Challenge of the Forest (Accepting)

Day was starting to break, the sun was creeping over the green hills. Smaug checked on Scarlett and Veltra again, Scarlett was stirring and would soon be awake. Smaug leaped down and put a hand on her shoulder, she slowly came to.
"You O.K.?" Smaug asked.
"Yeah, just used all my energy."
After she said that, the ground began shaking under their feet.

"Now what?" Scarlett wanted to scream but didn't say anything. The ground stopped shaking for a moment but then resumed. "Do you think it's an earthquake?" she asked Smaug. He shook his head and unsheathed his sword. Everyone else was unconscious from the last fight and Nick was MIA. As the trembling continued they prepared for the worst a large animal came bursting out of the shelter of the trees. It was an elephant, its eyes were red and glazed. It was possessed.

After hours of being passed out, Veltra woke slowly. His eyes opened, and he lifted his head. He saw the group members sitting around and talking, but Nicholas was still keeping his distance.

"No goblins?" Veltra was surprised the goblins hadn't kept on coming. He slowly stood, leaning on a nearby stick he picked up. Smaug noticed him, and walked over to help him. Smaug assisted Veltra over to the rest of the group. Veltra sat down.

"Obviously the goblins are smarter than we assumed. They come in numbers and they're stronger than we thought." Veltra paused and took a sip from his pouch of water, and held it up for anyone else. The group each took a small sip. Veltra continued, "I vote we stay here and scheme up something, otherwise things can turn deadly."

"I agree, we should-" Smaug never got the chance to finish his sentence before a huge elephant burst into the clearing.
"It's possessed!" Cried Scarlett. I was true, its eyes were burning red.
"Circle it, and everyone pick a limb to attack! Let's bring this thing down! I'm tired with getting attacked here!" Shouted Smaug to the rest of the group. Scarlett and Veltra each picked a leg, Smaug picked one in the front and started hacking at it. Each blow was backed up with power and presicion. At the first blow, the elephant started whining, Smaug looked closer and realized it had cracked skin.
"I bottle of lotion would probably do you some good." Smaug muttered before taking another swing. But the elephant wasn't going down without a fight. It swung its tusk at him and caught Smaug in the gut, Smaug clung to the trunk while the elephant swung him around. Smaug lost his grip and flew into a tree, dazed.

"Oh lordy." Veltra sighed and drew his sword, barely any energy. The long sword caught the animals attention, and it charged, leaving Smaug crumpled on the ground. Veltra jumped straight up, nearly fifteen feet, and landed on the beast's back. He drove the sword straight down, but the animal reared on it's hind legs throwing Veltra off it's back. He attempted to stay on by holding the sword, but it slid out with ease. He landed on his feet, and slid about two yards. He ran at the elephant, and dragged the tip of the blade along it's gut, and felt hot blood spray over him. It whined, and charged again.

Dazed and confused, Smaug was sitting at the bottom of a tree. He shakily got to his feet and charged under the elephant who was focused on Veltra. Smaug noticed that Veltra had sliced at its gut. So Smaug stuck his sword in a far as it would go. The elephant howled and collapsed on its side. Still alive. Smaug stepped to the side and turned to Veltra. "Care to do the honors?"

"My pleasure," Veltra said with a smirk. He drew a foot long dagger from his pant leg, and grazed it on his sword so a satisfying metal sound could be heard. He threw the dagger at the elephant, and it struck it dead center between the eyes. The animal went limp. He walked up to the beast, removed the blade, wiped it off on his pants, and sheathed it. He walked over to Smaug. "You ok?"

The elephant went limp after a strike in between the eyes, Veltra walked over to Smaug after getting his dagger and asked how he was.
"I'm fine, thanks. I just banged my head on the tree." He looked around, "What should we do now? Should we continue? Or rest a little bit? Personally I think we should continue considering how many times we've been attacked here. And we don't still don't know how many battle-ready goblins are out there, waiting to strike us the minute we close our eyes."

Nicholas had experienced more action than he had expected, just watching them. He had been forced to kill a shade, a goblin horde, and a giant, just to let his companions rest. The possessed elephant had been the shade's last dying wish. He turned his head. Another goblin horde. These guys just kept coming. He leaped from the trees, and barreled into one. He dug his sharp toes into it's throat. He slashed the second, and ripped another one's head off. Five more rushed towards him. He reached into his belt pocket, and thrust two golden seeds at them. The seeds erupted, spraying acid on the goblins. They screeched and disintegrated. A goblin chief swung his axe in outrage of his fallen pals. Nicholas ducked, jumped towards the axe, now on the other side of the goblin, and used the swinging force to chop his head off. He smiled, enjoying the massacre. He jumped back to the trees, needing to keep an eye on his companions.

Smaug heard a rustling sound behind the group, just Nick. Starting at them like usual. Smaug looked over at Scarlett, "Come over here, we're trying to decide what to do next. If you have an input, please say so."
Smaug cast one last glace back at Nicholas, still staring, same expression. Smaug sighed.

Scarlett walked to be near Smaug. "We should keep on moving, the forest is still full with dangers and if we're not careful we'll walk right into a goblin colony.It's going to be hard if we don't have everyone by our side." with this she shot a glance at Nick. She sighed, picked up her cloak off the ground and fastened it around her shoulders. "But first while everyone gets ready I'm going to pick some essential healing plants that we could use. I don't want another emergency like we had earlier."

She left the group for a while and she came back with an armful of different colored plants and flowers."Some of these will boost your fighting abilities and magical powers and others we can sprinkle over your swords to make it poisonous.I can carry them for now. We should start heading north, its the opposite direction the goblins have been coming from"

"Alright, let's go, all of us." He looked back over his shoulder, "Come on Nicholas, we're leaving." Nicholas lept from the tree, landed on all fours, stood and walked toward the group. Always staying a little ways behind. Smaug started heading North, with Veltra and Scarlett at his sides, and Nick behind them a little ways.
"I can't wait for the goblins to come, because I've got a debt to pay." With that, he pulled out a vial, filled with purple liquid. "This is the exact same poison they poisoned me with." He said, with a glint in his eye. "I'm going to dip my dagger in it, and stab the head goblin with it. Then I'm going to hang him by his feet in a tree so that he'll die from the poison. In pain, and unable to do anything about it." He looked around at the group. "That is called revenge, for all of us."
Smaug started walking more briskly now, almost as if he knew where the goblins were, and he were heading toward them. His eyes were filled with an excitment and desire for blood. "I'm going to enjoy this."

Scarlett had never heard silence so loud. It was if the forest was muted by some great power. It had been nearly two hours since they had set out walking. At first everyone talked about battle plans and the upcoming challenges that were sure to come. Scarlett had asked for sword-fighting lessons and Smaug had taught her how to hold a dagger and taught her the basics on how to use it. Veltra tried to lighten the tense mood by trying to teach them an Elven marching song as they walked along, but no one was able to reproduce the words and they all gave up continuing in silence.

They were all thinking their own personal thoughts and Scarlett couldn't but feel a sense of unease around her. Something in the forest was watching them, biding its time and waiting to attack.

"I can bet you something is leading this attack, and whatever it is it's more powerful than everything combined." Veltra didn't like their odds, but he knew they had to get to the next city. The previous city was on the verge of destruction, because of the war raging throughout the region.

Nicholas approached Smaug. He dipped his head in respect. "My apologies," He said, keeping his furry snout low. "I kept my distance for fear of betrayal. I had to see your worth. Many persons would like to see me dead." He walked onward, but the sense of something watching him haunted him.