The goblin spoke fairly decent Western. But he spoke with a heavy accent, which was sometimes hard to understand. But for the most part, that wasn’t an issue.

The issue was that he kept drooling at me. So, I didn’t feel even remotely safe in here. Sure, it was better than the shitstorm above but I didn’t want to deal with it long-term. I could go without sleep for a day. But what about the next day?

“How far does the tunnel go?” I asked.

“Not far enough,” he said.

He was sharpening a branch. I hope he wasn’t going to attack me with it. It was going to be really sad if we started killing each other.

“What about the sea? Does it lead to the sea?”

“Friendo, the sea is suicide. I don’t know what lies you know, but Sirens are bad.”

“They taste bad, I get it. But maybe I could-”

“You can’t Friendo. I’ve seen them. I’ve seen how they tear through flesh and then eat…” he sighed. He didn’t drool for once. “I have lost countless of my brethren.”

“You said you were the only one left. If it’s not too much, can you tell me what happened? Why are you here?”

“We ran from society. Society wanted us dead. ‘No more goblins’ they said. Meteors fell on us, floods, earthquakes… they killed everyone. Some of us escaped here- where no one would come kill us. We thought forest, good. But we were wrong… this forest…worse….” he sighed.

“I know you don’t recommend me trying to escape. But I have to. And toward that end, I need your help. I’m not asking you to come with me or help me in those ways. I just need information. You’ve been here for a while, right? So tell me, what would be the least dangerous path, at least far enough. I’ll start using my magic as a shield. I could make a barrier of water around me; it should be enough to block most of the floating drugs. But I don’t know what the rest of the forest has in store for me. It would really help if you could help.”

He let go of the sharpened stick and started thinking. As he thought the veins on his temple wiggled, almost like there was something within them… “Alright Friendo. But first we need food,” he said.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

He grabbed the stick and for a moment I thought he was going to impale me with it. But instead, he just handed it to me.

“I already have weapons,” I said, motioning at my knives.

“Spear better.”

Fair enough. I took it. He pulled out a different spear from the corner, a bit longer and a bit more worn.

And then- we walked out.

After a brief walk, he punched one of the eyes on a round door-like structure. It squeaked and then opened, leading to another passage. This one looked a bit older.

“We…” he paused for a while. “We will try first. If it works, we will keep going and then come back and restock,” he said. “Alright Friendo?”

“If it doesn’t work?”

“Then we die.”

“Wait… die? Then wh-why would you risk that…. For me.”

“No Friendo… for my comrades. I’m the last one. I swore to live. I’m going to live my way.”

I didn’t know why but I kept getting goosebumps.

We walked for what felt like hours. My heart pumped hard and I was kind of famished but… but I didn’t complain. Now was not the time to complain. I had to keep walking and keep walking, I did.

“Where are we going?”

“We should be able to cross half of the forest,” he said. “We carved this tunnel the most in the hopes of leaving.”

Made sense.

If they couldn’t travel above, they could always just keep going digging the tunnel and eventually get out.

“So, it was abandoned when-” I shut up.

I knew the answer yet I spoke something so fucking stupid.

“Yes. When they all died.”

After a while we reached the very end. “Alright Friendo. If it don’t work, quickly run here and we run as fast as we can!”

“Okay!”

So apparently, he said all that shit but he wasn’t going to come out himself. Just me. Didn’t bother me though. This was what I wanted.

According to this goblin, the things in this forest affected warm blooded creatures like an aphrodisiac. And if you spent a considerable amount of time in there, you were bound to slowly morph into one of those things.

Since it was my very time, the effects didn’t hit me as hard. Goribo said it only hits you hard the second time. As though the forest was assuring you that you could handle the increased heat in your loins the first time.

In a split second I jumped up and noticed a stark difference in my field of view.

The forest went from murky colors to very colorful in a matter of seconds as my nose flared and my breath fastened. So, it’s not just an aphrodisiac. I was clearly getting high and seeing colors.

I produced water and used wind simultaneously to make it like a sort of umbrella and test. Much of the dust just got wiped by the water. And the wind kept the rest at bay. My condition didn’t change. But I had a feeling it was eventually going to get worse.

This is fine but what will I do if I encounter a monster or the giant bugs? I could see but it was like looking through a very wet window in the middle of a rainstorm.

I waited a couple of minutes to test if I could go on like this and tried walking around the spot. I could walk just fine. And I didn’t get worse. For some reason, the bugs or the moving vines didn’t try to get me either.

A couple of minutes turned to an hour and then I came down to the tunnel. “Works, somewhat.”

“Nice Friendo!” He seemed excited, I guess.