For the next week things seemed, much different.

It was like the guilt and doubt in my mind had been suddenly lifted, I was no longer troubled by shapeless nightmares and while I missed Ismeina's voice, a part of me was thankful for no longer hearing the reminder of the past.

I was starting to feel like something could be done here, something more than I expected before among monsters.

Makur send an orc to gather more goblins to replace what was lost, and he congratulated me on both surviving the fight and helping Fogosh finish it. I was expecting Fogosh to belittle me or somehow try to make me look bad in the eyes of Makur but it seemed he had spoken well of me.

But it seemed our relationship was still sour, his eyes followed me with suspicious irritation whenever they saw me, yet he never tried to attack me and left me alone, I wondered if there was more to the goblin than I had thought before.

And while I too, still held a grudge against him for almost killing me, I suppose I too was to blame for the same crime.

"Ushkur!" Dubby shouted from outside my tent, early in the morning as I had ordered "I came back! We train today!" he sounded exhausted.

I was already awake but simply wanted to see if he would obey even after staying up all night doing watch duty. I was dressed in more fitting leather armor than I had before. With a steel plate protecting my chest and plates on my shoulders and right forearm, so I could prevent harm from affecting my dominant arm.

Finally, I rest my eyes on the wolf pelt, ever since that day in the forest the demon had remained silent, I still wasn't sure about it but I knew that if a creature like that wanted to follow me, no matter what I said or did it would. In fact, it seemed unwise to anger it.

So I grab the pelt and put it on my shoulders, letting the head of the wolf fall back, like a hood I'm not wearing. And I walk out trying to not hit any of the tools I used last night to continue and try to replicate the medicine Maeld needs and meet Dubby.

As I open the tent I see the morning sun barely rising on the horizon, the snow is now consistently melting and I know it won't be long until spring comes. A part of me worries about that season because I have heard as soon as the snow is no more, we will move and actively raid caravans, and if we gather enough men, another settlement like the night they kidnapped me.

My eyes fall on Dubby, who stands outside with his body pressed against the spear, a proper one, that he holds. He seems about to fall asleep as he tries his best to not close his eyes.

"It's fine, go to sleep," I tell him squeezing his shoulder but this seems to just wake him up more.

"No! I'm awake, Dubby is not a slacker, not weak anymore" he sluggishly says, exhaustion finally getting to him as he trips and almost falls to the ground, but I catch him. He seems panicked by this, and almost pushes me away as he slaps his face "NO! I'm awake, I can follow, I can fight!" He says, looking at the ground as if those words were not meant for me, but for himself.

"I know. You sleep for a few hours, and then we will train" I can already see the but coming, so I take a more stern approach "I order you, to rest Dubby" this seems to do the trick, as he nods defeated and drags his feet way to the tent where the other goblins sleep.

I begin to walk towards Makur's tent, where I had been ordered to come this early last night. Maeld must be sleeping this early in the morning.

The thought of her name brings a smile to my face, as this week we had grown closer than I thought ever possible. I had not noticed or thought about it much but Makur didn't hold her as a slave, she was free to roam the camp as she wanted, only being escorted by a pair of orcs if for whatever reason she wanted to leave.

She came to me at night for companionship and to spend time, as the only one who understood her we shared stories. I thought mine to be bland and uninteresting, most of my time living in the woods and sharing in detail the strange creatures I saw when got closer to the enormous forest that forever remained green.

I refrained from telling her much about my time with Ismeina. But she still listened to whatever I shared and seemed joyful as she spoke to me of most memories she had, but I knew there were things she didn't want to remember let alone share.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

She spoke of her life as an orphan, of long nights in the streets and hard days seeking whatever work she could find, constantly on the move from away from the central cities, which were great and enormous, housing hundreds of thousands of people at a time.

Until she reached the outer part of Luath, or the borders as they are called, where cities are smaller and corrupt, slavery is rampant and the proximity with the grand forests of Volatia meant there were many warbands like these that terrorized the roads and smaller settlements that dared press into the woods.

The closer to the west coast you were, the better and greater things were since that was the spot humans first landed on Volatia long ago. But if you were an orphan like her, and poor, you would be driven out until reaching the outer lands.

As I approach the tent, Makur exits it closing it behind him. In his hand was a bow and on his shoulder was a quiver with arrows.

"Ushkur, just in time. I have an important task to give you" he says, his confident grin on his face as he approaches me. I wonder what he wants "I know you have been spending time with Maeld"

My heart stops for a moment, and an irrational but understandable fear creeps up to me as I know there is no way he knows anything about the baths or my true feelings involving her. I manage to keep a straight face and he doesn't seem to imply anything with what he just said.

"I realized just recently that you speak her language, and I want you to teach her how to speak ours," He says kneeling in front of me to look me eye to eye "I feared we would not be able to understand each other for a long time, but surely, the spirits put you in my path, and now you will help her understand me"

"Of course" I reply, feeling my tense body relax.

"Good, she is waiting for you inside, make your best effort to teach her right and make it quick" My orders are given so he stands up and walks away, followed closely by a small group of orcs also carrying bows.

I enter the tent calmly, betraying my furious mind as spending time with Maeld always makes my imagination run wild, and I see her with a mirror in hand, inspecting her long hair after being braided similarly to the orcs. She looks at me and smiles warmly, I return the gesture.

"It is a surprise to see you here this, and this early too. Way to mix things up a bit" She lets the mirror down inside a small chest she has and leaves it nearby the bedroll, she walks up to one of the stools and sits "What do I owe the pleasure?" She says in a forced elegant tone that quickly makes her laugh cheerfully.

Not only my mood had grown better this past week, she too seemed less afraid of the orcs and even goblins, I knew she rarely ever left the tent before thanks to the comments orcs made when she started hanging out more, no longer jumping at the sight of any of them and even playfully bothering them.

"Makur wants me to teach you how to speak our tongue, so that you may understand everyone in here and speak to him too" I reply, standing on the stool next to her only to move up to the table, where I sit.

"Oww, but I like you being the only one who can speak with me " she pouts in a childish manner before grinning and reaching for something inside her cleavage, my eyes digging themselves into it almost instinctively until she pulls out the small bag I gave her "I don't have much left, how is the smart stuff going, herb guy?" she asked taking a small envelope and swallowing it whole before returning the bag to its alluring safe.

"With a few more days I should be able to replicate it, but I will need to make several mixtures before I'm sure I know I did it well. I don't want you to take something that could harm you"

"Believe me, there is no way those could injure me. Ever since I don't have to be worried about bearing the orc's children, I feel so much happier" her eyes close slightly as she rests a hand on my cheek, she smells of roses this morning "I believe the silent one heard my plea, and sent you here to help me"

The silent one, or Keeper of Secrets. A demon of virtue, demons who contrary to the majority of their kind, represented positive elements that humans could sympathize with, and while controversial, it seemed their worship could be practiced so long as it was done in secrecy.

And Maeld had told me before that the Keeper of Secrets was the demon worshipped by those going through difficult times. As he heard their pleas and if wanted, could numb their hearts and clean their minds so that they do not suffer much for whatever adversity plagued them. But in return, he would take parts of their memories.

"I still can't believe I was so dumb as to think Makur told me to bathe you the night we first met, hahaha! How was I supposed to know he just wanted me to wash the towels and grab new ones from the tent next to yours?" She laughed even louder than before, it lasted for several seconds as her entire face turned red, she scratched her neck a bit once she calmed down.

"Let's fix that then. I can only teach you how to understand us, not write, I wasn't taught that"

Maeld was truly the opposite of the intellectual and cold Ismeina, the only other human I have interacted with so closely. She was warm and joyful but had trouble concentrating and was prone to almost childish behavior. As well as being terrible at remembering sentences, it seemed it would be a long way ahead to teach her how to speak and understand us.

But time passed quickly as her playful self forced me to stop teaching her altogether, instead preferring to chat some more about our lives. Time with her was the much-needed rest that my heart needed, and I was for once thankful for whatever force gifted me with this moment.

However, it wasn't meant to last.

A few hours passed and then we heard a warning from an orc and we all rushed out of our tents, I told Maeld to stay inside and hide as I went out. It was the orc sent to find more goblins two days ago, he was injured and missed an arm, yet had managed to reach us.

As everyone readied for the fight to come, I rushed to my tent and heard what the orc was warning us about.

"A group of humans! Led by a champion! They are coming here!"

Champion?