Chương 3: Chapter Two: The Hunt / Unlikely Encounter
The start of the adventure was simple, follow the tracks of the caravan. Mythere had never left the forest that Caeph village was in before. After all, he's had no reason to. Everything that he needed to live was in the village and things that weren't were brought by travelling merchants. He hasn't even gone to the edge of the forest before so it wouldn't be long until he reaches territory unknown to him. Kha'na would be around the same, since she has never left the forest before either, though she may have gone deeper into it than Mythere due to her adventuring focused mindset.
Walking on the dirt pathway gave Mythere a chance to think and prepare for any situation. He wasn't running after them because he didn't know how far they were and didn't want to expel all his energy before his journey even began. He also didn't want to be spotted in case they stopped off the road just outside of his vision. He prepped a small travelling bag with water purifiers and shelf-stable food, but not enough to last him more than a day. If it comes to it, he'll probably have to hunt for food and look for a water source. There was a map as well, but it was outdated. It showed villages, rivers and other bodies of water, but who knows if any of those have dried up since it was made or if any new villages have been constructed. In the end, he decides that he could probably live in the forest for a while and be one with nature if it comes down to it. After all, elves live in forests and he's half elf, so he could half live in a forest.
Kha'na and the caravan left the village around 1-2 hours before Mythere did, at least that's around how long he thinks they left. It was a medium sized caravan, but they didn't have horses, so they couldn't be travelling that fast. Though, Stroffo was built like a horse, so maybe they could be travelling fast. Either way, Mythere thought they couldn't be that far out that he wouldn't be able to catch up. With no horse, they'd have to take breaks every now and then, even if they switch off who has to pull the cart. Though, despite the road being mostly straight and uncovered, no cart could be seen in the distance. The cart's tracks could be seen stretching very far on the pathway. Mythere was getting pretty bored. Adventuring alone seems like a drag. All he's doing is following tracks. This thought process made him think that he should turn back instead of trekking on, but he had already been walking for about an hour. He wasn't going slowly either, but due to his equipment load and him not having traveled like this before, it wasn't exactly fast. He was beginning to doubt this journey. Granny Hilda had a point about how Kha'na could take care of herself so why did he even bother? It didn't seem like either of the old people were phased at this situation either.
…
Was it all an elaborate ruse?! Just to get me out of the house?!
No, there was no way. But the solemn journey didn't let this thought out of Mythere's head. All of the pieces of the puzzle did line up quite nicely. Kha'na was gone before he woke up, along with her equipment. Stroffo's gang just happened to show up randomly. Learning the truth about goblins and the goblin slayer stories. As if these things were preparing him to leave and go on an adventure for the first time. There's no way that he would be swindled like this, if he were to start adventuring, it would be organic reasoning! Not a fake call to adventure. These are the things that ran through his head as his calm pace started to turn into a passive aggressive stomp.
After a while, he decided that his deductive reasoning was sound enough for him to stop following the trail. He was going to turn back and voice his doubts and demand explanations. He stopped in his place, turned his head and then started to turn around. If he goes back and is wrong, he would look very stupid. But if he was tricked to start this journey, he would feel very stupid. Self-preservation wins this round, so he took a step in the direction of the village. Suddenly, his ears twitch. He hears sobbing in the distance. It's coming from the forest and it sounds feminine, maybe childlike.It's a little convenient that he heard it right after he turned around. But it could also be that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings when he was deep in thought. Either way, if someone is in trouble, he feels some sort of obligation to at least check on them. It's not like he knew of any evil doers that impersonate sobbing sounds to lure good samaritans like him around.
Mythere used his keen sense of hearing to locate the source of the sobbing. It was quite a ways into the forest and way off the pathway. It was a major detour from his journey, but it could also be what his journey could be all about. He soon found a clearing in the forest and saw a small figure wearing tattered clothing crouching. It was holding a long wooden stick, most likely just a branch. Its skin was a pale green and it had no hair on its head. It had long pointy ears, similar to Mythere but longer. It was also clear that it was the source of the sobbing. Mythere got to the edge of the clearing to investigate, but only saw the being from behind. It's likely a goblin based on its color, but its race should have no bearing on whether it's hostile or not. Plus, he was pretty sure that crying was a universal signal for sadness. Instead of approaching the being outright, he decided to play it smart and observe it more. He wanted a better angle so he rotated around the edge of the clearing. His presence was masked by the abundant foliage and the sounds were masked by general forest sounds. He soon made it over to the front of the being, but it's face was in its knees so he still couldn't judge what it was. Then, it raised its head to take a deep breath in between the sobbing. That's when Mythere saw its face. Oh, cute. This seemed to be a girl by his standards, or a very cute boy. He's never actually seen a goblin in real life, so he wasn't sure what to expect. Of course, he'd seen them in the books, but those books also said that they were an evil race, so he couldn't put much value in the pictures. While Mythere was spaced out, the girl stood up with the rod in her hand and looked in his direction.
"Who's there!?" Her voice was very childlike, but was definitely a girl's voice.
Mythere, realizing that he said cute out loud, stood up from behind the foliage. "Uhm, hello there. I-" He was cut off when a small bolt of lighting spurred in his direction. "What the-?!"
The small bolt came from the girl's wooden stick, which she was pointing at him. "Go away you human!" and a second bolt fired from her stick.
Human? Me? Well, I guess if you've never seen any other race before, I could be construed as human. After all, I didn't know what goblins look like. I would think that some aspects of me would give it away though. She is a child, so maybe she just hasn't learned-
Mythere, stuck in thought about how he was called a human, was hit by the lightning bolt. There was a tiny explosion, but overall it only stung him a little bit. His clothing seemed to take the brunt of the damage.
"Huh?! Magic doesn't work on you?" The girl was aghast and her voice trembled.
It just wasn't a particularly strong spell. I didn't even know goblins could use magic. "Jeez, you really should wait for people to introduce themselves first."
"You're a monster! If I waited any longer, you could've killed me with your human powers!" It didn't seem like she was joking around.
"I'm not even human!"
"...what? But you have human colored skin and hair and are as big as one." She seemed genuinely confused.
"Don't you see other things though??" Mythere proceeds to gesture to his large bottom teeth. And then with a bigger gesture to his pointy ears. Finally with a grand gesture to his two horns. "Are these things that humans normally have? Don't think so!" But he didn't actually know, since he had a relatively small sample size of humans that he knew.
"I don't know! But you can't trust appearances! A man who looked like a beast attacked my village, but he was human!"
He had a feeling he knew what beastly man she was speaking of, but decided to talk past it for now. "I'm not human! And you shouldn't be hostile to all humans because you met a few bad ones. What's a child like you doing out here anyway?"
The girl's face glowed a faint red. Her cheeks puffed out and then she yelled "I'm not a child! I'm 18 years old! An adult, adult!!!!"
"... Huh?" This was an unfamiliar situation. "...but you're so tiny."
"THAT'S NOT MY FAULT! It's not like goblins are known to grow huge anyway! In fact, I'm slightly above average in terms of goblins!"
She was a little over a foot shorter than Mythere, so considerably small to him. She was crying like a child and acting rash like a child, it was fair to assume that she was a child from Mythere's perspective.
"Er, okay. I've never met a goblin before."
"And I've never met a 'you' before. Who and what are you?"
"Oh yeah, I'm Mythere. I'm a half elf, half orc. And you are?" Mythere extended his hand to the little lady.
"My name is Gaz. I'm a goblin." She reached for Mythere's hand and shook it lightly.
"Gaz? Is that your full name?"
"No, it's Gastrid. So, you're not going to hurt me?" Gaz said with an exhausted voice.
"Of course not, just tell me what's wrong." Mythere said whilst bending a knee to communicate more eye to eye.
"Don't treat me like a child." Gaz sputtered while tears formed in her eyes. It was clear that she was holding some emotions back during the sudden meeting. Soon, she was fully wailing and fell to the floor. She covered her face with her arms and cried so her face couldn't be seen. Mythere had no idea what to do and thought about holding her, but figured that they just met. He didn't know the situation, but he felt bad for her. Soon enough, she started to stop sniffling and clean herself up.. He proceeded to sit down in front of her.
This was the first clear view of Gaz for Mythere. She was actually very cute and he could then see a bit more mature features that were on her face. She had big round red eyes which were pretty menacing, but he assumed that red was a common goblin eye color. She had a perfectly shaped button nose. He thought that goblins were supposed to have big bulgy noses, but looks like he was wrong abou that as well. Her lips were full and just a slightly darker shade of green than her skin. She had a heart shaped face and very shorthair on her head, like it was shaven but had some months to grow. He seemed to recall that goblins were born without being able to grow hair, but that must be more false information. Her hair was a stunning red. Her ears were long, pointed, and horizontal. She had piercing holes in them, but no earrings. Her body was small, but through the tattered clothing, had a feminine shape. The clothing was really more of just a burlap sack. She didn't have any shoes either. Her teeth seemed to be like a humans, but they seemed to be much sharper. She had dirt on most of her body, but her face seemed to be clean. After taking in her whole appearance, Mythere thought again. Cute.
!(Gaz)[https://imgur.com/nwniutk]
"Eh?" Gaz looked at Mythere stunned and blushing.
"What?" He clearly didn't realize that he said it out loud.
Gaz quickly regained composure after she saw his lax reaction. "N-nothing."
"Well, can you tell me what you were crying about? Or why a goblin is all the way out here?"
"Why do you need to know?" She then hmph'd and looked out of his direction.
"Okay. See ya." Mythere, not willing to play these games, stood up swiftly and began to walk away.
"W-wait! It's not like I want your pity or anything, but I'll tell you if that makes you feel better."
Obviously it wasn't to make him feel better, rather to give him a better grasp of the situation at large. Helping a stranger also seemed like a pretty adventurer-esq thing to do, even though he wouldn't be getting any reward for it.
"Alright, start from the beginning."
"... I'm from a goblin village in the far west of the continent. We lived in a cave in a small isolated mountain."
"Ah yes, I remember learning that goblins lived in caves."
"Don't interrupt me! And I'm sure not ALL goblins live in caves, my village just happened to."
Mythere nodded his head and hmph'd.
"... So our village was attacked by a group of human adventurers a few weeks ago. They were-"
"Humans? What did they look like?" Mythere spurted out thinking of the 'adventurers' that he'd just met. Gaz whacked his head with her staff loud enough to hear a bonk.
"I was getting there! Stop interrupting!" She cleared her throat. " They were a group of six, led by a big hairy man. They attacked relentlessly, before any of us had the chance to talk to plead. Most of us were slaughtered, except they kidnapped me and some other kids." Gaz started to tear up. "I don't know why we were attacked or the names of our attackers, but I know they were human. They blindfolded me before I could see what happened to the rest of the village, but I- I heard a lot of screams." Gaz fully began to cry.
Mythere has never been in a situation where he has to console someone, so he had no idea what to do or the proper etiquette for a stranger. He awkwardly raised his hand and couldn't decide whether to put it on her head and caress her nonexistent hair or pat her shoulder reassuringly. He didn't want to give the wrong idea, so he started patting her shoulder lightly. He didn't know if he should say something. Gaz accepted his reassuring pats, but struggled through her tears to tell him more. "B-but, everyone else isn't… I don't know if the other villagers are even- ah, alive.." She gathered more composure to continue her story. Mythere took his hand back. "They had us in cages and boxes in a caravan. They treated us like livestock."
"How did you get out here?"
Gaz' anger about being interrupted overshadowed her trauma, "Shut UP!" Mythere did exactly that. "The cage they had me in was older than the others. I also have some magical ability unlike the rest of the goblins. After trying for so long, I got out while they were sleeping, but didn't have the ability to break the others out. I ran into the nearest forest and that's why I'm here now."
This story was a lot to take in. She's the survivor of a village slaughter and escaped from what were presumably slave traders. Mythere had never witnessed atrocities like this before. He's heard of things like this, but they always have had some kind of heroic motive behind them, but these goblins were innocent and they are fellow sentients. He figured that it was Stroffo based on her description and that they had a caravan that they said was empty, but silhouettes of things could be seen.
"Alright. I get it. Let's go." Mythere stood up and extended a hand to her.
"What? Wait! We can't do anything, they're monsters!"
"I can't just do nothing after you told me that. What's the point of telling me if you didn't intend to save them?"
"I.. I don't know. But they took out my village! We had fighters as well and we lost. How could the two of us do anything?"
It was true that the two of them were definitely too weak to take on six bandits, but there was no way that he could abandon those villagers.
"You said you didn't see what happened to your village, maybe the fighters weren't around. And we don't have to defeat them, we just need to help the others escape." Mythere talked big, but he was grasping at straws. He knew that the goblins probably were defeated, but needed to keep hope up. He had no idea how he could help the children escape, but it still sounded easier than defeating six bandits. "What kind of magic can you do? We need a plan."
"A plan? How are we even going to find them?"
"I was following them before I found you. I just need to continue where I left off."
"Huh??"
" What magic do you know?"
"Uhmmmmm… the lighting that I did at you."
"Uh huh,"
"That's all I know. Goblins can't normally do magic, so it's not like I had a teacher or anything!"
"That's it?! It didn't even harm me!" Mythere doesn't realize that his body is more sturdy than the average human. The lightning probably would've hurt one of them if it was a direct hit. Not to mention his armor wasn't conductive, something that most people don't pay attention to.
"I can do other things! I'm kinda fast and I have good hearing!"
"Sigh, okay. We'll just have to plan around our shortcomings."
"Well what can you even do?!" She was offended at his condescending tone. "You haven't shown any ability to me! All I see is that you have a big sword on your back!" She didn't realize that her magic would hurt a normal person either, assuming it was just weak; so she thought that he seemed average if not below.
"Ha ha ha (annoyingly prideful laugh), I'm glad you asked." Mythere seemed to be waiting for this moment to show off to someone he's never met before. With a clean movement, he unsheathed his two-handed sword effortlessly and gripped it in front of him with both hands. Then he turned to the side and swung into a tree.
"Eh? You didn't do anything. You just tried to look cool." She sounded annoyed.
Mythere sheathed his sword and turned away from the tree. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes. "Are ya sure about that?" He smirked.
The tree that he sliced sure looked normal. But after a few painstakingly long seconds, during which Mythere began to doubt himself, the tree showed the slice and slowly started to slip a part.
"Ooooooooaaaa! Amazing!" Gaz' eyes widened and jaws dropped.
Mythere let out a mostly unnoticable sigh of relief.
"As you can see, I am plenty capable of adventuring. Now, let's get back to the road!" He then turned around. After a few seconds he turned around again. And again. He had lost where he had come from.
"What are you doing? I thought you were capable…" Gaz narrowed her eyes at him. He had an embarrassed look on his face that he tried to cover up with a smile. "I remember that I shot you right over there, so it's that way, right?" She pointed to where there were some indentations in the foliage.
"Well, I didn't exactly come from there."
"What's that mean?"
"Uh…" He tried to avoid eye contact. "When I first saw you, I circled around the clearing to get a better look at you."
Gaz visibly recoiled. "Creep! Are you just preying on young girls or something?!"
"No! I just never seen anyone like you before, so I wanted to make sure that you weren't some kind of monster or something! And you said you're an adult!"
Gaz looked down to the floor, "Geez, I know that I'm ugly, but you don't have to call me a monster." She sounded dejected.
Ugly? She's too cute! "Huh? That's not what I meant. There can be monsters that disguise themselves, so I didn't want to get caught off guard."
"Oh, I see. Can't you just remember what angle you first saw me at?"
"Let's see." Mythere walked around the clearing. He did not remember what angle he saw her from at all. Instead, he was hoping that he could see his footprints and just pass it off as him remembering.
"Hey! I found some footprints over here. These yours?" Gaz found them first.
"Ah yes, of course. This is the angle that I saw you from." He nodded his head as if he knew the whole time. Gaz didn't fall for this faux conviction. "We should just be able to walk straight from this pathway and reach the road. It wasn't that far."
"I hope you actually know where you're going." He shattered the confidence she had in through his directionless actions.
"Meh, how big could the forest be otherwise? Ha ha." His laughter trailed off with uncertainty.
The walk through the forest to the road wasn't long enough for a proper conversation, but Mythere noticed things that he wanted to ask about anyway.
"Don't your feet hurt?"
Gaz was a little taken aback by this abrupt statement. Mythere was staring at her feet a bit too intensely. "W-what? No, why would they hurt?"
"Well, you don't have any shoes on and the forest ground is a little rough."
"My feet may not be as strong as other goblins, but they can handle forest ground. After all, goblins don't really wear shoes."
"Hmmm, your feet look a little too delicate for you to have not worn shoes before."
"I didn't say I haven't! Stop looking at my feet! I'm just used to being bare-foot is all."
"Okay, okay."
There was weird energy between them, but that's not to say they weren't getting along. Meeting someone in such a way would create weird energy no matter what. Not to mention they're two different sentient races who have neither seen one like each other before. It wasn't long after the feet talk that they reached the worn road. Mythere walked on the inside, while Gaz walked closer to the forest. In case anything happened, she would be able to flee quickly, she thought.
"So, what exactly are we doing?"
"Oh, yeah, I guess you wouldn't know. The bandits paid my village a visit under the guide of adventurers. They left not too long ago, I figure I can just follow the road until they stop somewhere."
"What's going to happen after they stop?"
"Uhhh, I guess I'll have to figure it out before then haha." He wasn't very confident even with this vague statement. "But that isn't for at least a few hours. They could be far ahead."
"I see." Not long after her response, Gaz's stomach grumbled. "Excuse me."
"Sorry! I didn't realize that you probably haven't eaten in a while. Here." Mythere reached into his side bag and handed her a piece of dense bread. "It's not much, but it's filling. If we need more food, we'll have to hunt later." Without a proper ranged party member, hunting would be a little difficult.
"Thanks." Gaz took a large bite out of the bread. It was too big of a bite and she took a long time to chew through it. Meanwhile, Mythere grabbed his canteen off of his side and opened it and took a big swig of water. Seeing this precious liquid, Gaz's eyes widened. She gasped a bit, but since she still had bread in her mouth, the food debris caused her to start coughing. It wasn't that she was choking, but her throat was just very dry.
"I forgot that bread is dry! Here, have some water." He didn't let her take his canteen and instead shoved it into her mouth as he thought she would struggle due to her coughing fit.
Eh?!Gaz was caught off guard with something being shoved into her mouth. And then she thought that this has also been in his mouth.. But she took big gulps from the canteen while her cheeks turned red from embarrassment.
"Don't just shove things into my mouth!" She nudged his arm.
"Huh? You were choking, I was just helping." He didn't seem to think he did anything wrong.
Gaz pouted, but couldn't really argue back with him. She wasn't choking, but it was essentially in the same vein as that. "Anyway, now that you're fed and quenched, can you tell me more about goblins? I know you told me your story, but I don't know much about your people."
"Hm? That's a bit rude. I've told you a lot already and I don't know squat about you!" She's right, he barely introduced himself. You just didn't realize because you already know Mythere's background.
"Oh, pardon me. Well, where should I start? What do you want to know?" He was trying his best to cooperate.
"Anything!"
"Uh okay, well, my name is Mythere. I'm 20. I'm half elf half orc. I was raised by two humans in the village not too far from here. They also raised Kha'na, a half lynxion half human girl who's a year younger than me. She left before me, so I'm hoping to catch up with her before she encounters them. This is also my first time leaving the village with the intent of also leaving the forest." He felt a little embarrassed about the last part. What kind of person never leaves their village once after 20 years of life? Probably a lot of people, but he still had some inkling of shame over it. Gaz didn't react strongly to this though because she had never left her village before either. Goblins tend to isolate for life.
"Me too. Can I ask who Stroffo is? Is he a friend like Kha'na?" Mythere did blurt out two names she had never heard before.
"Absolutely not! Stroffo is the leader of the bandits. He's the guy who I think probably attacked your village. At least, the way you described him matches the guy that I met."
"EH?! If your friend is after them alone, wouldn't she be in danger?! Also this is your first adventure?! You're only 20?! You were raised by humans?!" For whatever reason, she just processed the other stuff that he talked about.
Mythere was a little whelmed by the sudden barrage of questions, but they were all just confirming things he already said. "Well, the people who raised us were seasoned adventurers, so she's as capable as I am. Before you ask, Stroffo introduced himself as a normal adventurer, so we didn't know he was bad until he left."
"So you spoke with him?" She spoke with a disgusted tone.
"Yeah, and what gave it away is how much he talked about slaying goblins." He brushed those words off, but they hit Gaz hard.
"W-what?" Her eyes started to water. She feared that she wasn't the only village to be attacked and what Mythere said was basically confirmation. Realizing what he said, he quickly recovered with
"Not like that! He told us a bunch of goblin slaying stories, but they were stories we heard as kids. I didn't realize it at the time, but it was clear that he hadn't been on many goblin slaying journeys. The way he spoke of them sounded like he had never even met them before, because after meeting you, there's no way that those stories could be real." He didn't know this for sure, but he really hoped that they weren't true.
"But, he did raid my village. " Gaz sniffled through her words.
Just realizing now that although his stories may have been fake, that doesn't mean he didn't do other atrocious things. To a normal, sheltered person, talk of goblin slaying is probably impressive, but to adventurers, it's frightening. Stroffo likely had some truth to his stories, but hopefully not too much. "But his stories were just glorified fantasy stories, I doubt he did any of them."
"I hope not…" she sniffled, so Mythere gave her reassuring pats. "Can you tell me more about yourself now? I think I gave enough of an introduction."
"I think that you should talk more, but I'll talk about myself. I don't really know what you find so interesting though."
"I've never met a goblin before. Aside from the bandits, you're the first new face I've seen in years." And a very cute one at that. Gaz blushed as if she knew the things he was thinking.
"Well, as I told you before, we lived in a cave village on the west part of the continent. Most of us have never left the village before. I was raised to believe that Goblins are a race that strive in isolation, but only because the other sentient races have such an innate physical advantage over us. We're peaceful since we don't come into contact with any non-Goblin people. There are some who leave the village in hopes of adventuring, but they hardly ever come back. I'm told that my parents were those types of people."
"Ah, so you've never met your parents? Me neither." He had a melancholic look on his face.
"Eh? I didn't say that. I never met my mother, but I was raised by my father. He brought me into the village. My mother died out while adventuring not too long after I was born. I don't know if he's still alive though." She looked to the ground as her voice trailed off.
Mythere patted her shoulder. "Well, you don't know if he's not not alive either." He didn't know what to say in a situation like this, but this seemed to help a little bit.
"Goblins are hunters and farmers. But we only hunt animals, not other people. In the stories we heard when we were younger, other sentients believed that we ate their people, but I've never eaten any person! In fact, some of the people in our village didn't even eat animals."
"Vegetarians, I've heard of those. Hard to believe they exist. I don't know anyone who has eaten another person either. I don't know if those people actually exist."
"That's a relief, at least I know that my friends won't be eaten."
"...probably." He muttered.
"Don't say that!" It seemed that her comically large Goblin ears weren't just for show. "... I don't know what else to tell you about my people."
"Okay, well then tell me about yourself."
"Huh? Um, I'm an abnormal goblin. I'm considered to be above average in terms of height, and also quite ugly. Ha ha." She was truly embarrassed to reveal this. "Goblins normally aren't capable of magic and I am. I also have to shave my head, whereas most of them are born without any hair on their head."
Mythere didn't quite understand this. Firstly, compared to him, she was incredibly short. Second, she was quite the looker. Third, her abilities don't really match a normal goblin. But he doesn't know enough about the world to make a guess on why. "Hmmm, you seem to be quite the special goblin."
"Me? Not really. I can't do many of the things that other goblins do and nobody in my village really liked me that much." She kicked some dirt while she was talking. In case you didn't realize, they have been walking side by side following the trail this whole time.
"At least you know your people. I have never met another orc or elf before. And I'm sure that people did like you." He stopped talking.
"No, I was usually outcast. Because I look and am so different from everyone else."
"You look normal to me, pretty even."
"...I don't even know if I want to save them." She was surprised at his words, but glossed over them to talk about what she was truly thinking.
"What?"
"It's not like they treated me like one of them! and they tried to rat me out when I was escaping."
Mythere thought this was horrible, but he couldn't exactly disagree with her. There wasn't much else Gaz could talk about and Mythere didn't ask her anything specific either. For a while they just walked together silently, occasionally drinking water.
"Mythere?"
"Huh?"
"What are you going to do after if we save them?"
He hadn't really thought about it. This journey was started on a whim so he assumed that he would just retire back to the village. Though at that point since he's out and about, he might as well just keep adventuring. "Keep adventuring. I'm already out here."
"Can I come with you?"
This was sudden. Sure, she was enjoyable to be around and he didn't really want to leave her behind, but they had just met.
"What about your village? And your people?"
"... They don't really want me."
"
Even your father? You're not going to say goodbye to him?"
"If you come with me, it's a far journey. But that's assuming that he's, you know. You might have to escort them back anyway."
"All right, then we'll stick together after we're finished!"
Mythere turns to Gaz and leans over a bit and smiles widely. He lowers his arm towards her and opens his hand. Gaz grunts in approval and slaps her hand into his and together they shake hands. With that settled, they're morale for the journey has refreshed and they increase their stride following the trail.
The sun is past its highest, but it's nowhere near setting. In the distance, Mythere sees the entrance to the forest. Past that is a large open field, but he can't really see through the leaves. The entrance to the forest pathway is fairly hidden, which is why the village doesn't get many travelers. The only people who come to the village are those who already know of it, else it just looks like a forest. The pair approached the entrance with pride, but are suddenly stopped in their tracks when an object whirs past Mythere's head.
The object was a knife and it stuck into the ground in front of them with a heavy thud. Danger. Mythere quickly turned around and shoved Gaz towards the forest.
"Run!" He yelled while surveying where the knife was thrown from.
"I can't!" She was physically able to run away and she knew she was too weak to battle, but there was no way she could leave him after they talked about staying together.
"Then, hide! Or be careful! Or someth-" Another object flew towards him and struck him in the chest. This time it was not a knife, thankfully, but a rock. Even so, it was thrown with enough force to temporarily knock the wind out of him. His footing was strong, so he wasn't brought down. Unfortunately, he didn't see where the rock came from either.
"Left!" Gaz eagerly shouted.
He quickly turned his gaze to the left just in time to catch another rock thrown at him. He couldn't tell exactly where it came from, but he knew the general direction. He decided to brute force the enemy out. With the rock, he wound up his arm and hurled the rock as hard as he could to the left.
"Gaz, strike the rock!"
"Okay!" She aimed her staff stick and let loose a bolt of electricity towards the rock. When it connected, it boosted the rock even faster. Mythere's throw was already insanely powerful, coupled with the lightning, the impact of the rock would be devastating.
Unfortunately, Mythere wasn't trained in ranged weaponry, so his throwing isn't very accurate. Coupled with the fact that he didn't even see where the attacker was, the rock wasn't going to hit anywhere important. Though, the sheer power of it went through a couple of trees. A shadowy figure was seen jumping from one of the trees branches.
"There!" Gaz pointed it out. It's not like Mythere didn't see it, she just wanted to feel more helpful.
"Got it!" Mythere unsheathed his sword and ran at full speed towards where the shadow figure landed. He couldn't see it directly because of the dense forest foliage, so instead he decided to full swing into the woods.
"HYAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The blade coupled with his strength seamlessly chopped down a decently sized tree. The shadowy figure was in the middle of the falling vegetation.
As it stood up, it, or she rather, exclaimed "W-wait!"
The light from the sun struck the woman. Her hair glistened a beautiful blonde. And a tail revealed itself from her backside. Her furry ears stuck out of the side of her head.
"Kha'na?" Mythere was stunned and froze in place.
Gaz came running after him and stood next to him with her staff pointed towards the other woman.
"Who are you?!"
"Uhmmm, hehe. I can explain this." Kha'na resigned herself. She haphazardly put up both her hands.
Mythere lowered Gaz's staff. "Uh, this is the girl that I was following after." He didn't really believe it himself. She really wasn't in any danger or at least she didn't seem to be. "Why? Someone could've gotten hurt!"
"Oh please, that knife was nowhere near you, ahaha!" She lightly jogged towards him. "And I only threw rocks after that!" She grinned at him as if she was proud and didn't think she did anything wrong.
"But, but why?" He raised his hands towards his forehead. This was a very confusing situation.
"No way! You're supposed to be after those bandits!" Gaz exclaimed. She was more out of the loop than either of them.
"Oh? Me? Ahahaha! Yeah, but, can't do that alone! Even though I'm better than this guy?" She punched Mythere's arm.
"You can't really say that when you just surrendered to us." He mumbled this, but due to the fact that they all have superior hearing, he might as well have just said it.
"Two versus one! Of course I'd lose that fight. One on one and you'll see!" She grinned even wider. Her sharp teeth were kinda menacing.
Gaz, knowing she really didn't contribute to the fight past the rock throw, scoffed at that statement. Plus, she already thought very highly of Mythere's skills, so for someone to show up and claim they were better made no sense.
"Mmmmmmmm, okay. Anyway, back to more important things, WHY!?" He seemed to be getting quite frustrated.
"Ah yes! You can't go out of the forest yet." She crossed her arms and nodded approvingly at herself. "So, to stop you, I had to get your attention in the quietest (but funnest) way possible. Duh!"
"But WHY?!" Both Gaz and Mythere simultaneously asked.
"Why what?" Kha'na had a perplexed look on her face as if she thought their questions were the stupid ones. What other information could she possibly give?
"Why would you need to stop us from going out into the forest and why in the quietest way possible?" Mythere calmly explained.
"Right! I forgot that I've been tailing them alone this whole time. Stroffo and his party are just outside the forest, they're taking a lunch break. We all left so early, we didn't eat breakfast. And I didn't want to be loud because we can't let them know we're following them." She was more detail oriented than they thought. Mythere thought she had gone crazy or was brainwashed. Gaz, having just met her, wondered why Mythere wanted to save her.
"And you thought the best idea was to engage in a battle where trees fall and I used a battle cry?" His face was fully engulfed in his palms at this point.
"Ahehe, well if a tree falls down in the forest and they're not around, can they really hear it?" She said with an embarrassed look on her face. She realized that her plan was terribly planned.
"They're right outside the forest?! Let's go get them then!" Gaz grabbed Mythere's arm and tried to run out towards the entrance. Her small figure was no match for him, so she just ran in place.
"We can't. They're probably too much to handle on our own right now." He calmly revealed.
"Maybe before, but now we have her!" Gaz grandly gestures to Kha'na while Kha'na strikes a powerful pose.
"There's still six of them and we've never seen them fight! Plus, we've never been in real battle before. There's no telling what could happen!" Mythere wasn't the type to just charge into fights.
"Ahahah, yeah… he's right. We've only ever fought each other." Kha'na dejectedly revealed.
"Then, then what should we do?" Gaz was distraught, she felt like the sooner they could encounter the bandits, the faster that her friends would stop suffering. But she also knew that rushing in just to die wouldn't help anyone.
"Well, we have to regroup our information and just catch up in general. Even though it's only been a morning." Mythere was right, Kha'na had been following them a lot closer than he was. So she must've seen or heard something that could help them. "So, Kha'na, what do you know?"
"What don't you know?." She asked him. Apparently she thinks that her information is so vast, it would take too much time to tell him all of it.
"We know that they're bandits. And that they're transporting a caravan of goblins that Gaz escaped from. ." He picked up Gaz with one hand and showed Kha'na. Gaz was too startled and embarrassed to say anything and instead just blushed whilst in the air.
"Ah! So you're caught up! I've heard them talking about that all morning! They really want you, you know." She pointed at Gaz."
"I see." He said contemplating reasons why.
"I figured they weren't good guys pretty early on. I confirmed it with the elders when I woke up and that's why I tailed them! Though, I let you sleep in because you seemed pretty tired."
"What did you see when trailing them!?" Gaz impatiently asked. To be fair, she had been waiting this whole time while the two caught up.
"Oh? I don't believe we met before!" A complete subject change from the extroverted Kha'na. "I'm Kha'na, a half-lynxion half-"
"Half-human who's one year younger than Mythere! Yes, I've already heard it! I'm Gaz, a goblin who's village was raided by Stroffo and his gang and also kidnapped by them and also escaped from them because I have magic affinity unlike most goblins and if you want to know more ask Mythere later and just get to the important stuff now!!" Gaz said all in one breath. She sure is eager to learn.
Kha'na was overwhelmed by this barrage of information. Also a little flattered that Gaz already knew about her. "Ahehe. Well, I got visual confirmation that there are indeed living goblins caged in their caravan."
"Thank goodness they're alive!" Gaz sighed in relief. Mythere patted her back in reassurance.
"Unfortunately, they're looking to sell them. To other humans, as slaves. They were quite mad about losing a really cute unique looking one though, I can only assume that's you!" Kha'na booped Gaz on the nose. Gaz blushed and recoiled from her towards Mythere.
"Slave trade?"
"Apparently, they wanted to get a hold of me as well, but weren't able to because we slept together that night." Kha'na let out a suggestive smile towards him. His pale skin started to heat up in embarrassment.
"You what???" Gaz sheepishly muttered.
"Not like that!!" Mythere wanted to clear the air as soon as possible and not have a misunderstanding.
"Hahah! Of course!" Kha'na knew what she was doing and jabbed him in the arm mischievously. "But it seemed that the more unique the person, the more they could sell them for. They thought of taking you as well Mythere, but talked about how you're not worth the trouble, at least, not in the village." Mythere somehow felt offended at that notion, but at the same time was prideful of the fact that he gave off an intimidating vibe.
"That's all you learned?" Mythere asked inquisitively.
"Well, that's the important stuff. Unless you want to know about their bathroom routine." Kha'na chortled.
"It could be useful. But not if we don't catch up." Mythere didn't really find it funny, considering their evil deeds and all. "What now then?"
"Keep following them! Until night time maybe so we can strike with surprise!" She said confidently.
"A couple of problems with that. They could've heard our battle and thus will act a lot more cautious. Two, I did not bring enough food for three people. Well, I barely brought enough for one." He shamefully uttered.
"We should check if they're still around first then." Kha'na suggested.
"Okay! I'll do it." Gaz enthusiastically said.
"We can all go, it's safer that way." Mythere pointed out.
"Safer, but also a lot more noticeable. Gaz is small, so she should be fairly undetectable. And she's just checking. It should be fine."
He wasn't entirely comfortable with this plan, but there was no other conceivable way.
"Alright then, you can go on ahead, observe and then report back. Don't take any risks! We won't be very far behind."
"I got it, I got it, relax." Gaz smirks and scoffs as she struts off towards the entrance. They weren't that far from it to begin with, but the dense forest blinded both sides' vision.
Gaz's strut gradually began to turn into a sneak and then a crawl. She was no stranger to stealth movements it seemed. Her small figure helped her through the greenery without moving too many branches. In the distance she could see the bright light of the yellow sun, unabashed by the forest canopy. She steadily moved towards the brightness while maintaining full concentration on her stealth efforts. When she reached the barrier and peered through, she couldn't see due to the vast change of brightness, but after her eyes stabilized she could make out what was outside of the forest. There was only one man and he had a body slumped over his shoulder. His stance was strong, intimidating, and his head was blinding due to its shine. Gaz quickly turned tail in realization that the caravan had already left and she made no effort to stay hidden.
"Mythere! Kha'na!"
In the blink of an eye, Mythere shot into a full sprint towards Gaz's voice. He ran so fast that before Gaz could realize, he was already carrying her over his shoulder.
"Huh- they-they're gone! Only one guy is here" She was facing Kha'na behind Mythere since she was still over his shoulder.
Kha'na ran beside Mythere who was standing off against the lone being outside the forest. Gaz leisurely climbed down from Mythere's body and stood on the other side of him. Mythere drew his blade ready to attack, but knew that he needed to keep that person alive for information.
That person wasn't even facing in their direction, his back was towards them. His hairy body made him seem like a wild beast from behind. His axes were hanging off of his sides while he stared in the distance with a cloth covered body wriggling over his shoulder. His head sparkled with sweat.
"Xane! Surrender now or we'll have to use force!" Mythere was enraged. Not only was he deceived, but now he was being taunted with only one of their members with a victim. It was clear that the scuffle between the two half breeds was heard and Stroffo took off leaving Xane to deal with them. But why also leave him with a captured goblin? They wondered. They assumed it was a goblin due to the small form, but because the body was covered, they couldn't be sure.
Xane slowly started to turn around after he heard the yell. Mythere would've charged in if it wasn't for the body he was carrying. The two parties locked eyes in standstill. Xane had a intimidating aura even with his dumb looking face. The other side's faces were all full of anger. Since the journey thus far has only been spoken of, they never saw eye to eye with true evil before this. Now that it has come into their vision, they burned with fury.
"Oh? Mythere, Kha'na, goblin kid!" Xane hollered to them as his dumb mean mug face turned into a dumb smile. "I wasn't expecting you guys!" He took steps towards them.
"Stop! One more step and we'll attack!" Kha'na shouted to him, daggers at the ready. Gaz also had her staff pointed at him with an electric flicker at the tip of it.
"Attack? I thought we were friends." Xane's dumb smile turned into a dumb look of confusion. His face was quite dumb.
"If we were friends, it was only under false pretenses! If you want to be friends, put the body down!" Mythere yelled at him.
"False… pretenses?" He didn't know what these words meant. "Okay, I'll put this girl down." He slowly maneuvered the body in front of him. He gently but firmly held the body by the shoulders with both of his giant hands and slowly set the body down on its feet. "Here you are!" The body stood weakly for a moment before leaning too far and falling over.
"Uh oh!" Xane rushed to save her from hitting the ground. "Sorry, I don't think I can put her down." His dumb confused face turned into a shameful dumb face.
Mythere and Kha'na didn't know what to do. They couldn't attack while he held the body without possibly hurting the body. They also needed information so they couldn't exactly kill him. Not to mention neither of them have even killed before, so they might not have the grit to do it. Even if they did, they don't know how powerful Xane could be, despite his idiotic vibes, his body looks like it has the power of a bear.
"Then, give the body to us!" Mythere pleaded. He sheathed his sword and held his arms out.
"I'm going to approach you slowly, no sudden movements!"
"Slowly? Okay, I'll do the same." Xane responded. The no sudden movements declaration made Xane nervous. After all, what is a sudden movement? Aren't all movements somewhat sudden? Does that mean that he shouldn't move at all, or just extremely slowly? He decided on the latter. Though, he took it a bit too seriously. Comically slow in fact, as if he was playing a game. Mythere on the other hand was just walking slowly. He was confused on why Xane wasn't moving though as he said he was going to. As he got closer to Xane, he noticed that his footing wasn't the same as when he started walking. Is this a combat stance? His eyes narrowed. It was actually that Xane was moving so slowly that his footing looked weird.
It wasn't too long before Mythere stood directly in front of the egg-headed man. Despite being described monstrously, Xane wasn't that much bigger than Mythere, since Mythere himself was a sizable individual.
"Xane? Are you going to hand the person over?" Mythere's words were angry, but also confused. His hand was gripping the hilt of his sword in preparation.
"Yes, but you said 'slowly, no sudden movements' so I am going slowly and without moving suddenly" He said proudly.
Is this guy making fun of me? Is this some sort of joke!?
"Just hand over the person!" He roared.
Xane got startled and jumped a bit. "OK, Here." He gave the person over to Mythere. While holding the person, the body coughed. He could tell that it was a girl. Parts of her skin began to show through the tattered cloth up close. She was green, a goblin. Mythere stepped back towards his companions before removing the cloth so as to not get taken off guard.
"Stay there and don't move. Got it?"
"OK, will stay." Xane responded rather seriously and immediately put both his hands by his sides and stood straight. His dumb face turned back into an intimadating mean mug.
"You're okay now, we've come to save you." Mythere pulled the cloth off of the young goblin girl expecting someone cuter than Gastrid. But once the cloth was pulled off, his hopeful smile was struck by reality. This was a very ugly girl. Her nose was gigantic and bulb shaped, and her eyes were narrow and yellow. She didn't have eyebrows or eyelashes. Her teeth were sharp and daunting and her head was shiny as if there were no follicles for hair to even grow out of. Her body was extremely feminine though. Her bust was comically big on such a tiny figure. She was shorter than Gaz, who was already quite short.
"So pretty…" Gaz starred in amazement. Both Mythere and Kha'na shot a very menacing and confused glance in her direction. "Maeve!"
"Ga-gaz… You made it…" She was tired and struggling to speak, coughing weakly.
"Quick, give her some water!" Gaz pleaded. Mythere raised his canister reluctantly towards Maeve's mouth and poured water in. Maeve gulped it delicately.
"Mythere, take care of her, I'm going to talk to Xane." Kha'na prepared herself for an encounter. Unlike Mythere, Xane toppled over her in terms of size. Though, this wouldn't stop her from talking to him.
"Hey bald oaf! Tell us about your bandit boss!"
"Kha'na! Hello there." It took a second for the second sentence to register in his mind. "Bandit boss? I don't know any bandits." His dumb confusion seemed to be genuine.
"What? Stroffo is a bandit and so are you and your companions since you follow him!"
"Uhhhh, I don't think so. He told me that he's an adventurer, we even get quests from the guild."
Kha'na remembered that they did talk about the guild before and Stroffo did seem to be well versed in how the guild works. Could we be wrong? She thought. But there's no way the guild would have goblin slaying quests! She realized.
"Have you ever gotten a quest from the guild personally?"
"Um, no. Stroffo always gets them!" He smirks, stupidly.
"Uh huh, have you ever been inside the guild building?"
"Um, nope! Don't know where it's at." He nods, idiotically.
"Did you ever sign up to be an adventurer?"
"Mmmm, nuh uh. Stroffo picked me up from a log farm!" He smirked and nodded dumbly.
"So you don't know about whether or not he actually is an adventurer or bandit for sure?"
It seems even Xane's slowness has its limits and he finally put the pieces together. "But, he taught me about the guild and it's inner workings. He even told us about guildmaster Tonta, the high elf. He said 'always avoid the guildmaster, Tonta, she's a high elf'!"
"He probably wanted you to think that you were one of the good guys. And you're too dumb to notice contexts." Kha'na sighed.
"I-I'm a- a- bandit?" Xane's eyes began to well up with tears. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" He fell to his knees and shouted to the skies.
Kha'na rolled her eyes at his dumb realization.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
principleshark
principleshark Scrolling through and skimming what I wrote is so nostalgic. Even though it's all completely new to you, reader, it's a bit old for me. I'm glad you're on this journey!
Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực