fish by the side of the road”

The troll smiled at them and replied, “As you wish, it has been a while since I cooked in the out doors” then the troll roused the hobgoblin from his slumbers and told him to get the cart on the road.

It took about ten minutes for the two beasts of burden to be hitched up, in the meantime an elderly gnoll with an eye patch came out to see the group.

“My apologies sirs” he told the troll, “my barkeep may have been a bit short with you”
“That’s ok” Chidal spoke up, “we do not wish to cause trouble”
The gnoll seemed to ignore the goblin, “If you wish I can cook your fish for you myself” the gnoll continued, “I may be old and missing an eye, but I can still do a mean broiled fish”

The troll smiled back at the elderly gnoll and told him how he was happy to take him up on his offer, even if id did mean he would not get his chance to do open air cooking.

Once again the goblins offered to help in the kitchen and once again, their offer was declined.

The hobgoblin cart driver asked if he could remain with his beasts, but the elderly gnoll called the young female gnoll to come and stay with the beasts, so the hobgoblin could come back inside. The young gnoll, the elderly gnoll assured the hobgoblin, was gifted at looking after animals, and besides, they were the only ones staying with animals, in fact they were the only traveller’s staying period..

The four travellers came back in to the tavern. The ogre was nowhere to be seen, maybe he had gone off to sulk Chidal thought, but if he had lost anyone during the war, could he blame him since Chidal and his wife had been located in the one place the war did not reach, until that business with the errant humans and the treacherous troll clan leaders?

The fish took about half an hour to prepare and it seemed strange to both Chidal and Fadol not to be working in the kitchen, but there they were sitting at a table waiting on the tavern owner as he stepped in to cook for his only overnight guests.

The troll and the hobgoblin again seemed to be talking like old friends and so Chidal and Fadol kept their tongues still and just listened.

The fish when it came was quite edible; in fact it was a delight to the palate. This gnoll would have made quite a good cook at Karam Tag Chou, but that time was over. Cooks and scullery servants or slaves were no longer required at the citadel. It was a culture shock, but Chidal knew he just had to get use to it, as would Fadol his dearest wife.

As they were finishing, Chidal idly asked the gnoll if he had heard how his village had spared.

The gnoll just sighed, “I heard that they had it quite hard there towards the end” he told them, then he added, “Some even said they could see the smoke from here, although I never did”

Chidal and Fadol looked at each other in alarm, and Fadol admitted that the news made her feel a little feint.

The troll asked if they wanted to stay in the tavern another night if she was unwell, but Fadol insisted that she had to go and see what had become of her son, her daughter in law and her grandchildren.

They loaded back onto the cart and soon they were on their way again. As they travelled, at every step of the beasts of burden the goblin’s sense of foreboding increased.

As they travelled through the countryside, they saw more evidence of the war, more burnt villages, more roadside graves, the odd burned out wagon

Around the middle of the day, they came to a troll patrol from the Manjura clan, but the troll body guard pulled out some kind of scroll and passed it to the captain of the patrol. He looked at the scroll grunted and waved the cart through.

“I thought the war was over?” Fadol asked
“It is” explained the troll, “they are still on the look out for potential renegade orcs as some did not like to be on the loosing side”

For the rest of the afternoon as the cart made it’s way down in to the plains where the goblins lived, there were more and more patrols of trolls from various clans apart from three who had withdrawn to ancient land. Occasionally there would be a gnoll patrol. Sometime they would ignore the cart and sometimes they would inspect it.

It was all very unnerving.

Then with one hour before the two suns were due to set, they entered into where the goblin village should have been.

Should have been, because virtually every dwelling had been put to the torch.

A few goblin younglings would scrabble past, sometimes there was the odd elderly goblin that Chidal and Fadol thought they knew, but for some reason they did not seem to recognise the two returning goblins.

Chidal then directed the hobgoblin as to where the family farm was, but already he had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. His wife Fadol was not doing so well, as she gazed upon the ruins of the village they both grew up in.

There had been a lot of death in their little village, either from the orcs or from the trolls, it was difficult to tell.

Finally after quarter of an hour, they were coming onto the farmstead where Chidal had grown up, which he had passed on to his son and his family. But something was wrong, very wrong.

There were no crops, only scorched earth

As they got nearer the centre of the farm they say that the farmhouse was almost a pile of rubble

The barn where crops were stored was a mass of charred timbers and ash.

There seemed no signs of life.

The cart came to a stop outside the ruins of the house. Chidal told Fadol to stay in the cart and jumped out and ran to where the front door should have been. The building had been torched, and there was still the faint smell of burnt wood, even though by now the rain had seeped through the smashed roof.

Chidal looked around the farmyard and to his horror he saw what looked like three wooden stakes in the ground near the wreckage of the barn. Three stakes that should not be there.

With dread and trepidation, Chidal walked swiftly up to them, repeating under his breath the words “Please no, Please no”

But as he got to them it felt like his world had collapsed all at once

This was why there had been no word from his son and his family

The wooden stakes were marking three small mounds where three burials had taken place. On the stakes were the names of his son’s wife and their two younglings. These were there graves

“NOOOOOOOO” came a scream from behind Chidal, it was Fadol, and she had seen him run to the grave markers and had run to follow him. Chidal had never heard his wife scream like that before.

Chidal turned around and embraced his wife as she sobbed hysterically calling out the names of her son, his wife and the two innocent younglings who had been killed in the civil war.

Suddenly Fadol started gasping and Chidal asked her desperately what was wrong, but he could feel her sinking to the floor.
“HELP!” Chidal screamed out, “My wife is dying”

Immediately the troll was by their side and got Chidal to lay her on the cold grass.

Fadol looked grey and was clutching her chest, “My heart” she panted, “it is breaking dearest hus”

Then she passed out.

The troll knelt down beside her, and started trying to push down on her chest. “The humans at the citadel told us of a procedure they use that sometimes saves lives” he explained to the stunned goblin. Then the troll tried blowing down her mouth, which given the respective shapes of their mouths was not easy.

Press Press

Blow blow

Repeat

All the while Chidal kept repeating “Fadol, please don’t leave me”

After ten minutes, the troll looked up at Chidal, gently closed Fadol’s eyes with his fingers. “I’m sorry Goblin” He said sadly, “I tried, but I could not save her”

Chidal then let out a large howl, and sank to he knees and then fell sobbing over the dead body of his wife, while the troll and the hobgoblin kept a respectful distance.

Chidal the goblin had come home, and was free, but, if he had ever heard the song from the world of mortals, Me and Bobby McGee, then the line from the song

Freedom is just another word for nothing left to loose

Would seem very apt

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Chidal finally had his freedom, but now it seemed that he had lost everything

To be continued