Early the next morning, Xia Ya rolled over and immediately heard a miserable yelp from underneath him. He leapt up as though he'd been slashed with a knife, jumping more than a chi off the ground, and then stared wide-eyed at the wretch.
The wretch lay there, having very nearly been crushed to death by the crude bumpkin just now, and rubbed its chest gently to get its breath back.
"You! Who told you to lie down behind me!" Xia Ya was thoroughly put out; he was angry enough to start tearing at his own hair.
The wretch's face reddened a little. "It was a bit cold last night, so..."
Xia Ya felt something strange stirring in his heart — don't get the wrong idea, it was nothing like flirtation or a stirring of feeling. It was — disgust!! He promptly recalled that earlier "a pillar holding up the sky" business. He spat hard on the ground and scrubbed at his face fiercely until he'd forced that prickling, numb feeling all over his body back down, then glared viciously at the wretch. "From now on, keep your distance when you sleep... or I might roll over in the night and crush you to death!"
Seeing Xia Ya wearing a whole face of "I've been wronged," the wretch bristled with outrage. Whichever way you look at it, I'm the one who got the short end and this bumpkin's the one who came out ahead! Any other day, those men could kneel and beg and still never get so much as a corner of my skirt! And this bumpkin's carrying on like he's the one who got molested!!
The more she thought, the more flustered she got. She stood up and straightened her clothes — which were in fact quite thick and heavy, with the white-rhino hide armor worn over them — and then saw Xia Ya pick up the water skin, gulp from it, take out a flatbread and bite into it twice.
Before setting out, Xia Ya turned down the wretch's request to wash her face, on the grounds that there wasn't much water left in the skin and what there was barely sufficed for drinking. Until they found the next water source, not only was face-washing out — she was stripped of the right to brush her teeth as well.
This crude bumpkin — not only is he rude, he has no sense of hygiene at all! the wretch fumed inwardly.
The moment Xia Ya and the wretch got to their feet, the goblins around them were roused.
A dozen or so goblins had waited out the night in the wild ground nearby. The wretch saw with her own eyes how the creatures hauled themselves up off the ground — some still sprawled face-down with their backsides in the air, snoring away, until a companion woke them with a kick.
The goblins chattered and squawked; seeing that Xia Ya and the wretch meant to leave, they grew anxious. Probably at daybreak these wandering goblins had suddenly realized how many of their own kind had gathered in the area, and their courage swelled accordingly. A few of them huddled together and gabbled out a discussion, and then several, bone clubs and the like in hand, began edging closer with plainly bad intentions.
Xia Ya had only just hoisted that hill-sized bundle of luggage onto his back and set the wretch up on the big shield he carried on his shoulder when he spotted the handful of armed goblins closing in. He let out a couple of hoarse, cackling laughs and kicked a rotten bone up off the ground.
The bone flew off and smacked square into the skull of the goblin in the lead. The goblin wore a skull as a helmet — no telling whether it had come from a sheep or an ox — and it shattered into four or five pieces on impact; the goblin clapped both hands to its head, dropped into a crouch, and started howling.
Amid Xia Ya's laughter the rest of the goblins' courage collapsed once more. Shrieking, they scattered in every direction, and only came to a halt after running several dozen meters, where they turned to peer back at Xia Ya timorously.
Plainly they were cowards — but the great bundle on Xia Ya's back, and that solid physique of his, left the creatures drooling with greed, unwilling to give up.
They didn't dare come close, and they wouldn't give up; all they could do was trail along behind.
Around mid-morning, two goblins seemed to hit on a fine idea. They picked up stones from the open wasteland and threw them, as though that way they could attack Xia Ya from a distance without having to fear that strong, imposing build of his.
But that trick was soon proved unworkable. Xia Ya promptly picked up stones and threw back, and he was stronger and could throw farther; two goblins were knocked cold outright, and the rest could only run farther off.
By noon, though, more and more goblins were following the two of them, until their number had gradually reached several dozen. But these were all wanderers — "a bunch of stragglers with no organization at all, short on weapons and food, so starved they've got no strength left in them," as Xia Ya explained to the wretch.
And indeed, judging by how these goblins were turned out, the beggars of Wildfire Town would have been better dressed. Most important of all, among all these goblins there wasn't even one carrying a metal weapon — which was probably the biggest reason they didn't dare come close.
At noon the goblins finally reached a consensus on cooperating again. Several dozen of them charged while Xia Ya was setting the wretch down to rest; Xia Ya unhesitatingly raised the captured battle-axe and shield and went to meet them. Beside the short, scrawny goblins, Xia Ya's powerful frame made him look nothing short of a giant.
He flung himself into the middle of the goblin pack like a bull in rut. Two goblins were smashed flying by his shield alone, one of them with its bones shattered. Then Xia Ya swept his axe across, shattering the bone clubs in two goblins' hands to splinters and sending goblin and weapon alike flying five or six meters; when they hit the ground, all they could do was throw up blood.
The rest lost their nerve again. With a shriek they turned tail and ran like a gaggle of girls who'd just spotted a pervert. Xia Ya took a stride after them, seized one goblin by the scruff of the neck, hauled it up, and carried it back.
This poor goblin was the biggest and tallest of the whole band of wanderers (for a goblin), and wore a suit of leather armor that just barely counted as intact — well, if you insisted on calling it "armor." In truth it was nothing but one fairly thick piece of cowhide.
The green-skinned creature had probably broken down completely from fright. Carried back by Xia Ya the way one carries a chick, its two short, thin legs kicked desperately, its mouth screamed without pause, and its two arms flailed.
Xia Ya dumped it in front of the wretch, and before it could struggle up to sit, he flipped the battle-axe around and drove the haft down hard on the goblin's foot. There was a crisp crack, and the poor thing's foot snapped clean through.
"Ouk! Ouk!! Ouk!!" the goblin screamed in agony.
Ouk was a word in the goblin tongue for expressing intense emotion.
Many people assume the goblin language must be hard to learn; in fact it's the opposite. Goblins may be a separate race with a measure of intelligence and even civilization, but their civilization is outrageously simple. Their language especially — given goblin intelligence — is pared down to the absolute bare minimum.
A word like ouk covers virtually every occasion in goblin life when strong feeling needs expressing.
For instance, they shout "ouk" when they're happy, and "ouk" when they're angry, and "ouk" when they're enraged, and "ouk" when they've eaten their fill, and "ouk" when a good shit goes down smoothly — even at the height of pleasure while mating, they shout "ouk."
If you ever see two goblins fighting and both the one hitting and the one being hit are shouting "ouk" at the same time, don't be surprised. And it's quite possible they aren't fighting at all, but engaged in some important work of carrying on the family line...
Of course, this poor creature was shouting ouk now for no pleasant reason; on that ugly face of its, mouth, nose and eyes were squeezed nearly into one lump.
Xia Ya clearly had no intention of shutting its mouth; he simply let it howl away miserably.
Xia Ya planted the battle-axe in the ground, took out a flatbread and bit into it twice more, chewing and swallowing with great gusto as though no one else were there. To the accompaniment of the goblin's wailing, he didn't even glance at it out of the corner of his eye.
The wretch's heart softened at the sight. Xia Ya seemed to read her thoughts, and said coldly, "Do you think I'm cruel?"
The wretch said in a low voice, "What did we take a prisoner for? You don't mean to kill it, so why torture it?"
"Its screams are useful to us." Xia Ya's explanation was simple. "Only screams make its own kind feel fear! That holds true for goblins — and for humans too."
The wretch repeated the words to herself twice, then looked at the bumpkin rather oddly. "Did your foster father teach you that one too?"
"Yes." Xia Ya nodded.
Sure enough, the goblins around them had run off several dozen meters and were about to stop and watch, but when they heard the screams carried from here, they ran farther off in terror.
Once he'd rested enough, Xia Ya rose and set off again. This time he did something even crueler: he kicked the goblin, pointed at the road ahead, and brandished his axe — the meaning plain enough: Walk!
Under the threat of the axe, the poor goblin, though one foot had been broken, had no choice but to stand up and go hopping and skipping forward. It screamed the whole way, like a repellent, frightening the goblins trailing behind with greedy eyes farther and farther back.
Sitting on Xia Ya's shoulder, the wretch couldn't bear it — but a single sentence from Xia Ya shut her up.
"If you think it's pitiful, then picture what it would be like if they caught you — and don't forget, this is the Wildfire Plain. The Wildfire Plain, where there's a grave on every corner."