Drip….drip…..drip…. “Is the faucet broken again?” Austin thought as he reached for the pull string on his bedside lamp. He hadn’t heard his alarm go off so hopefully he could find a bucket and get a few more hours of sleep.

Only his hand didn’t find the pull string, it hit a stone wall. A cold, rough stone wall. “That’s not right” he slowly realized as his sleep addled brain tried to catch up to the situation around him. Blinking his eyes adjusted to the gloom.

Austin found himself in the corner of a small damp room, smaller than his normal bedroom in a cramped one bedroom apartment in Cleveland. It appeared to be rough natural stone like a cave or mine wall. Honestly he had no idea what was going on. His mattress still sat underneath him, on the ground, just like his best friend Jesse’s did. Bachelor style, as he called it, with no bed frame or nightstands. A small light was illuminating the room from the entryway which was directly across from Austin. And in the other corner the drippy “faucet” was actually just a stalactite, the only indication this might be a true cave…well actually he wasn’t one hundred percent sure that was true. Could stalactites form in other places? Austin wasn’t really sure and didn’t really care.

“What the fuck!?” He said out loud to the room. Getting up he draped his sheet around his shoulders and slowly walked barefoot across to the rough hewn “hallway”.

“Hello?!” He called. “Anyone?” His voice sounded small in the near darkness.

He continued on, trying not to stub his bare toes on the rock.

CRASH….. Austin was rocked off his feet by a heavy impact. Limbs flailing he tried to catch himself but he slammed into the stone wall on his right. Luckily he took most of the impact on his shoulder and not his head.

Instinctively he grabbed the source of the collision. His hand wrapped around what felt like the arm of child but clammy and more rough to the touch.

“Let go you biggin’” a high pitched sharp voice shrieked at him. “Grosm go get help! Some human is here for the others!” And with that Austin felt a sharp pain sear into his left hip.

“Ahhhghh” he screamed, now clawing at the arm and bulbous head of the assailant fully realizing he was being bitten by what his video game knowledge told him was a goblin.

“Fuck you man!” Austin screamed as he finally pried the creature off himself and throwing it across the hallway.

The green and grey humanoid practically ran on all fours back at him and Austin threw the only thing he had at him, his bedsheet. By the luck of whatever gods ruled this land the goblin ran head first into it, tumbling as it wrapped it’s limbs in the grey, questionably stained, queen sized cloth.

Adrenaline pumping like it hadn’t since freshman gym class Austin pounced on top the bundle of goblin, pinning it to the ground. It growled and cursed but it couldn’t get teeth or claw into him.

“Dude stop! Why did you bite me? What the heck man.” Austin said through panted breaths not really expecting the goblin to hear him.

“You’re a biggin’” it growled. “You kill us, we kill you!” It spit out.

“Well I’ve never killed a goblin, at least not in real life. Where are we? Did you guys take me here?” Austin had so many questions.

“This is our lair, and we only took the humans in the pens, never keep the humans anywhere else!”

“Pens?! You’ve captured people? Why?….. wait where did that guy go you yelled to?” Austin just now comprehending he might be in more danger, the bite on his side throbbed and he wanted more than anything to see how badly it was but he didn’t dare let up on the goblin.

“He went for help biggin’” the goblin said with the unspoken “duh” hanging in the air.

“They gonna cut you up when they get here…might cut me up too if they think I let you get out of the pens” the runt said mostly to itself.

Brain working on overdrive Austin pressed a little harder on the goblin. “Listen if I get caught I’ll smash you, now tell me how to get out of here and I’ll let you go, I’m not from the pens so no one will notice.” He said omitting the fact that another goblin has seen him and fighting back the shame of abandoning all those people. But he wasn’t a fighter, surely he could get help and come back, he was in his freaking boxers!

“Ermmmmmmmmm. Fine!” It barked, wheezing a little from the pressure.

“Okay let’s go, my name is Austin.”

“Hmmmmm Chulk”

“Okay Chulk point the way” Austin said as he slung the makeshift sack and goblin over his shoulder.