Durand woke up on a rock filled beach, much different from the soft sand beach of the nymph realm. An uncomfortable sensation trapped his skin, preventing it from breathing. Clothes.. It was his first time wearing it in his current life. Someone dressed him with the pirate's clothes and was carrying him. Durand raised his head to look, it was Bolb.
Durand's thoughts were slow, it was like the inside of his head was filled with foggy slugs moving on top of each other, diffusing into one another to produce his thoughts.
'Is this the result of overusing my magic... I want to sleep.'
Durand wanted to sleep, but inside that foggy mess there was something sharp pricking his skull. A lack of something important...
"Lav... Yel... Where are they?"
His words were slow, much like his thoughts. There was some unwillingness in it, a self-destroying brand of meaninglessness.
"My lord, you're awake? The two lordships decided to remain on the ship."
"...Why?"
"There was only a place for two people in the boat... They wanted some time to decide, and they chose only you, my lord. It was a hard decision for them..."
"Two people..."
Even in his sluggish thoughts, Durand could imagine what had happened in that cargo area.
'Foolish kids.'
Durand got out of Bolb's arms. His mind regained some of its clarity.
"Let us go back."
"My lord... I can't. I killed one of the crew members, the one in the same boat as us."
"Your lord orders this. Do you doubt me?"
"I am not... but are you, my lord, really capable of destroying the ship?"
Durand knew the bluff was over. Bolb saw how he had passed out and remained that way the entire day and how tired he looked now. He had created a snake that could kill at most three or four people before being subdued; he didn't have the power to destroy a ship.
Durand stood dejected. His eyes lost the sharpness he had gained for a moment; his thoughts returned to the state of a few moments ago.
"My lord, they would search for us in the next town, so we can't go there. They will probably stay there for a while, preventing us from using the beach road. Our only path is to pass the Black Mountain range and reach the inner lands."
Durand absentmindedly nodded. He didn't listen, no, he listened, but his mind didn't register the meanings of the words. It just… didn't matter.
Bolb turned to the mountains, and Durand followed behind him. Durand was tired. His body felt awake, but his mind slumbered in a place averse to any attention.
He walked, climbed, walked, climbed. He was in a valley covered in white, his steps crunching the snow.
Pure black trees covered his vision. He was passing them, but all of them looked the same. He lost his sense of direction in that maze of black and white.
He stopped; a cave appeared in his vision. It was a dark cave that one could go inside and disappear from this world. Durand went inside, took the darkest corner, and slept.
He woke up, his head slightly better. With the little clarity he regained, he went outside the cave.
Why? He didn't know, perhaps just to stop himself from sleeping again.
He sat and watched the sky brighten, the night owl's howl rotated its duty to the dawn bird's chirping. Then, to his ears, another sound invited itself: steps on snow. Durand turned towards the steps, and what he saw on the serene white snow was a green child looking at him.
The child's skin was like spring grass, which reminded him of the nymph realm. It had big eyes and a big mouth...
'I have a big mouth, big eyes and remind you of the nymph realm. What am I? A beautiful nymph, of course. Wrooong, the answer is a goblinnn!'
Durand laughed at his own joke. He wasn't sure what he had regained was clarity; now he was acting like a madman.
The goblin, exactly as described in tales he told to Yel and Lav, appeared not to appreciate being laughed at. It ran to Durand with a loud battle cry. It had a spear too, made of a carved wooden branch and bone.
Two steps away from Durand, the goblin's head was flung away by a single swing of a sword. The virgin snow was painted red, and the goblin's body dropped motionlessly.
Bolb stood in front of Durand. Durand had forgotten Bolb had been sleeping in the same cave; he must have woken to the goblin's battle cry.
"My lord, we must go! There might be other monsters."
Bolb ran, but Durand slowed him down. Durand's mind wasn't ready for such a pace; even with hurried steps, the forest moved too fast around him, spinning and splitting his head. It created confusion on where he was. Were they still running or returning to the cave? He once again lost himself in the maze of black and white.
Bolb grabbed his arm and pulled Durand to his pace.
Not much time passed when they heard angry shouts from behind.
More goblins... They were taller than the previous one, so perhaps that one was a child that separated from the group? Did monsters have children? Durand didn't know and didn't care. Though they were tall, they still looked weak. Their numbers could be a problem, around a dozen.
Bolb stopped, giving his back to a huge rock. He threw Durand behind him and drew his sword.
"Come, Cowshits! I will send your crapsouls to hell!"
Three goblins rushed to the invitation at the same time. They lunged at Bolb. With one clean swing, three bodies became six, splitting in the air. Their blood washed Bolb like a morning shower.
"Agh!"
Some of the blood splashed into his eyes. Bolb tried to wipe his eyes, but the goblins grabbed the opening and rushed again. Bolb, with his eyes shut, swung his sword randomly.
The goblins backed away, not meeting the same fate as their three fellows. They waited for Bolb's frenzy to end and rushed again. Bolb, hearing their voices, swung his sword. It was a repeat. It repeated a few times too. Backing away and rushing, backing away and rushing... one more goblin died in the process.
And Durand's gaze was drawn to two goblins. He watched them, his eyes never leaving them. Both of them were weird; one of them was silent while all the goblins were shouting, and it reminded Durand of Lav, its gaze was the same as his, eyes that accepted everything around him as is. Lav was never a boy who conflicted with things around him; he would treat others' behavior like it was an unpreventable natural disaster. He would accept and move on like he did when they were on the pirate ship. He wouldn't complain about the taste of the food or how noisy the pirates were being, while some days that was the only thing Yel and Durand did.
That goblin and Lav's similarities didn't end; their most eye striking similarity was the goblin who was always next to it. The goblin was shouting louder than any other goblin, and even when no goblin was shouting, he would continue his shout. First, Durand thought maybe it was a relative of the first goblin they killed, but Durand now could see that goblin just loved shouting; he was smiling when he was the only one shouting. They were like goblin versions of Lav and Yel.
Bolb found an opportunity to splash his eyes with water from his flask. He could finally fully open his eyes. Deadly news for the goblins.
On their next rush, they met with Bolb's rampage. Five of them died. The remaining goblins ran away, noticing they wouldn't be able to defeat Bolb. But the two remained... Why? Why didn't you two run away?
Lav goblin and Yel goblin smiled brightly as if the other goblins were holding them back. They dashed to Bolb and proved their confidence. Their coordinated assaults gave Bolb his first wounds.
Yel goblin was agile and unpredictable; Lav goblin was countering every move of Bolb. A free spear, an indomitable shield, and they moved as one. As if a warrior of ancient times descended on the battlefield fighting against Bolb.
Bolb was outmatched. He could defeat a few goblins, but what was in front of him, the goblin pair, was like a fearsome soldier, a knight even!
Durand stupidly smiled. He didn't understand his feelings. Why was he cheering for the goblins just because they reminded him of Lav and Yel? All he knew was that he wanted the two goblins to come out victorious.
Yel goblin slipped between Bolb's legs, thrust his spear into his back. Bolb turned, deflecting the spear. Now, Bolb had two different directions he needed to worry about. He had a defeated look on his face. He tensed his body and prepared for the goblin pair's next move. But the move didn't come to him. His face paled as he noticed. Yel goblin was running to Durand.
A memory of Yel running towards him flashed in Durand's mind. In that memory, he opened his arms and got a warm hug. In reality, a sword throw split the goblin's head, painting Durand with warm blood.
Yel goblin dropped dead. Durand raised his head to Bolb, who had thrown his sword. Bolb was grabbing Lav goblin's neck with his bare hands. He raised the goblin's body high, clutching its throat.
The goblin died with an anguished face, and it wasn't to its own death. It wasn't, It was not!
Durand cried. A tearing child's wail tore his mind as he grabbed the goblin's body to get a farewell he didn't have with his brothers.