Tama

  Grinning, I blinked behind the first one. I could have easily killed them both, but Saki had taught me something important. It was always important to get information when confused, then kill the enemies!

  I grabbed their weapons before they could react. One held a decent-looking mace made of metal and the other two daggers. I threw all their weapons except one dagger into the darkness in different directions.

  Then I grabbed the torch while they were still stunned and turning to see what happened. I blinked back around five feet. Just far enough away they couldn't reach me, but close enough we all stood in the torch light, the light I now held.

  The moment the duo saw me, they reached for their weapons. As I had predictedI was so smart! When they realized they didn't have their weapons, they looked very panicked at me. I was about their height. All three of us were between 5'1" and 5' 3". The one on the left was taller than me but the one on the right was shorter.

  I waved the torch back and forth slowly to avoid it going out. I had learned that lesson when I was eight. It had been a very cold night. I had no way of getting another one. All I could see was stone and water around us, meaning this was probably the only torch in this area.

  "Nya, Tama want to know where she is and who you are!" I said with a serious face. Saki had made it clear that I needed to look serious or scary when asking mean questions. It had been part of her domination without combat lessons. That was a long time... like days... but I had learned stuff!

  "We tell you nothing, nekojin. You kind ain't welcome here!" said the slightly shorter goblin. I would call him Stumpy.

  "Yeah!" said the tall one. I would call him Dead, as that's what he was now. I flung the dagger and it hit him in the throat. He made a gurgling noise and fell to the ground unmoving. Stumpy took a step back. He looked scared.

  I repeated myself. "Tell Tama where she is or Tama will..." I thought about what Saki called that thing where you hurt someone without killing them. "Tama will toucher you!" I said aggressively.

  The goblin looked at me puzzled and scared. "You will torture me?" he asked.

  I paused and asked, "Is it toucher or torture?" My tail flicked back and forth and my ears furrowed along with my eyebrows.

  "I think it's torture, not toucher. But my chief says me wrong a lot," Stumpy said, his voice now more confused than scared.

  I pulled out Serenity and pointed her at him. He began to shake as he looked at my gently glowing enchanted blade. Her beauty was perfect and even he could see her sharpness.

  "Well, then Tama will do that thing!" I said, trying to keep my serious tone, though my traitor tail gave away my anxiety as it wrapped around my leg and held tight.

  The goblin didn't seem to notice and said, "We in big cavern!"

  I glared at him, then sliced up. One of his arms slid off and hit the floor. He screamed in pain and I waited for him to stop. After a moment he did, but he was now on his knees. "What I do?!" he spat at me with anger. "I give answer!"

  "Yes, but you're vague. Tama knows she's in a cave! She wants to know where she is!" I said angrily.

  "I not know where we are. If you want, I take you to city, you ask chief. He tell you where you are!" the goblin cried, shying away from me and towards the darkness.

  I paused at that, and the memory of Grok offering to take me to his chief and how it turned out. "How does Tama know that your chief won't try to kill her! She trusted that before and almost died. Tama was lucky the goblin taking her was honorable. Grok saved her when he didn't have to. Will you do the same?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

  The goblin froze and looked uncertain. I waited a few seconds with no response and decided he was not honorable like Grok. I sliced left and his head rolled to the floor. Sheathing Serenity, I turned and with my new torch, walked down the hall they had come from.

  I reached the end of a long winding hallway and looked around the corner into a massive open area. Across from me was a large wall that seemed to be made of weird shiny things that were not shiny anymore. Saki would have called it junk, but I think she is just jealous of my amazing skill with finding stuff!

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  I could easily make out small figures on the wall. They were walking back and forth looking all serious. I leaned out a little from the hallway and looked around the area. To the right was what appeared to be a large lake that was easily dozens of miles wide. To the left was a stone wall that went up just past my head but didn't reach the ceiling. It had glowing stones inside of it that seemed to shimmer.

  I pulled out my dagger and aimed for the goblin on the right. Before I threw my weapon however, a memory played in my mind. "No, Tama, you can't just run into the undead armythink for a moment. As powerful as you are, they will outnumber you. You can't just face every fight assuming you will win!" Saki said, her tone sounding annoyed, though she had a smirk on her face.

  I winced at the memory and smiled. Saki was right, of course. She was always right. I put my dagger away and decided on a new tactic. I grabbed a rock off the ground and threw it as hard as I could at the wall with the shiny rocks. "DING!" The loud ringing sound filled my ears and I flinched back. Why was the wall sounding like I hit a sword?!

  Through clenched teeth I looked at the wall. The goblins had taken notice and the gate in the center of the wall opened. A group of goblins rushed out and the gate was closed quickly behind them. So there were more goblins, and these goblins looked tougher than the ones I had killed earlier.

  I sighed. This scouting thing was boring. How did Saki do this? The goblins on the wall were now staring at the other wall with the shiny objects, the one I threw a rock at. Good. I blinked multiple times in quick succession right under the wall and then up it, landing behind the goblin on the right. I quickly looked around and noted this goblin was alone up here. I smirked and grabbed him from behind. He made a quiet gurgling sound as I slit his throat before dragging him to a dark area of the wall.

  I was sneaky sneaky! I quietly moved through the wall to the other goblin. She had still not turned around. Goblins were so dumb! After another quiet gurgling sound from her lips, she was quiet and I quickly dragged her to the same spot as the first. It was only after I did this I remembered sensei's words about being sneaky: "Remember, Tama, witnesses are a problem and corpses create witnesses."

  I shrugged and smirked. "There can't be witnesses if there is no one left to see!" I said quietly to myself with a giggle before looking over the inside of the wall carefully, my ears twitching and my tail latching onto the top.

  On the other side of the wall was a small village of goblins. From what I could tell there was at most around thirty or forty of them. A pittance of goblin numbers, though there were some differences in these goblins. For instance, not all of them seemed to be combatants. Even more strange is that the combatant ones seemed to be walking up and down the street of the small village and keeping the peace.

  I have never seen such goblin kinds before?! Grok's tribe and all his men were warrior-based. As I watched, I noticed a goblinone of the weaker non-fighters. She was holding up a sign that had words on it. I had seen those words before! I couldn't read them, but I think Saki said that specific-looking sign was something like "shop." The goblin was wearing what appeared to be underwear and walking weirdly.

  Many of the male goblins were staring at her and some of them made noises at her. I considered the sign. If it said shop, which it must since Saki had told me that's what those symbols meant... I paused as I considered before I decided to try something fun! I was bored scouting anyway and these fighters looked weaker than Grok's men.

  I hopped down from the gate and casually walked towards the sign goblin lady. I kept expecting them to rush at me, but none did. Instead, a lot of them stared, but none attacked me. I ignored them and walked up to the lady in her underwear holding the sign. She looked at me confused. "Nya! Tama wants to know what that sign says!" I pointed at the sign she was holding above her head.

  She stared for a moment before responding. "Uh, dis sign say 'Slave Shop: Buy cheap, good slaves.'" She looked at me uncertainly, almost cowering. "That what master say it sayI no read good," she continued.

  "What is a slave?" I asked curiously as my tail whipped back and forth, my head tilted slightly.

  "I is slave. Slave is object that does what owner goblin want of her," the goblin said. She was shaking slightly. That was normal for goblins though they tended to do that around me.

  "But a person is not an object, nya!" I said in confusion. A person was not an object, they were a person!

  "That what master say. Please do not kill meI is good slave," the goblin said, sounding terrified. She was taking slow steps away and using the sign to shield herself from me. Like the sign would stop me if I wanted to kill her. Silly goblin!

  I opened my mouth to speak when another voice spoke up. His voice sounded like my french fries and not in a good way. "Miss, please do not interrogate the merchandise. If you are here to buy, I am more than happy to help you find a fitting... addition to yer party."

  I turned and looked at the voice. He was short for a goblin and really fat. He had a wide smile on his face and his eyes looked like that waitress lady when I gave her those gold things that David said were valuable.

  He was rubbing his hands together and his smile made a shiver go down my spine. For a moment I considered killing him, but he hadn't attacked me, no one had. I hesitated, unsure what to do.

  After a moment, I asked, "Do you know where Saki is?" I leaned in and looked at him as I spoke. His grin widened and I almost stabbed him right there.

  "I have a great many lovelies at my shop. Why don't you come with me and I will show them to you," he said with that glint in his eye. What were lovelies?

  Before I could say anything, he took my hand. My dagger was in my hand and his hand was no longer attached to him. I expected him to get upset or scream. Instead, he made a tsk sound at his missing hand and said, "That was a bad little scratch.

  What's a kitty like you doing in a big place like this? I can smell the gold on you, and I have what you want." He then casually pulled out a purple bottle and downed it. I watched as his hand instantly regrew. I stared in shock.