The Goregek goblin king is dead and Enna's life is starting to settle into a comfortable rhythm. The Foxes are content and thriving and the goblins seem as if they have a new lease on life, ruled by their new king, Margund. But you can't live in a f...
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From what I had seen of Reihekiu in the few short minutes I have known her, her abrupt departure was not too much of a shock. What was interesting, however, was the fact that she was leading Kishi and I in a straight line, directly to where Lagdon was supposedly hacking through the forest like a mad man. Apparently, What ever mind bending mist magic used to confuse myself- and to a lesser extent, Kishi- has little or no effect on the half elf.
Another surprising fact was that it did not take us long to encounter Lagdon- and it was Lagdon- at all. Just a mere twenty minutes of travel. Mind you, Reihekiu was hell bent in going in an absolute straight line, causing the woman to scale rocks and jump roots when going around them looked easier. But, for all I knew that was how she could go exactly where she wanted without getting lost... But given that I watched Kishi avoid obstacles with no ill effect, chances were that it was just another of this woman's mounting oddities.
I decided to go around as well. Falling off a boulder was a good way to tarnish my hard won land god image... yeah, right.
When we, eventually, came across my hobgoblin prince, he was leaning against a dark tree, covered in muck from the knees down and all over his right side, and his club was held tightly in his grip as he panted, head to the canopy, and striking eyes squeezed shut as he tried to catch his breath. I don't think I had ever seen him so disheveled before.
I jogged forward, past the elf and the fox, before stopping at the prince's side, worried over the state of the man. "Lagdon! What happened?"
Still panting, Lagdon opened his eyes a crack, and glared down at me, defined pectorals rising and falling with his labored breathing. He continued to glare, silent, as he took several more gulps of air, and I felt very nervous. I was in trouble, wasn't I?
After another fifteen agonizing seconds of awkward silence, broken only by his heavy breathing and a poorly concealed sneeze by Reihekiu, Lagdon finally straightened up. The hobgoblin towered over my much smaller form, narrowed eyes locked on my own. He took one deep breath and the commencement of total goblin mental break down was initiated.
"What happened?!" He snapped, his words icy cold for that one question, before they melted into the inferno of his worry, and frustration, fueled anger. "What happened is that a small, barely trained, foolish woman decided she just HAD to go cavorting around a damn cursed forest!"
"I think 'cavorting' isn't really the right word." I mumbled, cause I was dumb.
"Of course you would get kidnapped in seconds!" Snarled the goblin, the only recognition of my interruption being a further hunching of his massive shoulders and a rising of the volume of his words. "I would expect nothing less when It comes to you at this point!"
I hardly saw that as fair! I didn't ask to get taken. And it isn't like it happens all the time!
"Is it really so hard to at least stay at my side? Is that such a hard ask?!" He growled, now pacing back and forth, club dragging on the ground. I chanced a look behind me and saw Kishi watching Lagdon with a single raised eyebrow (an odd look for a fox faced creature) and Reihekiu mouthed 'Oaf' when Lagdon wasn't looking. "I have been lost in this miserable forest for who knows how long, certain that you had become some monsters meal a hundred times over."
He stopped in his tracks before spinning on a bare footed heel and glared back at me once again. "And then, as added torment, I find my self in a swamp, getting nearly flattened by a massive moss covered monster, ready to make a meal out of me. I just barely got away!"
I remembered the swamp monster that had jumped out on Kishi and I and winced. No wonder Lagdon was covered in swamp mud...
Seemingly out of steam, jaw clenched shut, hand clamped tightly around his club, Lagdon grew silent once again. I waited a second to be sure he had gotten it all out, then stepped back up to his side. I touched his grey skinned arm, even more rock hard that it normally was and the muscles twitching under my fingers. He really was very worried about me.
Ignoring the stinking mud, I stepped into the man and wrapped my arms around his waist- pretty much the only part of his body I could get my arms around. "Sorry..." I said, actually fighting back a few tears. "I was trying very hard to get back to you, I promise." My voice was low and some what muffled from where I was pressed against his twitching, over heated, skin. It struck me then that this may well be the first time I hugged anyone since before I lost use of my body in my old life.
Like air being let out of a balloon, Lagdon seemed to deflate. The twitching stopped, his muscles returned to their normal hardness, and the tension released from his shoulders and clenched fists. The hand not holding a club rose up and settle lightly on my back, so large it nearly spanned from one of my shoulders to the other.
"I know..." He said.
After a second of us both taking some comfort from one another, Reihekiu seemed to decide that it had been quiet long enough. "Aren't you a forward little hobgoblin?" She smiled, eyes crinkling at the corners. "Not many people in this world can say they have been comforted by a land god, after all."
Lagdon's hand slipped from my back, and I took a step away from his warmth, looking up to see his clear blue eyes now narrowed on the elderly weapon smith with suspicion.
"Little?" I chuckled, having never seen anyone less likely to be described as 'little' before. "Sorry, I should introduce everyone. Lagdon, this is Reihekiu. I literally just met her, but she did help me get back to you so I'd apricate you hold off on squishing her. And this here Is Kishi, My Guardian fox! Again, we pretty much just met the other day, but she has been looking out for me in your stead." I said pointing to both women, one a caramel colored elf woman with a brazen look on her face, and the other a massive fox with several creamy tails. "Kishi, Reihekiu, This is Prince Lagdon of the goblin nation here in the Monster Nation of Aeros. He is my chief protector and leader of the troops stationed at my estate." I was about to add 'and my best friend' but blushed slightly and snapped my lips shut.
I hadn't really thought about it before just now, but that would have been a pretty accurate statement. At least, it would be on my end. I trusted the hobgoblin entirely and with out reservation, with both my life- and more importantly- with the lives of my people. But I had no way of really knowing he felt the same. I had no doubt he felt some affection toward me, maybe even friendship. But I couldn't say that he was my 'best friend'... how embarrassing.
"Oh ho! An impressive series of titles there, mister hobgoblin." Smiled the elf, eyeing Lagdon up and down like a slab of meat. She seemed to take enjoyment out of getting a rise out of people. "But i suppose it is good to meet you all the same. I had no clue there were hobgoblins here in-" She froze mid sentence and turned to look at me now. "I think you may want to look at a new name for our little nation, yes? Can hardly have a new Land God living in a nation named after the previous after all. It is always good to make things official like that."
"Yes, I was thinking the same... but getting monsters to name things can be... I figured I would wait to bring it up till I thought of something first. If not they might just call it the Monster nation of Enna."
"What's wrong with that?" Lagdon asked on the tail end of an irritated sigh. "And do we not have bigger matters to attend to right now? Like getting out of this infernal forest before we are attacked by another thing."
"Good luck with that." Said Reihekiu rather ominously. I was confused at the tone for a second, until I realized that there was a fog slowly filling our little meeting place.
