Warghui Kutsmobzon the one-armed knifegoblin travelled for two days, fighting off bogeymen each night, hacking parts off their shadowy forms until they faded away.
He travelled for a long time through wilderness, until eventually he reached a town. A human town.
Warghui grimaced; he had always disliked the filthy, stupid creatures, but he had nowhere else to go.
He entered the town, and the human villagers, who had long lived in fear of the night creatures that roamed the surrounding lands freely, killing any who wandered out at night, saw this scarred, one-armed goblin, and hailed him as their saviour.
Warghui basked in the attention; regaling them with tales of how he went toe to toe with monsters and slew them, first the dragon which had slain his terrified companion in a single strike of its claws, and then the might giant.
Warghui's constant lies and embellishments were swallowed whole by the gullible peasants, who insisted that he accompanied a couple of them to the nearest fortress, that their Lord Papos Rulakel would want to talk to such a mighty hero.
Warghui, loving this attention, agreed, and travelled to the fortress of FoldedBalanced with a band of three peasants.
"I could get used to this!" He thought to himself, his red eyes gleaming with mirth. "These dumb humans really believe that I slew the dragon, and that I fought the giant face-to-face! Soon enough I'll convince them to hand over their virginal daughters on golden platters, as well as the contents of their treasuries! What fun!"
He was a far sight different from the terrified goblin who had fled the dragon's lair less than a year earlier.
****
"Er... Whu's dat you's sayin'?"
Warghui's smug demeanour had faded quickly after being introduced to the human Lord.
"We will give you thirteen of our best soldiers, and you will lead them to a cave, a short way to the southeast, and slay the monster Mondul Bonedies. For too long we have tolerated such fiends on our doorstep, too terrified to even defend our own lands. You, goblin, are a mighty warrior, the only one fit to lead out army. You, are our last hope."
The Lord finished his speech, nodding solemly and plucking a flea from his hair as he watched Warghui, surrounded by human warriors, all expectantly silent.
Warghui, on his part, was terrified.
Him, leading armies to war?! He looked left and right.
He was surrounded by armed humans, who had housed and fed him for the last couple of days, giving him their finest food and beds. He noted they were all armed, and swallowed heavily.
"Er, right, den..."
The throneroom resounded with cheers, and the next day, the excited humans set off, led by the reluctant Warghui, who attempted desperately to hide his fear.
The warriors surrounding him boasted loudly and joked to each other of what they would do to the beast they hunted, for how could they fail, with a legendary hero leading them, a scarred veterean praised by their king?! Finally they were going to defeat the terrors that had haunted them so long!
They mocked their enemies loudly as they walked, and praised Warghui's name to the very heavens.
Warghui, for his part, remained silent.
He was trying not to piss his trousers.
(Myself, I am just extremely amused by the direction this is taken... I didn't expect him to survive half of what he's been through!!
)
Therset's companion Ibu is not quite so lucky, as his left foot was bitten clean off by the dragon before I could finish it off. Hopefully he doesn't bleed to death before we get out of here; I've grown quite attached to the old bastard.