fused, Simon closed the door and rebarred it, the down against it, ma hand. He only meant to rest his eyes a bit until whatever had tried to get in before, tried again. When he opened his eyes again it was to the sound of m birdsong, sunbeams shooting through the dusty room from the cracks in the shutters.
He got up and stretched, feeling stiff and wishing he’d spent the night ochy straw mattress rather than the floor, but there was nothing for it now. He grabbed the stale end of the loaf of bread and slowly ghrough it as he opehe door to look outside. Everything was exactly where he’d left it. It was a beautiful m in a picturesque ndscape. You’d never know that there’d been something evil about stalking him and trying to slit his throat while he slept. Simon wandered slowly around the small , looking at the footprints that were left behind in the dust. They were like tiny human footprints with long cws, which could mean only ohing - goblins.
He finished his cklust breakfast and grabbed the only remaining food that didn’t o be cooked: a sad and bruised apple, then he belted on his sword, picked up the crossbow, a for a walk. He couldn’t see the individual tracks in the grass, but this early the dew was still heavy ohing and he could see how a small group of goblins had trampled a path through the tall grass into the woods. At least he hoped it was a small group. He had no real way of judging that, but he was only fident in his ability to deal with three or four at a time - any more than that and he’d have to go back to the to get armor.
The path led to the edge of the nearby woods and then disappeared into the underbrush. Onside the forest the grass became sparse and patchy and the under opy area was dominated by brambles and a thick yer of wet leaves. Simon didn’t kly where they went from here, but they seemed like zy, disgusting creatures to him, so odds were good they’d taken the shortest path back to their yer. With that in mind he kept going straight, sing the horizon from left tht fns of an ambush.
He found nothing, and even though he searched carefully for ten mihere wasn’t a trace of them. He stopped on top of a hill to rest, very izant of the fact that he o turn around soon or risk getting lost himself. While he sat there Simon picked up a few pebbles and started tossing them o a time on a nearby boulder jutting out of the far side of the hill. The first two missed, but the third and fourth bounced off it with a satisfying plink that echoed among the trees. It was only wheossed the fifth that something strange happened. It bounced off the li covered face closest to Simon, but when it bounced back it made another plink, followed by another, and then a third. Each of the noises got more distant and echoey like his pebble had gone down a well or something, so he got up to iigate.
Oher side of the hill he found a natural cave leading into the hill. Simon had no light, so he couldn’t go io iigate, but the smell told him all he o know. After fighting itle bastards on the goblin floor a couple times he would reize that sulfurous stink anywhere. He sidered waiting around and shooting the first oo poke its head out of the hole as a warning to the others, but eventually decided against it for two reasons. The first was that he didn’t actually know if all of the goblins had returo the cave and the st thing he wao do was find himself surrounded when another hunting party came back. The sed was more ing though; shooting one in the head would be the equivalent of kig a hor's , when everyone khat leaving it alone was always the right idea. If he had a stick of dynamite or a fireball spell he could blow the entrance shut, but as it was, one or two dead goblins wouldn’t ge anything.
At least he knew where they were now, he thought, bag away slowly. That was a small victory, he decided, as he left the forest the way he came. If the goblins got to be really troublesome than he could take care of them, but for now that was more trouble than it was worth. Now all he o do was take care of his other little problem and light a fire, to cook those sausages, and it was going to be a great day.
Simo hours with the k of flint and a steel dagger, but he couldn’t caty of the logs on fire. Eventually he decided that it wasn’t actually flint at all and it went outside to rub the sticks together. That didn’t work either though. He never even got a hint of smoke, and only rubbed his hands raw for his trouble. In the end he was forced to eat the apple, then the cheese, and finally the apple core because he was still hungry and there was nothing else to eat. He wished he had youtube here so he could watch a few videos on making a fire. He was sure that if someone expi to him properly it would be easy.
At one point Simon even got so desperate that he asked the mirror, “Do you know how I use flint and steel to start a fire?”
Predictably the mirror only answered the question with its favorite phrase. “I have no knowledge of how to start fires.”
As the su again though he was eventually plunged into the dark without a way to fend it off. This time though he slept with his boots on and the crossbow loaded on the chair in front of the door just in case there eat of st night. He had some trouble drifting off to sleep because of hunger pangs. Only having half a meal over the course of the whole day was hard on him, but he mao work through it aually fell asleep.
. . .
It turned out that there was another disturbahough and sometime after midnight he was awoken by something trying to pry open the shutters. This time though there was a flickering light outside. Simon hopped up, lifted the crossbow and opehe front door almost gracefully sidering he did it in a pitch ba. This time he surprised 3 goblins that looked like they were attempting to use a crude torch to light his on fire and smoke him out. All of them were armed with crude ons, but Simon smiled as he looked at how startled they were, because he had the initiative. He aimed and shot quicker this time, pung right through the goblin o him before partially peing the goblin standing behind it. The third one made no effort to avenge his dead and dying panions - it just took off running into the dark while the injured one screamed in pain. It tried to lu Simon, but it couldn’t because it was still pio a corpse.
Simon didn’t care about the runner. He didn’t even care about killing the ohat was bleeding out really. All he really cared about was the torch they’d dropped o him. The fact that they’d had a clever pn to smoke him out didn’t disturb him much, but the fact that they could make fire to do it while he was still frustrated by the ck of that skill really pissed him off. That’s what he was thinking about when he pulled out his long sword and struck the goblin’s head from its shoulders. Ohat was done he eagerly grabbed that torch before it could gutter out in the growing pool of goblin blood. Simon would move those bodies in the m - right now he had a fire to build and sausages to cook.
With the torch he eventually mao get the logs to catch fire, and before long he was roasting the sausages on his dagger. The first one came out a little burnt, but the sed one was just right, and for the first time all day Simon’s belly was satisfied. He added more wood to the fire before he went to sleep so that he'd still have some coals left in the m, and tried to enjoy a sed round of slumber before the sun woke him up again.
. . .
The m was great. Simon woke up well rested and fed sometime before ten, if this world had mao i clocks yet, and for the first time since he went into the pit he felt happy and aplished. He was overing all sorts of obstacles on his own, and it satisfied him more than pung a time card ever had. For a few minutes he allowed himself to fantasize about what life would be like if he just stayed like this. If instead of going back down to fight rats and skeletons he just blew up the goblin ir, he just stayed up here and led a simple, quiet life.
Simon imagihe meadow, not as it was, but as it could be, with the grass and wildflowers verted into fertile fields and pasture nd. He imagihe split rail fehat ly separated the cows from the sheep and the plots of and wheat that he’d use to feed his chis for fresh eggs and the meat that he would one day learn how to fry just so he could appreciate nuggies in a world that had yet to i fast food.
It was a beautiful dream, until he realized that no matter what he did some ogre would e out of the mountains and devour his herd, or aribe of goblins would appear and burn the pce down. It’s true that this could be a beautiful little farming game with a little work, but the goddess would never let him off the hook that easily. That revetion made him hate life a little more, and it was the taste of ashes in his mouth that led him to finally get out of bed and face the day.
Simon did very little for the rest of the day once he’d devoured the sausages besides dragging the goblin corpses a good ways into the woods before they attracted crows. Now that he was totally out of food he’d have to go back down those awful stairs, but at least it would be on his terms. He yed out the equipmeake with him and even mao recock the crossbow on the first try. Once all that was done he went to sleep again. He could put it off the fight one more night, and head out first thing in the m. After all - now that he’d scared off those damn goblins he might as well enjoy one night of uninterrupted sleep, right? Really, the only problem with that pn that he could see was that it cked breakfast, but he’d make due somehow.
Sadly Simon was uo enjoy the sleep he'd promised himself, because sometime in the middle of the night they were back, and this time they were louder than before. He sighed, and got out of bed mumbling, “Won’t these assholes ever learn?” He grabbed the crossbow, loaded it, and opehe door for a repeat performance, but instead he was shocked by what he saw. There weren't just three of them like there was st time. There were over a dozen. And one of them was bigger than the rest and dressed like some kind of crazy shaman. Simon raised his crossbooi at that one, but as soon as they noticed the door en, the goblin leader turowards him, barked a couple awful words that hurt his ears to hear and a jet of fire shot out from it’s hand like it was the goblin emperor using force lightning or something.
Simon only just mao sm the door shut to avoid getting his face melted off, but he had no doubt in his mind that the whole side of the was on fire now. He’d finally gotten to see magic though. That meant it really ossible in this world. If it ossible then there had to be a way for him to learn it tht? Soon the small one room was filling with smoke and the shutters were shuddering under repeated attacks from goblin ons. Thinking fast Simon pulled the bed aside, opehe trap door, and started throwing everything he was going to need down into the pit. He almost jumped down to join them when the fmes on the roof started lig their way around the edge of the ceiling, but he suddenly realized he’d fotteorches he’d o deal with the sed floor.
As soon as he lit one of those though he ractically running dowairs and shutting the trap door behind him. The air up there was rapidly being uhable and for once he'd rather face the rats dowhan the world up there.
