Only an hour had passed since Barry decided to walk the children back home, still feeling bummed out about feeling forced to say “Yes” because of these unknown urges to help everyone he met. He wanted to know why he couldn’t just tell someone “No”.

  Regardless, he was stuck with chaperoning them back home, but along the way, he asked them what they were doing out in the forest. Their response was childish but bold, saying that they all wanted to go out beyond their homes and explore what was out there, maybe possibly finding some treasure.

  They also asked him not to tell their parents why they travelled so far deep into the forest when they returned, especially about them almost being devoured by a pack of wolves. They feared that they may never get another chance to explore again if their parents found out. Barry simply nodded and promised not to snitch on them, he didn’t care what would happen to them after he was gone.

  A couple more minutes went by as they followed a trail that lead out of the woods, into a wider open field with some small hills and what appeared to be a village in the distance.

  “There!” A few of the kids yelled, sounding excited. “That’s our home!” Another said before breaking away from the group towards it, the rest following from behind.

  Barry continued walking a normal pace with a ‘I don’t care anymore’ face towards the village. The poor guy just wanted to finish escorting them back and be on his way.

  But as Barry got closer, he was able to make out the layout of the village clearer. “Oh fuck.”

  The village seemed to be home to about a 100 or so people but the houses, buildings, everything, looked to be in shambles. The windows were shattered, door hinges hanged, fences were breached. There were people scattered about, appearing in distress, picking up their belongings, assessing the damages that had occurred. Barry concluded that from the looks of it, the village had to have been recently attacked or invaded.

  Barry picked up the pace to catch up with the kids, entering the village with the kids. The adults nearby had spotted the children and were checking if they were alright before scolding them for making them worry. Barry couldn’t help but chuckle inside to see them all receive a stern talking too.

  He then realized something about his appearance that he should have thought more about. His PT clothes, that served as his armor, made him stick out from the rest of the villagers. Everyone else looked like proper folks living off of their farmland. ‘I’m definitely going to be questioned about my clothes in this world, aren’t I?’

  Soon after looking around, he was approached by a mother of one of the children. “You must be the one who guided our children back here. We were all so worried what had happened to them during this dreadful raid that recently occurred. We thank you so much!” She said with a look of relief as she shook Barry’s hand, expressing her gratefulness.

  “Uh, yeah. No problem ma’am.” He replied with a slight nod, hoping she wouldn’t care about his attire.

  The woman’s eyes seemed to be examining him, her eyes focused on what he was wearing. “I don’t mean to sound rude, but I am curious, where did you get these clothes from? They seem to be a different type of style from any other I have seen.”

  ‘Shit.’ He cursed in his head.

  “Wow, the texture feels like its high quality! Where are you from?” She questioned, curious of where his clothes were made.

  Barry thought about making up a place on the spot, but decided to just spill out some of the truth of where he came from. “I’m from a place called Earth, it’s waaaaaay over yonder, that way.” He lied, pointing in the direction he came from. “Yup, I basically travelled down here in search for adventure. So I’m really new to the area and such.” He hoped that the mother would buy his lie without thinking too much.

  The woman smiled in amusement. “Ah! You’re an adventurer! I’ve never heard of ‘Earth’ before, but I have seen adventurers like you before who help those in need. You must be a very strong adventurer to have come all the way here. We could really use your help as of now, we would greatly appreciate it.”

  Barry was caught off guard by the woman grabbing his hand and dragging him towards an elderly person who seemed to be the village chief. People from the village looked at him with curious eyes, wondering who he was.

  The poor adventurer cringed at being trapped in another possible request that he wouldn’t be able to deny as much as he wanted too. ‘Fuuuuuck…’

  The village chief was just done talking to some of his people when Barry and the woman arrived. “Ned! I’ve found someone who can get back at those pesky Kobold’s for raiding us. He also happens to be the person who escorted the missing children back to safety and claims to be a strong adventurer from a far away place known as ‘Earth’.” The woman was putting a lot of effort into making Barry sound like an immensely strong, fabled hero of legends.

  Barry was not liking anything that was going on at the moment, he was trying so hard to keep a fake smile. The term “Kobold” sounded familiar, but he couldn’t remember what they were exactly.

  The village chief, Ned, stroked his white beard with one hand while tapping his staff with his other. His eyes looking at Barry from head to toe. “So…an adventurer from ‘Earth’ you say?” He said, almost as if he doubted Barry’s lie. “How far away is it from here?”

  Barry clenched his teeth for a brief moment. “Far, far, far down that way. There’s a small continent surrounded by water with a bunch of other smaller islands. It’s really hard to find, I promise you, we don’t get many visitors there, which is also why I left the darn place. Haha.” Barry replied, with more complete and utter bullshit on the spot, hoping Ned would believe him.

  Ned squinted his eyes at Barry, trying to decide whether to trust his words or not. ‘Please don’t question me anymore, old man…’ Barry didn’t know how long he could keep lying to the people around him.

  After a few more seconds of being inspected by Ned, the old man smiled. “Well then, young man, you must have faced a lot of tough challenges and ferocious monsters along the way.”

  “Yeah, actually, the most recent type of monsters I’ve fought were zombies. Those undead were something else, but nothing I couldn’t handle.” Barry at least wasn’t lying about fighting undead, so he sounded a bit more truthful in the face of Ned.

  “That’s amazing, I would not know what to do when confronted with such relentless beings of the dead. I’m sure a lot of us would love to hear your heroic stories of your travels, but let me inform you more about our current predicament at the moment.” Ned then waved his staff around. “As you can see, our village was recently raided by Kobolds. The most important things that were stolen from our village, were food and money that we had collected in order to pay for our village’s protection fee from a band of orcs.”

  Barry knowledge of what Kobolds or Orcs were was fuzzy, he thought that if he asked what they looked like, the people would become even more suspicious of his identity. “Ah yes, Orcs and Kobolds. Both nasty little bastards, especially Kobolds, they're nothing but troublemakers.”

  The woman chimed in, “I don’t know about the Orcs being small, but those little devil lizards are indeed mischievous buggers. They may not have harmed anyone, but they robbed us of our payment for the Orcs. And if we don’t get it back, those brutes will tear this village down to the ground!” She looked really worried as she explained.

  “It’s alright, Pam, we’ll manage somehow. Especially since we have a brave and mighty adventurer in front of us willing to help.” Ned nodded towards Barry with a grin, who smiled back slightly, he was not ready for what was going to be asked of him next.

  “But honestly,” Pam continued. “Those Orcs have been slacking lately, and some of the men have to stave off the wolves and wild boars that come here to eat our crops or feed on our animals. It’s not even worth paying the Orcs anymore.”

  Ned turned to Barry. “Please adventurer, I know we don’t have much to offer for now, but we promise to repay you in full in the future if you give us some time.” He asked him with concern.

  The supposed adventurer wasn’t sure if he wanted to lend his help to these people, who had nothing left to offer after being raided. “I…I’m not sure if…” Barry felt something tugging on his heart, causing him to fumble with his words as he tried to resist the urge to say yes.

  The people in front of him looked at him with pleading eyes, hoping he would become their savior. ‘I really don’t want too…’

  Just then, he felt a tug on his jacket. He turned around to see the same group of children he had saved before. “Please mister, It's not much, but my friends and I have a bunch of cool things we have in our collection to give to you.” The kids then presented handfuls of odd shiny bits of miscellaneous things like colorful rocks, miniature figurines, toys, and a dirty key.

  At first glance, Barry felt like declining the offer because it looked like a bunch of junk. However, because of his “Enhanced Vision” skill, he was able to spot 2 valuable items from their collection.

  He saw that one of the pebbles, a white colored one with red polka-dots, was named “Lucky Pebble”. It was a Rare item based on the font color. The other was the dirty key that simply said “Silver Key” that was also Rare.

  Barry knelt down and nodded to the children, taking the two specific items from the pod. “I’ll agree to help you all out, but I’ll be taking these two as advanced payment. Got it?”

  “Deal!” The children cheered, happy they were able to convince Barry to help the village. He pocketed the items, which concealed him transferring them into his inventory.

  Barry then faced Ned. “Tell me the direction of the Kobold’s, and I’ll do my best to retrieve what was lost” He told him with a firm nod.

  The woman and village chief were ecstatic to hear him accept their request. “The Kobolds retreated further east, we have encountered them before out of our home, but this is the first time in a long while we have ever been raided before.” Ned informed.

  A quest notification window appeared, telling Barry that he had accepted a side quest. It also informed him of the estimated location of the Kobolds' domain on the map. He checked it out and noticed that there was some sort of fog of war on his map, aside from the village and the path he travelled to get there. There was a large transparent yellow circle highlighted east of where he was at that was labeled “Location of Kobolds Den?”. Barry assumed the Kobolds' den was somewhere within the circle, he would just have to search for it.

  He also looked more at the quest description, which basically said that the village needed help recovering the goods they had lost within the given time limit. He was given 3 days. The penalty was nothing which was new to him because it had always been death. The reward was 200 gold, 1,000 exp and a “???” item. He wondered what it was.

  “Hey sir, you’ve been looking at something for some time. What’s caught your eye?” The mother asked, trying to find what he was staring at.

  Barry closed the system windows quickly with a thought and turned his attention back to the people in front of him. “Sorry, I thought I had spotted a Kobold spying on us.” He lied, squinting his eyes, trying to make it seem like he was really looking for one.

  The woman gasped when he mentioned seeing a Kobold. “I think it scurried away, so I should really go chase after it. Bye!” He told them and started sprinting towards the direction of the Kobolds den.

  Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Wait! Adventurer!” Ned called out, causing Barry to halt and face back around. “What is your name?”

  “Barry! Just call me that!” He replied, hoping he wouldn’t be questioned anymore about himself.

  He then continued running afterward towards his destination down a trail that lead out of the village, following along a river stream that travelled back deep into the forest again.

  Barry kept going at a regular jogging pace for about an hour before slowing down when he heard a loud roar that had to have come from a large beast.

  He was curious of what sort of unique creatures he might encounter in this world, and given that he had a fair amount of time and would make it to the yellow circle in a few more hours, he decided to check out the source of the noise. Tracking down the sound led him slightly off course from his destination, but wasn’t far.

  There were a group of bushes rustling that he saw as he got to where the vicinity of the noise came from. He slowed to a halt behind a tree, waited for a moment in case something was going to jump out of the bushes, which nothing did, then proceeded to get closer.

  When Barry did, he discovered some sort of stone cove with a large nest inside with skulls and bones of different kinds all laid out. In the center of it was an egg, about the size of a human child, at least 3ft tall and a 1ft and a half wide. This looked like a home to a large beast, more likely the one he had heard.

  Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something he had never seen before. There was a short nearly 3ft tall lizard looking creature that stood on two legs, wearing a leather armor vest with a backpack. It had orange-red scales and green eyes with its usual reptilian slit pupils.

  The being then crawled on all fours, its short tail wagging high in the air, trying to be stealthy it seemed as it got closer to the beast’s den.

  “??Hmm, hmm ??” The strange creature hummed, Barry watched from concealment with a mix of curiosity and second hand embarrassment because the creature was trying to be stealthy but wasn’t doing a great job.

  “??Almost there to take the egg??. ??So that Puck can take it back to his friends??.” The creature was not even thinking about how loud he was singing, and that made Barry cringe, facepalming himself.

  When the small lizard being got close enough to the den, it swiftly scurried to the egg and sniffed it a couple of times while slightly knocking on it. “Yeah, Puck thinks it’s good egg. Yeah!” It said to himself with a smile and nodded before grasping it on both sides, lifting it up.

  The little guy seemed to be struggling a bit carrying the big egg with its arms, wobbling from side to side with each step. He appeared to be having a difficult time watching where it was going because the egg also blocked a bit of his view of where he was going.

  Barry wondered if these things were the Kobolds that the villagers were talking about. Then suddenly, Barry could feel the ground vibrate a small bit and hear twigs snapping and bushes rustling. ‘Something’s coming.’ He thought and was intrigued to find out what it was.

  The reptilian creature continued to hum to its own tune until suddenly it began to emit an odd sparkle of cyan glowing aura with an expression that looked like he was about to sneeze. “A-A-Achoo!” The reptile sneezed away from the egg while, also to Barry’s surprise, snorted out a spray of flames.

  It fell to the ground outside the cove, egg still intact, and got back up, hoisting the egg again after wiping his snout. “Itchy nose, Puck need to be more careful with egg”. It said.

  Then the short being felt a looming presence from behind it with heavy breathing over its neck. “Hmm?” The clueless creature turned around to find out that it was the one thing that he should have really tried to keep silent about.

  There standing over the short lizard was a 7ft long bear like beast that could have stood on both legs, making it appear even larger. It came across as being a mix between a bear and a platypus, a massive beast with muscle and thick fur, a beak with small sharp visible teeth, and hook like nails on its hind web-like feet with pointy claws. It also had a long, thick flat tail like a platypus that it slammed into the ground as it stood up, agitated that the critter was robbing its egg.

  The little guy froze still in terror at the beast that was about to maul him to death. “H-Hello-”

  The beast unleashed a fearsome thundering roar at the lizard, cutting off it’s sentence and making him stumble back, almost dropping the egg on the ground.

  The platybear swiped its claws at the lizard, while also trying to avoid hitting its own egg by accident. The little guy narrowly dodged every swipe as it scrambled to its feet, forgetting about the egg. “Puck, sorry! Puck no take egg, so leave Puck alone!” It pleaded.

  Barry found it amusing of the turn of events, watching the lizard get chased down by the beast. But then he wondered if these were the Kobolds the villagers meant, because if that was the case, then he could help this one and have it lead him to its kin. ‘Yeah, this is a good opportunity to find the den quicker’

  After evading a couple more attacks from the beast, the Kobold decided to take a stand against the beast. “Puck told you to leave him alone! So now stupid bear will face the full power of Puck!”

  The Kobold took a deep breath, the same magical aura from before emitting around his body, and flipped around facing the beast.

  With his chest puffed out and his arms pulled back, he let loose his mighty special attack upon his attacker…or so he thought. He had unhinged his snout, exhaling only a small puff of smoke from his mouth.

  The tinny Kobold, shocked that he didn’t get the outcome he was expecting, looked back up at the platybear with horror in his eyes. “U-Uh, Puck was on-only joking.” He then covered into a ball as he watched the beast resume its onslaught.

  And just when the platybear’s claws were about to connect with the defenseless Kobold. The beast was shoved to the side with a shoulder tackle from Barry while it stood on two legs. This caused the bear to stumble to the side, resulting in it tilting over and knocking into a tree. “Damn, it’s heavier than it looks.” Barry muttered.

  The small Kobold looked up from it’s cowardice pose, wondering how it was still alive. “Huh? Who are you?” It asked with curiosity.

  Barry turned his head towards the Kobold and replied. “Someone who just saved your life! So hide while I handle this!” He ordered.

  Without question, the Kobold rushed off to find a hiding spot while Barry wrestled with a near 2 ton beast that was fueled with angry mama bear rage.

  The platybear recovered from the tackle and got back on all fours, locking eyes with Barry now. It growled and roared at him, ready to throw down. “Come on! I’m itching to fist fight a bear in my life for once! Let’s go!” Barry challenged, waving his hands towards himself.

  The beast seemed to acknowledge his challenge with a slam of its tail on the ground and charged towards him with near unstoppable movement. Barry knelt down for a moment, getting into his sprinter pose, before bolting forward to contend with his opponent.

  As soon as the two were about to come into contact with one another, the creature tried to bash Barry with its beak, but he evaded it by leaping over it and landing on its back. Barry gripped the thick fur of the beast as it took him for a joyride.

  The platybear bull rushed to every tree, boulder, anything it could try to use to smash Barry’s body against, but he would always shift around to avoid being knocked off. Slowly, he would eventually reach the head of the creature and commence wailing on its head with one fist while holding on with the other.

  His attacks were dealing tiny amounts of damage as he watched his enemy’s HP bar slowly chipping away. It was at times like these that Barry wished he had something like a sword to fight with, his previous one being destroyed near the end of the tutorial.

  Barry kept bonking the beast until it decided to flip itself over on its back, sliding against the ground in an open area. He was forced to let go or be crushed under the huge creature from underneath.

  The two got back up, with mama bear taking the first initiative with a swing of its tail. Barry reacted fast enough to fall back prone, avoiding it barely, brushing past his hair and hearing the air go whoosh. The tail instead slammed against the side of a tree, uprooting it and knocking it over. He was thankful to have avoided the attack.

  When he got back up, the creature used its momentum it had created from twirling around with its tail and swiped at him. This time he couldn’t dodge the attack and instead chose to try and halt it.

  He held his ground as he used both hands to grab holding of one of it’s paws that was sent at him, causing him to grit his teeth from the strain that was being piled on his arms from stopping the attack, his knees feeling weak from the force, buckling a bit. ‘Damn! This bear is strong!’ Had his endurance and strength been any lower, he might have possibly been seriously injured.

  Barry wondered if he would have to activate his new skill, “King’s Commanding Presence”, to have a better chance at defeating the bear.

  His heart was racing, but not from fear, he felt excited, the thrill of being in an intense fight like he had with the Undead King. “No.” He didn’t want to use it, he believed he could handle the angry mama bear with how he was at the moment.

  Using all his might, Barry shoved the paw aside and lunged closer to the beast, aiming straight for its gut area. He rammed his right fist into it full force and heard a loud belch erupt from the creature. “Here’s a second helping!”

  Barry fired another straight punch into its gut once more, this time the creature proceeded to vomit something it had eaten from earlier.

  The creature’s HP was around 65% from all the tango dancing they were doing, especially from being the two punches in the gut he landed.

  Barry was about to deliver another blow, but had to retreat back because the platybear began going nuts. It was now on a rampage, although its movements were dizzy-like from being clocked in the gut twice.

  He couldn’t risk going back in without getting smacked around by it, so he did his best to keep away from it. Weaving through the trees and boulders, using his terrain to his advantage the best he could, it only slowed the beast down by a bit.

  Eventually he would back track to where they were before, near the platybear’s den. From there, the creature began to slow down, showing some signs of exhaustion. Barry was in a similar condition as well, but was still pumped to keep going. He was having fun.

  Barry’s eyes then caught an item that sparked his interest in the bear’s den with green font named “Cold Steel Sword +2”, an uncommon item. He could really use it to dish out more damage than with his fists.

  He darted to the den, causing the platybear to chase after him.

  Barry grasped the sword from the pile of bones and side-stepped to the far right, dodging the bear’s charge, watching it slam into a stone wall. He gripped the sword with both hands and hacked at its legs, wanting to hinder its movement. The blade didn’t cut deep, possibly because of the fat and muscle, but it did do considerable damage to its health.

  The bear back kicked Barry, being blocked by his sword, yet managing to nick the skin of his knuckles with its hook like nails from its legs. He started to feel strange, the hand that was nicked felt like cramping up, followed by intense pain. ‘What the hell? Are those hooks on its back legs venomous or something?’

  Barry had to suck up the pain and endure it, one hand was barely functional, and he had to more careful from now on. The platybear turned around and continued its assault, biting and swiping at him in a fit of rage.

  He dodged each attack, responding with a couple of his own with one hand wielding his weapon. The swings of his sword, scratching its beak, as well as its paws. The beast was getting even more frustrated.

  It then gathered all its might, standing high on its back legs with its tail in the air as well. Barry was expecting for it to belly flop on top of him, anticipating its next move and deciding to jump out of the way. That was a mistake.

  Instead, the beast slammed its tail into the ground, causing it to shake and for him to lose his balance, falling on his ass. It then leapt into the air, his last few moments cursing out loud before being pressed into the ground laid with skulls and bones of its previous victims.

  There was a moment of struggle from underneath the bear, then soon after it stopped. The platybear felt content, happy that her intruder must have suffocated from being crushed from its own weight.

  Discomfort was the first feeling it felt, followed by aching, then pain, and finally, agony. The bear let out a bellowing roar, it felt its belly being stabbed from underneath. It couldn’t take the pain anymore and slowly rose from the ground.

  There, from underneath the platybear, was Barry with his sword plunged deep inside it with a face full of anger. “Yeah! Didn’t think I would stab you enough? You tricked me in the first half of your body slam, I’ll give you that. But I’m not dying today!” Blood began seeping out from the gaping wound, he could see its HP depleting at a steady pace.

  The platybear was unsure of what to do, it could try and press its weight against Barry one more time, but that would only cause his blade to dig in deeper.

  Eventually, the platybear would succumb to the slow and fatal blow it had received, dying to Barry’s blade. When he realized he had won, Barry stowed away his sword and struggled to worm his way out from underneath the 2 ton bear like creature. “That was a long and intense fight. Glad I found a sword, otherwise that would have taken longer.” The mild paralysis from his one hand was slowly going away, soon his hand would return to normal.

  He looked around the den with his vision, scoping it out more now that he wasn’t fighting for his life. Aside from the loot he obtained from the platybear, he was able to find 300 gold and an uncommon book named “Magic Mikes Book About Peace of Mind”. Everything else was common or complete rubbish.

  Barry then walked out, now searching for the Kobold that he had just saved. “Hey! Little guy, you still here!?” He called out.

  A few moments went by when Barry heard rustling in the nearby trees, he stood ready to face whatever was coming his way.

  “Puck! Puck is here-” The same Kobold from before appeared among the trees, landing face-first into the ground by accident.

  Upon closer inspection of the creature, he would think that other people would find it cute with its small stature and slit pupil eyes that seemed adorable.

  Barry spoke, “Saw that you were having some trouble with that platypus bear or whatever, figured I’d lend you a hand with snagging that huge egg. I’m assuming your name is Puck?”

  The Kobold got up and nodded with a smile. “Yeah! Puck is Puck’s name, thank you so much for helping Puck with the scary platybear.” Puck’s tail wagged, possibly a sign that he was happy.

  “Yeah, no problem. Hey Puck, are you a Kobold?”

  “Yeah! Puck is Kobold, Puck’s family is also Kobold and live that far that way.” The little guy then pointed in a direction. “Puck came here to get platybear egg for family offering.”

  Barry grinned inside, cleared his throat with a cough, and began to put up an act. “Well Puck, I happen to be a very strong fighter when it comes to fending off monsters of all kinds. I’ve travelled across seas slaying krakens, the desert where fierce scorpions roam, and the mountains where giants rule. If you would like, I could escort you back to your kin.”

  Puck jumped with joy, “Yes! Puck would very much like you to protect Puck and take him to family.” Puck then shook Barry’s hand with excitement.

  But the moment Puck touched his hand, he experienced another headache again. ‘Again?’ He thought, Barry knew he was about to experience another possible memory fragment.

  His vision blurred till he blacked out, delving back into the depths of his mind again.

  This time he saw a group huddled around a campfire, all of which that still looked like ghostly apparitions, the same as before and were hard to make out. However, one particular figure stood out to him, it looked like Puck’s silhouette.

  The supposed Kobold and the rest of the people chatted and watched as the fire danced. “Look! Watch Puck stuff his mouth full of potatoes!” Puck said to them before grabbing what seemed like potatoes he assumed, shoving each one into his mouth till he couldn’t fit anymore.

  “Dada!” Puck croaked with his arms stretched outwards, proud of his accomplishment.

  One person, someone that looked like an elf, turned to look at him and said “Puck, as impressive as that might be, it’s also disgusting. Please spit them out.” The elf who was a woman asked with a bit of concern in her voice.

  Another person, possibly human, laughed at the sight of Puck’s show of talent. “Hey, you can’t tell me that’s not funny.” He told the elf.

  “Because it’s not, it’s-” The elf stopped talking when the two heard Puck begin to choke. “Puck!” She called out, immediately going to his side and heaving his stomach till he spewed out all the potatoes he had stuffed.

  “Awww, Puck almost ate them all, but you made Puck cough them out.” The little Kobold blamed the elf for saving his life.

  “W-What? Puck I was-” The woman tried explaining herself to the little idiot but was cut off by the man’s burst of laughter.

  The woman then stood up and said, “You know what, screw you both. I’m going to bed.” Then walked away, most likely pissed.

  The memory then ended and Barry’s vision returned to normal, his headache gone.

  “Hey!” Puck was in front of him, looking concerned for his well-being. “Are you feeling sick?” He asked him.

  As Barry gathered himself together, he looked at Puck and asked him. “Puck, have you ever met anyone besides someone like me before? A human? An elf? Maybe share a campfire with them?” He was genuinely curious, he wondered why this memory fragment included Puck in it. He also wondered how he, himself, could have ever encountered an elf back on Earth if that was also him at that campfire, no way they could have existed.

  Puck thought about it for a moment but shook his head. “No, Puck has seen humans, but don’t know what an elf is. Puck also no share campfire with humans.”

  Barry was even more confused about what he saw, ‘Why the hell was Puck in my memory?’ He decided to set it aside for now and focus on clearing his current side quest.

  He stood up and looked at Puck. “I’m ready to go now, let’s get going to your family.” He waved a hand, signalling him to lead the way.

  Puck nodded with a small smile, but then pointed at the egg of the platybear. “Let Puck grab egg first.” He told Barry, then rushed to secure it.

  “Need help?” Barry offered as he watched the Kobold struggle having a proper hold of it.

  Puck shook his head. “No no, Puck got it. Besides, Puck need exercise to get stronger.” He then tried to get the best possible form he could get before telling Barry that he was ready, embarking on their journey to Puck’s kin.

  The Kobold led the way and after a moment he asked Barry a question that he should have when they first met after the defeat of the platybear. “Hey, what’s your name?”

  Barry was never going to be able to avoid this question for as long as he lived, he too would like to know his true name himself. Regardless, he responded to Puck’s question. “You can call me Barry, Puck.”

  Puck’s tail wagged a bit, happy to know his saviors name. “Barry, that’s a cool name. Puck like it.” Puck’s comment genuinely made him chuckle a bit.

  “Well, you’d be the first to think so.”