"I'm going to ask nicely once," Craig stopped in his tracks, rubbing his temples in frustration, "Stop following me."
"I have every right to keep my eye on a trespasser."
"Yeah well, I'm not letting you come with me," Craig rolled his eyes. He had made his way back to the main path and continued down it for several hours now, but no matter how many times he objected, the annoying barbarian would remain only a few yards behind him. It was grating on his nerves.
"Fine," Tweek crossed his arms, "Then I just so happen to be going to the High Elf Kingdom, too. We're both going on the same path. If you don't want me officially with you, you won't receive any of my help when things get more dangerous."
"This is ridiculous," Craig huffed as he continued on, "I'm doing this alone."
"Like I said, then you'll do it without my help."
"I don't need any hel-"
With that, a loud noise was emitted via the shuffling of leaves to the right of the path. Instantly, a large creature that Craig couldn't recognize, especially at the speed that which it was going, flew out directly towards him. Caught off guard, he merely found himself falling to the ground, unable to reach for his blade in time.
Within a blink of an eye, something shot out at the creature, piercing its body. The creature fell a few inches away from him-if another split second had past, it would have surely mauled him. Craig got to his knees to examine what it was more closely.
A dragon? A very small one no larger than a cat, but still with razor sharp claws and fangs visible due to the way it fell open-mouthed. It was was dead, laying in a pool of its own blood from where it was pierced through the heart by a bow and arrow.
"You were saying?" Tweek asked.
"There are dragons in this god awful forest?" Craig groaned.
"Only ones small enough to fly through the trees," Tweek answered, walking over to where the dragon fell to pull out his arrow, "Their scales are too strong for your blade, by the way. I have special coated arrows that are able to penetrate them."
"How do you people deal living with this shit flying around every day?" Craig asked bewildered.
"I won't lie to you," Tweek sighed, offering a hand to Craig to help him up. Craig refused it and instead stood up on his own. Tweek frowned but continued, "It is scary living here. When I was younger especially, I was always paranoid of everything. I think many of us are like that, but it was particularly bad for me, making kids my age look down upon me. Then one day I decided to stop being scared and train hard to make sure I could always protect myself."
"That was a rhetorical question," Craig replied emotionlessly, brushing off the dirt from his pants, "I didn't want your life story."
The Barbarian glared at him. "Fine, get mauled to death next time a creature attacks you. You should know that the deeper you go, the more dangerous the forest becomes."
Craig frowned. This guy was annoying as all get out, but he was right. He did kind of just save his life.
"Fine...thank you," Craig said. He paused for a moment.
He really didn't want a companion. He really wasn't a people person in general, Clyde was his only real friend for a reason. For a mission as delicate as this, having someone with him would only cause more trouble. Especially if it was some barbarian he knew nothing about and had no real reason to trust.
Not that he thought this guy was lying about his intentions. He seemed oddly earnest enough, and part of Craig even wondered if he was even capable of lying. He didn't kill Craig when he had the chance and didn't let him die either. Despite demonstrating twice now that he was a capable fighter, he seemed to go against all preconceptions Craig had about the barbarians.
"I-I guess I don't mind you following me until we get out of this place," Craig finally relented, "We can talk about everything once we're out of this hellforest."
"I'm glad you're being reasonable-"
"But please don't talk to me unless actually necessary. I don't like pointless conversations."
"Fine."
"Glad we're in agreement," Craig said as he continued going down the pathway.
And so the two continued on for the rest of the day in silence. Since Tweek was obviously more familiar with the surroundings, he took the lead a few paces ahead while Craig silently followed. There were no more incidents, making Craig wonder if perhaps the barbarian was making things up when he claimed that it would get more dangerous. Although Craig's head was still somewhat sore, it felt much better. He probably didn't have a concussion after all.
When night fell, Tweek broke the silence and told them they had to find shelter for the night. Craig was ready to try to find an old hollowed log once more, but Tweek guided him in a very specific direction. Craig took note that the barbarian was counting his steps, not using the visual markers of the surroundings as a guide, heightening his theory about it spontaneously changing. The flora was very thick, Craig sure that he had at least a dozen magical thorns poking into him. Yet he also figured if this guy was doing the same thing shirtless, it must be okay. Unless of course barbarians just has some weird immunity from living here for who knows how many generations.
As he was thinking there was an odd yell, from what Craig couldn't identify. Tweek quickly stopped in his tracks, grabbing Craig's wrist . Craig instinctively yanked away from his grip, causing the barbarian to instantly glare at him while bringing a finger to his mouth to indicate that he should remain silent. After about a minute of silence from both the two as well as the strange creature, Tweek eventually broke his still position and kept going.
"You don't need to yank away from me when I'm trying to not get us both eaten," Tweek grumbled quietly.
"What was that?"
"An ogre," Tweek huffed, "We're near the swamp areas of the forest, so you have to take the threat of them seriously."
"And you're taking me deeper into it," Craig stated. It wasn't a question. He also wasn't previously aware that ogres were another deadly part of this forest. It sure kept bringing more and more obnoxious surprises.
"I know a place."
As it got darker and darker, Craig began to question this more and more. Perhaps he shouldn't have trusted Tweek. Maybe he was actually taking him to some ogre lair or even his own barbarian camp. That would be incredibly annoying for him to get out of, he thought.
Suddenly Tweek stopped at the base of an impressively large and wide tree. He bent down to its large extending roots and knocked on it three times in a seemingly specific rhythm.
"What are you doing now?" Craig asked, mildly annoyed.
Before Tweek would be able to respond, however, the tree suddenly glowed. As if by some magical flame, brighter lights shot out of the tree in the shape of an arch. The sudden reminder of the last time he saw magical flames made Craig sick to his stomach in an instant, almost sending him into a panic. Yet before said feelings could grow, the bark encompassed by the arch faded away, proving that it was an enchanted door or gateway.
"Hey it's that kid again," a high pitched voice accused. Craig couldn't see where the voice was coming from.
"We want to stay here for the night," Tweek announced in a dignified voice, the same one he used when first trying to convince Craig to let him join.
"After all you put us through?" the voice accused once more. Craig wondered if it was a disembodied voice. That was, until he looked down.
It was a gnome. Or at least he figured it was one, based on pictures he had seen. Little weird stocky creatures. Somewhat like dwarves but considerably smaller and lived in trees instead of underground caverns in far off mountain ranges. Unlike dwarves who were known to do business and maintain relations with other kingdoms civilly, gnomes did no such thing keeping to themselves...unless they were stealing. They were infamous for being pesky thieves. Craig instinctively reached for his necklace.
"Hey, you should be thanking me that I didn't put you in more trouble," Tweek frowned, "I could always go back and report how you-"
"Alright, alright!" the gnome raised his hands up, "But who's the newbie. He doesn't look like one of you."
"Feldspar," Tweek introduced him, "We're traveling on important business together."
"Hello," Craig responded emotionlessly.
"Wait, you understand me?" the gnome gasped.
"Yes, he's from Kupa," Tweek said walking past the gnome to enter into the tree. Craig hesitated, not knowing how much he should trust a magical doorway, but did.
The inside of the tree was very odd. Although the tree was already massive, it was apparent that magic greatly expanded it. Everything was obviously made of wood, being carved from the inside of a tree trunk and all, and contained what looked like little apartments carved out going up the very tall tree, connected by wood ladders, some built into the tree itself while others were free standing. About a dozen or so other gnomes rushed out, quickly surrounding the two humans' feet. They chattered, too many of them in too many high pitched squeals for Craig to really pick up on what they were saying individually beyond the generic curious comments and questions.
"Hey, you're from Kupa?" one asked, trying to use Craig's pants to climb up his leg.
"Get off," Craig swatted at him. He patted himself, making sure nothing was stolen. He only just met gnomes for the first time and he could already tell he would likely find all of them intolerable.
"Don't worry about them," Tweek assured Craig before turning to the gnome that let them in, "We can stay at the top, right?"
"Sure, sure," the presumably head gnome rolled his eyes.
With that, Tweek signalled for Craig to follow him. With so many little gnomes crowding him, he found it quite difficult to avoid stepping on them. He didn't like them, but he didn't want them crushed to death for it. Tweek, who clearly knew the way, guided him to one of the built-in ladders at the wall of the tree that had gaps large enough for a human to climb, and began to ascend up it.
Craig had obviously climbed and scaled many buildings, ladders, and so forth in his many years of thievery. Yet Tweek, presumably from all his years of tree climbing, was much quicker. It shocked him how quick he was, not at all seeming cautious over the tall height they were reaching, as if it were second nature. Craig himself wasn't afraid of heights, but even still once he was at neck-breaking-if-you-fall heights, he did try to take his time and make sure he wouldn't slip.
After a few minutes of climbing up the seemingly endless height of the tree, eventually they approached what looked like a ceiling of sorts with a decently large square carved out at the end of the ladder for them to climb through, though with a several foot gap between the end of the ladder and it. Tweek pulled himself into it no problem. When Craig reached it, however, he hesitated.
He made the mistake of looking down. He was so impossibly high that he could barely see the bottom. To get into the room at the top, he would have to let go and pull himself up by his own weight without slipping. He wasn't ever afraid of heights before, but this didn't seem safe. A rare sense of panic crept over him.
"Give me your hand," Tweek reached out for him.
"I don't like this," Craig said, "I don't wanna die of falling to my death in a goddamn gnome tree thing."
"I won't let you fall," Tweek told him, "I promise."
After a few moments of hesitation, slowly Craig removed one hand from the ladder and reached for the blond's hand. Tweek grasped it tightly and pulled it up as Craig placed his other hand at the ledge. Craig was able to push off where his feet were on the ladder, and between the two of them, he was able to be pulled into the room.
When Craig saw the room he was in, he was shocked. It was very human sized, with beds, tables, and everything one would find in a normal human dwelling, albeit carved entirely out of wood. Many of the things were carved directly from the tree, unable to be moved. Not only that, but the craftsmanship and small details was beyond that of anything Craig had ever seen in Kupa City, even in the homes of the wealthy. It was lit, but much like the rest of the tree, Craig suddenly realized he had no idea what by. Perhaps a magic of some kind.
"This is their room for humans or other similarly sized creatures," Tweek told him, "Obviously, they don't use it much anymore. I think here they only had it because they wanted to keep with tradition."
"What do you mean?" Craig asked.
"What do mean 'What do you mean'?" Tweek raised an eyebrow.
"Aren't these guys pests that pretty much just steal from humans?" Craig wandered over to the large bed. It had a quilt on it from the same scratchy looking material the gnomes clothes were made of.
"You don't know the history?" he asked skeptically.
"Nope, and I don't really care," Craig said laying down on the bed. Being wood, it was obviously hard. No complaints though, he slept in worse situations.
"Well you should," Tweek frowned, irritation in his voice, "It was your people who banished them from their homeland, afterall."
"And where might that be?" Craig yawned, stretching his arms and putting them behind his head.
"They really don't tell you," Tweek said astonishedly, "They don't tell you how Kupa was originally the gnome's kingdom? How before you were hideous farmland, Kupa was a very peaceful forest, far more inviting than this one? How the gnomes and your people tried living in harmony selling their woodwork until your wizard decided to destroy everything they had and banish them here?"
"Huh," Craig's eyes widened. That was awful. Yet after everything he knew about the Wizard and his centuries of influence, he couldn't exactly say it was the most surprising revelation he had ever heard.
"I know more than you about how much they steal," Tweek frowned, "But it's still not right."
"You keep acting as though I've always been in some privileged authority to do something about it."
"Aren't you?" Tweek accused, "I know you said you didn't have much of a choice in this mission, but you're still a diplomat aren't you?"
Craig laughed at the thought, "Absolutely not."
"Then what?"
"I'm just a street thief," he shrugged. After he said it, he wondered if he shouldn't. Would it give away that he was actually trying to steal from the High Elf Kingdom? He decided to continue, "They know it's a dangerous suicide mission, so they might as well use someone disposable for it. It was either this or being hung. They know I wouldn't just run off when I had my friend's life at stake." All of that was technically true.
"So you don't have any sort of background in this?" Tweek said incredulously, sitting on the end of the bed, "Yet they expect you to make negotiations?"
"They gave me some training."
"I see," Tweek looked down, pondering this for a few moments. As he dwelt on the new information, suddenly his expression irritated. "Hey, if you're a thief then you have no right to judge gnomes for that!"
Craig awoke before Tweek the next morning. Although the bed was big, neither of them would have been comfortable sharing it, so Tweek opted to sleep on the sofa on the other side of the room. He looked so peaceful in his sleep, wrapped up in a little ball, that it was hard to believe this was the guy who attacked him, constantly nagged at him, and was able to kill a dragon in the blink of an eye with a single shot.
He was sure a weird one. He wondered if all barbarians were like this. It was hard to believe that he came from society that was known for brutally murdering and eating people without any just cause. Perhaps, just as a lot of information in Kupa was filtered and misconstrued, it was all false propaganda all along.
With a sigh, he decided to see what there was in the kitchen section of the quarters. Some gnomes came up via a smaller ladder built alongside the human friendly one last night and gave them some of their dinner. They also informed the two of them that there was food readily available for them to eat in the morning. It was very odd that so many of the citizens decided to be so gracious to them, especially if Tweek had caused them trouble and Craig was from a kingdom they would have reasons to despise. He almost wondered if it was poison, hesitating to eat until after he saw Tweek take quite a few bites. He also made sure all of his stuff was still there. It was.
He noticed a teapot and some dried up leaves. There was a dug out hole in the tree bark full of water, he presumed either magic or a form of liquidy sap, with a wood cup beside it. He filled the cup and the water seemed to replenish itself. It was warm, so he poured it directly into the pot along with putting tea leaves in the filter. No heat would be required. Convenient.
As for food, it was regular sized. A lot of things one would expect forest people to eat, albeit things he never recognized and all nonperishable due to their lack of human visitors. Dry fruits of very strange vibrant colors, a type of cracker, some jerkified meat, some jam. He decided he could make a decent breakfast out of it, grabbing two wooden plates. He took small bites of each unrecognizable thing to determine what would go well together and spread them out on the crackers. He then determined that the tea sat long enough and went to put it in two cups. He placed all of them on the dining table in the center of the quarters.
"Hey," Craig went over to Tweek to nudge him slightly, "Wake up."
The barbarian groaned. Craig couldn't tell if they were odd, generic moans or words in his own language.
"Hey," Craig shook him slightly harder, "I made us breakfast."
Suddenly, the sleeping boy was wide awake and sat up. "You made us breakfast?" he asked with disbelief in his voice, "Why?"
"Might as well, since I was doing it anyway. No point waiting for you to get up and making it yourself," he explained with a frown, "You don't need to make it weird."
"Well...thanks, Feldspar."
"Yeah, yeah," Craig rolled his eyes as he turned to walk to the table, "Let's just eat so we can get out of here."
"Yeah," Tweek agreed.
They sat eating in mostly silence. The tea was your typical tasting tea and the food Craig prepared wasn't bad at all. The crackers were a little old, but all and all the meal had far more flavor than anything he'd have eaten as a child.
"How many more days in this forest?" Craig asked.
"Two or three, I'd think."
"The gnomes-They seem hospitable and didn't steal any of my shit," Craig noted through a mouthful of food, "It seems they have an odd history with you. You can trust them?"
"They won't steal from me," Tweek told him, "Not after our history, they owe me big time for having sympathy for them. After when I was young, all the times that they-"
"Wasn't asking for a story," Craig cut him off, "But that's good to know, I guess."
"They aren't all that bad," Tweek said, taking a sip of his tea, "I know you don't want a story, but I have more reason than probably anyone to have a grudge against them. They stole from me, terrorized-"
"That's giving me the whole story."
"Why are you so rude?" Tweek asked, slamming his cup to the table, "After all that I'm helping you-If it weren't for me-" his face turned red and seemed unable to find the words he wanted to say through his frustrations. He said something under his breath in his language, probably a curse word.
"Are all barbarians as talkative as you?" Craig threw back at him, "I thought you guys were brutes who are kill first, ask questions later, not...naggy."
"I told you, we're not some collective hivemind!"
"Well? On average then."
"You answer my question first!"
"This is stupid," Craig stood up, taking his finished plate and cup back to the kitchen area, "If you don't like that I'm a rude asshole-which I knowingly am, by the way-you don't have to keep following me."
"I'm not doing it for you!"
"Then who?" Craig found his irritation levels rising dangerously high for his standards, "You saw that I'm going on a mission and you're trying to tag along. You could have gone on your own if you wanted to do some diplomacy. You could have done it without me. You're the one who attacked me and decided on the spot that you're going to leave your homeland for some suicide mission with a stranger from a kingdom you hate."
"I told you, I have wanted peace for a long time! I can't return home until I prove myself and you're already going on an official mission with official paperwork, so what better opening is that? Trust me, I wish it wasn't someone like you."
"Whatever. Just-Just do what you want. I don't care anymore" Craig told him. He forced himself to take a deep breath to prevent any further annoying escalation.
From there, the two got ready to go about their way in silence. Craig wasn't nearly as scared going back down, irritation already controlled his emotions too much. They said their proper goodbyes to the gnomes, both trying to sound cordial through their annoyed dispositions, and Tweek guided him out and back onto the main path.
Tweek was clearly more upset than Craig was, frowning and walking in a pace that was clearly full of pent up anger. Craig still didn't get it, there was nothing nor anyone that was forcing him to stay. They only knew each other for a day now. Yet still he went on, guiding the way in silence, only stopping to gather some fruits growing on a bush.
"Edible," was all he said.
At another point, Tweek tackled Craig seemingly unprompted into the shrubbery.
"Ogre," he whispered into his ear as he remained pinned on top of him.
Sure enough, less than a minute later there were very loud footsteps approaching. The footsteps got closer and closer, until Craig could see its slimy dark green legs mere feet away from him. It roared. Craig stopped breathing. Could it smell them? Would it swing its large club to try and get them out? Tweek tightened his grip, practically hugging him.
However after a few moments of the ogre pausing, it continued going about its way. It crossed the path to the other side. They remained laying there in silence for a few more minutes to be safe until finally Tweek wordlessly got off of him and went back to the path. He didn't try to help him up or wait for him, merely continuing down the path. Craig brushed himself off and ran to join him.
He did wonder how powerful ogres must be that Tweek's only action against them was to hide and stay silent. He was able to shoot down a small dragon in a single shot, afterall. But he knew Tweek wasn't going to talk to him, and he figured he didn't really need to know that much anyway.
That night, they stayed in an abandoned treehouse. Tweek still wasn't speaking to him, so he didn't bother explaining it. As much as Craig liked the newfound silence, he started to question whether traveling so long on bad terms really was the best circumstance. Especially when this was two nights he got out of staying in a dirty log for the night.
"How long does that paint on you last?" Craig asked as they ate the fruits Tweek collected for dinner. It was still somewhat light out, they came to the treehouse in the late afternoon. It looked faded slightly in some spots, so he presumed it wasn't permanent.
"It depends," he answered abruptly.
"Okay, how much longer until this fades off?"
"I don't know."
"Do all barbarians wear it?"
"Depends."
Yep, still mad. He showed no signs of budging right now, so Craig decided to leave it alone. He could always try it again in the morning, after they both slept it off.
"Listen…" Tweek finally let out after another minute of silence.
"I'm listening."
"You're right," Tweek told him, "You are on an important mission, and I am inserting myself into it. You don't have any reason to trust me or think that I'll benefit you once we leave this forest."
Craig's eyebrows raised. That wasn't what he expected to hear from him.
"It's alright," Craig said after a few more moments, "You want what's best for your people and...so do I."
"I thought you were doing this for your friend, not for Kupa-"
"Not for Kupa," Craig explained, "For all the people in Kupa who have to deal with their bullshit."
"You say that Kupa discriminates other races and kicked out the gnomes, and you're right," Craig told him, "But you're wrong in thinking that everyone in Kupa is privileged or complacent in this. A lot of people in Kupa have it far worse off than most places."
"Worse?" Tweek asked.
"Well first of all, it's not just magical races they keep out. They also take away any commoners born there with abilities as infants, probably killing them. Very few live in nice houses or whatever, the majority are piss poor farmers who are practically slaves to their own land, only ever working day in and day out for scraps. Don't even get me started on their real slave business. The rich are all greedy assholes who don't care about anyone but themselves. They would rather let children starve in front of them than give up a single one of their jewels. That's why I was a thief, by the way. Not because I wanted to, not because I took from people for no reason, but because my friend and I were starving street kids, and none of them ever cared about us."
He had no idea why he was sharing this. He didn't need to share this.
"So you can give your backstory, but I can't?" Tweek said. Craig looked to him and saw in the dimming twilight that he had a smirk on his face.
"...Yeah, I guess I just did that, didn't I?"
"You're not really a people person, are you?" Tweek quietly laughed.
"Absolutely not."
"Then I'll try to keep that in mind," Tweek yawned, "Though...We don't have to like each other, but if we're going to work together, we probably shouldn't fight."
"I was thinking the same thing."