Excerpt:
Naomi was
desperate to get away. She looked for any opening in the crowd but found a
growing sea of figures filling in the shadows of the night. Another surge
pressed up against her back, and she stumbled forward as someone pushed her
from behind. Naomi fought to get back into the crowd, but something grabbed her
hand. She was yanked out into the line of dancing fiends, lunging around the
fire before she remembered her armor. The drunken, foul thing she’d stripped at
the edge of the foothills had been one of the goblins, and it was apparent they
expected her to join in on the dance.
The beat came
from a row of goblins seated in a line close to the fire. The creatures slammed
their fists on crude instruments in a semi-coordinated arrangement. Naomi was
pulled into a loose circle, prancing around the musicians. Terror instantly set
in and she froze. It took two well-placed jabs in her side to get her moving
again.
It all started
with a hop. Naomi focused on the creature in front of her and did her best to
ignore the hooting and hollering of the surrounding spectators. She caught on
to the steps as her growing panic mixed with a strange determination to get it
right. It took a few moments for her to grasp the basic moves, and then she
added in a few of her own to make it her thing. She tried to forget that she
was boogying in the very center of an enemy camp. Her mental block had little
effect on keeping out the roar of the crowd, but it allowed her to remain
focused on what she was doing.
Her unfitted
armor came with its own share of issues. The chest plate was too big for a
teenage girl while managing to be too short at the same time. Naomi was forced
to hold onto her helmet with both hands to keep it from slipping off as she
danced. The pace of the drums picked up, encouraging the performers to do the
same. The train of goblins moved at an alarming speed, and before long Naomi
had to hop, skip, and jump to keep up. The entire ordeal culminated in a group
howl that scared her half to death.
A sudden bellow
of applause from the crowd mixed with shouts and whistles. One of the onlookers
seized Naomi by the shoulders and shook her furiously. She thought he might
strike her before he finally lifted his head back and laughed as loud as a
foghorn. The man let her go, and she stumbled backwards. The goblins broke from
the line, and Naomi found herself alone by the fire. Her predicament quickly
shifted from bad to worse. The surrounding sea of goblins unlatched their
armor, and it wasn’t long before Naomi was the only figure wearing a helmet.
The attention
started with a few glances, first from the goblins and then the men and
serpent-kind as they headed back to their own gatherings. Naomi walked away,
keeping a straight line for the open divide between the goblin circle and an
adjacent gathering of men. She heard the patter of boots following after her.
They called out in the goblin’s foul language, but she didn’t dare turn around.
The calls echoed from one gathering to the next, and the commotion was enough
to draw several curious eyes.
The first real
sign of trouble came from a hard pinch on her arm. A hand took a firm hold of
her cloak and wouldn’t let go. Naomi strained to pull away but couldn’t. She
saw figures moving toward her from the corners of the gathering. The goblins
appeared to know something was up, and her chances of escape shrank by the
moment. She finally gave in and spun around, coming face to face with a
goblin’s bulbous head, its eyes glowing bright yellow in the firelight. Another
powerful pull flung her around in the opposite direction, and she was sure the
ruse was up.
