Interlude [22.5] Traveling

The goblin family were all aboard their wagon in the back of the caravan. Despite the hectic few days, Helina was happy that things were settling into a normal routine for her family again. They didn’t have long before they would arrive at their next village, which if she remembered correctly was fairly new. Or at least it hadn’t been there two hundred years ago. 

Helina was humming sweetly while cuddling up to her husband, who was driving the wagon. Their tails firmly intertwined as they slowly traveled down the road. 

They saw Sif jump from Sabec’s wagon and run into the grassland. She had a wide smile on her face as she disappeared into the foliage.

Helina squeezed Owen a little tighter. “She looks like she’s doing much better now.”

“Yeah… She is a good kid,” Owen said casually. “Don’t know what put her in this situation. Shai are usually troublemakers, problem children, and failures. She isn’t any of those things from what I’ve seen. She’s intelligent, respectful, and has a valuable skill and a Celestial-blessed familiar. Someone spent a lot of money on her just to throw her out.”

“You said she made that health potion, right?” Helina asked. 

“Yes, and I already paid her so you don’t have to worry,” Owen said smugly.

“No, not that– I mean good, she definitely deserved to get paid for it,” Helina said with a huff. “You got me off track, now I forgot what I was going to say.” She cocked her head to the side in contemplation. “Oh, yeah, we have all of that old alchemy stuff we haven’t been able to sell. How about we let her take a look through it.”

Owen watched the girl as she ran back towards the caravan with something in a glass case.

“I think that would be a good idea,” Owen stated with a shrug. “It’s all just taking up space with us.”

“Excellent. Now, I need to check on the boys,” Helina said as she stood up.

“Why are they quiet this morning?” Owen asked. A sudden realization crossed his face and he sighed.

Helina said with suspicion, “Too quiet, yeah, either they broke something or are about to break something.” 

The goblin’s wagon was a large box, easily the biggest of the caravan. Helina and Owen had been merchants longer than anyone else in the caravan had been alive. The quantity of things they’d accrued in that time was locked away on the shelves and in storage devices. 

It didn’t take long for Helina to find her boys, Wyatt and Caleb, pretend sword fighting with sticks they’d managed to sneak inside the wagon. No sooner had she found them but Caleb wacked Wyatt with his stick, causing him to lose balance and topple over. He hit one of the shelves just hard enough to knock a vase down. An expensive vase Helina distinctly remembered telling them to secure in a storage device.

Crash!

Both of the boys froze in place, looking at the shattered vase in horror.

“Wyatt Alan Jaraldson and Caleb William Jaraldson,” Helina said in her mom voice. “Come here now!”

The boys got a heavy lecture, as well as one of their sticks being used as a paddle. After which she supervised them cleaning the wagon and properly putting away some other goods they’d left precariously around the second floor. 

By the time they were done reorganizing, the caravan had arrived at the town.

“It’s a pretty well-off town,” Owen said with a gleam in his eye. “I think we’ll finally be able to sell that vase here.” 

The boy’s shied behind their mother. 

“Yeah, about that, hunny,” Helina started.

The wendigo in the town were all snowfallen, which was common in the Nazem Domain. The climate here was mild during the summer, but come the end of fall it would be a cold winter wonderland. The phenomenon was not due to its latitude but ambient mana concentrations. Helina knew she and her family would be well into a warmer domain by then because she hated the cold.

Her family, as well as the other members of the caravan, set up stalls in the middle of the village. Owen was right about it being a more well-off village than the others they’d passed through. The homes were nice and colorful, which for wendigo was rare due to their proclivity for function over form. The village was well maintained and even the clothing of the villagers indicated some wealth.

“You have a good eye ma’am, that plate was imported from Kumihara and was made in the capital city of Yeonghonji,” Helina told a woman with a friendly smile. “We have the entire set, and because I like you I can give you a special deal.”

Time seemed to fly by as people came and saw the goods. Joha and his spices were definitely the winner in sales. Sif even had to assist Joha instead of Sobec, who barely sold any of his tools. It was to be expected given the clientele, and he was already packing up some of his things. 

Once the crowd thinned Sif ran and her familiar ran off while Joha finished the last of his sales. The goblin family had a few more clients, but largely the crowd had dispersed.

“We’ll be here for a few more hours, boys, so I’m going to start making lunch,” Helina said to her sons. “After that we can look around, okay?”

The boys were getting restless but they were doing a good job, even closing a few sales on their own. She knew they were trying not to get in trouble again, and she was going to capitalize on their good behavior while it lasted. She kissed Owen on the cheek and hopped up onto the tailgate of the wagon.

She froze in place when she stepped inside. The mana in the air seemed off; she felt the condensing pull of a spell being formed in the distance. No, it was more than one, and the magic was familiar. The sensation brought back bad memories of her younger years.

As a goblin of Yuhia her family were full citizens of the wendigo country, as were all of the Hasin Clan goblins that called Yuhia home. In fact, the Hasin Domain was the only wendigo territory whose noble family wasn’t a wendigo but instead goblins. In her over four hundred years of life Helina had once been a somewhat successful battlemage, and even joined the wendigo army. That was how she recognized the feeling in this mana, the use of powerful wartime artillery magic. 

She turned around speaking words of power, forming a spell instantly as she fell back on her training as a water mage. She wasn’t as fast as she’d been two hundred years ago, but she was still a battlemage deep down. Water formed into five fist-sized orbs that floated around her, and with an exaggerated gesture of her hands tendrils of water flashed out to wrap around each member of her family. It yanked them all up and into her, sending them all crashing to the ground inside the wagon.

“Helina? What’s wrong?” Owen asked.

An explosion rocked the area before Helina could respond. Then another as screams of panic broke out around the village.

The explosions finally ended after a second volley. Seven total hit the village and rattled the goblin family. There was a terrifying roar of outrage that Helina recognized as the sound of the Tiger Demon preparing for combat. In the short time they’d traveled with Joha they had come to know there was more to the demon than his friendly demeanor. The sheer ferocity of his roar shook them nearly as much as the explosions.

“Is everyone okay?” Owen asked as he looked over his huddled family.

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