Azarei's Quest

Chapter Six

"Shut up," Utia snapped.

"Make me," Azarei retorted childishly.

"Shh," she hushed him, putting her hand over his mouth.

Her hand was rough and warm. He had an unexplainable urge to lick it but he restrained himself.

Utia's face was one of concentration. Her gaze was far off and she was standing as still as a statue. "We need to get out of here," she whispered.

"Why?" He whispered back.

Then he heard it too. Nearing guttural laughter, it was unmistakably goblins. That's what she's so worked up about? Azarei isn't scared of any old goblins.

"We're not straying from the path," Azarei said, dropping the whisper for his regular volume. "I don't want to take an unnecessary detour, it'll just add extra time."

Utia was looking at him, eyes wide, as if he was out of his mind. Azarei looked in the direction the laughter was coming from. They could keep walking and let the goblins catch up to them or they could just wait for them here. Azarei decides to just wait for them, get the dirty business out of the way so they can get moving again.

The laughter drew nearer and Utia grabbed ahold of Azarei's arm and tried yanking him along with her. Azarei resisted, staying in his spot in the center of the path. Right in plain sight.

"It's fine," he assured her. "I can take care of it. Easy."

She looked at him full of doubt but said nothing, just crossed her arms over her chest looking the most unsettled he'd ever seen her.

The goblins started wadling out of the forest a few minutes later and stopped about ten yards from them. There was a fair amount of them, ten, maybe fifteen.

"Give us your gold or you're gonna be sorry," one goblin called out, stepping forward.

He must be acting as their leader. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Utia put her hand on the hilt of her dagger.

"I'm going to give you one chance to turn back before I make you all regret ever messing with us," Azarei said, his voice void of fear. He wasn't afraid. This was easy, simple.

The goblin leader smiled cruelly. "You have no weapon, you bluff. We regret nothing."

With that the goblins started towards Azarei and Utia.

Azarei looked at Utia and winked. "Watch this." He pointed to one of the goblins and cast "Corrupticus." The goblins morphed and shrunk until he turned into a harmless frog. Azarei grinned at Utia who was the epitome of shock. Azarei pointed at another goblin and cast the spell again. Then again, and again, until all of the goblins were little frogs hopping around.

"Holy shit," Utia muttered under her breath, watching the frogs with wide eyes.

"It's permanent," Azarei said, beaming at her proudly. "They get to spend the rest of their lives as frogs. Hilarious right?"

Utia lets out a short laugh tainted with disbelief. "Holy shit, Az," she said, for once sounding impressed. "You turned them all into frogs."

Azarei wanted to revel in the fact that he'd finally impressed her but he was more focused on the shortening of his name. Az? He had a nickname now? He felt warm all over and something swelled up in his chest, something good. He wanted to give her a nickname too but there wasn't really a way to shorten her name. Maybe he could come up with a completely different word for a nickname?

"Come on," Utia said, grinning and tugging on his sleeve. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Azarei followed her down the path, resuming their journey. They were quiet but they both had permanent smiles on their faces. There was a giddiness in the air that lingered all through the night, it wasn't until they slept that it finally faded away.

Azarei impressed her. Azarei impressed the beautiful elf Goddess, he did something right. He looks across the mostly burned out fire at Utia who's stretched out asleep on her backpack. He can just barely make out the prominent features of her face and her light hair. He feels an aching in his chest, a wanting. Azarei turns onto his back and looks up at the sky. He's got it bad.