The Iron Teeth

Honor Among Thieves 8

The next few days were very boring. Herad was gone and she had taken most the other bandits with her. Blacknail spent his time doing chores and, when boredom caused his curiosity to overcome his self preservation, a little exploring.

One afternoon, as Blacknail was walking over to his master's tent. He had been out in the forest gathering some plants for Saeter. He didn't know why his master wanted them, they certainly didn't taste very good, he had checked.

Suddenly, the loud crack of wood splintering startled the goblin and caused him to flinch. The first noise was soon followed by the sound of panicked human yelling. That was almost never good.

Blacknail grew concerned. Then he realized the noise was coming from the nearby forest, and it was getting closer. He immediately started to run away. Just to be safe.

He made straight for his master but the noise steadily grew closer. The nervous goblin risked a glance backwards and saw a scout burst from the edge of the forest and run frantically into the clearing. The man's face was pale with terror and he was gasping for breath.

Not good, something bad was about to happen and he wanted as far away from it as possible. Blacknail tried to run faster. His little legs pumped frantically.

"Help," the scout yelled desperately between gasping breaths.

The goblin was pretty sure the man wasn't talking to him, so he just kept running away.

The camp came alive with movement and shouting as others noticed the commotion. Suddenly, Blacknail heard several bandits swear or shout in surprise. He couldn't help but shoot another panicked look over his shoulder to find out what the men had seen. He had a feeling he wasn't going to like it.

He was not disappointed. The forest exploded and massive creature barreled out of the bushes. It was headed straight for the running scout.

The beast snorted and squealed in rage as it tried to run the fleeing man down. The scout was, of course, leading it straight towards Blacknail.

The creature was as tall as a man and heavy with both muscle and fat. It easily weighed more than a horse. Its body was covered in dark brown spiky hair that was especially long and bristly on its back. It also had a flat snout protruding from its face, because it was a giant pig.

Even with its unbelievable mass the boar moved frighteningly quickly. Blacknail had no doubt that anyone hit by it would be smashed into paste, and then crushed under its hooves. That was, of course, if they weren't first impaled on the long yellow tusks that jutted forward out of its mouth.

Blacknail was running on all fours now as both panic and adrenaline set in. Both the scout and the huge pig were gaining on him. Saeter had risen to his feet and was now quickly going through his things.

Blacknail raced past an empty tent. He really hoped his master would do something soon... as in really soon! He didn't want to be trampled to death by a giant pig!

From just behind him the running goblin heard a horrible scream of pain, which was quickly followed by a wet crunching sound and then a triumphant squeal. Ouch! Hopefully the beast would leave now that it had caught its target.

Nope, the sound of heavy hooves pounding the earth continued towards Blacknail. Why did these things always happen to him!

"Bad piggy, don't chase me," the terrified little goblin wailed as he ran.

Suddenly, there was the crack of a sling and a surprised squeal from the boar. One of the nearby bandits had hit the pig with a rock. With a furious grunt the boar shifted its beady eyed gaze to the woman who had hit him.