The village fire was no longer high enough to create the joyful dancing shadows on the straw huts, making just a small illumination over the terrain and in the trees.. The children warmed themselves and still had fun at the celebration food, while the adults couldn`t have that privilege.
The goblins started to have issues. Grik never came back from the Stone Forest, Rakk didn`t come for his food portion and the trio of guards didn`t return from looking for him.
"Rakk is slow," one warrior laughed, poking the fire with a jagged stick. "He fears the shadows of the leaves. He—" His voice was cut off by an elder sitting on a grand chair.
The Big Shaman was nervously stroking his beard while the hunters prepared their spears.
They all were preparing for the possibility, that the late goblins are all already dead. And they can be soon too.
The fire hissed and puffed smoke, creating a light that shined up until the end of the path they used to go into the forest with.
And at the end of it, was a figure. And when the abrupt flash ended, they couldn`t see anything suspicious anymore.
But they smell hit them in the nose still. A heavy iron-rich scent of blood.
Goblin blood.
All of the hunters stopped what they were doing and starred at the path.
The shaman was piercing the darkness with his gaze to see what was coming.
And what came from the trees was a dark figure, now covered in a dark orange glow of the fire, and with skin that did not reflect the flames like any other fur. It was tall, mostly black but the end of its arms and face was pale as bone, with black hair or leather covering its entire body. 2 reddish pupils shined through the darkness while it came closer.
In left hand it carried Vig, one of the most brave and experienced hunter the village had, and one of the three that came looking for Rakk.
Vig`s head was hanging low, and not breathing. His feet were making two long burrows in the dirt.
"The White One" Hunters started to whisper and tremble at the sight of the creature.
The White One, creature of myth and bedtime stories for kids, was very clearly and definitively not mythically walking right into the village center.
Thud was heard very loudly as Vig`s body hit the floor. Many hunters swallowed loudly maybe for the last time in their lives. The White One was coming closer.
One of the goblins broke, and with a feared voice shrieked with his stone spear pointed forward. He ran at the creature in front of him.
"BIHHARR NO!!" A voice of old wisdom shouted out before any other brat could realize it.
But..it was too late. The White One didn`t even take his eyes off of the Shaman, while he moved like a flash of silver within a green mist. Only a soft sound of the hunter holding his throat while a blood stream was coming out between his fingers.
Knives and arrows went flying towards the creature, all of them only to miss the never-still blur the White One now was.
The Big Shaman finally stepped up from his chair and grabbed angrily his spine-adorned staff. Atop of it sat a gray jewel, that started to shine brightly in rhythm and colors of the fireplace.
He huddled over to get a closer look at the enemy, and without hesitation nor care for his younger tribe members, screamed out the words of power.
"KHAR-ZUKKA"
The jewel erupted in a kaleidoscope of bright red, fiery orange and yellow glow, only to be instantly covered in smoke. But from within the smoke a screaming ball of orange flames flew out like night comet became a small sun for the Shaman to command.
The miniature sun flew by the goblin hunters and into the White One...`s shadow and struck a straw hut where it was on. The dry branches and vine ropes burst into flames and they to dust, all in a matter of seconds.
Among the fire and smoke, standing on embers made from goblin flesh, was their enemy. And finally, after deaths of friends and magic spell, spears thrown and blood bled, they managed to make him .. ..smaller.
The White One was now hunched over, fire reflecting in its eyes and his hair smoking. It looked at the shaman only to point his silver fang at him and then very very slowly.
It started to back away with careful steps all while still glaring at the shaman.
Step after step, coal bones and embers were crushed beneath his feet.
On the other side the Shaman still pointed the staff at it.
"GO. AWAY" he said with confidence and no fear at all, while the staff of fire pointed it`s eye towards the creature.
The White One turned to the trees and walked past the bushes.
As a last look of it, it turned its cold red eyes towards the shaman with a promise.
A promise, that his is not over. It is not finished. And they are not safe from it.
And then it blended into the night forest. Gone without a trace,
The Shaman wiped a string of black bile from his chin, his eyes never leaving the spot where the white hair had vanished. The jewel on his staff went back to smoke gray color, leaving the village in the natural orange glow of burning wood.
The children huddled around the old goblin, small hands reached for his robes, trembling and whimpering like one big shaky organizm.
"Is it gone, Big Shaman? "
"SHAMAN SHAMAN...WHAT WAS THAT.???"
"Big Shaman, speak!"
All the goblins, children and hunters, warriors and gatherers nagged him with question in fear.
"We fought the end the good times. The Stone Forest is gone,the sky has vomited a new nightmare that knows us. It is the White One. It the shadow of death. It is our Predator."
The goblin village, made after rage of the Stone Fortress and quakes of the Earth, the one place goblin kind found peace, was now at the center of attention of an apex predator from the deep dark forest.