I honestly feel kind of bad for Dan, he has a harsh time as it is with this whole ordeal, and if anything happens to me it would be like losing his father twice.
"Don't lose your focus, we've only got a little while longer before it gets dark soon." Rodrick tells me, "Stop looking back, there's nothing there but trees."
"You think he followed us? Dan I mean." I ask, he stops a while and makes a contemplating face while looking at the sky.
“Dan? No, he's a good kid, he won't do that after we've asked him not to. That's what's got your mind all cloudy?" He then continues walking forward deeper towards the woods as we did for the past couple hours.
"Well, what else do I have to think about? We've been walking since sunrise. You've been taking me in circles around this camping trip and thi-" he cuts me off as my voice rises.
"Let's forage for a bit, there might be something good to find here." Changing the subject and looking around. Does he think he can dodge my anger like that?
"Rodrick! We've gone three times the length we needed, where are we going?!"
"shhhh" he puts a finger on his mouth, signaling me to quiet down.
"No! I have hunted rabbits and birds and foraged and scouted ahead and picked mushrooms all from dawn until now, but no more." I furiously yell.
"I am telling you to be quiet because we're close and the goblins might hear us." He whispers to me. We’re close to the goblins? and only now does he tell me?
"Might as well do away with the whispers after that then, how long have we been close to them? All day?"
"... Most of it..." What? Why is that old man carrying me around in circles, tantalizingly close to our objective? He comes near me and puts an arm on my shoulder, guess I am so seethingly angry that it's visually obvious.
"I'm sorry, Fren, but... I was planning on not engaging the goblins today." He says calmly and almost whispers again.
"Why? Why didn't you tell me? why have we been doing noth-"
"I wanted to teach you first. I wanted to teach you how to camp, how to profile your target, all the hunter stuff we need before going after them. Please speak quietly."
I guess I am talking quite loudly, but It’s because I am so angry. There is no reason to delay, I only have so much time before the seal on the village is broken, it could be any day.
I take a deep breath.
"Now, let’s find a clearing, dusk will come soon. I will be more upfront when we have set out beds and made camp."
-----
The beds are set, or at leasts what I’d call a sleeping areas with small sheets covering them. The fire is up, or at least the charcoal left after the fire, Rodrick says it attracts less attention at night, and roasts the rabbit better. we’ve foraged secured the area, nothing left to do now but have a talk.
"I think you have some explaining to do." I try to remind Rodrick of his words earlier.
"And I think you put these up just fine, you have talent, the kind that catches on fast and well, you surprise me everytime." Is he changing the subject to avoid telling me the truth now?
After a moment of silence, he finally opens his mouth.
"This is important, never underestimate these things, they could just make the difference between life and death, that's rule number one of being a hunter."
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I see he has a heavy look as he says that, I guess he had a good intention. And by the tone of his voice and stare in his eyes I can tell that his mood has shifted to a more serious one.
"So, tomorrow we go fight them." As long as there will be no further delays, I must stand on this.
"No! Why are you in such a rush to die? Tomorrow we look at their post, and then make a plan, and an extra plan, then we make preparations, Only the day after that we will ambush them. The first rule of being a hunter is 'Never go in without a plan', otherwise one of us will not survive, or both of us even. "
"I thought the first rule was never underestimate ma-“
"I'm old, I don't remember all the rules by number, they're all number one. And that goes in priority too, you either do all of it, or you die. We're at a disadvantage all the time when facing nature, anything we can use to help ourselves against the overwhelming creatures out there, we use it well and often."
I did not think about it like that, honestly... I feel a bit bad for prodding him about rushing the goblins. Now that I look at it with more thought, the beast under the village had to be sealed, I guess by a strong wizard. I cannot hope to overpower it with sheer strength and even what little tree chopping magic I learned won’t do me any good against such a powerful foe. "Sorry" I guess Rodrick knows what he’s doing.
"Heh, don't mention it... I feel sorry myself, I should have been honest with you, what with you being honest first..."
It feels a bit awkward now, but now that we're on the same page we can progress. "You we're right about the charcoal, cooks just right. let's go to sleep."
-----
First light... I guess Dali's body was used to waking up early, I feel awake and ready to go, time to roll the bed.
"Good morn, up before me? The fruits we foraged yesterday will be great as breakfast. It's important to give yourself something to sustain yourself in the morning." Rodrick, for his age, sure is energetic. Even if he says it's for me to learn I can tell he's ecstatic to go on this adventure.
"Let me guess, rule number one?
"Told you you catch on fast and well."
I finally get to see the goblins, they sure do like to sleep in, we can see even the guards outside sleeping. They look just as I imagined, if only a bit uglier. Green and small with blistered wrinkled skin, scrawny hands and legs and bellies that somehow look round and fat but also small and underfed at the same time.
The goblins camped mostly inside the mine, Rodrick says he counts too many things for just the two guards and three goblins passed out at the entrance to the mine. We could jump them early in the morning but the real problem is their leader. Goblins are known for, besides being small green and unappealing, being complete idiots. The idea came up to distract them or to draw them one by one.
We could find a way to climb above the entrance and found a good spot to look at them that isn't far but also isn't near enough so that they will hear us and wake up. They are also apparently sound sleepers according to Rodrick, so with his experience he knew just how close to get.
Since we're only two, a small cave where we aren't likely to be cornered is probably best for combat, but we can't set up traps inside before-hand and we did find some plants that might be good for traps... All of these things to take into account before making a plan. I truly didn't know how much work comes to being a hunter or adventurer that isn't just go swing your axe at the monsters.
Lastly, Rodrick throws a rock from above at one of the guards. We can hide up here and look with only the edges of our faces sticking out.
The goblin wakes up, it's already noon, so I'd say it's doing him a favor. "Ouch, what was that? A rock!" He walks up to one of the passed out ones by the entrance and violently wakes him up by shaking him. "Your threw this at me!" he yells in the others face while holding the rock he found on the ground right before the sleeping ones face.
"Did not! Get off!" The waking goblin shoves the guard away and screams back at him.
"Someone did, it came from here. I heard it."
They start to argue, making a lot of noise and waking the others, who join into the argument seemingly for the heck of it and scream words at each other. After a short while of increasing volumes and more goblins joining the 'bad words parade' what he had hoped for finally happened. All the goblins fell silent and slow footsteps drew near from the mines, it was so silent around that you could hear the echoes from within.
That’s their leader? He’s almost the size of a Dan, and that’s huge for a goblin, and he carries a big axe that looks like it was meant for battle in one hand.
“Who’s fighting?” He asks in a deeper voice than the others' annoying pitch. No one answers, the other goblins are frozen and some literally shake in fear. Their leader uses his free hand to slap the nearest goblin to him, dropping him to the floor with a loud thump. “I win.” He turns and walks back into the mine. The rest silently go back to their business and it seems the commotion settled down, no one even remembers the rock that was thrown.
“That’s Gaveng?” I whisper to rodrick.
“That’s the one.”
No doubt, he’s going to be the most important part of the plan.