Kalbo and the man kept venturing into the forest. They got distracted a few times in the way.
First time was because of griffin eggs, as you probably might've guessed, they tried stealing it.
Second time was because of a fairy. They saw it as cute and tried protecting it. This I can understand for the most part because of its contribution to the world.
Let's start of with the first one.
Idiot's Antics: Eggs
"Appreciate what you have before its gone" as they say.
The trees before were somewhat annoying because of the darkness it produced but without the protection of the tall trees, it was blazing hot outside.
The man wearing a worried expression, "Kalbo, sure about this...?"
"Yes. These things are uber delish. I'm super good at getting these types of stuff ya' know? I mean you ARE hungry right?" Kalbo looks down, wanting to see the man's response.
The man looking away from Kalbo's gaze and feeling a bit pressured, reluctantly nods.
"So, that's settled then, let's go!" Kalbo lifts its right arm to the air, letting go of the rock it was grasping on. Kalbo almost falls down the steep cliff they're climbing. "Oops. Sorry." Kalbo awkwardly smiles and looks back up again. The man is on edge because of this.
The man looks down at the height they've been climbing and shudders in fear. "S-sure about this...?" He asks again, his voice trembling. Kalbo doesn't seem to hear this and continues to climb upward.
If Kalbo fails and falls, the man will also be part of it. The hemp rope is connected to both of them because the man doesn't know how to climb. While, the image of the man getting dragged down to the bottom as if a demon from hell is taking him back looks HILARIOUS, one might ask why they're even climbing together especially and when the man is clearly an amateur in this field but the answer if quite simple — recklessness. They both don't think things through.
In all honesty, they're both dumber when they're together.
For people who used ropes made from dead bark of trees and a wooden peg to secure the top of the cliff so they could climb "safely" this sure as hell doesn't look safe. Still, Kalbo seems extremely athletic, being able to throw the wooden peg all the way up the cliff and being able to carry both of their weight while climbing a cliff. It probably isn't as athletic as the other goblin though.
Looking up, at the goblin that's probably carrying both of them to the top, the man asks, "How...do we even eat it?"
Kalbo stopping at its tracks, "We boil them." It says while giving a serious glance at the man.
The man looks up at Kalbo but sees something he shouldn't. "B-boil?" He looks away but nothing can erase what he just saw. Who knew Kalbo wasn't wearing underneath its clothes made from a beast's mane and leather? That's one hell of a way to know.
"What's wrong? You're suddenly so stiff. We need to hurry." Kalbo pulls the hemp rope harder upward, We submerge it in hot water and then it becomes hard, it tastes even more delish if there's a small griffin inside." Kalbo's eyes flare up with passion, or maybe just hunger.
Eating the egg with an embryo inside... No matter the culture, it's quite revolting.
They finally reach the top of the cliff and there stood a nest made from grey sticks and branches with two griffin eggs. Thankfully the mother is sleeping when they got up.
The man looking down before turning to Kalbo, "Why...didn't... we...stay down there...?"
"Well, it's quite risky." Kalbo points down at the humongous green basilisk waiting for its next meal, "Especially with all the monsters roaming 'round here. Ate might even go out and take you away. She would probably eat you." Assuming the "ate" is a word from their language since it pronounced differently or maybe that's the other goblin's name, the latter is most likely. Kalbo gestures the man to come closer to prevent him from falling from the ledge.
Nevermind. Kalbo is anything but reckless. It might even be more cautious than most humans. How trustworthy. Makes one wonder why it acted a bit dumber yesterday or maybe it's just smarter today? Who cares.
"Most monsters down there are awake by day while most monsters up here are nocturnal." Kalbo explained.
"Ah... I see." The man looks to the side, a bit fed up and even sighs. He points to the eggs, "Do we just take these and climb back down...?"
"Nope. That's too dangerous. While the griffin eggs' shell might be as tough as rocks, the weight of the eggs and us are too heavy." Kalbo shakes its head in disagreement.
"Then how...?" The man asks, looking a bit confused.
Kalbo exclaims,"We fly!" It grins widely.
"What?" The man looking even more bewildered.
Is that even possible? Goblins usually don't have wings...right?
"How do we..fly?" Looking at Kalbo, astonished. How indeed. It just seems impossible unless they have some kind of muscle or body functions that lets them grow wings or if Kalbo secretly has a giant pet bird, the latter of the options seems unlikely since birds and cats don't exactly get along.
Kalbo pulls out a flute with a dragon head at the end. "With this!" Kalbo replied cheerfully. Where did it pull that out from? Thinking about it, Kalbo seems to have a lot of random yet occasionally helpful things—well, except for food.
Kalbo points it up to the sky. The dragon, or flute, when raised to the sky, looked as if the dragon was eating the sun; it somewhat resembled an eclipse.
It looks cool but does it even function properly? Also how is a flute supposedly going to help them "fly"?
Kalbo plays a pleasant melody using the dragon flute but nothing happens.
"Is that it...?" The man asks.
Kalbo shyly rubs its nape, "Oh, no. I just wanted to play a different melody." Perhaps Kalbo is the type of tease people. The man frowns and Kalbo turning timid all of a sudden, "Okay, okay. I'll do it now. Grab those eggs for me will you?"
The man, compliant because of curiosity, does what he's told and tries to hold one of the griffin eggs but his strength wasn't enough and with a loud thud, fell to the ground. That looked like it hurt, it looked like it could cause bruises.
Kalbo sighs and awkwardly smiles, "I'll help you, for now just put them next to me. " Kalbo shoots a quick glance at the mother griffin. "Be extra careful."
Kalbo plays another melody, this time a more dissonant and agonizing melody. Nothing happened afterwards so it this another tease?
Just as the man was about to complain, Kalbo chants something with from an unfamiliar language or maybe the language it uses to converse with other goblins.
"Munting butiki, nawala mo ang isang bituin,
'Di ka dapat ikalungkot, masasayang ang tanawin,
Kung sakali, ikaw ang matitira,
Magiging gabi ang umaga,
Kulay berde ang mga salitang nagaalipusta,
Makikita mo rin ang ganda ng mga bagay na naglaho,
Babalik ang isiping gusto mong ilayo; "
The flute consumes a star from the sky and lets out ashes that then transfom into a dragon made from ambers. It looks empty though, like something is missing.
Kalbo climbs on the fire dragon or whatever it's called and reaches its hand towards the man. "Climb on."
The man tries to pick up the eggs but fails so Kalbo had to carry the two eggs. Someone's been carrying too much dead weight, haven't they?
Idiot's Antics: Metamorphosis
The two of them landed safely and the dragon turned back into ashes and goes back into a flute and Kalbo puts the flute back to who-knows-where. If Kalbo could make a dragon with a flute, why didn't it just use that to climb the cliff? Perhaps there's a limitation or restriction of some sort. Or maybe its back to being an idiot, who knows?
As the question goes unanswered, their feet touch the gentle blue grass. A small violet worm was sluggishly crawling on the bark of the one of the nearby trees. Kalbo notices immediately but the man almost doesn't notice until Kalbo points at it.
The man squints his eyes to see it and looking at it very closely, it has a hat made from a small flower and it had a human face. It should be considered "cute" with its giant beady eyes but it just comes of uncanny, as if it's trying to replicate the essence of humans but fails in the middle.
Kalbo almost looks excited when it saw the worm. "Look! Look! A baby fairy!" It shouted, beaming.
The man looks at the "fairy" and his face contorts.
He's probably thinking "That's a...fairy? It looks hideous." Afterall, fairies are supposed to look ethereal not... whatever this is...
"I wonder why it's out here?" Kalbo inquired to the man who clearly has no idea. Kalbo then explains to the naive man, "Usually, baby fairies would be hidden deep below the surface."
"Let's take it with us!" Kalbo suggests.
While that's interesting, can't they just leave it there? It shouldn't necessarily concern them in any way. Perhaps this might turn into another unanswered question.
The duncehead nods and they do take it along. Kalbo puts the baby fairy on top of one the griffin eggs. He looks a bit nervous because another monster might appear out of nowhere.
Kalbo sense his worries and assures him, "This part of the forest is the least inhabited because its closer to the barrier. In some rare occasions, humans take of the barrier themselves and purge the monsters near it." The man looks a bit, scratch that, absolutely dumbfounded.
"We call it the 'purge', it happens every year so I was a bit surprised when you came along and I thought the barrier was broken." Kalbo continues.
"Barrier? What's that?" Are the questions probably plaguing the man's mind but is too embarrassed to ask because of how Kalbo reacted to his cluelessness.
While Kalbo is explaining the situation thoroughly, there's a certainty that this fool can't comprehend what Kalbo's saying though.
On the way, they actually saw fairies. Ones that look the part atleast. This might be a good thing, they can give back the baby fairy they're holding onto.
"Look! Look! Fairies!" Kalbo's so simple-minded, it's kinda cute.
The fairies try to fly away but the man manages to grab onto one of the fairies on their wings. Is he actually athletic or it's just a spur of the moment kind of thing?
"Wait. Wait. Don't do that." Kalbo interjects, lightly grabbing his hand and tries to make the man let go of the fairy.
"Fairies are extremely vengful. So don't try to hurt them or they might place a curse on you." Kalbo warns the idiot.
Hearing this, the man let's go and apologizes. The fairy flies off quickly, looking terrified. The fairy does a struggle a bit because its wings were a bit damaged. Theses fools seriously wasted their last chance to return the baby fairy? Soz are hey just going to keep walking with that on their hands? Thinking about it, did the fairies seriously not see the baby fairy on the griffin egg?
Kalbo turns to the man and scolds him. "Fairies are extremely delicate and very important because they make the plants and fruit grow."
The man looks down, a bit regretful. So he DOES know how to feel shame. He keeps it in mind and they continue to trekk on. The marks of the trees become more like letters than random claw marks. Perhaps a sign that they are getting closer.
The baby fairy flies a few inches up from the egg and wraps itself in silk. Don't chrysalis' form upside down from a tree branch? Maybe that's why it was climbing up a tree earlier. These idiots really stopped it from metamorphosing properly so it had fly. What kind of logic is this?
The two of them don't really seem to mind the floating cocoon. The man seems fascinated but doesn't try to touch it. Kalbo seems a bit mad to completely care about it. Under normal circumstances, Kalbo would be jumping with joy and geeking out; perhaps fairy curses are really handful for it to be this mad.
A Forest: Final Destination
They finally arrive at the main camp. A bunch of other goblins greeted Kalbo and even gave him some treats. Kalbo gave the man some of the treats without any word. The size of these trees are no joke, most of the houses were built IN the trees or used the trees as platforms. They took a quick stroll to the end of the camp, where a giant tree was located. At the top of the tree was a house. How are they supposed to climb that?
Are they really going to try?
It's been a REALLY long day, how do they have any energy left?