Day Seven #2

Meanwhile in another location within a run down barn, there was a woman that looked very sick and seemed to have suffered a heavy wound.

A medicine smell was in the air all around her and her wound was wrapped up in a white bandage but there were traces of blood that had stained it a little.

There was a man that was stood over her with a conflicted look on his face. "I did my best to patch you up since you have managed to survive this far but you have yet to tell me how you are still living after all this time?"

He thought to himself. 'One day my daughter goes missing with no warning then suddenly shows up in such a bad shape and on the verge of death.. everyone had seen her appearance and it will not be long before everyone knows about this.'

His gaze became colder as he turned his gaze away. 'She may have been useful some time ago but now nobody will want her once they start spreading rumours based on what they have seen.'

The daughter that he had once lost had returned which should have been a pleasant experience for him but instead, he had thought more about the effects her return would bring.

His thoughts were reasonable since before she had disappeared, there was already a marriage set up for her and he would be able to proudly watch his daughter marry into a good family.

Upon her disappearance, that potential marriage had fallen apart and so had his relationship with that family.

If his daughter did return then he would be unhappy with her but so long as she was okay then he could try to negotiate once again.

It was not possible once she had returned due to her state that was shown to the rest of the villagers.

Rumours would spread and it would cut off any chance of him using his daughter's marriage for personal gain or to simply improve his standing in the village.

She came back injured and barely clothed but that was not what had impacted the rumours the most.

The rumours were based off the slightly large pregnancy belly that she had came back with so there would be rumours about her either running off with an unknown man before her marriage or she was taken away by monsters.

Either one would damage her reputation so bad that nobody would want to go near her.

The murderous look that the man had given towards her lasted a moment once his gaze settled on her stomach area. 'She should have dealt with that first before she returned or reached out to me in secret. This could have been salvaged then.'

There was still some love for his daughter or a slight sense of responsibility that he felt towards her as a father so he still ensured that she was cared for.

The woman lay there with a hand rested on her stomach area and shivered as if remembering her trauma. "The goblins.. they came and everything went black. Everything from there was… pain and suffering for me.

Then suddenly it was all gone and there was a monster that let us go. It was small but could speak. I barely made it back alive after it released me. I had to make it back to warn everyone father."

The man frowned and asked. "So this is what you have to say after all my efforts to save you? Tell me the important parts that will be useful and what actually makes sense."

He understood that his daughter must have suffered so terribly that she could have died many times over or could have taken the chance to end her own suffering after being humiliated but she had endured everything to return.

There must have been a reason why she had continued to endure for so long and had not cared about her own life would turn out once she returned to the village or how it affected him.

He wanted to know why she had gone to so much trouble but she had only given him a brief outline of what had happened to her.

He understood the meaning behind what had happened to her which left him feeling hatred towards the monsters that he had already hated a great deal.

His daughter had continued to speak weakly. "It is green with a small body the size of a small child and ears like a bat ears. It has purple hair and eyes which are its defining traits and it seems to be the leader of a group of the same species.

They took down an entire goblin horde within the cave I was captured in without suffering injuries and a Satyress had joined them before I was given the chance to leave. That thing seems to have power and is intelligent. It could become a threat if left alone father."

Her hatred towards monsters had been driven to the point of madness once she had started suffering under the hands of the goblins.

That rage had nowhere to go once the goblins were killed by Inis so there was nowhere to direct that rage towards.

It became her main motivation to live on and to get all the information that she knew of back to the village that was near the forest that Inis was a part of.

If she could not get to vent her own anger then she would redirect it towards Inis who had saved her life but had left her to fend for herself if she did not wish to submit to Inis.

She would never serve a monster after what she had suffered and she loathed others that had even considered the proposal.

It was like abandoning the last speck of humanity that they had to go live with the very monsters that had made them suffer.

Inis, Xeni and the other Gremlins had become the targets of her goal for vengeance due to them being the only ones that she could find to place some of the blame on.

The man had stood there silently while contemplating what he had heard then his gaze turned serious. "How long ago did this happen and do you have any idea about their possible numbers, strengths and location?"

The woman nodded. "I can tell you father. If you bring a map then I could roughly mark the route that I could have travelled through and the direction that they could have travelled. Do not underestimate it.

It may be small but it was crafty enough to deal with so many goblins with few numbers. It happened a little before I had returned but some time may have passed since I have been resting for so long now."

The father and daughter continued their talk which had led to the information being spread among the village.

The recent changes to the forest and its power structure that had been known to the villagers had matched a little with the information that came about Inis so it became a topic that they would have to discuss about how they would take action.

If there was a major threat then there could be a team of people that could be sent to deal with it and that was what they were considering doing.