Ritzy didn’t notice it at first, but after he confirmed that the skeletons didn’t have any intentions of escaping or exploding, he couldn’t look away.
The two skeletons he had summoned looked to be two perfectly ordinary skeletons at first glance. But there was something clearly wrong with both of them.
“Rit? Did something get mixed up in the summoning process or something?”
One of the skeletons had hands for feet, and the other had feet for hands. The two skeletons would have been complete with a simple exchange of limbs. Though, Ritzy had a feeling things wouldn’t be that simple, even if he was skilled enough to modify the summons.
“No idea.”
Ritzy was slightly apprehensive as he looked at the skeletons. The flickering, greyish-blue spirit lights in their eyes met his gaze for a few moments before the skeletons turned to look at each other. Then, after exchanging a nod, the skeletons moved.
They walked toward Ritzy. Since they didn’t emit any hostility, Ritzy didn’t do anything. He wanted to see what they would do. And when they walked past him to Gerhart, who stood in front of Talia, Ritzy’s expression froze.
He stiffly turned to see the two skeletons kneeling in front of Gerhart as if bowing to their liege.
“Hey! I am the one who summoned you!”
Ritzy shouted at the skeletons, which prompted them to look at each other again. The one with feet scratched his skull and shrugged. Then the two skeletons looked at Gerhart, who, at a loss for words, only shook his head to indicate that he wasn’t it.
Both skeletons shrugged, got up, and walked to stand in front of Ritzy. Ritzy waited for them to kneel as they had before Gerhart. But it seemed like neither of them had any intentions of doing it.
Eventually, Ritzy got tired of waiting and pointed at the ground.
The skeletons seemed to understand what Ritzy wanted. They obeyed. As quick summons, that was their fate, even if there weren’t any contracts binding them. But, despite not making a sound other than the rattling of their bones clacking against one another, the skeletons made it look like the most burdensome thing a skeleton could possibly do.
“Fine! You don’t have to kneel before me if you don’t want to!”
Ritzy, exasperated at the skeletons’ lacking loyalty, gave.
“It’s not like I care or anything. You’re not going to do my bidding while on your knees, anyway.”
Even though he said that, it was obvious from the pout on Ritzy’s face that he did care.
Ritzy looked at Gerhart.
“Should one of us stay here with Talia?”
Gerhart looked at Talia, eyes full of worry.
“If we bring her with us, we can feed her a potion as soon as we clear the village. But we need to protect her while fighting against the goblins, so it will be that much more difficult.”
Ritzy thought for a few moments before looking at his summons.
“How good are you two at fighting?”
The skeletons weren’t advanced enough to talk, but they could understand Ritzy’s words. The one with hands raised an arm and held a hand horizontally before wiggling it a little to gesture that they were so-so.
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“I say we bring her close to the village. I’ll watch her while you and… Hotes and Fotes kill all the goblins.”
“Hotes and Fotes.”
“Yeah.”
Ritzy nodded and pointed at the skeleton with hands.
“Hotes.”
Then at the skeleton with feet.
“And Fotes.”
“Alright, whatever. Let’s go. We shouldn’t waste any more time.”
Gerhart picked up Talia in his arms. It would prevent him from using his knife, but he only needed to carry her close to the village. After that, Ritzy would look over her.
“Lead the way, Hotes, Fotes!”
Ritzy struck a heroic pose and pointed toward the village. Unlike Ritzy’s last order, the skeletons didn’t dally. They nodded, saluted, and started toward the houses and wooden fence visible in the distance.
Gerhart and Ritzy followed behind them, both slightly surprised at the ease with which the two skeletons moved, especially Fotes.
“I wonder why there’s a fence when there’s nothing else around.”
“Doesn’t matter, Ritzy. Now, stay here, lay low, and if a goblin comes, scream. Ok?”
Gerhart instructed Ritzy as he put Talia on the grassy ground a short walk away from the goblin village. It was so close they could see a couple of goblins mindlessly milling about inside the village, but it wasn’t so close that a goblin would catch sight of and target Ritzy and Talia instead of Gerhart and the skeletons. Hopefully, it would also be close enough for Gerhart to return with the health potions after clearing the village before Talia succumbed to her injuries.
Gerhart gulped, gritted his teeth, and chased after Ritzy’s skeletons, his knife at the ready. He brought his bow with him as there might be arrows in the village. He had no way of knowing if there were or weren’t any arrows. But if the goblins were crafty and dexterous enough to build houses and set up a fence that could provide some support, he was willing to bet they were more than smart enough to make arrows.
The skeletons didn’t have any hesitation as they charged straight into the village through the conveniently placed opening in the fence and the road from it leading straight to the center of the village.
Gerhart wasn’t as bold.
He hesitated as he stepped over the border between the grassy plains and the goblin village.
Gerhart was a ranger apprentice, and he was now an official Ranger, even if only a novice one. But he had at most killed a few smaller animals in the forest.
Lenny had stopped him from partaking in any of the greater hunts, and he had been forced to rely on his own traps mostly to get his hands on rabbits and mice. He had killed those without much trouble, even if they were innocent.
And now he was up against goblins, monsters. They wouldn’t even hesitate for a second before attacking him. At least, that’s what everyone knew about monsters. But killing rabbits to get money and food, and slaughtering humanoids in cold blood were different things.
Gerhart gripped his knife tight enough to make his knuckles whiten as he tried to get rid of the hesitation.
The skeletons didn’t look like they were having much trouble as they stormed through the village, one of them practically climbing atop the goblins before crushing their skulls or poking their eyes out with its four hands.
But Gerhart couldn’t let himself stand still and watch.
Talia’s life was on the line. Gerhart gritted his teeth even harder and forced himself to take another step forward while surveying his surroundings.
Even if the goblins were humanoid and looked like ugly green children, he wouldn’t let himself be swayed. If it was for Talia’s sake, he could do it.
He briefly thought about how Ritzy had ruthlessly set the town on fire and shivered. He couldn’t understand how Ritzy had done it when there were kids, parents, merchants, ordinary people who were just living their lives, and almost everyone Gerhart and the others had grown up knowing.
Talia was right in that their childhood had been horrible. But there were also kind people, people who had given them warm bread when it was cold out and the director was gone for a few days, people who had let them listen in during the public storytelling nights. Ritzy, especially, loved those times, even more so when it was about the Dark One.
So, Gerhart couldn’t understand how Ritzy had so easily burned the town down. And he had made so many preparations that the town caught fire like hair thrown into a brazier. Gerhart doubted many of the townspeople had survived.
But even if he didn’t understand, Gerhart wished he had some of that ruthlessness, even if just enough to be able to save Talia without hesitating like a wimp.
Eventually, Gerhart couldn’t stay still anymore as one of the goblins not chasing after the skeletons came at him with a snarl.