CHAPTER 3
He continues on his way,meeting a man sitting at the side of the road in a bright but dirty purple top with large wooly shoulder pieces, his trousers also had a similar enalrged pieces around the thighs. He holds a gittern in his hands.
"Greetings, traveller..." He gleams with a smile exposing his rotting teeth.
Grymm ignores him and walks past, but he follows,strumming his instrument in a melodious but repetitive tone.
Grymm grits his teeth and turns around to face him.
"It seems you don't like that instrument of yours." He hisses, gripping the handle of the gavel.
He stops and apologises.
Grymm continues on for a few minutes and hears the bards scream:
"Help me!"
Grymm turns around to the sight of two groups of savage goblins in loincloths, the first pair rip the instrument from the bard as well as his satchel of gold pieces, the others rip his clothes, distracting him enough for the first group to get away.
The bard scrambles to catch them as they scramble off in multiple directions,
one of them passes Grymm, and they make eye contact for a split second. He sees the mindlessness and primal instinct in the creature's eyes before it runs past.
He looks in his pocket to make sure the gold leaves are there, allowing him to sigh in relief.
"Please, kind stranger, help me catch them."
"Catch who?"
He looks around as the goblins are nowhere in sight.
The bard growls with cuts and bruises on his face, holding up his trousers that are now sagging with one hand.
Grymm turns around and continues on the trail until he reaches a kiosk with a rotund grey creature sweeping around the shop.
The man notices him and smiles.
"Ah, you must be the blacksmith's boy, I presume?
Grymm nods, hands him the sack of tools.
"I'm sorry for your loss,"
"What loss?"
"Oh, you didn't hear? Lord Thornn asked to see him and..."
"...Those are simply rumours!" He barks
"Ah...I see." The man says,handing a pouch of gold to him.
A group of male pointy eared people walk behind him, all brandishing weapons and each with a black sac, most in the usual white male attire but the one in front wore a black variant, his eyes seem colder than the rest.
As the others laugh, wiping blood off their spears, the one in black remained silent, holding a sac much larger than the others.
The man in black stands beside Grymm who suddenly feels agitated. Goosebumps riddle his skin as the shape the objects make with the sac look very familiar.
"I have business with this man, have you finished with yours?"
The man says in a calm tone to Grymm.
"I...umm....yes."
As he turns around to leave, one of the other men fails to knot his sac and one of the objects rolls out, leaking blood and a foul odor the object is round and ends ends at Grymm's feet; a goblin's head.
Grymm freezez in his tracks, trying not to react and alert the men.
"You imbecile, look what you did!" The man in black chastizes his colleagues.
"I'm very sorry, good sir, my companions aren't the sharpest tools in the shed."
He takes a rag to clean the blood off Grymm's boots, but he steps back.
"It's fine, don't worry. "
In that moment,.the man notices something familiar about him."
"...Well, if you insist..." He stretches his hand towards him for a handshake.
"I am Zal, eldest of House Reku."
"I am Grymm,"
He responds, shaking his hand and feeling the strength of Zal's grip.
"Of what house do you hail, Grymm?"
"I...I have no house."
Zal pulls his hand away immediately, his expression contorts as though he had just perceived something foul.
"Oh, you're one of those that dwell in that forsaken pit in the ground. Anyway..."
He tosses gold coins, which land on the floor in front of him.
"Have this for your troubles. It's probably more money than you've ever seen anyway."
Grymm clenches his teeth,his hand going towards his hammer but stops.
"Keep your gold, I have a forge to tend to."
He turns around to leave, but the man walks beside him.
"Forges are tended to by Blacksmiths are theh not? I heard a rumour that the polular blacksmith from that area housed a goblin..."
Beads of sweat flow down Grymm's face. Some even find their way into his mouth.
"...My friends and I were tasked to eliminate a group of them who were plaguing the area. I apologise for making such a connection."
Grymm soon realises that the other men in white have him surrounded.
"I never got a good look at you, friend..."
His hand reaches down to the top of Grymm's hood.
He pulls it but pauses a man screams in the distance:
"He's dead! The blacksmith known as the Lionbeard is dead! Lord Thornn asked him questions, and he refused to answer him, so he was turned to stone!"
Grymm's couldn't hear anything after that statement but his loud heartbeat, a sharp pain in his stomach, his eyes became red and he swing his hammer with such a force it forces the men to step back, the force also knocks his hood back; revealing his identity.
Zal's eyes light up, rushing towards him with a spaear in hand. He swings the blade at him, but Grymm counters with his hammer as soon as it nakes contact.the blade breaks off; knocked into a bush.
He atares at his weapon in disbelief as Grymm rushed to strike him, but an arrow fired by one of the men in white hits Grymm in the shoulder,knocking him out.