Jorr and the hobgoblins were not thrilled at the idea of having humans and Huani following us, but after I told them to go back to the camp and bring as much food as possible quickly they didn't mind as much. We returned to the forest.

The humans were mostly men with two women, a mother, and her daughter. While the Huani were all male, once we were deep enough inside the forest I told them to rest and prepare for tomorrow, we would march to the border and escape the human territory. Everyone carried mostly bread, but the Huani had also brought wine and quickly assimilated with the hobgoblins.

While the humans kept to themselves.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Jorr asks resting against a tree, we watch the seven humans resting far from the rest of us.

"I need them" My eyes are focused on Andrei and Lina.

They sit a bit apart from the rest of the humans, and Andrei seems to be trying to communicate with her, I see the way her eyes look at him, that tiny smile...it sickens me. Maeld's face flashes through my eyes and I feel the pit growing in my stomach when I remember every touch.

Andrei looks at me and says some words to her, before raising to his feet and walking up to us.

"Great, the chatty kind isn't he?" Jorr growls and walks away.

"I am very grateful for helping us escape, for a moment I thought-"

"What is it you want?" I'm tired and don't want to deal with his forced attempt at courtesy.

"Well, where is the rest of the army?" he glances around.

"Away, we will meet at the border" I turn to leave but he continues.

"A-Ah! I see! I don't mean to demand, we are all very tired but many of us got injured in the fight...is there a herbalist? Or..."

I turn back, and for a moment I almost tell him no. But if I want to get as much information as I can out of him, it was better to give in a bit.

"I will tend your wounded" I reply, whistling to the group of monsters not too far, Tamur looks up at me and raises from his seat to bring the bag with medicine to me. I have trained them in simple hand signals so we better communicate from afar.

"Oh! You know how to?" A single look from my eyes is enough to silence him, and he mutters sorry as Tamur reaches us and hands me the bag.

I join the group of humans, who all look at me with distrust and disgust, and I reciprocate. But having no alternatives they allow me to treat their wounds, mostly cuts and one or two arrows, courtesy of the archers that must have come out of the building when the horn was blown. Eventually, I heal them up and ensure they won't drag behind us too much until we reach the border.

"Excuse me" Andrei speaks to me again as I'm about to leave, I would grunt if I wasn't so tired already "S-Sorry, could you perhaps look at Lina too?" He says stepping aside so I can see the Huani girl sitting near the roots of a tree, her ears pulled back and fangs beared as she lays eyes on me.

I see she has suffered quite an amount of cuts as well, too shallow to indicate she was fighting, but too many to show me she was in hiding, protecting someone? I immediately glance at Andrei, I notice that of all humans in here except for the woman he is unharmed. I can make the connection right then and there.

At first, I thought Lina's interest in this human was a manipulation, but now I think I may have it backwards.

"Away!" Lina shouts, soon followed by a loud hissing as I walk closer.

"He take care, wounds heal, trust," Andrei tells her, I notice quickly that he seems to communicate with her without issue, for how long do they know each other?

Lina relaxes a bit at his words but still growls once I stand next to her. Andrei stays close but is unsure of how close, I suppose he doesn't want me near him.

I begin applying the mixtures I have carefully placed inside cloth wrappings, as well as cleaning the cuts with water first. She hisses as I clean thoroughly and apply the medicine, the sting of it making her frown and bite her lip. I wouldn't need to be as rough if her fur didn't get in the way.

"Calm down," Andrei tells her, sitting next to her and grabbing her hand, which she squeezes.

It seems his presence helps in keeping her still, at least I will finish this faster. After a few minutes, I treat all the wounds I can see and look at my bag, knowing that this used up almost all of the medicine I had made from the day I made the hobgoblins join me.

I'm about to leave when I see a line of dry blood painted across the left side of her face. I lean closer to move the hair away but this seems to be too much and she lashes out, trying to cut me with her claws but I dodge out of the way, there is however a scream of pain.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Shit!" Andrei shouts as he springs from the ground, holding his left hand as it bleeds.

"Sorry! Sorry!" Lina tries to reach for him but he quickly moves away.

"Don't worry! Just, let him treat you, alright? I will treat this myself" he offers her a weak smile and quickly walks away into the main group of humans.

I lift my hand and let Jorr know everything is fine, he already had taken his sword out. Lina drops to the ground, looking at the bloodied claws in her right hand, the one she used to hold Andrei's.

"Guilty!" She shouts at me, bearing her fangs like an angry cat "You! You guilty!"

I slap her. Hard enough for her entire head to jerk to the side. I didn't even think, I just wanted her to be quiet so I could treat her and be done with this.

"Your fault, for mingling with a human" I reply coldly.

If the voice spoke to me again right now, he would laugh. I instantly remember his words...how I always chose violence.

She is taken aback for a moment, seemingly all the anger crashed onto a wall of uncertainty and dissipated in an instant as she slowly turns to me. I use this opportunity to hold her by her chin firmly and make her turn her head to the side, moving away the hair and revealing the wound I gave her when I smashed her head with my war pick in our first meeting.

I hear growling and hissing from afar and look at the group of Huani from afar, they have all stood up and don't seem to appreciate what I have done, was it that loud? Anyways, they seem content with letting me know another slap would mean trouble, and one by one sit down. I look back at Lina and she is breathing rapidly, a low growl rising from her throat and lips trembling.

At least she is not moving.

Repeating the same process I treat the day-old wound, if I had not done so it would have likely gotten infected, her dirty fur tainting the wound after an entire day without treatment, but she should be fine now.

I let go of her face and she immediately raises to her feet, walking away and to the group of Huani already leaving the hobgoblins alone, she angrily wipes tears with her arms. Wasn't she a slave? I expect more mental fortitude than that.

Although, I guess I do feel a little guilty. But what's done is done and I must not concern myself with them, this is good.

Tools, nothing more. I must not forget that.

I carry the bag with me back to where the hobgoblins are sleeping, it may be empty but I will have to fill it once again sooner or later. I want to climb a tree but the fight had really made me push the limits of my endurance, I was good at fighting but clearly, I had much to learn about form and execution, as well as learning how to control the bloodlust so it doesn't jeopardize a plan again.

For the first time, I sleep with the hobgoblins, I trust my senses to wake me if they try anything in my sleep.

The following day is calm, using Utar's knowledge as a blacksmith he uses my war picks to free both humans and Huani from their collars, and we make our way to the border.

As we head there I approach Andrei and ask him all the questions I deem useful. He explains a lot that I didn't know and may come of use in the future.

He and the Huani come from the Toralav Tsardom, a human kingdom specializing in the use of bows and arrows that came with the Luath kingdom more than two centuries ago from the land of Ranatal, a continent far away from Volatia that got destroyed after an event called The Terrible Spilling, caused by the priests who back then used a supposed cursed form of magic that came from a blue comet.

Whatever they did, it resulted in the content of the night sky breaking through the glass ceiling of the world, and the cosmos itself poured into it, killing countless and filling the land with monsters unlike anything seen before. However, this spilling only lasted a few seconds, because the strongest man in all of human history, Galatros of the golden sword, sealed the shattered glass after a few seconds.

The humans were forced to flee Ranatal and the strongest kingdoms sailed far into the unknown, guided by the hero of the golden sword, they arrived in Volatia which was ruled by an evil emperor with an army of monsters and seven dragons. Galatros defeated the seven demons and from their blood poured the demons of sin.

A bloody war was fought for over a hundred years, in which the humans allied with the dwarfs of the mountains and the elves of the giant forests to defeat the evil emperor. And they were winning, but the emperor created Starblood, a liquid capable of creating monsters and changing beings into different things. The elves got a hold of the liquid and shared it with the humans, who in desperation, used it on their slaves to create more and better warriors.

This was the birth of many monsters that regrettably now roam the land of Volatia. From minotaurs to harpies, from werewolves to Huani, and all kinds of mutated wildlife and humans, like gnomes. While the emperor created the orcs, hobgoblins, and goblins, along with many other monsters and creatures of the night.

In his final battle, fought no more than one hundred years ago, Galatros defeated the evil emperor at the cost of his own life, getting tainted by the evil monster's foul magics from his corpse many demons emerged, but these were the demons of virtue, which seeing that humanity had lost their greatest champion, aligned themselves with them, helping them fight off the monsters the emperor had created, as well as fending off the orcs, giants, and elves that turned on the humans when they saw weakness in them.

While I appreciated the history lesson, I cared little for it even if it made for a more interesting topic than economics and politics, which I made him tell me to his best capacity. Turns out Andrei was the son of a courtier for the merchants of the Tsardom, so he could read and write and knew a lot before he was taken as a captive in a raid led by bandits, who then sold him to slavers.

My decision to allow them to come with us paid off. I learned the proper value of coins, what goods both kingdoms were known for trading, the name of some important families from both kingdoms, as well as a little bit of extra information on the dwarfs who inhabit the mountain range surrounding the human lands and the way many miscellaneous systems worked, like the courtiers and laws.

Only a few of the information he had given me had real value, but now I knew that if I ever needed it, accessing all of what he had shared was one trance away. We made camp once the moon shined above us telling us it was midnight, and we were close enough to the border to reach it at sunrise, the perfect moment to sneak past the guards.

At the end of the day, I was content.