Lagdon made an irritated noise, and I groaned in frustration. "Apparently our enemy does not want us leaving so easily." I said, kicking uselessly at the fog. "I don't suppose you can still find your way in this Reihekiu?"

"I am good, but not that good. The nasty, in the deep dark, has his eyes focused on us now. Even I won't know up from down if the beastly creature is actively trying to confuse us..." Stated the elf, dashing my hopes.

"Do you think its headed here?" I asked the group at large.

"I do not sense anything amiss." Said Kishi, her nose in the air in an attempt to take in the scents of the Dark. "Besides the obvious that is."

"Well, it is safe to say that if we move now, the only direction we will be going is directly to where it wants us to go." Sighed Reihekiu, hands on her hips. Whether bored, genuinely curious, or just a lover of stirring up trouble, she decided to poke the bear that was Lagdon. "Given we have no where to go, maybe you can sate my building curiosity."

Lagdon looked like he did not want to do that at all, and glared at the half elf, annoyance written all over his body language. Reihekiu ignored all that.

"I have met the goblins of these lands before, and I know for a fact that they would rather lick stones than answer to a human. Land god or not. So you may have to forgive my assumption that, as a hobgoblin, you- mister prince- would be even less willing to subjugate yourself to this human. Would it not be easier for you to just let this ghostie gobble her up?"

"Um, I don't think this is really the time-" I started, trying to way-lay the violence I saw building in Lagdon's stance.

"Would it not be better for the goblins? Better that this human die and the- What did I hear you call it? the Specter?- the Specter achieve its obvious intent on inheriting the role of land god? As a monster born of Aeros' miasma, it is essentially the dragon's own child. Would the goblins not preferer to serve such a monster over a rather frail looking human woman?"

"Excuse me?" Growled the hobgoblin, eyes narrowed. Nervously, I set a hand on his bicep, hoping to prevent him from launching on the elf, whom I thought may or may not be some what crazy.

"Well, monsters, more than anyone value power and dominance over others. And, as you pointed out, this woman is rather lacking in the power factor. In fact, you made it sound quite a bit like you had to babysit her on a constant biases. How stressful for you."

"Reihekiu, I think you have said enough." Kishi's words were not a growl, but there was an edge that made me think the fox was getting aggravated as well.

Had I not been worried that violence was about to erupt, all while the fog continued to billow in around us, I would have been offended. I had been working very hard NOT to need babysitting. And I rather thought that I was holding up during this last little adventure. I may not have been able to fight as well as Kishi, but I did hold my own out here.

"You are mistaken." Lagdon said, voice low and cold. "I, and my fellow goblins, are wholly loyal to Lady Enna. No matter the pedigree or strength of this Specter, we will continue to be loyal to her, and her alone."

Oh, well then... Okay. I totally was not feeling all the feels right now. Nope, not at all.

"If the Specter, or any other threat, dared to make an attempt on our Lady's life, then I would do all in my power to prevent it, including offering my own life." I was about to snap out a denial on that point. I may have been weaker than Lagdon, but my life was less fragile. I might come back if killed, he would not. But Lagdon shot me a brief glancing glare, before setting his eyes back on the grinning elf woman. "And, should Enna die, despite all our efforts, then my brother- the goblin king Margund- would marshal the entirety of our forces to storm this forest. And I have no doubt that every foxie and foxmen would march right alongside them.

They would enter this place and tear down every tree, and burn the lot to ash. They would fight the enemy until Lady Enna could make her way back to us and reclaim her lands, as is her right."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The silence that filled the small clearing was as thick as the mist rolling in around us. We all stared at Lagdon, who was coldly glaring at Reihekiu, as if his eyes could kill. After a second of prolonged dagger eyes, he instead broke eye contact and began to work on removing the swamp sludge from his leather pants. Apparently that was the signal for the tension to break and I took a breath to calm my nerves.

Reihekiu looked smug while Kishi shook her head in exasperation before deciding to wander around the little clearing, sniffing periodically. I could only assume that she was attempting to detect any danger the fog was concealing.

And boy was that fog thick now. Pea soup didn't even cut it.

Reihekiu approached me, the smile still firmly in place as she watched Lagdon attack gunk with all his frustrated might.

"Any reason why you felt it necessary to push his buttons?" I sighed, feeling bad for Lagdon.

The elf chuckled. "Curiosity mostly. My questions were honest ones though. It is strange to see monsters so dedicated to anyone, much less a strange human woman. You do not seem surprised however."

I blinked, confused. "Because I am not." I said, and I wasn't either. "Lagdon is the single most dedicated and loyal person I know. If ever I lost either of those traits from him, he still wouldn't just throw me to the wolves. He may be a goblin, and that might have some kind of negative connotation in your mind... but so far I haven't know their people to be anything but dedicated, hard working and highly motivated. I think I am pretty lucky to have them on my side, and their loyalty was wasted on Aeros in the first place."

The elf chuckled. "Alright, I understand."

"You seem wholly dedicated to convincing people to eat you." Commented Kishi as she approached our hushed conversation. "It may not turn out well for you in the end."

Reihekiu snorted. "I am too old to worry about where, when, and why I might die. Might as well live the life I want while I can."

Not that I completely disagreed with that point of view, but... I eyed the woman up and down and wondered why she 'wanted' to live as a crazy hermit in a deep dark forest wearing nothing but twigs and a potato sack. To each their own I guess.

"We need to get out of here, get a hold of Margund, and come back with an adequate force." Lagdon said, interrupting the brief moment of calm and getting things back on topic.

"Don't you mean to just whisk your Lady away?" Laughed Reihekiu. I could tell from Kishi's stance that she felt the same.

Lagdon let out an irritated sigh before staring down on the woman like she was a moron. Clearly she had done a very good job in rubbing my hobgoblin guard the wrong way. "There is no point in keeping Enna away. She is a god, and given the need, I am sure she would find a way to get back here, one way or another. Presented with this Specter issue, she will not be able to keep away. It is best to go, get the men we need to ensure her survival, then return to deal with the irritant."

Uh oh, Lagdon was calling big baddies 'irritants'... he was annoyed, for sure. Plus he was using my name rather than calling me Lady Enna.

"If we had Margund and the goblin forces, as well as the best the foxes could provide in fire casters, I am sure the destruction of this manifestation of Aeros will meet its end in good measure."

"Well, aren't you confident." Said the elf. "You do realize that the Specter is a literal cluster of the evil dragons power, do you not? It is not some ogre with a grudge. It is a soul sucking shade, capable of eliminating people at great distance, with a body incapable of taking physical damage. On top of that, it clearly has greater influence over the Dark than your girl here, and there fore may even send the entire masses of monsters living here after you as well. It is, without a doubt, very close to being a land god all on its own. Do you think a handful of goblins- even with a few hobgoblins thrown into the mix- can take on a god?"

That sounded bad. Like really bad. Like super, duper, did not even occur to me, I need to rethink my life choices, bad. I glanced at Lagdon, truly afraid for the first time since being dragged into this forest. Except maybe when we encountered the swamp monster that is.

"Lady Enna has power that even she does not apricate." Lagdon said, reaching out and taking his club from where he had set it against a tree. "Her issue is not being able to effectively use it. And being too much of a kind hearted person as well." He straightened up and glared down at the older half elf once again, marginally cleaner and ready for a fight. "And it is not a handful of hobgoblins. It is an entire mountain of hobgoblins and goblane that will empty upon this accursed forest and raise it to the ground."

"I would really rather avoid demolishing an eco system, actually." I mumbled, unsure if Lagdon was sincere in his threat. The place was aptly named the Dark, but that didn't inherently make it a bad pace. And besides, just because some place was dangerous also did not mean it was evil. There were still many monsters and animals that called this dingy place their home after all.

"You evolved an entire mountain of goblins?" Reihekiu asked, eyebrow raised in surprise, arms crossed and body turned my way.

"No, just a city of them. Like a few thousand maybe? It took a lot of effort, okay!" I snapped, suddenly feeling judged.

"Effort?" She asked, incredulous.

"As I said, she has power and no clue how to efficiently use it. Not that my people and I have any room to complain." Huffed Lagdon. "Now, can we focus of escaping this swamp infested forest?"