All of them slept like corpses as yesterday's events were to much to handle. Still it was a good experience for them. Now they knew what kind of beings lived in this world. Some that could probably rival a God.
The morning was short as Bardoth's children were long awake and wanted to play with Roschar and the rest. The females didn't complain as they played with them. Only Rosch and Draconia were with Bardoth.
"You know what it means right? That Cecilia saw you, I mean.", Bardoth said seriously towards Draconia.
She nodded, while Rosch looked perplexed. He didn't get what was going on.
Bardoth saw that and tried to explain.
"Every four years we should try and get home to the Dragon valley. But many do not come, as they have one thing or another to do. For many it is a long journey and most of the time it is just to settle disputes between factions, showing off what someone experienced or got. So many don't come for such petty things. But when you expand the family, it is your duty to come back. Every time the Dragon population rises it is to be noted and celebrated. The thing is..... You are not really a Dragon. Most don't really care when a non-Dragon joins a harem and think it is a hassle to have to appear because of a non-Dragon. But you are the first to make a Dragon succumb to you and not the other way around. We both don't know how it will be accepted or if it will be accepted at all. To be honest, I wanted to stay silent and just let you do your thing. But now with Cecilia knowing about everything, everyone in the Dragon valley will know about it, too. That's why you have to come now or it will be counted as a huge disrespect towards Draconia's father. It is in two years time. So don't miss it. ", Bardoth said seriously.
Draconia didn't say anything. She just looked down.
Rosch was surprised, but smiled suddenly.
" Why are you getting depressed? I promised to Thulpina I would bring her home for a visit and I will promise you the same. It's nothing to be depressed about.", Rosch said trying to make it sound as easy as Thulpina's home visit.
Draconia smiled, knowing he just wants to cheer her up.
" I should give you a tip. If you can make that happen before the time you have to leave for the Dragon valley, Draconia, it could be a huge success towards acceptance. So try to make it with all your might.", Bardoth said seriously again, making Rosch confused again.
But Draconia's eyes started to get some light back as if what Bardoth said could truly save them. Rosch didn't really care, as he knew as long as she won't be depressed everything will be fine.
They talked for a while but had to finally say goodbye. It was time to continue their hard journey back home. Rosch and his group are already away from the Goblin village for far to long. They are almost on this journey for two months. They had to get home as soon as possible.
Rosch was about to leave with his females, when Bardoth walked up to him again.
"The path you guys are taking, will eventually confront you with a race that I pity. Don't hurt them. It's a request from a friend to another.", Bardoth said with a smile, shocking Draconia. To get someone like Bardoth say that he wants to be friends with Rosch is a huge favor. It could help later on in the Dragon valley.
Rosch nodded with a smile and wanted to say something, but got interrupted.
"Oh and be on guard. Humans went passed this place before you guys came through. I listened to some of your talking and it sounded as if you guys are on bad terms with them.", Bardoth gave them a light warning, but thought that they didn't need it. After seeing what all of them were capable, he didn't need to worry.
Rosch looked surprised.
"How the fuck did they went passed u...", Rosch said, but instantly stopped. He looked back at his females, who looked at him with a face saying "Really?".
"Hahahah right we were inside the cave for almost two weeks.", Rosch said amused. He and the rest finally said goodbye and left the ice lair of Bardoth.
They walked for a while through the snowy fields, were the snow was going up to their knees, as Rosch suddenly stopped.
" Fuck. I didn't ask what kind of race we shouldn't attack. Bardoth started to tell us about the humans and I totally forgot.", Rosch said, while sighing.
"It won't be so bad. Out here there are only the northern tribes or the Daywalkers. Since it is one of those two races we will just stay away from them. Like that it doesn't matter who it is we won't break our promise, right?", Ziriana said with a smile.
Rosch nodded and was happy that his females were knowledgeable about all this regions. He was truly a frog living in a well before.
" But Daywalkers. Isn't that the race Aria's biological mother belongs to? Aria is half Nightwalker and half Daywalker?", Suz suddenly asked out of the blue.
"Yeah you are right Suz. Daywalkers are technically the same race, as Nightwalkers. You could say a sub-variant maybe. Or they other way around. No one really knows which was first of those two. But over hundreds and hundreds of years, both Walker species specialized to their natural habitat. The skin got darker and darker for those, who lived in the forest and their eyes adapted to the night and overall darker days under the trees, while the skin of those who lived in the snow got a lighter and lighter color with time and their eyes became perfect to see in the bright and sunny days. They can't even get blinded by the sunlights, if they would stare directly into the sun. Both sides perfectly melted into their habitats. " Ziriana said, almost like a teacher.
" Holy. Looking into the sun without blinking..... Gyahhhhhhhhhhh. I am blind. It hurts. ", Xynthia suddenly screamed at the end of her sentence. She covered her eyes, while Yvonna instantly came over and started to heal. Her eyes weren't really damaged, but for most nocturnal beings, looking into the bright sun hurts a lot.
Ziriana shook her head sideways.
"Stupidity truly can hurt sometimes.", She thought while holding the hand of her child, till Xynthia could see again.
The days went by fine, as they talked about almost everything that came to their minds. It slowly became more and more like a long and nice journey to see the beautiful scenery around them. Nothing really happened, as they walked passed every humanoids they felt, without alarming them.
"We are pretty close the forest. We see occasionally patches of green, between the snow. We will be home soon. Finally, I missed a nice bath to be honest.", Yvonna said, while taking a sniff of herself with a ughhh sound at the end.
While they still cleaned themselves, it was just with dirty rags and melted snow. They were already away from their village for over two months and the last real bath was such a long time ago, too. In the human city they only stayed for a short time. The first time they just washed themselves with a bucket and rag. Just like they do right now. It was cheaper. And they thought saving Basarilia would be done in a day or two and they be gone back towards the beast-tribes western planes in a jiffy. There they would surely bath, when meeting Thulpinas family.
Now, it was over two months already and they truly were dirty. Not forgetting that they had sex almost everyday. But most didn't care as much, as they were used to being dirty when traveling. It was more the Elven culture that brought soaps and perfume into their lives, which made most females not be able to live without it anymore, inside Roschar's territory.
"Yeah you are right. I miss my frothy bath.", Thulpina said, while all the others nodded.
Rosch was the only one who didn't seem to care at all. To be honest, while he was an adult in many scenarios, when it came to washing he didn't take it to seriously.
He often went to bed after a long day without washing and got scolded by his females, mother and grandmother more than once. Just like a child that hated to bath, he too, had better things to do.
The females of Rosch dreamed and talked about a bath further and further, as Rosch suddenly halted.
The females of his didn't even realize it and walked further still emgrossed in their topic.
"Hey halt. I feel another being..... Another race..... It is stronger than most humanoids we met, but it faces so many others. It will probably die.", Rosch said. He didn't truly care, but got curious what was out there, since Ziriana only mentioned two races living here.
Everyone looked surprised and Frederika, Basarilia and Ziriana, who could feel presences far away too, concentrated and felt them immediately, too.
"Rosch is right. Something different is there and those that are attacking it.... Aren't those humans? And that weird presence, too. It felt like I know it from a long time ago. ", Basarilia said, who was the best at identifying different presence of living beings.
The others got a bit curious, but wanted to go home. They had enough excitement on this journey already.
" What if that is the race Bardoth talked about? Now that you think about it. If it was the northern tribes or the Daywalkers, he probably wouldn't care. It must be such a rare one. I am positive of it.", Rosch suddenly said, making the others brood about it. It truly made sense that Bardoth meant something rare and not races that were common. As he saw most of them as inferior before Rosch came by.
"Still, we won't attack any of them. Doesn't that mean we are doing what he wanted. Why sticking our nose in something we shouldn't.", Yvonna grumbled, getting a bit tired of this Journey, missing their home the most of the bunch.
"Yvonna is right, but... Aren't we at fault that the humans are here in the first place? Wouldn't it make us a bit guilty of letting that race die by the hand of the humans? I don't mind to leave, but we should do it for Bardoth, Rosch.", Draconia hurriedly said. Rosch looked into her eyes and knew she wanted to do it for the future. She didn't think about Bardoth at all but more about the future when they would be in the Dragon valley. Every favor they could accumulate till the journey towards the Dragon Valley means so much to her it seemed. Rosch felt how dangerous it could become and nodded.
Yvonna complained about it but at the end followed without hesitation.
The walked for about five minutes as they saw an unbelievable scene.
A troop of about 30 humans was shooting with arrows at a gigantic human. He was 4 or 5 times as big as a human.
Another 20 were in close combat holding the gigantic human at a distance from the archers.
"A GIANT!!!", Basarilia bellowed out loud making the humans and the giant see Roschar's group, who were an a hill. The group watched at Basarilia angrily, as she was the reason their surprise attack won't be happening now.
"S... Sorry, but I thought that they were extincted. That was what Bardoth meant by pity. They are probably only a few left.", Basarilia said, shocking the rest of them.
Rosch suddenly looked at the heavily bleeding giant.
"Yvonna, Frederika, Basarilia, can you take care of the archers? The rest follow me, we will go into close combat. Oh and Yvonna don't use to much magic. You have much healing to do with such a big body.", Rosch said, as all his females nodded with serious expressions.
Rosch, Suz, Thulpina, Draconia, Xynthia and Ziriana dashed forward, attacking the humans who were in close combat with the giant.
The humans and the giant stopped for a moment, since they couldn't fathom out if they were enemy or friend.
It took the humans a while till they realized who the approaching beings were.
"Those are the enemies of Sir Brighton!!! Everyone, they are the enemy. Who would have thought that our small guard regiment is able to take out two of our enemies at once. The giants and the bunch that attacked a relative of the majesty. Go and kill them a.. ", the leader of the guard regiment voiced out loud, but before he could say the last word the screams of his archer resounded.
The guard captain looked back and saw how dark magical javelins, huge black hands and some fire arrows completely obliterated the entire archer troop of his.
Not one of them was still standing, even the screams of agony stopped in a flash.
"Th... The.... The Demoness and the witch..... They are both healthy..... How? The reports told us that maybe only the witch would be able to fight.... What is going on? The Demoness should be unable to use magic, her arms and legs were destroyed and the palms were pierced with a cursed items. How??? ", the guard captain said, while sweat dropped down his face. He knew that they weren't enough for the Demoness alone. Let alone the witch and the rest of the troop together.
As the guard captain was in his shocked state and didn't know what to do against such an overpowered enemy, Rosch and the other females were already clashing into his soldiers. In the blink of an eye 10 of his men fell to the ground, losing limbs, getting cleanly halved or bleeding to death from getting their main artery cut through.
It looked brutal and destroyed moral instantly. To boot came the sudden retaliation of the giant, as he killed 8 soldiers with one swing of his huge axe.
The guard captain and the vice-captain fell on their arses, shivering like some newborn calfs.
But Rosch didn't even wait for them to talk and beg for mercy. He chopped their head of with his right bone blades, giving them no more attention than they truly needed.
Rosch turned around and looked at the heavily bleeding Giant.
Her truly looked like a human, just much much bigger. He was around 7 meters, who was around 4 times the average human. The Giant was still in a fighting stance, as he didn't know if he could trust his new encountered beings.
Behind the Giant, bodies were lying around. He seemed to have hold his ground, but there were to many of the humans at the end. In the long run he would have lost. And the reason he was able to kill 8 of them just now at once was because the humans didn't look at the Giant. They were all shocked by Roschar's group.
"You don't have to worry. We were enemies with the humans and just wanted to help. Do you need help? We have a capable healer in our group.", Rosch said as kindly as he could. Trying to de-escalate the situation.
The giant looked shocked.
"Not..... Speaking... Good..... Common..... Language..... Forgotten... Healer... Come.....", The Giant said pressing his fingers against his forehead, while trying hard to remember words that he has probably spoken ages ago.
The others seemed surprised, only Basarilia seemed as if all of this made sense. The Giant race probably were hiding from the world, as they were almost completely wiped out. Speaking the common language wasn't of use anymore. At least he could speak it to some degree and that was remarkable.
Rosch was behind Yvonna at all times protecting her, if the Giant suddenly had some bad intentions.
Yvonna needed some time to heal the Giant and as that happened from behind some stones, a group of four adult humans came out.
They were around 1,80 meters. Rosch and the rest readied their weapons, as the Giant jumped up and tried to soothe Rosch and the rest.
"Those... Children... No...harm... Please....", The Giant said, shocking the rest. They looked at the so called "children" more precisely. And it was ture. They had child like features. Rounder faces, clothes that children would like in all kinds of different colors and swollen eyes from all the crying. They were just big kids.
The females of Rosch instantly looked differently at them. Especially Ziriana and Basarilia as their mother switch got turned on. They ran up to them and touched, cared and helped those big "babies" .
Still those children couldn't understand anything as only the older generation of Giants have had contact with outsiders till today. They always had to wait for the translation of the adult Giant, when communicating with the children.
After Yvonna finally healed the Giant, he went on his knees and thanked them with all his heart.
"Thank you so much..... Children..... Very.... Important... We.... Last.... Thank.... You..... Please..... Follow... Need.... Healer.....", the Giant said, hoping they would understand him.
They all looked at him and knew that he probably wanted them to follow him.
" Do we really go with him? I mean what if they are fighting another force. Rosch we can't make another enemy. We have to many already. Your father's Goblin faction, the pure blooded Goblin faction, the Elves, the Humans and the Nightwalkers. That's to much. While we get stronger by the day, it doesn't mean we have a chance against all of them. ", Ziriana said, being the only one who thinks with an military point of view.
Rosch thought for a long time. He was truly about to refuse, as he didn't even know the Giants. It was true that he wanted to help them, as Bardoth's favor wouldn't be that bad. Draconia was the same she wanted to give her cousin more favorable views of them all. But she didn't know the situation Rosch and the Goblin village was in. So she didn't say anything this time, as it sounded as if Roschar's village was in constant fighting till now.
But before Rosch could refuse, the Giant spoke up.
"No,No,No. No..... Fight..... Ehmmmmm.... Healer... Healer... No..... Fight... S.... Sick..... Right.... Sickness....", The Giant tried to say, while almost choking on his words. He didn't want them to leave. He didn't understand much, but he knew what fighting meant in their language and he knew the races they mentioned. He somehow understood by their expressions that they didn't want more conflicts as they already had. He needed to tell them that it wasn't war that the Giants needed help with.
Hearing that, even Ziriana knew the Giants didn't have an enemy. They were plagued with sickness.
They talked for a bit and decided to follow the Giants. The Giant thanked them while kneeling again and looked extremely happy as he showed them the way.
"Name... Zorkod. Meet.... You...", Zorkod the giant said towards Rosch, who gave him his name with a smile.
Zorkod was having the same features as a human, just bigger. He was around 7 meters tall. He had light brown hair and eyes. His face had scars all over it. Probably were the scars all around his body, too, but most was covered in pelts. He seemed to be a warrior and one that did it for centuries already. He was muscle packed, with an axe as weapon and had white pelts around his entire body to hold him warm. The white pelts were the perfect camouflage in this region, too. Only the children wore colorful pelts it seemed.