Chapter 6: Ch.6: Scouting

The raid on the village would not come just yet, as we noticed when me and Korvak made our way into town at morning. The defenses were still being prepared and many of the people did seem quite concerned, but so far no real sightings had been noticed by the militia guarding the entrances to the village. The wooden fences wouldn't do much against creatures smarter than a sheep, so larger wooden barricades were being made from recycled materials. Old dead trees, rotten furniture, anything that could be sharpened into a point was dug firmly into the ground on the outskirts facing the forest.

"Looks like they're handling things about as well as they can." Korvak mentioned, it was clear in his expression he didn't think the barricades and the militia were enough.

"Why don't we ask any adventurers or mercenaries for help then?" I asked, a little naïve to the fact that the elder would've likely done so if that was an option.

"Our branches are mainly just correspondence staff. The guilds in this village don't really house any adventurers yet since there's little to be done around these parts, those were built only to go along with the law of the lord of this land." Korvak seemed a little angry at this idea, probably because it meant he was the only one person remotely qualified to handle this issue going by guild standards.

"Should we go inform the elder we're going to be scouting the forest?" I asked, mainly to be sure on how Korvak wanted to handle the job.

"Don't think so. The old man knows me, he'll be waiting for us to come back by sunset with news anyways." He scratched his goatee for a moment before seemingly getting a good idea shot into his mind. "Why don't you lead the way? Try to retrace your steps back to where you woke up. Will be a good chance to see if you got good orientation skills."

"Sure, I'm not certain if we'll get there in good time though." I replied, though I had to admit I was a little more interested in knowing what Korvak could do.

Specifically because he had been carried what I assumed to be a spear ever since we left his house, an old tool he named it. Probably his weapon of choice back when he was a proper adventurer. The shaft looked old, but the wood seemed to remain in a really good condition. And although the tip was covered by a piece of leather and some rope, I could tell the blade was slightly larger than expected.

"Hey, Korvak." I decided to make some conversation as we reached the little stream of water, starting to follow it upstream. "How was it like being an Adventurer? The elder said you were retired but you don't really look that old to me."

"It was fun, at least. Risking your neck for other people in exchange for a damn good pay left a good feeling in your heart at the end of the day. Though you tend to get cocky." He raised his free hand and tugged at his shirt, lifting it slightly above his abdomen. "Got careless on a risky job, client died and I got this in exchange."

A nasty old scar marked the better half of his stomach. It didn't look like a burn, at least not completely, but it was clear that whatever made that wound was likely a pretty nasty monster. I took a moment to examine what to say since I was not particularly good at these types of things, my mind does tend to wander more than my mouth can explain.

"Well, at least you're still alive. That's something, right?" I tried my best to comfort him.

"That's something, alright." He replied, a somber tone to his voice as he pulled his shirt down again. "Let's keep going, if you manage to remember anything just spit it out before you forget again."

"Will do, not sure if remembering that I have no idea where that clearing is works for that though." I joked, humor was a good choice to tug away hard atmospheres from conversations. At least that's what previous me believed.

He chuckled a little and seemed to remain in slightly higher spirits as we made progress through the forest. Eventually we arrived at the spot where I met the wolf mother, and small tracks of footprints seemed to have remained through the night. Korvak took immediate notice and knelt down to examine them more closely.

"Well, you weren't wrong with your directions." He sighed, standing up again with help from his spear/walking stick. "Those are goblin tracks, following the ones left by the Dair mother. Don't seem to be older than a few hours, maybe the Dair did manage to run away."

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"This is way too close to the village, wouldn't take longer than an hour to get down there..." The realization of danger started to dawn on me.

"Alright, this'll be a dangerous call, but I think we can follow them and try to see how many hunting parties they have. Should give us a rough estimate of their numbers." Korvak seemed serious this time. I had no idea of how to fight, or if I could even run away and not freeze from fear in case the Goblins noticed us, so it would really be dangerous not only for me, but for him too.

"I'll come with, then." Even if I couldn't be much help in a fight, I could at least act as bait in case Korvak has to run. Sure, it may sound self-deprecating as hell but my life really didn't have much value at the time, so it wouldn't really matter if I was gone from this world too.

"Stay close to me, I'll lead the way. Don't make any noises or sudden movements, and watch where you step. Remember, we're here to scout, not eliminate." He made sure to leave the instructions as clear as possible before we started following the tracks.

Somehow, as I watched Korvak examining the dirt and the traces left behind by the goblins, these things started to become a little more noticeable to me. Broken branches, scratches on the trees and grass being crushed into the ground were signs that these hunting parties were either large in number or inexperienced since they left plenty of marks behind to remind themselves of the path they were taking.

Although old me's representation of goblins seemed oddly stupid for a somewhat civilized barbaric race, these very real signs of intelligence did lead me to believe they were smarter than I thought. But before I could keep running my mind through the plenty of scenarios, Korvak finally gave me the signal to stop moving. Focusing on my surroundings, I could barely hear the crunching of leaves and twigs alongside small, light footprints closing in.

It appeared to be only one set, and I saw Korvak take out a knife from the side of his boot. Probably as preparation in case the goblin found us. And so it did. The creature seemed to have strayed from the larger group, and was about to bump directly into us when Korvak silently pushed his palm against the creature's mouth and stabbed it right through the throat, twisting the knife and pulling out to bleed it dry and gently place the thing on the ground. Nudging it aside into the bushes.

As he did this, he failed to notice a second Goblin following the previous one. Probably looking for it since it had strayed too far from the main force. With Korvak busy, I took action. Following his movements, I lunged at the thing and quickly covered its mouth as I grappled it into the ground. The bastard did manage to bit my fingers a little, but I had bought enough time for Korvak to wipe his knife clean of blood and stab the second one in the side of the head, piercing right through the thin layers of bone that made up the thing's skull.

"Well done, be a little more careful with injuries though, they could get infected. These are nasty creatures." He whispered, to which I simply nodded. "Let's keep going, the main group should be just ahead."

We kept moving through the bushes and the trees, eventually taking notice of an old cavern where a rather large group of green-skinned creatures seemed to be residing at. Unknowingly, we had arrived at the tribe's hideout instead of the hunting party's whereabouts, and that meant trouble.

"There must be at least forty, and that's just on the outside..." I whispered to Korvak, he just nodded in discomfort.

"A hundred goblins minimum, more by the time they come raiding. We don't know how big that cavern is, but we'll have to wait until we repel their raid to exterminate them in there. Let's go back, quickly."

We turned and kept moving, even though we heard other goblins walking about, we kept moving. We didn't stop walking until we reached the river and then we decided to jog the rest of the way to arrive as soon as possible. Running downhill was just a recipe for bad fortune, and we decided we'd rather not have a twisted ankle when we're fighting the Goblins. Yes, we.

I experienced the death of another somewhat intelligent creature that day, and I felt nothing. I directly participated in it and yet there was no remorse, only a lingering feeling of discomfort at the back of my throat. Something was telling me these few days were not going to be easy to get through, even if I now knew I was more than capable of murder.

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