[Pursue]

"I have to. I'll come back," you tell her, the military tone surfacing by itself as you try to **** your focus elsewhere. The trails of the green horde that can vanish at any moment... Or the way that tiny cloud above the city looks like a rabbit. Definitely not at the other victims, as they seem a little jealous of how things turned out for Beatrice... Anyway, anything but your erection.

Hearing your confident voice, Beatrice knows better than to be a burden despite still being ****. In a quick gesture, she grabs your face and pulls you down to her height. While you allow yourself to be handled, she raises herself on her toes, kissing your forehead like a mother sending her son to war. Because that's what mothers do, they reach for your dick and send you off with a kiss.

Her palms leave a lingering heat on your cheeks, the lips a tickle that sends shivers down your spine.

"Come back safe," she softly says in your ear. Only after that does she release you, and you don't look back.

Barefooted, you take to the woods, sword leading the charge, pajamas flapping like a flag of shame.

...

If only it were that simple. Your step turns slow and skittish as you push through the dense undergrowth. There could be goblins lying in wait. What if one jumps out and bites your dick off? Or it could be some half-assed hunter's trap swallowed by summer bloom. Whatever the case, the advance only adds more dew to your clammy skin while your exposed feet experience a brand-new misery at every step. Give those sparrows that wouldn't shut the fuck up a tiny violin and you've got the perfect picture.

"Fucking goblins..." you mutter under your breath. The first one you see, you'll use as a carpet to wipe your feet.

...

Half an hour later, your stubbornness pays off. Though it could've been a ten minute trip in a half-sprint, you chose to prioritize safety. The one mercy in this shitshow? The wet environment turned the soil soft, making footprints easier to follow.

Having left the forest and entered open space, the clean air strikes you in gusts, noticeably less moist. Far off, a cave yawns at the base of a miniature mountain, goblins going in and out without any clear purpose. If there is one oddity, there seem to be females among them. Goblin females...?

You make yourself smaller, dropping to your knees and peeking above the tall grass with only your eyes. And you watch.

...

Ten more minutes pass...

Their numbers aren't impressive. Also, differentiating them is simple enough. Females have hair and something to cover their chests with. From what you can tell, it's either leather strips or rabbit skin. Maybe there's more but this is what you've seen so far.

More importantly, you spotted the occasional limping male, one in particular with a nasty gash on its back, confirming this is the group that plundered the farmlands. Fewer made it out alive than you expected.

While you're taking all this in, the goblin women haul a large pot from inside the cave, and to your surprise, they actually know how to start a fire. Two of them had settled on a log while another one is bringing out small utensils, some of which look painfully familiar. Not because they're common among humans, but because they belong to your neighbors.

Wow, your house must've reeked of poverty to be left alone. Or maybe they just saw your empty garden. What are they doing now?

Oh, well, you've already wasted almost an hour on this, so you continue watching. It's not like anything interesting ever happens back home. Today being an exception, of course.

...

Another ten minutes...

By now, the front of the cave's mouth is starting to look more like a makeshift camp. You wonder if they'd invite you to join their meal if you revealed yourself. Never in your wildest dreams would you have believed that goblins wash their vegetables, or that they eat vegetables at all. Suddenly, it makes perfect sense why those little shits ran off with a bunch of produce.

You've also inched closer at a snail's pace, finding this oddly entertaining.

Most surprising out of everything is how social they are. Though you can't hear them from this far, you can see their mouth moving. They look at each other when they speak. They know shock and how to laugh. Maybe they tell good jokes too. There's something human about them, as if they're a completely different species from the males. Like he way the standing girl rests her arms on the shoulders of the other two, pulling herself in closer to be part of the conversation, laughing along.

Yeah, just a few more minutes...

...

At this point, you begin to feel like the uncivilized one. You haven't kneeled this much even when they were handing out bread at the church.

The water inside the pot started boiling not long ago. They seem to be making a soup, one of them dicing the vegetables directly over the pot. By the fire, there are twelve bowls carved out of wood that the third girl remembered to bring out at some point. At least you've got yourself a headcount. If you take them by surprise it should be doable...

...You tell yourself that, but the fire driving you forward feels like it's dying out.

...

The soup should be almost done. The three goblin women huddle close around the pot, sniffing the steam with their little noses. Two of the three seem satisfied with how it is coming along, but the third, the one in charge of the meal, frowns a little before looking left and right. Something seems to be missing.

She mutters a quick word, drawing the attention of only one of the other two. They seem to have names, or at least a way to distinguish them.

Whatever she tells her after that, you see the girl who is spoken to break from the group and start moving your way.

Is it a wild herb? You've seen them by the dozens throughout the forest. Is that where she's headed?

Should you hide? Should you capture her?...