Chapter 23: Familiar faces

"I hope you didn't start a forest fire, Gleidon."

"The wood is still wet from recent rains. It will be fine, Rast." That voice immediately stood out, because it belonged to a woman, high and melodious. If I had ears, they would've been turning towards it.

"I wish I COULD burn this entire forest into ashes. Fareids deserved nothing less. These kobolds… Burning them wasn't enough to avenge him." A third voice, male, just like the first one. Gleidon. It sounded like a male name to me.

I was listening to the voices from where I lied, hidden under a bush, in hopes that these people won't notice me, giving me either an opportunity to strike from an ambush, or leave untouched. Second, preferably, because from what I heard, they just destroyed an entire village of kobolds. The three of them, as I heard three sets of footsteps.

'These fucking guys! It's them!' Pest spoke up in my ear. In my head. The uncharacteristic amount of alarm in his voice made me even tenser.

'Them?'

'The team with the host I had before the kobold you chewed through! Adventurers! Get the fuck out of there, Voren, do you hear me? For all that's holy and unholy, get the fuck out!'

I was not in a hurry to listen to Pest's directions. In the past, they all were of a kind that led me to my death. This time Pest seems to be genuinely alarmed, but I'm still not entirely convinced. I could run, but with my short legs, I won't be able to outrun a human. I could fly, but under the cover of trees the forest was still dark enough that I will have problems dodging branches on my way.

Plus, who knew if they had long-range weapons? Well, Pest, of course, but not me. If they had a decent archer and I flew, I'd be an easy and very noisy target. Therefore, I kept still. To my dismay, the adventurers kept walking in my direction, their voices becoming louder and louder with each moment.

"Well, if it was me, I wouldn't have burned them at least so we could gather trophies." This is the first man again. "A reward for a kobold village goes by lowest average, and that one had at least forty of the lizard. It's not the first time your love for burning things makes us lose profit, Gleidon."

"Profit, profit, profit. You are always blabbing about that, and what does it bring us? Fareids is dead and gone, and where else you will find a good warrior like him?" Now a woman. "He deserved some good old revenge, and so did we."

"Exactly, Rast."

'Why the hell aren't you running, Voren? Do you want to life forever? Do you fucking want me to be stuck in an adventurer again? Fuck, fuck, fuck! Next time I'm totally going to get the fuck exorcised!'

Exorcised? So it WAS possible! I grinned, but Pest himself didn't seem to notice his blunder, and I didn't intend to tell him as he kept worrying himself over it.

It was too late to run now. I could see them, the adventurers. Three people, two men and a woman. All were dressed in simple travelling clothes, but the woman also had a long cloak with a pattern that melded with the greenery around. One man held a long staff in his hands, while another had a mace strapped to his belt. The woman had a bow on her back. They moved through the forest in assured steps, like they owned the place.

Adventurers. Big, able, delicious bodies with lots of abilities to draw EXP from. Equipment incomparable with my own. And way too strong for me now. Good thing I didn't run—I would just get shot.

"Oh, whatever, you two," Rast, the man with a mace, said. He glanced around and scowled. "What's wrong with the forest today? It's like there was a spiders infestation."

"Maybe there was. It's too damn quiet," the archer said. She, too, looked around.

I tensed. Will they see me? Will they not? Pest still spoke something in my head, but I tuned him out completely, focused only on my breathing—as slow and quiet as I could make it—and on keeping still. I could hear the beating of my heart in my chest and the growing rush of blood in my veins. I could feel my nose itching.

Damn it, why now?

"Of course it would be quiet, we must've spooked away everything alive with that blast." Gleidon snorted, walking straight past me, so close that I could poke him with my spear without standing up. "In this area of the forest, there's nothing more dangerous than the kobolds, and we already killed all of them!"

"You forgot about Berserker Mice," the woman said.

"That doesn't count, Mina. Berserker Mice don't attack unprovoked, and how would we provoke it? They're just mice!"

The adventurers were almost gone, but my nose itched more and more furiously. Then Pest quieted down long enough for me to register the next thing he said.

'Hey, you aren't going to fucking scratch yourself right now, now? You almost got away! Hold yourself together, Hell-boy!'

That only made me want to scratch harder. I ground my teeth together in an attempt to hold the urge off, but no. There was only one thing to do. As slowly as I could, I moved my claw towards my nose, making sure to move noiselessly…

When suddenly, some small animal—some small animal that totally deserved to be eaten long ago—ran right next to me with a slight rustle of displaced leaves.

The rustle that was more than enough for Mina to stop in her tracks and turn towards my bush, a hand raised in a warning. "Hold on! Something is there."