11 Chapter 11: Homeward Light

Max felt the bonfire warm his skin as he sat with a group of goblin hunters chatting merrily about their days and recent findings.

And Though Max nodded and smiled at the things being said he wasn't really listening to anything being spoken. Instead, his eyes were locked on the bonfire and his mind was wandering.

'Tomorrow will mark the end of my first month in the Labyrinth,'

'It feels like it was only yesterday I was flipping burgers and drowning my life in booze...'

The flames entranced max's eyes in the bonfire. They spun through the air like skilled dancers who danced without care for those watching.

'But in the last month here I feel like I've grown more than I have in the last few years of my miserable life,'

'I finally beat some of the skilled hunters the other day... It took me a month and I became someone with potential... someone with a shot at a different future,'

'I've done all the prepping I need to... Tomorrow will be the day I head out and start exploring,'

'The goblins have explored a lot of the Dew Drop Forest already, but they have stayed away from almost all places with a hint of danger to them,'

'It's smart... don't poke the beast of the belly,' Max thought as he stared at a new goblin hunter who was proudly showing off the pelt of his first rabbit kill.

'But if I'm going to 100% this dungeon so that they might have a shot at becoming a true goblin colony then I have to take that risk,'

Max closed his eyes and remembered the face of Rial as he told him his plan. It was one of shock and pain.

'He doesn't want me to open up the forest to the rest of the Labyrinth... but how did the Death Hound get here if the Labyrinth was sealed off?' Max pondered as he remembered the black beast that filled the lungs of his friends with tar and left nothing but bone shards to remember them by.

'The Labyrinth will eat this place slowly but surely and if they don't find a way to grow stronger then it will consume them,'

'So I have to open up this forest to a world of greater danger and opportunities,'

Max stared at the flames and smiled as he thought of the future.

"Max," the hushed voice of a familiar goblin rang out behind him.

Max turned to look at the newcomer and waved after seeing the other brother of the duo that saved him. He was much taller than Drynn but he had less definition in his muscles than the hunters of the tribe.

"Byrin, how can I help you?" Max said with a smile as he saw the more reserved of the duo.

Byrin smiled lightly though there was a hint of tension in his stance as he answered.

"I know you plan on leaving tomorrow... I thought It would be only proper that I give you some parting gifts on your first official outing,"

"Gifts? You and your tribe have given me enough during my stay here. I'm happy as I am," Max said with a stern shake of his head.

"It's important... Okay? Will you come?" Byrin said nervously as he looked downwards at his feet.

"Is everything alright? You seem a little shaken up," Max asked as he stood up and walked towards Byrin.

Byrin shook his head in response and just motioned Max to follow before taking off.

Max took a few steps forwards anxiously before loosening up and following the goblin.

'It's the least I can do to trust him,'

The walk was silent and eerie, the lights of the bonfire and torches in the center of the village getting further away as they headed towards the farming district of the town.

It was a place that Max had only been to a few times, one of which was when he first entered the village.

It was quiet at night, though some of the larger families of goblins were heading to bed in their individual houses since they would crowd the bonfire in the center of town.

"We are nearly at my house," Byrin murmured as he led Max towards a run-down hut that looked like it hadn't been cleaned in ages.

Byrin popped open the wooden door and led Max into a crowded and dusty living space filled with empty beds and various personal trinkets.

The only clean place in the hut was a small corner where a small sleeping roll lay with a candle at its side and a small herbalist kit was opened with various ingredients in different stages of being broken down.

"Sorry for the mess," Byrin said with a fake chuckle.

"We don't get many visitors... most of the families gone after all and I'm not one to make friends,"

Max felt like the room was thick with pressure as he started to understand why there were so many sleeping rolls and belongings despite Byrin being the only one here.

The thing that fully tipped Max off was a familiar-looking belt with dozens of small pouches of various dusts attached to them sitting on a tidy bed in a more open part of the hut.

'Dyrnn... He used something like that in the fight...'

"What I wanted to give you is something that Head Hunter Ivan and Elder Shaman Rial didn't want to end up in your hands," Byrin said in an empty voice as he opened up a chest near the fireplace that looked like it hadn't been set alight in ages.

The chest opened in a cloud of dust and Byrin coughed a little before rummaging in it for a small stack of papers and a strange-looking amulet.

"These are Maps... Good ones," Byrin said as he passed on the stack of heavily aged papers to Max.

Max thumbed through them with interest and found that they detailed danger zones and possible threats and gains in each location throughout the forest. It had more information on the forest than Max had thought the goblins ever had.

"And this is my family's trinket," The goblin said while passing the amulet to Max with disinterest.

Max averted his gaze from the maps and accepted the amulet with care before inspecting it carefully.

Max's eyes felt like they were buzzing as he felt his Examination skill begin to work at full speed.

The amulet was a strange metal/glass prism that was gently looped by a chain of silver. The prism was framed in a strange silver and the glass that let you peek inside of it was clearer than most of the glass Max had seen on Earth.

As Max held the prism in his hands he noticed that a strange yellow liquid was glowing within it. The liquid was almost invisible to the naked eye but Max noticed it from the combination of his perception and the dark room allowing it to glow.

"What is this?" Max asked puzzled.

"It's my family's trinket... passed down from generation to generation," Byrin said dully as he turned towards his herbalist kit and studied the plants that he had laid out prior.

"But why are you giving it to me?" Max asked as he stared at Byrin who seemed unfazed by his gaze.

"I'm the last of my family. It's a relic for explorers and I'm not the explorer my brother was,"

"Better give it to someone who matters in the village than keep it in that dusty chest for the rest of my life,"

"A relic? And why give it to me? You may have a family one day when you get older and then you could pass it down to your kin," Max asked in shock.

"I'm not one to talk to others, even my own kind, much less get married to one. And I'm giving it to you because... I want to, okay?" Byrin said with a bit of shakiness in his voice.

"O-Okay... I get it," Max stuttered as he stared back at the prism in his hands.

"I don't know what it does exactly... but my dad said it helps guide you home,"

"Though it didn't do him much good..."

Max kept quiet at Byrin's words.

"And the old geezers didn't want you to have the maps so that you wouldn't get yourself killed,"

"But I think that it should be your choice, not theirs," Byrin added after some silence.

"Thank you Byrin... I will-" Max began before suddenly getting cut off.

"Don't worry about it. Could you close the door on your way out? The light bothers me," He said sternly before he turned back to his plants.

"Okay, Byrin... I'll do that," Max stuttered before leaving the almost abandoned hut.

'A light to guide me home...' Max pondered as he stared at the prism.

'Is he gonna be okay?' He thought as he turned back towards the hut that was fading in the distance.

'He must have trusted me a lot to give me these things... but it just doesn't feel right,'

"I'll do my best to show you that giving this to me was a good decision, Byrin..." Max muttered as he imagined the quiet goblin alone in his hut.

"I'll show you that you're not alone,"

"Hopefully..."

Max turned his head towards the bonfire and got ready for bed.

'Tomorrow is gonna be a long day... and Rial said my spear will be ready by then,'

'I'm ready... I'm ready to help my family,' He thought as he closed his eyes and fell asleep in the comfort of the goblins around him.