“What do you mean Ewan can’t come with us?” snapped Hazel

“We can not take Ewan with us,” Arden said for what felt like the tenth time.

“Why not? He’s warded. The goblins can’t hurt him.” Hazel said defensively.

“Not directly, that’s true. But there’s more to it. We’re not protected Hazel. This is our first true excursion from the town since we got here. We don’t know how many goblin warriors there are or what sort of traps they have in place. The best case scenario is he’ll slow us down and see us killing goblins. The worst case, we die and he’s left alone in the forest with those very goblins.”

“Never thought about that,” Willow said

“I don’t want to leave my kid”, snapped Hazel. “I’m not going to abandon him!”

“You’re not abandoning him by letting him stay with a babysitter for a few days, Hazel,” Nolan added in a calm voice.

“Dad just said we could die. That would be abandoning him!” Hazel fired back.

“Look!,” Arden fired back. “Either you come or you don’t. That’s up to you. But Ewan isn’t coming along.”

At this Hazel stormed off, leaving an awkward silence at the table. Finally Nolan spoke up, “I have to admit, I don’t get it. She’s been fine leaving Ewan to go on the evening hunts so he’s already been sleeping at Malusi’s a few times per week.”

“I don’t understand it either, but it’s obviously a sore spot where we’re going to need to show some extra patience,” replied Arden.

“Where ‘we’ need to show patience?” said Willow sweetly. “We,” she said while motioning to Nolan and herself, “weren’t the ones who just shut her down without hearing her out.”

Arden sighed, “Fine, I’ll go talk to her and let her say her peace.”

“Well, good luck with that,” Nolan said as he stood up. “I’m heading to bed. See y’all in the morning.”

⚷

The party rose early on their 34th day of being on Traum, packed their gear, ate a large breakfast, and dropped Ewan off with Malusi without incident and headed to the south gate. Christi was there waiting for them to let them out.

“Mayor Helen asked me to remind you that the Verdance Day celebration is coming up in five days. Please make sure you’re back by then.” Christi stated.

Hazel, who had been trying to memorize the months, asked, “Five days will be the first of Tramon, right?”

“No. The holidays are outside of the months. We will have Budod 25th, then Verdance Day, then Tramon 1st.” Christi answered. “And if you could bring some fresh meat for the feast, the mayor said she would appreciate it.”

“We’ll see what we can do,” Arden replied with a grin. “My grandson is staying with Malusi and his father. Ewan has a sending stone with him and Hazel has the other half. If something comes up, you can use that to get into touch with us.”

“Good to know but there shouldn’t be any issues.” Christi bid them good hunting while closing the gate behind them and the party set off in hopes of finding creatures to fight so that they could level up further.

“It’s crazy how big of a difference a few levels and some training makes,” Arden commented as they walked. “A few weeks back we were ‘going to war’ against these goblins. Now we’re just going hunting, as if they’re no more of a threat than any other beast.”

“Yeah, but don’t get too lax,” Nolan replied. “These are intelligent, sentient, possibly sapient, beasts. They could surprise us.

“If they’re sapient are they still beasts?” asked Hazel.

“I had not thought about that. I don’t know.”

“The mayor says that there are beastkin races,” cut in Willow. “They’re sapient and still called beastkin. But it does feel wrong to call sapient beings ‘beasts’ though.”

“Well, whatever you call them, don’t forget that they’re dangerous. A simple mistake could reverse our roles on this hunt.”

The party spent the entire day walking and hunting but never found any goblins. Arlo hit on some trails but they never lead to anything. By sunset the party was over twenty miles south of Wildemill and feeling rather frustrated.

“I admit it, they have surprised me.” Arden announced.

“By not being around?” asked Nolan.

“Exactly.”

Hazel spoke up, “I don’t get it. How can there not be any goblins around. Maybe they’re near but Arlo’s sniffer is broken.”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“No, it’s not,” Willow snapped back defensively. “All the trails we found today were at least five days old. I told y’all that before we followed them. He hasn’t found a recent trail all day.”

"Calm down you two,” Arden interrupted before the sisters could get into an argument. “Let’s find a place to set up camp before it gets dark.”

Hazel looked around at the forest they were in and looked back at her dad, “Where, exactly?”

“Should be a hill or something around here. Just want to block any wind and have some cover in case of rain,” Arden said while turning in place scoping out the area.

After another hour of looking, the party finally settled on a simple clearing. Bedrolls were laid out and tents were hung from the trees above them for some cover. A quick meal of rations and then a watch rotation was setup. Thankfully the night passed without incident.

Their second day Nolan had the group focus more on covering ground then hunting so by the time they made camp they were nearly sixty miles south of the village. Arlo continued to range ahead and out to the sides sniffing for any trails but didn’t find anything recent.

They were able to find a slightly better place to camp though. Rather that an alcove in the side of a hill like they wanted, it was an area where a couple rather large trees had fallen and vines had grown over. Willow used her [Mold Earth] spell to dig some room out from under the trees to provide a bit more cover. Bedrolls were laid out and, feeling a bit safer than the previous night, a fire was started and Nolan got some food cooking.

No sooner was camp set up than Hazel was pulling out her sending stone and talking with her son. Ewan was fine. He shared a story about how Allissa had come by to play earlier. After speaking with him, Hazel was noticeably calmer the rest of the evening.

As they ate, they decided on watch schedule with Hazel volunteering to take the first shift and Willow the second. After dinner Arden noticed Willow looking at the end of one of the trees they were sheltering under and walked over to her.

“Whatcha looking at baby girl?”

Willow hadn’t heard her father approaching and jumped when he spoke. “I was looking at the rings on this tree. Do you think they represent years here like they do on earth?”

“I would assume so, but who knows. Why? What did you find?”

“Nothing really. I was just counting the rings on this tree and noticed that they’re spaced further apart than the trees I saw back on earth.”

“Really? What do you think that means?”

“At first I thought it meant the years were longer but then I remembered that the years aren’t much different than back on Earth. Now I’m thinking it means they grow a lot more in a year than the trees back home did.”

“Makes sense. It is just because of the type of tree. Like how bamboo grew really fast compared to oaks?”

“I don’t think so. I think the ambient mana in the air helps nurture life. Not just the tree’s but the life of all the organisms in the soil. This whole ecosystem is on magic steroids.”

“That’s pretty interesting. What makes you think that?”

“I think it’s my druid class. As I level up I continue to learn more and more about nature. I saw a bird earlier today and I just knew what kind it was even before I used [Identify] on it.”

“Well that’s pretty cool. Question. If we were to dig up some worms here, would they be bigger than we’re used to? And then could we head over to the river and catch a fish that would be bigger?”

“Maybe,” Willow answered with a shrug.

“One more question. How can you see the rings on that tree in the dark?”

Willow looked around for the sun and then shrugged, “Guess it’s that half-elf night vision.”

“I’m so jealous you have that. I should have asked for something like that. Anyway, it’s late. Go get some sleep before you have to go on watch. And Nolan will have us up before sunrise to get moving again.”

After Willow got into her bedroll and snuggled next to the ever growing Arlo, Arden banked the coals of the fire as Hazel found a good spot about ten feet up in a nearby tree to perch up to keep watch.

⚷

The next morning Nolan did indeed have everyone up before sunrise, “Today we’re going to do a bit of hunting around this area just to make sure it’s clear but I don’t expect to find any goblins.”

“What? Then why are we here?” Hazel interrupted.

“The goblins are regularly moving between their home and Wildemill. We’re going to spend the day setting a few traps here and there. A few days ago I met with Christi and Oringo and got the go ahead as none of the guard or hunters come this far south. So first thing, let’s do a sweep of the area and make sure there’s no goblins nearby, just to be safe.”

The party started their sweep and true to Nolan’s prediction, they didn’t find a single goblin even after searching the area for several hours. Nolan ended the searching when they were about five miles south of where they were camping, on a very well traveled trail. “We’ll set our first trap here. Nothing fancy, just a punji pit. Willow, if you would, we want a hole about five feet deep and”

Arden cut Nolan off, “Goblins are shorter than us.”

“Good point,” Nolan agreed before turning back to Willow. “Make the pits two feet deep and about one foot square. We’re going to do five of these in this area, I’ll mark where.” Nolan then pulled out some sticks from his pack, each about a foot and a half long and pass a few over to Arden and Hazel. “Sharpen these, please.”

It didn’t take long for the pits to be dug and sticks sharpened. With a touch more help from Willow, holes were dug for each stick to be inserted into and then the ground was packed down around them.

“Well,” Willow said as she cast [Mould Earth] again, “at least all this is helping me level this spell more. I’m up to level four already.”

“Nice Willow!” Nolan said while patting her on the back. Looking over to Hazel he asked, “Do you have a flamethrower type spell?”

“No sir.”

“Oh, that would be cool,” Arden cut in. “Can you create one with that Spellmaker skill?”

“It’s [Spellweaver], and maybe but it would take some time.”

“There could be a lot of uses for something like that, where you can keep throwing fire for as long as you have mana. If you don’t mind putting the work in, I think it could help us all,” Nolan stated.

“I’ll try after we get back to town,” Hazel answered timidly. “I’m sorry I haven’t used it yet.”

“Hey, you’re not in trouble,” Arden said reassuringly. “We were just asking. And if you can’t do it, that’s okay too.”

For the next several hours the party continued to follow Nolan’s lead and build punji pits, snares, whip trips, and more. By sundown the party was tired. Even with magic, there was a lot of effort involved in getting everything just right. But they had managed to trap a five mile section of the forest along and around a few different paths.