Elves were supposed to be graceful. I remembered them being elegant in just about everything they set their minds too. Hence their arrogance.
This elf was anything but. She immediately and violently tore through the baked mutton before doing the same to the roasted chicken.
That was a whole chicken, and she just devoured it in under a minute.
Despite the unpleasant display of starvation, I decided against asking her any questions while she ate. Her friends were waking up as well.
They woke in the same manner as the healer, obviously confused at their situation. They had questions. I had answers. But now wasn't the time.
"Eat first. Your questions will be answered later." I said.
The dwarf, the last to wake, was skeptical of my hospitality and questioned me. "How can we be sure if these aren't poisoned!?"
Was he still drunk? If I wanted them dead, I wouldn't resort to poison or any underhanded means. I would simply kill them directly.
"If I wanted to kill you, I would have done so already." I said, "In fact, I wouldn't have bothered with saving any of you at all."
My words seemed to strike a nerve. I decided that it was best if I left them alone, so I did.
I gave them a half an hour to finish. I was concerned at first, seeing how fast and how desperate they seemed to fill their stomachs. But things turned out alright. I hid myself with a spell as they ate, allowing them to eat in peace. They barely talked to each other as they ate.
"Thank you, kind sir." The male elf thanked me as he finished his last plate. I had just removed the masking spell, allowing them to notice my presence again. He was a handsome fellow with a chiseled jaw, silky silver hair, and sparkling blue eyes. Typical elf.
"You are most kind, stranger. You have my thanks." The walking reptile was literally that, a walking reptile. She had a sharp snout, thick scaled skin, and a red tail. Despite that, her voice was relaxed, soft-spoken.
Yet she mostly looked like if a crocodile decided that walking on two legs was better than crawling on four.
"Where is my axe!?" The dwarf, meanwhile, sported a fine, bushy beard that covered most of his chin and chest. He seemed grumpy, glaring at me under his thick brows.
His friends shushed him.
"Your weapons and equipment are being tended to right now. There's nothing to worry about." I assured the dwarf. He didn't seem pleased with my answer but complained no further. Maybe because his friends were glaring at him.
I forgot how often dwarves grumbled. This one was no exception.
"I'm sorry about our friend here, he means well." The boy elf said. He wasn't lying. My keen senses were activated, peering through their bodies as they spoke. I could see that they were being genuine.
Oh right, dwarves were immune to certain wards. Specifically wards of calming. I had set up a few wards around the cottage, mostly to calm them down. The area effect was limited to the cottage so I needed them to stay inside.
"You saved us from the goblins. How can we ever repay you?" The healer asked. Those little creatures were called goblins. Now I knew.
"There's no need to repay me," I said, "But I would like to know your names, if that's okay." I already had a rough idea of what their names were, but I needed confirmation.
The healer blushed, looking embarrassed. Was it something I said? A bad question? I was just asking for their names.
"We apologize. We ate under your roof without even introducing ourselves first. We didn't mean to be rude." The other elf said. That was considered rude? Okay, maybe it was. But I didn't care.
"I'm Gredance Lighthood. I'm the leader of our party. My friends call me Gred."
"I'm Dalinah Winters. I'm a priestess and a healer."
"Danica Redtail. Sharpshooter. A pleasure to have met you."
"Tov."
I gave them a nod. They didn't need to know my name in return. I didn't have one, not anymore.
I looked at them one by one, inspecting them from the comfort of their beds. They were young, barely 20 years old from the looks of it.
And already they got themselves into a perilous situation, fighting for their lives inside a cave, against those monstrous goblins.
"What brings you here?" I asked. I wanted to know why they stumbled upon my cave in the first place.
"We were on a quest," Gred answered as he made himself more comfortable on his bed, "A nearby village posted a request to our guild, asking for someone to deal with the local goblin problem."
The elf paused.
"The villagers told us the goblins were coming every night, pillaging what wasn't tied down and killing everyone left outside. We accepted the quest and waited until they raided the village again. We sllew most of them and followed the survivors back to their cave."
His expression turned grim.
"We thought it would just be a small nest. It was weird to find goblins this far east. But I should've known better. There was too many of them. They were too organized, too well-equipped. It was more than likely that there was already a full-blown infestation. I was right."
Gred turned to Dalinah, looking at her silently. Yet I could see the conversation happening between their eyes.
"We found survivors. Inside of one of the nests. But as soon as we tried to save them..." Dalinah paused, tears welling up her eyes.
My wards of calming weren't working on her anymore. A traumatic experience was too much.
"They... they killed the survivors. Right in front of us. And then pushed us deeper into the cave." Gred took over the conversation, allowing his friend to cry. "They didn't stop. They just... kept on coming. We tried our best to fight our way through, but it was no use."
They were caught off-guard.
What they were saying, however, raised a question in my mind. They were aware of what they were getting themselves into, of what they were about to face. At least they had a rough idea. Despite that, they didn't bring along anything that would have been effective against a horde. An explosion scroll would have done them wonders.
"You're a mage, right?" I asked Dalinah as she was wiping away her tears. She nodded. "What attack spells did you use?". A healer wasn't necessarily defenseless. They often knew an attack spell or two. Usually fireball or lightning strike. Both of which would have been very effective. However, I noticed a complete lack of magical residue when I came to rescue them.
Dalinah looked at me incredulously.
"N-no. I specialize in healing. It's against the nature of my chosen Shard to do harm."
That explained it.
Wait, no. It didn't.
She said that as if it was common knowledge. A Shard? What was that.
But as I was about to ask what a Shard was, it hit me. There were now things I didn't know about the world, things I didn't understand, and things I didn't comprehend.
The world really did move on, in a lot of ways. Somehow I was only truly understanding that now, and it... hurt.
I needed to tread carefully.