My mind was racing. The goblin village was here in this mountain right in front of me. I knew from the still barren land around the old ritual site. But digging into the snow was just too risky. Why had the upper entrance disappeared? The small tunnel in the ravine should have been there. I did not even find the bridge or the mushroom cave. How was I supposed to get to them? Should I even try? They were the first people I had really met in this world. The humans running away from me as I flew above their village did not count. I felt I should visit them. I should see if they were doing fine.

Maybe I could clear out this valley from orks? That would make it safe to dig for the entrance, right?

I shook my head. Even if I wanted to do that, it would probably take longer than waiting for the snow to melt. And within that time someone from the rest of the ork valleys would surely take notice. It was a stupid idea. I had magic.

The snow was soft and as I landed, I sunk most of the way into it. Not a smart idea. The traces needed to be hidden. My best chance was taking out a rodent's body from my storage and splattering some of the blood on the now packed snow. That way it was simply a bird hunting here. Nothing suspicious at all.

With my tracks hidden, I got to work. I hoped I was remembering the position somewhat correctly. I needed to be within about two metres, at most three. My shadows spread and very carefully sunk into the snow. I made them as immaterial as I could and they started to slip in between the icy crystals without disturbing them. Bit by bit, a thin blanket of darkness suffused the powdered white. When they got to the rocky mountainside, my shadows were stopped. They were not fine enough to slip in between atomic bonds. That would have been weird.

Just as I had almost given up hope, the left edge of my darkness slipped out of the snow and into a free space. I had maybe ten centimetres of movement I could scout out by feeling. It had to be enough. I activated [Eldritch Shift] and slipped into what I hoped was the tunnel. My body shoved the snow out of its way with only part of me in the open. Weirdly enough, my organs were filled with cold the same instant. Had the snow been moved inside me?

Moments later, the cold water shooting out of my orifices was the answer. Yes, it had. How or why I did not know. I was simply glad I had been shifted to my metal form and not taken any harm.

I took some careful steps into the darkness in front of me. It was almost pitch black only a tiny amount of light filtering through the snow near the upper end of the entrance. Luckily, my pushing into the wall did not break it in any way. I had made it inside. Now I only needed to hope this was the right place.

Following the tunnel brought me into complete darkness after a few turns. I was wondering for a moment how to navigate until I brought my shadows back out. They reached all around me in a web of tendrils letting me know where the walls and ceiling were. The ground was covered in a thorough blanket so I would not stumble over uneven ground.

Soon, I made it far enough to see light once more. A familiar green shine with a hint of red lit up the tunnel. A few turns later, I was met by a white wooden barricade. It looked a little primitive in its craftsmanship but that just told me I was at the right place. I had found the goblin village.

I remembered they were mostly active at nighttime. It would still be a few hours until then so I decided to shift back to my flesh and blood body while listening for anything on the other side of the barrier. There was not much going on. The only things I heard were the occasional steps of critters and rodents along the cave’s ground and the soft breathing of goblins.

I had enough mana so I decided to simply shift past the barrier. I had gained this Skill just after leaving them. This was the first time I used it here.

Beyond, the goblin huts with their white wood and mushroom-cap thatch-roofs were just as I remembered. There were still mostly earth aspected mana crystals lighting up the place. Most of them were rather dim by now, the day drawing to a close. I took off silently and drew a circle through the cavern. The community fireplace powered by crystals was still there. Roguk’s hut was still there. The gate leading to the white forest was new. It looked much more like a common path than a blockade. The tunnel leading to the river was as I remembered. And there was the tunnel leading out into the ravine. Why had I not found it from the other side? I wanted to know.

The walk up took about half an hour. I had grabbed one of the crystals from the firepit to light my way, now holding it with a shadow tendril. The tunnel gradually narrowed just as I remembered. Or so I thought until I reached a dead-end without any prompting. There was just a wall in the middle of the way. I touched it, first with a shadow, then with a talon. Nothing happened. It was simple stone, round as if someone had put a heavily oversized marble in the middle of the tunnel. I took a closer look at where it connected to the walls and found rounded corners. It seemed my theory had already been debunked.

The next thing was activating my magical senses to full power. And I found the reason. There was a ton of earth vis flowing through the stone in front of me. It looked somewhat similar to Borsdown’s quarry just smaller in scale. The node was around medium in size, possibly low major. It must have appeared soon after I left to fill up the hallway this much. Though from the feedback I got, the wall was maybe two metres thick until the node. I had most likely found the right entrance on the other side and just taken it as a dead-end when finding this. I should have been using my magic perception.

At least I learned something from this.

I returned to the village and made my way to Roguk’s hut. The leather flap covering the doorway was easily pushed aside, not making a noise thanks to [Sneak]. The inside was just as I remembered. A bunch of shelves with all kinds of materials, animals, and a few vis crystals. The tables in the middle held his tools. Now that I was a good bit larger, I could comfortably stand in front and still see the top of the desk. It would still be a little tall had I arms to reach up on it but my head now fully reached above.

I heard the goblin snore a little in his bed. I decided to let him rest and made myself comfortable as well. A few hours of roosting would do me good.

When he woke up, I slowly opened my eyes. The goblin rustled behind the covers cutting part of the room off until he stepped out. He took a few steps as my head traced his movement. His clothes were as simple as I remembered. Simple leather with a few bone decorations here and there. He picked up a wooden spoon from his workbench and poked at the insides of some clay pot. Satisfied, he put the tool down and turned around. Then he froze. Slowly, he turned halfway back. His eyes met mine.

Hoot. I greeted him.

“What the…”

When my supersensory matrix connected to his mind, he flinched back, stumbling over his own feet. As he greeted the ground with his rear end, I spoke to him.

“Good morning, Roguk. Or should I say good evening?”

“You… What… How…?”

I tilted my head. My facial feathers pulled into a grin.

“What?”

“Wait… Fio? How are you so big? And your feathers are darker. What’s going on?”

“I travelled far and met lots of people. Then I was in the area and decided to say hi.”

The goblin shook his head.

“Right. Say hi. How are you speaking directly into my head? How… thaumaturgy?”

“That’s right. See this item on my chest? It lets me connect to someone else’s mind. Though I recently learned there’s a Skill as well. I’m probably gonna try to learn it.”

“Ugh. I… Yeah. I just didn’t expect to see you again this soon. Umm. How are you doing?”

I chuckled.

“I’m good, thanks. Let’s get settled and then you can tell me how you’re doing, okay?”

“Right. Good idea. You just kinda surprised me.”

I nodded.

A few minutes later, we were sitting around the community cooking spot. The goblins eyed me carefully but also with some interest. Chef was the only one ignoring my presence.

While eating, I told Roguk about answering me only in his mind so we started to hold a conversation nobody else could listen to.

“So, am I doing this right? I guess… We’re not doing that great, right now. Better than most winters but it’s always hard when we can’t hunt down in the valley.”

I tilted my head.

“You need food?”

“Yes. It would be great to have everyone eat their fill. Chef has to ration carefully just to make sure everyone makes it through the winter. With the upper path locked, we can’t even send a team there to forage. At least we have the Whitewood Cave.”

“Where the monkeys were?”

He nodded.

“I see. Well… I could help you out… You still got crystals from the node, right?”

“Yes. How’d that help? You can hardly get anything in here without making the entrance obvious. You didn’t break through the snow cover, right?”

“I didn’t. But I’ve got my ways. And I might be able to help with that node clogging up the upper tunnel.”

“Did you find another entrance, or what? I’d really like to know about something like that.”

His intense glare almost made me flinch back. But I had fought the Monstrosity. Roguk could not intimidate me!

“No. I have a pretty useful Skill. More like three, actually. Working together, I can use them to get food for you. And I can buy it by selling the crystals. Not that you’d need more than one or two to make it through the winter…”

“What do you mean? Those things are useless for anyone but thaumaturges! They’re only a deathtrap unless carefully managed.”

“It’s about… a week? I might be able to make it in a week. There’s people there willing to buy vis crystals at a decent price. I already made a whole lot of money.”

“And they have food to sell? What goblin village is it?”

I shook my head.

“Not goblins. Dwarves.”

Roguk choked on his food. His coughing drew the attention of most others. Someone sitting nearby came over to give him a few hits on his back. It took almost half a minute until he had calmed down. The others were now very interested in what was going on. I could also see a bit of concern in their eyes.

“Right. Can you show off those Skills?”, he asked me.

“I can show off what’s important.”

“Then…”

He switched to speaking out loud.

“Alright, everyone. I hope you’re mostly done eating. I know it was not quite enough but we should make it through the winter like this. Now, you probably remember that owl visiting us a few months ago. She didn’t even have a name then so I named her Fio. This is her.”

A mumble went through the just under fifty goblins.

“I knew it!”, someone called. Was that Luk?

“She’s changed a bit and I don’t really know how but she’s also got some good Skills and wants to help us out. Or so she says. Go ahead.”

He nodded to me. I answered likewise.

With a bit of focus, I opened my storage portal right in front of me. The goblins shied back from the purple and black window hovering in front of my beak. Flexing my will, I pushed out some of my hunts. First, a marten. Everyone gasped. Then, another one. I followed up by emptying most of my stored food. It was mostly rodents and small mammals. A few lizards and birds were in the mix as well as one young doe. Things I had collected to make my journey safer. I now gave them to those who needed them.

By the end, silence had come over the crowd. Someone pushed the stupefied goblins aside and after a moment, Chef walked up to the pile of meat. He eyed me for a moment before bending down to inspect the meat. After a few moments, he nodded.

“This is good stuff. Fresh. Where’d you get it?”

I sent my answer to Roguk. It would be a bit weird to make Chef fall on his butt in front of everyone.

“My storage Skill freezes time. I hunted these a month or two ago. You can keep them. I still have enough to last me a week. With that, I can return to the dwarves and get more. Tell me how much you need.”

The goblin chief looked at me for almost two full minutes.

“Fio. Why are you doing this?”

I shrugged my wings.

“Why not?”

He turned back to Chef.

“She says she hunted these a month ago. She’s willing to sell them for vis crystals.”

A grin spread on the goblin’s face.

“We got way too many of those anyway. What do you say, everyone?”

With that, the dam broke. Everyone got close and was talking excitedly. I had a smug expression on my face. This was kind of fun.