Makur arrived later that night with Orokur on the same horse. He had been badly injured, but not as bad as Orokur, he just seemed worse because he couldn't even move. It had been prolonged blood loss that left him in that state.

Orokur pushed through his own wounds and commanded us to help him lift a pile of rocks, that revealed beneath a trap door that when opened, showed us a large number of items safely stored within.

From weapons and armor of greater quality than anything they ever had in the camp, to much-needed medicine and cooking utensils. But before Makur could be treated, his wounds had to be washed and to my surprise, it was Maeld who seemed to return to reality and grabbed a small ornate cauldron and rushed outside to fill it with water.

Of course, she must have been the one to tend to his wounds long before I joined the warband. But when she began cleaning his wounds I saw something that, stir something within. It twisted it, all while the demon of no name whispered in my ear terrible words and dark promises.

Maeld looked unsure as she crossed eyes with Makur, who lifted a shaking hand and tenderly held her face. I could see a thousand thoughts running through her mind, confusion, and uncertainty about what she felt, and what she wanted.

As he let her go and she focused again on cleaning his wounds we looked at each other. I felt my heart crushed as she seemed to be sorry, but I knew that what pained me the most was that there was no uncertainty in her eyes. She looked away at once and focused on the task at hand.

I always suspected that the looks, the touches, they surely were all on my mind. I was aware that they did happen, but was it just harmless flirting? Could it have been that even? To a creature like me...but it didn't matter, not now.

Once his wounds were no longer dirty, Orokur approached holding a hot dagger that he let rest all the time we had been cleaning him inside the campfire. He looked at Makur as if waiting for permission.

"Just fucking do it"

Makur said between gritted teeth, and Orokur pressed the hot dagger on one of the many cuts on his body. His entire body tensed, and his neck exploded with veins as he did his best to silence a scream, but it was far from over, and a few other weapons were already inside the campfire, awaiting their turn to be used.

It was a long night, eventually filled with Makur's screams of pain as the hot steel burned its flesh but closed its most deadly wounds. Only after the deepest cuts had been treated could I begin using the potent medicine inside the trap door and as Orokur pressed the steel against the wounds, Maeld held Makur's head in her arms trying to provide some comfort while I applied the ointment on the already sealed cuts.

When everything was done I moved to Orokur's side and wasted no time in repeating the steps he had done, after all, he was almost as injured as Makur.

I was tired and wanted to sleep once both orcs had healed. They slept immediately and I decided to take a moment to step outside the tower, glancing at Dubby who someone had slept all this time, and at Fogosh's shoddy tent, he didn't bother to leave it once when the orcs arrived.

The rain had calmed, and now only stray drops fell from the dark skies. I could hear the crickets, a sign of spring, and the still-freezing wind was nowhere as unforgiving as it had been a few hours prior.

A lot had happened. The revelation that Fogosh gave me, even if I had no way to know if he was saying the truth I also had little to no knowledge of this world, and to me, everything was possible.

"Ush-Rokan?" Maeld spoke from behind me.

I turned around and she stood in the doorway, leaning against one of its sides, hugging herself as the warmth of the campfire no longer shielded her from the wind. I didn't respond and turned my back on her, the feelings inside me were too many to number but there was one above them all.

Guilt. I knew I only latched on to her because she reminded me of Ismeina, and I wondered if she looked completely different, would I have worried so much for her?

We remained in silence for a while, only listening to the sound of nature, the wind, and the distant thunder.

"Don't ignore me, please" Maeld whispered, her voice brittle as she walks out and collapses on the wet grass, resting her body on the wall right next to the doorway "I don't know how to feel...I'm scared of going back. I don't want to live in the streets anymore, the things you have to do to survive, I've been through them all...I just can't go back"

I turned around once more, this time approaching her and extending my arm, meaning to give her some comfort, when the night is still full of surprises, and she embraces me in a warm hug catching me completely off guard.

"I feel safe with you Rokan. I know that you wonder why I didn't leave, and I do that too but the truth is...I never felt so safe anywhere as I do here, with you"

"But, Makur...I thought-"

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"He is the strongest Rokan, and he wants me, I can't simply ignore his advances or intentions, if I do he could grow bored and dispose of me" she speaks fast, and desperately "I need you to trust me, please"

I don't understand anything anymore. Fogosh was a human? Maeld prefers me over Makur? I feel something off, there is a gut feeling that I should move away, but the demon screams to me, it encourages me in a savage way as the scent, the warmth, the softness of her breasts, everything about her awakens the most primal instincts within me.

She lets go of me, but not completely, instead she does something I never once imagined would happen, she leans in and kisses me. Tenderly, but knowingly, with abundant experience, she sucks and bites and pulls and tugs and I melt away, my thoughts and my doubts.

After what seems like an eternity she lets go.

"Do you trust me?" she whispers and I simply nod my head "Thank you, sleep well, Rokan" Once again, I simply nod.

Maeld smiles warmly, and stands up, going back inside the tower and leaving me speechless. The demon laughs maniacally in my ears for a bit before going silent. And once again I'm left alone, my only company the sounds of the insects.

I thought finding sleep would be difficult, but my still hurt body demanded rest, so I fell asleep as soon as my eyes closed. Hoping for a bright tomorrow.

Fogosh's knowledge of Makur was terrifying, the very next morning he could stand up on his own and thank me personally, especially for not running away as the other goblins did, he didn't find any of their corpses in the camp and told me he was indebted to me, otherwise, they would have likely taken the woman from him.

He also told us what happened after we left. The knight was too hurt by his strikes and the woman fought with her fists. So he retreated with the priestess, but when he thought the fight would go on the other two simply ignored him and chased after the humans.

Makur searched for his last potion of healing, he had one more after using one to save me from certain death, but he suspects one of the goblins must have taken it from his tent, because it was nowhere to be found.

When he was done explaining I asked him to train me to forget his debt, to be honest, a part of me already wanted to ask him that, after noticing just how different was my skill compared to that of the knight let alone him. He laughed and told me he would do it with pleasure, and that he would still be indebted to me.

For a few days, we rested, waiting for Makur's and Orokur's injuries to heal properly, surviving thanks to the food the only cart that made it with us carried. When I told them I could take the horse and try to find the carts we had to leave behind with Fogosh Makur refused.

Explaining to me how now that winter was over, the many tribes, roaming clans, and nomads would be pouring in from the plains from the East, and that this far away from the human lands it wasn't uncommon for gnolls to hide.

It was best to ignore the carts completely while he healed, and only risk searching for them once he could fight. So the following days were simple, Makur rested on the doorway as he guided me on how to properly fight.

I had avoided entering my trance for this moment, I wanted him to tell me everything and teach me as much as possible before I did. He advised me to focus on using two weapons at the same time, as well as learning how to use a bow and arrow.

The spear was a great tactical choice with my size, but too unwieldy to possess in tight melees, and its large handle could be cut, like when I fought Fogosh or broken like it happened when I killed the mounted guard. Instead, he told me to focus on the hatchets I was already familiar with.

From the trap door, he gave me a pair of war picks. Telling me the pointy end could easily penetrate chainmail and do decent damage to a plate armor so long as I became strong enough, while the more hammer-like end could be used to make my enemies unconscious instead of killing them.

He used a much more ornate and intimidating axe from the same trap door to cut the war picks in half, so I could wield them more easily as well as carry both on my back with ease. With my new weapons ready I followed his instructions to the letter and trained my hardest.

I also spend time with Fogosh, who shared with me his knowledge of the goblins, answering my questions in detail, and the more he did, the more I started to believe his claim of once being a human.

He explained that goblins learned through visualizing the best, hearing like any other creature, but reading was the hardest way to teach a goblin something new. I tried to make him explain what the trance was, but he didn't understand what I meant.

If he truly was a human-made into a goblin then it's still not the same as being reborn as one, so that didn't prove he was lying. He also explained that while goblins were weak by nature, there was a myth that they were cowardly.

He reaffirmed what I had concluded before, that goblins get a tremendous push to their physical and mental attributes when they survive a fight that could have killed them. But that if they simply survived long enough their intelligence would increase with time until they no longer thought like beast children, and could reason and speak like us.

I let my guard down and we began exchanging information, he seemed particularly interested in my skills with plants so I taught him the basics to the best of my ability.

Dubby and I kept training as well, I was starting to notice the increment in his intelligence and strength as Fogosh had said. But also how he became increasingly attached to me, constantly following me around and following my orders unquestionably, he even began trying to stand straight like me and Fogosh.

It was after witnessing this that Fogosh mentioned something else about goblins.

Obsession.

When goblins grow old enough, find something incredible, or just by random luck, they develop an obsession with something. This can be anything, from thoughts and emotions to more material things like a weapon, a color, or an object.

And Dubby was obsessed with me. Trying to imitate the way I spoke, making his voice hilariously graver, and the way I behaved, crossing his arms when he stood still or trying unsuccessfully to speak in few words.

I asked Fogosh if he had an obsession and he laughed, saying it was mirrors. All the while I wondered when the day came, what would become my obsession.

Spring came in full force as the brown dirt soon became green with grass, the trees exploded with verdant leaves, and the woodland creatures came out of hiding as game was roaming around once again. That was the reason Makur had left in the morning on the day of the attack.

Fogosh told him he had seen deer in his daily look around the camp, and Makur wished to give his men meat that wasn't frozen or dry. He looked a little saddened at the thought, thinking things maybe could have played out differently if he had stayed.

And on the night of the sixth day, he let me Fogosh know what would we do the following day, to look for a goblin lair and make them join us.