“Blast fool boy,” Beleg grumbled, loud enough to seem angry, but not so loud that it seemed like an obvious cry for attention. “How’d’ya manage to git lost so offen. Could’a’na fine tha’way outta yer pants wiffout yer ma’s help.”
“Pa,” Ras said, his voice slightly softer and quivering a bit with concern, “go easy on ‘im. He’s out o’sorts after seein’ the boar tore into ya.”
“Wahl, I’m tha one done been tore, ain’t I? Wass’e do? Faint, like a little girl or somfin.”
Kre wondered if he should jump in to defend his own honor, though Ras seemed to be ready to pipe in on his behalf, when a grey, fist-sized mass flew past his head with a soft zip!
“Arrggh!” Beleg cried out as he fell backwards onto his rump, his hands pressed tightly against his injured leg.
“Bandits Pa!” Ras called as he dropped to his knees, his arms covering his head as if to protect it from future projectiles.
If Kre could take a moment to applaud at that moment, he would have. For just a moment he forgot that he was in the midst of an ambush and was busy admiring the way that both Ras and Beleg kept in character while still being on their guard.
Another stone crashed to the ground in front of him and then flew back up to glance him alongside of his hip. Even with the bounce taking the brunt of the pellet stone’s force, the pain of the partial blow nearly brought tears to his eyes. He dropped to a low crouch and shuffled over to a spot behind a fallen log, hoping it would serve in some sort of defensive capacity. As he did so, he glanced up and spotted four small creatures standing atop a pile of boulders and broken rocks that served as a small hill.
Two of the creatures were spinning slings around over their heads. Another was loading one of the fist-sized stones into his own sling, and the last was yelling and pointing at the three intruders. Who he was yelling to was something Kre didn’t have to wait long to find out. Two more stones came flying towards the three lost woodsmen, but all sailed quite wide of their mark.
“Goblins don’t see so well in the daylight,” Beleg explained in a hushed whisper. “Lucky us. Any one of those rocks would crush our skulls if they could aim any better.”
“Get ready,” Ras hissed. “I see movement from the rocks.”
Kre tried to narrow his eyes and spot what Ras was seeing, but he couldn’t discern anything but rocks. One last stone came flying in, zipping past Ras by scant inches. “Too close,” he muttered, “that’s your fault Beleg for saying they couldn’t aim!”
The big man chuckled and crawled over towards Ras, getting his hands ready to grab at the swords secured on the little man’s back. “I see them,” Beleg said with a grin.
‘Heavens,’ Kre thought to himself, ‘he’s loving this!’
Kre looked back up and was now able to spot the dark shapes moving through the stones like melting shadows. Though he couldn’t count the individual creatures, Kre was certain that there were far more than the party had initially estimated. His hand moved down towards his waist, his palm brushing gently along the pommel of the tyrfang hidden there.
“Wait for it,” Beleg said softly, flexing his own hands in eager anticipation of the melee to come.