23

Morning came without incident. I caught a few hours sleep but woke up as soon as the fire began to die out, an hour or two before sunrise. I gathered more wood and kept the fire going until the sky had brightened enough for us to see by. Mirisa slept more than I did, but by the look on her face, she didn't get very much rest.

"How do you feel?" I asked.

Mirisa blinked and looked out across the snowy hills with bleary eyes. "Hungry," she said. "And my side hurts from sleeping on the ground."

"You want to get going right away?"

"Yes, let's just get out of here," she said with a tired sigh.

I kicked snow over the fire and scattered the glowing embers with my boot until I was sure it was burned out. Mirisa wrapped her oversized parka tightly around herself and walked out toward the river, shivering in the cold breeze. There was no snow today though, and the sky was a clear blue. I put my hand on the hilt of my sword and stepped away from the rocks, and Mirisa turned to say something to me.

But instead, her eyes went wide and she quickly pointed up over my head at the hills farther up the shoreline. "Sasha!" she cried in fright.

I spun around and saw what she was pointing at, and immediately drew my sword, cursing our bad luck. Coming down the hill were six small figures dressed in ratty furs and wielding short swords, but they were not humans. They were only about three feet tall, and had mottled blue skin and beady eyes under a large brow, with greasy black hair hanging down the sides of their faces.

"Snow goblins," Mirisa whimpered, backing away.

"Rieklings," I swore. "What in the hell are they doing here?"

"They don't normally come this far south," Mirisa said in a panic. "There are too many, what are we going to do?"

They came down the hill quickly, half of them circling to the right and the rest going left, until they were on both sides of us. They chittered and babbled in their goblin language, and I snatched a few words from the nonsense.

"Women, easy to kill," one of them snarled in its own language.

"Taste good maybe," another snickered, licking its sharp teeth and waving its sword in front of it threateningly.

I quickly pulled one of my knives from my belt and handed it to Mirisa, who took it hesitantly. "Do you have any training at all?" I asked.

"No," Mirisa said, tears starting to run down her cheeks, looking frantically at the rieklings as they surrounded us. "Oh Gods, I don't believe this. You saved me just for both of us to die out here."

"We aren't dead yet," I said darkly, staring at the rieklings as they came closer. "I'll take out the first couple, but if they come after you, just run for it. You should be able to outrun them."

"Okay," Mirisa said, gripping the knife.

I turned slowly, as Mirisa and I both started backing up toward the river, making the nasty little goblins chitter and laugh louder as they encircled us. I was just waiting for them to get close enough, slowly swinging my sword through the air in practice.

I knelt down briefly, plucked a throwing knife from my boot, and then shot up and hurled the knife with all my strength. It whipped through the air and struck the closest riekling right between the eyes, hitting with a loud crack as the blade split through his skull, knocking his head back as he toppled over backwards.

Before the others even could react, I was already on them, leaping forward in a blur and slashing my sword down at an angle. One of the rieklings shrieked and tried to block my sword, but I bashed his blade aside and the tip of my sword carved right through his chest, slicing him from shoulder to hip. He flew backwards and then collapsed, blood erupting from his chest, and he was dead before he hit the ground.

The other two rieklings on my side howled in rage and ran at me, while the other two ran after Mirisa, who screamed in terror and ran for it. I didn't have time to watch her, and I just prayed that she could run faster than the rieklings, who might not be able to keep up with her with their shorter legs.

I slashed left and right, keeping the first riekling at bay, and then twirled around and dodged a clumsy attempt by the other one to stab me in the back. I danced away from them, but they kept moving to opposite sides, trying to flank me. I had fought rieklings a few times back in Skyrim and knew how they fought. They usually relied on simply outnumbering their opponents. Rieklings could be fast and sneaky, but these ones were not expert swordsmen, and despite their advantage over me, I was too fast for them.

I lunged forward, knocking the first riekling's blade back, and jammed my sword into his throat. Blood gushed up and he slapped his hand over the wound, dropping his sword and staggering back, staring with shocked eyes at the blood spurting from in between his stubby fingers.

The other one rushed me and I barely managed to jump out of the way, but his sword slashed down and glanced across my forearm, sending a tremor of pain up to my shoulder. I immediately switched my sword to my other hand and deflected two other rapid swipes, before the riekling came in too fast and went off balance, giving me space to dive in and bury my sword up to the hilt in his stomach.

He gurgled and went down, and I yanked the blade free, splattering blood across the frozen ground. And then I turned and ran after Mirisa, shouting her name, hoping she might hear me and try to turn around. I could only hope she might be able to lead the rieklings back in this direction.

I ran along the shore and then followed their footprints in the snow up the nearest hill, dashing in between trees, panting for breath, holding my injured arm close to my chest and praying that Mirisa was still alive.

Over the next ridge, in the middle of the grove of trees, I saw her desperately trying to fend off the two other rieklings, swinging her knife around wildly, sobbing in fear. They flanked her, just as the others had done to me, and Mirisa cried out, trying to back away from them.

My arm was almost numb, the sleeve of my jacket soaked with blood, but I managed to pull out my other throwing knife as I ran, and as soon as I reached the top of the ridge and got close enough, I hurled the knife with a nearly numb hand.

It flipped through the air unevenly, but miraculously found its target, striking right in the middle of the first riekling's back. He shrieked and fell to his knees, flopping down into the snow. The other riekling hissed and jumped at Mirisa, stabbing his sword into her side. She screamed and fell backward, clutching her stomach.

I was on him then, slashing furiously with my sword, unable to get a good handle because I was using my weaker hand. My other arm hung limply at my side, blood dripping from my fingertips.

The riekling snarled at me, baring his sharp teeth, and lunged forward, aiming for my stomach, but I parried his blow and tried to counter-attack, but was not fast enough, and he scurried away, snarling and spitting at me, cursing in his goblin language. Spit flew from his lips and he charged again.

I was exhausted from all the running, and my wounded arm was slowing me down, distracting me. I managed to block his strikes, but he always dodged my counter-attacks before I had time to get at him. And I was slowing down, panting hard for breath.

The riekling was tired too, but he could see that I was wounded and it encouraged him, so he kept attacking me, just waiting for the perfect time when my arm would grow too tired and I would not be able to block his attacks any longer.

I had to end this. I allowed my sword to drop a few inches and backed away, loudly gasping for breath. The riekling snickered evilly and rushed forward again, slashing at my stomach.

My sword jumped up and knocked his blade away, the edge of his blade skipping just over my shoulder, so close I could almost feel the gouged edge snag on my hair. I couldn't get my own sword up fast enough to stab him, but I brought it up and pushed hard, knocking him back. Then I dropped my own sword and reached up to grab his arm, knocking him to the ground and falling on top of him.

"Nasty human!" he snarled. "Kill you! Eat you!"

We struggled in the snow, fighting over the sword, and the riekling snapped and howled, sinking his teeth into the flesh of my numb hand. I barely felt the pain, and instead slammed my shoulder into his chest, pushing him down as I twisted his arm. He screamed and punched at me but he could not get any leverage on me, and I finally bent his arm back enough that he was forced to let go of the sword. I snatched it up and rolled away.

The riekling snarled and spat, and jumped up after me. But before he could make a move, I swung the sword up and buried the blade in his skull, splitting his head open. He stopped dead and then fell over. I let go the sword, and he hit the ground with it still lodged in his head.

My whole body ached, and my arm was completely numb now, blood soaked all the way from my elbow to my hand, which was torn open from the riekling's sharp teeth and bleeding freely as well. I managed to get to my feet and limped over to Mirisa.

She was sitting up against the base of a tree, crying pathetically and whimpering, her trembling hands held over the large bloody spot on the front of her parka. Her face was streaked with tears, and the snow underneath her was streaked with blood.

"I tried to run," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry, I'm sorry Sasha."

"It's okay," I said weakly, slumping into the snow beside her. "They're all dead. We just have to make it back to the fort. We can make it."

"I can't, he stabbed me, I can't stop the bleeding. It hurts so much"

"Just put pressure on it," I said, looking down at the blood all over her. I knew that the stab wound could not have been that deep, because otherwise she would probably already be dead. The large amount of blood made the wound seem worse than it was, but the blood loss was not a good sign.

"I can cut some rags from their clothing, we can stop the bleeding," I said. "It won't be easy, but we can make it."

"I'm going to die," Mirisa cried uncontrollably. "I don't want to die, I'm so scared, I don't want to die like this."

She closed her eyes tightly and cried, tears streaming down her face. Her hands, coated with blood, could not keep pressure on her wound because they were shaking so bad.

I put my hand on hers and leaned over her, speaking calmly in her ear. "You're not going to die, I promise you. But we have to stop the bleeding first. And we can't stay here, the bodies will attract wolves."

But she didn't listen to me, and just kept crying, as her blood dripped out onto the cold, white snow.