Green Monster Epic

Chapter 36: Memories

Allen's earliest memory dates back to when he was 2 years old. He only remembers being protected by a pair of slender but warm arms.

The owner of those arms was a female hobgoblin whom Allen considered the most beautiful. Even Camellia, now known as the most beautiful in the tribe, couldn't compare to her beauty. Under her protection, Allen spent five peaceful years. Although there were scenes of hunger and instances of being bullied by other hobgoblins, deep in Allen's memory, being by her side was the safest place.

The female hobgoblin had a name different from the others in the tribe: Lisa, who was Allen's mother.

Of course, hobgoblin marital relationships were quite chaotic. The strong and powerful hobgoblins always managed to seize the limited female hobgoblin resources in the tribe, while the weaker males could only remain single or seek goblin or earth goblin females as partners. Furthermore, partner relationships within the tribe were never stable. Whenever a male felt capable of challenging another, he would snatch away the other's partner after winning. This caused chaos in the hobgoblin bloodline because you could never be sure which male had fathered the female's offspring.

Allen was the same. He only knew who his mother was but didn't know which hobgoblin in the tribe was his father. Fortunately, because of the chaotic bloodline relationships, as long as young hobgoblins didn't offend the adult hobgoblins, they wouldn't bully the little ones. Plus, with the care of the female hobgoblins, the little ones had a good chance of growing up strong.

His mother was not only the most beautiful in the tribe but also the most intelligent. Allen's fluent Common Tongue was learned from her, listening to her teachings from a young age.

According to the stories his mother used to tell, she wasn't originally from the Greenwild Tribe. Instead, she was a slave from a powerful tribe in the wilderness who had luckily escaped slavery and fled to the Greenwild Tribe's location, where she was taken in and protected by the tribe.

Unfortunately, when Allen was five years old, his mother, Lisa, took him out for their daily routine of digging for wild vegetables and searching for berries. A two-headed flying dragon descended from the sky and grabbed both Lisa and Allen. In that moment of crisis, Lisa released her grip on Allen, throwing him into the wilderness, while she herself was devoured as a mere snack, disappearing into the vast wilderness and leaving Allen an orphan.

At the time, when facing the two-headed flying dragon, Allen could only tremble and turn pale. He didn't even dare to cry or shout: the goblins' innate survival instincts forced him to close his lips, lying in the wilderness like a lifeless statue.

The childhood trauma made Allen's expression particularly grave when facing the two-headed flying dragon today. His hands, clenched too tightly, looked sickly green due to blood loss. But the memories stirred up also filled him with intense killing intent towards the dragon. His mother's loving face and care were things Allen had rarely felt in the tribe over the years, making them all the more precious.

"Don't think about it. Unless the two-headed flying dragon gives up its ability to fly, or you tear its wing membranes in the first attack, it will be extremely difficult to kill it. Who told them they can fly?"

Looking at the changing expressions on Allen's face, Regis comforted him, "And frankly, the value of this two-headed flying dragon is not proportional to the difficulty of challenging it. Besides its blood and magical organs being worth some money, the rest is just ordinary stuff."

"Of course, if you could find its nest and steal its eggs from it, that would be another matter."

"Oh."

Allen's thoughts were interrupted by Regis, and when he looked up again, his face was calm.

Two-headed flying dragons are among the few animals in the wilderness that prey on goblins. Goblins' sour meat is generally avoided by carnivores unless there is a real shortage of food. This is an important factor in how the goblin race has managed to survive in the wilderness for countless years.

However, most parts of the wilderness are relatively barren, and creatures like the two-headed flying dragon, with their enormous appetites, rarely appear near Green Lake. Lisa's death back then was mostly due to bad luck. Now, the closer they get to the border of the Elven Kingdom, the more likely magical beasts like the two-headed flying dragon are to appear, because their territory is rich in resources.

Fili, who had been the first to slip into the carriage when he sensed something was wrong and then the first to stick his head out after Regis explained, stared at the white clouds in the sky with regret in his eyes.

"What a pity! If we could shoot down that dragon, it would be an unexpected gain. When I get back to our duchy, I can brag to my friends, 'I've seen a dragon!'"

Regis and Allen looked at each other, speechless.

The human kingdoms are deeply rooted and complex. In many places, the traces of magical beasts have long disappeared, scattered only in the forbidden areas and deep forests of various kingdoms and duchies. There are still legends about dragons, far less complete than the natural ecosystems of the other three major powers. Therefore, Fili, the manager of the Silver Flash Merchant Guild, who rarely engages in long-distance trade, considered it a stroke of luck to encounter a two-headed flying dragon, giving him something to talk about with his friends and descendants in the future.

Of course, he was even more greedy for the value of the two-headed flying dragon itself. Although its value among magical beasts was not very high, for the human kingdoms where magical beasts rarely appeared, such scarce goods could always fetch extremely high prices, just as Fili and his group had traveled thousands of miles to the Elven Kingdom, mostly to purchase magical beast materials unique to the Elven Kingdom on their return journey.

After this unexpected encounter, Allen and his group's final journey was uneventful. Apart from a few bandits who didn't know better and some scattered lone异族 trying to take advantage, there were hardly any powerful enemies.

A gust of clear wind brought a strong scent of vegetation, with a hint of floral fragrance. Regis sniffed deeply and turned back to Fili and Allen happily, saying, "Thornburg is not far from us now. I can already smell the hibiscus."

"Really?"

Fili was naturally very happy, excitedly jumping onto the roof of the carriage to look into the distance, but apart from scattered trees and weeds, he couldn't see any traces of man-made buildings.

As for Allen, he was now fascinated by the art of literacy, frowning as he sketched several Common Tongue characters that Regis had taught him on a small sandbox, trying to imprint them firmly in his mind.