by E C Chii
“Do you mind if we finish this all first before we get into it?” Wolf continued as he gestured to the now desiccated bodies.
“Yeah we just need to light them. The fire will carry them over to their ancestors.” Thrak said somberly.
“Does it matter who does it or is there something to specific you need to say?” Wolf asked.
“Not really. Our generation years ago, we did start to tell those who departed a goal to accomplish before we die and join them.” Thrak answered.
“I should leave you to it then.” Wolf said as he walked away to the pool of water he pulled from the bodies.
Chapter 25 – Wolf’s Pack
It was now time to prepare a bath for these goblins. They reeked something fierce and for the sake of his own sanity, a bath for both himself and the goblins was in order. While he was at it he pulled the stone and earth away creating two holes for bodily waste and another three larger tub shaped depressions big enough to fit five or six fully grown men comfortably. When he was finished he looked around at all the modifications that had been done to the room and figured that whoever made this facility would be awfully angry at him destroying their floor so much.
The goblins had managed to get the bodies of their brethren to burn bright, hot and fast. Fearing that the fire and smoke would suffocate them he channeled the air pushing it down the broken tunnel entrance that the Trogs came from. When the goblins had completed their funeral rite, they were left with the remnants of so many Trog corpses to deal with. Thinking that it would be better to simply use their bodies as a form of barricade, he and the others proceeded to drag, stack, and wedge them into the opening sealing it off as best they could. Funneling an ample amount of earth that was removed to create the basin, the entrance was blocked off well.
Throughout the whole time they were moving the Trog corpses Wolf noticed the similarities between the Trogs and the statues that acted as pillars for the various rooms, despite there being some significant deformities. Wolf had suspicions that the Trogs were the original builders of this place a very long time ago. Though how they went from being able to create these types of structures to the deformed creatures they looked like now, he would likely never know. Figuring that one day he could hunt down that answer since he would be around this world for quite some time if he had anything to say about it.
Returning to the makeshift baths he picked out six large rocks and began to heat them up as much as possible. When they became cherry red, he rolled the first into the pool of water with the water hissing in reaction to the heat of the rock. Repeating this process until he was at ten percent MP he managed to get two of the four baths boiling. Waiting for the water to cool enough, he pulled out several bars of soap he purchased from the Kokuri Village general store. Taking a page from the goblin’s play book, Wolf thought about what he wanted to do soon. As commonly told in both stories and , you cannot make it far on you own. If he wanted to survive the coming days where bounty hunters would seek to take his head every day, he would need others.
There was a reason that military units were broken down into teams, and even more so for the type of fighting he would likely take part in. He needed a new team, a new family, essentially, he would turn these goblins into a pack of ravenous wolves, capable of taking down fearsome foes. He didn’t know how others fought in this world, but he knew that some aspects of war never change. Suddenly, the year he spent training new recruits after he was severely wounded in Jakarta would finally pay off.
“Thrak!” Wolf shouted across the room. “Come here and bring the others.”
Thrak and the others came walking up confused and wary of the large bubbling pools. When they were all standing before him, the stench from before was now so overpowering that his eyes were tearing and burning.
Wolf looked over those who were in front of him. “Okay, I have a choice that each of you will need to make, and make it right now. If you all want a better life, one that will see your castes broken and full potential become available. You can join me, to become the swiftest, most agile, and deadliest beings on this world. For this to occur, you must forsake all ties to your tribe. You will live, survive and die for those of your brothers and sisters in arms. It is highly likely that you all will be fighting side by side with numerous others of varying races since I could give two shits less what color your skin is, where you come from, or why you are here. I have a very limited number of fucks to give and must choose when and where to give them. I will not lie. A painful death will likely find most of us.” Wolf said sternly.
“I wish to turn you all into a family that advances off merit, and action rather than birth or an arbitrary lineage. If you decline, I will give you a week of supplies and anything you currently carry. You may go walk your own path as you see fit, but if you come with me I will have your back for as long as I draw breath or until you betray the trust of myself and the others who stand at your side.”
Giving the goblins a chance to think over their choices, he walked over to the carved tubs where he shaped several large bowls from stone. He made one light and the others very heavy, these would play a key role in training those that chose to follow him. While he was making the bowls, the goblins chattered amongst themselves debating what they should, or could do. The first to leave the circle was Lefful, Wolf had expected her to come as she had the most to gain from such an arrangement. One by one they all came over, this left Dinish standing alone and as unreadable as the always. She just stood there hesitating, seemingly paralyzed with indecision, occasionally you could see small tale tell signs of anxiety, or worry streak across her face before the normal expressionless mask returned.
Lefful looked at her, with what he assumed was sympathy before she walked over grabbing her by the hand and gently pulling her over to the rest of the goblins.
Lefful stepped forward from the group and addressed Wolf, “We all accept. What will you have us do?”
“Alright then, this is what will happen right now. As of this moment you are all dead, you have no family other than those standing to your left and right. Your tribe sentenced you to die, and die you did. From this day forward you are wolves, and are part of a pack. Each one of my wolves is critical to the survival of the pack and therefore must be in peak conditions at all time. If one of you gets sick, you have failed your brothers and sisters, if you die, you have failed your brothers and sisters. If one of you fails to complete a task, you all fail each other. Is that clear?” Wolf asked
Each had a look of confusion and a few had trepidation marked across their faces. “First and foremost, all of you smelly bastards are going to strip. Right here, right now.” Wolf commanded.
Thrak being of the militant caste did so without hesitation. The others all looked worried at each other, timid and slowly they began to remove pieces of the exoskeleton armor. When Wolf examined the armor the putrid smell that emanated from them told him why they constantly smelled so bad. The armor was literally rotting on their bodies, while the makeshift armor may save their lives in the immediate term, it would certainly breed diseases that would kill them later. Turning his nose in disgust from examining the armor, he faced his squad of misfit toys.
“I believe this might just be a first time for all of you to actually bathe so I will teach you by the numbers on how to do this. You will first listen to me explain the step, then you will see me give you a demonstration of the step. Lastly you will perform the step when I call out its number. Is that clear?” Wolf said going into full Drill Sergeant Mode, figuring that some habits of a military organization would do well to help them cope with being considered expendable and help them adjust to a new life.
With all the goblins in the nude and large stone bowls next to the first bath, Wolf likewise stripped down.
“Step 1, take the large bowl and fill it full of water from the tub.” Wolf paused.
“Step 2, fill the bowl full of water.” He said then dipped the bowl, filling it full of water.
“S
tep 3, upend the bowl slowly over your head and get every inch of your body wet. If the water is cold. You will let me know immediately. If the water is too hot, you will stop and take some colder water to even out the temperature or if there you do not have any colder water, wait until the water cools enough for you to douse yourself. Repeat this process until you are completely wet. Any questions?”
Seeing there were no questions, he proceeded to upend the lighter bowl filled with steaming water over himself. As the water cascaded over him and washed away the uppermost layers of sweat, blood, bile and shit from him, he started to feel better. Feeling like he needed another two or three more, repeating the process a few more times, he looked over to see the blank stares of the goblins. It was then that he noticed that two of the three females were covering their bodies up.
“I see we have two shy ones. You have no need to cover yourselves up. You are wolves and wolves don’t have anything to hide. When we go into battle there may not be a private place to wash your smelly asses so get used to being nude in front of your pack.” Wolf scolded.
“Now! Step 5, take the bar of soap that I will provide and begin to rub it together until a white-ish foam appears on your hands.” Wolf continued as he demonstrated.
“Step 6…”
“Step 7…”
…………………………..
“Step 25, and this is the most important. Get your now clean ass in the last tub. Once you yourself have completed these steps yourselves, I will tell you what step 26 is.” Wolf said in a slightly less severe tone.
“Reaaaady!” Wolf gave the preparatory command.
“WUN!” he shouted, and to his internal prediction. The goblins scrambled to pick up their respective bowls only to find that they were much too heavy for them to lift by themselves.
“Hurry up.” Wolf called out with a sadistic smile. To his surprise Thrak had managed to dip and lift the bowl over his head twice, albeit struggling to do so. The others strained and failed at lifting the water laden bowls. Hoping that they would figure out that they were supposed to work together to lift the bowls over each other’s head, but reluctant to tell them as the goblins would not have learned anything from it.
Right as he was about to say something, Lefful tapped both Dinish and Thrak’s shoulder and instructed them to lift the bowl over Xen’s head as she was squatting down trying to pick up a stone bowl herself. With the instructions given Thrak smiled mischievously and lifted the bowl with Dinish and her stone face. In one solid heave they dumped the entire contents over her head triggering a sharp yowl of surprise.
Unable to resist laughing Wolf laid back in the steamy water of the third pool. Now that they had figured out how to douse themselves and work together Lefful began to give instructions that while one would get doused the other would begin helping the doused scrub the grime, dirt and other filth from their bodies. In a few minutes only Thrak and Dinish were left un-scrubbed.
Deciding that now would be a good time to throw some fuel on the fire Wolf piped up. “What are you going to do now? Will you just leave one of your own behind to fend for himself?”
Lefful stood and stroked her chin for a few seconds before her eyes narrowed. She jumped on Thrak’s back forcing him to his knees. Commanding him to stay kneeling the four got together lifting the bowl over his head and dumping the contents directly in his face and head.
Sputtering and cursing, Thrak stayed kneeling as they repeated the same thing a few more times. The ground around the goblins was almost completely black from the excessive layers of grime, dirt, and other forms of filth having been washed off. All as one the whole group of goblins began to scrub him down. While some were gentle, others were quite rough. Xen and Lefful were quite enjoying this for reasons that Wolf didn’t know. When they were finished they continued by the numbers washing each part of Thrak’s body number by number, step by step.
When they got to step 25, they presented themselves for inspection to Wolf who examined them each in turn, telling them to re-wash several areas. When they completed a few rounds of this and cleaned up to his satisfaction he allowed them to enter the final tub. It had taken the goblins so long to complete the bathing process that, he had needed to reheat the baths.
“Okay wolves, now for step 26…Relax and enjoy your nice soak. These past few days have been rough. This is my treat to you all, you may not always have the best of food, sleeping situations, or life in general, but if we have enough water, and time. I will make it my mission to ensure you at least have a hot bath available. Consider this, a sort of after battle tradition.”
Wolf saw that all of them but Dinish were smiling widely, though he could have sworn that Dinish had a faint curving of her lips visible.
They spent almost an hour just relaxing in the steaming bath, making small talk and discussing things they liked. For most, this was the first time they REALLY spoke with others of the different castes. When it didn’t involve something specific being done or produced, they generally didn’t interact often. Smiling again at the fact Xen and Lefful were trying to break Dinish out of her ‘outcast’ shell, and the obvious uncomfortableness she was displaying.
Meanwhile Frong and Thrak were oblivious to this whole thing discussing something Frong wanted to make. Occasionally, Thrak would chime in with a suggestion or point out a faulty part of some weapon or another to make it more lethal. Sometimes when they discussed something that wasn’t meant to be a weapon Thrak would show his militant side and suggest something that would make it a weapon.
When it was time to get out of the tub, both because they were pruning, and the water was cooling down to the point of being uncomfortable. Wolf stood up exited the water with rivulets pouring off his ebon tail. Shaking it swiftly much of the water went spraying out. He got to his satchel and pulled out several bolts of cloth he had purchased from the tailor on impulse. Measuring out several meters for each goblin and himself. Calling the goblins out of the water and handing them each their cotton towel and instructed them to dry off.
Once complete they all started to head back to their rotting armor.
“STOP!” Wolf called out stopping them in their tracks. You will not be wearing that rotting shit there.” Handing the remaining bolts of cotton to Frong along with all the excess leather, and Monitor Lizard’s skin he had acquired over his trek.
“Frong from this day forward you are the pack’s crafter. You will oversee the making, mending, and fixing all equipment in the squad’s possession. When you are not training with the others in combat or other things, you will be working on all materials and equipment that the pack will need. This a very important position and will require much of your time. I have full confidence that you will do well.” At those words, Frong’s back straightened a little and paltry chest puffed out.
Furthering this, Wolf said, “Xen! You will be the pack’s quartermaster. You are responsible for acquiring, inventorying, and maintaining the stocks for the pack. If Frong needs something to make anything, your mission is to get those materials for him to accomplish this. Your first job is after you all get clothed is to consolidate everything that can be salvaged, repaired, or repurposed into one area. Tomorrow, we will be doing a complete inventory, after that, you will have everyone except Frong and Lefful combing over the area one more time for anything else we can use. You will likely be working extensively with Frong in the future so get a good working relationship going.”
“Lefful, you are going to be the team leader. You will answer directly to me. Your responsibilities are to ensure that all members of your squad are healthy, whole, happy, and have all the gear, equipment, and food they may need to last one full week. That will be the job of both myself, and Xen to provide. Additionally, you will be the one to choose the tactics, positions, and techniques your squad uses to defeat and enemy, or get through an obstacle. From today on you will be Corporal Lefful. Any questions? No? Good.”
“Thrak! You will be our Weapons master. You will collect,
maintain, and when you get skilled enough in every weapon possible, train those in the squad in the use of all weaponry. Additionally, you will keep all armor that we either find, or create. If you have a piece of armor or weapon that is an improvement and it suits them at that time, it is your obligation to give it to them. Lastly you will also be responsible for inspecting each person’s weapons and armor are in good upkeep. Questions? Nothing? Excellent.”
“Finally, we get to you Dinish. You will be our scout, the vanguard, the eyes and ears of the pack. Your job is to silently and stealthily move forward to spot any danger and gather intelligence on potential enemies. If you encounter an obstacle you must either find a way to bypass it, or avoid it all together. Of all the present you will often find yourself in the most dangerous and important position of all, as any encroaching enemy may try to attack us. Your job will be to either get an accurate count of all their forces, make up, weapons, obvious skills or abilities, and most importantly. Identify key targets and routes they are traveling. Do you have any questions?”
Dinish voice spoke up in the soft feminine voice asked, “If I happen to see one of these targets. Would you like for me to do anything in my power to eliminate them?”