It's Never Simple

Inside the town hall, four large wooden statues of people stand tall, two on either side of the large entrance room. Garrick reads a small plaque on one of them.

'Brolin Sileran – Mayor 387 – 410.'

Uninterested, Garrick walks up to a desk in the centre of the room that sits a dwarf woman with curly blonde hair, a pug nose, and a thin body.

"Where can I find the Order of the Legion guild envoy?"

The dwarf woman looks up towards Garrick.

"Just on the right there. She's a piece of work, so be prepared." Said in an 'I feel bad for you' attitude.

Walking through the door to the right, a woman sits at a table looking rather bored and unenthusiastic, twisting her black hair around her finger and sighing. He walks up confidently.

"Requesting information regarding a recent quest the guild sent me on." Garrick, straight to the point.

"That information is kept at the records vault within Volmyr; however, unless there is a legitimate reason to access these records, then past information is unavailable." She is bored and uninterested in her job here.

"Shit. Is there any way you can request that information to be delivered here? It's important." Garrick pleads, hoping for a good answer.

"It would take weeks before an answer is given to your request and then a few days for a bird to deliver the contents." She replies, getting more frustrated with Garrick.

"The guild does teleportation; can't they potentially use that?" Garrick reaching for any potential strand of hope.

The woman sighs and leans back.

"Okay, I'm stuck in this shit backwoods village for three more months until I get relieved, and you think you're so important that they'd spend so much resources giving you a previous mission brief?" Exasperated by this point.

Garrick leans in closer.

"Considering it involves Archnobles of the military and 'Shadowed Ones, whoever the fuck they are, I'd say yeah it does."

Now she is exasperated, thinking it's some bullshit to get his way.

"Go to Volmyr, sir. Your request is denied."

Frustrated and unimpressed, not expecting it to go this way, he defeatedly turns around and storms out, spotting a quest on a notice board.

!!Goblin Exterminators Wanted!!

He continues past it and out the town hall doors. The sun has completely set now; streets are quiet, the occasional guard walking past with a torch lighting the way.

He finds the Inn, the liveliest building in the village. Hubbub and lights fill the building at night, leaking through the windows. He reaches the front door, the metal sign up above reading.

'The Ivory Duchess' With a crude metal outline of a woman.

Once inside, the bright lights sting his eyes briefly before adjusting—an open room with a dozen tables of varying sizes and chairs to match. A fireplace roaring high sits on the left, with around fifteen guests littering the room, chatting away and having a merry time. The bar sits directly in front of Garrick against the far wall. A half-orc stands behind it, cleaning some glasses with a sour look. Garrick walks up to the barkeep, a stocky half-orc as wide as he is tall, with dark green skin, a mean-looking scarred face and buzz-cut black hair to finish the look.

"Hey there, a room should have been rented for me under Garrick Goldwind."

The half-orc looks up.

"Of course! It's wonderful having new visitors! New stories to hear about the happenings of the Sovereignty!" Gleefully said by the barkeep, the demeanour does not match the voice. "It's just up the stairs in the corner, room 6! A wide smile as he gives the key to Garrick, "You have a complimentary meal also, steak pie and potatoes!"

Taken aback, Garrick stammers, "Th-thanks; I'll come back later tonight for it if that's okay."

"No bother at all! Enjoy your stay!" Still smiling toward Garrick before his head returns to continue cleaning up.

Garrick walks to his room, dejected from his encounter with the guild envoy and confused from his meeting with the barkeep.

He places his key in the metal lock, gives it a turn and 'click' It slowly creaks open. A simple room awaits him. A bed, a small table and a basin for bathing in, already filled with water. A small window looks out onto the Inn entrance.

He turns around and closes the door, pushing the metal latch at the top of the door across to lock it, leaving the key on the table.

He begins to undress, wasting little time deciding to get clean. The filthy boots and armour almost stick to him as he wrestles to get them off. Once he wins, they are thrown haphazardly on the floor.

"Fuck sake, that wasn't even the hard part."

He slowly unravels the bandages, stained red and discoloured from sweat and grime. The runes, dark blue as if inactive, peeking through as more bandages are removed. He takes a deep breath and then peels the bandages away from his recent wound on his upper back, but there is no pain. He turns his head to look at the damage, but all that remains is a gnarled scar over his shoulders; it is healing quickly, but the scars remain afterwards. He runs his fingers over the spot to see if it feels as awful as it looks. It does; however, the runes that should be scarred over instead are as easy to feel as if pushing through to the surface unyielding.

Sigh….

"Don't think I'll ever get rid of them." almost sounding like giving up.

"He collapses into the basin, water splashing over the edges onto the floor. He sits motionless for a second before cleaning himself, the water quickly turning dirty. He sits for a while, staring out the window at the night sky.

He gets up after a while, lost in thought and grabs his armour to clean it. A basic job is done, cleaning most of the grime off, good enough to wear again...and he does. Back in his gear, his stomach rumbling slightly.

"Time for that steak and potatoes then."

Putting the key back in his pocket, he slides across the latch and opens the door. A wave of noise and laughter hits his face from downstairs. He walks down the stairs only to hear someone shout his name.

"Gaaarriiiicckkk!! Oveeerr heeeerree!!!!"

Garrick looks around the tables and guests but can't see who called his name; then, he spots a familiar face, a gnome. An arm outstretched, waving. Meetlemire.

"Gaarrriiiccckk down here!" He shouts once more.

A feeling of happiness hits Garrick. Being lost in his thoughts isn't good, and Meetlemire does an excellent job of bringing him away from that.

"Good to see you again, Meetlemire."

"And you too, I got us a table over there by the fire! You can join me, and the first round is on me!"

"Sure, friend."

Time passes in the Inn as they enjoy the company and chatter it has to offer.

"So, did you get the answers you were looking for at the guild envoy?" Curious and genuinely interested in Garrick's life.

Garrick's mood dips slightly.

"Nah, they gave me nothing. I need to go to the records vault in Volmyr to request them."

"Well, it looks like I'll have a travel partner for the last leg of the journey!" Meetlemire jabbing his elbow into Garrick's side.

"Then I'll get rid of you for good!" Garrick quickly responds. Both laughing, having a good time, the booze taking effect.

More time passes on as the Inn starts to settle down, the barkeep tidying up tankards and cleaning tables. The only people left are a few inn guests who rented a room.

"I say we settle down for the night. Get a good rest for tomorrow. I'll be downstairs waiting for you when you're ready. Goodnight, friend." Said by Meetlemire.

"Sounds like a plan. I need to catch up on a lot of sleep, so I might be late. Goodnight, Meetle."

Meetlemire stumbles to a door on the bottom floor marked 'two', struggling to unlock it before managing eventually and disappearing into the room and the door closing behind him and 'click' locking.

Garrick does the same before saying to the barkeep.

"Good food and drink, barkeep. Well worth the price." The negative thoughts were pushed out for tonight.

"I appreciate the compliment! Hope to see you again! And call me Krovar. Have a good night, sir." Elated at being complimented.

Garrick nods before heading to his room and going to bed, a well-deserved sleep. He drifts off rather quickly, settled and calm, truly exhausted. The booze helped with settling him.

Garrick awakes, moon high in the sky; he sits up and puts his feet over the side of the bed, feet touching the wooden floor.

"Well, at least I didn't have a nightmare."

It's a small win, even if he doesn't get much sleep.

He rubs his eyes and sees an arm slink over the window, small and thin with green skin. Pointy ears are the next feature, followed by the evil grin. Goblin. Disturbing evil monsters. They are pathetic and cowardly when alone but dangerous and unpredictable as a group, and they're ALWAYS in a group. Garrick reaches for his sword as the goblin jumps over and lands on the wooden floor, blade drawn, ready to attack. Garrick, however, is quicker. He lunges toward the goblin and stabs him in the chest, the goblin not even attempting to dodge. With his last moment, the goblin carelessly flails his sword around in any direction, trying to hit anything before he crumbles to the floor dead. Garrick is more confused than anything.

"Was he blind or something?"

A scream is heard from downstairs. Garrick turns his head sharply as his eyes open.

He springs up from bed before abruptly stopping.

"Wait, what? Was it a dream?" Garrick confused.

Just as a bloodied sword clatters to the ground beside him, bringing attention to a dead goblin with a chest wound by his window that was disguised by the shadow. Garrick doesn't have the time to process what is happening before another scream is heard. He grabs his sword as he sees shadows whizzing by the window outside, spotting goblins running away from the village, hauling prisoners with them. He throws himself out the window into the mud, spattering up at his

clothes. When he stands up, the goblins are too far to chase. So he takes a mental note of any detail he can.

"Northeast, six goblins, three prisoners." Quickly repeating to himself, trying to remember.

A scream is heard once more from the Inn. With a chill up his spine, he sprints toward the front door and pushes it open, hearing.

"A gnome has been killed!!" a voice shouts.

Garrick's heart sinks. As he runs inside, a crowd of gathered people block his way; he pushes past them and sees the gnome.

Bulbous nose, long hair, freckled face. Not Meetlemire.

"Oh, thank god." Quickly realising how it sounded.

The crowd turn their heads toward Garrick.

"Not thank god, I thought it was someone else, my bad." he sheepishly says.

Garrick looks to Meetlemire's room, still shut. He goes over and bangs on the door.

"Meetle! You okay in there?" saying loudly

….No response.

"Meetle!!" Shouting this time.

...No response.

He throws his weight into the door, bending and buckling. Once more, and again. Again, again. Once more, it crashes open. The room is a mess, with the bed flipped over, the table broken, and personal belongings strewn across the room. A violent fight ensued here.

Frozen for a few seconds, wide-eyed. He snaps out of it and shouts to the Inn.

"WHO'S IN CHARGE OF THE TOWN GUARD?!!" straining his voice shouting.

"Guard captain Moreland is stationed at the barracks inside the town hall." Quickly stammers a villager.

Garrick sprints out of the Inn, directly for the barracks. The goblin presence is gone from the village, but people are still panicking, alarms blaring from the town hall, and guards sprinting around the streets.

He reaches the town hall and throws himself into the door; it batters open.

"Captain Moreland! MORELAND!!" Garrick shouts.

A man comes out from a back room, donning shiny, crafted armour, moustache and well-kept short hair—a confused look on his face.

"Who is calling for me?"

"You need to send guards to the northeast; goblins have taken prisoners up that way." He quickly spouts out.

"We sent word to the guilds; someone will be here eventually to exterminate the goblins." Unbothered and a little annoyed with Garrick's loudness.

"You don't have time for that! They'll be dead by the time anyone even gets here! Send men to the northeast with me, and we can save them!"

Moreland's attitude quickly soured.

"No. That isn't our job; we must stay here and protect the village."

"Are you fucking insane? The villagers ARE the village; you can't just ignore them."

Garrick steps closer to Moreland.

"The village is our priority; I will not risk any men sending them out there to the goblins. If you're suicidal, then be my guest."

Moreland walks away.

"You fucking coward, I'll do it myself." Garrick was infuriated by the inaction of the captain.

Moreland stops.

"Watch your mouth, or I'll have you locked up, bastard!"

"Useless fuck." Garrick mumbles as he sprints back to the Inn.

End Chapter