Nanashi walked through the forest for quite a while. Night was starting to fall and it was getting cold. The sword was starting to get heavy, and he was dragging it behind him. Needless to say, Nanashi was not having a good time.
Getting frustrated, Nanashi held up the sword in his left hand and swung it a few times. “Why do I have to do this!?” Nanashi shouted into the woods.
“You brought this on yourself, you know,” a voice in the woods responded, surprising Nanashi and making him swing the sword into a tree with a dull ‘shunk’. In front of him landed a person with cat-ears, a cat’s tail, dark brown hair, and cold, steel-blue eyes.
“Who are you?” Nanashi timidly asked, remembering his last encounter with someone ended in a threat on his life.
“Who, me? I’m just an old woodsman, but more important than who I am, how do you plan to save a girl surrounded by goblins if you hold a sword like that?” The person laughed at him.
“How do you know all of that? If you were watching, why didn’t you help me?” Nanashi asked, somewhat irritated.
“If you were in any danger, I would have stepped in and saved you. I was taking a nap, you see, when two goblins walked under the tree I was in carrying you. I followed you to the goblin’s town, and now that I know where it is, me and my crossbow have a little cleaning up to do.” The cat-person said, hefting an old and battered-looking crossbow.
“Wait, I’m confused. Are you saying you are going to help me?”
“Maybe not directly, but… Yes, I will help you. Now, grab your sword and follow me; we go left!” he cheered walking off into the woods.
Nanashi pulled on the sword for a few seconds before finally pulling it out and falling onto the ground. Still hearing the cat-person, Nanashi scrambled to his feet and ran after him.
While walking Nanashi asked again, “So, who are you?”
“I told you, I’m a woodsman, but call me Mikku. Forgive me that I do not address you formally but, I’m trying to keep myself under the radar, so I don’t want an onlooker to know everything about me.”
“There are people watching us from in the forest?” Nanashi worriedly asked, looking around.
“Probably not, but I always worry that someone is watching me, and it’s kept me alive so far,” Mikku laughed. But his face suddenly turned serious and he crouched and harshly whispered, “Get down, Nanashi!” Nanashi dropped to the ground immediately, and looking through the bushes he saw the goblin encampment.”Now boy, leave the goblins to me. Your only job is to save the girl and get yourselves out of here. Can you do something as simple as that?”
Nanashi looked at the camp some more and saw a lot of goblins. “Are you sure you can take them all, Mikku?” He asked.
“You’ll see Nanashi, you’ll see. Now on the count of three, you run straight at the pole where the girl is tied up, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Nanashi protested “Wait but there are five goblins in between me and her. How will you-“
“One,” Mikku counted ignoring Nanashi.
“No wait, tell me what-“
“Two,” he continued loading a bolt into his dirty crossbow.
Realizing that Mikku couldn’t be stopped, Nanashi poised himself to start running. As soon as Mikku called “three” Nanashi ran from the bushes.
The first thing Nanashi noticed as he passed the five goblins was that they were all on the ground with a shaft of wood sticking from their heads. Hoping nothing would accidently hit him, Nanashi ran up onto the stage and to the pole; he quickly started cutting the rope tying the girl up.
“You returned to rescue me, ehh boy?” said the girl.
“I just couldn’t leave you behind,” he quickly responded and the sword made it through the rope.
“Well you should have if you knew what’s good for you,” the girl said and immediately sprang up and grabbed Nanashi by the throat and slapping his hand, making him drop the sword. Feeling a low humming, the girl started to lift him off the ground as she proclaimed, “I am Yatsui Devisk, and the Overlord want to see you.”
Gasping for air, Nanashi looked at his attacker. He saw a girl about as tall as he was with red hair and dead-looking red eyes. Faintly, Nanashi heard, “What is going on here?”
The girl suddenly lost her balance and fell of the stage, dropping Nanashi and hitting her head on a large rock. Standing up and with labored breathing, Nanashi saw that the stage was tilted to one side, and a shaft of wood was sticking out of one of the legs to the stage.
Mikku ran over and said, “I didn’t know the girl wanted to kill you. What did you do to her?”
“I don’t know. I just cut her loose and she grabbed me,” Nanashi defended.
Night had set by now, and in the darkness, Nanashi heard an unfamiliar screech. “Great, harpies. Come on Nanashi, let’s get out of here.”
Nanashi started to follow Mikku, but then looked back at Yatsui, lying in a slump on the ground. “I won’t leave without her,” he called to Mikku.
“Harpies, and a suicidal boy,” Mikku complained while picking up Yatsui. The group ran off into the forest, leaving the destroyed goblin encampment behind.