Chapter 35 - Spending Time With a Succubus (2)

Outside in the dark night at the ungodly hours with only the two moons for company, I was entirely naked, except for my leather brown pants with the silver key tucked carefully inside a pocket. My upper attire had been destroyed entirely when the succubus had torn the remaining rags off with a desperate need.

Dried, goblin blood was caked on my body, causing a slight discomfort. I paid this no heed, because I would need to get out of this town to clean myself in the nearby river I had passed by while flying. The body of water was quite close to this frontier town so a logical assumption was made; it was most likely the supplier for the town's water needs, other than the rain.

I also held no worries that I would dirty the river water if I bathe in it, because simple water filtration techniques were available throughout most human populations and one could always use long-lasting magic items, though the latter was quite expensive and rarely used by the poorer populated dwellings.

I headed towards the entrance gate from which I went through originally and up atop the ramparts, I saw a slim guard holding a torchlight. Even without being able to see clearly in the night with these human eyes, I could feel the shiftiness and the tension of the guard, who kept a constant watch, glancing at a different area outside of town each cautious look.

I could not help but think to myself that this town was quite vigilant. It kept even a night watch.

“You! What are you doing here,” the guard hissed, waving the torch to get a better look at me after finally noticing my climb up the ramparts. The guard was feminine looking and there was only one person I had met today who had this appearance. It was Haikai.

I was in a light mood, anticipating for what the morning would bring. I would get to learn all about the succubus and her kind if there were more where she came from. It was an enlightening prospect I would greatly enjoy.

“I am enjoying the night air, Haikai.”

The guard had the grace to blush a little at my knowing his name. He himself had realized his argument with Dan Gojer this morning was an unprofessional thing.

“But if you really must know, I am planning to go streak around naked in a river,” I said, attempting to take another stab at humor after I had failed so miserably this morning.

Haikai had the grace to blush even more, making him look even more effeminate on top of his short stature. “Bastard dog, you are not going to go anywhere by yourself. I shall come along with you to keep an eye on you. Just wait right here while I run for a change of guard!” he said with a voice that would brook no objections.

I stared toward the guard's slim back as he ran down the ramps, thinking that his was a strange logic. I was sure that word of my battles with the goblins had already spread and yet, the guard known as Haikai was still brave enough to follow me on his own. Even when I could have killed him in less than a blink of an eye.

A brave, puzzling little human he was.

Instead of just leaving, I decided to wait for the guard, only this time, I hoped that he would not make me wait too long.

-----

I stood inside the middle of the river, which was probably just around six feet wide. The steadily flowing water split around me as I washed away the blood from my body and hair. This river was located not quite far inside the nearby forests and spanned no more than four hundred feet or so, was my guess. It was easy to estimate its length because the forests, though large, were not dense. The tall trees were spread out in comfortable distances from each other.

Many minutes had passed and Haikai still had not shown up after disappearing somewhere to take a piss. I had a small suspicion that he had gotten lost in this total darkness which was only lighted by the soft moonlight, which reflected on the river.

I chose to wait for the guard a while longer and when he still did not show up by then, I was already clean and feeling a tiny trickle of impatience. Getting out of the river, I sighed a little and put on my washed pants, the tiny, silver key still resting inside a pocket.

Veering around to the last direction I had seen the guard going toward to take care of his business, I started walking with a steady pace. My emerald eyes were transformed into dragon eyes and the night was now barely a hindrance to my vision, easily letting me track the path of footsteps and broken twigs Haikai had left on the forest floor.

My tracking skills were not very great as I had not spent much time with the occasional hunters I met as a human, but neither was Haikai at covering his trail, so in no time at all, I found the place where his footsteps had abruptly stopped. His trail had ended at the base of an enormous tree, which was by far taller than the other trees in its immediate vicinity.

It was quite illogical of him to do his business at such a noticeable tree, but perhaps it was just a preference for large things. He had probably felt more comfortable underneath the overhanging branches, which drooped down in a creeping fashion and gave considerable cover for whatever he was doing.

Where his footsteps had ended, there were sets of footprints from four to five distinctive creatures continuing the trail. They were most likely made from goblins and the heavier indent two sets of footprints had made on the forest floor told me much. The goblins were most likely carrying something—or someone—of not inconsiderable weight.

How amusing, I thought to myself. Perhaps the goblins had thought Haikai was a tomboyish, human female and had likely kidnapped him in the hopes of saving a rape later. It was sort of akin to drying meat for a later use; something of that sort.

I was in a small dilemma: should I save this effeminate guard from the goblins or whatever creatures had kidnapped him, or should I leave him to his fate and just utter a small prayer for his well-being, especially regarding his lower body.

They were both troublesome and unfavorable alternatives, but I decided to choose the former. I still had a day left before I would have to call upon the eldest, and there was no need to bring myself under even more suspicions from the town. I was probably already under fearful vigilance from the humans and was most likely at the foremost of their minds.

Resolved, I followed the trail of Haikai's kidnappers who had left an obvious path; the heavy indents in the soil, the slight shift of the grasses, and a few broken twigs. Passing tree after tree with my slow, but steady pace, I reached the end of the trail and stood before an enormous clearing in the forests. The stumps of the surrounding trees had been cut hastily by rough tools and only short, jagged stumps of the trees remained.

Up ahead in the clearing were dozens and dozens of fires of various sizes; large bonfires, small sized fires for individuals, and medium sized fires for families, all of which combined to form a small sun, lighting up a good sized area of the forests.

Crude wooden houses of various shapes and sizes laid meshed together in random distances from each other. Near the larger bonfires, I could make out numerous goblins, numbering almost in the hundreds, perhaps in the low five hundred or so; I could not exactly tell. The goblins were furiously rutting with each other, guttural moans of pleasures coming from them.

I could see from the contours of their green bodies that there were more females than males, perhaps a ratio of four to one for each male there was. This led me to think that this place was most likely the home of the four hundred or so goblins I had killed in the early afternoon.

I had, quite inadvertently, caused this massive goblin orgy from dwindling a large number of most of their strongest male goblins. I felt the need to almost chuckle to myself at this unexpected scene. In the middle of the clearing where the largest bonfire was located at, I could make out Haikai tied to a raised wooden pole, his upper body bereft of all clothing except for a strap of some material, which was tightly bound around his chest, flattening his breasts. He was unconscious and his head was dropping downward in this state.

A little jolt of surprise hit me as I finally realized what the two small protrusions that jutted outward a little from the breast binding were. Haikai, the effeminate guard with the long, black hair, was indeed a female. I felt a little disappointed that I could not tell that the guard was a female, her outward appearance and voice gave only the slightest bare hints toward this revelation with my initial observations. Perhaps it was just the distance between us, or perhaps my sense for the other sex was just dull.

Having realized that Haikai was a female, did I feel more pressed to save the guard? The answer to that would be a disappointment, because quite frankly, I did not feel much inclination at all, regardless of the guard's gender.

Still, it did not matter. I would have saved the guard regardless of gender, for obvious and selfish reasons.

Leisurely walking toward a pair of goblins deep in the middle of their rutting, which involved play-wrestling on the ground and tongues darting back and forth each other. I had gotten quite close to the pair, but they had not noticed me yet, so deep were they in their playing around.

I glanced back at Haikai and could see that she was still unconscious. Tied to the pole, she would not be going anywhere, so for the moment I felt no pressing need to immediately rescue her. Instead, I had a small task involving goblin problems to complete; it would only take a short while to eradicate these unprepared, green creatures and I did not wanted to leave it to chance, for they might attack the town again out of revenge. This scenario had an almost impossible chance to come true, since the goblins had seen my ability, but leaving it to chance was a bad idea.

I transformed my right arm into a dragon forelimb of suitable size and with the sharp talons on the digits, I pierced into the two goblins rutting on the ground, punching large holes into their chests. They died instantly, becoming two mere corpses hugging each other, a look of pleasure frozen onto their faces forever, until they became food for the beasts of the forest.

Back into the shape of my normal human arm, half of the limb was now a bloodstain. I almost cursed to myself at my thoughtlessness. I did not wanted to get more blood onto myself, especially since I had just cleaned myself in the river.

I suppose I could restrict myself into only using fire magic and earth magic. More practice with the latter would certainly benefit me with no negatives.

By the time I had buried a dozen goblins to their deaths along with a few more pairs of goblins whom I had impaled with long, sharp spikes of earth, the rest of the goblins finally noticed. Looks of fears were etched on most of the male goblins' faces as they realized who they were dealing with.

In their eyes, I was most likely seen as an overpowering, half-naked, white-haired monster, whose sole joy laid in the killing of goblins. And under the firelight, I suppose I did look a bit strange and ferocious, my goblin-blood covered right arm glinting, and shadows from objects and fires dancing on top of my white hair.

One of the male goblins stepped out of his daze and came forward from the crowd, a look of hesitant fear on his face. The goblin looked unbearably old, a fragile air seemingly surrounding him. Other than his old, wrinkled body, another obvious sign of his age was that the goblin was entirely bald and small, white tufts of beard was seen on his chin.

“Please, human. Spare us and we will never trouble you again,” the old goblin croaked, his voice frail and guttural sounding as he tried to speak in the human language. His black eyes were specked with some whiteness from old age, and I could sense wisdom in those pair of eyes.

When he saw that I was unmoved, he went down on his frail knees, trying to grip his cane for support. “Please,” he begged. “Do this one favor for us and my tribe and I will be forever in your debts. You may even pick out a few goblin females if they suit your taste.” The old goblin had said the last part cautiously, as if testing out the waters for signs of dangerous creatures lurking in the depths.

I suppose it did not matter one way or the other so long as the goblins did not attack the town while I was staying there and so long as the guard was saved. Either way, taking lives unnecessarily was such a wasteful action. I was also sure that these goblins would not attack the human frontier town ever again after having been taught such a hard lesson.

I nodded at the old goblin, possibly a chieftain or perhaps a leader. I had no clue how the hierarchy of goblins worked, so I left my thoughts at that. Perhaps when I had more time and more curiosity to spare, I would look into that. But not just yet. “Very well,” I said. “You shall also free that human tied to the pole there and I shall leave.”

The old goblin's eyes immediately turned thankful and commanding as he gestured to one of the goblins to release Haikai. “Thank you....human. I, Bif, shall forever be in your depth and in my death throes, hopefully under a soft, young and virile female, I will think of you.” There was now a hint of humor in the goblin's eyes seeing that his tribe had avoided a close shave with a dangerous foe; his tone and voice had suggested that we were now fast friends.

I could only attribute the old goblin with one word—intriguing; he was wise beyond his goblin years, however long these green-skinned creatures lived up to.

Two goblins came running forward, carrying Haikai with both hands, a pair on her legs, and another pair on her shoulders. They quickly and carefully dropped her in a melodramatic way, as if they held a precious and fragile treasure in their hands.

With my unbloodied left arm, I carried Haikai and tucked her onto my left shoulders like a heavy sack and quickly flew off from the clearing, leaving the grounded goblins in surprise, of which a few scrambled away, thinking I was about to go back and rain terror on them from the sky. I only gave a small chuckle of amusement at the goblins.

-----

High above in the air with the twin moons, Seli and Vali, I was flying at a steady pace with Haikai trussed like a sack on a left shoulder. I felt her two small mounds pressed against me, confirming that she was indeed a female, though an unconscious one.

All in all, it had been an interesting night and I felt a little growing spark of curiosity about the lusty race known as goblins. Little did I know back then that I would grow a little fond of some of these green-skinned creatures. Perhaps too fond.