The man sitting on the blanket watches Nedoma closely as he walks toward him. It's probably the same person I saw last night. The man speaks up as Nedoma gets near, his voice a low growl with a tinge of fear. “What do you want?” His eyes dart back between Nedoma and the sword in his hand.

“Ah,” Nedoma realizes what's going on. He switches to a backwards grip, the sword now pointing behind him. “Sorry, I don't have any bad intentions. I just don't have a sheathe to hold it. Haha..” he says with a nervous chuckle at the end. The stranger seems to ease up a little, but still remains doubtful.

“Well, if that's not your intention then what is?” The people residing with him begin to stir from behind due to all the commotion. Despite their recently awakened state, they all begin to nervously look at Nedoma, his burn marks giving him an intimidating stare.

“Ahum.” Nedoma tries to clear his throat. “I was wondering, are you all from Ayrith?”

The man looks surprised. “Yes, are you...” his eyes momentarily wander. “Did you escape from there too?”

“Yes, me and two others. But..” A flash of pain appears on his face. “They didn't make it. Have you seen the other villagers here?”

The man grimaces. “Not many. The goblins, they attacked early in the morning. Most of the village had been out working in the fields when they started running out of the forest.” The man shakes his head in remembrance of the event. “Everyone tried fleeing towards the village, but the goblins caught up and surrounded them. A group of adventurers that had been staying at the village came running to help, I can only imagine what happened after.” A pained expression is all that can be seen across the five faces. “My family and I..” he nods towards the people behind him. “We were late heading out to the fields, so we managed to not get caught and escape. But now we have to live knowing what likely happened to the rest of the villagers.”

Everyone was already working in the fields... Nedoma thought back to when he had been taking a rest on the road and had noticed how high the sun was. No wonder we made it outside of the village. We overslept and escaped while everyone else had been fighting. Nedoma cringes. He feels shame at the notion that he survived only because he had been lazy and not gone out for work when he was supposed to that fateful morning. Nedoma notices the family staring at him, as if waiting for his judgment. “I overslept that morning.” Nedoma pauses for a moment. “I guess that's the only reason I managed to escape.” Nedoma combines a shrug with a sigh. “I'll have to live with it too.” The man nods his head. “What will you all do now?”

A woman, likely his wife, speaks up from behind him. “We're going to stay here a few more days, before more than likely heading back to the village.”

What?! “You're going back?” His voice revealed his surprise much more than he anticipated.

The family appeared downcast. “We have nowhere else to be. There's no guarantee we can find work in Luton. With no money we won't be able to feed ourselves.”

Her husband spoke up once more. “The village will have been cleared of goblins by the end of the week. The government will do what they always do in these situations. They'll post more security around the village while it rebuilds for a while, and then leave it for the next attack.” The man grimaces. “It's cheap for them to rebuild those dingy houses, and displaced people from other villages replace the ones who died. People like us, who have no other options...” The man stared at Nedoma. “What about you? What will you do?”

Nedoma's grip tightened around his sword as he spoke. “I'm going to become an adventurer.”