In a strange world as a Doppelganger

Chapter 35 - From the ashes

Launched into consciousness by screams and shouting. I sit up and look around just as Thi rushes into the hut.

"Quick! We need help!" they run off before I can reply.

Before I even step outside I can smell the fires and feel the smoke when I breathe. Several of the small huts and shacks in the goblin village are on fire and there is a daisy chains of goblins trying to put it out by ferrying water from a well. There is sound of combat further down near the north border of the village. A small explosion erupts and lights the village in an orange glow as the suns light has barely made it up yet.

I rush past the daisy chain, thinking that I could definitely help them with my magic but I also need to know what's causing all of this. Some of them look at me with pleading faces when I spring past in full haste.

Moments later I reach a crowd of goblins and towering above them, within a semi-circle of armed goblins, I see a tall figure with a mess of mud-caked brown and red hair. The figure has dirt all over them but they look human, if maybe slightly hunched and leaning on a staff.
The figure spots me and stands up straight, holding a hand out with its palm up and a small spark bursts into an orb of fire in their hand.

"Do you speak?!" The human looks into my eyes when they say these words and I find I understand them with no issue.

"Yes?" I respond cautiously and start tapping in to the magical reservoir within me.

"Good, because I have no good way of telling these cretins that those were my boars you slaughtered." They figures face reads clearly of anger.

I translate to the goblins around and they look at each other, confused by the notion. The consensus seems to be that none of them have ever seen this figure before.

"They say they've never seen you before and that if they were yours you should have marked them", to this the human huffs but looks away quickly with a hint of embarrassment.

"So it may be! But they were still mine and I demand to be repaid!" A harsh tap of the staff and the gout of fire in their hand flares up for a moment.

"Is this not enough?" I gesture at the burning buildings, "You have taken from them their homes and destroyed more food and resources than they gained from those boars. The Goblin leading the skirmish also deliberately let the sows and piglets go."

The shame was now fully visible on the face of the wild looking human and the fire in their hand dies down to a small light akin to that of a candle.

"You let the sows and younguns' live?" their eyes return to mine.

"We did, we did scare them off though, the entire point was to chase them off as they had been ruining the farms of the goblins", looking around the goblins were all looking at me and as I was slowly relaxing my body language, so did they and some ran off to help put out fires.

This comes up behind me, "What is going on? Who are they?"
I give Thi a quick summary and Thi looks frustrated as expected and recants my own words "How would we have known, they had no markings!"

"I'm sorry" the human figure turns around and walks off into the woods. Neither me nor the goblins really pay any mind to chase after and instead we all turn our heels around and get to work on the destruction.

Several buildings, completely burned down, a food storage, ruined and a small drying area for firewood had caught fire and burnt to coal before anyone could do anything. Early afternoon is when things finally calm down and I am completely exhausted of my magic at this point. I had run up to the buildings that looked easiest to save from major harm and hosed them down as much as I could.

As evening falls and many of the villagers are taking and early night's rest, one of the scouts come to find me. At this point they seem really reliant on me, need to give some thought to that. The scout tells me that the person from before is up in the fields that had been ruined by the boars.

Coming up, walking briskly, I spot the red mess of hair being lit up by the first shifting colors of a setting sun. They stand their for a moment and I wait tentatively to see what happens. Before too long they tap their staff in the ground and a small sprout pops up from beneath the surface layer of soil. They kneel down and say something I can't hear and then take two steps forward, taps the staff again and another green stalk bursts up from the ground. I watch in bewilderment as they keep this up for quite a while. It seems like they plan on doing the entirety of the small farm and I start following several paces behind, spraying the new growths with water.

After it's all done the human stops and waits for me to catch up.

"I'm sorry" they speak softly and squat down on their knees, still clutching the staff and put their hand in the dirt. "If I had known any of the reasons behind your actions in advance this never would have happened. If I had just marked my beasts this never would have happened. I really am sorry." they look up at me and there is hurt coming through their gaze.

"Well, it's hard to understand if you don't ask. It's also hard to keep emotions in check sometimes", the words feel real and something personal to me, even though I have no recollection of many experiences that would have landed in such conclusions.

"What's your name?" they look at me.

What is my name?