9 As the Crow Flies

That lead goblin was a little different than the others. Tougher, by far, and bigger. I think if I hadn't crippled him in the first pass, it would have been a much tougher fight. In case it wasn't obvious, 'surprise' is your best weapon. When have I gotten beat up the most? When I was surprised. When were fights easiest? When I catch the buggers by surprise.

This tells me a few things. First, I need more awareness so that I'm never caught by surprise again. Second, I need more sneaky skills. If I catch my targets unaware, they will suffer an immediate disadvantage, as that big goblin did.

That reminds me, I wonder if I get an ability from that guy's crystal? I wonder if I can get abilities from crystals? I decide to check my notifications quickly, but no new ability pops up. I also got nearly one hundred EXP, though, and that's pretty good. I only needed thirty more to hit the next level. That's only like, five squirrels.

I was right, though, that goblin was something a little different.

[Defeated Black Boned Goblin Gained 16 EXP

It sounds like an evolved goblin, but my little feathered base model dropped him like a bad habit. Okay, so maybe I'm not a base model, but I'm still pretty new to all this. Once again, I pay homage to the surprise attack.

I spotted a pair of jackalopes on my way back, and fresh meat is just too tempting to pass up. Especially since I worked up an appetite ganking goblins. A short while later, I drop down and perch a few feet from Cara and give her a caw.

She jumps, startled by the sound. "HOLY shi- Is that you, Morgan?" she asks, holding her chest. I laugh, but it comes out as a caw anyway. "You nearly scared the life out of me. It would be an awful shame to have rescued me just to kill me off barely a day later."

I don't care what she says, that was funny.

After lunch, I decided to learn to mimic human sounds with my crow voice now that I have someone to talk to. It's rather convenient that Cara's name is relatively close to the sound a crow normally makes, so I aim to have Cara be my first spoken word in this world.

At night, Cara tells more stories about her adventures with her previous party. This is our routine for the next several days. I wake up, scout the area, look for fresh meat, head back, practice human speech, and hang out with Cara, who is becoming a bit stir crazy. Can't say I blame her, I was the same way when I was stuck in a rut until my wing healed.

After the third day, I reach level three and gain another ten Free Attribute Points. This time I increase my Soul Attributes each by one. This left me with one extra leftover; I can't do anything with it, so I just save it for a rainy day. There are no new additions to the functionality of the system. I might have to wait for level five when the store opens up.

On the fourth day, I manage to increase my Quill Barrage and my Flight Talents. I also find out that squirrels only give me one EXP now. However, their souls are just as rewarding as ever. I'm also able to articulate 'Cara,' 'Yes,' and 'No,' quite easily, so conversations aren't quite as one-sided.

You might wonder why, if I can make human sounds, can't I just say any of the words I know. Well, this isn't like having a human mouth. The whole process of making these sounds is complex and sometimes frustrating. I'm getting better, but accessing my full lexicon is going to take a while. At least to get it to the conversational stage.

Day five, I came across another goblin hunting troupe less than a mile from the tree-house. They were all normal goblins; despite that, I ended up getting an ability from one of them. Not that I wanted it. What the hell would I want Enhanced Fertility for? I wonder if there is an option to sell abilities back to the system?

A deer wanders too close to the tree-house on day six and becomes our primary foodsource for the rest of our stay there. After the deer, I focused more on practicing abilities and speaking human words. It's been two days since then, and my speech is improving by leaps and bounds. Cara's ankle is significantly improved, and she thinks we can make our way back to town tomorrow.

I decide to do a quick reconnaissance run by the goblin warren before we head out tomorrow morning. There's no reason to take any chances, after all.

As I fly over the forest towards the goblin warren, I start to notice something unusual. The normal noises of the forest aren't there. I would normally notice squirrels, other birds, and occasionally, larger animals while on my patrols. Now, the closer I get to the warren, the quieter things become.

I slow my approach and try to pay closer attention. I fly higher, nearing the top of the canopy to avoid detection. I definitely need some stealth abilities. I'd feel better about reconnaissance missions if I had some. Maybe a way to move faster, too, or teleport.

I land a few trees back from the clearing before the entrance of the goblin warren. This... doesn't look good. About five times as many goblins are going in an out of the entrance as when I first saw the place a week ago. What's worse is that there are a number of obviously evolved goblins in the group. Several of them are about the size of a human.

If what Cara told me is accurate, this place is going to explode pretty soon. These little garbage disposals are over hunting the forest in this area, and soon they'll burst forth and find the nearest source of food.

That's a threat to the town and surrounding farms. They need to be warned. We need to go. Now! I don't know how many days it will be before this explodes, but a thousand goblins descending on a town will definitely end in a tragedy. I try avoiding the thought, but I can't escape the image of Cara pinned under a sea of goblins.

I take off as fast as I can. My Flight ability has improved over the last week, and as I cruise through the trees dodging branches and boughs, I get another notification.

[Congratulations. WINGED FLIGHT has improved to Level 5.

[Congratulations. WINGED FLIGHT has undergone a qualitative Improvement.

Huh? What's that mean?

I flap my wings and find out real quick as in my speed triples, at least. My reactions are crisp, and I think I can see farther and clearer. I could give a peregrine falcon a run for its money. Fifteen minutes later and I break through the trees into the treehouse clearing. Cara is wrapping a binding around her ankle to help keep it stabilized. She may be fine to walk and even run, but there might still be some damage that hasn't healed yet.

"CARA!" I crow. She looks up and waves.

"Hey, Morgan. I'm almost ready to head out. How's it dook out there?"

"NOT GOOD. GOB-LINS. TOO MAN-Y." I'm doing better speaking, but more than one syllable, and it sounds broken. I also always sound like I'm yelling. It's annoying, but all part of the learning process, I guess.

She pushes herself to her feet. "Are they moving?"

"NOT YET. SOON."

"How many?"

"THOU-SAND. MORE." Sentences are not my friend yet. Actually, the "th" sound isn't either. When I said "thousand," it sounded more like tao-san, but Cara got the picture. And what a grim picture it was. Cara said the town was fairly large and housed a hundred guards. Ten to one odds didn't sound great. Of course, there were also adventurers and other people who could fight, but it was still not great. While a guard or one of the common adventurers could probably fight two or three goblins at a time, there weren't just goblins.

"CARA. NOT JUST GOB-LINS."

Her pale skin became ghostly. "Are there, hobs?"

I cocked my head to the side. "WHAT?"

"They're about my size only with heavier muscles, blue-gray skin, and pointed ears with a wide base."

I nod.

"Well, shit. It looks like we're out of time." She shoves her bound foot in a boot, grabs her staff, and starts heading in the direction of the town. If she was one hundred percent, we could make it there before it's dark, but she's not, so I need to clear the path for her as much as I can.

Not like, literally, I'm not going to use Plant Manipulation to create a road or anything. It would be cool if I could, but I'd run out of Mana before I got a mile. I'm just going to scout the area ahead for dangers and either remove them or tell her to change routes.

Before I start scouting, I sit on her shoulder and ask about hobs.

"Hobgoblins, or hobs, are an evolved form of a goblin. They usually show up in feral colonies once a warren grows to over five hundred. They're bigger, stronger, and smarter than a goblin, and they have a nastier disposition—at least the feral ones. I've met enlightened hobs that are perfectly nice. Even some goblins that are as well. It's just the feral ones that will kill, destroy, and defile without remorse."

"Usually, for every hundred goblins, you'll get a hob. Did you count how many were in the open?"

"YES. TWELVE."

"Assuming that not all of them were out in the open, we can expect at least fifteen hundred goblins. Shit. They're going to need to request an eradication force from the Lord Evreux."

"WHO IS HE?"

"He's the Count who holds dominion over the region. We need to hurry, or they won't have enough time before the horde comes calling."

I take off into the trees and begin to scout ahead. I periodically double back to check on Cara. Our first problem comes a bit more than three hours later, where a deer has been cornered by a number of wolves, including a rather large black one that watched over the hunt.

I could lie and say this was a tough fight, but when all is said and done, they are all still animals, and they were distracted by the deer they had cornered. The larger wolf was indeed stronger than the others. Actually, he was a lot stronger than anything else I've killed thus far, but he didn't see three swords and half a dozen spears coming at him from above and slightly behind him.

Turning a wolf into a hedgehog was just my first trick next involved hamstringing the rest so they couldn't run and killing them as quickly and as humanely as possible... okay, so hamstringing something so it can't run away already precludes being humane, but I did my best.

In addition to the copious amount of EXP, I got for killing this small pack of wolves. I also pulled a special ability from the pack alpha.

[Congratulations. You have gained the Talent Ability PACK TACTICS.]

[PACK TACTICS allows a leader to guide his packmates through a battle or hunt to improve coordination and efficiency. The maximum size of a pack that can be affected and the benefits improve with greater ranks.]

I clean up the area and store the wolf corpses. The deer made its getaway when the wolves went down. I circle back to check on Cara. She wants to take a short break to give her ankle a rest. While she rests, I double back to the treehouse to ensure nothing was following us or that the goblins hadn't started moving. Call it paranoia, but I'd like to know if a shit storm is coming before it starts raining.

Fortunately, nothing between where we were and where we are seemed to hold any signs of a goblin presence. I make my way back to Cara, and we resume our trek. I continue scouting, and occasionally I rest and wait for her while I refresh my Vitality. Flying isn't difficult anymore, but it still costs something.

The only other trouble I come across is a black bear that looked cranky. I'm not playing games though, and soon he joins the alpha wolf in the pin cushion club. At the edge of the forest, I wait until Cara catches up. I can see a town with a wooden palisade about a mile from the forest's edge. Cara had mentioned that this was a frontier town and that it was less than ten years old. I'm a little disappointed that it isn't a great walled city with a majestic castle, but it's fine.

Cara arrives, and I hop down on to her shoulder. Thirty minutes later, we pass the gate into town.

[DING. Quest: A Stranger in Need. Status: Complete.]