Zane was regaling the others with their tales of killing the goblins, while Lucera was testing out her enhanced attribute, it hadn't been an obvious increase but she had said her thoughts seemed clearer.
"You should have seen it! Three hundred boss class goblins holding the line while we sent a guard to go find princess Lucera. I thought we'd die and she'd have to come find our bones!" Rommel laughed slamming his mug of ale down.
"There were more than a hundred shamans, their fireballs were enough to clear the far side of that mountain! Waves of the Sea, the mana in the air made our hair stand up, if we didn't have a mana absorber there wouldn't have even been bones to find." Zane added as teers of laughter made his eyes shine. Now it was hilarious, at the time he'd wondered just how broad Young Song's protection was.
"By the time I arrived you'd have thought they were rolling in ash, it took nearly three minutes and half a dozen third tier mana stones to cast the earth swallowing spell. After all their shamans were killed, they were easy pickings until we entered their cave." Lucera chipped in as she opened her eyes.
Rommel grinned, "So, what did you get? Come on girl don't keep us hanging!" Rommel couldn't help looking her over some more. Nothing stood out but her grin was too wide for it to be something insignificant.
Lucera flipped her ponytail at her older cousin, "My mana is flowing faster, I'd have to cast a few spells to compare, but I think my mana channels were expanded." Lucera announced excitedly, "I'll use the same spell tomorrow and we can compare," Lucera added glancing over the bags of mana cores.
Jantje sighed, "Hopefully I'll be well enough tomorrow, if not for sure the day after. Maybe we'll even find another goblin city," Jantje placed a hand on her still tender stomach. Being a woman was incredibly inconvenient sometimes. To have missed out on so many mana cores, and possibly today's feather… Jantje was slightly better with earth spells than Lucera so had they been together it would have been her casting the spell.
Lucera grinned, "Be glad you weren't there in the caves, the smell was the worst! Even after three baths, and two cleansing spells I don't feel clean." Lucera, Rommel, and Zane all shuddered. The blood was nothing compared to having their boots soaked in goblin foul.
Zane gave another shudder, "I don't know how, but I had goblin entrails in my hair, the second time I was washing! I really thought we would die a few times… I think tomorrow we will just do clean up and gather up the cores."
"Agreed your highness, I don't mind waiting until we can all go together before we challenge another hoard of goblins… the fact they've been able to hide long enough to carve out a mountain, how did we not notice them last year?" Rommel added with a bit of hesitation as he glanced around. Goblins were not subtle… or smart. There should be reports of raids going back at least a year, not to mention… they hadn't found any captives.
Zane grew somber, "We also didn't see any hobgoblins, just regular goblins, shamans, and a few warriors… there's usually a hobgoblin for every fifty regular goblins, and a chief warrior for every hundred. For there to be at least a thousand goblins and not have a king… was strange."
Rowena glanced up, "We saw something strange today," after a nod from Noelle she continued, "Something in the trees was following us, when we tried to track it… we stopped at a pile of dead goblins, maybe 20. They all looked like they'd had their heads smashed in, no other injuries."
"They were all fresh too, the blood had only just started to dry." Lamont pitched in with a nervous glance around. "Whatever it was, wanted us to see the bodies." He added in a lowered voice, then almost screamed when something brushed his leg under the table.
"Yip!" The fox dodged the unexpected kick with an indignant yelp.
Lamont had nearly fallen from his seat on the bench as the fox slipped out to also sit at the table, clearly giving him an unhappy side eye.
Tania released Monty's arm after the fox had settled himself, not the one with an owl, but another red fox the size of a large dog, "Lord Fox? We didn't mean to startle you." Tania added as the fox deliberately shifted just a tad further away from them.
The fox slowly used his nose to open his waist pouch and pulled out a recording stone, then dropped it on the table. Using his nose he pushed it closer to the human male child. "Yip, yip."
Lamont glanced at the mana crystal, "Umm, you want me to record the memory for you?" Lamont asked uncertainly, the large, soft tail brushed against his cheek as the fox nodded. Lamont hesitated, but picked up the crystal and recorded the memory from the time they felt something watching them, until they had finished inspecting the goblin bodies.
The fox waited patiently, tail swaying behind the bench. When the small male was finished he picked up the crystal in his mouth placing it back in his pouch. The fox then fished up an unused mana core and placed on the table before jumping down.
Lamont glanced at the mana core, to the trotting away fox. "That was… unexpected." Even if the fox hadn't paid him, Lamont wouldn't have ignored the request with Lord Caius so close.
Noelle furrowed her brows, "It's strange, there was a fox with us when we saw the corpses… at least there had been one earlier, and shortly afterward." The foxes had been making themselves known, often only popping up for a moment after they'd make a kill, then disappearing back into the brush.
Tania thought back, "I don't recall a fox when we saw the goblins, I remember one just before we started to feel unease though." Noelle was often more attentive… but surely Tania hadn't been so distracted she'd failed to greet any fox upon its arrival.
Noelle traced the memory in her mind, "You're right, not five minutes before we grew uneasy did the fox leave, thinking back… I think something distracted the fox. I also don't recall hearing or seeing any birds in the area…" The more Noelle thought back, the creepier the encounter seemed. Not to mention, just as they were starting to discuss their theories the far side of the mountain had started to shake from Lucera's spell.
"There were always birds' overhead, even after my spell… maybe tomorrow we move as a group?" Lucera offered glancing to Caius and Young Song, protecting separate targets was harder than a single group… even if Young Song could appear wherever they were in the blink of an eye.
Tania sighed, so much for her little escapes, "Probably a good idea, at least until we clear out all the goblins." When all three of her cousins gave her the side eye she threw her hands up, "I want to live okay? I will stick with the group!"
Noelle wasn't impressed with Tania's exasperation, "If you wander off, I will break one of your legs," Noelle meant it too, better a broken leg than worse. Noelle hadn't forgotten that Young Song said he couldn't stop the pain, and the idea of walking around with a hole in her chest but unable to die was not something she wanted any of them to test.
Tania dug her fingers into the wooden table, "I understand highness." Tania knew they were just worried about her, but being spoken down to was never an enjoyable experience. Not to mention Tania was a fully matured tigress, she was also territorial and confrontational… but her reason knew this was not the time, the place, or the opponent.
Noelle watched as Tania had to force her tiger down, if she had fur, no doubt it would be bristled in challenge. Still, this was a hill Noelle was willing to break legs on.
Rommel gave a short cough, "I wonder what Lady Talvi went to speak about." Redirecting the conversation would be best, even if it was meaningless chatter.
Jantje glanced at the palace, "I'm more curious about how Emperor Lucian will embrace the light… or what will happen if Young Song enacts his justice." If they were going to force the conversation to shift…
"Surely… he wouldn't kill even the children? I have no love for the empire, but the commoners are just as much victims as the sacrificed…" Lucera added hesitantly. Earlier she'd broken out into a sweat at callous statement… but Young Song… it just didn't seem like something he would really do.
Zane stared at the hunting palace, "That might be why he's so hesitant to act… Young Song appears to really want the emperor to step up and save his people… which is more grace than I could give anyone of the empire after our history." Zane knew, deep down, if it were up to him… he wouldn't help the empire. Especially after only hearing about how they had been treating Young Song.
Rommel took another along swig of his ale, "Agreed, I mean this with all the respect I can have for a being when I say this, but Young Song's… benevolence is almost worrisome. I'm of a mind to believe he's really a beast of virtue… he just doesn't act like a… sin beast."
Zane tensed as a dozen soft chortles and barks echoed around them, all the foxes were staring … laughing, the smallest was even rolling on the ground while the owl stared at them. Zane stiffened even more as one of the foxes trotted up while he transformed into a handsome man.
The fox sat at the far end, right beside the flower their papa bird had decided to raise, "If I didn't know better little lordlings, I'd think you didn't understand the levels of pride."
Hazel flinched away as the large tail brushed up against her back, "Umm, uuh, I, please tell." Hazel stated stiffening her back so she sat straight up, clutching the folds of her dress.
"Lord Fox, do you happen to have a name we can call you?" Noelle asked as princess Hazel was once again the center of attention… something about her made it so easy for the beasts to single her out. Noelle once again looked the timid princess over, to her eyes, instincts, and smell Hazel seemed so… easily forgotten?
The fox glanced to the female warningly, "If the flower wilts, I'll complain to papa bird." The poor human female was sitting so stiffly as they all looked at her, didn't they know flowers were delicate? Of course, the most beautiful flowers had their own forms of protection…