Kalbo and Naoyoti brought many different things they hunted down for dinner yet Gold, even though he seemed to have an endless appetite, didn't even care. While his eyes didn't widen from the news, he stood there, frozen. Kalbo tries to wave his hand in front of Gold and he just stares blankly.
"Is he broken or something?" Naoyoti inquires. "Maybe, he needs more berries!"
Right, Naoyoti can speak human now. It still feels weird hearing her speak like this. The berries she ate could prove to be useful in many other situations. Can it work on normal animals and other monsters? How long would it work? Blech. You'd have to kiss them first though.
Kalbo crosses his arms. "H-humans d-don't break. Well, normally..." Kalbo puts one of his hands on his chin to think.
"So, then what now?" Naoyoti comes closer to Gold, checking his condition. "I mean he's still breathing and blinking. The way he stares is giving me the creeps though."
Surely enough, Kalbo looks directly into his eyes, and a chill runs down his spine, and he shakes from unease. Gold IS usually creepy so this isn't all that different from normal? Then again, if Naoyoti is getting the "creeps" maybe he is being more creepy than normal.
Naoyoti grabs the meat from Kalbo. "Anyways, maybe he just ran out of energy, and he needs more food!" She runs outside, carrying both the monsters she and Kalbo caught. They aren't light, but she makes do, probably since she's a half-orc. Kalbo stares at her, a bit annoyed.
"Maybe he just ran out of energy," Kalbo muttered mockingly under his breath. Kalbo then lets out a sigh.
Kalbo turns his gaze to Gold, trying to avoid eye contact. "Hey, Gold. Are you really okay?" His voice was soft yet reassuring.
Gold doesn't respond. Kalbo looks worried and puts his hand on Gold's shoulder. "Did Naoyoti do something to you?" Kalbo asks but still no response.
His expression turns into that of inconvenience. "Look. I also don't want her to be here but I couldn't help it." Kalbo puts his hand back down and walks towards the door.
He halts walking at the door frame. "Well, we'll be preparing the food. We'll call you when it's ready." Kalbo closes the door because he assumes that Gold wouldn't go out but Gold stops it just in time.
Oh, he seems to be moving now. Maybe he's finally over it? He may have gone outside, but he's still standing awkwardly, just like what he did inside. Unmoving and unspeaking, he kinda looks like a rock.
Kalbo is pleasantly surprised by him suddenly moving. "Oh, do you want to help?"
Just like earlier, he doesn't respond. He just stares blankly at Kalbo and Kalbo shivers from unease. "Um... Alright." Kalbo awkwardly walks to where Naoyoti is.
"Is he just going to keep staring at us or what?" Naoyoti asks, pointing at Gold with a stick.
Kalbo shrugs. "I don't know. I'm starting to think you were right about him being broken." Kalbo doesn't point it out but Gold's intense stare is probably burning a hole in him.
"Told you. So, do we just let him watch us from there?" Naoyoti asks.
"Well, he doesn't seem to want to help so maybe he just likes watching from afar?" Kalbo suggests.
Naoyoti looks back at Gold, squinting. She makes direct eye contact and looks away. "That's weird..." She added.
Kalbo's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm just saying it could be." He says, a bit annoyed.
Naoyoti's eyes beam. "Oh. I just realized you stopped stuttering!" She commented.
Kalbo looks away a bit embarrassed. "O-oh."
"It's back. Maybe I shouldn't have pointed it out." Naoyoti awkwardly states.
He's being rude now, but that probably wouldn't get him kicked out, right? Maybe they'll think he's a cute cat that's going to a rebellious stage, except that he isn't actually being that rebellious. Maybe a better one would be that he's a cat that contracted rabies? Who thinks animals with rabies are cute? At this point, he might as well just leave the tribe willingly.
A couple of minutes, maybe like 50 minutes, pass by, and the two are done preparing for dinner. They call Gold over and he walks to them obediently.
Naoyoti chooses to eat the fish dish with vegetables stuffed on the inside. On the other hand, Kalbo chose the meat dish that was sliced into cubes and seasoned with lemon. Gold also had a meal prepared; it was an odd-looking soup, and for some reason, it had berries and meat floating on the surface. It was in a large pot, too, so Gold had to eat a lot of that schlop.
Did Naoyoti make this? No offense, but Gold's meal seems to be the least appetizing one. Gold looked blankly at the food as well. Is he trying to intimidate it or what? If he was, it's already dead and seasoned.
"Eat up," Kalbo says with a wooden bowl of Gold's soup ready in his hand. He feeds a spoonful of soup into Gold's mouth and as one could guess, Gold doesn't react to it too much. He doesn't visibly beam nor does he ask for seconds. If it was bad, you would still have a reaction, like any normal person would.
Either Gold is becoming braindead or he's in a state of shock. Both of them would make sense especially since it's him. Anyways, despite Gold's nonchalance with the food, he managed to finish the entire pot as requested by Naoyoti.
The dinner ends, and they all head back to sleep, but one problem still remains: where exactly does Naoyoti sleep in this small, cramped hut?
Kalbo also forgot about this fact so the three of them went outside, yes, the three of them. For some reason, Gold keeps following Kalbo like how a duck would with its mother. After following them, however, he wouldn't make any attempt to help.
They all go back to the hut with a loud silence between the three of them. It was painfully awkward but all forget about it after heading to sleep.
The next star arrives and the goblin siblings are nowhere to be found. Does Kalbo wake up early when Naoyoti is around? Maybe he's still scared of being around her; after all, he still stutters from time to time.
Gold looks around before going to his "sad corner," where the hole is located.
A few hours pass by like this in silence. The sky might be beautiful, especially in the morning, but watching it all day? Anyone would've died from boredom by that point.
Instead of moping around like him, I decided to theories why the two left. Perhaps they finally got tired of him and settled on abandoning him instead. It would've gone like this:
Naoyoti would try waking up Kalbo with a simple "wake up" but when he doesn't wake up, she would violently shake him.
Then she would come close to his ear. "Let's abandon that human, brother! He might've contracted rabies!" And would shout that.
Kalbo would definitely be unable to open his eyes fully. "Y-y-y-you have-e-e rabies t-t-t-too b-b-b-but o-okay..." He would yawn afterward.
Then the both of them left to go to the forest and he would die from hunger and thirst alone in the shack, the end.
That or maybe they went out early to hunt for food. Eh. Either of those options sounds plausible.
The two returned at lunchtime bringing food for Gold. This day blurs on with the next day and the next couple of days until it turns into a week and more than a week.
It's been well over two months. Surprisingly, nothing changed much. They eat, sleep, and hunt. And that was basically it. It wasn't as exciting as before since they didn't bring Gold along with their little adventures. Look, I might've called them idiot antics but it's better than whatever the hell Gold's been doing the past months. It's so boring just watching him look out a hole.
Ever since the boredom, I've been devising theories as to why Gold's been out of it. He seems like he's been drugged or something. So, maybe Naoyoti's berries had something in them?
Or maybe he still isn't over being kissed. While a kiss isn't that much, If you think about it, Naoyoti is still a monster; no matter how humanoid she seems. She also isn't easy on the eyes, especially when you come face to face with the burns plastered all across her face.
Also, could you imagine the amount of bacteria that's in her mouth? She probably eats whenever and whatever she finds on the ground. Maybe Naoyoti has rabies and Gold got infected. Well, the two of them aren't scared of water.
Maybe She might've eaten something sickly or poisonous. He probably won't die from that though. Something tells me that he's been blessed by Lady Luck; he's surviving this for long after all.
We still need to find the reason why he's becoming braindead though. Maybe his brain is being invaded by some mind-controlling parasite that's going to make him do things he doesn't want to in due time? That idea seems a bit delusional but we still can't rule out all the possibilities.
Another possibility is that he's freaked out by the carcasses of monsters and animals that Kalbo has in his room. While they do seem creepy, at least they don't smell or rot. They're kinda like dolls in a way. Hyperrealistic animal or monster dolls made from authentic beast skin. How does Kalbo keep them like they're frozen in time? And why does he even have them in the first place?
While it would be "fun" to keep guessing why Gold's acting the way he is, it might be better to look at the clues. Today, as you could've guessed, he's been moping in his corner with the hole again while Kalbo and Naoyoti went out to hunt. Leaving him like this might not be the best idea.
Kalbo and Naoyoti have fun when they're hunting so they tend to forget him for the most part. Naoyoti and Kalbo always went home before sunset and held their own small dinner fest, away from the other goblins. Maybe because they're actually competent hunters, the meat and food they brought home had the best cuts.
Gold would eat with them, no questions asked, and they didn't mind Gold staying quiet, probably because they got used to his silent presence. Naoyoti is quite the riot though. She keeps singing this weird song every dinner. Frankly, her singing voice is grating to the ears.
Oh, right, if you're wondering, Gago and Gagi came back at a later date, probably to apologize. Fortunately, Naoyoti went away when they came to visit.
When Gago and Gagi apologized, something was odd. Not with the twins, but with Kalbo. While Kalbo was listening and responding, his tone was dismissive. Especially when Gago and Gagi asked questions. It was hard to decipher the entire conversation, in all honesty, but with the context clues, Kalbo seems like he intentionally wanted to get the twins angry.
For one, he knew goblins don't particularly favor humans, yet he brought one to the tribe. Second, he knew that the twins particularly hated humans so why did he show Gold to them?
But hey, that's just theory. A somewhat far-fetched theory. While it is just a far-fetched theory, it's still weird that Kalbo would do this, especially considering his intelligence.
I seem to have the habit of making theories now. Ever since Gold acted distant and sat around like a sad sack of potatoes, time felt slower, and it felt like one could take a breather and observe the surroundings.
Hopefully, his whole braindead, or more like a depressive state, isn't permanent. A few more hours pass by and it's way past sunset. Naoyoti and Kalbo still haven't arrived.
Either something happened or they ate dinner without him and slept somewhere in the forest. If the latter is true, then it seems like they've abandoned him.
Gold tries going to sleep hungry but he wakes up in the middle of the night with a loud grumble from his stomach. Gold looks around for food. His eyes land on the carcasses of the animals. Maybe he could eat that? Kalbo and Naoyoti aren't going home soon so it's worth a shot, especially since he practically ate nothing today. He inches closer, rips them by limb using his teeth and with his large bite, he starts eating.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch.
It's a disgusting sight to look at, but whatever keeps his stomach full. While they were carcasses, they still looked alive, which made it seem like he was eating living, breathing animals. Thankfully he didn't eat the monster side of the carcasses. Who knows what the side effects of eating those are.
Blood spilled all over the clothes he borrowed from Kalbo. It looks like it's going to leave a stain. Nevertheless, Gold continues. Did his survival instincts get activated or something? Maybe he really just needed independence. Also, it's a bit surprising that he can rip animals limb by limb easily when he's practically bones; maybe it's his teeth that are strong.
After he's done eating, he tries to go to sleep but something pokes his feet. A familiar feeling. He moves his feet away from Fernando Poe Jr. but the poking still continues.
Gold looks down and it's a piece of the shell of the griffin egg. Did he break the egg? Oh... Maybe the egg hatched? The latter is impossible since there's been no proper incubation of the egg.
Gold sits straight and surveys the hut and sees a small griffin wriggling around. Never mind, the impossible is possible now. It looks really cute with its tiny beak and tiny beady black eyes. Even though it's bald from the neck to the head, you still see a semblance of what it can grow into. The griffin would make a fearsome pe-
Gold takes the griffin in his arms. Oh, I guess he likes griffins as well. He put his hands near its neck, a weird way to pet a griffin, especially since it's a hatchling, but he isn't knowledgeable and he's normally weird. Is he going back to normal? He breaks its neck.
Huh...? HUH??
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch.
What the hell..? Did he just eat the griffin? Didn't peg him for the violent type. People do tend to reveal their true colors when they're alone. Although, he's not really "alone" right now.
After that blood fest, he finally sleeps. He didn't even bother cleaning up his mess. The hut might get infested with blood-sucking ants tomorrow, but who cares? He'll probably eat them too.
The next star arrives and Kalbo and Naoyoti come back to the mess that Gold made. Naoyoti glances at Kalbo and he shakes his head.
Naoyoti then spots Gold and his blood-stained clothes. "Do you think he did this?" She points at the very suspicious man sleeping without a care in the world. In all honesty, Gold looks more like a corpse right now.
"Maybe? I'm not really sure." Kalbo replied.
Oh, yeah. As probably you can tell, Kalbo managed to fix his habit of stuttering around a Naoyoti around the month that passed by.
Anyway, even though it was extremely messy, both of them already had dark circles under their eyes, so they probably won't try cleaning it any time soon. Kalbo is looking around for clues while Naoyoti wakes up Gold.
Gold opens his eyes and it shines a golden hue before reverting back to black again. Huh.
"...YOU?" Gold shouted, confused.