Chapter Thirteen

Will was finally in a constant good mood, he had found a nice routine to his life. Four times a week the nun taught lessons to some of the village children, which meant Will would also watch the lessons through the window. On the other days when he was free, he would fix things in his new home, and also go out to gather odds and ends.

It only took Will two weeks to learn very basic writing and reading skills, and was getting a mild grasp on the language the humans spoke. He was like a child, absorbing all the knowledge like a sponge. [Maybe this is a trait of being a Goblin?]

Twice a week he would leave the village to the forest outskirts and gather some more mushrooms and hunt smaller prey. He wouldn't bring the meat back to the church, because the smell would probably get noticed. So after every hunt he would skin and dry the meat, and every subsequent time he went back he would bring the meat that was already prepared the previous time. Having everything on a schedule gave Will the illusion of control over the chaos in his life, which made him content.

After the second week in the town, he started exploring it. He was scouting for certain things he could potentially need. The first thing he explored, was the market area, he would always go at night since it was empty. He'd find the odd copper coin on the ground, he always grabbed those. As an ex-human, he knew the value of money. He would also find some food scraps, and sometimes even clothing like shawls and torn sandals.

The market area was a narrow clearing in the town, it was as wide as a regular one way street road back on earth. The houses along the street were all shops, and there were also stalls in front of the shops. The stalls made the street seem even narrower, but to Will, it still seemed pretty large.

He could still see lights in the second floor of the shops, they were probably people living there. However one or two of the shops had lights on the first floor, which peaked Will's curiosity. Will climbed the empty stall in front of the closest shop with the lights on, he looked inside and saw two women sitting by a work table sewing clothes. From the looks of it, it was a mother daughter run store, and they were probably adjusting sizes on dresses or custom making some clothing. Will kept watching them for a while, curious about sewing tools they used and the techniques they applied.

An hour quickly passed, and Will realized he had spent too much time watching these two. So he nimbly jumped down from the stall and quickly headed for the second shop with lights still in them. As he approached, he heard a peculiar ringing noise, as if metal was hitting metal. Will's eyes brightened as eagerly ran towards the shop. [It's a blacksmith!]

Will started observing the shop from the outside. The back of the shop had a stone wall with a small forge and a chimney. By the smithy was an old man, almost two meters tall. He was very muscular, but also had a very fat protruding belly. He had some patches of beard and hair here and there, but most of it seemed to have been burned off due to occupational hazards. Next to him was a young man, he couldn't be older than fourteen. He was much shorter than the middle aged man, and a lot skinnier too. The boy looked exhausted, but was hammering away at a piece of iron over a large semi-rusted anvil.

Will was elated, this is just what he needed. His previous home had a severe lack of metal tools and weapons, stone wasn't even close to being as useful. He tried to listen to what the old man was yelling at the kid, but he couldn't understand anything yet. But watching was enough. Will could learn by watching alone. Practicing would have been better, but even if he came after they were completely closed, he surmised that the blacksmith lived on the second floor of this shop. Hammering iron would immediately wake the old man.

He stayed and watched until they were close to ending their work, Will didn't know how long it had been, but it was now almost midnight. He rushed back to the church, satisfied with today's work. As he was sneaking back in, he could see there was no lights in the nun's room. She had probably gone to bed already, regrettably he wouldn't fall asleep to her singing today. However Will was still satisfied, he now had a semblance of a future in this town.

Once Will moved back in to his 'home' under the church, he took off his hood and other clothes. He grabbed a quick snack, and tucked himself in on his bed while chewing. After closing his eyes, he quickly fell asleep with a smile on his face.