The Road to Oaks Edge [POST HERE FIRST] [Oaks Edge]

A scrawny man clad in a well fitted leather armor and with brown hair worked into a ponytail trotted through the undergrowth with his trusted bow ready as looked around vigilantly. The place was awfully empty of deers and any real game and even squirrels and rabbits looked scarce prompting him to turn his attention to the animals that lived higher than that.

"Pfft, it is a thankless job this time of year... They ask you to bring back something for the fire and when you do they just kick you out to get some more with a meager pay in your pockets..." he mumbled dissatisfied as his eyes scouted the tree tops. There was no way he wasn't going to bring something back at all. And then at that very moment he spotted the lone bird - a pitch black raven - sitting on the branch of a nearby oak tree. As the hunter went down in a lower stance he eased his way closer while silently drawing an arrow from his coffer before stringing his bow and taking aim. Even if it was just a raven it was at least something to show for his efforts and he focused his eyes on the target letting out every other distraction around him...

The hunter let out a confident smirk before releasing his arrow, although in that very moment a whistling noise came and as the arrow sprung from his bow the raven flew from its branch as mere inches separated the two.
"Damn it..!" the hunter exclaimed and quickly grabbed a new arrow racing out of the bushes ready to unleash another arrow should the bird have landed close by.

Instead however he stood almost face to face with a man with curly black hair and... what was quite clearly a heavily disfigured face causing the hunter to take a single step backwards. These were the types of people that was said to be bad omens - but still the hunter composed himself as the man seemed friendly enough and looked like he owned the bird.

"Is it your bird, sir?" the hunter asked politely. "I thought it was a wild bird, I'm very sorry for that but I'm glad you called it back when you did!" he added and scratched his head thinking what would have happened if he had been so unlucky to kill it. But now he was as empty handed as when he came although this fellow somewhat intrigued him. "I am the resident hunter of Oaks Edge, the town nearby, and you are?" he inquired stretching out his hand hoping a shake wasn't bad manners with this foreigner.

"Oh don't mind that... I have one or two scars myself..!" he said slightly nervous his small scratches on his upper body nothing in comparison to that he had just been shown. Giving the crow, aptly named Sasha, a sidelong glance as they shook hands he was still a little afraid that this guy might cast a spell on him that turned him inside out or something. Perhaps the raven was a guy he had cursed? The hunter blinked a couple of times snapping out of fantasy and smiled. He was probably to be trusted, nothing indicated otherwise.

"Well met Bria, just call me Jon!" he said and shook Bria's hand with a surprisingly firm shake when judging his scrawny size. "No no, not at all..." he sighed and crossed his arms. "There are just so few animals in this season so it's always a challenge." he explained. "I live in the city yes..." he said and waited a moment to let all the words be spoken by Bria. "Well it's quite close and the inn is as amiable as you'll find them I guess..." he said and rubbed his chin.

"If you hurry there you might still be able to catch the midday roast - and if not you'd better hope that I have more luck with the next animal I see..!" he jested and pointed Bria in the right direction. "Also there's a road just half a mile that way and if you follow that to the right, you'll be there in time before the sun sets." he explained and smiled waiting to see if the man had any questions or he would have to get back to hunting.

Yamato would find the small guard shack along the left side of the road near the Oaks Edge gate to be empty - and while he wouldn't find a guard there, he might lay eyes on a short, portly goblin with a bulbous nose and green wart-covered skin. Basho was pulling a small wooden cart along the road when he spied the human, recognizing the human immediately as no being from near Oaks Edge. With a grunt, the goblin pulled his wagon over near the man, and dropped the handles which landed heavily on the ground with a loud metallic clanking noise. It would be now that Yamato could see the contents of the goblin's small wooden cart; oddly shaped pieces of metal that appeared to be blackened in a camp fire, and beaten indiscriminately with a brick. Basho grabbed one of the flatter pieces of metal, which with some imagination might be mistaken for a sword without a handle.

"Hey!" Basho said as he waggled the beat-up bit of metal at Yamato. "Heeeeyyyy!! Buy'dis!" Basho wiped a bit of sweat from his brow, still waving the 'sword' around. "Fou.. Five silver! Five silver! Buy'dis!"

Noel had been trailling behind the cart for quite some time, Despite being tired she was using the cart to cover herself from the sun which it provided shade from. It was almost karma having the cart come to a abrupt stop and hit her in the head, which was followed by the loud dragging of metal that could’ve made her deaf but luckily didn’t. She looked out to the man who began to speak to the goblin... mere seconds passed by before she leap back in fright, but to her surprise the man seemed friendly to the goblin almost as if they’d meet before or something. Noel simply shrug it off and slide herself into the cart before either of them had a chance to pick it up. Once inside she began to examine the junk which was in the cart, if by chance she found anything special she would clean it off and examine it again.

Trying not to blow the little cober from the sun she did have, she decided it was in her best interest to stay quiet until they made it theough the gate. She stretched her arm and legs before being forced to sit down by sound of the guys coming to help the goblin.

"This IS my shop!" Basho said, obviously disgusted over something as he threw the bit of flat metal back into the cart. It landed with a rattling metal clank as it rejoined the other beaten pieces of metal - all of extremely low quality, and would take absolutely no skill at all to reproduce. "No one wants to buy my wares! If only I ha-"

Basho was interrupted by a thump on the back of his small cart, and then another. It was then that he looked up to see Leon, but Noel had as of yet gone undetected by the goblin. "Hey! Heeeyyyy!" Basho called, "No free rides! If you want a ride, you gotta buy somethin'!" he said to Leon, before he turned his attention back to Yamato. The goblin appeared to think for a moment before he began talking again. "The humans here call me 'Fat Basho', but my friends call me Jake.. Jacob! My friends call me Jacob, and so did me dear ol' mum! So please, call me Jacob."

After a short pause, 'Jacob' continued - "The truth is, I do need help! Ya see, because of only a few bad apples, goblins here in Oaks Edge have gotten a bad reputation. But ever since I was a little greenskin, me dear ol' mum told me 'Jacob, we goblins don't have to lie, and steal - we can work together with the humans, and all live better lives for it'." Basho put a clawed finger under his eye, appearing to wiped away a tear. "I can hear her saying it now.. And that's why its so important that I become a smithy! I'm going legit, ya see? I've put my misdemeanoring ways behind me, and I want to make mum proud by earning an honest living as a real smithy. But there's a problem, and that problem has a name - Charsi. Charsi is the local smithy here in Oaks Edge, and she has an enchanted forge that she makes amazing weapons and armor from! I tried to get her to tell me how she makes her wares, but she wont even admit that her forge is enchanted! Can you believe it? Well, I have a plan..."

Basho turned to his wagon, and dug around in the front of it. After a moment, he pulled out a small cloth bag - just big enough to fill a normal-sized human hand - made of dirty burlap and tied with a bit of twine. "I went to The Shaman," Basho explained, "And told him my problem. He made this for me! All I have to do is put this little bag into her forge.. And it'll magically tell me everything about her magical forge! I can then make my own forge, and make weapons just as good as the ones Charsi crafts!"

The goblin waited, trying to see how the strangers would respond to his story.

It seemed as if she was caught, Standing up from her seat inside the cart “I’m sorry, It’s hot and i just wanted a little shade from the sun for a bit!” She stated finally getting a chance to look at the goblin whose attention was obviously above her, a small grin streched across her face as she slowly went back to sit in the cart. She listened carefully as the goblin, Fat basho or jake or whatever the fuck his name was spoke, it seemed pretty rough for him listening to his story. She used her sweater sleeve to whip the few tears that actually feel from her eyes, she herself had no intention of taking the request but it seemed that Yamato didn’t care much about the reputation others had of him doing such a thing for free or at least what she thought until he gave the goblin his stipulations. ”so he just doesn’t care how people see him, period.” she thought to herself giving him a shallow look, her eyes shift to the girl who chose to go on top rather than inside the cart.

“Can you believe this guy?” She asked leon as she tried to make sense of this, there was no way a morally good person would even think of attempting such a fiasco, as there were too many what if invovled, like what if the bag didn’t actually tell if the forge was enchanted or not. What if the bag actual blows up the forge instead of identifying it.