The storm came to an end fifteen minutes into their thirtieth hour within the Verdant Gauntlet, and Ethan called his goblins back. As Gred and Cred, who had gone to more thoroughly scout out the mountainous region they were headed towards, returned, Ethan tasked Fred with gathering several more Shardtree branches to be used as shoddy weapons.
Then, Ethan summoned a fourth goblin. This one was destined to be temporary, since he unfortunately couldn’t permanently sustain four goblins at once just yet, and so he just named it Dis- short for disposable- and sent it away, so that they wouldn’t need to look at its… parts.
‘Really need to put some effort into getting better stuff for my goblins,’ Ethan thought, but there was very little he could do to clothe or arm them more than he already had. He didn’t know how to make even the crudest of loincloths with only leaves and such, and while he could figure it out given enough time, it wasn’t worth it to spend hours on anything inconsequential.
Once that was finished, Ethan, Alyssa, Gadget, Fred and Dis set out. Gred and Cred hadn’t returned from their scouting yet, and so they would just meet the goblins halfway. Dis stayed a fair distance away, but Fred was clothed enough to act as a bodyguard.
∑
Half an hour later, Gred and Cred had rejoined their little group. Like Dis, they had to stay a fair distance away, but the triangle surrounding their small group provided decent protection and meant that they’d be warned far before Gadget was ambushed by a suicidal Ferrow again or something.
∑
An hour passed, and Ethan realized that the goblin’s map was significantly smaller in scale than he’d been expecting. The distance of what had appeared to be five tree-representing lines was, apparently, miles. Ethan’s wounded leg wasn’t causing almost any problems, and so they were moving at a relatively brisk pace, and the mountainous terrain was actually easier to traverse than the root-ridden forest’s floor, but they still weren’t there. ‘There’ was, apparently, a very large plateau at the top of the shallow mountains, where the forest was significantly more habitable and there were even seemingly regular animals. Ethan knew this for certain, because he’d actually sent Dis ahead.
His legs ached by now, and it was becomingly increasingly hard to move without limping in his injured leg. The only thing that made the trip bearable was the promise of food, Gadget’s silent company and Alyssa, who had started making quite a lot of conversation in the past fifteen or so minutes.
It appeared that she was finally opening up a little bit, which was nice. Ethan couldn’t help but be envious of how easily she was enduring their trek, as not a single complaint left her mouth. Meanwhile, Ethan’s legs stung, his wound felt like it was on fire, and he was entirely breathless.
“…yeah, and so my dad was like, ‘Alyssa, a degree will let you be paid significantly better,’, but I was like, ‘Dad, I’m not taking out a student loan…”
Ethan was only half-listening as he helped Gadget get unstuck from between a root and the ground, but he nodded along regardless. Some of the stories were interesting, but this one was not. All of them, though, gave Ethan a greater insight into Alyssa as a person- he hadn’t known much about her until now, so it was nice.
Alyssa was clearly a social butterfly now that she seemed to have adapted to their strange situation, judging by how much she talked.
To sum up her backstory, Alyssa and her family had moved to their little town a year ago. Since then, her father and mother passed away, and she’d turned nineteen, leaving her with the responsibility of her sixteen year old brother, Logan. The deaths of her parents didn’t seem to really bother her all that much, which was odd, but Ethan didn’t pry.
Regardless, their death was why she’d worked dozens of odd jobs, such as a butcher’s shop. Unfortunately, Logan had, for some reason, lied to her about which Tutorial he’d picked, and they were separated.
She prodded for Ethan’s own backstory, but he declined to divulge very much- for no reason other than that he was struggling to keep up with their pace and couldn’t spare very much of his breath to talking, unlike Alyssa.
He told her the basics, at least, since she’d finally opened up a bit.
“My life’s not been all that interesting. I’m twenty years old, raised by a single mother. Did decently in school ‘till my brother passed, but then my grades dropped, and I lost the dream job that’d been lined up for me by my uncle.” Ethan said, although it had taken a minute or two to get it all out. Alyssa expressed her condolences and Ethan silently nodded, and the trip became a bit quieter after that.
∑
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Finally, they were almost there. An hour and a half had passed since they’d left the burrow, and they had still yet to take a break. Ethan’s body felt like it was on fire, but it was fine- they were almost there.
Ethan slumped against the wall of the mountain- six feet tall. They needed to climb up it and finally arrive at the enormous plateau. Alyssa scaled the wall with ease, simply jumping, grabbing the edge and yanking herself up, but Ethan wasn’t strong enough to do that even when fully rested.
With the help of Fred and Alyssa, Ethan managed to just barely clamor over the edge and roll over, his body dripping with sweat and aching horribly. A little bit later, three goblins managed to haul Gadget up the same wall and set the panicked animal down on the ground.
“…Think I’ll just lay here for a minute.” Ethan said, ignoring the look of concern from Alyssa. He didn’t want to use his mouth for anything other than heaving gasps, and instead communicated with his goblins via their link.
“Fred, stay with me. Cred, Gred and Dis, go search the area. Bring back any food you find, and tell me if you find anything of note.” Ethan sent.
Gadget plopped down next to him, and Ethan managed to let out a tiny chuckle as the tired old animal leaned up against him.
“What now?” Alyssa asked, but it took Ethan a minute or so to be willing to talk again.
“Goblins are out searching for food. I’m staying here and resting a bit. Fred’s staying.” Ethan finally answered, and Alyssa sighed.
“I’ll go and search too, I guess.” Alyssa said. Ethan grunted in confirmation, and she left.
Minutes passed, and Ethan eventually decided to move away from the edge. With Fred’s help, he managed to hobble over to a bed of grass a few yards away from the tree line to sit down in. Gadget was in practically the same state as himself, crashing in the grass next to him again.
Only a minute or so after Ethan sat down, he received a message from Gred.
“Found weird human?” It said, and Ethan’s brows furrowed. What did that mean?
The goblin was pretty close by, only fifty or so yards away. He ordered it to rush back to him and explain, and sent Cred to find Alyssa. Lastly, he sent Dis to go and monitor this ‘weird human’.
A minute later, Gred returned, and Ethan interrogated the goblin. He was becoming better at getting answers out of the dumb creatures and understanding what they really meant, but the descriptions still made no sense. He eventually had the goblin draw it in the dirt, and Ethan became worried as he figured out that he’d been tricked by the goblin’s initial description.
‘No way that this is a human, right?’ Ethan thought as he stared at the depiction. It was obviously humanoid, but its proportions were all wrong. Its head was shaped like a brick, and its arms were apparently long enough to drag against the ground. Most importantly, its body seemed to be split vertically in two, with one side of its face differing entirely from the other.
“…What was it doing when you found it, Gred?” Ethan asked.
“Talking; human words, Gred think.”
“Who was it talking to?” Ethan asked.
“It talk to it, Gred think.” Gred answered, although he seemed unsure.
‘What the fuck is this?’ Ethan wondered, but his thoughts were interrupted by a message from Dis.
“Weird human moving at you.”
Ethan’s breath and pulse quickened, his heart, which had never stopped beating against his ribs, pounding even harder.
“Dis, keep an eye on it. Tell me when it gets close.” Ethan sent, and then turned his attention to Cred. “When you find Alyssa, try to get her to follow you. Lead her back here.”
“Gred, was it carrying anything? What was it doing other than talking to itself? Is there anything more about it that you can tell me?”
“Uh… carry nothing. Just sitting. Don’t know else.” The goblin answered, and Ethan gritted his teeth.
‘Fuck… I don’t like this. Should I summon a fifth goblin? I won’t be able to sustain it and Dis for more than half an hour if I do, but this thing’s freaking me out.’ Ethan thought. ‘Is there anything else I can do? I guess… I’ll have the goblins ambush it. I won’t be helpful in a fight anyway, so I’ll act as bait. If it turns out to be hostile, Dis, Fred and Gred will attack.’ Ethan thought.
“Fred, Gred, take Gadget and hide behind a tree. Don’t let it see you. Understand?” Ethan ordered, and the goblins nodded. Fred took Gadget by his collar and lead the dog away, and Ethan positioned himself as far away from the tree line as possible.
“It close now.” Dis sent, and Ethan checked the goblin’s position Five yards away now. Only a few trees separated him and the ‘weird human’.
Seconds crawled by, and Ethan struggled to endure the fear. He had to manually control his breathing in order to hear the creature moving through the trees. He kept catching glimpses of movement and even hair, but didn’t get a good look at it until, finally, it popped out from behind the closest tree and stared right at him, an inhuman grin plastering half of its face and an expression of boredom on the other.
“It’s a pretty beastie,” The grinning half said, and Ethan grimaced. Its voice was grating, but more importantly, it was very, very disconcerting to see only half of its face move and speak independent of the other, and to see the thick black line separating the two halves seem to quiver.
“…Hello?” Ethan told it, and the creature tilted its head, both sides of its head grinning equally now. Its movements were sharp and abrupt- snappy. Ethan didn’t like it. Ethan didn’t like anything from this abomination.
“It talks!” Both sides said in unison.
“It talks! Does it walks? Does it halks?” The left said, practically shouting. “It talks! Does it taste like me?” The right spoke for the first time, its voice quiet and rumbly.
“Found Alyssa. She follow.” Cred said.
“I hope you don’t want to find out about my taste,” Ethan cautiously said, and the left side frowned as the right replied, its expression one of concentration.
“Why not? We taste me all the time. We’re so similar…” It trailed off, its voice sharp and dangerous.
“Fred, Gred, get closer. Be slow and quiet, but be ready to attack at any moment.” Ethan sent to the goblins.
“What are you doing?” The right side snapped, a tremble running down its too-long arm as its hand clenched into a fist. “Why are you moving your fingers like that?” It demanded.
“I… used to play an instrument. I’m just trying to show you.” Ethan answered quickly, his voice trembling a bit, and the left side smiled, strangely sincerely.
“That’s so sweet,” It said, even as the right snapped, “You’re lying. Don’t lie to me.”
“W-why do you think I’m lying?” Ethan asked, taking a step back and raising his arms in what he hoped was the universal sign for peace.
“There’s lots of mana in your fingers. What are you doing?” Both sides growled, their faces contorting into ones of rage, matching perfectly for the very first time.
It took a step forward, and Ethan was done trying to make peace with the definitely-a-monster.
“Attack, now!” Ethan ordered, even his mental voice trembling a bit now.