Chapter 14

Crawling back into the brush of the forest, Natalie made some distance between her and the monsters. She could likely deal with them no issue, but since she was dealing with an unknown she wanted to take no chances. Planning how she was going in would be just as important, if not more so than maintaining the element of surprise. She decided to go through her items and see what could work out well. Her flare gun could probably take one out, but she wanted to fire it closer as to guarantee a hit. That was one dealt with, but what about the other two? Her hatchet was briefly considered before being decided as a bad choice. She could hit one of them, but leave herself open to a follow up attack from the final one. Using a stick, either to beat them or as a spear, could work, but she had no idea if the stick would hold up to pierce or do enough damage before breaking. Her carving knife was meant for fine delicate work, so it was out as it was more likely to shatter than be able to be used to kill. She finally settled on the last item she could reasonably use.

The best choice she could use for a weapon was her folding shovel. It had a tapered sharp edge for digging, plus it had the length for both power and reach. It was made with carbon steel, so it breaking from the force she could exert was a laughable concept. Now having a general idea she moved behind a tree and had one of the pups bring it out after it had been wrapped in a sweater. Due to needing the element of surprise, she had the pup head back in with the sweater, leaving her with the shovel.

As she was preparing herself to deal with the goblins, Kali sent her a thought that reassured her and made her feel safer in her idea. 'Will be ready. Help if needed.' Knowing she was not alone and had reliable backup that was ready at a moments notice was quite a relief for Nat's increasing stress. Quietly as she could, she crawled forward to see where the goblins were. As she got forward to the bushes on the edge of the path, she was glad to see that they all had their backs to her, still arguing over top the dead elk.

Slowly getting up, Natalie stalked towards the unaware monsters in front of her. Every step measured, every placement of her feet double checked, she moved forward wary of being detected. The goblins voices were loud, which helped mask her approach. Still, all it took was for one to turn around in anger, disgust, or some other reason to notice her. As she got within range, she swung the shovel into the head of the goblin furthest to the right. A satisfying crunch came from its head as the skull visibly deformed by the metal implement.

Pulling the shovel back, she stabbed it forward towards the middle goblin as if it were a spear. After hearing its fellow goblin go crunch, it started turning to see what happened to its brethren. The shovel flew forward and the left side landed right on the throat of the goblin, piercing through and tearing a deep gash into its neck. Pitch black blood squirted out of its neck wound, covering its crushed brethren in front of it and the shovel with the liquid. The third goblin started moving toward Natalie as she drew her flare gun and aimed at it. The goblin clearly was either angry, unworried, or unaware of what she was holding as there was no restraint in its eyes as it started rushing toward her. Having lined up the shot, Nat pulled the trigger.

CLICK!....... CLICK! CLICK!

Nothing happened when she pulled the trigger. Trying to bring the shovel around she started to back up, away from the enraged creature. She started moving too late though, and the goblin's claws raked her forearm and caused gashes going down the outside. Screaming in pain, she pulled the arm into her, not noticing that she was lowering the shovel due to the pain. As the goblin came closer, it started reaching for the shovel, as if to wrestle away the weapon to give itself the advantage over Natalie. Just as it was about to grab the shovel, Kali's came out of Natalie's chest, pouncing on the goblin with her fangs latching onto the goblins throat. As she landed on the goblin, Kali started shaking her head, tearing the throat out of the monster, and ending the creatures life.

Grasping her arm in pain, Nat did her best to apply pressure to the wound. As she did, she asked the wolf pups to bring out the first aid kit. Thankfully, it seemed that it was ready to go and it was brought out instantly. It seemed Kali had recognized it from when it was used to tend to her wounds and had it ready and waiting for in case it was needed. While Kali cleaned herself from the blood of the goblin, Nat got to work disinfecting and bandaging her own wound. She had no way of knowing if anything would be wrong, but all the portrayals of goblins in pop culture had her believe that they were grimy, disgusting things. She was not gonna take any chances after one had opened wounds on her body.

While still hurting, once her wound was bandaged and taken care of she turned her attention to Kali. "Are you okay? Not feeling anything weird from having that black blood in you?" As she learned with the second one, these guys bled a lot from the throat, right where Kali had clamped her open mouth around.

'Feel fine. Taste nasty.' Hearing this, Nat could not help but sigh in relief. She was glad that Kali was with her and nothing was wrong. It had only been a day, but she felt closer with Kali than most of the people she had known in her life. Natalie did not want to lose this new close friend so soon after meeting her. They had not even had the chance to have a girls night yet!

Huge thanks to my Elder Wolves Jake, Viktor, and Kevin for supporting me and my writing! Remember that I keep Patreon ten chapters ahead at all times.