With the excitement of going out into the world filling me with energy, I couldn’t help but stay up extra late finishing a new set of clothing for myself. So what if I had to rope an assistant to help me all night? She didn’t mind!

I was about to set a new standard of fashion for dungeon inhabiting goblins worldwide! I was wearing a new pelt loin cloth for down below, and a pelt blanket with a hole in the middle for my head for my top. I felt like this was called a poncho, though I really couldn’t say why. Still, the goblins could care less all around what it was called, or that I was wearing anything.

Alright, I was a little too excited, but I actually had an outfit! It was simple, and it was made from piles of tendons and tiny pelts, but that was fine.

Still, I felt good about wearing a proper set of clothing again. It wasn’t like strutting around baring my breasts was causing me issues, but it was cold and damp! Maybe it was the warmth that I’d been missing. The cave wasn’t exactly cozy after all.

The morning came all too early, and the scout and I left the dungeon to face the new dawn! It was a great start with vast potential opportunities.

Out in the wilderness hearing, the birds chirp and sing their songs. The further we ventured out the more I found myself enjoying the breeze, and the sounds. For the first time, I couldn’t help but really notice that my hearing was surprisingly good. I could pick up on directions fairly well as well, I didn’t dislike how the breeze felt as it blew across the fine fur that covered them either. But moment after moment, hour after hour, the physical exertion took its toll.

I panted up a hill after the scout. I’d put on a brave face, I’d even made bold claims, but now that I was out here after walking for half a day? Now I felt just as tired as I realized I’d been pampered. The goblin men had been walking hours each morning during hunting, I’d been sleeping in late and waking up to cook food and learn to sew and prepare pelts. Sure that was work too, but I’d discovered all too much that I’d been basically taken care of for the most part. My legs were on fire, and my lungs weren't doing much better.

I heaved my breath and felt like just dropping down onto the dirt below me, why had it come to this? Today had started out so great… but now I was just so damn tired...

“Rest?” The scout asked.

“How much further until we get to what you wanted me to see?” I asked, having to pause for breaths a few times mid-sentence.

He glanced in the direction we were talking, and looked back at me, “Soon?”

I sighed, of course, that was the kind of answer I got, well I didn’t know what to do with that so I made a decision, “Rest for a bit…”

The scout nodded, pulling a water skin from his pack and handing it to me.

I took it and quickly downed gulps of water before a question dawned on me, “Where did you get this?”

He glanced back at me, noting the object in question, “Elf.”

I glanced down at it, “Ah…” That made sense now that I thought about it. The elf man had quite a few nice things on him. If the sword hadn’t been so long I didn’t doubt that the scout would be using it. Maybe if I knew how to use a sword I’d have carried it. None of that was true, so the dungeon had probably stashed it in a box somewhere, that was what dungeons did, wasn’t it? I wasn’t really sure, but it sounded right. Then again did we have any boxes? Probably not, so maybe a pit? Dungeons liked pits too right? What was I even thinking about?

My stupid internal jokes made me feel a little better. I took a seat on the hard dirt ground. The grass was sparse and the top of this hill was mostly barren. I looked out in the direction the scout had been taking me. I could see smoke rising off in the distance. Was that a town? He had said it was a village, I didn’t know of who.

Since we weren’t going anywhere anyway I decided to voice another question I’d been wondering for a while, “What's your name?”

“Name?” He asked tilting his head. “I am Scout.”

“That’s your job. What's your name?” I insisted.

He shook his head, clearly not understanding.

“I’m a cook, but my name is Anna.” I offered an example.

“I am Scout. I am goblin.” He offered back.

“No. That’s what you are. Just like I’m a hum-” I caught myself making a strange statement and cleared my throat, correcting myself, “A tiger kin.” I didn’t know why I almost said, human. For the same reason, I always forgot I had ears on top of my head, or that I had a tail I bet. My hair was a decent length, and I could clearly see a few black lines in the orange hair that came down from my head. Yet I still sometimes thought of myself as human instead. I had both the tail, and the ears, but I usually forgot the ears more often. The tail on the other hand tended to do whatever It wanted anyway, and it wasn’t like it was a big bushy thing I could cuddle for warmth. It was a thin tail that was oddly short for a tiger. l at least I thought so.

I sighed, “Do you not have a name?” I asked.

He shrugged maybe giving up on my question.

I decided to give up as well, “What about the cave? Do you know its name?”

“Home?” He asked.

I couldn’t help but chuckle, “Fair…” I probably should be asking the dungeon that.

“Dungeon? Can you hear me?” I asked into my mind. Nothing came back so after a moment I asked, “Can you talk to the cave this far away?”

“No.” He replied.

“How far can you…” I realized the futility of my question then shook my head, “Never mind.”

“You ready?” He asked.

I felt at my legs, which while no longer on fire. Rather they felt a bit more like limp noodles. “Just a bit more.”

He nodded and I took another sip of water, “I’m getting hungry too… are we going to hunt?”

“Yes. You cook here?” He asked.

“I can, I brought the knife too.” I explained. I’d have shown him but I didn’t have the excess energy.

“Later. Now I show.” He gestured ahead.

“I know.” I replied. Back at the cave, the goblin woman I had shown how to cook the meat was no doubt proving my uselessness. She had already known how to start a fire, how to skin, and even knew what parts of the creatures tasted the best. Though the goblins didn’t normally cook this seemed more out of laziness than anything else. She was perfectly capable of performing the task and helped out quite a bit since she arrived.

After a few more minutes we started down the hill, some ten more minutes later we reached an area around the town in question. There was a simple log wall built around the encampment that made it impossible to get a good read on what lay within. The wall itself was practically an island in the middle of a dirty field of stumps and mud. We kept to the still-standing trees, and made a wide circle until we could peek into the open portion that functioned as the entrance, beyond it we could see humans strutting about like they owned the place.

“Humans…” I noted, pretty confident in that. We were a ways off, but I saw quite a few go this way or that way deeper inside. Not that I could make out the details, but I couldn’t help but be a bit too excited.

“Is good?” Scout asked.

I blinked realizing how I just thought about that, then decided it wasn’t worth me worrying over and shrugged, “Maybe?”

I wasn’t sure honestly. The worst thing is that we needed more information. If we went back after I discovered this was a “human camp” what could we do with that? Practically nothing.

I stood up and started towards the wall.

“Wait!” Scout hissed after me.

“Why? I’m not going to learn what I need outside.” I said pausing after a few steps.

“Could capture you!” He insisted.

I rolled my eyes, goblins couldn’t help but think like goblins after all. Still, It wasn’t impossible, “If that happens tell the cave, wait a few hours, if I don’t come back then that's that. Maybe the cave can figure something out, otherwise, this is the best I can manage.” I said pulling my pelt poncho around me a bit tighter.

“Dangerous!” Scout growled at me. Was he trying to imitate the dungeon!? Probably not…

“Maybe. But I simply can’t do what I need to do from outside the walls.” I kind of half wondered if I could from inside the walls either. But there was only one way to find out. I turned and walked towards the opening. They didn’t have any guards or anything standing around, so I felt pretty good about the whole thing. I was fairly confident this wasn’t a bad idea, but I’d been wrong before.