[@BigPapaBelial][@Searat]

"Alright, then. I'll- oh, Griz. I guess [i]we'll[/i] go to Koglan's forge. And maybe see Ashe later, if she isn't too busy. Feels like we haven't seen her in weeks, but it was only a couple of days since we last saw her. Go figure. I'll head on to Koglan's, then. And little girl? While Koglan [i]is[/i] a goblin to be trusted, don't go around accepting treats from strangers, please. Suppose it was a human who offered you that apple, or worse, a human food made with honey. Or even sugar! Don't take the bait. They just want to lure you in an kidnap you." He would have elaborated, but he didn't want to lecture the girl too much. Goblin slaves were known to be cheap labor, especially for household tasks. While the humans in the nearby village didn't practice slavery, many other groups of humans and other species did, particularly those taken from the "lesser races" such as goblins and kobolds. 

Perhaps it was best that she got the apple from Koglan himself, though. A goblin that young would have a hard time finding her way back to the village if she had gone out as far as the human orchards, and it was likely that she'd have difficulty getting through the woods in any event. The same forest which hid the goblin village also acted as something of a barrier to leaving it. The dense foliage was tough to navigate, especially for a young goblin, whose feet hadn't developed the thick soles of an adult yet. Breden himself had tried to get through the woods as a boy, only to find that he had to turn back halfway after stepping on one too many thorns and rocks. Even today, his feet were still a bit soft, but they were rapidly toughening up with all the hunting he had done lately.

Breden headed down the well-trod road to Koglan's hut, and by well-trod, one could literally see the many footprints goblins had left going to and from the smithy. It seemed as if Koglan's wares were in demand. That wasn't necessarily a good sign. High levels of weapon-making usually preceded a war, and there had been talk of conflict not too long ago. Of course, it had come to nothing, but it was still a concern. While he wasn't the only smith in the entire village, one could count the number of smiths on their fingers in this tribe, and Koglan was by far the most skilled and hardest-working. 

He heard the whooshing sounds of the forge as he approached the rather large hut and stepped inside, feeling the heat even from the front entrance.