1 1: A Strange Girl

"Don't you dare slack off!"

The boy glared at the tall man. The man in front of him was much taller than himself and probably twice his size and weight too. The man was fat and greasy with a face only his mother would love. The boy simply stood there, not saying a word as the fat man had yelled at him.

The fat man was a wealthy merchant, wearing blue and red robes, approximately seven rings in each hand. His hair was brown and swept back and his eyes were small and brown, making him look similar to a pig. To make matters worse, his nose was big and red. The merchant sweated by default as long as he moved, and he disgusted the boy.

The boy, on the other hand, wore grey, tattered clothing that hung onto his thin frame. His face was dirty, his eyes simply staring at the ground.

"I told you to drag the carriage, didn't I?" The merchant screamed, sending spit at the boy.

"It's too heavy…" The boy muttered, not daring to speak up.

Thoughts ran through the boy's mind. How much he hated the man, how much he wished the man would simply just die. But he was still young, and he was far too weak, and he had no authority. Hell, he barely even had a name.

The merchant looked around, frustrated. Both of them had been separated from the main group by a gang of bandits attempting to rob them. To make matters worse, those bandits were goblins. Short, green creatures that put their hands on anything gold. With pointy ears and disgusting features, no one wanted to even look at them.

The merchant cursed. They had been informed that the path they were on had no threats and that it was going to be a smooth journey all the way through. They had managed to gain some distance from the horse-drawn carriage, but the horses simply up and died. The only one other than the merchant had been the boy who had hidden inside the carriage in fear.

The merchant slapped the boy and screamed, "I didn't pay twenty gold for you to be this useless!"

The boy hated it. He was a slave, someone that could not even speak for himself, someone who was only allowed to watch and do nothing else. Bought, he was only an item, something so easily bought it was almost laughable.

The boy couldn't handle it any longer, he shoved the fat merchant back with all his strength, though not achieving much. The boy shouted, "I hope you die! You pig!"

"What did you just say?" The merchant demanded, reaching out for the boy.

The slave ran away, as fast as he could away from the merchant. He no longer wanted to be under someone else's ownership. He wanted to be free, and he was going to be free.

He skidded to a stop.

He looked in front of him, coming to a grim realisation. He must have taken a wrong turn, he must have made a mistake. He saw as a bunch of green creatures walked some distance away from him, not yet noticing his presence. The slave paced back slowly, staring at the green creatures in fear.

Goblins.

The goblins had eyes that made them look sinister, their tongues were long and sharp. Their teeth were jagged and ill-kept. Their skin had all sorts of weird bumps on them, and those goblins wore nothing but rags.

No, he was sure that he had run in the opposite direction he and the merchant had initially come from. Unless the worst had happened. They were surrounded.

The boy hid behind a rock, praying and hoping that the goblins were only after the merchant. Goblins loved gold, they would kill any humans with gold on them even after the humans threw away their gold. The slave hoped that the goblins would let him go as long as he did not have any gold on him.

He heard footsteps to the side.

He grabbed a rock, spinning and swinging the rock off pure instinct. He felt himself hit something with the rock. He was breathing hard. If it had been a goblin, he had made a grave mistake, but if it had been a merchant, it would have still been alright.

The boy looked up, taking time to process who or what he had hit.

He was shocked. Mostly because he had hit someone completely unfamiliar to him. It was a girl, and she looked at her right arm which was bleeding. The boy had struck her shoulder, and she was bleeding quite a bit. The boy dropped the rock in surprise, not expecting a girl to be there.

She looked like a young adult, probably the same age as most of the women the merchant had been travelling with. She had very light brown hair with streaks of white in them. Her eyes were a similar colour, with seeming splashes of white. She seemed to have a curious, almost comforting presence that somehow felt sad at the same time. It almost made the boy feel sorry for her.

She wore a white button-up shirt with long pants. She wore high boots made for walking and travelling long distances. Over her clothes, she wore a sort of cloak that had a hood, probably to protect her from the elements. Her hood was pulled down, and her hair was long, almost reaching her waist, but was tied up into a ponytail. She had a dark brown pouch slung over her left shoulder and resting against her right hip.

She seemed somewhat unfazed by the boy's attack despite the increasing redness of her cloak which the boy had struck. She looked around, almost clueless as to what was happening.

"What are you doing? Get down!" The boy whispered aggressively, pulling her arm down.

She squatted down beside him, blinking before asking, "What are you doing here?"

"Hiding, obviously!" The boy replied softly, looking over the edge of the rock. "Keep your voice down, we can't let those goblins know we're here!"

The girl picked up a pebble and stared at it. That was when the boy realised something else. There was a floating ball near the girl. He wasn't sure what exactly the ball was, what it was made of, or how it could even float, but he knew that it had a smiley face on it.

:)

The girl looked at the ball, which was about the size of her own fist. She then stared back at the pebble before tossing the pebble at the boy playfully. The pebble bounced harmlessly off his head, the girl giggled softly.

The boy realised something.

This girl was absolutely nuts. He was definitely going to die.

"Get back here you brat!" The boy heard the merchant call from the distance.

"Damn!" The boy whispered to himself.

The girl stared at the fat merchant before pointing at him, saying to the floating ball, "Look, Koda, that man is bouncing! Isn't that funny?"

The boy looked back, and sure enough, the goblins had turned around to run at the merchant. The boy cursed and pressed himself against the rock he was hiding behind, waiting for the goblins to run by.

After waiting for a few seconds, they did. The goblins were attracted to the gold which the merchant wore on him. Wielding their knives and clubs, they rushed him, completely failing to notice the boy and girl hidden behind a rock.

The boy glanced at the girl, who was staring at the goblins with a sort of childlike innocence and curiosity. He grabbed her arm and pulled her up, saying, "C'mon! We need to get out of here!"

"Where?" She asked, running with him.

"Anywhere not here!" He replied simply.

Just like that, he had managed to run far away enough to avoid the goblins. He took several deep breaths. He had run into a jungle, which was the habitat of much more dangerous beasts so goblins tend to avoid such habitats. Luckily, most of those beasts were nocturnal, so they were fine.

He saw as the girl started to wander around the place, staring at a bunch of stuff curiously. He said from where he had been resting, "Who are you?"

The girl stopped and looked back at the boy with a small smile that seemed sad. The boy could not describe the feeling she gave off, a strange mix of alienation and pity. She said, her voice somehow comforting to him, "Letha."

Letha? That was an odd name.

"Uh… so, Letha, where do you come from? How did you end up there?" The boy asked, gesturing to the general direction they had come from.

"Dunno." She replied, trying to balance on a log.

"What do you mean you don't know?" The boy asked.

"I forgot."

The boy paused. It had just happened several minutes ago, but she had already forgotten about it. Maybe someone had put her there, maybe she had just accidentally come across the goblin-infested area.

The boy saw as the girl started walking away, almost carefree. He went up to her and asked, "Where are you going now?"

The girl looked back at him, making eye contact with him. Her eyes seemed so cloudy and distant that the boy was unsure if she was even looking at him. She gave him another one of those smiles. "Dunno."

She started walking again.

The boy stood there, not really sure what to do. The girl was strange and straight-up nuts. But it's not like he had anywhere else to go to anyways. He walked after her, saying, "Hey, I'll follow you."

"Hm?" She said. "Okay."

She walked without much more speaking.

"Your name is Le-something, right?" The boy asked.

"Letha." She confirmed.

"Well, Letha, are you on a journey?" The boy asked, walking beside her.

"Something like that…" She replied, looking far in front of her.

"Can I join?"

"It'll be a long journey though…" She said, dragging out her words.

The boy puffed his chest out and told her, "It's fine! I'm young!"

She laughed lightly before nodding. "Yeah, maybe you will see the end of my journey…"

The boy glanced at her face, an almost longing expression on it. He looked towards the ground before saying, "By the way, my name is-"

…

The girl squatted in front of a pile of dirt, a stick in a shape of a cross sticking out of it. She had done her best, but it was all she could do. She simply stared at the dirt, a shovel nearby.

"I told you it would be a long journey…" She said, staring at the dirt.

She looked back at the ball that floated around her. She blinked a few times before asking it, "What was his name again?"