by Marcus Sloss
It was much harder to swim across the current using only my legs but I managed it. I was tired, soaking wet, but successful. The sun had reached its peak for the day. Only a few hours into this world and I fixed the village’s water problem and would be returning with a lot of food. I got dressed, tossed the weighted fish over my back, and made my way alongside the ever filling creek. It was tougher going this time. The extra weight and the lack of a clear, clean path meant slower progress.
When I left the woods and entered the farm fields I felt a faint sensation. That must be the safe zone line. I felt it more clearly this time. Yup, it was right around the same place. Phew, that would make getting timber so much less stressful. I wondered what that barrier felt like to the Horde members. Did it cause them to burst into flames, or bend over in gut wrenching pain? It was definitely worth asking about.
Now that I was safe, I smiled in a huge grin. I joyfully made my way down the path that divided the farm fields and noticed the widows and children excitedly waving at me. Lily dashed from her work and raced up to me.
“Mr. Gryff! The water flows again. It is so pretty to see. It is not rising all the way though. Debbi said you didn't fix it right if that is all the water there is. I called her a bison and told her some water is better than none.”
I took the rack of fish off my back so I could get a free hand. Which I promptly ruffled her hair with.
“Ewww... Mr. Gryff don't mess up my hair with your smelly fish hands. Wait... how did you catch all these fish?” Lily asked with a tilted head. By this time the full group of orphans, children, and widows had gathered around.
“Yeah, how did you catch all these ratfish?” Velia asked providing insight into the name of the fish.
The first thing I did was grab the three tools she gave me earlier and returned them to her. It was hot out and my metal armor with a leather chest piece was causing me to overheat. I removed it and placed it beside the dead fish. An 'oh my' escaped one of the women at my exposed chiseled upper body. I smirked at this, I had worked tirelessly to achieve this body. I was extremely fit, more so than anyone else I had seen here by a large margin. She quickly received an elbow to be quiet and blushed deeply.
“Lady Velia I present these...” I was interrupted by a group of kids in full roaring laughter at me calling Velia a lady. A few boxed ears later and the background noise died down. “Ratfish for us to eat. I was making a nice sized hole in the damn when I found a fish line. One fish line lead to more, and I ended up with this pile you see before you. Of course, they were heavy to carry but I was up to the task so everyone could have a good meal on my first day here.” I said with a great big smile on my face.
“Lady... You honor me, good sir. So who did the fish lines belong to? Whose fish did you take?” “If I had to guess, orcs or goblins. The trail leading to each line was far too narrow to belong to the ogre. I only saw his prints a few times. Can they attack the safe zone if I steal from them?” I asked curiously, wanting to make sure I had not done something horribly wrong.
“No, we are fine, this is a mighty haul and the water is fantastic to see again. It will take a few hours for it to run this far without being thick with mud but when it does we can finally... finally... All bathe!” She said with excitement and spirit I hadn't seen from any of the villagers yet. All around me I saw expressions of joy. It was a wonder what the promise of a full belly and clean body could do to the vitality of the downtrodden.
A rush of side chatter grew into a chorus until Velia stuck two fingers into her mouth and let out a loud whistle. “Break for today. Sandra, Felina, Micka, Launa, and Betti you are on fish cleaning detail. Take your kids and half the orphans and teach them how it is done. Lily, take the other half of the orphans and go collect fallen logs and twigs for a fire. Stay inside the safe zone, if you feel the tingle turn around. Lily! Where do you stay?”
“Inside the safe zone mam,” Lily said as she hustled up some kids and took off to the edge of the fields where some trees were still inside the village border.
“The rest of us we need to hurry with the last of the berries and then prepare some side food. We are having a feast tonight. Donnie, I need you to go run to Elan and tell him we are hosting a dinner party on the western fields an hour before sundown.” Velia ordered.
The oldest boy in the entire group, probably around fifteen or sixteen took off at a sprint toward the town center.
“Lady Velia what about me?” I said sarcastically as if I was offended to have been forgotten. She saw right through my smirk and had her reply ready to go.
“You, Sir Gryff, defiler of wholesome ladies over a well. You will go forth and fell as many trees as you can before the feast. You have close to five hours until then. Drag them this way so we can get started preparing the logs to build us a house you promised.” With that said, she tossed the wood axe back at me in a gentle arch that I easily caught.
I let out a roaring laugh. “I guess that is more than fair. Until the feast then. I will be doing manly things over by the trees.”
∞∞∞
I had been chopping down trees for hours. Something was off, either the trees were super soft or I was stronger than before. My arms were in great shape with well-toned bulging muscles. Yet, I was cutting these trees down easily. I felled the ones closest to the creek and rolled them into the water. Donnie had been tasked to stop the logs as they drifted further into the village. The young man had taken to asking me for tasks. My thought was that Velia had assigned him to me and I could definitely use the help. It must have been close to thirty trees down by the time I took a break. The fish being prepared for the feast had wafted in my direction for a while now. The delicious smell made my stomach rumble. I was starving and decided to snack on the travel ration I had saved from earlier. First, bite in and I knew I wouldn't even feed this food to a dog. I guess that ruled out buying more rations from Marga or Stov.
“Albggga, Magdrs... Dnsucka!”
I was startled by a goblin in a screaming rage at the boundary of the safe zone. He was only a few dozen feet away from me. He screamed more incoherent goblin speak and charged at me. When he reached the barrier it solidified and knocked him on his ass. I chuckled and went over to my gear. I put my chest armor on, slid my shield firmly on my left arm and grabbed a javelin. I should have figured a bunch of empty fish lines and then a wafting smell of cooked fish would bring us trouble. Elan did warn me they could smell amazingly well.
I lined up the angry goblin and pulled back my javelin for a mighty throw.
“Noooooooooo... Wait!!!” Lyna screamed at me. She had heard the goblin shouting and raced to warn me.
I paused my throw and inserted the javelin back into its container as I waited for her to finish running to reach me. Others trailed behind her, trying to get to me as fast as possible.
“Never... Ever... Attack them from inside the safe zone. Even a little rock thrown by a child is enough harm to trigger a violation of the accords. Any such violation and our entire safe zone for this village is removed. I am shocked no one told you. I cannot stress it enough, attacking the Horde from inside our village will kill us all. Thank the gods I reached you in time.” She informed me. When she finished Velia arrived in a huff clearly not used to running as much as Lyna was.
“So attacking the Horde from inside the safe zone is bad. What if I cross the zone? That is okay right?”
Both ladies nodded as three more of the widows arrived.
“Works for me,” I said with excitement. I reached forward confidently and picked Lyna up in my right arm, Velia in my left arm. I pulled them both into my chest and kissed each on the cheek. “Wish me luck ladies and stay on the safe side please.”
I placed the two women down who bore rosy faces. When I felt the power surging into my legs I pivoted and lunged into a sprint. I raced toward the boundary line and the single pissed off goblin. The damn thing was still yelling at me in its language. I surveyed the surroundings beyond the barrier and
saw five more goblins cheering on their comrade. I could handle six no problem. They were barely the size of Lily at under four and a half feet tall.
Little, angry, ugly green monsters. Ugh... they were hideous with their beak nose, boiled face, and moldy ears. I was only a foot away from the boundary when I pulled out my short sword from my belt. The shield was still firmly on my left arm and moved smoothly with my running body. The little monster held his pike toward me with shaking knees. This was no mighty warrior, it was a terrified small freak. Gone was the bolstering angry rhetoric and cheering followers, now the other goblins shouted panicked words at him. I rationalized these little goblins tended to pose the most threat in large numbers, but this group was split from their leader. This one was clearly overextended as he was alone, too far to reach the others. I felt the sensation of the boundary slither through my being as I closed the last of the distance.
This little guy had courage, at least he didn't run and give me a free shot at his back. He thrust his pike forward at me with very little power behind it. I used my shield to deflect his thrust aside. I went to stab him in his unguarded face when I remembered that area held value. I changed the angle of attack and sliced deeply into his neck. The head shot into the air as it was severed from the body. I wasn't expecting that. I didn't pause or wait to ensure he was dead. I pumped my legs to get my speed back up to a sprinting run.
The remaining five were only a hundred feet away and I closed in fast. These goblins were mortified at seeing their leader die. They decided to try to outrun me. That was a problem for them. I was seven feet tall with long legs, while they were barely over four feet tall. I caught up to them no problem. I hacked the first one deep into his shoulder toward his body's center. The skin and bone parted with ease. I kept going and reached the next little monster quickly. He never looked back, he kept pumping his little green legs as fast as he could. I did a cross body swing into his back severing his spine with a sickening snap. He screamed out in pain and collapsed to the ground. Three to go.
Two split to the left down a trail and I pushed myself hard to reach them quickly. I caught the first one with an overhead swing splitting his skull down the middle. The next one I went for the neck but ended up hitting low. I carved off his left arm as the blade sliced deep into his chest. I threw the sword point first into the dirt and threw my shield down. I grabbed the javelin container and set it upright at my feet. The last goblin who went right was getting away. Now over fifty feet from me, I would only have a clean shot for so long.
I grabbed the first javelin, took aim, adjusted for his little legs carrying him further and launched. I missed... badly. It went a full hundred yards over him, I now knew I had a lot more strength on Vin. The second projectile was aimed much better, I accounted for my strength properly and hit the bastard in the side. The javelin had so much force behind it, it shot the goblin into a nearby tree where it pinned him. I slung my shield, then quiver and raced to the tree that he squirmed on. A quick thrust of my short sword into his neck ended his struggle.
I let my panting breath calm down and checked my surroundings for additional goblins or new enemies the noise might have attracted. The woods were quiet, nothing but my decreasingly loud breathing. I looked at the sky and knew it was roughly feast time which meant darkness within the next hour. Time to find the overthrown javelin and get these bodies to the safe side. I went to work with speed and determination.
I found the weapon fairly quickly then stacked the three furthest bodies on my shoulder and sprinted towards the village. A few of the ladies awaited me inside the safe zone. One of them had stepped into the wild lands and pulled the closest body of the first killed goblin into the village boundary. I said nothing as I promptly threw the bodies inside and turned to retrieve the last two goblins.
The goblin with the severed spine crawled using only its arms. A desperate attempt at survival. It muttered some of its foul language at me.
“Time for you to die,” I told the goblin as he turned his face up at me from the dirt.
My sword was back in its ring by this point and I didn't feel like pulling it out. Instead, I rose my boot and gave its neck a mighty stomp. A loud snap reverberated through the woods. That stopped its movement for good. I picked the warm body up and then found his friend not far away. With both corpses loaded on my shoulder, I raced back toward the ladies and the feast. Somewhere off in the distance, I heard a mighty roar. I ignored it as I felt the sensation of safety once again.
“That was fun! But I am incredibly gross, so much blood.” I told the small group that awaited me. My skin crawled with the desire to clean myself but I ignored it knowing I would have to carry these bodies again.
“They were dumb goblins, the working slaves of the Horde. Those will be your one and only easy victims. Yet... You are correct. Watching them die was fun.” Velia said with a grin. “Now come on, let us get these bodies to the feast and see what we can use. With this haul, we can signal a griffin tomorrow morning to visit so you can sell the parts. Umm... Sir Gryff, we could desperately use a dozen rolls of assorted cloth and three rolls of leather for boots. Plus some thread and needles. Oh and some medical supplies or a healer mage. Actually, I have a long list but that is our most urgent needs.”
Each of us carried a body deeper into the farm fields. There were no lazy slackers here. Everyone helped and it brought a large smile to my face. I reached over and grabbed the goblin Velia was hauling. She gave me a stare of 'How dare you try to pick up the slack for me'. I ignored it and stacked the second bloody body over the first on my left shoulder. I reached with my right hand and freed my coin purse. I tossed it to a surprised Velia who stared at me.
“Open it,” I commanded. Based on the price of the rations I had a feeling when I arrived in this world I did so with a small fortune. When she opened to the purse she squealed.
“This is insane!? I never thought a traveler would have so much gold!” Velia said with a loud voice.
“Not so loud...” I scolded her.
Lyna popped up to Velia's side quickly. “Let me see,” Velia showed Lyna the contents. “By the gods, are you a noble?”
Before I could answer Velia hushed Lyna and spoke. “You came here with this or the goblins had it?”
“I arrived with it. Is that enough for the cloth and leather?”
“You bonehead...” She slugged my arm and handed me the purse back. Velia then stepped in front of me. With sadness in her brown eyes, she palmed my chest and straightened her arm stopping me. “No more racing into fights with enough gold to buy Cern. Okay? That amount would forever change all of our lives. I have fought so hard to keep the depression from overwhelming more of us. Also, know this, these goblin parts will fetch a lot of value, it is exceedingly rare to find them without an overlord. When you do find a small group of goblins ripe for the killing, it is almost a guaranteed ambush. My guess is these workers went to check the fish lines and smelt our cooking fish. Then yelled at us, audacious humans, vowing revenge. They made a mistake of not reporting the loss to the orcs or ogre boss first and acted impulsively. You, Mr. Gryff, got lucky. You can change so much here for the good. We don't need another dead hero to remember, trust us. Vin has enough of the well thought of dead. Please... think before you bull rush next time please.”
She moved to my shoulder and tried to reach for the goblin I had taken away earlier.
“Lower your shoulder you damn giant.” She commanded. The group including me chuckled.
“No promise on charging the enemy but I will say this. Tomorrow when the rider arrives for trade I will order everything you can make a list for. The only thing I can think of needing at the moment is a mount and a bigger weapon. So tonight or in the morning, gather the women and children and get me a list. Even include frivolous things like toys, hand mirrors, and whatnot. Oh... and I don't know what tools we are missing. To build our house will we need a large saw for the timber, a planer for planks, sander to smooth, and?” I paused r
ealizing the list would be exceptionally long. “You know what these lists will take some time to make, let us do them in the morning. Also don't think I missed how you called me Sir when asking for things, then Mr. when you scolded me.”
This got another laugh from all the ladies.
“Our house,” Lyna and Velia said in unison with lady like giggles.
“He had me at baths,” a woman on my left said. She had jet black hair with a pretty face. Like the others, she was filthy, but you could see the beauty beneath.
“Micka right? You helped clean the fish, thank you for that and for helping carry that goblin body.” I said to her. I was trying hard to get to know these people and remember names. I had always been extremely good at recalling names. I was not perfect and hoped it helped me here.
“Correct Mr. Gryff, you sure are a charmer. Easy to tell you come from somewhere where men treat women with respect. That rarely happens here, my poor Eddie, rest his soul, well... Even he was a right bastard and he was one of the kinder ones. I say this with all due respect to you Gryff. You are so handsome you glow, your body is sculpted by the gods, and your demeanor quickly swells a woman's heart with desire. Add me to your harem when you form one, I promise to be good to you and those you keep close to you.” She said with an intensity I wasn't ready for. The mood had been so silly and joyful. This was deep and meaningful.
“I will keep that in mind Micka, but for now let us enjoy this well prepared feast,” I said as we arrived at the clearing to the event. We dumped the bodies in a pile away from the festivities. A hundred plus villagers cheered us as we entered the circle.
