The deeper the man went into the forest, the denser more it seemed, even a mist appeared. Not just that, there was a pungent smell of rotting fish mixed with fragrant flowers. 

Only a fool, or a madman would continue despite the blaring red signs —clearly he must be one— he didn't think twice and went even deeper. The air was turning chilly. Gusts of wind made noises, soon those noises resembled whispers and whispers turned into enraged screams. 

Is this fool seriously not going to turn back?

Suddenly, a dart was shot from one of he brances of the ever-so-high trees. His movements became sluggish, limbs trembling before finally collapsing onto the ground. As he fell, his long hair hugged the ground. Honestly, he kinda deserved it.

Just now, a small creature climbed down from the tree. The creature looked cute at first; with it's small button nose, however, it's sharp yellow stained fangs said otherwise.

Its body is the same as a human yet its skin is dark green—a goblin. 

You know, if the man looked at least somewhat cute like the goblin, it might've excused his actions as being ditzy instead of uneducated; his hair long enough to cover his entire face and It doesn't help that his posture is always crouched.

The goblin approaches the man, slowly. Initially, it looked as if the creature was going to eat him, but it turns out he just wanted to smell him. The goblin scratched its head, "Tao ba to? Nasira na ba talaga yung barrier?" He picks up the man and carries him underneath a nearby tree.

The goblin brushed off the man's hair away to keep it out of the away from his face. The goblin really tried forcibly prying one his eyes open. The man's eyes was golden for second before turning into inky black. It closed again pretty quickly. "Ay, puta. Tao nga." The goblin looking a bit bewildered at its discovery, and covers its mouth.

"Sayang lang suligi ko sayo. Sino ba kasi pumupunta sa gentong parte ng gubat." The goblin takes out the dart from his neck and leaves him for a bit before coming back holding a small bundled leaf in its hands. 

"Sayang rin yung gamot pero mayron naman akong nalaman dahil sayo so okay nayan." The goblin opens the man's mouth and feeds whatever is in the bundled leaf, if someone had to guess, it might be medicine. It uses the leaf to ease the bleeding, the leaf is surprisingly sticky.

The goblin slaps the man's face to wake him up but to no avail. "Hmmm..wait lang. Parang ang tagal ata gumising netong tukmol." The goblin checks what color the bundled leaf was and it seems to realize something because it panicks.

The goblin quickly picks up the man and heads deeper into the forest, running at full speed. The goblin trekked a muddy path so the goblin's footsteps left traces.

It arrives at a makeshift campsite with a pink campfire in the middle. The goblin lays down the man at the southwest side of the campfire, where a temporary bed is built. The bed was built with sticks and stacked leaves.

At the northern part of campfire was another bed, yet this one was a lot bigger and was made with a mix lamb's wool and feathers from different birds but the real difference is the fact that it has a giant cat laying down in it. The giant cat's mace-shaped tail kept whipping back and forth like a perpetual pendulum. The giant cat notices the goblins scent and its face lights up."Tongtong", the goblin calls out for the giant cat's name.

Tongtong tries struts closer to the goblin but struggles a bit. Thankfully, the goblin helps it by repeatedly calling for its name. As it reaches the goblin, its eyes slowly blinked probably meant to be towards the goblin but it's face was slightly angled farther to the left. Its paws softly massaging the grass,"Mreow."

"Tongtong, gutom ka na ba?" The goblin reaches it hands to pet it, the giant cat rubs its head in response. The goblin reaches to a hole in a tree to retrieve another piece of bundled leaf, this time it contained rotten meat, five flies surrounding it. It just carries rotten meat casually? Does the goblin not worry that other predators might chase it?

Nevertheless, Tongtong ate it, flies and all. Disgustingly cute. The goblin walks towards the southwest side, bringing another bundled leaf.

The man finally wakes up and the goblin's eyes widen, "Pano yon? 'Di ba mali yung binigay ko kanina?" The goblin scratches its chin confusion while looking back and forth.

"I'm...back?" The man finally spoke, his voice was strained and quiet. "You're awake?" The goblin replies, the goblin is... multilingual?

Pushing his long hair away from his face, "Goblin...?" The man points at what obviously IS goblin. The goblin is a bit confused and indirectly asks if the man was asking the goblin if it was goblin by pointing at itself and the man nods.

The goblin still confused, "Uhh...Yes? Are you okay? I'm Kalbo't Hubad, what's your name?" Kalbo reaches its hand towards him and the man reluctantly takes it.

Its hands were full of burns, in different shapes. In all honesty, it looked moreso like dragons than burns, the dragon starts from the palm all the way to the side of the goblin's head. It looks somewhat like what they would do to a horse, hot branding as they like to call it.

He tries to stand up but needs more support so he leans on Kalbo. A few seconds of awkward silence follow before it's broken by Kalbo,"do you not want t-" Kalbo says, wanting dismissing its previous question.

"A." The man bluntly replies and Kalbo stares at him in anticipation.

"A-?... don't remember." The man furrows his eyebrows, not knowing what his name was.

"Ahh, okay then..." Kalbo looks to his side, feeling a bit disappointed, "Are you feeling any pain?" It budges him slightly using the bundled leaf, "subtly" hinting that he might need it.

"Pain?..." The man squints his eyes, "Ah... Head is pain." He grabs onto his head, a sharp head-splitting pain emerges.

It seems the man didn't notice the "subtle" hint it gave him so Kalbo openly just hands it to him. "Pretty sure this will help."

The man takes it and inside the bundled leaf was crushed herbs and other nature-ry stuff that looks too boring to describe.

"You're suppose to take it through your mouth. You can drink it with honey or water if you want since it's bitter." Kalbo offers a poorly-crafted container made from clay with honey inside.

The man tastes a tiny amount of powder without the honey and his face scrunched up like a piece of paper, to which the goblin replied with laughter. "You do a pretty good impression of my friend's face."

The man tried to recall what a friend was, a washed away image popped up...purple hair? It is familiar. Maybe he remembers memories based on experiences and triggers, perhaps he can remember his name with a bit of a push. The question remains, what kind of push does he need?

"Oh yeah, I want to introduce someone to you. Eat the medicine on the way." Kalbo led the man near the northern part of the campfire, where Tongtong was. "This is Tongtong" Kalbo proudly announced. Tongtong was uninterested in the man, yet the man was incredibly interested in Tongtong. Tongtong was looking farther back, at the scenery behind them. Its gaze was oddly intense though. Kalbo, noticing the man's fascination with the feline, says, " Tongtong is blind so he can't really stare at you precisely, that or he's just disinterested."

The man pets the Tongtong and it replies with a hiss.

The sound of twigs breaking and the crunching of leaves came from behind them and Tongtong's tail puffed-out, full of spikes.They look behind them to see what exactly aggravated Tongtong.

Silence fell. Kalbo looked anxious. Tongtong looked furious. The man just comfused, curious as to why, since it was just another goblin though.