Steem Monsters Common Card Fantasy Story Contest! // Week 6

Steem Monsters Common Card Fantasy Story Contest- The Goblin Shaman

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This is my entry for the Steem Monsters Common Card Fantasy Story Contest! // Week 6, hosted by @steemmonsters.

Yerug’s Vision

I sat on the cold, hard, stone bench and awaited my turn to speak. This case had become a kangaroo court, and the goblin leaders had made sure of it. I watched as Representative Esvuc held his hands to the sky as he described my height.

It was true I was larger than the other goblins, but that didn’t make me a monster. The accusations against me were preposterous and the tiny goblin knew that. Still he laid claim after claim that because of my grotesque, sturdy nature I should not be allowed my freedom.

My mother was an orc. To me, she was the sweetest woman in the world. She met my father at a festival and although he was not but three feet tall, my mother fell in love with the rude, foul-mouthed goblin and soon after I was born.

There was a lot of stigma over inter-racial marriages in the goblin town of Gnaanxea, and even more over inter-racial breeding. My father tried to keep us secret, but once the goblins knew I was living in their town, they banished our family to live in the outer woods of the red splinter.

It was in these woods that I grew up with my orc mother and goblin father secluded and undisturbed by most of the world. My mother sewed for a living, and my father mined down in the quarry every day. We didn’t have much, but we survived with a little help from friends and sometimes family.

I learned I was essentially a bridge from one realm to another when I was a young goblin. I felt this power calling out to me; pulling me from this world into another. The first time I felt the energy was when I fell ill as a child. The fever had gotten so bad I was losing consciousness. I could hear my mother singing songs to me, and my father pacing the floor.

But my mind and body were being taken to another realm; one I couldn’t explain to my parents. It was as if I was given a special power; to serve a greater purpose. Once I was healthy again, I began my training as a shaman.

I felt this power the strongest when I was alone. As I grew I would spend more and more time alone in the woods. There, I would leave this world and visit the one beyond. I could talk to nature as if I was speaking to another being. I heard the cries of the winds and the laughter of the trees.

It was during one of my visualizations that I saw the coming darkness. It was like a black cloud that covered the entire red splinter. The thunder rumbled, and the lighting struck; sending never ending flames upon the land.

The vision was so real that I was shaking with fear. When I opened my eyes, all was as it should be, but I could sense this nightmare was soon to come to the red splinter. I could still hear the cries of the people and see the consuming fires that would take over the land.

I immediately told my parents, but they just shook their heads and laughed. I didn’t know what to do, but I forced myself to go back to the dream to learn more about my calling. Surely, I was given this vision for a reason…. There had to be a way to stop the pending doom.

As I searched the land of consuming fire I could see the dark, sinful spirits that seemed to come out of the ashes. They were fueled by the shadowy clouds above that sent down the flames. I walked further and could see the swirling funnel from which the clouds originated. It seemed to be coming from a home not far from my own.

Further still I walked the burning streets and came upon the door of the house. Inside I could hear the screams of the residents as the spirits devoured them along with the flames. The thunder increased and shook the ground beneath my feet. I knew I had found the source of the curse.

When I opened the door, the spirits cried at me with menacing and gruesome howls. I focused on the vision and ignored their foul, discontent pleas. The shadows did nothing to help my sight, but I followed the glow on the floor with my head down.

Finally, I stepped into a room that glowed with light. Before me was a normal alter of the goblin residents complete with candles and charms. In the center was a necklace with inscriptions and symbols I did not recognize.

I opened my eyes and knew exactly what I had to do. I needed to find this necklace before the vision came to pass. I left my home in the woods and visited the plagued home of the dream. The goblins living there claimed to know nothing, told me their son was visiting the black splinter, and that he would return in a few days.

I felt a sense of urgency telling me I could not wait a few days. I needed to find their son Frebis before he brought the necklace back to Gnaanxea. I traveled through ways of portals and found Frebis in the darkest parts of the black splinter.

He wasn’t the most respectable of goblins, and that was saying a lot considering all goblins were dreadful little creatures. What happened to him was regrettable and had I known what was to come, I would have never urged Frebis to find the necklace for me.

“Yerug, you are a goblin shaman is that correct?” Representative Esvuc asked when I was finally called to tell my side of the story.

“Yes. I began practicing the art when I was young.” I said.

“And, you claim that you saw a terrifying hallucination during one of your so-called ‘vision quests’ that showed the destruction of Gnaanxea. Is this also correct.”

“Yes.”

“So, is that why you traveled to the black splinter to track down Frebis and murder him in cold blood?”

“No.”

“You didn’t track Frebis down because of your vision quest?”

“Yes. I did. But I didn’t kill him in cold blood.”

“Then who did?”

“The Lord of Darkness.” I mumbled.

Laughter filled the courtroom.

“You want every goblin here to believe the Lord of Darkness killed Frebis, when every witness today has testified that you were the last one to see Frebis alive? We may not all be knowledgeable in the ways of being a shaman Yerug, but we don’t hear a lot of stories about them tracking down poor innocent goblins and then vaporizing their bodies.”

“I tell you that had I not destroyed the necklace, certain destruction would have befallen Gnaanxea and the entire red splinter.”

“But certain destruction did not befall us, instead it befell this young, unsuspecting, beloved goblin. The entire town of Gnaanxea can feel the loss of such an honorable goblin, and it is of urgent nature that we detain this orc-goblin monstrosity in prison until he dies of old age.”

“I tell you I didn’t kill Frebis. When I mentioned the necklace Frebis jumped at the opportunity to find it. He said it would be worth money to the right buyer. I warned him not to sell it once we found it, but he wouldn’t listen. He found an audience with the Lord of Darkness and offered to trade the necklace for a castle of gold.”

“So, then you killed Frebis, took the necklace and then kept the treasure for yourself. You see the atrocities keep adding up.”

“No. I tell you the Lord of Darkness laughed at Frebis and vaporized him with his flaming whip. The necklace fell to the ground and I grabbed it before the Lord of Darkness noticed. I used my elemental destruction spell to crush the necklace into particles that floated away in the wind. I barely got away with my own life!”

“That is truly an amazing story Yerug, but no one here believes it. There’s no proof that the Lord of Darkness vaporized Frebis. The only proof we have is that you are the cause of his death.”

I was not imprisoned by the town, instead I was cast out of Gnaanxea once again as a young adult and told to never come back. The farthest woods of the red splinter were not far enough this time. As it were I feared the Lord of Darkness would be looking for me, not knowing if the necklace was still intact. If nothing else I assume he plots his revenge.

I decided I was better off hiding in the mountains of the red splinter where the natives minded their own business and never asked me about mine. I can live here in peace, surrounded by the nature I love and that runs through my shaman veins. I practice my skills by conjuring lighting and using the elements at my will.

Growing up as an outcast, I learned it is better to be out of sight and out of mind. But I haven’t lost the fever or the power I received as a child. I am waiting for my chance to defeat the cursed darkness and I believe I have only delayed the inevitable.

I know in my heart that I did the right thing by finding and destroying that necklace, and I will live knowing Frebis did not die in vain. His greedy mind allowed his fate, but somehow saved the town of Gnaanxea and the entire red splinter from destruction.

As the clouds darken I use the strength of my first vision quest to fuel the desire that I must right the wrongs. I am called to soothe the calamity of the world that I am damned to live while also mediating the powers between.

For me that is a life worth living.

The End