Chapter 135: The Tribe (3) (1/2)

Aiden continued making his way towards the decorated hut that belonged to the previous leader at a steady, slow pace. As he continued his trek, the goblins that were busy on the streets all made way for him, creating a sort of gilded route made of goblins for him. He felt so out of place, a sort of new, uncomfortable feeling welled up inside his heart.

''What have I gotten myself into!' – he grumbled to himself.

While the village itself wasn't overly big, maybe the size of an average district in the city, it still housed several thousand goblins, strangely, mostly males. It was hard to guess the ratio from a glance, but Aiden estimated that for every 9 males, there's maybe 1 female. Also, most of them were either too young or already over the prime of their lives.

'How do they keep up the population? Or maybe they just arrived, and the rest of the villagers are still on their way?' He ruminated. In all honesty, the latter was a real possibility, as all the huts and shacks seemed to be hastily put together, in fact, in some places the mud they used to 'paste' the wood together still hasn't dried up completely.

He continued to focus on the silent whispers his enhanced senses could pick up. While he still had no skill and was unable to understand the meanings behind the phrases, he noticed that the language itself is pretty basic, and borrows most of its structure and words from the Common, with some weird animal mimicking noises mixed in. A snort here, a gnarl there with some words he felt vaguely familiar with already.

After a while, about halfway towards his journey towards his destination, he felt two presences behind him. Halting his steps, he turned around, only to notice the two youngsters following behind that he 'blessed' previously with reverent faces. As soon as Aiden turned around, both of them immediately knelt down on the ground, with their right fists over their hearts and their gazes plastered to the ground. They also spoke a word loudly and proudly in unison, which Aiden couldn't understand still, but he could already guess it was some form of address towards him.

With a sigh, he motioned with his hands to stand up. Since he still couldn't properly communicate, he decided to go with the flow and motioned them to follow him. Both of their faces lit up with reverence as a response and nodded while exclaiming once again, a short phrase that was probably in compliance with the same address added to the end.

Turning around, Aiden continued his slow-paced journey. He could already see the row of armored warriors standing guard and blocking the entrance in the distance. Compared to the ones at the village gates, these were much better armored, with real weapons. They were probably higher ranked members, warriors of their society.

They were all wearing a furred leather chest plate that covered all of their torso while keeping their arms free. A similar furry, leather gloves protected their hands, and thick, padded leather pants hid their lower body. They were all wearing steel lances, not sure if it was something made by them, or stolen. One thing that was sure is that their weapons were regular-sized, making it look humongous next to their smaller frames.

None of them were wearing any helmet, they let their small patches of hairs proudly swing in the afternoon breeze. Their skin was mostly dark green, with small brunette patches every now and then. Adding to their higher standing in society, they all had blemishes, gashes, records of their battles on their arms.

While he understood that their race is an aggressive, mostly evil race, Aiden couldn't help but see that there were all kinds of members already in their society. Yes, the males mostly seemed like battle-ready, but amongst them, there were those that seemed like normal villagers that just wanted to live in relative peace.

'What should we do with them?! Although from his memory, I can already tell their primary goal for coming here, it just doesn't feel right to wipe them out... ' He was lamenting. As he was surveying the village, his eyes paced behind him, noticing the proud expressions of the two youngsters following behind.

'And what should I do with these two now?!' He sighed inwardly while making sure to keep a dignified appearance on the outside. 'I need to end this charade soon…'

After the awkward march, he eventually arrived in front of the guards, who immediately blocked the way by crossing their lances in front of him. Looking past them, he could see some light coming from the hut with the edges of a shadow of a humanoid figure peeking out. Someone already took the previous leader's place!

'Huh, that was fast… So the knowledge I gained was true after all. They really do not waste time…' He smirked.