Free The Berserker and the Pedant by Josh Powell

grown quite large. Those were good times. In the last few years, we've been plagued by Maro, Blod, and Boan, three great trolls."
    "I've seen them. They look quite formidable."
    "Aye, they are. They healed from any injury we could cause them. They wade into the goblin horde, swinging their claws and biting off our heads. We're no match for them. They don't just hunt us for food, or for sport. They have some other plan in mind for us. After killing their fill of us, they scoop up as many goblins as they can fit in enormous bags and wander off. We never tied knots for them, hoping they would return. We haven't been able to discover why the trolls took them, and I'm afraid that we never will."
    "Why is that?" Gurken asked.
    "They came last night after you killed so many of our remaining warriors and made quick work of the rest of us. We're no more. I'm the last goblin of this family now. When I die, we die. The tombs will be all that remain of us, swinging knots in a cave."
    She fell silent. There was no sound save for the creaking of ropes.
    Gurken said, "For my part, I'm sorry. I didn't know."
    "Those that kill rarely give much time to consider consequences," she said. "Help me back to my chair, I am seven years old, and I have little time left. I would die next to my fire in my home, singing the songs of my family. Songs that will never be sung again. Come, sit with me."
    Gurken helped the kindly old goblin back to the fire, and poured her some more tea. He sat with her while she sang the songs of her people. She sang through the day, stopping at sundown. She lay in the chair, breathing shallow breaths as the last of her strength ebbed away. Finally, she stopped. Gurken tied a knot at the end of the cord in his beard and wept.

Episode Ten
    The Berserker and the Pedants
     

     
    "Nooooooooooooooooooo," Arthur said, pausing to take a breath, "oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo."
    Arthur waved his hands towards his posterior. "Why, pray tell, if I'm resurrected, do I still have the lower half of a horse? The priests promised I would be human when I next came back from the dead!"
    "Oh," said Moog. "Not 'resurrect,' you want 'reincarnate.' That easy!"
    Arthur slapped his forehead with his palm and sighed. "I don't suppose you know how to mend me back into a human?"
    Moog scratched the top of his head and stuck out his upper lip. He closed his eyes in concentration. His eyes flew back open, and he pointed a finger in the air. "Ah! Moog know!"
    "And you didn't mention this before now?" Arthur asked.
    "You not ask. I do now. Arthur feel nothing," Moog assured him.
    Arthur grimaced at the linguistic butchery. "'You won't feel a thing,' Moog."
    Moog looked confused. "No, Moog won't feel a thing. Arthur feel nothing, too."
    Arthur sighed. "Well, let's get on with it."
    Moog picked up a goblin spear from the ground and walked towards Arthur. Arthur scrunched up his eyebrows and looked at Moog.
    "Whatever are you doing with that spear?" Arthur asked.
    "Hold still, I kill you again. Reincarnate easy!"
    Arthur's eyes grew wide, and he backed away, holding out his hands. "Moog, that's not what I thought you meant! I thought you sai-" and his rear hooves came down on open air. His eyes grew even wider as he slipped off the cliff, falling.
    Moog and Antic looked over the edge of the cliff, straining their necks out, looking down. Then they looked at each other. While it was not easy to see the ant's mood from an expression on its chitinous face, its pincers quivered, which Moog took as a sign of growing irritation. Moog smiled and held up a finger, in order to ask the ant to bide some time. Moog walked back to Arthur's first corpse, slid a few sections of the orb around and said "Herelvern!"
    A pillar of light descended from the heavens, striking the ground next to Moog and Arthur's corpse. At first, nothing happened, then a speck in the center of the light appeared and grew. It grew to the size of a pea, then a pebble, then a small ball. It