"Well... I actually needed your help." The moment those words came from the Geis Crab, both Soren and Lavenza were dumbstruck. They couldn't believe what they were hearing, a crab was asking for help, from a merman, a race that is hell-bent on hunting him, for 150 gold coins. After a bit of time passed, the three of them were silent with Soren and Lavenza, still being in shock.
"Uhhh... Guys? Are you alright?" The crab was the one to break the silence of the moment. Soren was the one who recovered from the shock and said:
"Wait. Wait. Wait. Hold up a second. You want us to help you, a couple of strangers in the middle of forest, without knowing their objective which could be to hunt you down, add the fact that there is a big bounty of 150 gold coins which, for us mermen, could allow to live an easy life for, at least, some time. Do you still wish to do so, now that you know?" Soren explained while having a serious and slighty angry expression.
'That crab is definitely retarded or something. Why ask from your enemy for help?' Soren thought to himself angrily. After Soren made that thought, the crab then started talking.
"Well, you were the only creature that had a friendly aura and also, we had met before, but before I even got a chance to move to you, you had already disappeared to wherever you went at the time. So of course, it wouldn't be hard to recognise you from afar the next time I found you and the moment I did so, I decided to chase you until I reached to you and started explaining my problem. In the end though, we had to go through that entire situation. Besides, if you wanted to harm me, or had any malicious intent, I would have felt that from the moment we locked eyes." The crab fully explained the situation from its perspective.
After hearing that, Soren realised the reason for his friendly aura and the entire chase sequence. It was his blessing. That blessing made him completely non-hostile towards every sea creature, hence the reason he was being chased was for help, was that his aura gave a friendly feeling towards all sea creatures. But part of the explaination still nagged Soren. In particular, it was that explaination for the feeling of malice, since his ability said that as long as he didn't go against their beliefs, they wouldn't be hostile regardless of what happened, so he wondered if the crab's statement held water.
He wanted to test it out, but decided in the end that it was pretty stupid. The idea of showing malevolence on a helpless creature, was akin to literally slaughtering a baby with his own hands and then drink from its corpse. Just the image of that, gave Soren quite a few chills. After that, he decided to ask for the problem:
"So, what is your problem anyways? I doubt that you would chase us to the ends of the earth for no reason." Soren decided to get into the thick of things and asked the big question.
"Well... How should I say this without embarassing myself...?" The crab wanted to say the problem, but it felt like it would be humiliated if he said it the wrong way.
"Just say it as bluntly as you can." Soren answered seriously without any tact. He felt like he would be running out of patience very soon and if he did, his vile tongue would be the first thing to come.
"Fine. Don't laugh though." The crab said relunctantly.
"Just say it." Soren answered back.
"Well, here goes nothing." After that, the crab took a second to compose itself and said:
"Can... You... Escort me home...? Please?" The crab asked while feeling extremely embarassed.
The moment those words came out, Soren then immidiately did a facepalm and felt like his line of reason was about break and throw himself in a similar situation with the useless nobles. Thankfully, Soren remembered that this crab was not a noble and possibly a kid, judging by the voice, so he composed himself and asked:
"That was it? You nearly drown yourself with a drop of water, just because you can't go home alone?" Soren said while feeling a headache coming for him.
"Well, sorry for trying to look cool, but the last thing I want is to look like some big crybaby." The crab retorted angrily.
"Wait a minute, but what is your age?" Soren decided to ask quickly.
"Eight years old." The crab answered proudly.
"And the age of an adult Geis Crab?"
"Fourteen years old." It answered normally.
"YOU IDIOT! WHY ARE YOU OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WILD WITHOUT TELLING ANYONE!? DON'T YOU HAVE PARENTS OR A GUARDIAN OF THE SORTS? IF YOU ARE GOING SOMEWHERE, AT LEAST TELL THEM WHERE YOU ARE GOING SO DON'T HAVE TO WORRY THEM AND..." Soren went into full scolding mode at that moment and lost all reason and self-control and started scolding the crab for ten minutes straight.
"Kyuu~?" After the ten minutes, Lavenza regained her consiousness from the shock she had before, the first thing she saw was Soren scolding the crab like there was no tomorrow and decided to intervene.
"Reny~!"
"AND MOST IMPORTANTLY- Huh? Lavenza?" After Soren heard Lavenza calling him, he turned his attention to her and saw her both suprised and confused.
"Kyuu~?"
"It's nothing Lavenza, am I right?" Soren then hit his shoulder on the crab.
"Ow. Yeah. Everything is right." The crab sounded nervous.
"Say anything about this and I'll turn you into sashimi." Soren whispered to the crab. He was still seeing red but was much calmer than before.
"Kyuu~..." Lavenza had he doubts, but she decided not to dwell on this.
"Anyways, right now we have to get the kid back to his home." Soren said calmly, but calm was the one thing he was not.
"Kyuu~?"
"So, how do we get you home? Because I don't know about you, but I barely know my way around the forest and I haven't seen any crab nests or anything similar around here." Soren decided to take care of this issue before things could get more complicated.
"Well, as long as I can find the marked area, I can find my way to my home from there." The crab explained.
"The marked area? What is that?"
"It's an area with a special mark that only I know of. As long as we reach that area, I won't be having problems to return back home."
"Then, how will we be getting there in the first place? Do you know where it is?" Soren asked.
"Well, I know it's general direction from here, but we might have to take detours to avoid the camps. Also you will be helping me to deal with the camps, in case they wake up." The crab explained.
"You should know that our combat level barely allows us to deal with ravaged sea-wolves. If you are looking for help with a fight, then we are not able to help you." Soren was saying the truth on this one. All of the ones that were hunting the crab here, probably were Rank D at the very least and there could be also Rank As and maybe even Rank S adventurers.
"I don't need strength, I just need someone to trick the adventurers in case they notice us." The crab explained.
At that moment, Soren felt like this was way simpler than what he was expecting.
"Alright. Lead the way." Soren agreed with the plan and decided to help it. Besides, he felt there was something up with this hunt in the first place, so he would make sure that it would be ruined whatever that thing was.
"Kyuu~." Lavenza followed as well happily.
"Follow me." After the crab said that, the three of them took the northeast direction and blended with the shadows of the forest so they wouldn't be recognised.
The main problem though was that the Geis Crab wasn't exactly the quietest thing, since its feet were pretty heavy and even in the sand, it still did some noise. It's size however made things worse since it would either bump into branches or generally have to go around areas with trees with low branches. It could just break the branches, but then it would be making a lot of noise and they would be leaving an obvious trail so that optioj was out of the question.
Another problem though, was the fact that they didn't how much time they had before the adventurers woke up and decided to continue hunting and if they woke up, the chances for them to find the Geis Crab would be pretty high if they stayed on the move.
As the three were going through the forest, they saw a camp with three tents and a guy holding a cup near a campfire.
'We have to get around this camping sit without making any noi-' Just as Soren was thinking, something really bad happened.
*snap*
It was the sound of a coral twig being broken from one of its legs. The moment that sound was heard, the man got up and decided to go towards the direction ofbthe sound with his sword in his hand. As he was getting closer to the trio, Soren saw that the guy was actually that armored guy with the red hair from before, but he looked a bit wobbly.
"Hide, quick." Soren whispered and the crab then turned into a big rock that was nearby.
"Who's there? Show yourself." *hiccup* The man with the red hair said while looking drunk.
"Sorry, it's just us passing through the area. I hope we didn't disturb you." Soren was the one to speak after getting close to the man with the red hair with Lavenza following behind Soren.
"Wait a minute, uhhh... Yeah. You are the kid from before. The one that asked about the situation. What luck to, *hiccup* meet each other here. So why are you awake at this time? Shouldn't you be sleeping at home or somthing now?" The man asked cheerfulky while looking drunk.
"It's a quest that I'm doing and if I don't complete it in the next couple of days, I may have to kiss my adventurer's card goodbye." Soren decided to explain.
"Kid, never overestimate yourself. If you constantly take quests that are too much for you, of course this would happen. The only thing I can say is good luck to you kid. And never confront ravaged wolves alone. Those mutts are the bane of night hunters. If you get caught by them, well just kiss your life goodbye. Take care." After that, the man with the red hair left to continue his guard duty while having a cup in his hand.
After the man left, the three of them left quickly the area as quietly as possible to avoid waking those guys up. After they made it past them, Soren then said jokingly:
"It seems like stealth for a big lug isn't exactly easy."