Is this hope or is your skin just purple?

I walked toward the direction Misrael pointed out. My body felt much better. The fatigue was almost but gone. The mere thought of getting out of this accursed forest brought joy to my soul. The path was relatively simple as nothing inside the forest would hurt me- which I naïvely believed. Although naïve it definitely was the right thing to believe, as in reality, they most certainly didn't harm me. Maybe that statue wasn't lying after all. But even so I need to validate what it said and the only way to do that is to reach the village she described about. However I still had to be cautious. Blind the undead may be, they could have still posed a threat if I wasn't careful.

It took me two full hours till the forest thinned enough but the time felt close to an eternity. My leg still throbbed, which didn't ache as much as last night though. The thought about the undead lurking here was a good reason to not forget about time. When I actually got out of the forest, my heart sunk a great deal for what lay in front of me was nothing but endless grasslands.

"Was she really trying to help me?" I couldn't think of anything other than the goblins. Those vile creatures must have been lying around here somewhere to strike me again. For once in my life I didn't want to be proven right.

With doubts I kept moving towards the fated direction. The sun was my guarantor. There wasn't anything alive that was nearby. Birds, animals, nothing was here. Only rotted corpses were around. The place was almost like a wasteland or maybe a green graveyard. The animals were probably butchered and devoured by the goblins or something worse. The mere thought raised my heart beat. I was amazed that my heart still functioned at all.

Although endless, the green scenery and the blissful sunshine were still soothing. Finally I could smell something other than pure rot. It was the blowing winds, with no special scent and yet to me it was the best. Gradually the grass became softer and smaller. After a full hour of walking I took a little rest by the only tree I could find in that entire area, which didn't look like charcoal. I had an analogue watch on my hand, so time was something I could monitor without messing up. But there was also a problem. According to my watch it was five in the morning, but I most definitely could vouch that it was at least eleven. So maybe time in this world was a little different from the one I knew.

This tree had green leaves, which the rest of the trees in the area didn't. Besides, the trees were spaced by marginal distance. Almost like someone handpicked everything in this place.

A pond with crystal clear water was here: I could even see the bottom. I took a little look at my leg and from my perspective it needed immediate attention but the only thing I could do was rinse it clean and change the bandage. I still had my handkerchief. It was a little small but enough.

The grass here was normal and soft. Finally I could relax somewhat but I didn't let my guard down. My leg was constantly reminding me about what could happen if I let that happen. The tree leaves resembled that of a pine tree. There were some of its fruit on the ground and boy was I hungry. As there were some rocks nearby, I used the rocks to crack open one and it was no easy work. I couldn't recognize the fruit, but since I was already poisoned, it was a risk I had to take.

It was rewarding though. Such was my first food after an eternity of suffering: it tasted like nuts. I worried about the water having deadly microbes but had no choice but to drink from it. Luckily the water was rather clean, quite surprisingly so. The taste was even better than filtered water (Does poison taste sweet?). I didn't see any fish here though. I rested for half an hour. I was a little drowsy but I knew that I could be killed if I fell asleep. All I could think about was, what in the world was I dragged into!

***

It was a pity to leave such a wonderful resting place, which had food and water, but I had to. After another hour I reached the first real challenge. I couldn't tell if there were any trees in the distance or not but what I could definitely and painfully observe was that there were thirteen goblins in front of me and one of them was actually bigger than me! That one was holding a massive club. "Damn it! Just when I thought, this couldn't get any worse!"

Seeing me, they laughed. Their cheerful laughter sent chills down my spine. They didn't waste time. The large goblin let out a howl which triggered the smaller ones to attack. They had little cloth over their privates and rocks as weapons. Some did have knives though. Just the sheer numbers were enough to scare the shit out of me. Then there was the big one.

I was not the man I was yesterday. I screamed and let out a speech that embarrassed me. "I don't care if you shits have families or need to live on humans or something! I will make it out of here alive whether you dog vomits like it or not! And I'm definitely not giving up!"

I was so out of order that even my swears were cringed. But I was mostly trying to intimidate them. I couldn't take 'em all and it was painfully obvious.

It wasn't enough. They attacked me without a doubt. So much for my intimidation. The skinny goblins were swift but after fighting two of them last night, I was somewhat adjusted to that speed. I killed one of them. As they attacked me without any strategy, I sliced the first one. It was almost laughable how much I'd lucked out on this blow alone.

But I took a deadly blow on my left hand. The pain was intense and there was a bruise. How the hell did it do that with a rock?

The rest of them weren't that easy. They coordinated their attacks and all I could do was to persevere as I was being battered. The big thing hadn't moved at all from the start. I was very glad for that.

I got lucky as one of the goblins messed up its order and I successfully killed another two with consecutive strikes. I was bleeding all over but I wasn't about to go down without a fight.

I grinned. "Only ten more to go. Are you sure you still want to go on?" Even on the verge of collapse I still tried to bluff.

For a guy who rarely exercised at all, that was a rather grand feat. Actually, it might have been the absolute best achievement of my life.

Turned out it wasn't a lucky break for me, as the big thing finally moved? The smaller ones dispersed as the big one came swinging. If these are really goblins then that one must be their leader- the hobgoblin? Give me a break!

My body had almost but given up. The only thing that kept me going was my will. And yet, even my will started to falter. I was I supposed to take on something which looked like it could kill an elephant with just a swing?