Gimul frowned thoughtfully and returned the goblin’s gaze. “We’ll just have to make do for a bit. To start, we want a map of the roads that connect the village with the outlying settlements and the surrounding area, and we want it soon. After that, we can have the hunters step back a little if they must. I don’t suppose every single hunter goes hunting every single day, do they?”
“I suppose not. I’d appreciate you reminding the village chief not to say the hunters aren’t meeting expectations, since we’re going to be focusing on this.”
“Of course,” Gimul replied in his usual gruff tone.
At that, Camulla raised his strong-but-perfectly-moisturized hand to take over the briefing. “The people we’ve got here are hunters who are from this village, and us outsiders from the city. It’s going to be difficult for the adventurers who’ve elected to stay here to do their jobs if they don’t know the geography of the area. And someday they’re going to have to serve as a skeleton crew for the village guild.” He paused, running his fingers through his soft bangs. “I have a rough sketch here of the area around the village. I made this last night, so there’s not a lot of detail to it. We’d like you to split into groups and have a member of each party draw up a map.”
“How should we split up?”
“As far as adventurers, we’ve got two people from the village and eight people from town, for a total of ten. Maybe we should have each person from town partner up with a hunter. How many hunters are we looking at?”
“Counting me, there are only five,” said Wak’wakgoro. “There are a couple more on the outskirts of the settlement, but they’re busy hunting down some wolves at the moment.”
“Then let’s take you out of the total, Wak’wakgoro, and make parties of two adventurers and one hunter each.”
“How about you and I work together, Camulla?” Wak’wakgoro suggested. “Then we can put one party on this road, one here, and another one here.”
Representatives from each group huddled together and peered at the map Camulla had sketched.
For some reason, Cassandra, Nishka, and I weren’t asked to participate in the survey. The other person left out of the groups was the animal-eared hunter from the city. He observed the scene, his face blank. As usual, I couldn’t tell what was going through his mind.
Hnngh, he was so cute, even if he wasn’t a girl and I didn’t swing that way. Just, peak androgynous winsome adorableness. Frankly, maybe I didn’t care what I’d seen him pee with, because! Cuuute!
“Um, Shooter…?”
“Ack!” I coughed.
My wife stood beside me, peering up at me uncertainly.
“All right, Shooter, Cassandra—we want you to head over to the banks of the lake with Nishka and that cute little girl over there.”
Once Wak’wakgoro was finished giving assignments to the hunters and adventurers, he walked over to those of us who were left, smiling broadly. Now that Wak’wakgoro had earned the role of lead hunter, he carried himself with a lot more dignity. He used to be nothing more than a stooped older fella with a misshapen face, and I’d grown used to that guy. It was strange to see him now as a confident, formidable sort of goblin. He was like a towering giant squeezed into a considerably more petite goblin body.
“What’s wrong, Shooter?” asked Wak’wakgoro. “I can’t concentrate with you ogling me like that.”
“Forgive me.”
“All right, we’ll be going to the lakeshore, but there’s gonna be an issue.” Wak’wakgoro straightened up, tugging on his leather vest. It sounded like he’d uncovered something serious while we were away. “Nishka, do you remember that field outside the cave where you took down the wyvern that was attacking the village?”
“’Course I do, boss. I’ve been meanin’ to say, I could draw you a map of the forest around here from memory. We don’t need these people startin’ from scratch. Seems like it’s gonna be a lot of work to do it the way you’re setting it up.”
“I bet you could, but this will be a good exercise to get our new arrivals familiar with the territory. More importantly—” Wak’wakgoro’s nose twitched. He sighed, then went on. “Someone turned that cave into a dungeon.”
“They did what?”
Nishka was, of course, flabbergasted. She prided herself on knowing everything about the entirety of Apegut Forest. I’m sure she hated the idea that someone had set up a dungeon in her own backyard without her finding out. “That musta happened while we were gone.”
Wak’wakgoro shook his head. “Don’t think so. Seems like it’s just been a really long time since anyone went in there. I don’t think even wyverns have gone near the cave for the last few years. Am I wrong?”
“No, they definitely haven’t. ’Cause there was a wyvern that went into that cave before and I took it out myself. And I’m sure I woulda seen some sign of the dungeon’s master, or at least something of the like.”
“That’s how I remember it, too. I went with you to drive the wyvern off. How did it look the last time you were there?”
“When we were goin’ after that enormous wyvern, Shooter and I managed to take it down before it went in.…” Nishka sniffed. “Oh. Ugh. You’re sayin’ somethin’ had already moved in and we just didn’t know ’cause we stayed outside.”
Nishka sunk deep into thought, a peculiar look crossing her face and her arms crossing her peculiarly gigantic bosom. I glanced over at the animal-eared hunter with the silver hair standing beside her, who was still as surly and flat as a board. Talk about contrast.
Then I looked over at my wife, who was giving me A Look about my distractions. Ah, right. We were having a serious discussion.
“We haven’t gotten any firm reports yet, but I checked around the cave with the two adventurers Gimul brought back with him, and we found a tribe of savages had taken up residence there.”
“Savages?”
Nishka and I glanced at each other. I might have recently started teasing Nishka about being a barbarian from the steppes, but I never expected a tribe of long-eared barbarian elves like Nishka to take up residence nearby.
“Hold up, i-it’s nothin’ to do with me. My little sister’s waitin’ for me back home.”
“Who are they, then?”
“Bull-kin,” Wak’wakgoro told us bluntly. “We’re lookin’ at a clan of bull-kin.”