Chapter 7: A Wish to Live (Part 1)

  Stryg spotted the shaman lying on the floor a few dozen feet away.

  Stryg ran towards him, “Over here! On the ground.”

  “Crovor, can you stand? We need your fire magic to get us out of here,” Second Mother called out.

  Crovor coughed up blood. He took a shaky breath, “...It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

  “What are you saying?” asked Second Mother. “We knew this journey would be dangerous, but we succeeded anyway. The monster is dead.”

  She reached down and tried to find his shoulder in the dark, “Now get up.”

  Crovor tried to laugh but ended up coughing, “It was supposed to be easy. They said it’d be easy. Go in, grab the treasure and get out... I was going to be the strongest.”

  “Who said that?” Second Mother frowned.

  Crovor was glad they couldn’t see each other. He didn’t want anyone to see his shame. “I heard a pair of goblins from a nearby tribe talking about a secret treasure they had found in a cave. A treasure that would make any who had it the most powerful in all Vulture Woods.”

  “What are you saying?” Second Mother asked, she had a bad feeling about this.

  Crovor bit his lip, “They said it was being guarded by a monster during the day. I attacked them while they were off guard. I killed one and made the other tell me where the cave was, before killing him too. My plan was to get the treasure at night and get out. It was so easy.”

  “But what about the mother moon?” Her eyes widened at the dawning realization, “You lied about everything.”

  Crovor coughed, “I needed help getting to the cave. It was the only way to convince you all to come with me, without getting the chief involved.”

  “No, that’s impossible!” Stryg shouted. “You said the mother moon chose you. That this was a sacred quest. That… That Lunae chose me.”

  Crovor laughed, “Of course she didn’t choose you. Are you an idiot? I just said you were chosen to get First Mother’s suspicions off my back. Why would Lunae choose a failure of a goblin like you.”

  Stryg fell to his knees. It couldn’t be. It had all been a lie? The mother moon hadn’t chosen him, he really was a failure. He looked at his blood covered hands. No, he wasn’t. He had killed the monster. He had at least done that one thing right.

  “B-but, I killed the beast,” Stryg mumbled.

  “Stop lying boy. You can’t even win a night challenge,” Crovor spat.

  “...You bastard, you lied to us… I should kill you where you stand,” Second Mother snarled.

  Crovor sighed, “Go ahead. I can’t feel my legs. I’m not getting out of here alive. Nothing matters anymore.”

  Stryg looked at Crovor’s legs. They were twisted in the wrong way, he could see a bone sticking out of his thigh. Wait a second. How could he see anything? If the mother moon hadn’t chosen him, then she hadn’t blessed him either. So, why was he the only one who could see in the darkness?

  Crovor cried out in pain as Second Mother blindly stabbed him with her spear. She couldn’t see in the dark, so she kept plunging her spear around, stabbing the shaman over and over.

  “Wait,” Srixa spoke up.

  “Not a chance,” Second Mother raised her bloody spear again.

  Srixa shook her head, “No, not that. Didn’t the monster say something?”

  “Is that really important right now? After hearing this miserable excuse of a shaman’s confession?” Second Mother spat on the dying goblin.

  Srixa shook his head, “She said something. The monster. She said, that we had made a bunch of noise in ‘our home.’”

  “Our home?” Ostroz furrowed his brow.

  A wretched scream echoed through the cave. Stryg whipped around. Another lamia slithered out from the tunnels. She stared at her fallen sister before fixing her eyes at the goblins.