Something Spicy

Chapter 3

Kevin's POV

Kevin woke up to the sound of chittering noise. Groggily he sat up or tried too. His hands were tied above his head to a vertical pole at the entrance of a cave. Outside the cave there was a sleeping fire and handy little tents made of branches. Random human belongings and other knicknacks were strewn in niches all over the places. With no strength he was out of luck. He could feel his wounds from the blackberries were infected and only burned when he moved his wrists. He went back to being limp and watched as ugly short creatures ran around the encampment. He couldn't see into the cave due to a bend but whatever was in there was loud. When one of the goblins noticed he was awake it hopped over in excitement its pointed ears wagging up and down. This one wore a few knicknacks across its belt holding up it's skirt and chest. It peered at him closely, eyes shadowed with hunger and nodded beaming. Kevin got a sick feeling, whatever made a goblin happy couldn't be good. It gestured to two of its countrymen and the three lifted the weightless sack of bones into the cave after unfastening him from the beam. The cave was more of a tunnel that separated into multiple other caverns creating something like "rooms."

Carried, he passed gyrating bodies and most of them looked to be human women. He began attempting to thrash, his hands still tied. With his left leg mostly immobile it didn't affect the goblins making them snicker. They dumped him into an sizable torch lit cavern with nothing but a bundle of pelts and occasionally dangling herbs on the wall. Two of them filtered out leaving behind the first goblin he met. Feeling like puking (probably would have if he had anything in his stomach) Kevin rolled over trying to sit up but the goblin held him down annoyed by his struggling. Finally, another goblin entered with the trappings of a shaman. Glittery eyes appeared under the skull of a beast hiding it's features. Multiple pouches hung off their belt and anywhere green skin could be seen was painted with purple symbols. It crouched down its eyes peering at him underneath its mask. It reached into one of its many pouches pulling out an old health potion bottle and chittered to its fellow goblin. Inside the bottle held a smooth-like purple colored dye that the shaman dipped a finger in. He never saw what they wanted to do as the annoyed bucktoothed goblin knocked him out to stop his struggling.

The next day he woke up to the same bucktoothed goblin forcefully feeding him some meat which he threw up due to malnourishment. The berries and roots they fed him did a little better but his stomach could only take so much. After that they would leave the cave taking the torches and blocking off the entrance with a thin reed door which he could push open easily but there was no way he would make it past those who sat at its door hearing the chittering.

 On the third day of his capture the shaman visited him once again and to his surprise he noticed the intricate purple designs that trailed up and down his body faded. After feeding him a herb mixture and retracing the patterns the shaman left peacefully. He tried rubbing the dye or whatever it was off but it had already been absorbed. The fourth day he attempted to sneak out ignoring the fact his hands were still tied. As someone had no fighting experience whatever he didn't even make it to the main cave area.

The fifth day of his capture, he woke up to screams and shrieks of the goblins. They did this on a normal basis but this time the screams sounded terrified. Kevin turned over undisturbed not caring whether he died or not at this point. Pulling the pelts around him tighter in the dark cave he went back to sleep still exhausted from his attempt to escape during the day.

He dreamed of the happy days when his sister had managed to catch a piglet that they had roasted over the fire cheerful.