Thariel gave the Kobold tribe a somber look. How come she never got to pet more than one of them?

Trivok had yapped on about how she needed to feel the magic of the world throughout the rest of their conversation and seeing that that wouldn't go anywhere, Thariel simply guided the shaman back to his abode before silently leaving.

And now she was here. She didn't even bother to go and tell the chieftain and his family goodbye.

To say that she made friends around here was an overstatement. She made acquaintances, not friends.

And maybe she'll come back here to help them out with their Satyr problem but even then, Thariel considers it more as a gesture of thanks than anything intimate.

She was just being a good samaritan, and the Kobolds here were being good hosts. That was it.

Thariel turned away and faced the forest.

A quarter of thenight had gone by while she talked with the furballs living next to that river. She's burnt how many hours since then? 2? 3-ish? Maybe more?

It wasn't a lot but with only a few hours of travel time left, Thariel hoped that the distance for Amori Falls wasn't long otherwise daylight would catch up to her.

The good news is that by the time she gets there, the nightly winter would have already ended and she'd only deal with the day time mist so there's that for silver linings.

It's really worth noting that at this point in time, Amori Falls was cold. Like blizzard levels of cold. It was preferable that she gets there during the morning hours.

According to Trivok, the mist that the cold waterfall and the searing lake beneath it creates whenever they make contact during the day freezes and turns to snow during the night.

That snow then turns into permafrost as the temperature drops even lower.

By now, Amori Falls should be a hellscape of ice.

Come morning, the lake and waterfall would start to produce heated mist once more, it'll envelop the land and eventually cause the ice to melt back into liquid.

It was a nifty little environmental cycle inside a closed off area, essentially turning Amori Falls and its surroundings into a world of its own.

Add the creatures specifically adapted to living in such an environment and stepping into it would be like entering a completely alien world.

... With a river bed of sapphires serving as fuel for its self-contained cycle.

Thariel naturally intends to take some of those sapphires for herself. It wouldn't be a lot, just enough that she could start experimenting with the gem's cooling properties to make an item which can permanently stave off the sun when worn.

Besides the sapphires, she's not going to touch anything else.

The Necklace of Ail would be good to have yes, but should the Ytallotiks come, Amori Falls would be easily taken over.

She didn't want to ruin a natural wonder because of her own greed. That's what capitalists do, and look how her world turned out in the end.

There's also the manner of the hot spring.

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Taking a brief break to skinny dip into that isn't a bad idea.

Actually, she decided that it was a great idea.

Thariel actually moved across the forest much quicker than before at the prospect of possibly turning this entire thing as a sauna trip. She passed through the undergrowth in record speed, intending to reach Amori Falls as soon as possible.

With her pace, it didn't take her long to encounter something.

It wasn't the waterfall she wanted to find but it was definitely something.

In front of her is a group of bald headed humanoids as tall as a child with long and pointy noses, rough skin, and sharp claws.

They wore nothing but loincloths on their groins and carried an assortment of primitive weapons such as wooden clubs and blades made from sharpened bone.

Goblins.

There is a single hob amongst the group of 8 regular ones.

Thariel jogged her memory about what her mother told her when it comes to the greenskins's behavioral patterns, and based off of that she was able to conclude that the group before her isn't a hunting party.

At least not in the strictest sense, they were out here in search for animals still but they didn't want them as food but as pets and mounts.

The 3 darker-skinned goblins with tiny bumps protruding from their heads were also hybrids, they looked healthier than their greener counterparts. Talk about favoritism on the Satyr's end.

But if the hybrids were healthy, then the hob was a mound of fat and muscle.

The massive greenskin - it wasn't a hybrid strangely enough, - stood around 8 feet tall and carried a thick wooden club the size of her legs and twice the height of a regular goblin like it weighed nothing.

Thariel assumed that the group before her consisted of the entire party. Goblin scouts were known to be expandable so the one who found this party's quarry must have already died.

But just in case, she decided to follow them and wait.

She would have preferred to go on her way but these guys were heading in the same direction as her so there's a chance they might encounter each other again and maybe in that time the cards wouldn't be in her favor.

The greenskins continued down the path they were heading and after following them for a bit, Thariel got a glimpse of the tracks they were following.

A Timber Drake- wait seriously?

The Satyr leading them is one ambitious bastard if he thinks that a single hob and 8 goblins are enough to take a pseudo-dragon down.

After tailing them some more, Thariel caught something else doing the same the same thing. It couldn't have been a feline predator otherwise they would have leapt from the shadows and begin killing the goblins post haste.

A series of long winded observations led her to realize that it was another goblin, most likely the group's scout.

Why was it hiding? It seemed to be pretty good at its job too. Way too good. Almost as if it didn't want the group it was tailing to discover its presence.

Thariel put the pieces in her head together and got a not-so-pretty picture of the situation: the hunting party is tracking a Timber Drake and are clearly going to fight it.

The problem is, they wouldn't survive something like that. Let alone emerge victorious by actually killing the drake.

Thariel considered them stupid at first but that was before she saw they had another goblin discreetly stalking them.

The scout was hiding their presence from the group so it didn't intend to be discovered even though they were all goblins which can only mean one thing.

The group is a sacrifice and the scout is there to take something from the drake while it was distracted.

And there is really only one answer as to what that "something" is.

An egg. The goblins were going to take a drake's egg.

So the Satyr wasn't as stupidly ambitious as Thariel first thought it was...

She decided to follow these guys in the first place since they were moving towards the Silken Crown's direction but she may have discovered something big here.

These guys cannot get an egg.

Thariel tailed behind the group, waiting for the perfect chance to strike. In her mind, the opportunity comes when the goblins start fighting the drake and the scout runs for the eggs.

She'd intercept the latter while the pseudo-dragon massacres the hob and its party.

Thariel knew that what she has been waiting for is close when she saw the goblins begin to chitter excitedly.

Thariel ducked lower into the bushes when something big moved with weight in front of the greenskins.

In response to this, the greenskins charged as though they were personally convinced they would win this fight. Idiots. All of them.

The first to run forward had been a single goblin before it was tossed back into the group as nothing more than a head.

Then the Timber Drake roared.

This didn't deter the greenskins and the hob stomped forward with a roar of its own. Club in hand and a vicious grin plastered on its face.

When Thariel heard that the massacre was now underway, she stepped out of the underbrush and circled around the greenskins and the pseudo-dragon.

She briefly caught a glimpse of the Timber Drake and as she thought, the dragonoid looked slim and her bark-like scales had a smoother texture than what would be normally found on male Timber Drakes.

It didn't take Thariel long to find the drake's nest.

She waited for the scout along the nest's periphery.

Her brows rose in warning when she saw the Goblin she has been waiting for step out of its hiding place.

Strange as this may sound but goblins were normally primitive creatures technology wise.

Shocking right?

But you know what's even more shocking? When a goblin is seen with items that should be far beyond the scope of their normal technological scale.

The armor that the goblin scout is wearing wasn't proper chainmail but Thariel would be stupid if she didn't say that it was at least close to that.

It wore a layer of bone shards weaved together with linen and fiber on its chest.

Beneath it is what Thariel could only assume as leather armor. Which isn't strange to see in some goblins, especially those led by more competent leader castes.

What really set Thariel's alarm bells however was the damn thing's weapon.

Raw iron wasn't ideal to be used when making a blade but discounting the fact that these goblins now knew how to forge metal, the scout's sword also sported a ruby crystal embedded next to its hilt.

An enchanted weapon, however primitive, was problematic when wielded by a creature who had the same elemental attribute as that of their enchanted weapon.

This is what makes Liches and their stupid Amulets of Death so hard to deal with.

On that note, demons are immune to fire and the goblin before her seemed to have more demon blood in its veins than the three hybrids she saw on the hob's party.

Did she forget to mention that ruby crystals had the fire attribute?