Chapter Text
Brekkogba gnawed anxiously on her lip as she watched the little dots of distant humans bustle about the town at the bottom of the hill. Wuzgrugr pawed and snuffled at the earth, shifting her about in the saddle on his back. She was a goblin beastmaster, but she only tamed the wolf a couple weeks ago, and he wasn’t fully trained yet.
She really wasn’t sure about this. The last time she had been in a human settlement she had come as part of a goblin warband. What had started out as an easy surprise attack had wound up as a massacre when a band of adventurers had shown up a few days later while the goblins were still trying to wait out the remaining villagers in the inn.
It was all that damn halfling’s fault. A swashbuckler named Aryll had just happened to be passing through when the attack came. If not for her, the warband would have taken the inn the first day. Heck, if not for her, the warband would have added the adventurers to their host of captives. Instead, the entire warband was wiped out. Brekkogba’s worg had been shot right out from under her, and she would have been killed along with the rest of her comrades.
If not for her.
“Hey, it’s gonna be fine!” Aryll whispered in her ear, sending a little electric thrill down Brekkogba’s spine. The halfling was sitting behind her in the saddle, and tightened her arms around Brekkogba’s waist, pulling her closer. She rested her chin on Brekkogba’s shoulder, nuzzling with an affection that turned the goblin’s cheeks from green to violet even when there was no one around to see the public display. “Don’t overthink it, Brekkie. I’m here.”
Brekkie took a deep breath, and as she let it slip through her lips, she leaned back into Aryll’s embrace. Just for a moment. “Alright,” she said, and pressed her legs into Wuzgrugr’s sides, urging him forward.