Another trip into the forest, another annoying problem to deal with. She looked around through the shaded woods for signs that she was getting close, a path or a familiar landmark. What she found instead was a sign much more literal; haphazardly nailed into a tree was a plank of wood bearing writing in unmistakably awful handwriting and spelling comprehension. It was nailed in at a poor angle as if it only mattered that it was on the tree at all, and was just about at face height instead of being well above to increase visibility. The nails were barely even hammered into the tree and half of them were bent in another example of 'good enough' behavior. On it was written, or rather carved and then ham-handedly painted over, 'Wee bye yor stuf!' with a crooked arrow pointing to the left.
"Definitely Goblins." Yuki sighed to herself.
The young woman glared dejectedly at the sign knowing it was her best and last hope to fulfill an order, lest she return empty handed and hope the customer wouldn't ask for a full refund. This was the last order she had under the guide of a nearby apothecary and she needed every last scrap of money as she prepared to open her own shop in her hometown. She ran her fingers through her long and wild mass of wavy auburn hair, pulling it back into a ponytail on the off chance the Goblins were in the middle of having a food fight like the last time: the results of which ended with the longest bath Yuki had ever taken just to get the mashed potatoes out of her hair. She adjusted her grey cloak and debated taking it off before agreeing with her worry that younglings may try to swing on it like the second visit. Yuki folded and tucked it into her leather side bag before, once more, pausing and remembering the Goblin attempting to give her the gift of random mushrooms, cramming them into her bag and getting them all over her spellbook. She secretly wished there was something she could do to hide her freckles upon remembering the utter cruelty of Goblins following her around while trying to count the tiny spots. What made it significantly worse was how often they got confused after the number seventeen before starting over.
She tightened the strap on the bag to raise it up under her arm rather than resting on the hip and proceeded in the direction the sign so helpfully gave despite the fact it technically pointed into the ground some few feet away if one were to take it literally. A good many paces forward she found another sign now pointing 'to the right' and stating 'Wee haf meny sel thingz!' in equally eye-stabbing quality. It was at least a tiny bit cute when she thought about it: that creatures as, to be rather honest,
dumb
and nonsensical as Goblins had somehow maintained a functioning system from the Old Nights that persisted powerfully to this very day. While this camp specifically might not have started from the harsh and nightmarish past that bore this curious little fruit of advancement, no one had expected Goblins to continue this behavior once the need for it had gone away.
Yuki continued to check and double check her possessions, nothing for anyone to grab onto or fiddle with behind her back and nothing immediately shiny to get them drawn to. The Goblins here have learned well that pickpocketing and general thievery would get them in trouble with the local guard but that didn't mean they could entirely control themselves around something shiny. Though they were generally kind, a Goblin is still a sticky fingered imbecile at times. At the very least one could simply carry some polished rocks and hand them out to distract them from snooping for something more.
It wasn't that much further in that she saw the wall around the camp, the tall wooden beams extending up some ten feet and secured with sturdy rope; both much too large and too well made to be the work of small green hands. Goblins stood watch from behind them and soon began to wave back at the others behind the walls to get ready for a visitor. Yuki approached the sturdy wooden door and watched it slowly open, dragging against the dirt beneath it as the tiny guards worked hard to open the thing so much larger than themselves.
While the ramshackle collective of old shacks and crooked stalls would initially appear incredibly mundane at best, it was still at least somewhat impressive when one considered just how much of it was built by Goblins; a race not particularly known for construction skills, city planning, patience, material processing, patience, cooperation,
patience
, being able to do a complex task for more than a half an hour and so on. Yet here their village stood: deep in the Pale and realistically their own. The nearby towns and villages all acknowledged the village's existence and right to be with people occasionally making their way into the forest just to see the novelty of nice and helpful Goblins.
Yuki stood as a giant amongst them as she stepped through the gate and into the main square. To the surprise of no one imagining what a structure built by the small green things would look like, the answer was very blunt. The buildings were far too small for a human to fit inside comfortably and were also flimsy enough for a particularly rowdy toddler to annihilate. But the complexity of the village was not to be understated as they had numerous kinds of shops and 'services' available. At some point a chef had come to try and teach the Goblins how to cook and the word of multiple people claiming to have eaten from the village without being rushed to the nearest apothecary with blood seeping from their eyes lent enough belief that it may actually be safe to eat there, though that meant little when the most they could prepare was the absolute most basic of meals. Another curiosity was a bathing area; curious both in that it was fairly well thought out in its design and more so that Goblins were bathing at all. They had a stable offering a few 'sturdeh mountz an' hardee workbeastss' which comprised of two runty donkeys and a rather fat pig.
Yuki's sapphire eyes scanned the village for the specific thing she needed before remembering it should be further in the back. It had been a fairly long time since she had last been here but it was incredibly difficult to wholly forget much about this place for better or worse. She began to head there and wondered how the residents could stand the atrocious gravel 'road' laid down at the entrance when a tiny thing approached her, one of the guards wearing an old and dented human helmet and holding a broken longsword of some kind, its blade badly shattered at the right length to make it a suitable longsword for its current wielder.
"You buy, pretty human?" he asked in as polite a tone as a Goblin could accomplish.
"Uh, possibly yes."
Yuki knew it was difficult to converse with the Goblins as their understanding of languages mostly came down to very basic words and topics awkwardly strung together in a way that almost made them adorable. Giving a blunt negative answer usually made them all feel a tad saddened while giving a blunt positive answer made them all excited to get your attention as you passed by. This may be nicer than other Goblins would ever treat anyone in their territory but no one ever liked being bombarded with sales pitches.
"Here!" the guard said in a happier tone as he lifted his hand to give her something.
Even outstretched, his hand only came up to Yuki's waist despite her height being well within human average. The Goblins were a small and thin race rarely reaching over half of a human's size or weight; their skin a dull green and their eyes rather large. In his hand was a small and lumpy coin about an inch or two across. It was poorly worked all around with the outer edge being a wobbly, drunkenly drawn circle and the sides looked more like the maker struck it out of anger rather than any attempt at craftsmanship. It appeared to be made of iron and bore the letter 'G' on both sides.
"What's this?" Yuki asked the guard.
"Dwarf gave Smith-things. We save Bearded man from bear, Bearded man give Smith-things as thank!" the guard said with a wide smile, "He taught us craft things! We make small, easy things. Give as gift to visitors so they come back!"
Yuki thumbed the coin and flipped it over in her hand before looking back at the guard and smiling, "Goblins smithing things, huh? Never heard of that happening before."
She continued to walk towards the back of the village, glancing over the little shops and stalls they had made. A few children ran about chasing frogs, a favored pet, while an adult handed out carrots for them to snack on. A few were washing the rags they called clothes and one even appeared to be logging inventory in a comically oversized and heavily worn book held up with the aid of two others. The whole place was a wild oddity with Goblins doing their best to build a small society and actively trying to be nice and polite. The majority of their kind were still thieving, nasty little pests that often turned violent if outsiders came too deep into their territory yet occasionally a small commune like this would turn up and often it'd stay. Once the Goblins established themselves they were usually content to live this simple and reasonable life filled with trade and probably more fun than they could have in a cave.
Yuki approached the more intentionally laid out 'market' at the back of the village and found herself to not be their only visitor. Two Orcs were currently browsing what the Goblins had to offer and while Yuki, a mere human, might be a giant to Goblins the Orcs made her feel just as small as the villagers. They wore hides and furs likely taken from their personal hunts, weapons affixed to their hips and shields sat on their backs. As she approached they glanced back at her; their faces, rough and brutish even without the scars and bruises from what looked to be a recent battle, bore the prominent brow and tusks of their kind and their eyes were smaller yet as piercing as their blades. One was a female and considerably smaller than the male yet she still dwarfed anything else around them and sported incredible muscle definition while her companion looked like a walking slab of meat and punching. Orcs were another race that had odd interactions with other civilizations.
No unified government, no standard of living, but typically not openly hostile to other races. While there had been countless wars and skirmishes involving them, it most often required a significant effort to rile them up into a real frenzy. While it must still be stated with no uncertainty that entering Orcish territory requires a number of 'signs of compliance'; indications through various actions to show you meant no harm such as removing your boots to make it harder to run or fight on bad terrain or openly carrying a bottle of drink to give to any Orcs that may approach, passage through their land and even occasional accommodation within their camps or holds was a possibility so long as one expected nothing in the way of civilized comforts or friendly demeanor. Still, if you let them be than most likely they would rarely go out of their way to harm you. The Old Nights forced them to understand when to be civil.
Yuki kept her gaze away from the pair, not out of inherent fear but rather to not seem rude. She knew full well Orcs weren't naturally prone to random violence and as the village was under protection of the local militia, it technically was safe. No, her gaze fell as the pair began to approach.
"Human." the male called out not far behind the female.
Yuki turned slowly, not too fast as to make it obvious she was nervous but not too slow as to be considered rude. They stood within normal conversation distance and their expressions weren't quite as stern as they previously had been. This close she could see more details in their dress and appearance like small pouches and sacks affixed to their belts and the furs they wore were very well maintained. The female also held a strange look of savage beauty; her body was well proportioned and her black hair expertly braided into countless small, waist length braids.
"Yes?" Yuki replied.
"Are you a mage?"
