The Iron Teeth

Written in Blood 1

Blacknail's thoughts had strayed while he worked. Why should everyone keep telling him what to do? He had gotten smarter and larger, so why shouldn't he be in charge? Obviously, they were all out to get him!

As Saeter reached over to hand the hobgoblin a rabbit hide, Blacknail had felt a stab of unease at the man's closeness and pulled away.

Saeter had frowned at the hobgoblin's reaction and scrutinized him for a second before tossing him the pelt and turning away. Blacknail had taken this as more evidence that his master was lying to him or tricking him somehow. You couldn't trust pink people.

Saeter had kept Blacknail busy all that day doing chores, but he had quickly figured out that they were make-work. This had really annoyed the hobgoblin. Why was his master doing this to him? Didn't he deserve better? Why should Saeter boss him around anyway?

The new hobgoblin had started to let a bit of hostility slip into his gaze. His master had noticed Blacknail's angry glare but hadn't said anything, instead he had simply beaten Blacknail repetitively with a stick.

Of course, Saeter had claimed it was some sort of training, but Blacknail hadn't really believed him. After the chores were done to Saeter's satisfaction, he had thrown Blacknail a wooden sword and begun to teach him swordsmanship.

"This is how every hot blooded youngster learns respect and discipline. It worked on me so it should work on you. Now I know you don't like hitting people but from now on you're going to have to," he had told Blacknail.

He had then shown the hobgoblin how to hold the mock weapon, while the other man Varhs had silently watched them. Blacknail had noticed that Varhs had a real sword at his side, not a mock blade. It had struck him as very suspicious but he was soon distracted from his musings.

The next part of sword training had involved Saeter yelling at Blacknail about how he was doing everything wrong and the hobgoblin being smacked with the wooden blade over and over again.

This had infuriated Blacknail, and really hurt. Uncontrollable rage had poured out from some new depth within him, and Blacknail had hissed and snarled as he tried to block the blows. His mouth had watered at the thought of biting into Saeter's flesh, but even with a sword of his own he couldn't defend himself against Saeter's skillful attacks and longer reach.

At first he had simply tried to defend himself, but Saeter had yelled and hit him over and over again until Blacknail had grown so angry he had lost all control. He had forgotten his usual rule against harming humans and swung out at Saeter's head. His master had given him permission anyway.

When Saeter had easily dodged that blow, Blacknail had launched himself at Saeter, dropped his wooden practice sword, and reached out to tear the man apart with his bare claws. Yep, that had been a very bad idea.

As Blacknail sprung towards him, Saeter had slipped to the side and brought his blunt blade down in a two handed swing against Blacknail's head. The resulting blow had hurt a lot, stunned the hobgoblin, and given him his second taste of dirt that day. It hadn't tasted very good.

Then, Saeter had yelled at Blacknail until he got to his feet and continued. He hadn't even been angry about being attacked, but he was angry about how bad the attack had been.

Eventually, a very tired and sore Blacknail had simply collapsed from exhaustion, after what seemed like hours of futile attack attempts. Only then had Saeter called it a day.

Saeter had thrown the prone hobgoblin his dinner and instructed him to go to bed, and Blacknail had. He had been too tired to even think of arguing. Shame had burned deep within him.