It had been a long journey home but I finally got back, I put away the ale I was given, the books I had gotten for free from Silaqui's brother and I had finally gotten a chance to settle down. I spent a good few weeks back home, working on the docks, then sailing out for about a month or so, trading with some folk, got into a couple of fistfights for some coin down at the local tavern, and simply relaxing at home. I was reading the book about the various tales from many folks' intimate moments in their life that will likely live forever in their memory. The first chapter was about a half-elf who spent his night with a half-orc woman, it was rather steamy not going to lie, the second chapter however was about how a ranger met his goblin wife, I've met many goblins in my life, both male and female, there aren't many that are too attractive I would say, a lot of them have messed up teeth, a bunch of scars, some hardly bathe, etc. Long story short, not many that I've met aren't that good looking, there are city goblins that are a bit better looking but still lean on them for lack of a better term, more feral and wild counterparts.
However, due to my recent travels, there have been a couple that wasn't too bad to look at, there was the escort goblin from Valchester, I remember that I couldn't see her body too well, but she was sort of pretty, as I passed by all those months ago, in that row of women, that goblin woman had very soft looking lips, her dark brown hair was tied tightly into a ponytail, she had a small piercing on her left nostril, and she wore a nearly translucent red and purple dress, and though I might be mistaken she's probably the only one who saw me on that balcony. All she did was smile and wave at me.
I sat there and read about halfway through this chapter when there was a knock at my door, "Aw man I'm at the best part." I said as I walked over to the door, when I opened the door, I didn't see anyone, then I heard a voice, "Oi down 'ere!" I looked down and saw a goblin girl wearing a lot of leather and furs and a raccoon cap. "Uh, may I help you?" I asked, "I guess you can, mind if I come in?" She said, "Sure." I said as she made her way inside taking off her cap, "Bit chilly out innit?" "I guess so, it is getting closer to winter, "Yeah, you got something to eat round 'ere? I feel like I haven't eaten in weeks." "Sure, I was gonna have something to eat later myself but I guess since you're here, might as well make some now." "appreciate it, lad," she said as she looked around for a place to sit for a moment.
I decided to make a simple beef and mushroom stew, and maybe a small side of mashed potatoes since I had them for a while and I didn't want them to go bad any time soon. As I was cooking, however, I failed to notice that I left the book near the chair she sat in. I was too focused on adding the ingredients together, I didn't even see her start to read it as well. It wasn't until I finished making the stew that I noticed it, "Oh! uh...I can explain...that." "Don't worry about it lad, besides cute human blokes like you always act so strangely to books like these." She said as she set the book down and made her way over, "I uh….wait, would you mind telling me why you're here in the first place?" I asked as she sat and began eating, "Mm? Oh, I heard 'round the local tavern you would be a decent man for a job." "What kind of job?" "Ever been hunting?" I racked my mind to try and respond to her question, "I might have once or twice with my mother, but, it's still a bit foggy, why? You need help bagging a few bucks or something?" "Don't be daft, I'm hunting something much better than some random deer." she took out a rolled-up piece of parchment, "This, this is what I'm hunting." she unrolled the parchment to reveal a drawing of a large pure white caribou, the amount for it was around 30,000 gold, "Wow...30,000. But why do you need my help?" I asked, "She ate the last of her stew, and responded, "because, look at me. I am four feet tall, I hardly eat whenever I go out to hunt, and I don't have much in terms of muscle mass, I mean, take a look," She said lifting her jerkin just enough to see her stomach, she did look somewhat malnourished, though one could say she had a more athletic build, she was thinner than many folks.
I raised an eyebrow, "So...what I'm getting is you want me to carry it?" She nodded, "Bloody got it. Now, we should get going, I'll meet you at my cabin, it's around 12-13 miles Northwest of here." "Alright, I'll meet you there in a few." She nodded, put her cap back on, and went on her way. I put my armor and such on and took a few other essentials such as water and maybe a decent knife or two. I also decided to take a bag of rations, who knows how long this trip was gonna take. After about a few hours of travel, I came across what might have been this goblin lady's cabin. It was relatively big for someone like her but I didn't question it. I spotted her walking out of the cabin carrying a crossbow and a decent amount of bolts along with it, when she spotted me she waved, "Oi, you finally made it." "That I did. You ready to go?" I asked, "Almost," she said strapping her crossbow onto her back, grab the bedroll in the cabin for me would ya?" I walked into the cabin and found a small bedroll, however, I took a small look around the place, it was a rather simple cabin, it had a fireplace, a small chair, a nice carpet, and what might be a bedroom a little ways away. "Hurry up will you! We're burning whatever light we've got left." I heard her say, I took the bedroll and joined her as we made our way deeper into the Ulfguardian wilderness.
We traveled for a few hours northward into the hill and mountain area of Ulvenguard, it gets rather dense and a lot colder especially during the coming winter months, I could already feel my fingers getting numb just thinking about it. "So, you said you've been hunting a couple of times before?" she said as she traversed over a large tree root, "Huh? Oh yeah, my mother usually took me and my brother on some hunting trips for food and pelts, she even taught us how to make leather and use the fur to keep warm during winter, I still remember it like it was yesterday, all four of us, me and my brother in the middle, and my mother and father on the opposite ends and all of us under a warm fur blanket near the fireplace as my father read us a story." I smiled at the thought of having a family of my own someday.
She must have rolled her eyes at the thought because all I could hear from her was an annoyed groan, "You humans and your families, families are the worst, especially when it comes to your newborns, "Ohh he has my eyes" this and "oh look he has my hair" that, it's so stupid. That's why I didn't join my family, always staying in one place, never liked the idea of going outside and enjoying the wilderness, they'd always say, "Raleen, don't go outside! The humans will kill you" "Raleen, put down that crossbow, weapons are dangerous." Yadda yadda yadda, you get what I mean." "How long ago was this? When you left?" "two maybe three and a half years ago? I don't know, all I know is that old cabin is gonna be looking a lot better once I bag this thing." I didn't question it and moved on following her, who knows if she's willing to share more about her life at all at this point.
When nightfall came, we made camp in a small clearing near a few boulders. Raleen decided to take the first watch for the night. I laid down close to the fire and got as much sleep as I could, the numbingly cold winds made it a lot harder, it wasn't too bad, luckily since I've been making plenty of coin from all the jobs I've taken, I managed to improve my father's old armor and make it my own. It helped that it kept me a little warmer during these coming winter months. Once a few hours passed, Raleen had woke me up to take the latter half of the watch. I watched as she laid down her bedroll and almost immediately got to sleep. I spent most of that time keeping my eyes peeled for wolves, poachers, and other invasive things that might try and kill us in the dead of night. As I kept watch and keeping myself warm, a chilling gust of wind blew by, I looked over at Raleen, she was curled up and shivering like an abandoned wolf pup. I couldn't leave her in this condition, so I took off my cloak and laid it over her like a blanket. It must have worked because she stopped shivering and slept as soundly and as peacefully as a newborn. Though it was rather strange at the time, she did look sort of cute. I couldn't focus on that at the moment, we had to be ready to take down a wild beast.