The New Babylon

A few hours later Grom came back after finding a location at the edge of the tribe’s slum. Nathan’s and the goblins were all ready to move out right away.

After walking for more than an hour carrying all the plundered supplies, the group reached their destination.

It was just a small clearing, reachable by walking a few minutes from the slums in the direction of the forest. But what was special with this place was the presence of a river. The same little river that was near the hunting camp in the forest.

Nathan was satisfied with the place and spoke to the officers still here.

“_ Mourzuk, organize the the goblins, I want them to cut as many trees as possible around the camp. Ste … vie stay with him and direct some goblins to process the wood to make barricades.

_ Yes boss.

_ I want to follow you !

_ No stay, and protect the camp, I will come back soon.

_ Grom ! Round up the injured goblins, they will be treated in the hunting camp. We need to let Nubian Know what happened and to establish a supply line.

_ Yes, boss !

After a few minutes Nathan, Grom, some guards and the injured goblins were walking in the direction of the hunting camp. As they came from the outpost, they used another path along the river, surprisingly they saw a hobgoblin resting near the river. He was cleaning blood on his hand near, there was a little camp with consisting of a small tent and fire with meat roasting. As the group approached, he warily stood up and took the metal axe resting on his hip.

Nathan immediately stopped his troops as the hobgoblin roared.

“_ What are you doing here !?

_ I’m Nathan and those are my injured followers, we are going further along to stream, to rejoin our hunting camp”

Nathan thought for a second before he asked.

“_ If you are alone, you can join us.

_ I wont ! I prefer staying alone than join some vicious cultists.”

Nathan looked a bit dumbstruck before answering

“ _ I’m not a cultist, well I do follow a god-

_ Then stay away you fucker !”

Nathan’s face twitched a bit before calmly continuing.

“ I’m a follower of the god of Memories

_ Who ?

_ It’s not surprising that you don’t know I’m his only adept. Anyway, we will just pass … If you want to join us you can just go down stream where we are constructing a camp”

The hobgoblin looked doubtful but did not move. Nathan nodded and passed around him with the injured.

After a few minutes passed Grom came to Nathan and whispered

‘ The hobgob from earlier is following us boss !’

Nathan looked at him before he stopped the troops again. He turned around and yelled.

“_ if you’re curious you can just come see openly I don’t mind.”

Vorya came out still looking around warily and walked a few meters behind the group.

When they reached the hunting camp Vorya came to a stop when he saw the barricades while grumbling. Nathan turned to him as he opened his mouth.

“_ You can come in if you want, we should have some meat and water.”

The hobgoblin did not respond but still followed. When Nathan came in with the injured, he saw Nubian come to him with a relieved face.

“_Boss ! You are alive ! I was worried when Grom came back with your sword yesterday … You evolved ? And who is this ?”

Nathan explained the situation and entrusted the wounded goblins to Nubian, before he stopped and spoke to him again.

“_ By the way how is the wounded goblin from the previous hunt ?”

Without a word Nubian turned around and pointed to a goblin, who was running around while laughing stupidly.

Nathan looked at the goblin, at Nubian and pointed his finger at the goblin before asking with a dumbstruck face.

“ The hell ? he is fit as a fiddle.”

Nubian nodded as Nathan chortled loudly, still pointing at the now healthy goblin.

As the goblin heard him he turned around to see Nathan’s finger pointing him.

When he saw his boss he immediately started to run in his direction while Nathan thought

‘The hell ! Everyone was like ‘oh he will die’ and here he is running around after what 3 Days ? Are you Jesus mate ?’

When the goblin came, he was a spooked quite a bit by the smiling hobgoblin who grapped it’s should with a wide smile before he found the courage to speak

“_ Boss ? It is Boss right ? See with boss healing ! I’m alive, I can run and fight again !”

Nathan used his most serious face before speaking solemnly to the goblin

“_ From now on your name will be Jesus !

_ Yasu ?

_ Err … Yeah close enough. Well go on with your tasks

_ Yes boss !”

Vorya watched them as they were acting stupidly, and relaxed a bit before he spoke

“_ So, where is the meat you promised ?

_ Well it’s already midday, let’s eat”

While eating Nathan informed Nubian of the new outpost and told him to build some raft to move supplies between the two camp via the river and told him to organize some hunting groups.

As Nathan, and his few remaining goblin left the camp with Vorya, Nathan gifted him a clay pot, a bow and some arrows to hunt. Vorya then spoke to him

“_ I saw your camp … No other hobgoblin would organize their camp like this. Do you want to form your own tribe ?

_ A tribe ?”

Nathan chortled loudly again as he continued

“_ I don’t want to form a tribe; I want a civilization. I want to build a city of stone and arm my troops with steel ! I want to sleep in softs bed behind high walls. I want gold and agriculture to eat as much as I want to. A tribe ? Ah ! Tribes are for the poors and I want luxury.”

Vorya looked at Nathan with surprise, horror and doupt on his face before speaking in a whisper.

“_ Are you mad ? Even if the tribes don’t know what you are doing, their gods will know. They will order their chosen to erase you from existence-

_ The Fake gods can order to whoever they want. They cannot stop me with their goons. Before they realize what is going on, I will already have my walls. Look at how easily I built my camp, only a few days sufficed to do this. Even If I can’t fight the tribe warriors, I doubt anyone in the camp can kill me in my fortified outpost. And I can always flee and try again.

_ You are insane … You said you were a adept of the god of Memory right ? How did it happen.

_ Hum ? He helped me when I was a goblin. You see I had trouble to remember something very dear to me, he heard my pleas he helped. That’s how I became the old man’s first adept.

_ Old m … And what did he ask of you in return ?”

Vorya looked doubtful and wary, clearly not believing in the presence of unconditional good in any gods

_ He asked something very dear to him. He asked of me to share my memories, the memories of my adventure. I’m sure he just found me interesting since he was calling himself a wanderer.

Vorya stopped in his track and thought for a few long minutes in silence, before he spoke again.

“_ Yes, he has a point. You are interesting, the insane kind of interesting … I will follow you, but only for bit I want to know more about what you will build. Still ! I will not risk my life for you.

_ Do what you want.”

Nathan concluded as they walked along the stream, when they reached Vorya’s camp they took his belongings to bring them back to the outpost.

When they reached the camp Vorya could see goblins hard at work. They were crafting stones axe, felling trees, processing wood and building barricades around the camp.

Nathan came to Mourzuk directed him to build some wood houses too before going to work with the rest of the goblins to cut wood.

Vorya looked at his metal axe before he took it out wordlessly to follow but Nathan stopped him.

“_ Don’t use it, go take a stone axe. It’s your weapons use it to defend yourself only.

_ Yes … boss”

Vorya answered, the last part in a whisper.