Enri Emmot had a lot of work to do. First and foremost, she had to get the reports from the goblins. That part was easy; there were only a dozen of them. The other thing that she had to do in the morning was pray at the altar that Ninya preached at.
The girl had entered and started to live in their village for a while now. When she had first arrived in the village, it was with her party. The second time, it was only with the group known as darkness. She had said that she had been saved by the goddess that they themselves had taken to praying to.
While the vast majority of the villagers were happy with this, some were annoyed that an outsider was the one to do so. Calvaria had explained that Momonga had personally blessed her resurrection after her death, and the villagers cheered at that. Many months later, and her teachings were well known amongst the people of the village.
Of course, not everyone knew that she was a girl, that had been a slight shock. Though, not as much as she had expected. Ninya seemed to be surprised by this reaction, but they worshipped a goddess of death, why would it be surprising?
Enri got up from her bed, and stretched her body out from the long night’s sleep. Then, she went to go wake up her sister, Nemu. After that, she made a simple breakfast. It was a bowl of oatmeal, of course. After that, she started her day in earnest.
…
The sun was high above them all. The grass was waving in the wind, and Enri was clenching her nose. There she stood, in front of Nfirea’s workshop. There was a great and powerful odor that seemed like it could kill a horse wafting off of the building.
While Enri greatly cared for her good friend, but sometimes he just seemed far too invested in his potions. One of the goblins was with her today, Kaijali. As she looked at the building in front of her, she thought back to when he first decided to move there.
It had been a shock to hear that he had been kidnapped. Yet she was simply thankful, at the end of the day, that he was safe and sound. When he had moved to the village, she was rather happy. Her childhood friend was there, and she would get to see him every day.
Yet, she was still put off by his obsession with his potions. She shook her head in exasperation, and knocked on his door. A minute or two later, the man, thew myth, the legend that stunk of skunk innards stumbled out of the building in a daze.
She flinched somewhat as the smell of him hit her, but she didn’t mind all too much. She smiled as he grabbed her by the shoulders, and shook her with an excited look upon his face. The boy then went on to explain what he was so happy about.
“I finally made a change! The potion turned out purple. Red plus blue is purple! I’m only half way there to the end game!” he rattled out, and it was then that Kaijali intervened.
The goblin jumped in between the two of them, with his arms held out. while this did serve to separate them, it did slightly confuse Enri when he let out a glare at Nfirea. He didn’t really need to do so, Nfirea wasn’t going to do anything to her at all.
“Okay, that’s enough. You’ve been huffing your own fumes for a bit too long Nfirea,” the goblin said to her friend, his tone serious; he then turn to her, “you can go and get the lunch ready. I’ll try and sober him up a bit, splash some water over him.”
Enri nodded her head, and walked off towards the meal prep area. Back at the workshop, Kaijali was looking at Nfirea with a fierce glare. Nfirea was simply waving at Enri’s retreating figure. When he glanced down, he noticed the goblin fighter, and flinched at the harsh look.
The goblin, seeing this, just sighed a shrugged. He then turned to the man himself, and spoke. His tone was succent, yet friendly.
“Okay man, you like the boss, right?” he asked, and Nfirea blushed and nodded, “Right, so if you love her, you got to show it. Just flex you muscles a little,” the goblin said, and Nfirea looked at his arms.
“No, not those muscles. You have got to flex your mind. show her what your mind’s got,” he explained.
Nfirea smiled and nodded his head. That made sense. He had been planning on confessing for some time now. It might be a good time to start hinting that he liked her more than as a friend, and as something else.
The next half an hour went by as Kaijali explained differing poses and their corresponding triggers to flirt. The goblin may have tried to be a good wingman here, but it felt like he was just flexing his muscles to seem cool. It was a good advice though.
The boy was sober enough in the mind to realize just how good this advice was. Sure, he felt that it wasn’t really him. That made him more nervous. What if these new actions pushed her farther away from himself? It made him frown in his mind.
He also yawned. He hadn’t slept all night. He rather wanted to go back to sleep, but this day was the day that they’d be collecting herbs. He tried to hold it back, but it came out anyways.
…
Enri looked at the gathered people with a bit of trepidation. The goblins, and the two humans usually were on their best behavior. Yet right now, they were starting to argue.
The noise was loud, and rather boisterous. While it did annoy her how they, somewhat, worshipped the ground that she walked on. It was fine most of the time. Yet now, they were yapping to each other over who she favored. It made her grimace slightly. While she cared for them, she didn’t think of them that way.
If anything, she cared for her childhood friend Nfirea more. Even though he was a bit of an idiot, she liked him. Sure, he may care a bit too much about his potions, but she didn’t really mind.
It simply showed her that he had a lot of love in him. She liked that about him. She liked that he could be obsessive. A part of her wanted him to be that way around her. A blush came to her cheeks as her mind ran face first down the gutter.
Just as she was about to slap herself to knock her mind away from that, she heard something that shocked her more. A thunk could be heard from Nfirea’s spot at the table. She looked over to him, while sprinting over to his side. He had fallen asleep face first in the stew.
“Soup, I love some soup…” he muttered out as his mind conked out.
…