Marie thrust out her left hand to stop a dew-laden branch that was intent on whipping back in to her face, and then stepped past the tree letting it go towards Kyl behind her. A grumble echoed from his direction but Marie ignored it as she followed in the path of Gin in front of her as he pushed his way down a narrow game trail in the woods.

“Would it kill the two of you to be a little more careful? If I didn’t have my helm on I’d have a mouthful of leaves to munch on already, and it’s not time for lunch yet. Nor am I a vegetarian!”

“Keep quiet, ya whiner. I don’t know how many times you have let me get a face-full of slime or dirty ditch water, Kyl! This time I know the way better, so I get to be in the lead. Woe unto you having to bring up the rear, I guess.” Gin’s deep voice responded, a note of righteous humor infusing it.

Marie kept her eyes roving, moving around the sides of the trail as they pushed on, her hands back to resting on the straps of her pack. Gin was in front, armed in a coat of lamellar and carrying a kite shield and spear combination. Kyl was bringing up the rear with a two-handed battleaxe and a large pack filled with camping gear. They were really making an expedition of it.

“Not to be one of those people, but how long until we reach the goblin’s territory? I am anxious to try out fighting them for the first time. Up until now all of my combat experience has been in the dojo with other humans, and definitely not a life-or-death thing.” Marie’s sweet but slightly hoarse voice rang out, she was still adjusting to a world full of new pollens.

“The Bloodfist Tribe is only a few hours from the Inn, but they are semi-nomadic within their territory so it can vary. Hence, why we brought all the camping gear. It’s best to get there and set up camp and then try to find a small group of them to take on. Individually they are not a match for us, but we don’t want to try to take on a large group or assault their camp.” Kyl’s voice had the tenor and cadence of someone who had given this speech more than a few times before.

“Is this the usual spot you bring newbies?”

“Pretty much. The goblins can be a decent challenge for someone new to adventuring but Kyl and I can jump in easily to save whoever we are escorting. It wouldn’t do our rep any good if the people who hired us routinely ended up dead, now would it?” Gin laughed a little as he jumped over a down log that crossed over the path, and it was infectious as Marie and Kyl joined in.

They pressed on through the woods for another hour until the woods started to thin out a little, and the countryside started to sprout a few hills here and there. They waded through a shallow creek and Gin lead them to a dugout carved into the side of one of the hills. They carefully ditched their packs, and camping supplies, in to the dugout and then ate a quick meal of dried meat and bread they brought from the Inn before heading out to hunt down a few goblins.

Marie made sure that her shortsword and dagger both smoothly slid out of their sheathes before replacing them. They were both made of highly developed steel alloys, the best you could buy on Earth, and were supposed to allow her to have an edge over most weapons on this side of the Portal. There were magic items, such as swords, here but they could not be brought back to Earth for study. The general tech level here, outside of magic, was low middle ages for civilized populations, and whatever they could find for everyone else.

In any case, these goblins were unlikely to be using magic weapons, so she should theoretically have an edge in equipment. Hopefully that, plus her training, should allow her to take on these monsters that were professional killers. Gin had explained on the trek over that the goblins were renowned headhunters and liked to take trophies from the adventurers who stumbled unknowingly in to their territory.

They checked a few places the duo knew the Bloodfist Tribe liked to hunt and gather but didn’t find any of them. They were moving along a path between some of these areas when suddenly Kyl grabbed Marie by the arm and yanked her down to the ground. Gin hit the ground as well, and they all lay their a moment, silently, until Kyl whispered in Marie’s ear.

“There is a patrol of three coming down the trail. We need to move off the trail, into some brush, and then we can set an ambush. Try to not make any noise as we are moving. Now…go!”

Geez, this got real serious real fast. I need to get my head in the game, and screwed on straight. I didn’t come all this way, and go through all that just to be somebody else’s lunch.

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The three of them snake-crawled away from the trail, and behind some fallen logs about 10 feet away. They lay there, breathing slowly, and when Marie wanted to stick her head up to check on the goblins Gin held her down.

“Don’t even try to check them out until we hear them move past. It’s weird how easy it is to notice that kind of small movement from a distance. Once they move on by we can look at them from the rear, and then rush them real quick if it seems like a winnable fight,’ Gin whispered hoarsely.

A short time later they heard some creatures moving down the path, they were quiet but not obviously sneaking just being naturally light-footed. Once they heard the steps pass them, three heads popped up above the logs and took a look at the goblins. Marie had of course seen pictures of them, and even some footage that had been released on the Net, but it was completely different to see them with her own eyes.

From the back she could see that they stood about three feet tall, and they were wearing armor that had been stitched together out of leather and hides. All three of them were carrying long (for them) spears that were about five feet in total, and they were moving steadily down the path.

Gin indicated with some hand motions that they were going to charge them from the back. Marie nodded in acknowledgement as she filled her hands with her dagger and shortsword. Gin and Kyl scrambled over the logs quickly, leaving Marie a little shocked and falling behind. Gin left his shield leaning against the logs, and charged towards the back of one of the goblins with his spear held in both hands.

Kyl had his battleaxe raised over his head as he scrambled for his target, and Marie started to race towards the one left untargeted in the middle. With a mighty thrust, Gin pushed his spear completely through his goblin, and then he grunted heavily as he dragged it back out pulling some gore with it. Kyl brought his axe down with a lightning strike to the side of the neck of his target, a goblin who was just turning with shock to see what had befallen its companion. The axe tore through muscle, flesh and blood and left the head attached to the remains of the neck by only the stringiest of skin.

The pair of adventurers politely withdrew to either side of the path as Marie charged up on the last remaining goblin. The element of surprise had already been forfeited, so the goblin spun on its heels and thrust its spear out as Marie charged up. She thrust out her dagger in her left hand, subtly moving the spear to the side as it thrust towards her, and then hacked at the goblin’s arm with her shortsword.

Marie was shocked as her sword bounced off the goblin’s leather armor without doing much damage. The goblin quickly pulled its spear back and started stabbing out with serpent-like strikes, all the while screaming its warcry. Marie focused on parrying and dodging the spear strikes, looking for an opening to attack.

“This isn’t training anymore, Marie! You have to put some muscle behind your strikes! That armor he is wearing will stand up to quite a lot of force.” Kyl mimed striking hard with his battleaxe as he yelled advice to her.

The goblin thrust towards one of Marie’s feet, but she just lifted it up and then stepped on the spear trapping it against the ground for a moment. Her other foot swept the goblin’s forward leg, forcing the small monster to fall over on to the ground. The young woman quickly mounted the goblin’s chest, using her greater body weight to prevent the goblin for sitting up.

The goblin had to release the shaft of the now-too-long spear after she started smashing its head with the pommel of her sword. After a particularly stunning bash she drew the dagger across the major artery in the throat and the goblin quickly bled out. The green-skinned body quickly became a cooling corpse, and Marie stood upon on shaking legs.

That is the first time I have killed. The whole of my life up until this point will now be on the other side of the line from this. Before I was a killer, and after, will be the defining periods of my life. I wanted to live a different life than the one that had been set out for me, but I could not have anticipated that I would feel this much conflict over it. Yeah, that was a goblin, and he would have cut off my head to decorate his hut if he could have but he was a sentient creature, and now he’s dead because of me. That’s a lot heavier than I thought it would be.

Kyl walked over to Marie and punched her lightly on the shoulder, drawing her attention. She noticed as she turned to look at him that her hands were shaking, and she felt sickly as if she would lose her lunch imminently.

“Heya Killer, don’t worry about it. It’s tough for everyone the first time, not much like this where we are from, is there? It takes getting used to, and then after a while it’s a thing that you don’t even notice anymore. Ask Gin, and I am sure he will agree, all we are feeling right now is satisfaction at a job well done, and relief that we get to walk away without any losses.” Kyl turned to look at Gin, as if asking him to chime in and the tall man nodded his shaved head, Fu Manchu flailing in the breeze.

Marie plastered a smile on her face that she was intimately familiar with, it was the one she had painted on for so many experiences in her life. It was a smile that she had hoped would never make its debut on this side of the Portal but here it was. She wiped off her dagger on the grass, and then sheathed both of her weapons after checking them over.

“Let’s go back to camp, I think I need to take a break after all this. Is that okay?”

“Sure, Marie, you are the boss. Let’s go back and get some real food in us, and take a break and then we can decide on our course after that. Sounds good to me.” Gin started to lead them back to the dugout, and the three trudged along in silence.

The adventurer duo started a fire and started boiling the makings of stew. Marie stared in to the fire, her mind a million miles away.