Approach The Pair

Try as you might, you just can’t quell your curiosity, stooping down, you approach the goblin first, startling him as he had been focused entirely on his target.

He seems disheveled even by goblin standards, his robes are rustled with multicolored stains dotting it’s surface and he looks like his hair has never been cut before as it sags all the way down to his knees.

Though his eyes contain a visible mania like those belonging to madmen who howl at the moon, they also contain a distinct intelligence, as though everywhere he looks, is under scrutiny.

![]https://imgur.com/gallery/dnIRNUx

“Oh..! Oh.. hey, sorry, I didn’t see you there” he says briefly before turning back to the elf, unable to suppress a giggle.

Before your able to enquire on the subject of his undivided he attention he suddenly answers your questions as though reading your mind.

“It’s actually pretty lucky you happen by, I’d hate to imagine being the only soul to witness what very well may be my best work to date!”

“And that… would be?” You ask, unsatisfied with his throughly vague answer.

Your question is met with a befuddled look, as though this is something you should understand well, something that’s plainly obvious from even an outside observer.

“It’s… ok, she has the same routine when studying, something or other, she comes here, sits in that same position, in that same bench and always flips through the tome, each page taking roughly 2 and a half minutes, she always makes it through the first few chapters before she cannot stop herself from flipping all the way to the last chapter, the woman is like clockwork and she does this, day in, day out”

As he speaks he progressively becomes more and more manic in his speech, his tone raising as he dives in specifics.

“Ok… and this matters because…?” You say, feeling a little bit lost, sure she’s predictable but there’s no reason why she can’t be when the highest stakes are failing a class.

“…This matters because her entire LIFE is like that, in exactly 48 minutes from now she would get up, head to the sleeping dragon and order a bran muffin and sit in the far corner, where she’d read the middle, then, she would go to the library, look around, find nothing of interest and go home to get a head start on tomorrow, this woman is a machine I tell you!”

“Wait, wait, what do you mean ‘Would’? What exactly did you do?” You ask, taking a glance over his shoulder at the hapless elven girl, who must be nearing the point in which she’ll skip to the end of the book she’s reading.

The goblin breaks out in a grin, so large that it almost overs the entirety of his face.

“When science guys need to test an idea they gotta throw a wrench in the works, see if the idea really stands up, well, when she skips to the end of her book, we’re gonna see how her routine handles sudden change!”

The elf, who appears entirely oblivious to the scheme against her, flips through her tome, she appears to be the quintessential image of a elven mage, her blonde locks are braided intricately, her robes look cleanly pressed and don’t feature so much as a speck of dust of stray hair, you would have to imagine she’s what’s known as a ‘city elf’

![]https://imgur.com/gallery/cAO7YbR

She is rapidly nearing the trigger to the trap, what it exactly is, you don’t know, but whatever this is she surely doesn’t deserve the trouble.

Though at the same time, this is at its core an experiment, surely no REAL harm will befall the hapless elf, at most it will be an inconvenience.

Now here you stand, a cross roads laid out before you.