บท 14: Chapter 13- Walking (maybe they’re hobbits now lol)
Text returned to the clearing to find Shota and two other goblins waiting. "How'd it go Boss." Text shook his head, "I don't think she knows what the hell to think right now, she didn't even move before I got tired of watching and left." Tect and Shota both laugh. "I bet this becomes one hell of a tavern tale when she gets back home." Tect sends the two other goblins to meet up with the others while he and Shota use pine branches to cover all of their tracks. A good tracker could still follow for now, but one good dusting of snow would totally obliterate the trail. It was well past dark when Shota and Tect rejoined the others. Tect immediately pulled a whole deer from the spatial bag, "Lets get cooking everyone. I could eat this whole thing by myself right now." Everyone laughed, it made Tect happy to see all of them so cheerful, with so much happening they hadn't dealt with the emotions of the last night in the slave pens yet, but it wouldn't be long before it caught up to them.
As the others prepped the deer meat Moidra approached Tect. "Time to change your bandages, follow me." Tect followed Moidra to one of the few tents they had. Tect removed his shirt, the bandages didn't have a lot of blood on them which was a good sign, but as Moidra removed them she couldn't hide the shock on her face. "What's wrong? Is it infected?" Tect had seen how bad an infected wound could get, he did not want to die that way. "No, it's not infected." Moidra ran her hand across Tect's back causing a chill to run down his spine, "Don't do that it tickles." laughed Tect. "I'm sorry but I had to be sure I'm not hallucinating. "Why? What is wrong?" Tect was glad it wasn't an infection but he was still worried about how strange Moidra was acting. "Your wounds are fully healed. Even the arrow wounds from the adventurers. Not even a scar is left." Tect is struck dumb by this revelation. "Moidra that's not possible without magic. No one here has shown signs of being a shaman, and we can't use magic like the humans and elves do." Moidra scowls, "Don't you think I know that. But even so, your back is fully healed. Maybe it's related to your crazy transformation, you do look more like an elf than a goblin now. Perhaps you have healing magic." Tect shook his head, "I'm only a quarter elven, even if I transformed I think that has more to do with being this goblin king candidate thing than my elven blood. But I haven't had a shaman's vision so I can't have magic. It must be a natural ability." Moidra shakes her head, "No way to tell since we have no shaman, but can you do me a favor?" Tect nods, "Sure, what?" "Next time humans shoot arrows at us let me use you as a shield." Moidra begins to laugh at Tect's facial expression which is similar to what you would expect when someone steps in something gross. "Haha, Next time someone locks a gate on us I'll just toss you over to unlock it." They both laugh now and head back to help with dinner. As Tect rejoins the group he sees Shota cutting up meat with a flint dagger. "Hey Shota, try using this." He hands Shota the manatite steel dagger. "Boss, I can't take this. You should keep it." Tect raises his hand in front of Shota. "How am I supposed to hold that little toothpick now? If it weren't for you I would have probably died, so you keep it." Tect pats Shota on the shoulder and sits by the fire.
He killed two humans today. It's not something he ever thought about before. They wanted to kill him for no reason other than that he was a goblin, which isn't new to him, but still he never wanted to kill humans, just to be free. Now after everyone had time to relax for the day he was left to think about what he had done. The deaths weighed heavily on him, but he buried the guilt. He needed to stay strong for his people, years of mistreatment by humans would lead many of them to seek revenge, but he knew that if they did then eventually his clan would be fully wiped out.
Tect didn't realize how long he had been sitting until he saw a bowl of food enter his vision. "Boss, it's time to eat. You good?" Shota looked concerned. Tect sighed, "Yeah, I'm good. Just a lot on my mind." Shota nodded, "Too much death. We were supposed to walk out of that place free, but now I wonder if there is any place that's free for our kind." Tect nods, "I agree, even in the deepest parts of the mountains human's will eventually cross our path, it's unavoidable. I'm worried that true freedom will never be possible, we will always have to look over our shoulders in fear."
Tect and Shota ate their meal in silence after that, after they were done eating they divided up the night's watch between the strongest goblins so that no one had more than three hours on watch and got plenty of sleep. The next morning they broke camp early and began moving east following the compass on the scroll. They made good time and didn't stop until the sun began to set. They were all tired but the thought of hot food gave them all enough energy to set up camp and before the sun fully set they had camp up and food cooking. They had moved deep into the mountains and sunset was actually a bit earlier than it had been two days prior still they had covered nearly 70 miles in that time. While everyone rested Tect took the scroll and walked to the north while keeping an eye on the compass. After maybe 10 minutes he could notice a shift in the map. They must not be too far from the location. Hopefully late tomorrow or the day after they would find it.
Tect returned to camp and gave Shota and Moidra the good news. Moidra thought on it for only a moment, "Ok, thats good but lets sit on that info for a bit. If we don't find it after tomorrow morale will take a hit." Shota nodded his head. I agree. The waiting isn't bad, but thinking you're there and finding out you're really only halfway sucks." Tect understood what they meant, right now things were going well but all the walking was beginning to wear on the goblins. "Ok, we will keep quiet until we know we have reached the location." Tect, Moidra, and Shota returned to the camp and had dinner with the others. Without realizing it Tect's constant meetings with Moidra and Shota, as well as the leadership positions he had given them had elevated their status within the clan. The other goblins had begun to treat Moidra and Shota as they would the members of the Elders Council.
The next morning the goblins broke camp for what Tect was hoping would be the last time. Shota approached Tect as they were readying to begin the days march. "Hey Boss we need to talk." "Sure Shota, What's up?" Shota pulled a silver ring with a blue gem from his pocket. "We found these rings on the bodies of the adventurers we killed. I took the one from the archer and I assumed you had the one from the fighter, but this morning one of the scouts was looking through the loot for a dagger like mine and found it. He tried to put it on and it burned his finger real bad. I thought that was weird since I've been wearing my green one no problem. Then I thought maybe they are magic and it's cause I killed the archer so it belongs to me now. If so then this one is yours if you want to take the chance by wearing it anyway." Tect eyed the ring suspiciously, it did look nice, and with his super healing he'd be ok even if it burned him. "Yeah I guess I'll try it out." Tect took the ring and put it on his finger. At first it was too loose, but it shrunk slightly and became a perfect fit. Other than that nothing happened. No burning flesh, no super powers, not even a cool flash of light. "Well that was lame." Shota sighed and walked away. Tect glared at Shota, "What the hell? Did you want it to burn me?" Shota laughed, "Course not, but at least that wouldn't have been boring." Shota ran off laughing his ass off.
The clan marched for half the day with no incident when suddenly the scouts came back.
"Boss, the path ahead is blocked by a high cliff and the largest mountain I have ever seen." Tect was at a loss for words, the compass still pointed forward. "Can we go around it?" Shota shook his head, "No way. It's massive. It'll take days to go around and it's too sheer to climb. I'm afraid that we won't be able to follow the scroll any further. Tect knitted his brow, "Damn it. We are so close too. I guess we will come to the cliff, at the very least if this mountain is so huge we can maybe find a nice cave in it to use." Shota nodded, "Ok sounds good boss, keep going for 200 yards we'll split up and check both directions for a cave, we'll meet everyone at the cliff in 45 minutes." Tect nods, "Sounds good, see you then."
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