Chapter 108

CRUNCH, SNAP, CRASH, RUSTLE.

The forest was disturbed from its peaceful slumber by the sound of innumerable twigs and tree branches being snapped and ripped free, unable to hold firm against the unstoppable force brushing past them.

Planks of wood, straight and curved, crates, chests, barrels, all adorned with canvas sacks, anything that could be used to carry things really, even a number of wooden buckets hung by ropes from the enormous construction, each overflowing with loot.

The construction was roughly cube shaped, over ten foot a side, its walls made from the various wooden containers two or three deep, roped tight to heavy oaken beams.

Atop this lumbering building a sheep girl was desperately trying to keep treetop leafery out of her face.

She was not doing a very good job of it and a leafy branch rudely slapped her across the face. She made a choking gasping sound, airway blocked, and after a moment of struggle managed to spit free a saliva covered leaf.

“This was such a terrible idea! I told you it’d never work!”

Opal who was sitting at the front of the lumbering construction with her legs dangling over the edge looked back at her. She casually spun the shadow talon in one hand as she did so, the living matter of the tree branch about to hit her disintegrating and falling to her side.

“What do you mean told us? It was your idea sheepy! And what were we supposed to do? Just leave all these lovely pointies and stabbies behind?”

“We quite literally have enough weaponry here to equip an Orcish war party!! What are we even going to do with all of this?”

“Backups. You can never have enough backups. And choice, lots of choice is nice. This way I can experiment and try new things, find which feels best to use.”

Lyra squinted at the Goblin girl, not quite sure if the deadly serious expression she was giving her was actually serious.

“I feel as though you are mocking me, no one single Goblin needs this much...”

Opal patted her rounded pregnant belly and raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, more than one eventually. But still!”

“Hey, it’s not like most of this is pointies anyway, you and Red picked up so much useless stuff that you could have easily left behind.”

“Well, that’s different see. I couldn’t leave with all that treasure just lying on the ground, and there was no way it would all have fit in the Dimensional Bag. I mean, who leaves a fortune just lying there? No one with any sense that’s what.”

A tree groaned as the construction crashed up against it and proved to be far far stronger, heavy treasure filled chests slamming into the trunk with a crunch, implacable force driving them on, the trunk splintering and crunching under the momentum. With a sound of shrieking wood the tree was felled, crashing down to the forest floor and leaving a wide gap in the canopy.

The construction slowed, the momentous weight of it all taking half a minute to come to a halt.

At last it stopped, and then a muffled growl came from within.

“We will stop for now.”

Lyra wobbled atop the construction as it began to lower, her hooves clattering across the tops of crates as she struggled to keep upright. When the whole construction came down to earth with a muffled boom she lost it and slipped onto her rump with an oof.

She struggled to all fours and rubbed her rear, which was an unfortunate position to be in as a barrel lid promptly popped open nearly hitting her square in the forehead. She yelped and scrambled backwards as Red emerged from the gold filled barrel, coins and jewels sheeting of his red scales as he arose like an undead creature from a particularly shiny crypt, ring encrusted claws and bejeweled necklaces layered heavy.

“Why are we stopping? We shouldn’t be stopping! I didn’t say we should stop! There could be bandits or gold eating monsters or magpies out here!” He looked around furtively as though expecting them to jump from the foliage and start grabbing up treasure at the drop of a hat.

A large paw emerged from deep within the construction and took hold of one of the oaken support beams set at the top and forcibly moved it aside, ropes and rope netting dragging around it. Once there was space a crate was pushed up and over and Rain poked his head free from the small space, then squeezed his shoulders by, then his arms which he used to lift himself up then out, kneeling on top the building sized block of treasures, the gap in the canopy from the felled tree creating space above it.

He rolled his shoulders.

“Not as heavy as you would think, but still, it’s time to make camp before it gets too late.”

Lyra squinted at him, then at the sky above. It was late in the day but not that late.

“I guess?

Rain nodded, “The more tired I get the more trees I stumble into without noticing, and-”

“And?”

He hesitated then came closer to Lyra. Of course their sheer size difference meant his head was near as large as her torso and he positively loomed over where she sat, even crouching. He lowered his voice as Lyra looked up at him with wide eyes.

“How close are you to leveling up?”