The yellow eyes belonged to the kind of creatures you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy. Goblins. They hated daylight, so they kept to the shade of the forest, but they were keeping their eyes closely on us.

"Lovely, just wonderful," Tom muttered and smacked the pipe against his thigh to clean it from old tobacco. "And here I thought trolls were the worst part of this godforsaken place. Now goblins."

"You've killed plenty in the past, old friend," I said in an attempt to brighten his mood.

"So have you, Illon Goblin killer," he snickered teasingly as to remind me of one of my biggest failures in life. I felt my cheeks burn as the memory started to repeat itself inside my reluctant brain. One of the most beautiful men had walked up to me at the tavern and presented himself to me. It had been clear to anyone watching that he had set his eyes on me as his cherished price, and all I had to do was to smile back at him. So why did it go so completely wrong you might wonder? Well, I had felt the urge to be someone I was not, to seem better than I felt I was. And the title Goblin killer? A poor excuse to elevate my status. It went downhill after that.

"Let's go with your plan," I muttered, "we'll take the long way around."

Tom peered thoughtfully at me, "so now my plan is good enough for ya?" he chuckled. "Is the mighty elven warrior afraid?"

"No, but we don't know how many there are, it would be foolish to enter the woods when we got a clear warning," I responded and turned to walk west.

I could hear the loud steps of the dwarf behind me, and soon his grumpy voice catched my ears. "There might just be a few of them."

"Not worth the risk," I insisted.

He was silent for a while, as if he was trying to create a new plan, which felt odd since he was the one who wanted to walk around it in the first place. But when his mouth opened he said the most annoying thing. "Send the dragon."

"No," I spat. "I'm not sending a baby into the mouth of a hungry beast."

"He's a dragon," Tom purred, "he can do it, he's fierce and quick, and brave!"

I glanced at Frank to make sure he stayed on my shoulder. But the tiny animal seemed to understand sarcasm very well and placed his tiny head on his small front legs and closed his eyes and went back to sleep. As if he was stating he only took orders from one person, and that sure as hell wasn't Tom.

"There's a village not far from here. If I remember correctly. We'll go there and discuss our options," I muttered. "We don't want to be outdoors when it gets dark.

"Ya think they'll leave the forest?" he asked nervously.

"I think they're the reason no one has ploughed this field for the last year or so," I told him with a sigh.

"Then we'd do the good folk a favour if we take em down, Illon," he said seriously - but added with a teasing tone, "and you'll be a hero, the goblin killer for real."

His words annoyed me, and not because he teased me. No, because he was right. The people in this part of the land could use a hand. Who knew what terrors the golden eyed creatures put them through at night? I started to think about our options. We could enter the woods, we were skilled enough to take down a few goblins - but the thick vegetation and the darkness would make it hard for Tom to swing his axe properly. We would easily get surrounded and overrun if things got bad.

"We need more information first, so let's see what the villagers have to say?" That was my final offer, and he surprisingly agreed to my plan. He didn't even complain about the speed I was walking at. It was already past midday and it wouldn't be long until the sun was about to set.

"Ya think the trolls are on their side?" he asked as he pushed on beside me.

"I don't think they're on anyone's side Tom, they're ancient beings. They've lived here longer than any of us.

"So they wouldn't help us then?" he thought out loud.

"Wouldn't count on it," I responded and continued my history lesson. "You kind of took their lands, remember? They just want to be left alone."

"Not me!" he growled, "my bloody ancestors did it. I had nothing to do with that, it's not my fault there's hate between them and us."

I peered back at him with an all knowing look, and couldn't stop myself from speaking my mind about it. "But you still mine the mountains, don't you?"

"Bloody know-it-all," he muttered. "As if the elves are all good."

"No, we're not," I sighed. My people had a vast history of doing bad things to other races, feeling superior to them because of our slow ageing. It was nothing I was proud about and one of the reasons why I had left my hometown in the first place. The city I lived in now was inhabited by a colourful variety of nationalities and races. There were halflings, humans, dwarfs, lizard folk, half-orcs, tieflings and a handful of different woodland creatures like gnomes and pixies. I quite enjoyed my days there, even though I did get a side eye now and then when they spotted my pointy ears.

"How much further ya think?" my tired friend asked as we had walked in silence for a while, both deep in thought.

I shrugged and asked Frank for help, and the dragon gladly took to the air and flew off. His quick return made me realise we were close, and suddenly our feet had a newborn energy in them. "Looking forward to a hot meal tonight?"

"Don't get your hopes up, lad," he said, "what's the chances of the townspeople still being there?"

He was right. If the farmers were gone, there was a slim chance that the others had stayed. "Well," I sighed, "at least we'll have a roof over our head and maybe a door to lock behind us."

"Such an optimist," Tom snickered.

"Which is a great feat having you as my second best friend," I countered.

"Your only friend," he corrected and got a huff from me.

"You forgot Frank, he's clearly my best friend," I said as I raised my hand to my shoulder to pet the tiny dragon who started to purr happily.

We would have continued our bickering for hours, but we were closing in to the village and we had to be alert of our surroundings. The buildings stood steady on the sandy floor, surrounded by a few trees and smaller outhouses. It looked peaceful. But what caught my attention was the fact that there was not a single fence protecting it from intruders, and no living thing as far as our eyes could see. As we walked closer we could tell the whole place was in fact abandoned and I felt a shiver running down my spine.

"No sign of struggle," Tom whispered, as if he was afraid someone was watching us from the dark window openings.

"Somethings not right," I mumbled lowly as I looked around the abandoned buildings. "Let's say you knew there was a threat lingering in the woods, wouldn't you barricade the windows at least?"

"Maybe they were all idiots?" Tom muttered, "naive fools who had no clue what they were up against?"

The houses were made of thick layers of brick and mud, the roofs were sturdy and the doors thick. This didn't make sense, I thought as I walked up to the closest residence and peaked inside through the open window. It was dark in the room, but my elven eyes could see everything clearly. "The furniture is standing in place, no signs of struggle or panic," I told him before I walked to the door to have a proper look inside.

"So they left willingly," he concluded and decided to search the rest of the buildings without me. "Scream if you're dead," he shouted and I chuckled at his bad joke. A phrase he insisted on using whenever he left my side.

As I entered the house I found it pleasantly decorated, homely even. It was the former home of a family, which was evident by the different beds, the small toys and the number of chairs inside. Again I felt a chill running through my body as I examined the house, and I couldn't stop wondering why they would just leave without their belongings, in a haste, if there was no one attacking them.

Tom had the answer. As he pressed the thick wooden door open he leaned his shoulder against it and sighed. "There's a whole lot of graves to the east, my guess is a disease of a sort and the ones who didn't perish - left."

"That's sad," I said, looking around the room yet again. "Should we find another place to rest? What if the sickness lingers in here?"

Tom peered thoughtfully at Frank, "what do your dragon senses tell you, little guy? Leave or stay?"

Frank looked just as surprised as me by the sudden trust, but I kept my mouth shut and peered at the animal on my shoulder to see his answer. Frank looked around lazily before spreading his wings and flew off to one of the beds. As he landed he curled up like a cat and fell asleep with his head on his tale.

"I guess that's your answer," I chuckled and pulled out a chair. "But let's be smart and keep those eyes off us. No fires, no hot meals, and let's barricade those windows and pull that dresser in front of the door." Tom nodded and got to work on the windows straight away.

I should have felt calm, but I had a hard time relaxing. I trusted Frank. Yes he was young, but dragons were known for their sixth sense and great intuition. Still, something told me that we should have kept going. Something with this place was off.