>>5823120Once she was gone, you finally picked yourself up—with Zith-Zi’s help—and dusted your robes down. Together, you returned to your rooms in uneasy silence… Though as the moment passed, and your attentions settled once more upon the newly curious and exuberant drake whom you had refreshed, you let your spirits buoyed.
“So,” you hazarded, “we’re free.”
“For a bit,” Zith-Zi noted sourly.
“Even so,” you said, though you had nothing to follow it up with. “What will you do?”
“Well, I sure as shit ain’t waiting around here,” she said.
“You’re returning to the Goblin Wastes, then?” you asked, and to your surprise you felt a pang of sadness at the idea.
“Well, maybe eventually,” Zith-Zi said, and picked some wax from an ear as she thought. “I was kinda’ thinking of finding some work around here. I’m strapped for coin, after all… And, well, it IS Hawksong, right? ‘Big shiny city on the rocks’ or whatever?”
“Shining city on the hill,” you corrected.
“Point is, I’ve hardly seen it at all,” she said. “Been cooped up here with nothing but nerdy, sexless twinks for company.”
You pouted a little, which merely made her laugh.
“Don’t your people need you, though?” you asked. “You were sort of their leader, I’d thought?”
“Was, yeah,” she said with a disinterested shrug. “Goblins move fast. If I go back, I’ll have to bust some heads and poke out some eyes before I’ll be top brass again, after all this time… And I can still do that later, anyhow.”
She gave you a sly side-eye, and smirked, adding: “Besides, who’s gonna’ look after your skinny ass if I’m not around?”
“Pearce?” you speculated. “My father? Izirina Henzler? MYSELF, the master mage who can create clones and powerful elemental minions at will?”
“Yeah yeah yeah,” she scoffed, placing her arms behind her head and rolling her eyes exaggeratedly. “Still… Yu need anything, you just scream like a little girl, alright? I know you have it in ya’, and I’ll come running.”
“Thanks,” you grumbled, but found you actually sort of meant it.
