I walked down the path, munching my apple. I'd peeled one side of it to see if I could tell the difference between the two options. So far, the peeled one was just getting juice on my fingers, and was much more inconvenient. I didn't notice anything else though, Brax and Ward must just be picky. I licked the juice off my fingers and tossed the apple core far off the road into the woods. I used to eat the cores too, but I'd slowly picked up the 'human' way over the years, and truth be told, I didn't like the crunchy bits in the center. Complacency breeds waste, I suppose.
I splashed water from my pouch on my fingers to get the sticky off, and eyed my bag. We were almost an hour out from camp, and no one else was around, 'discovering' Eralia now wouldn't spoil her fun, right? I tugged at the pouch with a sly grin on my face. I'd like to see her face when I 'accidentally' pulled her out of the hiding spot, I could imagine it, all shocked and shy, she was so cute when she was flustered. Not that I was lowering her to just being cute, of course.
I dipped my fingers into the bag and they lightly brushed against her antenna. She made a noise of surprise, and wiggled around to avoid me, but I traced the inside of the bag with my claw, chasing her until I was able to pinch her gently between my fingers, plucking her out into the daylight. She kicked her legs and waved her hands at me as I held her up to my face, grinning cheekily at her.
"Hummm, it looks like someone snuck into my bag, how strange!" I said, "It couldn't have been anyone I know, they would have known better, who is this stranger?"
"Nooo, 'Vex, it's meee!" Eralia said as she squiggled, "You saw me get in..."
"Oh?" I tilted my head. "I don't remember that, so it must not have happened. Hm, what to do with the little stowaway..."
Eralia wormed her way free and flew laps around my head, lightly slapping me as she went. "I should get to go on the adventure too! I missed the party last time..."
"There wasn't a party, Lia." I told her, watching her get out a day and a half of pent up energy in one go. I'd almost never seen her move this fast, it was fun to see. "We just sat around a fire and went into a dusty hole. You probably had more fun with Stonelicker."
"I had to build his house..." she shook her head "It hurt my hands..."
"Aw, well, maybe this time you can sit around the fire with us, ok?" I smiled at her. "Last night 'Tina told us about how she got that scar on her tummy."
"I heard, I was secretly in the bag eating all your berries.. That's a scary story..." Eralia said sadly, "I don't like to think about my friends getting hurt."
"Aw, she's ok now though, and the scars look pretty cool, right?" I asked her as her flying slowed down to her usual drawling float.
"I think they look like they hurt..." she said, "I haven't seen them since the swimming hole last year though."
"Well, I think they're hot." I shrugged. "Anyway, today's plan is to meet up with the cave goblin tribe in the mountains and negotiate a passage through their caves."
"Are they nice?" she asked, alighting on my head.
"Uh, yeahhh?" I said, waving my hands, "I don't know, kinda. They knew my parents, they used to attack travelers but with the treaty in effect, they're just more of a toll road, no attacking."
"I don't have any money..." Eralia said thoughtfully, "Should we collect flowers for them instead?"
"They won't want flowers, they're cave goblins." I said, "They'll want food or ale, or maybe gold, yeah."
"Oh no!" she gasped, "You should have saved that apple for them!"
"Uh, I needed breakfast, Lia." I raised my eyebrow. "I'm going to eat the cheese wedge I brought too, later."
"We'll be stuck on this side of the mountain forever!" she jumped off my head and zoomed around. "We need to find mushrooms for them, can you use your nose to find some..?"
"Altina will have plenty of food to trade on the cart." I assured her, "I'm just there to talk down their prices before everyone shows up. One look at our group and they'd charge extra."
She came back to me and laid over on my shoulder, her wings tickling my neck. "If you say so..."
"It'll be fine." I told her, "And hey, if I remember this path right from when I was little, there should be a stream up ahead! We can go wading!"
"Ok, but you have to hold me when my wings get wet..." she patted me firmly. "I don't like flying when I'm wet, it's too hard."
"Fiiiine..." I rolled my eyes dramatically. "I guess I'll hold you, ugh, you're sooo heavy though."
"I am?" she peered up at me. "But you're so big!"
"I was being silly, Lia, you can ride on my shoulder or head or something until you dry, it's no problem." I leaned my head down until my cheek bumped her forehead in a show of affection. "It should be up here in an hour or so somewhere, help me listen for the trickling noises!"
~~~
I splashed the water up into my face and used it to slick back my slightly sweaty hair, the stream was still here, but there was a bridge now, one I hadn't remembered from my past. Who built a bridge way out here? We were the only town within two days journey from here as far as I knew, did they send someone from the capital? Or did someone from our village come out and build it? It looked nice, and I'm sure it was handy for the people who delivered packages to and from town, and for the farmers who took the effort to export their crops, but the stream wasn't that deep, so it almost seemed like a waste of time. Then again, the fences along the roads to protect the queen's land were a waste of time too, but the government still put them up.
Eralia zipped along the water, her hand dipped in, creating a spray as she skipped along the top of the surface, laughing. The spray hit my thighs as I knelt in the water and I smacked at the stream with my hand, splashing water back at her. She spun and ducked under the water, flitting away under the bridge out of sight.
I laughed under my breath, she might be lazy, but she could still play at full energy if she wanted. I rose up out of the water and stepped onto the shore. My leggings would dry, but walking on the dirt road would pack my feet with mud if they were wet like this. I'd have to stick to the fenceposts again for a while, that wasn't a problem though. I liked walking on the fenceposts.
"Come on, Lia!" I called, "We're heading out! We need to make good time, if we lollygag the others will catch up!"
A bundle of white gosamer smacked into my stomach a second later, and I glanced down to see Eralia using my top to dry herself off. I snorted and pulled her away, setting her on my head. There was a little fairy-shaped splat on my tummy now where she'd been, and I could feel her dripping onto my scalp from her perch.
"You'll dry off soon enough, Lia, no need to get me wet too."
"You're so big, my little wet will be dry in no time!" she protested, shaking off.
"That's not how that works, babygirl." I laughed, swinging up onto the fence and balancing carefully, "The water will dry the same amount no matter who it's on."
"Blah, I just don't like being wet..." she said, "It's too dangerous..."
"Well I'm glad you trust me enough to play in the stream with me." I said genuinely. For fairies, getting water on them was borderline inappropriate, being seen damp was one of their only taboos because they'd be slower and easy to catch. It basically took away all their natural defenses and left them helpless. They didn't even like bathing around other fairies, and tried to hide when they planned on bathing just to make sure no one would catch them in a weakened state. Eralia was one of only 3 fairies I'd seen play in water since I'd started taking the sanctuary. The other was Brushtop, who didn't care as much as most, and the last was Fringe, who was missing a wing and couldn't fly more than a few inches at a time anyway, so didn't see the point in avoiding water.
"You're my best friend, 'Vex..." Lia rubbed my head. "I know you'd never hurt me, if anyone would hurt me... It wouldn't be you."
"Aw, I..." I couldn't tell her she was my best friend, if Tati found out, we'd all be in for a mess, but I could try and let her know anyway. "I can't think of anyone I'd rather splash around and play with, Lia."
"Except your special someone..!" she giggled, "You do a lot more than playing with her!"
I blushed and crossed my arms, wobbling on the thin fence. "That's different, and how would you know? We only... do stuff when no one is around."
"Princa likes to spy on you!" Eralia said, "She tells stories about it... I heard you like to put your-"
"Oh, that bitch!" I flushed, "I- ugh! I'll have to have words with her, that's- It's totally inappropriate!"
"I can stop listening to her if you like..." she said, sounding a little embarrassed.
"Yeah, please..." I said, rubbing my face, "That just icks me out, ugh."
"I can talk to her about it I think..." Eralia said, "She only does it on days when you go to see 'Tina after- oh! Oh no!"
"What? Are you ok?" I asked, looking up and reaching up for her quickly.
"Put me in the bag, there's someone on the path!" she said, her voice shaking, "I can't be seen like this..."
I tucked her into the pouch gently as someone came around the corner and waved at me. I waved back cautiously, this road was out in the middle of nowhere, what lone traveler would be on it? They didn't even have any gear or a backpack, this was suspicious...
"Hi!" they said, walking up and smiling at me, "Do ye' live 'round 'ere?"
They were a dwarf, probably around their early teen years, with no indication of their gender. Their hair and beard were dark brown and they had a light set of chain mail on over leather clothes. Their dwarven jewelry was silver, so one of the lesser houses, unless it was actually platinum or aluminum, in which case they were extremely rich, but I doubted that. They had a sack in their hand, and a hammer in their other one. They looked harmless enough, I supposed...
"I'm a scout for a group of adventurers." I said, "I'm on my way to negotiate with the cave goblins about fair passage for us."
The kid whistled and shook their head. "Gor, that's a rough thing to deal with. My family shares some tunnels with that lot, they're not my favorite to come across while on a mineral run, try and get us t’ share our finds for ‘tax reasons’. No offense, gov."
"Uh, none taken, I don't really know them," I said, making a face, I hadn't known there was a dwarven settlement out this way, Interesting. "I just need to pass through the mountain."
"'Ave you looked into a yearly pass?" they asked "Ifn' ye go out to the capital on the regular, ye can get a stone carving what they give you that'll let you through all ye need."
"We just need to get there and back, we're on a mission..." I said, frowning. They were offering, what, a subscription to the mountain pass? They were nothing if not clever, I guessed.
"Well, I 'ope ye the best of luck!" the kid shifted their hammer to their other hand. "I'm out 'ere to get river stones for my ma to wash laundry with, we wore out the last lot."
"You wore out stones?!" I asked, looking them up and down, "How?"
"We dwarven folks are pretty rough on wear and tear, gov." they waved a hand. "On account of us all being so strong and whatnot."
"I see." I said, "Well, I gotta get going, I-"
"Oi hold on!" they said, pointing at my pouch, "You got any o' that special weed you lot like to smoke? I'd love a toke..."
"I- that's a stereotype you know." I crossed my arms. "Only some goblins smoke that stuff, and lone goblins usually don't, because it's hard to get outside of a tribe."
The dwarf looked me up and down." Yeah, but... ye got some, right? I kin smell it on ye."
"...Yeah, I have a garden of the stuff back home." I sighed. "Do you have a pipe? I don't have time to smoke with you."
They grimaced. "Naw, no pipe, gov, I've got some paper though!"
"No dice, goblinweed is special, it needs a pipe." I shrugged. "Maybe get a pipe and I'll see you on the way back?"
"I can try an carve one..." they muttered. "Aw, I'll see ye in a while then, stingy."
I snorted and waved as I kept walking, soon turning the corner from them. Eralia cautiously poked her head up out of the pouch and looked around.
"They were just asking for free stuff..?" she asked, "That is rude..."
"They're a kid, it's not a problem." I said, pulling her out and returning her to my head. "We've still got a ways to go though before we get to the pass, so hold on! I'm gonna pick up the pace."
"I bet I could go faster..." she said, gripping my hair.
"Sure, but I can't fly, Lia." I reminded her, and took off down the fence line, my feet slapping onto the fenceposts as I dashed over the smooth wood.
~~~
I hopped up the mountain path to the large opening in the rock wall, and my eyebrows rose at the fancy lettering all over the walls. In humanspeak, goblintongue, and the language of the beasts, was written all around the once-quiet entrance "ALL TRAVELERS WELCOME: TOLL NEGOTIABLE". I noticed the once ragged road had been carefully repaved and sloped more gently to allow for more easy access to carts, a far cry from the craggy foreboding place this had been last time. Eralia had dried out a while ago, so she stayed on my shoulder as I walked up to the opening and peeked in.
The inside was lit with curated mushrooms and crystals making a 'path' of sorts down the tunnel, and there was a booth halfway down the path, right before the tunnel turned to the right, cutting off my view of the rest of it. In the booth, a bald, grey goblin with a wide smile waved at me and gestured for me to come over. I carefully sauntered up, doing my best to look casual and well traveled so he didn't peg me for a rube.
"Goot affernoon, miss!" he said with a faint, polished goblin accent. "Jus' the two of you for passage?"
"Ah, I'm the scout." I said, admiring his blue suit. This place was completely different from the last time I'd been here... "I've got a cart with six other people for passage too."
Hopefully they'd count Lichen as luggage...
"Ah, nod a problem!" the man nodded "Thad will be five days full rations, or the equivalent in gold, or five bottles of ale."
I winced. "That's... can we do two bottles of ale and two days of rations?"
"'ow big is the cart?" he asked.
"It's one horse, and umm, four of them would fit in this tunnel, side by side."
"So nod a tradink cart then."
"No no no, just traveling." I nodded.
"I think we can make thad deal then!" he smiled and wrote a note in a ledger behind the counter. "Name?"
"My name is Vervex, the leader of our group is a pink ogress named Altina."
"Perfect, will you be waiting for the rest of your group here? Or will you need a hub pass?"
I looked at Eralia, who shrugged. "What's a hub pass?"
"It will allow you to enter the hub area and purchase food, goods, or company!" he waved behind him "Entry is free, but I will need to clamp a metal bracelet on you so the guards at the exit know nod to let you pass through."
"I have... fourteen gold, is that enough for some fun?" I asked him.
"That's plenty! You can get two companions for that, three if you're not picky."
I flushed. "Not that kinda fun... Just give me the bracelet, damnit."
He slipped a small manacle on my left wrist and clicked it on. It wasn't loose, but it didn't squeeze either, it was easy to ignore, which was nice. I pointed to Eralia. "Does she need one?"
"No, we don't make them thad small." the goblin shrugged. "Jus' keep an eye on her, there's people poaching fairies these days all over."
"Will do." I muttered, and nodded to him as I headed to the turn to see what the 'hub' looked like.
The hall opened up into a brightly lit area, practically a village in the mountain. There were booths lining the main area, several inns and restaurants that filled the air with a spicy, fried food smell, and so many people of all kinds wandering around, not just the expected cave goblins. My eyes widened as I watched an elf and an arthrohominid holding hands made their way into a shop together. I'd never seen an arthrohominid in person, and elves were so rare outside their walled cities, I'd only seen a handful in my whole lifetime.
This place was... amazing, it looked like a festival! Why were there so many people? They couldn't all be going through the mountain. Other than the apparent dwarven settlement that had popped up, I hadn't seen any other towns from here to our village, and we saw maybe two or three new, non trader travelers pass through a week, tops. There had to be a trick to why so many people were here, and I doubted it was the goblin brothels. Everyone knew goblins made for terrible bed-mates, getting us to hold back our instinctual clawing and biting was extremely hard unless we were mates with the partner.
"There's a lot going on here..." Eralia said, pulling closer to my neck, "Uhm, could you hide me somewhere?"
"Yeah, but I don't want to not be able to hear you if people are kidnapping fairies.” I said, thinking about it, "Here, I'll get something for it, this booth looks fine."
I walked over to a short, poorly made shopfront with random bits of stuff all over the front. It looked shitty, so the prices would probably be pretty good, and the person behind the counter looked like a child. Or... actually, I'd never seen anything like it before. I lowered my head past the sloped awning to get a better look. It was a furry- no, shaggy thing with a big pointy brown hat where his head and shoulders should be. The hat itself was torn and stitched back together in a couple places, and the tip had long since lost its muster and hung limply over to one side. Mushrooms grew on the brim and up the side of the cone, and there were two holes cut into the front to let the... person see out.
It pushed a limb out towards me, I'd call it a hand, but it was too covered in weird clumpy brown fur to tell. I took it in my hand and shook it, grimacing at the stiff, slightly bristly feeling. Definitely not fur...
"Why are you doing that?" it asked, the hat tilting to one side.
"Doing- shaking your hand? To be polite?" I said, taking my hand back "You offered it to me?"
"I have been told shaking body parts at people is not polite, my friend got very upset with me when I shook a body part at her recently." it said flatly, "I was not shaking my hand at you, I was trying to push you away."
"I- is this not a store?" I asked, looking at the items on the table. There were some scraps of cloth, a few metal bits, a half eaten pie, and a pile of acorns.
"This is my store, yes. Do not steal from me, I need the money to find my friend and that other one."
"You lost your friend?" I asked it, "I'm sorry to hear that..."
"I was in the woods and I think the other one made her go the wrong way." it nodded. "But it is hard to tell. Children like getting lost in the woods, it is their favorite thing to do."
"You lost children in the woods?!" I looked around. "Should we tell the guards? They can help us look, I could-"
"No, it was a long way away." the thing said, "I think it was through a big hole in the sky, I will find her with money."
"Money?" I asked "How will money find your friend?"
The little shopkeeper pulled out a flyer from under the table and pointed to it. It was a wanted poster of an angry looking dwarf that said "WANTED: Big Leah, Murderess. Reward: 200 Gold".
"Like this, but this is not my friend, this is a stranger. You put the money in the paper, and tell the paper you want a person, and it will get the person for you." it told us confidently. "I do not have money though, just bugs, and they will not give me money for bugs."
"That's a good plan..." Eralia said encouragingly "I hope you find your friend..."
"Yes." the thing said, "Give me your money."
"I was looking for like, a scarf or something..." I said, picking up a bit of cloth, "Can I buy this?"
"The trick is that you have to give me money." it explained helpfully, "That is how you buy things."
"Uh, and how much money do you want for this... scarf?" I asked it.
"That is a very good scarf." it looked at it carefully. "200 bugs."
"I don't have any bugs? I have money." I said, "You just said you needed money and not bugs?"
"Sometimes I get them mixed up, it's normal to do that." it said, "Thank you for your purchase, have a day and please come to my family dinner sometime."
I sighed and dug in my money pouch, pulling out three coppers, more than the torn cloth was worth for sure, and handed them to the thing. "Here, some bugs, on me."
It looked at them and nodded twice. "These are good ones, they'll be very crunchy, I can tell."
I straightened up and shook out the 'scarf' to make sure there were no bugs on it. "Have a... day?" I told the shopkeeper, waving goodbye.
"Please do not shake your body parts at me. We talked about this." it said, sounding put out.
I grimaced and carefully wrapped the cloth around my neck, covering Eralia as she nestled closer to me.
As we walked away, she hummed. "That person was nice, I hope we can go to the family dinner..."
"I'm sure it'd be an experience if we did go, that's all I'll say." I rolled my eyes. "Now come on, let's go find a place that serves bread and ale, I want dinner."