"Why did they kill all of us and chase us from our home." The girl who, despite looking multiple years older than Alice started crying.

It was a common story, a group of adventurers finding a goblin settlement and wiping it out. As a human, Alice had never had any problems with it, especially since goblins caused a wide variety of environmental issues. Alice had even considered the option herself when she arrived here. Topped off with a language barrier and difference in culture, goblins were treated like intelligent monsters at best, but monsters nonetheless. But from a different perspective, humans were way worse than any other monster. Actively seeking out goblins to hunt with no explanation.

Alice left aside such thoughts and instead brought Nadi into a hug and tried to comfort her. Eventually Nadi pulled away from the hug and wiped her tears.

“Please tell me.”

Alice was conflicted. Anything she could say would only make things worse, so instead Alice decided to change the subject.

”So do you know why Karandi avoids sunlight? Or why he’s covered in bark for that matter.”

Nadi smiled slightly at the blatant change of subject but went along with it anyway.

”Honestly no one really knows, but some people say the Nyedi got him. I guess he stays out of the sun because sunlight might make it worse maybe?”

”Wait, isn’t the Nyedi that monster that turns people into trees? I thought it was only a bed time story?”

”I thought it was too until I joined this village and saw Chief. Some of the hunters apparently saw goblin shaped trees deeper in the forest, as well as a few of the elders in my old village also who said they had seen people start turning into trees randomly. No one knows why, how or when it started though.”

”Then where did that part about people killing the Nyefi come from then?”

“Well that part was probably just made up so that children don’t get too scared.”

Alice almost called out the irony of a two month old calling others children when the both of them were called to join the group as they went back to the village after training ended. Alice and Nadi continued their conversation on the way back.

Alice guessed they had been there for around two hours since the sun signified it was now a more reasonable time to wake up. Alice also learned that at one month old, goblins are given a trial, after which they are considered adults and last night was a celebration of that. The new adults are then trained in various trades that benefit the village as well as simple self defense. Alice however, would be using that time for her own personal training, though she had the option of joining the others.

Nadi was going to be training to be a hunter, mainly because hunters were also a villages fighting force in times of conflict. Kani seemed to be doing something with Karandi and was exempt from any training, leaving Alice alone without any of her friends.

Alice found herself in the empty hut she called home, and with nothing to do, quickly remembered she hadn’t eaten yet. Alice decided to go out into the forest to find food and went to the villages entrance. When Alice arrived she immediately found her spear at the entrance where she had left it. Thankfully two days didn’t do much other than make it dirty.

As Alice walked out into the forest she realised that no one was trying to stop her from leaving. She honestly thought that with all the trouble Karandi had gone through to keep her here she wouldn’t be allowed to just walk out. What was his plan? So far she had been pressured into staying, shown every reason why she couldn’t go deeper into the forest, and then allowed to do exactly that right after. Not that she would be leaving any time soon. Being shown her own glaring mediocrity inspired to improve as much as she could with the time she had.

Maybe that was his plan? To force her to stay until she wanted to stay?

While Alice wasn’t too happy at the thought that she had been manipulated, she would be staying with the goblin’s either way; there was plenty of potential for improvement here.

While lost in her thoughts Alice found herself at the rest site she called home, she hadn’t meant to arrive here, but she had done so purely through muscle memory. Though she couldn’t deny that she had some intention of getting back here, mostly to move all of her valuables into the village, namely her textbook, sleeping bag and first aid kit. But before she did any of that, she had to fix her ‘clothing issue’. Her shirt had inevitably broken due to the trauma and neglect it had been through, and so, she would have to replace it.

Alice quickly realised that making a functional top of any kind would be way more difficult than making her skirt. Her skirt had been a simple process of wrapping the leather around herself, trimming, and connecting the two sides. A shirt would be significantly more complex. She could just follow the same steps and make a simple chest covering, but if she was going through the effort of even making clothes they should be the best she could make. It was here that she was struck with her greatest limitation. Since she had no sewing experience and her tools were limited to a sharp rock and leather strips, it would be best to have it all be one piece to limit the points of failure.

Alice went through many potential designs and after spending way too long thinking about it was forced to settle for her first option: making a copy of her dress and using it as a chest covering. Anything else was either too difficult to make or would be too limiting during combat. Alice quickly got it done and started packing her things up so that she could move them to the village. She quickly snacked on some berries and fruits before heading off. Her left hand carried the first aid kit and textbook in a rolled up sleeping bag while her right hand carried her spear.

About halfway to the goblin village, Alice passed by one of the areas she had been told to always avoid by her dad. Alice had no idea why she had to avoid them, and she was incredibly curious about what was inside but she thought it best to listen to her dad’s request. Especially since she wasn’t going to get any more of them.