Pillar of Yita

Fang Hong woke up to find they had already escaped their pursuers. The surroundings were eerily silent, deep within the forest. He tilted his head upwards, pressing his aching nose, and looked at the pitch-black ceiling of rock. In the underground world, he couldn’t see any stars, but there were many glowing plants dotted around.

According to Big Cat, he hadn’t been out for long, at most about ten minutes. After casting a few spells, their pursuers hadn’t chased them further, perhaps thinking it wasn’t worth the effort for just one little dwarf goblin, or perhaps wary of someone scheming. After Big Cat, Alice, and Gita took his unconscious body away from that place, they found a hidden sanctuary surrounded by shrubs right under that ridge, actually not far from the entrance to the valley where the Heart of Tree was located.

He tilted his head up, afraid that if he lowered it, nosebleeds would flow out, and more importantly, his nose stingingly and incessantly watered, as if he was crying, which made him feel quite embarrassed. Big Cat handed him a bottle of healing potion, asking, ”Feeling better?”

Fang Hong mumbled a response, nodded.

He looked at the little fellow not far away, who was looking down at its furry little feet with grievance. Reed also looked over and asked, ”Hey, Little One, how did you get here?”

The little fellow blinked its dark eyes and babbled, ”Lord Moenyalit fell asleep, no one watched over Gulang, Gulang was cold and scared. Then many people came, many people wanted to kill Gulang, Gulang ran, Gulang came here. You want to hit Gulang, Gulang was so scared.”

”We weren’t going to hit you, no need to worry,” replied the Lion People.

”Really, Gulang?”

”Of course it’s true, I’m a Paladin, have you ever seen a Paladin lie?” Reed said half-jokingly, half-seriously.

Who knows if the little fellow understood, but it visibly relaxed a lot.

Alice was looking at her clothes with disgust, raising her collar and sleeves to sniff them. The overwhelming stench of sewage was making her roll her eyes, almost gagging. Especially since this set of crested lizard leather armor was something she had recently equipped, and it was now ruined. She wasn’t sure whether to be disgusted or just plain upset.

”I hate dwarf goblins.”

Alice said to Gita beside her.

Gita looked at Miss Nightingale with sympathy.

”Gulang,” Big Cat continued, ”those people have gone to find your Lord Moenyalit. They might covet Lord Moenyalit’s treasure, and they are the most vicious, heartless bandits in this world. As Lord Moenyalit’s most loyal servant, you actually snuck away at such a time.”

The dwarf goblin anxiously rubbed its hands and watched them quietly, muttering, ”Gulang didn’t escape, but Lord Moenyalit fell asleep, Gulang is no match for those people. Gulang went away first and will go find reinforcements, yes, Gulang will find the trees to help.”

”But the trees have all gone to the frontline, you won’t find them here,” Reed paused here, thinking how coincidental it was that Twilight Guild’s people failed to cause chaos in the Hall of Trees but stumbled upon the Crystal initiating an attack, so the Grey Treants didn’t go to the Hall of Trees but went to the Thorn Frontline.

Thinking of this, he shifted his tone, ”But we can help you, Gulang, we’ll help Lord Moenyalit against those wicked bandits, but we must get inside. I guess you certainly know other ways into that valley, don’t you?”

He knew that these dwarf goblins were good at tunneling underground, even better at this than the dwarves who lived underground for years. There were many secret passages of theirs in the Eldron mountains, known as ’Dwarf Monster Paths,’ with some even unknown to the dwarves themselves.

Gulang’s eyes sparkled, a little pride showed as it said, ”Gulang certainly knows several paths leading to that valley, but Gulang can’t tell you, it’s Gulang’s secret. One of them is even my own path, a gift from Lord Moenyalit.”

Alice, who was in a foul mood, couldn’t help but sneer and draw her dagger, looking at the little fellow.

Gulang shrieked and retreated, then tripped over a protruding root and took a tumble.

Big Cat reached out a paw to press down on her dagger and shook his head, saying, ”That’s your secret, Gulang, we won’t ask where that is, you don’t need to tell us. But you can lead us there, let us help Lord Moenyalit. Lord Moenyalit trusts us, remember?”

The dwarf goblin shakily got up from the ground, hesitating.

”You don’t have to worry, just lead us in, you don’t need to see those wicked guys. You can... hmm, continue to find reinforcements, go find the Tree People. See, we’ll help you buy time, Lord Moenyalit will appreciate your effort.”

This last sentence moved Gulang, and it hesitantly nodded.

”Then we have a deal,” Big Cat handed a copper coin to it, ”you must not break your promise to the stones.”

The dwarf goblin tightly clutched the coin and nodded strongly, ”Rock, rock, Gulang, Gulang.”