This language thing is a pain in the ass, Ai thought as she explained what the old lady had said to her. She may have slightly not mentioned that Celine was a bat-shit crazy murderer, but ignorance was bliss right?

Anyway the real question was whether they were going to kill the Queen Bean, not the validity of the source that the prompt came from. At least, that’s what Ai told herself.

“I want to do it. The villagers won’t do anything, at least not before it’s too late. You might think they have it coming, maybe some of them do, but the children and the people that helped me didn’t. They shouldn’t have to die because of a few assholes.” Ai stopped there, not wanting to start giving a speech about life and how fair it was.

Without even a flicker in his expression Jack shrugged. “I don’t mind. I’m good at killing things.”

“…right.” As good a reason as any, Ai guessed. “Are you going to come?” Ai looked towards the goblin.

Looking slightly constipated, the goblin nodded.

Ai wasn’t sure how much use he would be in a fight, her eyes lingering on his wooden leg. Perhaps they could hook him up with some sort of ranged weapon. If they survived this hunt, that was.

And if he didn’t turn tail and run.

Ai was surprised that didn’t go against the contract they had made. Maybe it could sense the intentions behind their actions, which was a disturbing thought. Her mind was her own. She didn’t want anyone, or anything else in there.

“I can track it from where the broken cart was. We’ll stop at nightfall to eat then hunt in the morning. Maybe grab some plants if there are any to keep us going the next day.”

***

When they arrived at the broken cart the bodies were gone. Taken by the village the previous day, probably.

Ai followed the Queen Beans tracks. It took a moment for Ai to identify all four limbs because she walked with her hind legs and wings, rather than any front legs. She limped too, keeping the weight off of her right wing. Somewhere along the way someone had fought back and injured her.

That made Ai feel better, it didn’t seem like quite such an impossible task when she realised that it bled just like she did.

Either way, Ai spent most of her time trying not to think about the actual fight but about the actual preparations that they could make. She had plucked up some poisonous mushrooms, all of which had been taught to her by Kele. She also found some wild onions to make food with. The jerky in her bag could be fried but she wasn’t sure how it would taste.

Water was quickly becoming the groups most pressing concern. Ai and the goblin both sweated buckets while Jack continued to walk along predatory and perfect. Jack actually ended up giving them some water out of his water skin because he wasn’t drinking nearly as much as they were.

Luckily Ai spotted some familiar looking vines. One hack with the short sword and the severed vine poured out water into their water skins. A pinch of white powder and they were good to go again.

Along the way Ai did her best to try and teach Jack about tracking. He had asked her to teach him looking slightly in pain the whole time. Ai guessed that he didn’t like asking people for help. Or perhaps just feeling helpless. It was a feeling she could empathise with and she was wise enough not to comment.

When the sun was in the last quarter of the sky they threw together a camp.

“Ahhh, this walking kills!” The goblin groaned massaging where his real leg slotted into the artificial one.

“And there’ll be a lot more of it before our time is up.” Ai said.

Jack dropped his armful of sticks onto the ground between them. “Are you sure it’s wise to have a fire? People will be able to spot us from way off.”

“We’ll need the warmth.” Already the cold was starting to seep into her bones. “Plus, there aren’t any people for a long way. And I can’t imagine any of the villagers following us, even if they did they’d expect us to go along the road, not deeper into the forest.”

And deeper they had gone. The trees were far taller here and their long reaching branches filtered out the starlight. If it weren’t for the fact Ai could see better in the dark, she’d be blind as a bat. Occasionally they’d pass unfamiliar plants that looked twisted and predatory.

The most disturbing by far was the one that looked like a crouched child and made weeping sounds. Ai had started to walk towards it before the goblin stopped her.

He then threw a stick near the child and roots curled around it like whips, breaking it into several pieces. After that, they were all a bit warier of anything unfamiliar.

“The villagers aren’t the only people in the forest. What about goblins?” Jack had no heat to his tone, but the goblin narrowed its eyes.

“What about goblins?” Ai was pretty sure it was the first time the goblin had spoken ‘human’ or whatever her original language was called.

“Are you saying that if a group of goblins came across us right now they wouldn’t attack us?”

“Yes.” The goblin looked down its nose at Jack. “If it was a small group.”

Jacks eyes narrowed at the muttered words. “So we do need to worry about them.”

The goblin frowned, not expecting Jack to hear him. “Most goblins don’t like fire, they’ll stay away.”

“Most?”

“I’m special.”

“Right.” Jack sounded as if he was placating a child, needlessly antagonistic.

“I am! I’m smarter than other goblins. And whatever you are too, considering you can’t tell when I’m sat right in front of you.”

“BOYS! This is not the time to fight over your egos.” Whenever these two got close to one another she was pretty sure they reverted to age three. Well that might be an over exaggeration, but only slightly.

“Do you have a plan to face this ‘Queen Biene’?” Jack changed topic abruptly.

“I picked these.” Ai laid out her stash of mushrooms, pointing to an unassuming slim white one. “This one is a paralyzer. If we manage to get it into the Queens system then the rest should be easy.”

Jack shook his head. “When the humans were fighting it their weapons bounced off.”

“But she got injured somehow.”

“Yeah, her wing looked like it went through a meat grinder. But she already had that. I don’t know how she got it.”

“She’ll eat it if you put it in a corpse.” The goblin made a suggestion. The goblin didn’t look nearly as sick as earlier, and its face had brightened when Ai had suggested poisoning the Queen.

“Will she even come near it if she knows it’s been tampered with?”

“It’s worth a try. And surely you know something to hide our scent.”

Ai did, but the plan still seemed like it was on shaky foundations.

“What if it isn’t a corpse?” Jack said.

“What are you thinking?”

“We could catch and make another animal eat it, throw it in her lair or whatever and then she’ll take care of the rest.”

Ai frowned.

“Just force feed something?”

“Yeah.”

Ai twiddled the stem of the mushroom between her fingers.

“We’ll try. I’ll gather some dung to hide our scent just in case it doesn’t work. We aren’t even sure she has a lair.”

“We’ll find out soon.” Jack said.

True.