Goblins

Although the branch structure was sturdy using a variety of eclectic branches and leaves as the floor bed, Lotus was by no means an architect and it was by no means a comfortable sleeping environment, nevertheless, they found themselves dosing off, falling deeper into their subconscious

*Snap!

while remaining with his eyes closed, Lotus' ears perked up at the snapping of a branch. Somehow his sense perception of space around him became increasingly more sensitive, the hairs on his skin stood up and he could feel a strange presence near them. The more he seemed to pay attention to the innate feeling the more he tensed, he couldn't shake an unsettling feeling as if something was getting increasingly closer.

"Ariel, hey wake up" he whispered to her, repeatedly drumming her shoulder, she began jostling from each tap until her eyes finally snapped open, "what!" she yelled. At that moment a short green creature hopped out from one of the bushes attempting to swing down a club-shaped weapon straight down on the vulnerable Ariel, Lotus immediately brought his arm over her, emphatically intercepting the attack, he winced, Ariel immediately got out of her daze and raised her hands to shoot out a ball of wind straight at the creature, blowing a hole straight through its stomach sending it a few feet away.

"skreee" it yelped in its dying breaths.

After the adrenaline of the events weighed down Lotus coolly laid back down, "nice shot" he said in admiration while holding his arm to his chest. " I-I'm so sorry," she said, "what are you sorry for?"

Lotus said with a tone of indifference, "bringing attention to us?" she was questioning herself, "you didn't, the creature was already going to attack while we were asleep", he shrugged as if this was nothing but she couldn't help but feel bad, especially knowing Lotus was already not in the greatest mood, "can I see your arm, it hurts right?".

he exhaled a great breath of air before getting up and moving towards the dead corps "quite presumptuous to think I'm in pain", "how is it presumptuous, you're holding your arm as if in pain" Ariel squinted her eyes at him. He ignored her analyzing the creature, 'hmm ; short, green, pointed feet' he pressed and proded it's skin "this is a goblin for sure haha no way, from all the fantasy novels and anime I've seen, this is fascinating " Ariel proceeded to look at him in confusion, he stood still, looking up to the clear blue sky, illuminated by the orange ball of light, giving himself a chance to celebrate the situation, his eyes widened "Ariel where are the fruits!", "they are here? why?" she brought out a handful of fruits in the tent structure, "let's eat some now and start moving immediately!" he said with a tone of urgency, Ariel now startled began picking up the fruits handing some over to lotus for them both to hastily devour without paying attention to taste.

"Hey, what's with the sudden behaviour?", "goblins, one thing that's always been the same in goblin media is that, if there is 1, many and many will follow!".

A sudden and bitter realization hit Ariel, she had forgotten that she is in a new world, completely vulnerable, being with Lotus she subconsciously began to feel comfortable and that nothing could drastic could happen to her. Naturally, Lotus had no idea what her thoughts were, he proceeded to finish up the fruits and immediately got himself ready for them to continue on their path, as he was putting on his hoodie since he was using it as a pillow he again felt fluctuations in the space around him, only this time they were heavier, "Ariel lets move now!" he said out of instinct, running over to grab her hand and running with her straight back onto the trails. The sound of wind passing through their ears, the fluctuations only increased now though and instead of being one-directional, they were multidirectional, It was then through the peaks of the bushes around them and hiding behind trees Ariel could see eyes, eyes that belonged to the same goblin she killed earlier, she gasped.

Lotus also noticed but paid no attention and focused on getting out of there suddenly an army of arrows followed behind them coming from an unknown direction, Ariel created a barrier of wind stopping the arrows from passing through, however, arrows persisted in their attack, "they are not stopping" Ariel said in distress, as Lotus ran he became increasingly more

aware that he felt so light, running felt easy, he knew he could go a lot faster if he didn't have to drag Ariel so an idea crossed his mind

"Ariel do you trust me?",

"you know the answer," she said while panting, her hair dishevelled and sweat dripping down her forehead she clearly wasn't used to running like this,

"Can you trust me"?

"Yes, it's possible, why?" she looked at him suspiciously,

'why was he asking such questions now', she was finding this travel partner utterly incomprehensible.

An auspicious smile appeared on Lotus' face, "good" then stopping for a second to abruptly turn around to look at a daunted Ariel, he quickly swooped her by legs cradling her and without delay proceeded to sprint along their path, moving at such speeds that space seemed to slow down around them and before they knew it, they were no longer any forest trees or auburn sandy trails, but sights of civilization, buildings and roads, and horses and carriages. As Lotus was putting Ariel down he was met with an excruciating headache, holding his head and looking down in silent agony, Ariel looked at him worryingly "are you ok?", nodding his head silently he began standing up straight, "probably from using my power", "ahh so that's what that was, but I thought you could only go places you've seen?", "no that can't be the case, otherwise I wouldn't have ended up here or in the cave". He was becoming quite adept at making cogent arguments for his new circumstances.