Erwin grabbed the small hands on his cheeks. "Warm," He thought, as he embraced them.
And with each passing second, his worries decreased, the void in his mind, the forbidden memory, all slowly receded.
"Sweet opium." Erwin embraced the warmth.
The woman smiled, her words crystallized before her once more. ["I can feel your pain, suppressed, hidden, but there."]
His pains, worries, and traumas were all pushed aside.
Sounds of the artillery quieted.
Screams suppressed.
Blood washed away.
"I wish I could stay like this forever." But he knew the truth.
It wasn't the first time he allowed someone to put blinds over his mind.
He jumped away from the woman, creating a decent distance.
When he stopped, he took out his hatchet and glared at the woman. "What are you?"
"A hallucination, a ghost, some sort of monster?" Possible answers bounced in his head.
["An ally."]
"An ally against whom?" His eyes still locked on her, he took more steps back. "One who sent that skeleton? Who summoned me to this planet?"
["It is complicated."] She then looked at Erwin. ["Better if I just show you."]
And as the last letter appeared, she disappeared.
In a panic, Erwin turned back and swung the hatchet with momentum from his body.
["Do not panic. I am not your enemy."]
Words appeared before Erwin.
"Where are you?" He asked, his eyes bounced across the cave, searching for the woman.
["With you. Hijacking something not supposed to be on your body."]
As her sentence ended, a blue screen appeared before Erwin. Glitching in and out of reality, it stayed afloat before him for a couple of seconds, illuminating his face before disappearing.
"What was that?" Erwin mumbled it out loud.
For a couple of seconds, it appeared, it gave Erwin a feeling of warmth he could never remember but always secretly longed for.
He wanted to move closer, like a moth to a flame.
["A curse, a cancer, one of two"]
The woman once again appeared before Erwin.
["They want you to play a certain role, become a character in their story. That's what I am trying to stop."]
Erwin shook his head. He tried to think of something.
"What play? What story?"
"Who are those 'they' are?"
"Why me?"
Out of thousands of questions that appeared in his mind, nothing stood out more than any.
So he shrugged the rest off. "And the second one?" He managed to mutter.
["Curse of the ****"]
The crystal letters appeared as normal, but the last ones appeared in a form Erwin couldn't comprehend.
"What..?"
["I see. I am not allowed to give you any more information, not about this topic, not for now."]
"But, the words." Erwin looked at the woman, his eyes shaking, his mind hurting as he tried to remember. "I can't… remember, but they were there!"
The woman shook her head. ["I know, but they don't wish you to learn it."] She disappeared once more, and the screen appeared before Erwin once more.
Though it disappeared and reappeared now and then, it became much more stable.
The bright colors faded to a monotone gray.
It had no trace of the warmth from before.
[New Quest: Five Guardians
An unnatural storm that blocks all entrances and exits! Find and defeat five guardians of the forest to open a path and gain exclusive ****** and ****]
"What is that? Those redacted parts, what are they?"
["The carrot."] The woman appeared once more and pushed the screen away. ["This is the way they corrupt their players."]
"Just with that screen?" Erwin turned back to it. "But how?"
["That screen… Some call it the system, some the guideline. It provides quests and narratives, leading people into the path they desire."]
The woman grabbed the screen with her hands.
["Rewards provide tools and strength to endure the path, but also cause a highly addictive euphoria."]
"I see…" He wanted to say he understood, he really did, but "Just how bad things are going to get?"
Was the reality of his situation, being stranded alone, not enough of a punishment?
"Then, this quest, I must avoid it, right?"
["No…It is complicated."]
"Oh." It snapped. "The forest is covered in a storm." "Then, what? Am I to either bow to their path or wait here till my death?"
["I will take care of that part!"] The pale woman looked determined, her fists clenched before her chest. ["By suppressing the guideline, I can stop the influence, but it will come with the cost of not getting any rewards."]
Erwin closed his eyes. "There is still so much I don't know." And that woman, could he even trust her?
"Not that I can simply eject her from my mind..."
"But again, so many questions…" Unknowingly, Erwin started to tap the ground; the speed at which he did so increased as questions in his head multiplied.
"No answer comes to mind. Damn it." "Those guardians, what are they?"
The woman smiled. ["Then let me start!"]
*****
Morning had arrived. The sun was strong today. Slowly melting some of the snow.
It was also quiet, but for a small, humanoid creature covered in fur, and a cloth made from plant fiber and leather.
He grumbled loudly as he dragged a wooden club on his back.
Leaving a trail on his path.
He was sent out to scout alone by the chief shaman, but ate all his food on the third day and was now searching for something to snack on before returning to the tribe.
"No beast, no food. I hate snow." He repeated in his head.
His thick fur and rather durable skin made the cold somewhat bearable, but was it?
"At least quiet. No demon-bird."
Goblin recalled the sightings of the giant beasts on Horizon.
Birds with wings big as trees, skin tough as rocks.
But he quickly dismissed the thoughts. They weren't here, so he didn't care.
Goblin kept moving till he reached a small creek.
He sat on the edge of it and put his club next to himself. Grass and moss that grew around the creek made for a decent snack.
For a moment, he looked at his reflection.
"A big nose half the size of my face, triangle ears sharp as an obsidian arrow, and two overgrown fangs…" Goblin smiled. "Still handsome."
After wasting more time, it got up and began following the trail he made with his club.
"Today good-" He stopped.
A smell. There was an alien smell, a strong one of that!
He took a deep breath. His nostrils open to the size of thumbs. "Someone's out there." Goblin braced himself.
"Prey or predator, what is it?"
He wished for the former, but couldn't get too comfortable.
"Come out!" It shouted, readying his club.
His head turned around, his eyes scanning the surroundings before locking onto a shadow growing on him.
He raised his hand to look for the source, but only had a single moment to see the sun shine from the sharp iron blade.
*****
Erwin got up, pulling the hatchet away and shaking the blood over it.
"Are you sure it was necessary to kill him?" Erwin looked at the pale woman sitting on top of the branch where he had descended a moment ago.
["Sorry, I assumed with your background."]
"You assumed that I wouldn't mind taking a life. I understand."
Erwin crouched next to the goblin and closed its eyelids. "I can kill without hesitation if the situation calls for it." He then got up and looked back at the woman. "But the man who killed just because of orders is long gone. I prefer to have a reason if I take a life now."
["Understand."]
The woman disappeared and appeared next to Erwin and crouched before the goblin whose skull had just been cracked in two by Erwin.
With her fingers, she pointed at red tattoos. Goblins live in tribes and worship different deities. Some tribes trade with humans, some avoid them""]
"And this one belongs to what sort of tribe""
"This one hunts anyone not of them for glory. They are warriors""]
Erwin sighed.""Feels like I am about pto oke a hornet nest""
They were on a scouting mission today to find the tribe's location to hunt their Chief-shaman, the first guardian.
Erwin secretly followed this specific goblin for two days, observing their behaviors, actions, and limits.
He glanced once more at the body. "Small, but strong, like a chimp. Maybe a little less strong."
Once he decided he knew enough about it, he wanted to leave, but the woman warned him.
[Do not underestimate them. If it senses you, they will send more after you]
With her encouragement, he decided to ambush the goblin, so he climbed a tree and waited for it to approach, taking the moment of confusion to attack.
"And now we killed him, how are we supposed to find the tribe's location?"
The woman pointed towards a tree.
The tree bark had carvings similar to the goblin's tattoo.
["You are already in their territory, follow the marks, and it will lead us to them."]
Erwin nodded. "Alright. But I am retiring for today. Before I see those so-called 'Hobgoblins' and assess their strength, I am not attacking anywhere."
["Wise. I shall accompany you back to the cave, or would you prefer quietness?"]
"It doesn't matter."
So, he turned around, taking the path back to his shelter. "First blood is drawn. Hope I won't repeat that mistake once again."