"Daffy, I'm tellin' ya now, don't drink the vial," Dak warned with a low growl. "In case ye forgot in the last ten minutes, that be filled with cockatrice venom! DON'T DRINK IT!"
"Pfft! come on Dak, what kind of a moron do you take me for?" Daffodil scoffed.
"The kinda ta drink me one and only shot at killin' that wee beastie over yonder, even though ye been told 'bout a thousand times the stuff'll kill ya," Dak remarked dryly.
"Would you get off my back?" Daffodil groaned. "I promise I won't touch it! Sprites honor!"
"Daffy, I'm serious lass, don't drink the vial!" Dak reiterated.
"Didn't you just listen to my solemn oath?" She snapped indignantly. "Does the term 'sprites honor' mean nothing to you?"
Dak could do little more than stare at the spunky yellow pixie as she perched on his shoulder. In his experience with Daffy, Dak had come to the conclusion that sprites had no honor, though he only had the flighty brat on his shoulder for reference. Unfortunately, her stories about her family and "friends" didn't offer him much hope that she was any sort of a singularity.
He also refrained from pointing out that she had her fingers very visably crossed even as she voiced her false promise. additionally, she was still eyeing the vial as though it contained the finest wine on the continent. Never mind that it was glowing a stereotypical toxic green.
"Just don't do it, Daffy, I beg ye," Dak sighed with a shake of his head.
"You have nothing to worry about!" Daffodil replied matter-of-factly. This only worried Dak more.
Once he was sure her attention was elsewhere, Dak slipped the small enchanted vial of roiling venom into a secret pocket inside his leather vest. Hopefully, now that it was out of sight, the clueless sprite would leave well enough alone. Out of sight, out of mind as the saying went.
Once the vial was stowed, Dak clambered up the nearest tree and began leaping through the branches towards his target. Thanks to the strength and dexterity in his tail and his clawed "monkey feet" as the humans called them, Dak was able to effortlessly slip from branch to branch in a way that would've put the best in trapeze to shame. At least, he'd like to think as much. Most folks didn't bother to make the effort of so much as acknowledging goblins.
A glance at the settings had Dak convinced today seemed to be his lucky day. He was downwind of the beast he was hunting, and the creature seemed quite lethargic and docile that day. Likely, it had recently finished a large meal of terrified goblins and was content to sun bathe. Furthermore, since he himself was a goblin, and the scent was everywhere, it was even less likely he would be detected. Dak loved those rare occasions when the odds where soundly in his favor.
It took a bit of testing, but Dak eventually was able find a decent hiding place from which to attack. Careful not to make a sound, Dak selected an ideal vantage within range of his crossbow and observed the creature as he prepared himself and his equipment for the shot.
The creature in question was known as an ograppa, a massive ape-like creature with huge tusks, and a large horn protruding from the top of it's hairy snout. From what Dak understood, the creatures were traditionally omnivores, eating primarily wild fruit, roots, and other vegetation, bugs, fish, and occasionally scavenging the carcasses of other creatures. They were said to be majestic creatures with fur of royal blue streaked with tropical greens and yellows that helped them camouflage in the tropical jungles they typically called home. Normally, Dak would refuse a job to hunt such an exceedingly rare creature, but this particular ograppa was a necessary exception.
"Well, Well, Aren't ye an ugly fellow, eh beastie?" Dak muttered to himself under his breath as he readied his crossbow.
The monster in front of him was barely a husk of what he should have been. That royal blue and green fur was a dull grey and balding, revealing a sickly looking ash colored skin beneath. His ivory tusks where heavily yellowed, and the eyes were bloodshot. Local rumors suggested the beast had gone mad after devouring undead that had managed to slip through a tear in the kingdom barriers. Others suggested the creature was possessed by a demon. Whatever the truth behind the cause of the ograppa's odd appearance and behavior might've been was irrelevant. For the safety of numerous small villages near the creature's expanding territory, Dak had to put it down.
Already, the beast had wiped out the rest of it's pack, most of which was visible and rotting on display at the entrance of the monster's den, along with two small towns and every other hunter that had been sent after it. Dak had seen the aftermath of those attacks, and it had been both gruesome and disturbing for a number of reasons. Typically, ograppa didn't hunt unless food was scarce and while they were certainly temperamental and dangerous creatures on the best days, a lone ograppa single handedly slaughtering a full village and leaving the bodies to rot was completely unheard of.
Shaking his head, Dak retrieved the vile of venom and prepared to slip it into a specially designed bolt that would inject the venom into the target without threats of splashing. It was here that his luck ran out.
"Daffy..." he was hard pressed to keep his voice soft and low as he stared hard at the miniscule liquor bottle resting on the palm of his hand. "Where is my vial?"
"What are you bugging me for?" she groaned from his pack. "I've got problems of my own right now."
Dak closed his eyes and took several deep breaths as he struggled to retain some of his composure. Now was not the time to be blowing a gasket. If he caught the attention of his target, he would likely find himself on the dinner menu.
"Please, for the love of Lady Chaos, tell me ya did'ne drink me bloody vial!" he growled though he was certain he already knew the answer.
He wanted to scream when he watched her crawl out of the bag and onto his shoulder, clutching her stomach and exhibiting a number of distinct symptoms associated with the missing venom. Anyone else would have died the second the poison touched their lips, but not Daffy. Of course the little cockroach survived ingesting the world's deadliest substance. Why wouldn't she?
"Yeah, and it was awful!" she whined. "You could've given me a warning!"
Dak wanted to scream, but before he could respond to the irksome pest, his heart sunk as a series of crashes could be heard peppering the ground below him. Evidently, Daffy drank his entire supply of potions as well and hadn't bothered to put the bottles back in their designated pocket, which meant it hadn't taken much movement for them to drop right out of the open mouth of his bag.
"Daffy," Dak hissed as he found himself in a very tense staring match with the now very alert ograppa, "If yon beastie don' beat me to it, I'm gonna kill ye!"