When he finally turned back around, Henry realized there was a sizeable group of people gathering around at the sight of a goblin getting cut in half within city limits.
Normally monsters didn't venture this far because they prefer to hunt humans when they were vulnerable and by themselves.
His head whipped back and forth as his eyes scanned the people in the crowd. There were a lot of words being thrown in his direction all at once, and he was beginning to get overwhelmed.
The voice he recognized was that of the knight whose sword he had just borrowed. The knight's name was Trenton, and he stood as tall as a mountain in Henry's eyes. His red hair exploded from his head in vivid curls, and he had piercing green eyes.
"You're going to dull my blade like that!" Trenton shouted and ran forward to the blade that had hit the ground tip first.
The knight lifted the blade effortlessly, observing the onyx metal for any imperfections.
Henry pushed through the crowd, trying to escape as quickly as possible so he wouldn't get into trouble for using a sword that wasn't his.
His need to escape caused him to miss the knight's other words.
"The blade is sharp, but that was smart thinking," Trenton said, his eyebrows raised. "You'd think the kid was some kind of squire with that show of skill."
Many in the crowd agreed, but Henry missed it all.
Without realizing it, he had run to the edge of the town, to a cliff that overlooked the sea. There stood a shabby house with a large chimney. It looked run down and haunted if you didn't know any better.
Henry pushed the door open with his skinny forearm, and a woman with a hooked nose greeted him.
She was short and plump, with black, straight hair that reached down to her waist.
"Henry!" the woman shouted and ran up to him to hug him.
"Aunt Sylvia," he greeted her in response.
"Your mother isn't here yet, dear," she said. "What brings you all the way out here?"
The villagers considered his mother's sister to be a witch, so the only place she could live was out in the middle of nowhere. She had a penchant for science experiments involving explosions that a lot of people couldn't wrap their heads around.
Her house was decorated with many random items, mostly glass bottles, and jars, on every surface and shelf. It was considered cluttered by most people.
The chaos that filled every inch of her house was the way she earned money. People called her a witch, but they would venture to her house to buy potions and elixirs. Even though it was all fake, his aunt still made a livable wage.
Since his dad passed, normally he and his mom would visit Sylvia for dinner every night, but it was still only late afternoon.
"I got into some trouble, aunt," he sighed, lowering his head. "There was a goblin in town, and I used a knight's sword to cut it in half," he lamented. "I'm going to get fired for sure."
Sylvia led them further into her home, and he sat at an old wooden table.
"A goblin, you said!"
Henry gave an even heavier sigh when he heard his mother's voice as she burst through the door.
"Hello, mom," he muttered, but his words weren't heard over her excitement.
"You really are just like a knight!" she exclaimed. "I could write a story about that. The next chapter is true love."
Henry's mom, Celia, was Sylvia's fraternal twin. She had long brown hair, but no hooked nose, and she was on the thinner side, but it was mostly due to how little food they could afford. She clasped her hands together as she dreamed up a new story to work on.
"Oh, sister," Sylvia started. "Stop trying to marry off the boy. You'll miss the help around the house." She mumbled under her breath, "Then you'll want to move in with me."
"I'm fully a man now, Aunt Sylvia!" Henry stood up and defended himself. "I can drink beer at the tavern just like anyone else now."
His aunt and mom both had a pension for treating him like a little kid. Even with no one else nearby, it was still embarrassing to be treated like that.
They were getting off track, and he sat back down. His voice seemed to be lost in the din of his mother and aunt's excitement.
"I wonder why there's a goblin in town in the first place," Aunt Sylvia wondered as she walked back to the giant pot bubbling over a fire in the kitchen. "In the meantime, dinner is almost ready. Stew as always," she said, stirring the thick liquid with a wooden spoon.
Speaking of food, Henry remembered he lost his lunch in front of everyone at the stable, and embarrassment set in once again. Intending to show everyone how much of a hero he could be, he ended up looking like an idiot in front of a crowd of people. The knight was probably looking for him so he could punish him.
He wondered how he was supposed to return to the stable the next day and pretend that nothing had happened. Someone would have cleared away the body of the goblin by then, so maybe he could just return to life as normal.
If he was lucky, maybe one of the other stablehands had to deal with the knight and send him on his way. The knights didn't seem to stay for too long these days.
Henry was absorbed in thought as he ate his fill of food. His mom and aunt hardly noticed his silence as they continued bickering back and forth.
He could laugh at how stupid he was for thinking he would look like a hero by slaying a goblin. Now he was going to get in trouble and his job was at risk.
The family visited for another hour before Henry said he had to rise early and then walked his mom back to their neighborhood.
When they walked into their front door, Celia kissed her son goodnight and told him not to bother her or she was going to lose her train of thought. With no other words, she went to her room and started writing over candlelight.
All he could do was lay in his uncomfortable hay-filled bed and stare at the ceiling while the lamp on the shelf burnt out and night set in.
Sleep came later than it normally did. He worried about how he was going to find another job when he was fired from his position as a stablehand.
The family of two was none the wiser to the black, hooded figure moving past their home in the darkness. It stopped at the front door for a moment before walking around to the side of the house, going slowly so there would be no noise.
Once at Henry's window, the figure crouched down and drew a circle on the dirt ground and some other unknown symbols inside of it with their finger. It pulled a bottle from a pouch tied at its waist and then uncorked the bottle.
The bottle was lifted in the air and glowed faintly in the moonlight. One drop of the glowing green liquid was put on the center of the circle drawn on the ground and it started to smoke.
When the smoking was over, the figure covered the circle with more dirt and started walking away from the house slowly.
As it got away from the house and onto the main road, the figure pulled off the hood and revealed long black hair and a hooked nose.
Aunt Sylvia glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one was following her before she picked up speed and went home.