“NYEERGH!!!” a monstrous shriek accompanied the rustling of forest leaves rooting a lone traveler in place in the clearing. In the moonless night, the traveler’s teal-clad armor, white cape, and fox mask seemed to catch what little light there was left to spare from the overcast sky.

Slowly, carefully, the traveler wrapped his hand around the handle of the sword strapped to his back, finger by finger, in a practiced routine. Visibility may have been low, but the traveler had his other senses...

CRACK! A branch snapped as a devious goblin sprinted toward the traveler’s exposed back with a pointed dagger.

The traveler’s head turned smoothly toward the origin of the sound. “There.”

In a single motion, he whipped his body around, covering the goblin’s vision with his fluttering cape. A second after, his unsheathed sword was buried in the creature’s chest.

The goblin spat out blood in confusion as its body went limp on the blade.

Rotating once more, the traveler withdrew the thrust sword from the goblin’s body and flicked his weapon in swift motion to remove the blood.

“NYEH RAH! NYEH RAHGA!” the tree behind him rustled as half a dozen goblins revealed themselves in rage as they leapt from their concealed positions among its branches.

“Tch.” the traveler turned toward the ambushing enemies.

As he did so, a faint glint shimmered as he raised his sword overhead with both hands in a practiced stance. That metal’s glint became an inferno as mana-fire burst from the blade----and with a sweep----the tip of the sword dipped then unfurled upward from fast evening to springing daybreak.

“Backdraft Inferno!”

Where there were goblins, there was ash, as the remnants of the fiery shockwave gave way to dancing lights on the tips of the tree’s branches like fireflies.

“----------" Another roar. The traveler cursed inwardly at the delay as he turned to face the next wave. The traveler knew that most goblins were not afraid to sacrifice those lower on the hierarchy to achieve their prize. Numbers, attrition, and ambushes were the goblin’s game. And it could be frightfully effective given enough of any of the three. A goblin horde only needed to be lucky once. An adventurer needed to be skilled enough for a lifetime.

The traveler’s hand tightened on his sword as he waited.

“----------OOGA BOOGA!” a deep voice rang out like the voice of a shouting mountain and somehow seemed to echo through the trees. Or, it may have been more accurate to say that the trees became the echo. Because unlike the last two ambushes, the very forest itself was flying at him.

The traveler did not have time to attack. Holding his hard-won position in the glade, the traveler sidestepped a massive uprooted tree zipping past his head. Had he been any slower, the trunk would have taken more than just the corner of his mask as it cut through several other trees past him. It was leading the charge of a mobile small copse following on either side of him like a momentary arboreal river. Then, a voice.

“THAT was DANGEROUS, too much FORCE. Sorry!” walking out of the darkness was Zeus, who was carrying the goblin commander on his shoulder.

“I FOUND some guys WAITING in the bushes BACK there, so I WANTED to scare them off WITH a little SHOUT, but I think they PASSED out!” he said as he inspected the green creature, the most decorated of the bunch. Looking back, Zeus placed his one good arm on his manly hip and shook his head. It was like the remnants of a frat party. Goblins were strewn everywhere, even places that the best of authors would struggle to imagine. So much for the goblin horde.

“OOF. THAT is a sorry sight! AND A TERRIBLE EXAMPLE BESIDES! HEROES ALWAYS CLEAN UP THEIR MESSES! OKAY! HMM!” Furrowing his brows, the man-colossus scanned his surroundings in the dim light.

“THERE!” and scooping up the smallest of the felled trees, he began to use its leafy branches like a broom.

“Alright, OFF you go. NO more TROUBLE!” Zeus laughed as he swept goblins off the ground, branches, nooks, and crannies, into a tidy pile with a final “HOOP!” as he tossed the redhat-clad commander on top.

“SEE? NATURE IS HEALING!” Stacked like a pile of peas, these goblins would not soon terrorize this place again.

The masked traveler remained silent as he watched the entire thing in disbelief.

“HO THERE, FRIEND, have you.... WAIT... WHAT IS THIS?! OHOHO! I SEE that you’re an ADVENTURER AS WELL! Who are YOU little mask? COULD YOU BE A CUB? I feel like I have SEEN someone like you at the GUILD’s headquarters! YOU HAVE THAT GOOD LION SMELL ABOUT YOU! HAHAHA! AH! TELL ME CUBLING, DO you happen to KNOW a young man with RED hair?” Zeus asked the traveler who was surprisingly in one piece.

The masked traveler turned away and coughed into his hand. “I’m no one important and uh, no… I don’t know anyone like that. Sorry…” he said.

“HOH… Are you SURE?” Zeus leaned in closer to the traveler, like a dad teasing his child with his hand cupping his bearded chin.

Behind them, the sound of cursing, ice crunching and a fire blast could be heard, which was followed by more goblinoid screeches.

Just then, Astor leapt out of the bushes as a small thunder of footsteps followed him, but, with the snap of his fingers, there was another set of cries from the goblin squadron. Sighing, Astor turned toward Zeus and the masked traveler before chiming in with minor surprise, “Oh hey Sean, you’re finally out of your ro----om–?!”

Astor’s greeting was cut short by a goblin drawing a trail of blood across the side of his thigh with its dagger. The sting immediately drew his attention away from the pair as he turned around and cast his wrathful eyes on his assailant, “...hey mongrel, Did you not see that I was talking to Sean?"

Moments later, the blond can be seen breaking off in a full sprint after the escaping goblin with a ball of swirling frost in his palm. "I’M GOING TO ROAST YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY, GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE GREEN RAT! HAHAHA! YEAH! THAT’S RIGHT! WHO’S CHASING WHO NOW YOU SPITEFUL LITTLE SHIT!”

Meanwhile...

“HOOOH?!” Zeus came even closer to the traveler, close enough that their eyes could just about high-five. The traveler, Sean, was forced to lean backward at an awkward angle, away from the old man who was coming in way too close.

Silence. Oh, so painful silence. The goblins were an opera in comparison.

Finally, the traveler cracked. Sighing, he gripped his mask and seemed to hesitate before finally deciding. Removing the mask, Zeus saw a familiar boyish face, only more defined in the places where time and experience had brushed it. Zeus, lightly placing his hand on the boy’s shoulder gently slid him cleanly across the grass like a clothes manikin, and angled the boy’s back toward the light of the still embered tree. At last, the fiery red hair was put into view.

“You know, this was meant to be my time, and I wanted to be alone... but, no matter where I go, you’ll probably find me anyway so...”

It wasn’t too clear if Sean was talking to himself or Zeus, but eventually he asked the question.

“Well, now you’re here anyway... so… What do you need, Zeus?”

Zeus put his hand on the youth’s shoulder, which was standing higher now than it was 3 years ago. “SEAN!!!”

"Yes…?" Sean reluctantly replied.

“TWO THINGS!” Zeus took a big breath and flashed his toothy grin. “FIRST! THE LION’S SABBATICAL REGISTRATION BOOK WAS UNFORTUNALY BURNED UP IN THE CAPITOL DISASTER...” Zeus’s eyes, for a blink, almost seemed almost lost in a distant thought, but the boom returned.

“THE SECOND THING IS MUCH MORE FUN! BECAUSE, LITTLE SEAN, WHO HAS GROWN A LITTLE LESS LITTLE... TODAY...” Zeus paused and looked up at the sky. “...TOMORROW, WE ARE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!!!”

“Okay…” the red-head said, resigned to his fate, with the deepest of sighs.

It was a sigh that Astor felt over the distance, like some disturbance projected across the world’s firmament as he laughed at the popsicle goblin that he punted down a hill. Turning, Sean may have glanced in Astor’s direction, and Astor his, as in that briefest of moments, their souls were one.

[ Sean has joined the party ]

To be continued...