The giant wolf head grew to about twice the size it was and kept morphing and twisting. It had a terrifyingly angry looking expression as it opened its mouth wide for a huge roar. But no sounds came out of it. Instead a there was a light that kept getting brighter and brighter until the head finally exploded.

The explosion was far above the village yet it still did tons of damage. Huts were flattened or broken by the force. I could almost hear the pigmets screaming over the explosion, some of them were in the huts that were destroyed and were crushed by debree. Others were hiding under whatever sturdy things they could find. I was doing my best to maintain the blue mana shield above the village, but its difficult to evenly spread mana to something this big. Especially with how ive only started training again recently.

I could see cracks and holes in my shield, letting some of the flames through. I was already reaching my limit maintaining both the shields at once. I couldnt do much but try and reinforce them with more blue mana.

The explosion ended a couple seconds later and I tried to absorb some of the mana to recuperate a little. That attack probably killed the wolf when it exploded. At least those things are dead now, I sheathed my sword and focused on restoring my body and healing with green mana. The pigmets are still hiding, but some of them had come out to see why its so quiet. When they only say me and the dead body of the squirell next to me they started cheering and making sure everyone else was ok. While I was meditating and absorbing mana, I could feel the pigmets moving around me. The energy in their bodies were becoming visible, Even with my eyes closed I could tell where some of them are. This sense didnt seem to go that far however I have never seen this type of energy before. Maybe its part of the reason they are so different from us, The energy their bodies is made up of is something we are not familiar with.

I spent about an hour in that trance and none of them bothered me really. Some of them did put something in front of me and left. but none of them said anything or disturbed me. I cycled some green mana through my body one more time to make sure I healed everything and opened my eyes. There was a small group of pigmet children sitting on some debree and rocks in front of me. They were staring at me like I was made out of gold and jewels. As soon as I opened my eyes they ran off and hid behind some of the bigger pigmets that I assumed were their parents. I was about to get up when I noticed a small bark plate in front of me with what looked like dumplings on it. I picked one up and smelled it, It smelled like onions and vegetables. I took a small bite and it was delicious, it was somehow spicy and refreshing with crisp vegetables, onions and some other herbs and plants mixed in. I ended up shoving the other ones in my mouth they were soo good, forgetting any sort of manners I didnt stop until I had finished them. I could hear some of the pigmets speaking, I didnt understand what they were saying but they stopped when they noticed me looking.

Im starting to feel like alot of the stuff I learned was wrong. I was taught that the pigmets were a very simple and lived in tribes. They didnt have a language and only communicated with grunts or hand signals or something. They were a menace and liked to raid villages, stealing their crops and aanything else they could get their hands on. These guys are amazing, in the short time I spent meditating they had already fixed up some of the huts and started helping out their wounded. Mixing and grinding up herbs and dressing wounds with clean bandages. They clearly are more advanced than I was lead to beleive.

is anything the guildmaster told me of monsters true?

I didnt notice before but the hut I crashed into earlier even had a stove inside. With pots and pans on the walls and even a small bed and a chest. One of the pigmets noticed me looking around and walked over to me. He looked like the elder of the village, just going by the fact that he was the oldest looking one here and he seemed to be ordering others around. He would be about as tall as my stomach if I were standing up and he was wearing some handmade clothes. The clothes he was wearing didnt look that bad to be honest, they must have been made by someone of some skill. He walked up to me and bowed, i looked at him confused.

Is this a custom of theirs?

I was about to get up to bow as well, but when I started to he twitched and had a worried look on his face. I relaxed and sat back down, I dont really want to scare them. My intention was just to return the child and leave but I ended up saving their village. When I sat down he looked releived and waved over at two people that were carrying a large thing wrapped in some sort of cloth that looked like it was made from tightly woven plant fibers. They saw him and immediately brought what they were carrying and brought it to him. He also waved over what I think was a female pigmet that was hiding behind a damaged hut and looking at me. She also had something wapped in cloth but it was much smaller as she held it in one of her hands.

She reluctantly left her hiding spot and walked quickly to him, standing just behind him facing me. He took a deep breath and bowed deeply gesturing that both of them were to offer what they were carrying to me. The two pigmets carrying the big cloth wrapped thing, walked in front of me and sofltly put it down and the female one did the same, although reluctantly.

I wasnt entirely sure what this was so I waited until they had both moved back to behind the pigmet that was still bowing. I unwrapped the big one first as I was curious. I pulled off the cloth and was horrified to find one of their dead, I looked at them. The main one was still bowing, but the other two were looking away.

Do they think im here to eat them? damn that noble, his deeds have even reached this far.

I reached over and tapped the bowing pigmet on the sholder. He twitched at my touch but he raised his head and slowly looked at me. His eyes avoided looking at his dead brethren as he raised his head and looked at me. I wrapped the small body back up in the cloth and gave it back to the two that were carrying it. While shaking my head, making sure he understood that I have no interest in eating them. He looked confused like he didnt understand, the female pigmet said something to him and the other two. The main one nodded and the two behind him gave me a curious look and picked up their comrade to bury him, running off to where they were taking their other dead. The female pigmet looked less afraid now, as she also had a curious expression on her face. I unwrapped the other one hoping its not something saddening like the other one.

It was a huge gem surrounded by other valuables, it was such a huge score I could hardly contain myself. I heard one of the young pigmets crying and looked up. Three pigmets were pulling a dead body out of the wreckage of a hut. There was a child crying pitifully, while a female tryed to calm him down.

These guys just lost their village, I cant take this from them. This might be all they have.

I set the box down and only took some of the smaller, less valuable ones and left the bigger ones for them to keep. I wrapped it back up and handed it back to the woman. Who was a little nervous, but accepted it back anyway. Both of the pigmets stared at me, unsure of how to feel about this. The woman looked at the box and back at me and gave me a deep bow, before leaving to put the box back wherever they hid it. Their behaviour was a little weird, they seemed to see me as more than a savior to them.

I should probably leave before they start worshipping me.

I laughed to myself and got up to leave. Waving goodbye to the bowing pigmet and the others that were watching me. I made it to the edge of the village before i was stopped by a small tug on my pants. I wasnt expecting a child to chase after me. The small pigmet had chased after me to the point that he was almost out of breath. I gave him a second to calm down and he said something in his language and gave me a small medallion. I picked it up and looked at it and before I could even think of giving it back the child was gone. No matter where I looked I couldnt find him, he just dissappeared.

Weird.

I didnt think much of it and started walking back towards the carriage. It took me a couple seconds to realize that the kid that gave me the medallion was the kid that I left passed out on the cliff.

Oh, well at least the child is alive. Maybe his family survived.

I payed it no mind and walked back towards the carriage. I made sure to pick up some herbs and edible plants on the way. I found a quick path up the ciff and soon made it past the spot I left the kid at earlier. I passed it by without much thought, just looking forward to laying on the bed for a little while. I walked on back to the carriage, ignoring the questions of Malady and Vylet as I told them I would explain later and just crawled into the bed.

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The village that finch just saved had been fixed for a couple weeks now, and they had started working on improving them on the inside to prevent collapse. There was a small hut at the back of the village that sat against the cliff. This hut was actually hiding a wide array of tunnels they had hidden in the cliff. They knew that other races found them tasty, so they hid most of their population underground. They may not be a smart race all together, however they are definitley not stupid. This mass of tunnels spread very far and they were now prepared if they came under attack again in the future. One of the tunnels led to a large room that held a large statue. The room was filled with pigmets all worshipping this statue, bowing deeply and making offerings of energy and mana to it. They didnt know the name of the one they worshipped, but the statue had wings coming out of its back and held a fireball in one hand,

its head also had some really pointy ears and a black sword.