The Pyle Inside

Thiro was returning from a hunting trip to the little cave that he called his home. It was finally sunny after weeks of raining. He felt relieved that he would finally be home and be able to rest in his own bed. As he rounded the bend, he looked at the well worn trail of grass and trees that ran over his cave and high upon the trail was a group of goblins, digging into the path right above the entrance. Thiro ran to stop them, but they just laughed, knocked him down, and one snarled, “Did we anger you deary?”  Now, Thiro was a mix between a dwarf and a giant (a story for another time) and being called deary is a major no-no when it comes to giants, but unheard of when it comes to dwarves. So yes, it can be assumed that he was angry. Not that the goblins could have known because he was of neither giant height, nor dwarf height and was not very strong, so he was rather the opposite of his genealogy. He wore leather boots and a long cloak with a hood and sheath for his sword, but the cloak was mainly for show and didn’t protect from the cold because when it was cold he was always in his cave. But Thiro was as mad as the arrival of all annoyed aardvarks of asmetevig.

He spat at the goblins, “You don’t know who you’re messing with, I happen to have great stature in my society,” and he took a magnificent swing of his sword and magnificently missed. Luckily for Thiro, before he embarrassed himself even more, it was right at that time that his friends Oxy and Smoxy Loxy decided to visit him. Thiro decided to ditch the goblins and go to his friends, Oxy and Smoxy a ways off. Oxy and Smoxy were about Thiro’s height and they had on pointed hats, Oxy with a sword and shield on his belt, Smoxy with a few daggers under his cloak.

Oxy chuckled, “Lookie here, did someone forget to pay their roof taxes?”

“You’re lucky I like you Oxy, otherwise I would knock off your head as well,” Thiro said

Because he and his brother Smoxy had been sent to help them, Oxy decided not to continue this argument and point out that Thiro hadn’t hit anyone’s heads. Who sent them isn’t an issue. Thiro thought he’d invite them in, then reckoned he couldn’t because now there was no “in.”  For this reason the threesome decided (after much convincing on the part of Thiro to get the Loxy’s to help him on this unknown idea of a quest) to follow the goblins to their lair, a fair distance away.  Running short on time, it can be safe to say that they traveled by map to the goblin’s lair and the journey was uneventful. They camped out the night before they decided to attack right outside of the goblins lair, a dirt entrance to a dirt cave with a glimmer of a torch coming from inside and soft incantations and chants barely audible from the mouth of the cave.  Come morning, when the goblins were just waking up, they decided to charge with swords held high. Smoxy did not think just charging, bull at matador into the fray was a good idea. On the other hand, it seemed to work out A ok.Then, just before dawn, when the sky was a navy blue, they bolted through the goblin’s cave. The goblins only had on simple animal skin toga like clothing, and there was no head goblin, so they got disorganized quickly. Smoxy and Oxy each knocked one down, but had quickly been knocked out by a pair of swarming goblins, who then encircled Thiro. To see his friends go smRUNCH   on the ground made his blood boil with rage. Mightily he swung his sword to knock hit the remaining goblins and knocked out all that he could see, but he missed one who had been recovering from a previous blow. Thiro then thought about the last time he slept and couldn’t remember, so he knelt to rest. All of a sudden, with a klank his world went black.