The party left early in the morning, getting the info from the scouts and readied what they had before moving on out of the walled city. The low sunlight peeking out over the towering trees, filling the fields with a soft, eerier, glow and the visibility that allowed them t move closer to the thicket surrounding the land.
"Whoa." Elliot said finally standing my one of the trees, seeing it's trunk was as thick as a normal house and they looked thicker enough to blanket acers of land, "No wonder they don't get invaded."
"Yeah, but that means travel to and from is harder with only one path to the Kingdom." Bolten said a smile on his bearded face, staring up to the canopy with Bradly stepping too the tree to look it over himself.
"Hmmm, Levi. Can you try checking ahead?" Bradly turned to her and she stood up smiling, nodding as she began to walk through the trees with a grace unseen by the others. With her out of sight, Elliot felt off letting her go off by herself without any help and stepped closer to where she disappeared.
"Worried or want a quicky?" Clove's words carried from behind him and Elliot turned to look at the elf girl looking at him, her nose pulled from the book she had been reading since they left PaLinkia.
"No, just worried since the stories of goblins we were told by as children." Elliot looked back through the trees and wondered if she'll be okay. A hard pat on his back pulled his attention back to the group with him and he saw a smiling Benton looking at him, his battle axe attached to his side.
"Relax laddy, she knows what she's doing." He said and Elliot nodded, feeling slightly better yet his mind still on if Levi is alright.
"Okay, keep closer." Bradly said stepping around the tree trunk, "Benton, you and Heldric watch our backs, Elliot up from with me so Vlex and Clove stay in the center to cover us." The party nodded and got in formation. Walking together, they moved on with their eyes on for any attack that could come and the memory of what happened traveling into the city kept them all on edge. Elliot held the hilt of his sword, ready to draw it and defend them, but the sweat rolling down his face said otherwise. "Keep your wits about you." Bradly spoke his sword in hand and cutting through the vines, following the path that Levi had left, but she was still too far to get a visual.
"Relax." Clove's voice from behind forced a gulp down Elliot's throat, "Your tail will be just fine."
"I'm worried for her." Elliot spat back, looking back to Clove, "Not just for sex."
"Come back when you spend a night not naked with her." Elliot tried to come back from that comment, yet Bradly glare pulled Elliot back to where they were heading, but he could tell there was a smug smile spread across Clove's face. They moved along; eyes spread for any sneak attack on them and their teammate. A stick snapping pulled their attention to a single bush and Elliot's sword was half drawn when a foot pushed him forward, forcing him to catch his balance.
"Go on Squire, check it out." Clove said and Elliot took a deep breath, looking back to the waiting party and then moved closer to the bush, drawing his sword fully out of the hilt and raising it over his head. Moving step by step, he looked over the bush and turned over grass that had been moved over multiple feet trampling over it.
"Interesting Huh?" Levi asked standing next to Elliot, shocking him and making him jump back, earning a giggle from her and straight laughter from the others.
"Don't do that." Elliot said holding his chest and looking at the others.
"Sorry, I just found the hunting trail and waited for you guys." Levi said helping him up and smiling at him.
"Seems you are good for more than just spreading infections." Clove smugly said, but Levi paid her no mind and looked at Bradly.
"The trail is heading south and there's a small river cutting down from the north, so this should lead us to their encampment." Levi said and Bradly nodded, turning to the party.
"Alright, Levi will lead us until we get close and then we will set up a plan for attack understood." They nodded and Levi began to lead them on down the path, everyone on edge looking about ready for a morning hunting party from the goblins to come. Just when they didn't see any, they all assumed they must have left before sunrise and that meant less to fight. Sweat poured down Elliot's face and clinched his sword hard in his hand, worrying it would slip in the middle of battle with how nerves he was. After traveling a little longer down the path, a small twinkle of smoke popped against the forest and the smell of roasting meat filled their nostrils.
"Hmmm, smells good." Bolten said licking his lips and a swift smack to the back of his head from Vlex brought him back from his hunger.
"Eat after we deal with the vermin." Vlex spat out with venom that Elliot remembered from the other day and he could feel the energy from him even being more in the back of the group.
"Alright, we should be close enough to attack." Bradly stopped them and turned to talk over the game plan with a serious look on his face, "Now, Levi. You and Elliot will move to the left, moving around to flank them while Bolten and Vlex move to the right to surround them." They nodded with Bolten and Vlex moving on to the right, the ladders fury clearly in view with what they were about to do. Levi patted his shoulder and Elliot turned to see her smiling at him, making him give her a gentle smile back as they moved back to the left, careful not to get to close to the smoke before it was ready.
"You doing okay?" Levi asked crutching behind bushes, turning back to him as Elliot nodded.
"Yeah, this is just my first real fight outside of sparring," Elliot explained and Levi nodded, giving him a gentle smile while they moved on.
"I understand, it's not easy to kill another one even if they are goblins," Levi said moving swiftly, making Elliot struggle to keep up with her.
"y-yeah, V-Vlex seems to really hate them," Elliot said moving through the trees with Levi, keeping her in his sites continued to be tricky with how she moved yet she never seem to move too far that he would lose true sight of her.
"Yeah, he has trouble with anything or one that doesn't follow the All-Father close enough," She said slinking closer to the hedge and peaking out. Elliot caught up and peeked out with her, seeing the darker smoke than what they saw from the trail, "Alright, keep close and no sudden movement."
"After you," Elliot said watching Levi move around the ground crouching as close to the ground as she could while Elliot struggled to match her with his armor keeping him from truly matching her movement. Levi lead him on till reaching a large bramble bush and stopped to look it over, "What's up?"
"I-It's a wall." The words left Levi filled with confusion and Elliot stood beside her, he saw it. The bramble had overgrown over a large, brick wall towering over them. Levi moved closer, staring at the wall with confusion and slowly put her hand on it. "It's not an illusion as far as I can tell but what is it doing here?"
"Could it be an old city that the forest retook?" Elliot looked at the wall and his gaze followed the wall, seeing it stretched on without it seemingly falling apart or decrepit in any way. With that idea off the table, Elliot began to ponder over what does this thing really mean.
"D-does this look goblin-made?" Levi asked pushing on the stone of the wall, yet not even an ounce of give to it, "Because I never heard of them making something so perfect."
"No," Elliot said staring up to the top of the wall, "I have not, and even if they did. Why would they make it so tall?"
"Well, many creatures are in the forest and they would want to protect since they aren't much taller than dwarfs." Elliot's eyes shot open at her words and spun around, looking around with Levi pulling out twin kukris and spinning them in hands looking around, "What, did you see something or a hunting party returning?"
"N-No but I have a question, Levi." Elliot faced her, "You scouted ahead of us, did you see any wild animal of any kind?" His question confused Levi for a moment until her own eyes shot open and she turned back to the wall, staring at it.
"What is going on?" Levi asked the same question Elliot was thinking, and yet more questions ate at him with his mind filling with thoughts on many other things.
"I think the Baren has been keeping some secrets from us." Elliot said looking around, "There should be a tree we can climb to get to the top."
"Tree?" Levi laughed at his comment and put one of her kukri away, "Rope." Elliot smiled pulling out the rope he had in his bag and handing it to her. Levi swiftly tied the rope around the handle and began to spin it with enough speed to make a gust of wind Elliot was not ready for, forcing him to cover his eyes with his hands and struggle to watch her launch the knife into the air. Elliot's head shot up watching the blade sink into the top stone and Levi gave it a few pulls to ensure it was tight, "Here." No sooner did she say that than Levi began to climb the wall and Elliot followed behind.
"Whoa, that was awesome," Elliot said from behind her, hands firmly on the rope and walking up the wall with Levi ahead by a couple of feet.
"Thanks, I train a lot," She said pulling on, noting how high this wall was, "I think you're right about the Baren."
"Yeah, but what exactly did he lie about?" Elliot asked looking up to Levi, seeing they were finally moving closer to the top with Levi pulling herself over the edge and staring out at the peek of the wall.
"W-what?" A single word escaped Levi's shocked mouth, worrying Elliot who moved faster and pulled himself to join her.
"Oh, All-Father," Elliot said looking out from the wall, staring into the heart of a goblin village. But everything looked off. Their huts were more to shacks than any proper living quarters for a permanent encampment. Rottening crops filled littered the ground and sickly livestock barely moved with many of the goblins huddled in small groups, themselves sickly green with sores covering their bodies and their flesh sticking to frail skeletons. Everything looked wrong to them, and something else bugged Elliot looking at them, "They couldn't have attacked."