BWG 3.- A boy named Bulky

This is the third "chapter" in my “A boy, a dire wolf, and a goblin“ story.
Previous Item: "2 Slavers and worse"   by etelan

Guessing the riders' defeat, the slaver guards on foot, formed into a circle of spears and shields. The slaves flew away, in panic, for the goblins were coming, and what to be worse than having a goblin for master? The first sign was the barking of the wargs, still unseen, behind the slopes. The slavers' schitron1 wavered, and even one of them dropped his weapons and ran, but the rest remain, staying put together, waiting for the relaxed arrival of their enemies.

“Gurrr!” The slavers shouted the war cry of Sauvassonne, gathering courage from wherever they could find it, For theirs could be an ignoble death, defeated by goblins while driving children to slavery. Nay, the'd rather evoke the fantasy of a veteran regiment; Sauvassonne's last hope.

Quietness befall as the goblin war band closed in, as wolves in a hunt. Don Alonso, the goblin warlord, uttered a single order: “Whirl”; then he withdrew to where a broken rock stood, and dismounted. Both Lobo and him could use a little rest and watch the show. And what a show it turned out to be: the goblins: warg riders, skirmishers and infantry calmly engulfed the humans. Then, and only then, they started pelting stones at the humans, run, gallop, feinting a charge, throwing a javelin or two, withdrawing and then coming back at them again, howling for a minute, and then falling completely silent. It was a chaotic order with two simple rules: keep out of the humans' reach, but not give them hope or respite.

Lobo barked.

“Not now“, his master replied, “the day's not over yet.”

Lobo sat down, quite content with his rest. It was a bit odd that this fatty kid was sitting next to him. Thank you for not eating me up, Oribio whispered, and Lobo gave the boy's cheek a giant lick. Then, they both hushed down, for quite a while.

“¡Victoria, Santa Madre de Dios, ganamos!” The goblin cried out in Sureño. “Did you see that ol' pal?” Don Alonso froze at the sight of the human boy sitting down calmly by Lobo's terrible shape.

Two hundred meters away the bandits had dropped their weapons amid goblin cheering. They were immediately disrobed and bound by the goblins on foot, while the warg riders rushed to go after the runaway slaves.

“Boy! What are you doing here?”

Oribio stood up to answer. “Waiting to present myself to your mercy”. Oribio's words were good sureñan manners, “your mercy” being a formal way of address, if old fashioned. This pleased the goblin lord, who relived the sureñan stories of his boyhood.

“But why didn't you run away?”

The boy struggled to find the words “I don't... I'm sorry. It's just that I'm too tired to run.”

“Anyhow, you'll serve us well... Bulky. I'm naming you Bulky, so remember it. Be obedient, be loyal and we'll care for you. Now, come with me, there's some loot to share.”

A band of friendly dwarf slavers

Tharbal Steðyahammar, the dwarf, shared Sir Chains profession, if through tad more legal ways. He bought the “merchandise” where it was cheap and sold where the demand was high. Goblins, orcs, humans, drows, halflings, and anybody else, of any age, color or disposition, even other dwarfs, could end up in his lot, as long as the trade looked legal enough.

Life was sweet for Tharbal back then. Two scores of guards accompanied him on the expedition, together with another six which added to that responsibility the burden of trading and administrative work. Some eight trusted slaves cared for the needs of the captives, which, before his meeting with Don Alfonso, already reached two hundred and six.

There's no question this was an arranged meeting. As in his usual understanding, the goblin dispatched a rider with the good news; the two groups meeting at some designated point. This took place two days after the victory. Don Alfonso traded his captives for the goblins in Tharbal's care and a small chest of coins; enough to keep his clan fed for winter.

Don Alfonso kept Bulky in the clan. The boy thanked St Valeria for that. To his amazement, he felt safer among those goblins than any possible human masters. Hadn't the “knight” robbed him of everything? Well, Don Alfonso have bought him a replacement from the dwarfs. Yeah, it was second hand, mended and not thoroughly clean, but also durable and practical.

Sir Chains' fate

“Shortly after the goblins went out of sight, Sir Chains, approached the Dwarf Master.

“Do you know who I am?

“I do, Slave 208-A-Z4B, so?

Sir Chain's face turned red, his chained fists clenched firmly. “You must know that my true name is Sir Rendeval, my father can pay a hefty ransom for me and some of my men.”

“I know, so?

“What are you doing? Barter?”

“Not really, I'm not interested. I’d rather trust a viper’s mouth than your word and I know you'll do a nice price in any market. Sauvassonne is grand on this season, I’ve been told.”

“Are you in your sane mind? We have both done this before, the black markets would only provide with a pittance. And you want to sell us legally, and in Sauvassonne where everyone knows me.”

“Why not? Those unfortunate kids right there are my witnesses, I'm rescuing them from the goblins, and your treacherous bandits. Am I not? With any luck their cities will reward me for this feat and honor me. You see even humans would respect a dwarf that saved their wee ones from beasts like you. I’ll be known as Frinkil, the friendly dwarf, the honest slaver, nay, the hero. I kinda like that. But you're a bandit, by law I could get you killed or send you to the court to be ashamed before the whole of Sauvassonne and then endure the reward given to a traitor. Is it crucifixion, impalement or something of the sort I believe. Be on your knees thank your god that your own laws allow me to enslave bandits. Now, shut up, you know what happens when you abuse a slaver's patience.”

Sir Rendeval, who had gone by the same of Sir Chains played nice and kept quiet. “Surely,” he thought, “my father will send someone to buy me, and once free, I'll make a little adjustment or two.”

Next chapter: "BWG 4 Plans, dreams and follies" 

Footnotes
1  A medieval defensive formation, described earlier as a circle of spears and shields.