Pagasa

The brothers departed at the crack of dawn, with Manny guiding them through the kingdom. It did not take long for them to reach the base of the mountains. Through the mountain pass, the brothers witness wildlife and flora alien to the brothers. Although the plants were not glowing like those found in the caverns the dark elves reside inside, their vibrant purple and cyan coloring made them stand out among the dull grey cliffside.

The beautiful plants dotted the landscape. Among the vegetation were deers and goats grazing on the purple grass growing on the steppes. Their fur had a calico pattern similar to oxen pulling their carriage. Their pattern coloration matches the colors of the plants. A unique form of camouflage unseen elsewhere, for these mountains is the only place they grow from. One of the goats grazing across the ravine caught Sun's attention. The male goat was as tall as Rock, and its horns swirled around its ears before pointing towards the sky. Its fur was dark brown, in contrast to the brighter herd grazing around it. "Smoke, you see that?"

"Yeah, I see it."

"That goat is a giant. I'm glad we didn't have to fight a mountain goat that large."

"Knowing Rock, he'll still try to fight to wrestle it despite the size difference."

The brothers laughed after imagining Rock's tiny green body get thrown around by the giant goat. They eventually spotted a mountain with a summit that resembles the shape of a heart late in the afternoon. "That must be Mt. Heart!" Sun stood up and admired the mountain.

Smoke took the board the guards gave them and wrote on it a question for Manny. "When will we get to our destination?"

Manny wrote as best as he could. His fingers tremble for every stroke, but he succeeds and handed the board back to Smoke. "We'll get there by sunset," Smoke read aloud. "Well, if that's the case, might as well take a nap."

Smoke spread a blanket across the floor and used his bag as a pillow. "You should sit down and take a nap." Smoke hugged his warclub, "Time goes by faster that way." Smoke told Sun.

"Are you crazy? These places are amazing." Sun was captivated by the mountain and its beauty. He had never seen such grandeur in his current and past lives. And unlike the forced urgency in the caverns, Sun can take the time he wants to digest the world around him. While Sun watched in wonder, Smoke closed his eyes and fell asleep.

When he opened his eyes, they have arrived in a large mining town. Their mining operations were far away, but the clouds coming from their machines and explosives can be seen as clear as day. The clouds were not dark but were white and a bit of pink.

At the center of the town was an old cottage with a tower protruding out behind. The tower stretched towards the sky, with its pole seemingly scraping the clouds floating above the town. Sun and Smoke got off the wagon and gave each other blank stares. Then they turned around and looked at Manny, smiling innocently at the brothers.

Sun walked up the porch and knocked on the cherry colored door. "Hello, anybody home?" Sun turned to Smoke, still knocking on the door, "Maybe he's on top of his tower and can't hear us." Just then, the door opened while Sun was still knocking on the door, and as a result, he incidentally punched the person opening the door.

The stranger's head flinched back, "You have a strong punch." His long robe and hood hid the man's face and body, and a thin veil covered his lower face.

"Oh shit! I'm so sorry!"

"Bahaha," The stranger laughed, "Don't worry it will take more than that to hurt me."

"If you need me to, I can check your injuries." Smoke offered.

"Bahaha," He laughed even louder. "To think there'll be two of you!" Then he stopped, "Wait, there's two of you!" The man grabbed the brothers and pulled them into the building, threw them on the couch, and slammed the door. "Bahaha! I can't believe there are two of you!" He laughed.

"That laugh sounds awfully like Shuja and Pin." Smoke said.

Sun stood up, "And someone else laughs like that too. Are you Pagasa?"

"Guilty as charged," Pagasa removed the hood over his head, revealing large red feathers protruding out behind his ears and pale green skin. "And you must be Sun."

"Yeah, I was the goblin you met on that sea thing."

Pagasa teleported behind the brothers and examined Smoke's body, "And who might this gentleman be?"

Smoke was startled by Pagasa and jumped off his couch. "I'm Smoke," He said while maintaining his guard, "I'm his brother."

"Blood brothers or direct family?"

"What do you mean by blood brothers?"

"Are you guys brothers by an oath, or did you have the same parents."

"By oath," Sun said, "But why does that matter?"

"Because you both are goblins!" Pagasa jumped in excitement. "Finally, I was given another chance to change our destiny. And maybe things will be different."

"What do you mean?" Sun asked.

Pagasa looked at the brothers. He took a deep breath and calmed down. "There are so many things I have to teach you two. Come with me."

"Wait!" Smoke stopped Pagasa, "We have one question to ask." Smoke took his bag and pulled out the revolver and handed it to Pagasa. "We found it along the road while trying to cross the border. Do you know where this came from? Do you think the dwarves made that?"

Pagasa examined the weapon without leaving an inch untouched by his eyes. "This gun is very complex, and I don't doubt the dwarves can create this with their amazing technical skills. But I know for a fact that the best inventors of the Walz Kingdom have never even thought about making this weapon."

"How do you know?"

Pagasa looked at the brothers with a blank expression before his eyes wandered around the room. "This gun's mechanism is far too complex and advanced. The dwarves are already busy advancing their arsenal, and I helped them, but we never created this before."

Suddenly, a knocking came from the front door. Pagasa teleported to it and opened the door. A tall bearded man was standing on the porch. "My name is Maximum Orez, the noble knight stationed in this town, and I am here because we were informed about two travelers arriving with a wea,"

Pagasa pushed the large man to the ground. Soldiers around him watched as their superior lay on the dirt road. "Take this gun with you and tell the king he can keep it, and if his engineers managed to reverse engineer it, he better mass-produce it for the goblins!" Pagasa roared. The earth trembled from the sheer volume of his voice, and it frightened the foot soldiers, with some of them leaking through their chainmail pants. He walked back into the room and confronted the dazed brothers, "Lesson number one that's not how you deal diplomacy. Now let's go. Time is limited for us."

The brothers followed Pagasa towards the tower while carrying their bags. A large floating platform sat in the middle of the room. They stood on it, and the platform carried them up the tower. They reach the top in less than a minute.

"We have arrived." Pagasa stepped out and welcomed the brothers to his personal lab. It was filled with books, trinkets, and complex mechanisms. Pagasa gave a tour before stopping in a small room Pagasa uses for leisure activities. The brother sat down in front of a table while Pagasa served them masala chai.

"So, you want to know how we turned into, well, this form," Sun said.

"Yes, I am curious how you two turned into goblins."

"What do you mean? Aren't we always been goblins?"

"Wrong!" Pagasa yelled, "Sorry, I didn't mean to raise my voice at you, boys." Pagasa took a sip from his teacup to calm his nerves. "The form you had before, the small green creature with goat eyes. That is just a deformed embodiment of the perceived image that blasted god views us as!"

"What do you mean?"

"Every race in our world originated from gods beyond the surface of the infinite sea. They controlled our evolution directly to create their perfect race, but there were some that never planned to meddle with our world. Some races were just created by accident," Pagasa paused. He noticed a strange brass pipe poking out of Smoke's bag. "Smoke, what is that?"

"This thing," Smoke took out his warclub, "This is the Krepkiy club. It was given to me after beating Cossack, the Chief of the Razin tribe. And this warclub is the symbol for the Chief of,"

"That's no warclub." Pagasa interrupted him, "Give it to me."

Smoke hesitated, but he eventually gave it to him. "What is it then?" Pagasa grabbed both ends and pulled its ends before bending it in half. "What are you doing? you're going to break it!"

But it did not break. The club bent like it was an arm and because it was an arm. Pagasa stood up and walked up to a wall and pressed his hand against the wall. His hand left a glowing handprint, and then the wall split apart, revealing a hidden compartment with a standing giant bronze statue inside.

The figure was missing an arm and a leg. And next to it were various parts made up of cogs and pipes and resembling hands and feet. The brothers walked over to Pagasa as he measures the club and compares it to the reattached arms. Sun inspected the statue further and realized that it resembles the robot dog that nearly killed him in his sleep.

"It's like that robot dog, but more human." The robot was made of cogs, wires, and bolts, and on the top of its forehead was the word 'DRONE'.

"Drone," Smoke read it aloud, "Sounds familiar."

"You don't think this was the 'dron' that diary mentioned?"

"Diary? What diary?" Pagasa asked.

"We found a few books from our tribe. One of them was a diary of a little girl."

"I see," Pagasa took one of the metal hands and attached it to one end of the club. Then he placed the cog headpiece on the statue's shoulder. The piece perfectly fit on the statue's shoulder, but the club was too short to fully replace the missing arm. He reattached the arm piece and tossed it to Smoke. "That war club is actually an arm of a Drone unit. Probably a scout variant with its size. The dead drone I have is designed as a heavy infantry."

"It's huge." Sun knocked on its iron plating.

"The God that created sent Drones to exterminate our kind."

"What?" Sun and Smoke's eyes were instantly filled with shock.

"The God that made us was the same God that created the angel and demon races. And we were the accident the God tried to erase." Smoke reached for his feathers, remembering the times the mercenaries mistaking for an angel. "But we did not go down without a fight. And we never gave up, not once. And that God knew it so instead of war and bloodshed, we turned to magic. Slowly but surely, we no longer the goblins we once were. We devolved into some savage race and to add insult they made have the same as his. Mocking us beyond the ocean, telling us the closest we will ever get to his heart is his eye! His blasted goat eye!"

"And why does no one knows that?" Sun screamed.

"Because he placed a spell on the world. They did not fully forget us, but over time, the idea of a goblin shifted until it fit the image of the savage little race he turned our kind into. There are only a handful of people in the world that know of the truth." Pagasa placed his hands on Sun's shoulder, "But that doesn't matter now because you are here. We will not let time forget us. We will lead the goblins, you will save them from this hell."

"And how?" Smoke asked with his quivering voice. "You're not telling us to kill that God are you?"

"No, he left the moment his plan to turn us into animals worked. Instead, we rebuild and I believe you two can do it. Heal the wound inflicted on our race by that bastard."

"I don't know if I'm ready for such a heavy task, but," Sun looked at Smoke, "I think I can do it. I got people that can help."

Smoke scratch the back of his head, "Not like I had a choice. At least we're not the only ones that turned into the so-called true goblins."

"Bahahaha! Splendid!" Pagasa hugged Sun and Smoke, "Now, let me get the things we need before. Wait, what do you mean by not the only ones?"