We stood there, weapons in hand, ready to defend the camp. I looked out into the jungle and saw only trees in the darkness.
“Do you think it will be spiders, or something worse,” whispered Sybbyl?”
“Be quiet so that we can hear if anything is approaching,” Rose whispered back.
We stood quietly in the darkness. We had no idea what was approaching, but we could hear foot steps in the trees ahead.
“It’s just us!” a voice called out. It sounded like Emline. “We’ve brought some others with us.” Emeline emerged from the woods followed by Auldaeil. Right behind Auldael was another elf, who was followed by three more people. Behind them a weird mechanical contraption was rolling along the ground.
“Dwarves,” said the new elf and looked over at the contraption that we had all been staring at. “My name is Gilthion. Auldaeil says you got food here.”
We welcomed everyone into camp and sat around the fire. We offered our food to the group that had just come to our camp. They told us a story that we had heard before. Goblins had attacked their village and they had sought refuge in the jungle.
“This is most disturbing,” said Auldaeil. “Rarely do the goblins venture out of their mountain caves. For them to have come this far does not bode well.”
One of the dwarves stood up. “The goblins, while many in number, have never been able to organize themselves. It appears that they are many tribes that have unified under one banner. How else would they be able to crush so many towns in the kingdom?”
It was Ysmay who stood up next and spoke, “We’ve heard now of several towns being raided by the goblins now. Many of us here came escaped certain death at the hands of the goblins who had destroyed our homes. What if fate lead us all to this place so that we could join together to fight the goblins? To stop their rampage across the country side?”
Everyone was quitly watching Ysmay as she spoke. “A goblin army will not move quickly through the jungle. We destroyed the froggies, we can stop the goblins too.”
“The goblins destroyed our town and we had knights there to to fight them. Stone walls too. I don’t think our wooden walls will stop the goblin hordes,” said Tybalt. The group nodded and quietly voiced agreement with what Tybalt had said.
“We can build stronger walls. We can build stronger buildings too so that we can have something more sturdy to live in then these shacks and bamboo huts. What do you think, Walter?” Ysmay stopped talking and looked at me. I became very aware of everyone’s eyes on me.
“Well, uhm, I think that if people are planning to stay here then you should build something stronger, but…”
Ysmay interrupted me before I could continue, “ Walter, tomorrow morning, you and Emeline should look for a good location for us to build a more permanent building.”
The dwarf spoke again, “You’ll be needing lots of materials. I’ve got some stone for trade. I’ve also got some iron, coal and an anvil that I’d be willing to part with.”
Hadron stood up, “An anvil would be great. I can use that iron to smith some armor. That should be helpful should the goblins attack.”
The whole camp by now was talking about how they could contribute to the project. People talked of planting a grove of banana trees to feed a much larger population, and maybe even domesticating some of the animals so that we could eat something other then baked bananas and fish. Anastas and Fendril started discussing what they could make if they had a real work shop. Beatrix and Amelia chatted about having a real kitchen area.
Ysmay stood silently watching and listening. She caught me looking at her and stared back at me. The fire light flickered on her wooden mask, and though I couldn’t see her mouth, I knew she was smiling under that mask.