Irene and the others had to hurry up towards the foothills before the snow started to lt. It was smarter to approach the monsters while they were still moving slowly. Just like cold-blooded serpents, they were certainly less active in the snow.
Yet they were still so much more active than the past iterations of goblins that weren’t involved with the strange poison.
The group went forward, and there were a few unnad knights from Hydrogia along with Felix, Leif, Irene, Gunnar, Sven, and Eitan. Of course, those from Chemois were in the front and leading the n up paths they knew were easier to travel.
Much like tis in the past, they were on high alert for the possibility of monsters or beasts at each corner. However, this ti was much more uncertain.
The foothills, despite being places they often scouted in the past, weren’t going to be exactly the sa. None of them knew exactly what would be waiting for them up ahead.
Since they weren’t going directly to the foothills and on a much more gradually sloping route, they would at least be able to see amongst the trees for quite a long ti. It gave them a chance to prepare if anything stuck out to them.
If necessary, they could also retreat or hide if there seed to be sothing beyond their control.
Irene hoped it wouldn’t turn out like that. She wanted to face the goblins just as much as anyone else who had been wronged by the awful creatures.
The higher they rode into the trees and hills, the more evidence of monsters began appearing around them.
At first, all it was were the tracks of goblins frequenting the area. That much was to be expected considering the sheer volu of goblins they had been dealing with every so often.
They ca to challenge the knights in waves, and after the first few, no one dared hope that they wouldn’t return. All of them had accepted the reality that the monsters would co back no matter what. Until they cut them off at the source...
That was what they hoped to achieve by scouting into the dangerous foothills.
What were rely goblin footprints in the snow beca much more than that after a half day of travel. They reached a point where the carcasses of the goblins’ prey and filth began littering the earth.
The snow was brown in this place, and the horrible stench of monsters was everywhere. Even though there was no sign of the poison quite yet, many of the scouting party pulled the fabrics over their faces. So even had tiny herbs they would stick into their mask in hopes that it would ward off the sll. It worked against the sll, but not the bad feeling that ca with evidence of so many monsters.
By the ti they went over the crest of the hill, they had slowed their pace quite drastically. With all the signs around them, they knew it was inevitable to face monsters. However, how many was to be determined.
In this area of the foothills, there was a part that went downward on the other side for quite a while until it led to the rest of the foothills that then climbed up to the mountains.
The group got to a place that was more of a cliff, and the trees ended because of the rocky terrain. Without anything blocking their view, they had the horrible realization that the valley below them was filled with monsters.
If they thought that what they faced before was a sea of monsters, they were mistaken. This was the sea, the entire ocean. It felt like the world was bare of goblins because they were all in that very valley.
This caused Sir Gunnar to place his fingers over his face, telling the rest of the group to remain quiet.
They urged their horses to disappear back into the trees and hope that they didn’t trigger any of the awful creatures. They could only make inferences about how well the monsters saw. So had even observed the monsters seeing better in the dark than during the day.
Irene hoped it was true and they weren’t being followed.
When they were all back into the trees, Gunnar slipped off his dark horse, and Irene dutifully did the sa.
"I need a few to stay back with the horses and warn us if anything shows up," he explained. "The rest of us ought to go back to the edge and see if there is anything to glean from all of those goblins down below. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life."
His words, while strong at first, began to waver towards the end of his words. He was their strong leader, and even this slip of emotion didn’t cause Irene to doubt her knight in any way.
With that, they crept towards the edge of the forest where the world seed to drop off. As they got within feet of it, Irene and Gunnar both started to crouch.
Slowly, their heads peered over the edge, and they saw the alarming expanse of goblins that certainly proved what they had seen before was only a re fraction of what was to co for them.
"I just don’t understand where they all ca from," Irene whispered to the knight.
"This much ans they’ve been reproducing for ages," he admitted. "They’ll only keep growing in number. Winter is the ti when goblins lie low and reproduce. However, these don’t lie low, but they still manage to further their disgusting lines of monsters."
There was a heavy silence as the two of them continued to look through the bowl-shaped valley.
"How strange," Irene uttered. "They hardly move at all as if they’re waiting for sothing to happen."
There were only a few short minutes before the ’sothing’ that Irene was referring to happened.
A bit of disturbance in the west caused Irene and Gunnar’s eyes to look in that direction.
Strangely enough, they saw a black cloud rise from a group of goblins, and they all began croaking at each other. A few even began to scream.
This shift of activity, for so strange reason, caused a stampede to begin as they reacted to whatever was happening below.
When the goblins concentrated toward the southern side of the small valley, it cleared away a space that revealed to them the evidence of a partially eaten away ogre.
Irene had to place her gloved hands over her already covered face. This was unlike anything they had ever seen before.
No answers for anything. Only questions.
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