Little Girl

A week had passed since I had caught the actress, and the day had finally come when the actress was going to be executed in the poor district where she committed her murders. I don't like seeing death in this world, but I can't say I'm upset to see her go. She killed children out of grief from losing her own child, but those children didn't deserve what she did to them.

It must have been scary, knowing your life was going to end within the next few moments and not being able to do anything about it. It must have been cold, considering they were committed at night. It must have been quiet since they were committed in places with no nearby people. It must have been lonely...

No, I should stop with this thought line. Maybe a walk in the woods would help. The nice and calming sound of nature and running water should help ease me.

I threw on my shoes and stepped outside. A gentle breeze blew across me as I stepped outside, making me feel slightly better than I did only moments before. I then set off towards the small trail I had made in the woods.

I walked at a slow pace, admiring the simple views I had admired many times before, and enjoying myself. My thoughts from before disappeared, instead being replaced with a calm, tranquil feeling. That is, until I heard a distressing sound.

Ragged, laboured breathing. It was a girl, probably around twelve, and running towards my general direction. I couldn't see her yet, as she was far away and hidden behind the many trees, but my ears heard the noises she made clearly.

Worse than that was the sound of Goblins. They were behind the girl, chasing after her while making disturbing snarling noises. I thought I had killed all the goblins in these woods a few months ago. Did more move in? Wait, that's not important right now. What's important is that girl running for her life.

Without sparing another moment, I sprang forth, dashing through the woods I had explored many times before. It took only a few moments of sprinting forward at top speed before I arrived in front of the girl. She had many cuts and bruises, a broken and swollen arm, and dirty and tattered clothes.

I didn't stop however, instead running past her and straight towards the goblins. The three goblins didn't even have a chance to fully realize I had shown up before I had used earth magic within a single moment and pulled them down three meters underground.

Goblins are usually only one meter to one and a half meters tall, making them fairly short monsters. Of course, their evolved counterparts, like hobgoblins or goblin kings and queens are usually two to three meters tall, making for quite the diversity in height within the goblin species in general. None of this matters though, as there is still an injured girl that is running with reckless abandon. She probably hasn't noticed that I killed them. I guess I should stop her.

I passed her up and then stopped right it front of her. She was obviously confused, but it seems like she was too exhausted to care. She passed out right on the spot, and I had to catch her before she hit the ground.

"Whoa there."

I wonder who she is, or where she came from, or even how she got in these woods. My map says the nearest settlement besides Trosting is over thirty kilometers away, quite the distance for one girl to travel. Well, I should treat her injuries with my healing magic. It's a good thing she's unconscious right now, as when I use healing magic, it will snap her arm immediately back into place, which would hurt like hell.

I used the healing magic and watched as her body almost immediately healed up. Her arm snapped from a crooked and unusual position to its correct position, creating a terrible snapping sound as it did, causing me to cringe slightly.

Well then, I guess I should take her home then.

Carrying her in both arms, I ran back to my house, taking care not to jostle her too much. Once we got back, I lay her down on my bed, letting her rest.

Now then, I should clean her next.

Easy.

Using the water molecules in the air, I scrubbed each and every inch of her body clean in only a moment.

Finally, I should change her clothes. It should be fine since we're both girls. I took off all of her clothes and tossed them into the fireplace. They were so horribly destroyed that it would be useless to clean them. I then grabbed a pair of my own clothes and put them on her instead. They were a little big, but they should still do the job.

"Whew."

That was quite a lot of unexpected excitement today, but there is still one more thing I need to do. She should be out cold for the next two days at least, which means I should have plenty of time to take care of this.

"I'll be back soon. Sweet dreams."

I closed her door and stepped outside.

There were goblins chasing her, which means there is probably a larger group of goblins. I have no idea if they're in the woods, or somewhere further out, but I imagine it can't be too far, as the goblins would have given up at some point. All I need to do is follow their footsteps, which shouldn't be too hard, as there aren't many humanoid creatures in this world.

Well, I should be able to have this finished before sundown. Time to deal with some monsters.