The Shamans: A Short Story

It was like any other day in the cave system I called home. I'd wake up in the pit us "lesser" goblins would be forced to sleep in, then I get to listen to our ever so charismatic chieftain scream at us incoherently, we would then be treated to the tremendous showing of our "mighty and brave" leader beating the snot out of the closest one of us he could get his hands on. Oh how I hated this prick, always keeping us down just because we were a little bit lazy and maybe, yeah that one time the sentries fell asleep and let those adventurers into the cave uncontested and yeah maybe they killed his predecessor but that doesn't give him the right to treat us like this! Anyways once we made it past the gauntlet that was our fearsome leader we
Seeing as how we were currently down a shaman since no one had been given the job after the last one died that meant I got to go through his cave and loot any of the stuff that was left. Best job in the world I'd reckon if it wasn't for the fact that anything the adventurers didn't want probably meant that I wouldn't want it either. Regardless I walked down the poorly lit cave and arrived at what remains of our previous shamans room and as I glanced around the room I saw a few piles of junk, a decaying corpse, and a black crystal. Looking back on it I wish I hadn't immediately ran for that crystal but what's done is done and bitching about it now doesn't help the situation at all. I crossed the room with all the haste my stubby little legs could give me and scooped the crystal up and into my hand. I felt a stinging sensation that started in my toes and slowly crept its way up my legs and into my chest. It felt like my very body was being burned from the inside, I tried to cry out but no matter how hard I tried to screech, to yell for help yet no sound would come out of my mouth. Eventually I lost consciousness and collapsed to the floor in a heap never having let go of the crystal.

My name is Hox The Blackhand and this is my