The Monster King's Legacy

After the event with the ogres, the goblins remained vigilant, just in case another group of ogres was to appear out of nowhere to perhaps take revenge or anything of the sorts. If those ogres were a part of a mercenary guild or association, and they went missing without contact, it was only natural to believe that their comrades or partners would look into the matter, and into the places they had been known to appear at.

As for the bodies, the goblins made sure to dispose of them properly to remove as much of the evidence that the ogres were there, as possible.

Lance had thought of leaving their bodies to the wild animals to feast on, but not only was the area they lived in devoid of many predators, that plan would require them to leave behind the ogres' weapons and every other thing, to really paint a believable picture that it was the work of beasts. Since Kaeli would need the tools and the goblins would make use of the weapons and other things the ogres had with them, they decided against it.

Instead, they had come to the conclusion to burn the bodies and dispose of the bones in the river.

Even with such measures, the goblin scouts stayed vigilant and went a bit further than they normally do when patrolling.

This particular day, around a week and a half after the incident, the goblin scouts returned at dusk, their faces tense as they slipped silently into the camp. Zarra, leading the group, headed straight for Lance's quarters, her usual smirk replaced by a grim frown as she made her way through. She found him near the fire close to Lia's tent, going over plans with Lia and Rynne.

"We've got a problem," Zarra said without preamble, crouching next to the fire.

Lance looked up, his brow furrowing. "What kind of problem?"

"Humans," Zarra said, her voice low. "Traders passing through the forest. We listened in on their conversation. They're saying dangerous things."

Lia's eyes narrowed. "What did they say?"

Zarra glanced at her scouts, the ones who had stuck with her, they nodded in understanding before leaving. "They're talking about kingdoms, human ones, planning to purge 'dangerous goblin tribes.' They didn't name us specifically, as in this region, but you can bet they'll come this way sooner or later."

Lance leaned back a bit, placing his hand in the dirt to support himself, his chest tightening. "Purges? Why?"

Zarra shrugged. "Humans don't need a reason to hate us. But from what we heard, they're scared."

Lia's expression darkened a bit. "But why? Why would they be scared of us goblins, we've scarcely ever been a threat."

Lance exhaled slowly, trying to process the information. "What else did you hear?"

"The rest was unrelated talks about other things" Zarra said.

"I see." Lance said, thinking about the matter. 'Is it that time already? For some inter-race war to break out?'

Lance's stomach churned. Such a small goblin tribe would be as good as fodder in such a war. "We can't stop growing, not if we want to survive whatever is to come."

"No, we can't," Lia agreed.

Rynne spoke up, her voice sharp. "What about the other goblin tribes? We can try incorporating them into us?"

"We can reach out to the other tribes and try to form alliances, or do as Rynne suggested and they come under us." Lia said.

Lance bought into the idea immediately, as it was something he had been thinking of to begin with. "Then, we can open a dialogue with the other goblin tribes. Find out if they're willing to join or form an alliance with us."

"It won't be easy," Lia warned. "They'll be suspicious of us, maybe even hostile. We don't typically band together like that, but, I'll do what I can."

"I hope it goes well," Lance said, his voice a bit soft. "We'll deal with one problem at a time."

"Yes. Well, we still have some time before that. The next goblin tribe I know of isn't close by any margin, and they may have relocated." Lia said, she then turned to look at Zarra who was still in squatting position, "we'll need our reliable scouts to do the job of locating nearby goblin tribes then. You have some work, Zarra." She said, a light smile on her face as she brings a piece of cloth for Zarra so she can sit.

"Easy for you to say, you're not the one navigating the forest." Zarra scoffed playfully.

"How long do you think it will take?" Lance asked, curious.

"I don't' know, really." Zarra said as she stretched, then laying her head into Lance's laps in one natural motion as if it were normal and natural.

Lance, taken aback momentarily, as he wasn't expecting it, froze for a second to process what just happened, after all, this was a first. Without giving him the luxury to process the situation, Zarra got a hold of one of his hands and lowered it to her head before letting go.

Lance who understood what she wanted, gradually started patting her hair. Unlike most, Zarra had shorter and wilder hair that looked a weird colour of a fade of green and red, though, the green took precedence. With every gentle and warm stroke, Lance could feel her loosen up and melt into his lap.

For Lance, he quite enjoyed it, and didn't have to bother with one thing he thought would be a problem, which was his 'young man' waking up.

After about quarter of a minute, Zarra continued, "it normally wouldn't take long, but given the fact that we don't even know what direction the other goblin camps may be in, we won't be running into any soon. It'll take some time." She explained.

At this point, Lia and Rynne weren't paying much attention to what Zarra was saying, they only took notice of her bold advances that caught them completely off guard. Zarra seemed to have noticed their sudden interest, and as though to rub it in their faces, she turns, and with a big happy smile, hugs Lance while snuggling her face into his stomach, almost like a cat or puppy would.

Lance once again, was taken aback as he wasn't expecting it, but he appeared to handle it rather better than what he would have thought, himself. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden?" He asked, completely oblivious to the shock of the other two, and the stares they were giving Zarra at that moment.

"Oh, nothing. Hey, why don't you come with us tomorrow to explore a new area? We've been expanding our territory a bit, you know? Also, you haven't really had a lot of time to practice lately." Zarra proposed, pulling away from Lance a little, her wide and happy smile still plastered on her face. Lance felt that if she had a tail, it would be wagging all over the place at that moment.

"Hmm, it doesn't sound like a bad idea. I could also use the opportunity to see how much we've covered so far." He said, thinking about it while he continued stroking her hair again.

"Ok, we can do that too."

"Mm."

...

A/N:

For the time being, I'll slow down my updates to 1 chapter a day. This way, I will retain consistency, and you the readers, will be guaranteed an update everyday without fail.

Also, please support the work by dropping reviews and powerstone. Even a simple TFTC comment goes a longway I tell you, so please, don't be too conservative. 

I may not always respond, but that may be because I didn't see the comment or whatever other reason. Regardless, it doesn't just help me know you are excited to read the story, it helps the book by providing engagement, and to be pushed to new readers. 

That aside, I know we are still relatively early in the story, but please, do leave a comment or review. Tell me, how do you like the story so far? Do you like the path it is taking? What do you think about it in general? I genuinely want to know.