Nedoma held his hand over the bleeding wound on his hip. Looking around the room, he spotted a piece of clothing that was not completely soaked in blood already and tore off a few pieces of fabric. With cloth in hand, Nedoma did his best to recall how Jana treated Emi's injuries. He wrapped it around his body, covering the exposed wound as he did so. He then placed some extra pieces on top of the injury as padding. After tightening the fabric to secure everything in place, Nedoma was satisfied with his attempt.
Nedoma found himself still alert even after the fight was over. He paid close to attention to his hearing, focusing on anything that might seem like movement or chattering caused by goblins. But all things considered, to Nedoma the village presently sounded like it used to. The ambiance of the village at evening time seemed to stay the same no matter who the occupants were. After checking outside and seeing far fewer goblins out and about, he was finally able to relax a little and begin his post-battle ritual.
After having collected all his proofs and used his skill, Nedoma dragged the individual corpses in the hallway into his parent's room to avoid them being spotted outside. As he moved them one by one, he looked at the blood stains which remained and wondered if passerby goblins would realize it belonged to one of theirs. With the last corpse in place, Nedoma tries to close the door, only to discover that the handle and lock had both been broken. Sighing, he grabs the bloodied blanket and pillow from the bed, and lays down on a semi-clean portion of the floor. Nedoma rests on his side, facing toward the entrance of the room.
Darkness fills the room as a restless and still awake Nedoma thinks about the day's results. Ten goblins. I had to kill te-, well, nine I guess, goblins. That's two silver and ten copper. The boar...well, not sure if tusks count as a proof of kill but at best probably ten copper? So that's three silver, enough for only six days of food at two meals a day. That's way more than we could have made as farmers.. I guess if it's just fighting one goblin at a time, there's not much issue, but things got really dicey there at the end... Nedoma rubbed his hand over the covered injury. I bet if Jana were still here it would have been easy. She might've been able to heal like Emi, and she would have been able to fix me right up. Yeah, if she were still here...
****
Nedoma awoke to a parched throat and fuming nostrils. The decaying corpses piled inside of the room had already begun to smell. Barely audible chattering and footsteps could be heard outside from where he was laying. He carefully picked up his gear as he stood up silently, looking eerily similar to a statue as he faced the door, motionless. After a short while, the noise faded and Nedoma regained his composure. He stepped over the bodies to head into the kitchen where he found a pale of water still full. Using a hand as a scoop, he bent his head towards the bucket as he shoveled water into his mouth. The otherwise normal and slightly warm water felt incredible after his draining fights yesterday. Nedoma looked around for the waterskins which they had normally took out with them to the field, but was unable to find any. “Hmm,” Nedoma thought aloud, “Maybe the inn...”. The thought of any inn seemed to cause Nedoma's stomach to growl.
He fetched the slab of meat from his satchel and cut off a chunk. After further cutting the chunk into multiple pieces, Nedoma placed them in a pan and began cooking them on the stove. Nedoma shut the window as he cooked, praying that the smell would not float far from the kitchen. Having cut the slices fairly thin, the pinkish hue soon disappeared and was ready for consumption. He quickly devoured the meat, after which he washed the taste down with more water.
After returning to his parent's room, he thought about what he should do next. It's to soon to go back to Luton, I should definitely try to earn a bit more money before returning. If I just stay in this house, they'll definitely catch on to the smell and probably overwhelm me. Which leaves either moving into the nearby forest or finding a different house to stay at. Nedoma pondered his next steps for a moment before coming to a conclusion. “Or...how about both?”
Nedoma quickly fetched his satchel and, after checking for any nearby goblins, left through the window once more and vanished into the forest.
