A nest discovered
Alexandria could be seen stalking through the forest, the sun now higher up in the sky.
She is currently following one of the goblin patrols on the outskirts of the forest, trying to locate where their nest is.
If she could do that, she could set fire to it, causing enough chaos for her to sneak in and hopefully rescue the captured women.
It has been a few days now though, who knows if there is anything left to even rescue...
Alexandria made sure to remove her halo and armor, leaving her only in her torn up, dirty leather clothes, she also covered herself in mud, leaves, twigs and other stuff from the forest floor, making herself a decent camo suit.
-x-x-x-
The three goblins walked, completely oblivious to me stalking them, they chit-chatted together, their guards lowered so low that they might as well be touching the core of the planet.
I kept a close eye on all of their movements while I occasionaly cut into the trees I passed by with my sword, it too covered in mud, leaving a trail behind me so I can find my way back if needed.
This process took incredible attention to detail and caution, just one wrong step and a twig bellow me would snap, a tree root would cause me to trip and fall, or any number of other complications could arise out of nowhere.
No doubt, the most stressful moment was when another goblin patrol suddenly came up from behind me to speak with the patrol I was following, my only saving grace was that I was in a bush at the time, which saved me from being discovered.
That, and a stone hit my head to alert me, which was weird to say the least.
Needless to say, after that, I made sure to check behind me every now and then while looking for the stone alert, but I noticed nothing.
Luckily no more major complications happened after that, though there were plenty more close calls which were saved by stone jesus or whoever keeps alerting me, and soon enough, I came across the goblin camp as night came.
It was a beautiful sight if I'm perfectly honest, if one ignored the tens of cut down trees that were stacked around.
Wooden lanters hung from the tree branches with spider silk, torches are stabbed into the ground around the trees the goblins call their home.
One large tree is in the middle of it all, hundreds of lanterns hung from its wide branches, up in the canopy, goblins could be seen rushing around, some with bows and others with slings.
The lanterns glowed, pushing back the darkness akin to stars in the vold void, the torches flicked and vained as the cracking of wood could be heard in the backround of goblin speaking and laughing
As I was lost in the suprisingly pretty and harmonious looking goblin nest, I snapped out of it as a large group of goblins carying something made their way back, carying human corpses, and some human women on their backs.
This hunting party has around 20 goblins in it... And those women look more than desperate, kicking and screaming.
The goblin nest instantly came to life, with goblins screaming in joy and victory.
The conquered booty were immediately brough into the largest tree, where another cacophany of screams resounded, both the victorious shouts of goblins and the desperate shrieks of women.
...Good thing I found the nest, now, I need to make a plan to destroy the entire place.
I cant face such a large group on my own, I dont intent to get caught by the goblins with my pants down, literaly and figuratively.
The humidity in the air is low here, the water that remained from the flashflood has long since dispersed into the atmosphere, leaving only an average humidity in the air.
Now, could I burn this place to the ground? Could I make an artificial forest fire and try to rescue the women in the process?
Its incredibly risky but I have no other ideas right now, I cant sneak in, there is no way I will avoid detection with so many goblins around.
I slowly turned around, carefull not to make any noise, and as I turned around, I saw a pair of yellow eyes starting it me, black whiskers twitched slightly.
"A-!"
the Beastman immediately put his hand over my mouth, silencing me before I could scream from suprise.
How did he get here?
-x-x-x-
Imbellis traveled rather quickly, this time not on legs but on horseback, and not just any horse either, but one of the few trained war horses the city had to offer.
The war horse allowed him to travel a distance which would take two days in only half a day, though judging by the way the horse slumped down after Imbellis let it rest, it certainly wouldnt be capable of such a feat in a while.
He immediately tracked down the lake where he met the strange woman and left his horse there, tied to a tree close to the lake by a leash.
He quickly discovered the blood path that he left behind while running and easily tracked it back to where the goblins kidnapped his companions.
To his shock however, he found only scraps of leather armor, probably from the goblins getting a bit too rough with the girls.
"Shit." Imbellis couldnt help but curse, this is not an acceptable out come for him.
Sure, he now has an excuse to leave, but what good would that do him if all that awaited him home was either exile or an execution?
Imbellis couldnt help but sigh, remembering what the city lord told him right before he left the city.
...
Imbellis neared the city gate, still as unimpressive as always, the gate slowly openned, allowing Imbellis to step through.
The city lord could be waiting next to the gate along with a group of muscular orc bodyguards, seemingly waiting for Imbellis to depart.
As he was about to cross into the wilderness, the city lord called out to him, causing Imbellis to turn around.
"Dont bother coming back if you cant get that armor."
Imbellis simply gave a quick nod and headed off into the wilderness.
He thought it wouldnt be a problem, goblins, for all their inteligence, are still rather stupid, they dont make use of their victims gear, they only take the prey, breeder, and food, they show little care for anything else.
"..." A stunned silence overcame him, he had to go investigate the forest.
There are no villages in this area thanks to the periodical flash floods being a huge hazard, so a villager couldnt have stolen it, and people rarely travel unless absolutely necesary.
The only person whom he could remember seeing in the wild was that weird woman...
"...Wait, she did head in this direction after we seperated didnt she...?"
Imbellis facepalmed, now he had to find her.
He lowered himself to the ground and tried to sniff to detect any humanesque smells, but only a vague salty stench assaulted his nose.
He did however notice some pretty large footprints in the ground, and shocker, they looked exactly like what the armor's footprints looked like.
And where did they go? Thats right, straight into the fucking forest full of goblins.
...Are you serious? He didnt want to go in there!
His hand shook slightly as his fear fought with his logic.
He has nowhere else to go, the other cities are weeks of travel away, at least three days on horseback as well, and his odds of surviving the journey are more than unfavorable.
With a sigh and a very hesitant look in his eyes, he snuk towards the goblin infested forest, only to find something most interesting.
After a few hours of looking around, he noticed a bush move and follow a goblin patrol, as the goblins turned around, the bush stopped moving and froze, looking like any other normal bush.
He could definitely recognize that messed up outfit though, no other person has ever worn something so broken and battered outside city walls, thats for sure.
At least, he hasnt heard of anyone so brave or stupid.
'Welp, she doesnt have the armor it seems, lets just leave before the fool is discovered.'
As he was turning to leave however, he noticed a large group of goblins approaching the girl from behind, completely unaware of the impeding doom.
He rolled his eyes lightly and flicked a small stone at her, this caused her to turn around, and she immediately froze when she saw them.
It was quite funny, like seeing a cute rabit freeze up, a cat or a dog would also work he supposed.
After this, he followed her in her tracking endeavors, throwing stones at her whenever things were getting out of control to alert her.
He walked up behind her slowly and sneakily, afraid of cathing the goblins attention, only to find her absolutely stunned in awe by the goblin nest.
...Is she a tourist or something? Now is not the time for sight seeing.
So he walked up to her and just as he was about to lightly touch her to allert her to his presence, she turned around and made eye contact with him.
She almost screamed in fear and confusion, but luckily, he silenced her before it was too late.
...Gods, how is this girl not dead yet?