What surrounded Alvin was the smell of ash.. and the crackling of the campfire.

  The fire was gone but the heat hadn't left yet. The ground was still warm beneath his feet.

  The goblins behind him were all silent..

  unable to cheer.. or to run away.

  He didn't turn around. He didn't need to. He could feel every single one of them standing there.

  Alvin breathed heavily, staring at his hands.

  Green. Small. Shaking slightly. And somehow responsible for all of that.

  The same hands that had been scratching questions into dirt an hour ago. Now this.

  Then he saw the giant.. still on the ground.

  The biggest thing in the village lying completely flat. The axe somewhere in the dark beside him.

  Alvin reached him immediately.. dropping to his knees, grabbing his hand.

  "Hey! You okay?!" his tone sharp with concern.

  The giant didn't move for a moment.. completely still.

  Alvin counted without meaning to. One. Two. Three. The giant didn't move.

  He's wounded badly.. Alvin scanned the giant's belly where Wolfrex had bitten him.

  "Answer me!!!" Alvin shouted.. tears falling onto the giant's shoulder.

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  He hadn't felt them coming. They were just there suddenly. Warm on his face then gone.

  He didn't wipe them. Didn't have the energy. They just fell where they fell.

  Then a thumbs up rose from the ground.

  Alvin let out a heavy sigh.. then laid down beside the giant, staring up at nothing.

  The elder goblin stepped forward slowly.. scratching his beard.

  His face was completely straight.

  After everything , the fire, the wolves, the collapse , that face was harder to read than any of it.

  Alvin had never seen the elder without something moving in his expression. Now there was nothing. Just looking.

  He stepped close enough for only Alvin to hear.. a knowing look in his eyes.

  It was the stare of someone who had already decided something. Alvin just didn't know what.

  "You really did it huh.." his words were ordinary to any goblin listening.

  But to Alvin they landed like a rock.

  Did he know? Alvin thought.

  His mouth closed before the thought finished. The elder had that effect.

  About my sk—

  "THE NATURE SAVED US!!!" the elder threw his hands into the air.

  The other goblins erupted — completely forgetting Alvin existed.

  "The nature! The nature!!" the small goblin ran in circles.

  His voice cracked on the second one. Too much feeling, not enough lung.

  "This is the first time this has actually happened.." the goblin mom wiped a tear..

  She didn't notice immediately. Too busy wiping tears. Then she looked down.

  "Oh."

  Both babies fell from her hands.

  Two goblins grabbed each other and danced, arms locked together.

  They crashed into a third goblin and pulled him in anyway.

  Alvin couldn't stand up.. his body felt like it was being pulled into the earth.

  His arms had nothing left. His legs had decided some time ago. His body was simply done.

  He lay there and listened to them celebrate something they didn't fully understand. It was the best sound he'd heard since waking up in this world.

  But what he saw from where he lay.. the cheering, the dancing, the celebration..

  Seen from below, from the ground, surrounded by ash , it looked almost like a painting.

  For a second it looked exactly like the campfire scene on his first night. Chaotic. Warm. Entirely not his.

  They are goblins after all..

  Clueless creatures.. said with more warmth than he intended. He was too tired to hide it.

  Alvin covered half his face.. smiling.

  Then he lost consciousness.

  The last thing he heard was the small goblin still going.

  "The nature.. the nature!!"