Tiria left Chum and Orchid in the inn and headed back to the coastline, passing dozens of goblins on the way. It didn't take her long to arrive, but she slowed to halt as she realized what was missing.
"He's gone," she said to herself. A quick glance up and down the coastline didn't show any sight of the brightly colored monster. Billy the Toucan had abandoned them. "Damn."
Her curse didn't have a lot of energy to it. They were already cut off from the peak. How worse could things get?
"Scampered right off just a few minutes ago," a voice said behind her. Tiria turned to find an oddly purple goblin wielding a sickle that had an odd sheen to it. If Nori let him have an enchanted weapon, Tiria assumed he was one of her Elites, even if it was a farming implement.
"Hmm," was all she responded with and then she left back towards the inn.
The purple goblin followed and continued talking. "Name's Glom. Nori's second in charge."
"How nice for you," Tiria said, dodging another goblin who was carrying a bunch of fishing poles from one dilapidated house to another. She walked all the way back to the front door of the inn to turn and face Glom who was still right on her tail. "Did Nori tell you to follow me?"
"Nope," Glom said with a grin. "Just don't trust ya."
"There's three of us."
"For now. Who knows how many little ferrets are lurkin' about."
"We're otters." Annoyed, Tiria opened the door to the inn with Glom still on her heels. Chum and Orchid both looked up from where they lounged around the table she'd left them at with Chum raising an eyebrow at her goblin escort. She ignored any notice of Glom's presence. "Orchid, do you think you could scout out the top of the cliff?"
As Danna wills so will I obey, Orchid said with a front legged bow.
A concerned look popped up on Chum's face. "I thought we were resting?"
"We'll come back tonight. I just want to get any information we can on the forest."
Glom the goblin kicked a chair out from one of the tables with a loud screech that set all of their eyes to him. He released a sigh as he collapsed into a chair and then sucked his teeth loudly. "That forest is bad news. Better to just give up and move on in my opinion. Cost us half our people it did."
"We're not you," Tiria snapped. She wasn't sure why this one goblin was getting on her nerves so much, but it had only been a couple minutes and she was already ready to see what Nori would do if she drowned this one in the sea.
"True," Glom responded with his all-knowing smirk. "A smaller loaf gets eaten more quickly."
Chum's look of concern only deepened as he shifted his gaze from Glom to her, but he didn't offer any objections. He had a good sense of when to push and when not to. Thankfully, they all left in blissful silence and started heading towards the cliff.
To Tiria's increasing annoyance, Glom continued to follow them.
It took longer than she'd have thought to reach the cliff, a couple hours at a decent jog. If it wasn't for Orchid, she'd have tried to urge them faster. By the time they arrived, the sun had already drifted from its peak and was lazily making its way towards the horizon on her left. It was a strange phenomenon, but she was already starting to get used to it.
The cliff loomed above them and crags on its surface sent shadows creeping towards the east. Far above, the forest stood even taller, its canopies seeking to become part of the very sky. Now that they were this close, a sense of unease settled over Tiria and she unconsciously gripped her chest as she turned her head to Orchid.
"Now that I see it. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with you going alone."
"We could find an entrance closer to the ground?" Chum said and Glom snorted in response.
"You'll be traveling for miles to find one of thems. Assuming it's still shaped like the monster world."
I will be cautious as I ascend. Danna's wisdom will become my own. Orchid placed her front legs and started to climb without another word. Chum walked over to stand beside Tiria, their shoulders touching as they both slowly craned their necks upwards.
Orchid's pace didn't change much from vertical to horizontal and that which seemed slow as they jogged here seemed blazing fast as she ascended. After an hour, she had only made it a little over half way. Glom had gotten bored of watching her and was supposedly resting his eyes nearby, but Tiria was sure he was watching her and Chum over Orchid.
Finally when one hour became two and the sun was now much closer to the horizon, Orchid reached the top.
It was hard to see exact movements from this distance, but Tiria could tell there was some hesitation as she lifted her eyes over the edge of the cliff and got her first glance into the dark void of the forest. She shifted her gaze left and right before taking a few tentative steps over the cliff's edge.
Movement between the trees caught Tiria's eye, but Orchid saw it first.
She let out a little shriek as she retreated back down the cliff, but her opponent was too fast. A green, barely visible figure fell out of the trees. Its foot, as Tiria thought it was humanoid, crashed into Orchid before she had a chance to get out of its line of sight. Orchid's tiny shriek grew louder as the blow sent her sailing away from the cliff side.
"Orchid!" Chum called out and rushed closer to the cliff face.
Tiria froze. As Orchid's many limbs flailed wildly in the air, her first thought was that Gi would save her, but Gi was dead. Her line of thought limped ahead to the next solution and she thought that with Poe they could save her, but Poe was gone. What else could she do?
A line of web shot out from one end of Orchid, connecting with the cliff. This only served as a fulcrum that sent her crashing into the cliff face before she could get her body rotated correctly. The blow must have hit hard as her webbing lost its grip on the cliff. She fell down it, hitting every crag on the way until one large enough sent her careening back into open air.
Her shriek grew louder and all Tiria could do was tighten her grip on the fur of her chest and close her eyes. That too didn't help. In her mind's eye, all she could do is watch Gi's body fall lifeless to the ground over and over.
****
Panicked, Chum darted all around the cliff face as he tried to keep Orchid in his sight. As the last crash on the mountain sent her flying off into the air, her trajectory stabilized and he got himself settled beneath her. As she neared, he leapt into the air and the Spider smacked into him.
His Domain, [Globe of Preservation], was running full blast. Orchid's wounds were already healing as they both slammed into the ground. Even with the damage protection aspect of his Domain, their shared landing knocked the breath out of Chum and it took him a few panicked attempts before oxygen rushed back into his lungs.
Danna saved me. Danna saved me. Danna saved me.
Orchid was still quaking in his arms and hugging him tightly as she continued her mantra. One of her legs had snapped from crashing into the mountain, but it was a clean break and it was already straightening out as Chum healed her.
Grinning at his success, he turned to Tiria and his smile died. Her shoulders were bunch up tight, both of her eyes were closed, and she was practically ripping the fur out of her own chest. The emptiness inside Chum twinged in response, but it was nothing compared to how it pained him to see her hurting.
He let Orchid continue to cling to him, but he took a few tentative steps over to Tiria. "Hey, it's okay. Orchid's okay."
She jumped, her eyes opening in a wild panic. Slowly, Chum placed his paws on her shoulders as he got her eyes to focus on his. "It's okay. You're okay. We're all alive."
It took a long moment for her to steady her breath, but eventually, she gave Chum a slow nod. He squeezed her shoulders and gave her a gentle smile. "Why don't we head back to the inn and regroup?"
Before she could respond, a grating guffaw cut over their conversation. "This chicken shit wants to head into the forest? Their ain't no-"
Chum's fist collided with Glom's face before he even realized he'd crossed the distance or swung. Chum's nature urged him to be calm and calculated, but this monster had him seeing red.
"You shut your fucking mouth." Blood pounded in his ears as he stomped over to where Glom lay sprawled. "You don't know anything about her."
Chum's Strength was his weakest attribute so the goblin wasn't actually hurt and he just laughed from the ground. "Looks like you do got some balls after all, boy,"
Chum only took one step before a strand of webbing on the back of his robe stopped him. Orchid had hopped down as he charged and was now holding him back.
I don't think it would be wise to anger Nori this way. If what she says is true, we can't afford to lose even loose allies at this time.
Orchid was right. Chum knew she was right. He took a few deep breaths, forcing his posture to relax, and slowly his heart stopped pumping so wildly and he calmed. The anger seeped out of him just to be replaced with regret.
Glom might have deserved that, but Chum was a healer. He shouldn't have-
Tiria stepped beside him. Her eyes shone and she studied him as though she'd only seen him for the first time. "That was very satisfying."
Well, maybe some mistakes were worth it.
***
A huge wave sloshed against the deck as another giant tentacle erupted from the water and sought to pull the ship into the depths of the ocean. With a roar, Samba caught this second tentacle in his other arm, joining the first he'd already captured. Only his claws clenched against the tentacle and his strength kept the thing from dragging him into the air.
On the other end of the ship, both Corin and Tala were wrestling with their own tentacles.
"ROW!" Samba screamed out and the Cave Goblins roared back. Their backs flexed as they worked the oars, but some of them were already damaged in the initial attack. The ship angled left, but there was nothing that he could do to stop it.
Another dozen Templar poured out from below decks and instantly upon seeing the giant tentacles that Samba wrestled with they all dove off the side of the boat to join the fight with their fellows. One of the Hidden Spiders had rallied a handful of Priests and one Templar that had [Arcane Blast] and they were launching attack after attack over the side.
His muscles strained with the effort of keeping the tentacles in check without getting yanked up and off the ship. Even now, it leaned to the right, a few of the broken oars scraping uselessly against its body.
A roar of pain erupted in Samba's mind and the tentacles he held suddenly snapped back instead of up, dragging him with it and out into the open air. As he fell towards the ocean, dark blood hid the main body of their foe, but it also told him that it was injured. His Templar had fought hard.
The tentacles had stopped attacking the ship entirely and was now more concerned with the swarm of otters slashing at it with their claws. The ocean swallowed Samba and he turned the fall into a dive headed straight towards where he thought the center of the monster was.
Underwater, blood completely obscured his view so he had to swim with his paws straight out. When it landed on spongy flesh, he laid into it with his claws.
Using his claws like this made him feel like a common beast and it reminded him of Kumo, every slash only made him more and more furious and he carved a hole deep into the monster that mimicked the gaping hole in his own chest from Gi's absence.
He hated how the clan had broken up; he hated how everyone expected him to just know what to do now; and he hated how Gi's absence still clung to his heart even though he blamed him for all of it.
He was lost and confused and he was so tired.But what else could he do? He was a Templar. He advanced.
It took him almost a minute to realize that he'd received a notification for the Looming Kraken. Slowly, he kicked back around and swam until he broke the surface. A few of the others called out as they saw him and he kicked after the ship that had drifted much further away from the Kraken than he'd have thought.
Thankfully, the swim got most of the blood off of him and it wasn't too hard to climb back onto the ship. He thumped heavily over the railing and then rested his back against it. Corin and Tala were already there.
"Did we lose anyone?"
"A few Cleaner Slugs that were on deck during the initial attack were sent overboard. We weren't able to find them in the water. Templar are still looking, but we don't have a lot of hope."
Samba nodded. Gi seemed to have put so little thought into the lives of his clan, but Samba felt every single one. "I'll go help," he said. Tala moved forward with her hand outstretched, but stopped before reaching him. He took a deep breath before jumping back over the side.
He was so tired.