As they settled into camp that evening, Hazel volunteered to cook supper while the other three and Arlo relaxed. Willow kept glancing over at Arden and Nolan like she had something to say but she kept hesitating. Finally after nearly an hour Nolan spoke up, “Willow, just say it already.”

More bashful that usual, Willow took a deep breath and then asked, “Why did we make all the traps so that they would injure the goblins instead of kill them?”

“By injuring them we slow down the group they’re with. We’re sixty or so miles from Wildemill but only about twenty miles from the goblin’s home. Ideally the goblins will decide to return home with their injured comrades. This slows them more and word spreads that the forest is trapped making any other goblins coming this direction more cautious which will slow them even more.”

“So, this is as much psychological as it is physical?”

“Basically. Does it bother you?”

“I don’t like the idea of anyone suffering, even if it is goblins.”

“I get that. But if it were you, would you rather die in a trap or just get injured?”

“Obviously I’d rather be injured. But from what we’ve learned about goblin culture from Ms Christi, they don’t have the healing options we do and they don’t tend to take care of their sick or injured like we would. So really, aren’t the options just immediate death or drawn out, painful death?”

Nolan thought for a moment before responding, “You make a valid point. But from the standpoint of trying to protect the village of Wildemill, I’m okay with making the goblins suffer until they stop trying to attack.”

“That doesn’t feel ‘right’ to me. But I don’t know how to explain what I’m feeling. I just feel that it’s better to just kill them cleanly if possible.”

“In general I do agree with you. But in this instance I think it’s warranted.”

Arden joined the conversation with, “You seemed nervous to bring this up to us. There’s nothing wrong with disagreeing on the best way to go about something. And you did well to finish the tasks at hand first and then to discuss this afterwards.”

“Dinner’s ready,” Hazel called out. “And I’m perfectly fine with the goblins suffering, for the record.”

“Of course you are,” Willow replied.

“That’s fine too, Hazel. Everyone can feel however they want as long as we’re all working together,” said Arden as he attempted to reassure both daughters while keeping the peace.

As Nolan fixed his plate and sat back down he said, “Something I wanted to cover tonight was all the skills and spells we have that aren’t getting leveled. I started thinking about it after the earlier discussion about Hazel’s [Spellweaver] skill that she’s never used. I think we all have some skills and spells that we haven’t used yet. Let’s start focusing on those more. We want to level them up as far as we can. Granted, we’ll gain experience for them faster when using them in combat but we can still gain while using them in camp or back at the inn. Those with shield spells could literally walk around with the shield active all day to slowly level it up. And this applies to me as well. I have spells I’ve never even cast.”

Arden chanted something and waved his hand. Suddenly the group felt a slight pressure on them. With a smirk Arden said, “I agree. And surely no one minds sitting in a [Dome of Truth] while we eat to help me level that up, right?”

No one answered for fear the spell would make them stop breathing like Regina had described it to them.

Ignoring the question, Nolan continued, “See, this is good. We should work to find way to train all these skills and spells. The higher we can level them the better off we are.”

“He’s right,” Arden added in. “I’ve been identifying everything I see since we got here. It’s literally my highest skill now at level 8.”

“I’ve tried that but it never shows me anything useful. I identify a tree and it just says ‘tree’. Like, no shit it’s a tree,” Complained Hazel.

“Yeah, it does that until you level it up. After a few levels it gives more information. And as you continue to level you get even more information. For example, that tree you’re leaning against is an Oak tree. And after more levels I know it’s of the Black Oak variety. And after more levels I know that it’s currently fighting some sort of rot. I bet if I leveled the [Identify] skill to ten I’d be able to tell you what type of rot.”

Hearing that the tree was sick, Willow immediately got up and went to the tree and cast [Plant Growth] on it. Looking back at her father she asked, “Did that do anything?”

“Still identifies the same way. I don’t think just helping it grow will be enough.”

“Well, try healing it.”

“You want me to heal a tree?”

“Weren’t you just agreeing that we should practice our skills more?” Willow asked with a smile. “Well, it’s a good size tree, should be a lot of practice for you.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“She got you there, dude.” Nolan said while laughing

Arden chuckled as he got up, “Alright, I’ll give it a go.” Arden approached the tree and laid a glowing hand on it, casting his [Healing Touch] spell. But nothing seemed to happen. So Arden tried again, but this time his hand continued to glow. After about a minute and a half he grabbed his head and complained, “Freaking mana headache. Ahh, they remind me of brain freeze and they suuuuuck.”

“What did you do differently that second time?” Nolan asked.

“Rather than just a single cast, I channeled the spell so that the healing would continue until I stopped or, in this case, ran out of mana and got a mana headache.” He stood there for a couple minutes before removing his head from his hands. “Dang those suck. But it worked Willow. The tree no longer shows to be sick.”

“Why didn’t you stop before you got the headache?” Asked Hazel

Arden grinned, “Because Mayor Helen says that if you do it enough it’s possible to get used to them so that they don’t debilitate you.”

“And I suppose you are going to want us to do that, too?”

“It would be for the best, but probably best to do it somewhere safe and not out in the forest.”

“Well,” said Nolan, “as much as I like watching Arden writhe in pain, it’s time for some sleep. We have a long run back to town tomorrow and I’d like to get an early start.”

“Yeah it’s getting late. I’ll pull first watch. Nolan has second watch. Y’all get some sleep.”

As everyone got ready for sleep, Arden climbed up about ten feet in the tree he had healed and took a seat on a branch while thinking to himself, “It’s a nice night. Wish I had a book… and could see in the dark.”

⚷

When Nolan woke up it took him a second to remember where he was. Then he wondered why Arden hadn’t woken him to pull watch. He was torn between assuming Arden had fallen asleep or assuming Arden had decided to stay on watch all night. As he started to move he heard Arden’s voice in his head. He was really starting to hate that [Message] spell of his.

“Don’t move. The camp is surrounded.”

“How? You were on watch. Did you fall asleep?” Nolan thought back angrily.

“No. Just couldn’t see them in the dark until it was too late. They were surprisingly careful in their approach. I’ve counted over three dozen goblins but something else is with them, leading them. I can’t get a clear enough look at it to use [Identify] on it but it’s bigger than they are. As far as I can tell, they haven’t spotted me yet.”

“Ideas?”

“Not really. We’re going to have to fight our way out. If you could wake up the girls without the goblins noticing, that would be great. Otherwise those few seconds of disorientation is going to be risky.”

“Where are you?”

“To the east of you, in the tree Willow made me heal.”

“How long do you think we have until they attack?”

“Oddly, I don’t think they intend to for a while yet. This leader seems to be playing it cautious. But I’m worried that they’ll end up waking up Arlo and it’ll turn into a shit show.”

“Is it safe for me to throw something at one of the girls to wake them up?”

“Yeah, if it’s small.”

It took over five more minutes before both girls were awake and caught up on the situation. Hazel, of course, wanted to stand up and release another [Chaos Wave] but Arden and Nolan ruled it too risky.

After some discussion they decided to start with some distraction. Arden would attempt to cast [Message] on the leader to see if he could rattle him or learn anything useful. While he did that the other three would be casting buffing spells and preparing for a bit of shock and awe.

Nolan waited for what felt like twenty minutes but was closer to three before Arden finally let him know that whomever the leader was, he didn’t want to talk. Nolan’s opening move was to cast [Light] as far to the south of them as he could to ruin the goblins night vision. Then Willow cast [Entangle] in one direction as Hazel cast [Sleep] in the other. All of this was done from the cover of the downed trees they had made their camp under. Arden cast [Light] toward the north and then cast his [Shield of Faith] spell on himself. Then he stood up on the tree branch and started firing off [Radiant Bolt]s at the leader of the goblins, each shot lighting him up as the magic left his hand.

It didn’t take long for the goblins to start firing arrows and throwing spears at Arden, who in turn laughed and ridiculed them. Once they were all focused on him, Nolan and Arlo both slipped out of camp and started to stalk their prey. Hazel cast [Mana Shield] on herself and then stood up and started casting spell after spell. Willow cast [Barkskin] on herself, [Shillelagh] on her staff and took off.

Arlo was mostly darting in close and hamstringing the goblins whereas Nolan was crushing windpipes so they couldn’t scream. As a result, more and more goblins charged toward Arlo’s side of the fight as the goblins he continued to incapacitate continued to call for help.

It wasn’t long before Arlo was overwhelmed and when he tried to slip away one of the goblins got a lucky shot in and embedded an arrow in his left hind quarters. Arlo let out a pained cry and before anyone could stop her Willow was heading for Arlo. Immediately, Arden started throwing his bolts toward the growing group of goblins as Arlo continue to let out cries as the goblins continued to attack him.

Nolan was weaving in between the trees trying to get to where Willow was heading when Arden reached out with another [Message]

“Go after the leader.”

“Seriously dude? Willow’s going to get herself killed. There’s over a dozen goblins surrounding Arlo right now with more on the way. She’s not that good of a fighter yet.”

“Trust me brother”

“Okay. I hope you’re right. Where’s this leader?”

“Southeast of you but moving through the trees heading west. Just go due south and you should run into him.”

Nolan shook his head and turned to go where Arden said this mysterious leader was. He hadn’t gone ten feet when he heard the roar of a bear. Turning back Willow was no where to be seen but a huge grizzly was moving between trees steadily swatting goblins away from Arlo as if they were simple houseflies.

“Heh, I guess she finally decided to choose her first animal for her wildshift ability. About time,” Nolan thought to himself as he continued his hunt.