Another lead in their investigation

Once Galiana finished closing her shop for the day, they both set out to meet up with Talanah at the herbs shop, further into the market. Kazex had finally refrained from lending a hand to the blonde woman, though that was mostly because he wasn't sure he just wouldn't get it cut off at a moment's notice from the prickly woman.

'Though she does have reasonable reasons,' he considered as they walked with a noticeable berth between them. Some courage was nice, but intelligence and bravery usually didn't go hand in hand; he wasn't that foolhardy.

Nonetheless, Galiana did have good reasons to hate him, or rather, his species. Goblins were a notorious tribal race of blighters with little thought beyond eating, fighting, fucking and breeding. Unfortunate as it was, Kazex couldn't deny the truth; rather than the norm, he was obviously an outlier. It was annoying having to bear the stigma of his less enlightened brethren, but he'd come to accept it - there was little he could do about it most of the time.

But yes, knowing what he did, he was pretty sure Galiana was speaking the truth when she told the reason for her hatred. It wasn't even particularly surprising: goblins were always on the lookout for new females to breed with and Galiana was striking enough that catching the interest of a chieftain wasn't outside the realm of possibility. If she looked like she did now back then, then the goblin chieftain most likely thought she'd give him a powerful and strong brood.

'Which, to be honest, is a good assumption,' he thought with a surreptitious glance at the muscular woman a few steps next to him. If her kids ever inherited her strength, they'd be fearsome warriors the lot of them, indeed. 'In fact, they'd be the perfect sentries and front line warriors for a camp...'

Well, one thing at a time.

If he ever actually decided to go for it, he should start by getting the woman not to chop his head off when he least expected it before even attempting to seduce her. Using his potions on her would be risky, riskier than with Helga or Talanah for sure - at least neither of them wanted to gut him from the get go! But still, he liked a challenge. Galiana would be difficult and perhaps he'd have to cover his tracks quite a bit more, but what kind of goblin with ambition _and _a plan would he be if he didn't even try?

He certainly wasn't going to be discouraged from the first tough nut that appeared in his path to his goal, he had some pride! Just... there was no reason not to approach the matter with some caution.

Galiana's sharp voice abruptly kicked him out of his musings. "The herbs shop is in the other direction, goblin," she said, giving him a hard look from her spot a few steps away.

Yes, there was absolutely no need to be rash!

"Sorry, I was deep in thought," he offered as an apology while he walked up to her.

"Oh? I was unaware thinking was something a goblin did," she replied coolly and Kazex had to clamp down on the surge of irritation that flared up within him.

Calling out on her bullshit directly probably wouldn't help, but if she was going to be act like a prissy bitch, then fine.

'Two can play at this game.'

"Oh, it's not that hard. You just have to rub to brain cells together and you'll get an intelligent thought out of anything. But plenty of people can't do that, of course."

Galiana's eyes narrowed and for a moment, Kazex thought she was actually reaching for her war-hammer. "Don't push your luck, goblin. You wouldn't like to be in my presence when I'm angry."

No, he probably wouldn't, but there was no way he'd let her rag on him without giving some hits back, war-hammer threats or not.

She was a blunt one, she'd appreciate the stark honesty... hopefully.

"In that case, I'd advise to stop acting like a rabid dog and use that brain in your head. You've heard and seen me quite a bit - you should've realized by now that I'm not like other goblins," he told her with a cold voice.

Thing is, goblins were generally stupid enough that they couldn't be taught new tricks. Beyond the low-cunning some displayed, they were fairly predictable but Kazex wanted to believe that his... anomalies were pronounced enough to cast doubt over his nature. Apparently, Galiana seemed to think so as well because she merely glared at him for a moment before huffing loudly and pushing roughly from the other townsfolk to reach the herbs shop.

'Heh, Kazex one, Galiana zero!' he thought as he trailed behind her with a smug smile on his face. And well, given that the tunic the woman was wearing was a bit on the tight side, it gave him the perfect chance to stare at her ass. Unfortunately, he could only catch a brief glimpse the few times it strained against the fabric.

'I wonder... would it jiggle if I slapped it?' The thought was admittedly quite the random one, but he'd never deny he was quite the horndog. Still, better to focus on locating Helga...

A rough shove against him startled him in that moment, breaking his stride. "Hey, watch where you're going next ti- wait, aren't you... Marius?"

With a surprised look, the man turned and glanced at him. "Ah, Master Kazex, what a surprise to see you here. Are you buying things for Lady Helga?" he asked.

The goblin shifted on the spot. Perhaps he shouldn't have stopped the man, those flinty eyes of his and his soft-spoken demeanor gave him the creeps. Somehow, the man always managed to make him feel uncomfortable, even though he was the very image of politeness.

"Eh, yes, she asked me to pick up some things for her," he told him, quickly making something up. The man was unnerving, better to deal with him as fast as possible and get away.

Marius' eyes gleamed, lips curling up into a smile. "It's good to see you working so hard for your Mistress, Master Kazex. Well, I'll be going now - I have to meet up with my friend Markus. Sorry to have bumped into you."

"Ah, it's nothing. Have a good day." Watching as the man quickly walked down the street to the town's outskirts, Kazex shook his head. "What a creep."

Looking to the side, the goblin could see that Galiana had hone ahead without him, which wasn't entirely unexpected. Taking off towards the herbs store, he reached the stall in record time and saw both women engaged in tense conversation.

"Kazex, you're here. What held you up?" Talanah asked when she spotted him making his way towards them.

"Nothing much, just bumped into someone and talked to him for a moment," he said with a shrug as he approached. "So, did the vendor of the shop know anything?"

"Apparently, Helga did visit them, so at least we're tracing back her tracks before she disappeared. According to the vendor, Helga bought a few selection of herbs and roots - nothing much, just enough to fill the small satchel she brought with her. If we're lucky, we might even find some of those and pinpoint her location more easily. It's a long shot, but we have to explore every option," Talanah said and Kazex nodded in agreement. Every little bit could help.

"What about the vendors? Did they see anything at all? Where was Helga headed after buying here?" he asked, making sure to avoid looking directly at Galiana.

He could almost feel the burning intensity of her stare on him. Well, as long as she didn't use that ridiculously over-sized war-hammer on him, she could stare all she wanted. He wasn't so easy to rile up, dammit!

"Well, the owner said it was around noon when she stopped by to buy the herbs, so he guessed that Helga would have eventually bought lunch at some tavern. He personally recommended the Golden Goose, which is very near from where we are," the elf replied as she pointed to a building off to the side. It was built with tasteful dark red bricks and a cozy-looking front porch with a couple of wooden tables, already occupied with laughing patrons.

"Kind of convenient, don't you think?" he questioned with a raised eyebrow as he turned back to Talanah. "What makes him think Helga went to this Golden Goose place?"

"Because if you were actually Helga's friends, you'd know that the Golden Goose is Helga's favorite place for food and drinks in Alerwick," came Galiana's flat reply as she stared at them with an unreadable look. Knowing her, she was probably thinking that their trustworthiness had gone down by quite a lot. "Sebastien, the shop's vendor, knows because he's a regular during market days and Helga buys from him because he sets the shop near the Golden Goose."

"Well, one can hardly claim to know someone after a few weeks. We don't need to know every bit of trivia about Helga's life to want to help her if she were in danger," Kazex mentioned with a faint sneer and Talanah subtly shifted in her spot to place herself closer to him in a show of support with a blank look on her face.

The goblin could only relish the frown on the blonde's face. It was obvious she wanted to protest his statement, but it didn't look like she was coming with a rebuttal satisfying enough to shut him down and she eventually gave up, choosing to pin him down with a fiery stare with no trace of amusement in it.

Kazex refrained from chuckling. He was playing with fire, he knew, but he absolutely didn't like at all what the woman was implying with her former comment. Despite his ultimate goal of turning Helga into his concubine-slash-lover-slash-breeding factory, he did care for her, both as an intellectual equal and for the budding friendship forming between them.

And well, friends fantasized about fucking each other sometimes, right? It seemed entirely reasonable to him - there was a great deal of trust in a friendship, after all; enjoying each other's bodies would simply be a natural extension of that trust.

"Let's just question the owner," Galiana growled. stomping off towards the establishment, something which Talanah took advantage of to lean towards Kazex.

"Kazex, are you sure letting her join us for this is wise? It's obvious she'd like nothing more than to wring your neck," she asked with a serious look.

The goblin merely chuckled. "Pah, nothing to it Talanah, this is just the result of my charming personality."

"Sure, if by charming personality, you mean pissing her off needlessly."

"Just keep an eye on her. I doubt she'd try anything out here in the open with so many people around."

Talanah looked dubious, but Kazex was confident in his assumption. Even if he was a goblin, it was obvious by now that he was with Talanah and that would at least cast doubt over Galiana's actions were she to attack him, especially if his friend spoke up against her. He was banking on the woman preferring to focus on finding Helga rather than satisfying some sort of personal vendetta against goblins with him.

He just hoped his assumptions didn't came to bite him back in the ass.

Notes: I'm seeing quite a few of the regulars liking the previous chapter. I'm glad to see you're still keeping an eye on the story!

The next chapter shouldn't take too long either. I had to break what I had in two because it was getting too long already. As it is, it should only take a couple days at most to finish it.

EDIT: Apparently, I managed to lose the draft for the next chapter so... fuck! Don't know the ETA for it now.