Here in the darkness of the night, deep into the ever-dangerous forests away from his home was a hobgoblin. This hobgoblin had just finished running for his dear life for over two hours. In that same two hour span, that hobgoblin covered an astounding distance of twenty-four miles.

Though the hobgoblin in question wasn’t aware of the number of miles he traveled.

This hobgoblin was Rick, and he was lying flat on his back gasping for air as he tried to catch his breath.

This is something he’d like to have avoided doing because such action could immediately lead to his death if something strong stumbled upon him.

But he couldn’t help it, once all the adrenaline wore off he instantly collapsed at his current position.

Running for as far, for that long, at that speed was by no means an easy feat.

But it had to be done. He had to ensure that the mysterious flying monster trying to kill him had backed off.

So through nothing but sheer will and mental strength, he ran as fast as he could for two entire hours before finally feeling some semblance of safety.

And now he is experiencing the repercussions of such an action.

Barely being able to maintain any form of steady breathing, unable to move any part of his body without experiencing excruciating pain from the stress he put his body through.

He was also quite sure he had injured the bones in his feet in some way, though it was only an assumption based on the pain he was going through.

If he were to get attacked in this situation by another creature the same strength of the eagle or even himself for that matter, it’d be the immediate end of the hobgoblin named Rick.

And all of this is without taking into account the large gashes on his shoulders. With one large gash on each shoulder, he was definitely not in any condition to fight.

So all Rick could do was just lay there, and trust Velora to watch his surroundings while hoping he would recover fairly quickly as a high hobgoblin without suffering any attacks from monsters.

Though hoping alone can’t change reality.

It didn’t very long for Rick to fall unconscious from just pure exhaustion. Velora could do little to nothing to stop him from drifting away in sleep.

Velora could also do nothing but watch during the event that followed Rick falling unconscious.

She could only watch in suspense as Rick was dragged away by a singular humanoid creature.

Even after seeing the status card of the creature and figuring out what was taking Rick away, she still didn’t feel comfortable with the creature.

Yes, the thing slowly dragging the large body of Rick away was indeed a goblin.

Though it looked nothing like the goblins of the tribe that Velora was used to seeing. Even the race of the creature was weird as it was something different instead of just the usual goblin or high goblin or even hobgoblin like Rick.

No, It was instead called a TinkGoblin.

It still carried similar features of Rick and his tribe of goblins such as being as green as the foliage around it and having the same distinctive potbelly sported by Rick and the rest.

Though there such as the name of the race would imply, differences were definitely present on the TinkGoblin.

First of all, it was shorter than even the normal unevolved goblins who stood at a height of only three feet.

Instead, the creature appeared to only be two and a half feet in height which seemed far too small in the mind of Velora.

Second of all, its small hands were the home of some rather long fingers. Each finger seemed to reach a few inches in length.

It was truly an odd sight to see the small green TinkGoblin wrap its long fingers around Rick and pull him along.

But even as odd as it might be, it was still a perilous situation for Rick. He was so deep into his slumber that even while being dragged along, he showed no signs of waking.

Much to Velora’s and even his own dismay.

It wasn’t until the morning of the next day that Rick finally woke up.

~~~

“Uhh my damn head...where the hell am I?” Said Rick as he held his head in discomfort.

[Rick it’s about time you woke up, you’ve been unconscious since we escaped from that monster that tried to kill you late last night.

It seems you pushed your body too far and this was the consequence of that. Anyway, a lot has happened since you lost consciousness. You were dragged away into this small cave by an interesting monster.

The creature left a short while ago but it is sure to come back.

I don’t think you're in any condition to try and escape but I doubt you have to. The monster tended to your wounds while you were out. Plus I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised once you see the actual monster, so I don’t recommend trying to leave right now.]

Wait wait wait… I fell unconscious, then I was goblinnapped, then my goblinnapper took care of my injuries, and now I’m awake again in this cave with my goblinnapper gone, and you're telling me I should wait here instead of leaving because I might be surprised once I see the monster?

[Yes, it seems you're conscious enough to understand clearly. That’s good.]

Are you insane?! I’m leaving right now! Those simply aren’t good enough reasons to stay for it to come back!

[The monster is a goblin.]

…

Well, why the hell didn’t you just say that before!

[I tried to replicate your behavior. I believe you called it the dramatic effect.]

Wha..That’s different! This is about me being snatched away by an unknown criminal versus finding another goblin!

[I see. I’ll remember that for next time. Also, the goblin is back.]

“You’ve finally woken up, good. We have a lot to talk about.”

As Rick turned his head towards the monster he assumed to be a “goblin”, his face gradually turned from confusion to shock, to an even deeper look of confusion. The creature in front of him looked nothing like he expected it to.

“Your...a goblin?”

“Ah you can speak clearly, but I'm not just a goblin. I’m a TinkGoblin, so close enough I guess.”