C22: Kobold Carriers

*Rustle* *Rustle*

Bane woke up half awake to the sound of whispering and rustling all around him. His senses not as sharp as they should have been could only leave him wondering what it was.

'Where am I?'

A jerky ride was what welcomed him as soon as he regained consciousness.

Opening his eyes with the hazy view all that came into his vision was the huge canopies of green and yellow.

As his vision become clearer he twisted his body sideways in the direction of the squeaking that had been annoying him for quite a while during his sleep.

"Kobolds?"

Bane raised his brows.

"Where did so many came from?"

At least Bane was still inside the forest. if he were to assume, the chances were that he wasn't unconscious for too long.

Those packs of reptilian anomalies with their brown and scaly bodies had sure caught Bane off guard.

Bane turned around as he rested on his belly to get a better view.

Bane was being carried away by the kobolds... on a raft of sorts.

And he wasn't alone getting such a free ride.

"They are part of my tribe, right?"

It was hard to recognize, but the other goblins who were being carried away in the raft seemed familiar enough to Bane. Most of them were injured though. And how could Bane forget the huge figure of the forest bear? A dead body that was but carried around to be laid in its coffin.

Not only that, the goblin shaman still seemed to be leading the group at the very front with the pack of kobolds following behind him. Some goblins although very few were also walking along the edges in sync with the kobolds.

"Ah... reinforcements perhaps?"

Bane lips twitched.

"Ugh... whatever. My head hurts."

Saying so Bane flopped onto the raft enjoying the free ride.

He had a lot of question on his mind.

Where did the kobolds come from?

Where were they heading too?

And also why were the goblins working along with the kobolds?

But those questions could wait for now.

"I am famished. Perhaps asking for water would be too much? Griguek."

Bane thirst was the only thing that didn't show up on the status screen but it was definitely there. It was the same for his body's resistance to cold and heat.

Bane reached out as he dug his nails into the body of the giant bear to get a better grip. But turned out that his teeth dug in much better through the hide giving him access to some greasy greasly meat.

*Nom* *Nom*

"Ugh, disgusting..."

It didn't feel as passable as it did before when he was on his last straw.

'Perhaps it was indeed desperation at that hour that had forced me to consume something like that.'

But that didn't mean that Bane had much of a choice now either.

'Of course there are kobolds around, but they seem to be the friendly type.'

Bane continued to consume whatever he had. Forcing himself to eat it wasn't really the most pleasant experience. It was to the point that he had secretly wished in the depths of his heart to have some human meat to consume.

'Compared to the shit I have been eating, that was really a delicacy.'

Anything that had softer meat was bound to taste good unlike the tar like meat of a forest bear.

Bane's eyes travelled to the scores of kobolds around him. He did have a memory of eating kobold meat in his adventuring days.

Human meat was perhaps not the only one soft enough to fit his taste.

Before Bane knew it he had drool on his mouth.

It was not until a trickle of saliva dripped from his chin that he was able to realize his thoughts.

"No... NO, that's dangerous."

Bane shook his head as he slapped himself awake. Was it because of hunger that he was loosing himself?

'That strange. SP should be full enough.'

Knowing that something that wasn't supposed to happen was occurring Bane chose to blame everything to his hunger.

And thus there was only one thing to do, as he sunk himself in the rubber like meat.

Nothing could stop him until he saw his SP bar full.

In the end, Bane ended up licking his fingers to clean them.

The blood of the bear mixed with his own blood entered his mouth giving his taste buds a slight metallic taste.

Even if Bane had consumed flesh making his SP break to the limit, he hadn't consumed much considering his small size.

'I won't get scolded would I?'

As Bane was contemplating what excuses he shall make a splash of light obscured his entire vision.

One must note that Bane was travelling under thick canopies until now. The whole hunt had happened in the forest and had Bane monster eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness Bane would have been dead meat now.

As such with the sudden flash of light, Bane instinctively closed his eyes.

"What is it now?"

But as Bane's eyes adjusted to the new light level a huge vast stretch of greenery enterred his vision.

No it wasn't like that dark and gloomy feeling as inside the forest where the air was heavy with humidity.

Rather it was a stretch of shimmering green grass with dew shimmering under the bright day sunshine. They had come out of the forest.

Bane was stricken and curious at the same time.

"Wow, is this really my world?"

Tall grass higer than the height of goblins and kobolds, it was type of environment meant to support weak creatures like the goblins and kobold to survive.

The green grass perfectly camouflaging the goblin's natural skin was meant to be a death maze for any creature larger than a feet.

Of course, goblins weren't the only ones who lived here but it was almost perfect to call it their habitat. It was a support mother nature had provided to support the weak.

Threats to the goblins like the forest bear would immediately be spotted as there was nothing obscuring there vision... no trees... no structures... it was just huge tall grass. And creatures that were perhaps smaller than the goblins could have never been a threat to them in the first place.

"Looking it up from here, this seems like a natural fortress."

Bane had passed through these lands before on his way to the forest but it was the first time he had viewed him from high above from the luxury of a raft giving him a better view. He was thus able to appreciate and mesmerize on it.