The man wearing a suit, calling himself a gentleman, was a goblin. The other hadn’t made himself known. All she could see was his red hair and eyes. The slit pupils gave way to the belief he was from an animal tribe in the north. This was an oddity but seeing as both were of very high status, this become seemingly less odd. Fitting was that experts generally had their own pride and were unique in personality. Therefore, while the animal tribes were territorial, because of the sheer number of different types and insane amount of experts it was impossible to label beast people as anything synonymous with normal.
Stepping forward with green skin and tourmaline yellow eyes, “Hi, my name is Loki and this is Ken.” Pausing slightly to gauge her response, “We have been traveling for a while. Of course, I am rather civilized. Therefore, I was hoping we might be able to share this campsite with you.” When he said this, he looked at the man named Ken with a weary and sad look. It was a look clearing, indicating he didn’t want to go sleep randomly in the woods and end up looking like a homeless bum. His expression was so clear, it was almost frightening how much it said without saying anything.
No matter how badly she wanted to say no, it wasn’t a decision she could make. She wished desperately to have Leo around to have warned her someone was approaching… “Of course.” Even trying to sound agreeable. Even if humans were the most reproduced race on the continent. When comparing the races to humans, they fell short. She couldn’t afford to refuse the two.
Goblins, for instance, were a race that started out shorter than humans and even dwarves. They moved off basic instinct as they used numbers and petty tactics to eat magic beasts and ingest other beings. As they moved through the grades, they became more intelligent and more robust. Eventually, between Grade D and C they start to return to a more normal appearance. All the way until Grade A when they became human like. Though she didn’t believe the goblin before was a Grade A.
His entire demeanor was closer to an outlier. Of all the races, goblins had the most outliers of any race. It was simply harder for them to survive, as the absolute hierarchy meant those that refused the hierarchy were killed or unable to survive on their own. From his looks alone, it was likely one of his parents was a Grade A, otherwise he wouldn’t look so human. Instead, the surprise was how human like his personality was.
“Nothing beats a long day's travel, ending by a warm fire.” His hands were close to the fire as he had his eyes closed as he sat cordially without saying anything about the remains of the meal that had been eaten not too long ago. She didn’t believe they saw the fire. Still, neither of the two said anything. The one named Ken had his eye on her. He seemed interested in something, but was the type to not open his mouth first.
This caused her a great amount of stress as he kept looking at her from time to time. What allowed her to relax was that neither of the two had showed any desire to make her life difficult. While she didn’t believe Loki was Grade A, because of the way they came so close without making any noise, they were by no means below Grade D. She didn’t believe they were overly powerful as the unknown identity of Ken had come looking like a complete mess. Loki himself had a coat that was also covered in their travels. Though true to his word, the suit was rather immaculate. As one would imagine, a gentleman’s clothing would be.
As night was fast approaching, she stood up to gather more firewood. The two didn’t say anything until she left, most likely making bets on if she was coming back or not. She, too, was uncertain of which path to take. In the end, she ultimately returned with a number of sticks. Winter was fast approaching and animals including magic beasts were stocking up on food. Jessica believed she was good at judging a persons' character.
Unable to determine their exact identity, she could see the goblin wasn’t that interested in her. The other man on the other hand had a particular interest. Only it appeared different from what she imagined. As beast people still saw humans. They owned the largest land, not to be confused with the humans that owned nearly as much, with large sections of it being unclaimed. As beast people that were both people and wild animals, the nomadic tribes moved within their vast territories often.
Not all of their kind were social. Goat, sheep, and frog beast people didn’t enjoy human contact and lived in the far north. Snakes and crocodile beast people were far and few between. It was extremely rare to meet them. The most commonly seen were the wolves and feline beast people. They lived in the biggest numbers and actively patrolled their land. Neither the entirety of the land owned by the beast people or the elven forest had ever been fully explored. It was unknown if that was even all of them.
The snake and crocodile beast people for example were rather reclusive. Not being large in number, many people didn’t even know or believe they existed. It would be a lie if Jessica said she wasn’t interested in the north. She had many wonders and that was one of the reasons she returned.
She had been to most of the largest human cities, along with many of the big dwarven cities. The dwarves were the most open and easiest to approach. That was also probably why the dwarves of old were not the same today. Originally visibly shorter than humans. As the most open people, it was by no surprise they held the largest number of relationships with the other races. By today’s standards, it was very difficult to tell a dwarf from a human. They were sturdier and, generally, were extremely different in personality.
Humans had many passions, dwarves only cared about one thing. They had many interests, however only when they found their craft did they find their own place in life. For this reason, it wasn’t surprising to see many humans in the dwarf cities. Dwarves didn’t have the population and with their personality, many didn’t settle down until they found their passion. This led many dwarves to be single. Though her uncle as an example, some found their passion and that was the reason they never settled down in a relationship.
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The north to her was simply things she read about in books. For that reason she settled down by the fire and tried to start a conversation, “What is the north like?”
Jessica expected an answer from Ken, he had been paying more attention to her, she figured if she reached out first he would respond for his own interest. However, the one to answer was Loki. With a smile, he opened his eyes and spoke with a clear and easy to understand willingness to share, “Vast. It is hard to think of it another way. It isn’t just the northern races, even in goblin kingdom one can still find human traders, so I am sure you have heard many stories but from a first-hand account. That is the best way to describe the north…”
Once he finished describing the north in his own words, Ken said something, only what he said was a bit extreme, “The people in the north are more keen than those from the south. Outside the ignorant elves and the careless dwarves, it is easy for both beast people and goblins to smell the blood of their own kind on the people that go into dungeons.”
It became devastatingly quiet. Even the fire felt dimmer for a second. Very quickly a burst of laughter came from Loki, “Haha, ah, stop trying to scare her. While it is true you do smell faintly of goblin, it is the blood of those from a dungeon. Nobody on the outside sees the things spawned in dungeon as their own. And if we are talking about this, I bet I have more goblin blood and human blood on my hands than her. And if we're considering numbers, it would be easiest to say the person who has the most blood on their hands, would be you.”
His words made her a bit uncomfortable, maybe sensing this. Correctly in his tone, Ken spoke once more, “I don’t know if you’re familiar enough with dungeons. My sense of smell is very powerful, and you have much blood on you. As someone that has gone through a war it is surprising to find someone that has so much blood on their hands. Uniquely enough you don’t have much dungeon blood on you.”
Pondering his words, he spoke at the urging of Loki to get back on point, “Dungeons are unique in a sense. For dungeons found in human territory, they will have anything from a goblin to the young of beast people or magic beasts. The highest level dungeons found in the capital even have the ability to spawn a dragon. The reason this is so, is because humans see them as their enemy. For goblins, what one finds there are humans, elves, and beast people. It hasn’t been recorded of a dragon spawning in their dungeons. As for the dungeon with the most enemy variety, that would be the elves.”
With no hesitation this time he sounded rather heated as if trying to throw dirt on elves, “They don’t just spawn goblins, beast people, magic beasts, or humans. Uniquely enough, only the elves and dragons have dwarves spawn in their dungeons. Only the elves have elves spawn in dungeons in their territory. They are the only race to see their own kind spawn in their dungeon. Of course, as Loki has said. No race sees the creatures in a dungeon as their own.”
As the old man was an elf, she couldn’t help but ask, “The war you spoke of, the one you implied you went through. Did it by any chance have to do with the elves?” The last great war that spread throughout the continent was around three thousand years ago. Only in the north where there are always conflicts, or so rumored. Seeing his surprised expression, Jessica was sure that it was a truthful rumor.
Seeing the look of surprise by her accurate guess, Loki couldn’t help but sigh helplessly at his socially stunted travel companion, “It is written all over your face. You were basically spitting as you talked about the elves. How could it possibly be a mystery who you fought a war against?”
Like his appearance, once he heard this he seemed to come to an understanding. He didn’t much seem to care that his inner thoughts were leaked. It appeared the two were very much so a good duo. One shamelessly without any embarrassment called himself a gentleman in such a strange endeavor. While the other had his inner thoughts leaked and didn’t seem to care. Showing that his homeless apparel was simply because he didn’t much care to look impressively. Considering their level of stealth, while she looked highly on it, that didn’t mean they were strong combat wise.
As winter approached, so too did the night. As if the days were getting shorter, by this point it was very dark. Having let out a yawn, Loki took it as a signal. Getting up, Ken and him moved a bit away from the fire before Ken simply sat down against a tree before closing his eyes. Loki on the other hand could only sigh before taking out a blanket from his waist pouch. Laying it down, he took off his coat and jacket. Placing his hat and jacket to the side neatly before laying down, covering himself with his coat.
Having noticed her watching him he winked and spoke a cheesy line, “Come now, lass don’t stare, I know it's hard because I am the ideal man for any woman. But I am a gentleman, you will have to come to my homeland and ask my parents for my hand if you want anything to happen.”
Ruthlessly cutting him off, Ken with his eyes closed could only shatter his image further, “That is not how that works.”
Jessica could only laugh lightly at his confused look, as if he didn’t understand which part he had gotten wrong. Not letting her guard down, she slept closer to the fire but kept the two in front of her as she had her back against a log she had originally been sitting on.
Once morning came, the two parties separated as if originally planned. The rest of her journey back to Aruna was short and sweet without any more interruptions.
After parting ways, Loki was looking at Ken. Finally, unable to take his incessant staring, he couldn’t help but turned towards him. Taking it as a green light he couldn’t help but ask, “Why did you say anything to her?”
“What was I supposed to say?” He didn’t see where Loki was trying to go with asking this.
“I don’t know, honey, I am home?” He spoke with a bit of uncertainty. He lacked common sense because of his upbringing. Every once in a while he would get things mixed up or say something outrageous.
With an annoyed expression, Ken couldn’t help but look at the moron that had no reason to be this dumb, “How is it that you were capable of killing all three hundred and twenty-seven of your royal relatives? The goblin king should have killed you. But maybe it was because of that stupidity, he believed you would just die on your own.”
Without looking upset about bringing up his troubling past he simply smiled, “You will have to try harder than that to get a raise out of me. Don’t you also still need my help finding that person? Who would have known, following that man’s scent, we would find your blood. How ironic.”
There was no more emotion on Ken’s face, “She isn’t my blood. I killed all my blood back then.”
“See, we really are so much alike.” This caused the stoic face on Ken to crumble as he once again had an annoyed look as he took a step and disappeared. Leaving Loki looking around before speaking absentminded, “Was it something I said?” With a step, he too disappeared.