Wren spread out her cloak and then sat on it in the middle of the trail. "Now I've been here before so I'm not a stranger, but the four of you are, so we will go through the proper steps that will get us invited into the village here." She then put her mask on. "I recommend we all wear our masks but be prepared to take them off when I tell you. And let me do all the talking since I know these folks."

Goblin heads were peering over the top of the palisade around the village to watch us. I noticed the spears disappeared as soon as we spread our cloaks and sat down. Cat had a coat instead of a cloak so he sat next to Wren on her cloak.

Looking around, there was much about the goblin village that looked like any other farming village, human or elven. Neat fields of growing winter wheat vied with pastures full of cows, newly-born calves, and happy fat sheep not yet shorn of their winter fleece. The village itself was inside a sturdy palisade. Before they closed the gates, I could see houses inside painted in a variety of bright colors. The inhabitants covered the streets with hay to combat the springtime mud. They closed the gates as soon as they noticed us.

A sally port opened in the palisade and a goblin in a bright red coat came out. He was a little thing, just about a yard and a half high. His head was more round than oval. He was also very green: green skin, dark green eyes, and green hair. The red coat was a jarring contrast. He stopped about three yards from us and looked us over.

"I greet you, friend Roaming Wren," he said in a normal-sounding tenor. "May I ask why you come with masks on all your faces?"

"It is to comfort a friend so that he is not the object of ridicule while we travel together," she removed her mask but kept it in her hand. She signaled for everyone to remove their masks. Cat hesitated.

"You only need show your face once, Cat," she said kindly.

Cat Rider lowered his hood and then took off his mask and looked at the goblin with the horrific scar in plain sight.

"I understand," he bowed to Cat. Everyone put their masks back on.

The goblin turned to me, "I see from the color of your eyes that you should understand me."

* My friend with the scarred face lost his leg in the same fire that scarred him. I carry him for friendship's sake. My friends call me Fuzzy. *

"I am honored to meet you, Lady Fuzzy. You are the first Divine Beast I have ever met. I am Petel. As the head of our Village of Cedar Stands, you are welcome to our hearths and our hearts. Are you five on your two years of adventure, and are you here to help with our wolf problem? We have lost over twenty sheep and one cow to wolves this winter and can not endure many more losses."

* Indeed, we are here to hunt wolves, as your queen sent Roaming Wren home last year with an invitation to come here and help. *

The little goblin smiled, his white teeth contrasting with his green skin. "You are most welcome to our village. Please, please, come in. Let me treat you to a pot of tea while we prepare the guest house. Now, Lady Fuzzy, We've never entertained a divine beast before. What sort of foods do you eat?"

* Are there any deer or antelope or other ruminants about? Ruminants are my preferred meal of choice. I can hunt them if they are in the area, If not, anything that's raw meat will do. I can eat cooked meat too just it doesn't taste very good to me. *

"We have many antelope in the area," Petel remarked, "so many that we must chase them away in the autumn to keep them from the orchards. We won't miss the ones you hunt." He flashed a smile that seemed to say that I should take as many as possible.

"You look just like a mountain cat, Lady Fuzzy, so some of the residents may hide from you. I beg you to overlook their rudeness."

* I understand. I will not be offended. *

"May ask the rest of your names?" Petel inquired.

"I am Cat Rider," my boy piped up. "I'm usually always with Fuzzy."

"I am Motley Owl," the tall elf youth bowed politely from his seated position.

"I am Cloud Eye," he performed the same bow.

"We are very happy to host you while you help us with our wolf problem," Petel bowed again. "Too bad there are not enough of you to hunt the wyverns too. Our cattle losses have been hard."

"Well, actually," my boy interjected, "We can do wyverns too. It's just a matter of finding them."

Petel was incredulous, "how can you hunt a wyvern with just five people? Don't you need at least 20 people?"

"Petel, friend," Wren cut in with a grin, "all we need is Cat Rider. He can take a wyvern down on his own. He's a mage, a very good mage. See his coat and our cloaks? They're wyvern skin, made from the one he killed last year. It was a snow wyvern, which is why the cloaks and coat are white, which is not a color usually seen for wyvern skin."

"You took down a wyvern?" Petel was gaping.

Cat nodded, looking a little embarrassed.

"Well, friends, what are we doing in the middle of the lane? Come in! Come in and have tea while we freshen up the guest house."

Everyone but Cat got up. Cat was aligning his fake leg so he could get up on his own but Owl got behind him and picked him up.

"I wish you would warn me when you do that," Cat rolled his eyes, not at all angry.

"More fun this way," Owl looked pleased with himself.

I don't know what I was expecting from a village full of goblins, but other than being green, they were like people from any other farming settlement. The only oddities were the smell of the village, which reminded me of mushrooms, and the riot of color inside the palisade. The goblins painted their buildings in bright colors, where every side was a different color with the shutters in contrasting colors. Some houses had shingled sides where every shingle was a different color.

We stopped at Petel's home for tea. The inside of his house was no different than the outside: it smelled like mushrooms and every wall was a different color with the door jambs in contrasting colors.

* Petel, maybe you should paint the poles of the palisade in different colors. * I suggested in jest.

"Lady Fuzzy, what a great idea! I will bring it up at our next village meeting, which is in three days. You all should come. We always have a bit of a party after."

* Why do you have a palisade? * I had been wondering about that.

"We are just farmers and have no hobgoblins to fight for us since we are just a small village. So we have a palisade to keep out the dangerous animals, like bears and wolves, which find goblin children to be a good meal, sorry to say."

If the goblins weren't so green, they could have been from anywhere. The world can be so surprising sometimes.