Chapter Three: Coming to Terms / The Split

"HUH?! Kha'na what happened?!" Mythere got up with Maeve in his hands to rush over to Kha'na. Xane was suddenly wailing on his knees to the sky.

"Oh, nothing too important, heh heh. Just that apparently Xane didn't know he was working as a bandit this whole time." She felt second-hand embarrassment standing in front of the sobbing gorilla man.

"Are you, are you sure?" This was a confusing realization.

"Well, we can figure out the details after he stops crying. How's the girl?" Kha'na gestures to Maeve.

"She seems fine, well, alive.. Probably just needs a bit of rest, some food maybe."

"I can go scavenge!" Gaz pops in.

"No, it's fine, we can go after this situation is figured out." Mythere shuts her down.

Several minutes filled with only the sniffles of a bald and hairy man go by.

"Okay, Xane, so what's your story? What happened?" Kha'na asks inquisitively.

"I just turned 16 and this was my first adventure." Silence ensues.

"...SIXTEEN?!" The three yell simultaneously.

"You're bigger than me! And way more hairy!" Mythere points out.

"You look so much older! And what he said!" Kha'na adds.

"I'm OLDER than you?!" Gaz exasperatedly shouts.

"Uh, yes, I was born 16 years ago. That makes me pretty much an adult, I don't see the problem here." Xane is confused at the surprise.

"Wait, does Stroffo know how old you are?" Kha'na asked.

"No, it didn't really come up. He just kinda picked me up from my family's business to be an adventurer. I've always wanted to be one, so I asked my parents and then tagged along with him."

"What the heck does your family do that makes you look like that?" Mythere questioned.

"Logging!" Xane proudly held up his two hand axes. This would not be obvious as no sane person would attempt to cut trees with those small hand axes.

"So you don't have any actual fighting experience?" Gaz added.

"Not really, I didn't talk to many people back in the city. And nobody really had problems with me either."

"Then how could you take on my whole village?!" Gaz shouted angrily at him. Xane was shocked, it was obvious that he didn't know what was actually going on when they were attacking that village.

"I didn't actually hurt nobody. Not with my axes. Stroffo didn't trust me to fight with them, so he just told me to capture as many goblins as I could." Xane was ashamed of himself.

"So you didn't kill anyone?" Mythere asked firmly.

"No sir, only trees." Xane responded like a kid caught red-handed.

"Well, I suppose he isn't all bad then, right? Aheh heh." Kha'na turned to Mythere and Gaz trying to lighten the mood.

"He's not as bad as the rest of them." Mythere said.

"But that doesn't mean he didn't do bad things!" Gaz retorted.

"I didn't know! Goblins seemed bad and Stroffo seemed good! And he said we'd get paid and-"

"Alright, we get it." Kha'na cuts him off. "We need to save the rest of those goblins. Are you going to help us?"

"Umm, well, how do I know that you guys ain't the bandits?" Xane tried to feign caution.

"Idiot, we saved this goblin! And we're taking care of this one!" Mythere grandly gestures to Gaz and then to Maeve, who is laying on Gaz's lap.

"You're right, but are you guys even adventurers?"

"Well, not officially, but we're hoping to become them when we reach one of the guild's headquarters." Kha'na revealed.

"I don't like it, but we could use all the help we can get. You're especially useful if you have information." Gaz pointed out.

"I'll help you! Look, I even have food for the little one with the big chest!" Xane reaches towards his back and reveals that he had a backpack on almost unseeable under his hairy body.

"What the…" Mythere and the rest were stunned.

"Cough cough. Food?" It seems that Maeve instinctively woke up, either from the big chest comment or the mention of food.

"Alright, hand me the food so I can feed her. We have to go soon though before we completely lose them." Kha'na reminded them.

"It's no problem! I know where they're headed, so we can just meet them there!" Xane said proudly.

"Great! Where are they going?" Mythere probed.

"Rivelakia! Where I'm from." Xane nodded confidently.

"Wa….wait." Maeve muttered. "They're… they're going to the Iron Coast!"

"What? How do you know that?" Gaz asked.

"I-I heard them talking about it when we were all taking a break. Xane must've not been paying attention."

"I pay attention! They're going back to Rivelakia." Xane stood his stance.

"Hold on a moment, why did you even have Maeve with you and why were you even left behind?" Mythere pondered.

"Stroffo told me to wait behind and then gave me Maeve, then he just left. That's all I know." Mythere thought that this was a little suspicious, but it could also be that Stroffo doesn't trust Xane enough for a plan, that is if Xane is really as dumb as he seems.

"Maeve, would you happen to know?" Kha'na asked the little goblin politely.

"...no. They didn't really treat us that well." Maeve's talking was very weak.

"That's okay, I think this whole situation is pretty suspicious though."

"It is, but what are our other leads? They've reached popular roads by now, so following their tracks would be impossible. They're not in our eye sight either. All we can do is cut them off at their destination." Mythere pointed out.

"But we don't know their destination for sure." Kha'na mentioned.

"I can trust Maeve! We grew up together, so we should go to the Iron Coast!" Gaz recommended.

"But the Iron Coast is out of the way, it wouldn't even make sense for them to go there after our village." Kha'na mentioned.

"Maybe they needed to stop somewhere over here before that?" Gaz tried to reason why they would be past Iron Coast if that was their destination, but nothing solid came to mind.

"It's possible, but it's not that definite of a lead." Mythere replied.

"So what!? You're going to trust the bandit over me?" Gaz exploded to them.

"I'm not saying I trust him more, but there's just not a lot to go on and the Iron Coast doesn't make as much sense." Mythere relayed.

"I don't trust Xane either, but Rivelakia seems more likely." Kha'na added on.

"I'm not a bandit! I just did one bandit thing, I swear!" Xane tried to defend himself.

The whole group is familiar with the central continent and where everything major is, so that's why they're suspicious about the Iron Coast lead. The Iron Coast is on the north-western coast of the continent, Rivelakia is located in the east center of the continent. The goblin village is located on the western mountains on the coast of the continent and Caeph village is past the road used to go to the Iron Coast. Therefore, if they were going to the Iron Coast, they would've already gone that way and wouldn't have gone in the direction of Caeph village in the first place. But, there's always the possibility that they had to do something else, but nobody present has any idea of what that could be.

"I'm going to the Iron Coast. I trust Maeve and I think it's our best chance to save my people." Gaz calmly laid out.

"Okay, I'll go with you. I'm not as confident in this direction, but I can't let you go on your own." Mythere stated. "But Kha'na, you should head to Rivelakia with Xane. It's dangerous to split up, but we need to cover both ends and I trust that you can take care of yourself." Mythere shoots her a grin and a chuckle.

"I agree with everything you said. Xane wouldn't stand a chance against me anyway." Kha'na smirked and took a confident pose.

"I'm strong! I won't hurt anyone!" Xane attempted to defend himself.

"We won't stand a chance if we're separated and we encounter them though…" Maeve mumbled. "They're strong, they took out our warriors, I saw it all happen…"

There was an extended silence. Gaz didn't see much of the action of the raid of her village, Xane didn't take part in the battles, and Mythere and Kha'na weren't there. So Maeve's first-hand account was the first that they've heard. They all felt pretty down about the situation, the adventure that Mythere and Kha'na embarked on is a lot darker than they would've hoped. Gaz found out for sure that some of her people were slaughtered. Xane realized that he aided a bandit quest and had no idea that he was doing bad.

"Mythere is strong! He's probably stronger than the warriors in our village, we can fight!" Gaz piped up with some positive pep talk. Mythere felt warm inside from this comment praising him. "Kha'na is strong too, she held her own against Mythere for a bit! Plus there's Xane, who… uh, looks strong."

"Yes." Xane nodded with his arms crossed proudly.

Maeve is too weak to respond more, but her facial expressions didn't really express anymore confidence from Gaz's words. But the rest of them felt more confident because of it.

"I could probably beat Mythere if I took it seriously." Kha'na joked and then punched Mythere's arm.

"Anyway, we should get going. The more we discuss, the further they get." Mythere completely ignored her joke and physical abuse.

"So, we're splitting up? I'm going to Rivelakia with Xane, and you three are going to head to the Iron Coast?"

"Yeah, unfortunately, since we barely reunited." Mythere looked into Kha'na's eyes with a bittersweet vibe.

"Then let's get going!" Kha'na shouted with an exaggerated bravado.

The group all got moving expecting to split up right away, but soon realized that they would be heading in the same direction until they get to the main road and then split up. The walk towards the road was an awkward and melancholic one. Mythere carried Maeve on his back while she rested.

"Oh crap!" Mythere suddenly yelled, startling everyone.

"What?!" They all said almost simultaneously.

"What are we going to do for food? This journey is going to take a while after all." The journey was actually going to take weeks for both parties. Both kingdoms were quite the distance away.

"I have some food. I don't think it's enough for weeks though." Xane said with a dumb pondering look on his face. He revealed his hidden bag once again that had a decent amount of food in it.

"Didn't you bring food with you Mythere?" Kha'na inquired.

"Well, no." He shamefully revealed.

"We already ate it." Gaz reluctantly mentioned.

"Already?! How?!" Kha'na was surprised.

"I didn't bring a lot! I wasn't expecting to go on a month-long journey. You didn't bring food with you?" Mythere turned the tables on Kha'na.

"W-Well, I was expecting you to bring enough food for the both of us heh heh…" She muttered almost inaudibly, but was heard pretty easily by the other's superior hearing. (Except for Xane).

"Sigh, no money either and we really shouldn't go back to our village." Mythere let out dejectedly.

"Here! Take some of our food!" Xane offered while holding out his bag. There was a decent amount in there, more than it seemed.

"Well, this should hold us over for a while." Mythere gestured thanks while taking some of the food.

"We'll encounter villages on the way and we could always hunt and gather. It can't be that hard, goblins brought back lots of food all the time!" Gaz said with pep.

"That's true. Uh, would anyone happen to have any money? A ha ha…" Mythere shyly mentioned. The answer was pretty obvious though. The two goblins were previously just slaves, so they don't have money. Kha'na was ill prepared expecting Mythere to be prepared.

"No, Stroffo hasn't paid me yet." Xane let out.

"I don't think he'll be paying you at all anymore buddy." Mythere sighed.

"Don't worry about money Mythere, villages usually trade goods and services anyway." Kha'na reasoned, but Mythere did not want to work for other people.

"Water…" Maeve murmured.

"Oh yeah, are you guys good on water as well?" Mythere asked the other two.

"Yes! I brought my own canteen, water is essential." Kha'na proudly showed her canteen.

"I have water as well," Xane claimed, but didn't show it.

"Okay, well, don't forget to fill them when you get the chance." Mythere reminded them.

"Mythere, I think Maeve meant that she wanted water." Gaz mentioned to him. He responded surprisingly and then raised his canteen up to Maeve's mouth.

"Uh oh." Kha'na looked at Mythere with a disappointed look on her face. "It's not my fault, I have to share my canteen with two other people! I was bound to run out faster. So, uh, can I get some from you guys?" Mythere begged.

"Ah fine, what would you do without me?" Kha'na giggled in superiority. She then opened up her water and poured some into his canteen. "You're welcome."

"Thanks." He said as he rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Wait a second, you're way less useful without me! You didn't even bring anything!"

"Oh would you look at that! There's the road up ahead, it's time to say our goodbyes soon!" Kha'na quickly shuffled the topics, but she wasn't lying. The road was right up ahead and they would be splitting up when they reached the road.

They walked the rest of the way in a quiet manner, just enjoying the atmosphere of the land. Then when they reached the road, they faced each other before they departed.

"Right, so I suppose this is see you later?" Mythere started with.

"Yep! We'll see you later!" Kha'na replied with a genuine smile.

The others aren't really as acquainted with each other, so they didn't have much to say except for goodbyes. They began to turn around and walk away.

"Mythere wait!" Kha'na shouted. As he turned around and put Maeve down, she was running at full speed towards him and leaped into his arms for a kind embrace. He was hoping for a nice hug as a goodbye, but didn't want to ask. Luckily, Kha'na is a lot more bold than he is. "Be safe out there, don't trust people so easily" She whispered into his ear.

"Me? You should watch out for Xane." He whispered back. She chuckled as if she knew Xane wasn't a problem.

They let go of each other and then turned away waving as they left. Now a true journey begins and they likely won't see each other for months.