My humans finished eating their fish rather quickly and seemed eager to leave.

I banked the fire and made ready to follow them.

“Fucking goblins. It had to be goblins, didn’t it?” Grix muttered as he rubbed his left shoulder.

The reptilian brothers murmured their agreement.

As I stood, Dendra walked back into and merged with her tree, then emerged once more from my root necklace.

“Alright, let’s go!”

I looked down at the tiny dryad form, and the others all turned to look.

“What? You think I’m going to leave this adorable lug to stumble around on his own? I have my new tree, and I’m happy. I’m sticking with him,” she said.

I shrugged.

The others traded dubious looks but said nothing.

“Well, what are you all waiting for? Onward! Report the vile goblin threat! Teach my adorable little Shaper some magic!”

I flicked the dryad’s tiny head.

“Ow!”

“Stick with us when we get to the gates. We’ll vouch for you,” Grix said. Trella seemed unhappy about the invitation but held her tongue.

Vee ran to Dendra’s tree, and lithely climbed to one of the lower branches, collecting a few of the knobby red fruits that hung there. “These things will be worth a fair bit. Come on, let’s go!” She dropped back to the ground and practically sprinted out of the clearing.

“So, you’re coming with us, Shaper?” Grix asked.

“Yes. I need to learn spells. And other crafts.”

The half-giant nodded. “Well, trail behind us by a few yards. We’ll protect Trella, since she’s fragile despite her power, and you keep an eye out for anything sneaking up on us. Got it?”

I nodded and hefted my spear. With that we set off, heading in the direction of the fortress town.

Grix and the brothers maintained a loose triangular formation around Trella as they marched through the forest.

“Isn’t she cute, Shaper? Oh, that timid little fox girl is just adorable. Not as much as you, but…”

I ignored Dendra as she quietly prattled on.

I walked with my spear slung over my shoulder, casual in my confidence that we would not be attacked. I could sense everything for hundreds of yards around and felt nothing that I would consider a threat. Occasionally we came within a few dozen yards of other groups, but we passed them by with no interaction beyond a simple wave of greeting.

It took some time for us to reach the forest’s edge and begin the trek from there to the fortress town. It had grown in my absence. The new outer wall had been completed, a palisade of roughhewn logs encircling the town itself. More buildings had been and were still being erected in the empty spaces between the inner and outer walls, sprawling precursors to the eventual urban crowding.

We approached the forest-side gate, and Vee stepped forward to speak with the guards. “Viela Tenirlane and party, returning. We have with us an undocumented Kin, friendly. Vouched for by a dryad and us. He’s wearing her around his neck, if you need more information.”

The guards stared at me with wonder. After a few moments, one of them worked up the courage to speak. “Um, sir, if’n ya dun mine me askin’ it, from which clan does ya hail?”

Dendra’s tiny form spoke up before I could. “He’s of the Ravager clan. He helped me to plant my new tree in the forest. I ask that you treat him with the same respect you would any other envoy of the forest.”

The guards both bowed their heads, while the one who’d asked waved his hands and looked anywhere but directly at me. “Certainly, marm. We just askin’ cuz we is s’posed ta. We intend no offense or disrespect.” The guard took care to enunciate the last bit, looking at me from the corner of his eye as he stiffened up to stand at attention.

Moments later we were through the gates and into the outer district of the new town. Much of the area was bare earth or patches of grass, with a few worn trails and numerous buildings being constructed, and a few already finished.

“We’ll head to the Hunters’ Guild. They’ll share the information to where its needed. Goblin invasions are generally part of the shared purview of the Hunter and Mercenary Guilds,” Vee said, as she led the way along the hard-packed earth toward a newly erected building.

I followed as the group trekked toward the inner walls, then through the streets until they reached a rather large building. Inside it was filled with rough cut tables of wood, where dozens of individuals congregated. Along one side was a counter of polished wood, behind which sat several young women. Vee approached one of them and began speaking.

“Viela Tenirlane and party, reporting on our scouting mission. We found a dryad tree at the point of interest, in full bloom. Fruits collected for verification. Kin of unknown affiliation encountered at the site, brought with us back to town. Seems to be of the Ravager clan.” Vee spoke with authority as she reported the group’s findings, then handed over one of the glistening red fruits she had collected.

The woman behind the counter took the fruit, and produced several sheets of paper, covered with writing. Obviously, I couldn’t read what was printed on it, or what Vee scribbled down on it.

“Good job. The reward will be added to your account.” The woman behind the counter bowed to the group.

“Ah, there’s more. We have information on a potential threat, so if you could arrange an urgent meeting with an officer, it would be appreciated.”

After a few more exchanged words, the group moved to sit at a nearby table. I followed.

“So, what now?” I asked.

“We wait for a meeting with an officer of the guild,” Grix said.

“Why not just go and kill goblins instead?”

Grix snorted. “We can kill, as a group, maybe two hundred goblins before tiring? Five hundred? Doesn’t matter. Goblin invasions happen when goblin population gets too high. Tens or hundreds of thousands come pouring out of their warrens, searching for things to eat, steal or kill.

“The worst ones see millions of the little bastards coming out of their caves. The stories say that this land used to be ours before a massive goblin wave like three or four hundred years ago. Ten million of the little green shits came storming out of their caves. They ran out of things they could easily kill in the mountains and swarmed across the plains. Kept spreading and multiplying until a plague took hold and wiped out most of them. Ten thousand good soldiers on a field ain’t worth shit when outnumbered a thousand to one. Arm’s going to tire eventually. Swords are heavy.”

“Most goblin invasions are only a few hundred thousand in size, relatively easy to handle with some coordination between the guilds,” said Vee. “You only get the really big ones once in a while, with multiple groups reaching the critical point at the same time. In more civilized area, we do annual goblin culls and year-round bounties. Keeps them manageable.”

I nodded along, not really understanding or caring. I was here to learn, but not about those foul creatures. However, they seemed insistent about notifying others about the goblins, and talking about boring things until they did so. Maybe it would lead to a lot of goblins dying. That would be acceptable, I supposed. Though it wouldn’t make the waiting or their inane chatter any less tedious. Then her words caught up to me. Bounties?

“There are bounties for killing them? Here?” I allowed a feral smile to cross my face.

Grix shook his head. “Not yet. Nobody around here has had run-ins with them yet, so no bounties have been established. Sometimes, the guilds can be more reactive than proactive.”

“Oh. But in other places, they give you things for killing goblins?” I liked that idea. Maybe I could visit these other places sometime in the future.

“Uh, yeah. Most places the bounties range from a few silver septs up to a gold mark,” Grix answered.

I tilted my head and looked at the half-giant, whom I still thought of as a dire human, in puzzlement.

Dendra spoke up, coming to my aid, though not for the right reasons. “He doesn’t really understand money. Lots of his memory is just kind of missing, apparently. Also, I’m not really sure his clan even uses the concept. Most of what I hear about them indicates they barter for goods and slaves.”

I understood the concept of money, but only in the context of James’ old life. I was just unsure of the particular conversion rates of the local economy’s currency of choice. However, I went with Dendra’s explanation and nodded in agreement.

“Oh. Well. Huh. Trella, maybe you can help me out on this one? I don’t know how good I can explain money.”

The fox girl swallowed audibly, glancing at me then at the ground near my feet. She didn’t reek so openly of fear anymore, but her body remained tightly wound, and her breathing wasn’t as calm and even as her companions’. “I… uh… I need to go… I need to use the facilities!” Trella squeaked out, after much stuttering and false starting. She bolted off and disappeared through a door marked in script I could not read.

The dire human’s gigantic hand clapped down on my shoulder, almost managing to encompass it entirely. “Don’t mind her. She’s skittish sometimes. And she seems extra spooked by your clan of birth. Some of the Pures can be a superstitious lot.”

One of the twin lizard brothers snorted. “Only the furred ones, and the elves. The cold-blooded Kin and dwarves are far more rational.”

The other one chuckled with a low, hissing cough of merriment. “You still love dwarves, eh Sul?”

Sul ducked his head and said nothing, causing another round of mirth from Sil. The two were somewhat difficult to tell apart, even with all my senses.

Some minutes later, Trella rejoined us, right as a human girl with jet black eyes approached us. “The Guild Master will see you now.”

I noticed that the rest of the group straightened up at the mention of who we were to be meeting with. I inferred that it meant the person we were meeting would be important, and probably strong. A little bit of saliva pooled in my mouth at the thought.