Gold wasn't able to catch a single wink of sleep because of what Kalbo had said last night. Additionally, there were no beds in the hut and they had to sleep on the ice-cold ground. Thankfully, Kalbo's body heat was enough for both of them so they wouldn't die from the bitter cold. Basically, Kalbo hugged Gold the entire night, kinda like a portable heater. It was an awkward situation to be in, no matter if you're the spectator, the person giving the hug or being hugged. It just felt uncomfortable.
During the night, Gold kept looking at the rabbit with pity. Well too bad since that's how the cycle of life works. He's not even in the position to pick what to and not to eat. He should be thankful that he didn't have to eat a toxic mushroom with purple dripping mucus.
Kalbo is a heavy sleeper, it didn't even wake when Gold got up and headed to the rabbit's cage which looks like a wooden crate. He puts one of his fingers in to touch it and surprisingly doesn't run away from him. In fact, the rabbit quite likes his touch, repeatedly rubbing its head onto his finger.
"I'm...sorry." His face looks at the rabbit with pity and it looks back at him with sweet big eyes. He looks even more distraught by this. "I'll...let you out."
A stupid decision but he's always been like that. Always selfish and never thinking things through, the worst kind of idiot. Despite Gold being physically on the weaker side, he does manage to break the wooden cage. And just like that, the rabbit runs out of the shack, never to be seen again.
His face starts sweating profusely and he bites his nails. "Why did I do that...?" Bite by bite, the shape of his nails began distorting. His nails weren't healthy from the start but now his nails look unrecognizable from before. A bad case of onychophagia.
Regret is always in the end. Especially for humans who have a short lifetime.
His eyes darts to each part of the shack before settling onto Kalbo. He remembers how Kalbo was yesterday when it was angry and tried to get rid of the evidence. This is just sad, honestly.
As if the leader weren't suspicious of him before, this whole fiasco might result in him getting kicked out for good. This time, Kalbo probably wouldn't even defend him anymore.
A few hours pass by before Kalbo finally wakes up. It's almost noon.
Kalbo yawns and asks why Gold looks so nervous. Kalbo's morning voice sure is something; high pitched and grating. It sounds like the exact inverse of a siren.
He doesn't respond and just glances at the broken cage. Earlier when he was trying to clean up the evidence, he put it all back because he thought it would be better to come clean; it could depend on the person but it could also make things worse, who knows?
Kalbo takes longer to put two and two together since it just woke up but when it does, it doesn't look like it cares as much as Gold thought it would. In fact, it kinda looks pleased.
"It's understandable. Humans have different diets from us, for now let's just get more food." It says, while patting Gold on the back.
Does Kalbo think he ate the rabbit? It's a logical conclusion, however, since it relates to that idiot in particular, one should expect the less logical conclusion. Why is a goblin smarter than an actual human? Maybe it's just that it's these two in particular. One's smart for a goblin and one's dumb for a human.
Gold takes a sigh of relief and happily nods. He's too happy to understand the misunderstanding that's happening between them so this whole thing might be left as is.
Kalbo, happy that it managed to ease up Gold, happily takes him into its embrace. A bit of deja Vu hits. PLEASE, Gods above, do not let last night reoccur.
Fortunately it doesn't. This time, Gold hugs Kalbo back. A heartwarming moment for the ages. Seeing how things turned out well when something is amiss, ignorance is truly bliss. They kept at it for a few seconds before they slowly backed away from each other.
They go out from the main camp but only for a short distance since Ate might be lurking around. Come to think of it, what is its motivation? It's not to kill Kalbo since it could've easily been done so the other day so it must be something entirely different. Questions like these can only be answered by Kalbo but too bad it can't hear them.
They climbed one high tree and mostly stayed at the top, jumping tree by tree. Gold had a piggyback ride on Kalbo despite being taller, nothing new but it still looked silly.
They reached a clearing where a small innocent slime was bouncing happily. Unbeknownst to the cute slime, danger was just lurking around the corner.
And with a bow that Kalbo pulls from who-knows-where, it shoots an arrow that hits directly at its core. Good thing Kalbo didn't use that on Gold. The slime stops moving and becomes as flat as a pancake. Kalbo picks it and slurps it all up. "Not good enough... Let's hunt for more."
Gold tugs at Kalbo's necklace, asks, "Why not just... Ask for food from Bobo?" Gold remembering the meat he ate yesterday, drools. Disgusting but then again, he hasn't ate since morning.
"We only share our spoils when the sun sets." Kalbo points at the sun and that idiot, Gold looks at it directly. He quickly lowers his gaze and covers his eyes.
Kalbo snickers at him before explaining thoroughly. "It's said that the fire dragon ate one of the seven stars and that made the sun fearful so it hid itself. Ever since that day, the sun keeps hiding itself, fearing it will become the fire dragon's next meal." Gold listens intently to the tale and Kalbo smiles. Are they really feeling all-giddy about a dragon almost eating the sun?
"That's why, we goblins share our food because to us, they are the stars that help us live throughout the days. Something like that. I didn't like listening to tales like these when I was small so I don't remember much." Kalbo shrugs.
Folk tales are mixed with speculation, sure, but they might be true to some extent. One can never know what truly happened in the past, unless of course they're the god of time or at least a god that has been there since the beginning.
They continue on the search for food and after going a bit of a distance, they saw Tongtong. It was lurking around with its mallet tail swinging back and fourth, maybe waiting for Kalbo. "Mreow Mreow." Tongtong calls out.
It has felt like it's been quite awhile despite only being a day. Gold is about to call out to Tongtong as well but Kalbo shushes him. Gold looks a bit startled by Kalbo. "He's not himself at the moment." Kalbo whispers.
Looking at Tongtong, it did look a bit odd. Its eyes were fully dilated and its ears were pointed at the back. Even its body looked rougher than last time. What happened? Shouldn't Kalbo comfort his pet?
Kalbo looks intently Tongtong and so does Gold. Monkey see monkey do. Tongtong lets out a few more mreows before leaving. Kalbo sighs in relief and turns to Gold.
"It's the green powder. It creates heightened emotions. Tongtong right now is probably looking for a mate, not us." Kalbo says, its voice sounding a bit quieter than usual, it is probably still unsure if Tongtong's still near the area.
"Our tribe used to create green powder and add it like seasoning to our meals so we could be more joyous than usual. That is until someone overdosed on it." Kalbo's voice was shaking yet it tried to sound brave.
Interesting. The green powder is some kind of emotional booster. Which emotions does it boost? All fo them? What exactly is it made out of? Fairy dust? Magic? No, it must be easy to acquire materials like say...medicinal herbs? Does it take long to make it? It must be pretty easy to make if Ate has them locked and loaded..
There are more questions than answers but information like these are still quite helpful for the future. You never know, Gold might accidentally eat it and die from too much emotions, as if that's even possible.
"Me and Naoyoti are half siblings, I was born from a human mother while she was born from an orc mother. My other siblings are real goblins unlike us." Kalbo took a branch that was on the ground and drew a mini version of itself and Naoyoti. Naoyoti looks like Ate so is its name Naoyoti or Ate? Or Ate might be something entirely different.
"Who's... Naoyoti? And who's Ate?" Gold asking a reasonable question for once. Can he hear the questions earlier? It might be more annoying if he could than if couldn't.
"Oh...right. I just call Naoyoti 'ate' because it means 'sis' in our language. It's also a habit of mine so I'm sorry if that cause any confusion." Kalbo apologizes.
That explains why Kalbo is as smart as a human and Ate's monstrous durability and strength. It also explains why they look different from the other goblins. But, what does this have anything to do with the green powder?
"Ate was one that overdosed on the green powder, not because she wanted to of course. Since me and Ate were a bit different, our siblings often made fun of us." Gold's furrows his brows and pouts his mouth like he's angry at Kalbo's and Naoyoti inequality. Okay, he kinda looks cute.
Kalbo laughs and continues, "One day, our siblings gave us a fish packed to the brim green powder. While I did ask them about the random green spots in the fish, they told us it was vegetable powder. While I didn't fall for it, Ate did." Kalbo told him, sounding dejected at the end.
Despite Kalbo's dark expression, Gold's eyes remain gleaming with curiosity. "What happened next...?" Kalbo's eyes soften at him but it wasn't enough to take off its grim look. "She ate it of course. Nothing happened immediately afterwards but my other siblings made fun of me and she turned aggressive–a-and–s-she..." Kalbo sniffles and clears up its throat.
Kalbo unable to tell this while looking at Gold's pitchy black eyes, lowers its gaze. "She tackled them to the ground. And shen I saw life spilling out in the form of dark red liquid, I couldn't help but run away. I didn't call for help, I just hid and ran. I don't what happened but when I came back none of my siblings or even our dad was left alive. Ate was branded as the criminal of the tribe and she's currently being hunted down by our leader, Piracho."
Well that was...intense. Who knew even monsters dealt with emotional conflict? Even Kalbo, who always looks so cheerful had stories like these hidden. Just goes to show that everyone has there own problems. At least now, with the information at hand, theories can be formed on what kind of motivations Naoyoti has with Kalbo. Maybe she misses the only family she left alive or maybe she wants to torment Kalbo for not stopping her. Asking what Kalbo thinks of it is a bit too cruel though.
Thinking about it, why did it decide to drop this much of a bomb shell to Gold in particular? They only spent a day together and he hasn't shown any actions of being trustworthy in the slightest.
Gold offers a hug to Kalbo but Kalbo doesn't accept it. Kalbo does appreciate the gesture though since his face eased up and even gave a small smile. The mood is a bit gloomy and the both of them don't seem to know what to talk about anymore. They just continued hunting for food.
They saw a lake nearby and hunted for a fish. It's a bit odd to hunt for a fish especially since it's what Naoyoti ate to turn into what she is now. Well, it is up to them on what to eat. They hunted a giant spearfish, with Gold doing absolutely nothing to help with the hunting but Kalbo teaches him how to prepare it for consumption. They added brown mushrooms and season it with salty water. They ate lunch happily and still continued to hunt to prepare for dinner.
Fortunately, nothing bad happens and they were able to catch a wild boar to prepare for the dinnerfest, and headed back to the main camp safely.