Force of Arms

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Lesser Goblin had claimed another victim, it appeared to them — taken another bright and promising person away from family and friends. The mountain so-named held the mystery and power of a wilderness that had long before been mapped from a planetary orbit, yet rarely explored, on foot. No self-aware individual, with even rudimentary wits, had sought the challenge of scaling its peak without tools of survival: food, water, medicines, climbing gear… and whenever…