I could hear the birds calling around me as I rode a horse down the main road to Morden, Kesh's capital. I was nearing it and would soon be out of these forests and in the plains and hills it sat on. The forests were peaceful, lucky enough for me. I was finished with my last contract and ready for some respite for a while.
Kinda quiet though, I thought. The birds had suddenly stopped singing. I drew my trusted shortsword and dismounted. I performed better on foot and needed to stretch some muscles anyways. I focused on my hearing and heard twigs breaking on the left side of the road up ahead, maybe fifteen meters out from me. A moment or two passed before a deer came running out, which I noticed had an arrow lodged in its side. It didn't look to be in any lethal spot, so the hunter was likely a poor shot. It got to the other side of the forest before lost it. But I did see the hunters appear.
No wonder the deer got away, I thought, seeing five small green bodies. They reached my hips and were each armed with a shoddy bow and a small iron knife.They soon noticed me and the lead one, a more grey-ish green, let out an earpiercing shriek. It barely finished before it found my blade shoved through its mouth and out the neck. The others were startled that I had closed the fifteen meter distance so quickly and I slew another before they were ready to fight. One charged me - an admirable feat - one I rewarded with kicking its chest dead center and stabbing the goblins heart when it was down.
The last two tried to coordinate and take me down from behind when my back was open. I blocked the right dagger with my sword, and I just grabbed the lefts, it also being pitifully dull. I yanked the left forward and turned so my chest was to them. The goblin I grabbed was impaled on my sword which I then kicked off. The last one had just fallen on its rear and I soon smelled ammonia as I approached it. It was actually smaller than the other four, only reaching my thigh.
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When I was less than a meter from it I leaned in and said a single word in their tongue, "Leave." it scrambled for its equipment and then scurried off into the forest. Well that wasn't too bad of a warm-up. They would've needed more though for a proper workout. Ah well, I'll tell the Adventurer's Party when I get there. With that line of thought over I re-mounted my horse and went back on my travels.
The rest of the trip back was rather lackluster, as the fight with the goblins only happened almost right at the forest's edge, with me entering the plains surrounding Morden soon after it. It then took me another hour of calm riding until I reached the gates. There were others seeking entry, mainly people who lived in the city who worked as farm hands and a few caravans of traders. Not that it mattered to me, I handed my horse off to one of the many stables that resided out of the walls and approached the gate guards. I handed out my Adventurer's Pass and was let in without delay, a perk of being B-Rank and above in the Party was premium priority, only second to nobles, which there weren't in the line.
It had been a few months since I was last in a proper city, and I missed being in one. At least, the modern ones. A century ago and there was waste on the streets everywhere, until some genius inventor thought up a sewer system, he died a decade after it was fully put into effect in Morden and a few other cities, Archaios bless him. It took me a moment to orient myself and then I was soon on my way to the Party's main headquarters here in the country of Kesh.