Lily
It had only been a few weeks since Eric got the run of the valley, and it showed. The camp was getting dirty again without the goblins doing all the menial chores and the food corps doing the daily cooking. Lily sat in her office, with a pair of disgruntled moon elves. It was quiet since the cave was no longer the center of the camp’s leadership.
Owl two came and went, as did Benjamin and a few of their errand runners, but everyone who used this cave was gone. That was the reasoning Lily used anyway, when she and Owl Two had a pair of steel gates hammered into the north and south tunnels that were the only way in and out of the cave. Apart from the hole in the roof. Those gates where the reason for the elf’s current visit.
“Lady Lily,” Surrallathil said, her mouth a stern line. “When we left to check in with our people… and yours… we were worried that all the White Flame’s most loyal followers were being shipped out of camp. A worry that you assured us was unwarranted. Now, only a few weeks later, we return to find the outliers of the camp have become its de facto leaders, and you, the actual leader in the White flame’s absence, huddled up inside a locked cave while your people are being abused.” Lily twitched at the accusation, since there was more truth in it than she cared to admit.
When she’d first heard Owl two’s plan, she’d been skeptical. Then, after hearing Eric speaking in the games tent, and the reaction he was getting, she knew there was more to the movement than a few angry malcontents. There were dozens of them. So many, in fact, that if she hadn’t decided to act the decision would have been made for her soon enough. Still, she never would have imagined just how far they were willing to go.
“Did you get a reply to the letters I asked you to deliver?” she asked, glossing over the accusations and glares, in favor of the real reason behind this visit.
“…yes, we got them.” Surrallathil said with a sigh, holding out an elegantly crafted scroll case. “But Lily, please tell me there’s a good reason for all this. The white flame is a good man, and from what we’d seen of you up until recently led us to believe you were good too, so we didn’t mind ferrying a few of your people around, but Lily, the camp is getting out of hand. Samantha will be returning today; she left the wall only a few hours after we did. Why not just ask her to…”
“Thank you, Surrallathil.” Lily said, cutting her off with a tired smile after she’d glanced through the letters in the scroll case. “These letters told me everything I needed to know. Sadly, it seems like things might take just a bit longer than expected. Listen, I appreciate all that you have done for us, and I wish I could give you assurances, but right now I have to keep things close to the vest. Though, you’re right about the state of the camp. You two should go back to the wall, at least until things settle down here. I will promise you, without reservation, that the moment Elyria gets back, I will send word to you immediately.”
The trio talked for another half hour before the elves agreed to go back to their people on the wall. After the meeting, Lily walked them to the exit. She felt the accusatory gaze on her back the whole way, as they passed the wall mounted turrets, and she pressed her thumb to the locking mechanism on the gate to let them out.
She stood there for long minutes, watching them fly away on their giant sparrow mounts. Feeling even more unsure about her chosen course of action. Since her eyes were already trained in the direction of the wall, she was able to see the dropship, as Samantha flew back home from her mission with the wood elves, then Hunter and the scouts. Lily breathed a sigh of relief, as she saw the ship inbound. Shouldn’t be much longer now, just a few more days, a week at most.
Closing the gate with a clang and giving it a tug to be sure it was tight, Lily walked out towards the area set aside as farmland. Vara was her guard today, and she fell into step behind Lily as she walked away from the cave. Samantha would need to land the ship and bathe away the dust of the long trip before she reported in. While she waited, Lily figured she might as well go see how Owl two was coming along.
When she arrived at the farm, the first thing she noticed was just how busy the place was. They were closing in on 1,000 goblins in the camp now, more, if one included the horde of babies that had just been born. They moved around with purpose, as they tended the fields. Pulling weeds, sprinkling water-cans hauled on carts from the valley’s central lake, tilling up new soil and mixing in all the refuse from animal pens and other sources of fertilizer that Lily was just as happy not thinking about.
A group of them were tending to the ankylosaurus that had hauled Benjamin and his brother Charles’s wagons when they’d first arrived. It looked like now was one of their twice weekly wagon pull exercises. Benjamin’s men led the session, but the goblins helped out as they could. She watched in awe as the lumbering giant pulled the locust queen sized wagons around the outer fields of the valley. They did the exercises to make sure the animals didn’t forget what was expected of them, but also to let the huge beasts blow off some steam. Their pens were quite cramped for dinosaurs as big as they were.
Leaving the outer area of the goblin camp behind, Lily walked deeper into the field of tents. Here, the goblins were hanging wet clothes brought back up from the lake after being washed. Stretching brained hides to loosen it from rawhide into soft hide, scooping the excess goop out of the locust carapace for the crafters, and a dozen other menial chores that didn’t require much thought or organization.
Lily passed these hard-working goblins as well, walking right into the heart of the bustling camp. Where she found Owl Two, standing like a statue, in front of a group of goblin children that all looked to be somewhere between ten and sixteen years old. Odd, considering she knew they were all only around the four-to-five-month mark.
They were the first batch of hybrid goblins that Owl Two had bred, back before he’d told the White flame about his experiments. These were the original kaldarr, trog and human half-breeds, along with the pure-blooded goblins that were born around the same time. There were no bugbear or wood elven children in this group, but Lily knew there were several of them to be found in later batches. The pure-blooded goblins looked the oldest, followed by the trogs. It seemed that the blood mix there, didn’t slow the aging down by much, meaning that the trog hybrids likely wouldn’t live much longer than ten years, just like the goblins. The kaldarr were younger, closer to twelve in appearance versus the older kids sixteen. The human children looked the youngest at around ten, meaning they would live much longer than pure blooded goblins, if still considerably shorter than a human.
Seeing that the research addicted Owl five was busy, and knowing he wouldn’t be distracted until his task was done, Lily leaned against a nearby barrel filled with something she chose to not think about and watched. The kids were being tested in a variety of ways, the original villagers of Valley’s pass along with the first refugees to the valley were helping out with the testing and had been since the start of the experiments.
A few of them walked between the kids, who were lined up in two short rows, and handed out a small puzzle. It was a simple puzzle, made of two twisted nails, once each child had one, they were instructed to separate the two nails without damaging them. The human and kaldarr kids managed without too much trouble, and the pure-blooded goblins gave it a good try, but weren’t able to figure it out until showed how by an instructor. After that they did it themselves. The trog kids on the other hand, didn’t even try. One ripped the nails apart with brute force, while the other two present just threw the puzzle away once they realized it wasn’t edible.
“Good,” Owl two called out once everyone had either solved, been helped, or refused to solve their individual puzzles. “Now, the spoons if you will.” Owl Two said, as the instructors gathered up the nails, passed out a spoon to each child, and placed a wooden egg into it. Lily recognized this test easily enough. It was a hand eye coordination test; the kids would have to move about with the eggs in their spoons without dropping them. She cracked a smile looking at the wooden eggs. She remembered they’d originally used chicken eggs, but the goblin pure bloods and the trog kids would eat them before they’d even heard what the rules were. So, Owl two had switched them to wooden eggs. It was a little comical, though she felt dirty admitting it, the first time they were handed out and a trog kid bit into the egg. In this test, the goblin, human and kaldarr kids did just fine. Again, it was the trog kids that wouldn’t cooperate with the instructors at all.
She watched with interest as the kids threw leather balls at a target, swept the ground with wicker brooms, and were tasked with putting differently shaped objects through the matching shaped hole in a wooden board. There were questions as well, simple things like how many fingers am I holding up or what did you have for breakfast. In every test the human and kaldarr performed the best. Though the goblins seemed predisposed to cleaning tasks and took to it like they were born for it.
The trog kids failed almost every test. Only even bothering to try perhaps one in five times. That was until they started the combat trials. When the instructors broke out the wooden swords, shields and the padded armor and helmets the kids wore when sparring with each other or the instructors, their lightly scaled faces lit up with enthusiasm. They even beat out the kaldarr, who were bred for war. Lily was stunned every time she watched this display.
When they were smaller, the trogs wouldn’t use weapons at all, attacking with their bare claws. That was enough to net them the win too, before the kaldarr and human kids got good enough with the weapons to keep them at bay with their wooden shields, while whacking them with their wooden weapons. Once they realized how much more they could hurt their target with the sticks they took to them with a will. Beating out the rest with pure ferocity, but still falling short of the kaldarr in tactics.
Having seen enough, Lily motioned for Owl two, who came over to join her after the last tests were performed and the kids had been given their meals.
“I would like to know your thoughts on the experiment so far.” Owl two said in place of a greeting.
“Any answer I give will be inconclusive, considering that neither the wood elf nor the bugbear children were in the test.” Lily said, knowing Owl Two’s desire for clarity. “With that being understood, the trog children are a liability and shouldn’t be considered going forward. The human children are the most well rounded, and intelligent of the bunch, and the kaldarr are the strongest and the best in combat.” She said, ticking points off on her fingers.
“Interesting,” Owl two said, his monotone giving nothing away. “And the goblin pure bloods?” he asked, again in that same monotone, but the fact that he was asking the question at all made Lily stop and reevaluate the experiments.
“They are very good at menial tasks.” She said at last, really thinking about what she’d seen. “Almost too good. It really looked like they were born for the type of work we have them doing here in the camp.” She said at last, thinking about how well they performed anything related to cleaning, anything that wasn’t overly complicated anyway.
“Or created for it.” Owl two said, only elaborating after Lily gave him a cross look. “I am beginning to think the races in that underground city aren’t there by accident.” He said without inflection. The goblins are too good at cleaning, they’re genetically compatible with nearly every species I’ve been able to test them with. Their fire red hair makes no sense from an evolutionary standpoint, none at least that I can determine.” Lily nodded at this, but Owl two wasn’t done.
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“The hobgoblins are much smarter, stronger and seem to be bred to think tactically during combat situations. Though from what I’ve gathered, their time in isolation in that cave has made them lazy without anyone to fight. The hobats and batlins are mirror images of the hobgoblins and goblins, except the batlins are essentially animals following the sonic orders given to them by the hobats without question. Even the trogs are very reminiscent of guard dogs. They are aggressive and territorial to a fault, but they still understand spoken words, even though they don’t speak themselves. I am beginning to think someone had a hand in all five species creation.”
“Do you think it has something to do with the sh…” Lily began before she was silenced with a sharp gesture.
“I do, but I’ll thank you to keep that topic of discussion for when we are safely inside the cave.” He said without emotion.
“Of course,” Lily said, her ears burning a little under the rebuke, more so because she knew it was warranted. “Anyway, I came here to let you know that Samantha is back from her trip, and I got replies to the letters we’d sent out.” She said with a non-to-subtle topic change.
“I know,” Owl two said. “I already read the documents when you pulled them from the case, and I also saw Samantha returning earlier. Eric has already imprisoned her, after discovering that she’d locked access to the ships and the White flames truck upon returning.”
“He did what?” Lily yelped, getting the attention of Vara, who took a few steps forward before being waved back again. “What do you mean she’s been imprisoned, Eric’s never gone that far before. And why didn’t you mention this to me earlier?” She really had a tough time understanding her husband’s assistant sometimes. He was highly competent and knowledgeable, yet at the same time so oblivious to the most basic of things… remarkably similar to her husband in that way.
“It was to be expected.” Owl two said with a shrug more imagined than seen. “She locked him out of the ships. Without them, Eric and his people are just as locked in this valley as the personnel we sent away are locked out of it.” He said as soulless as ever.
“Yes but… oh, never mind.” Lily said, knowing Owl two wouldn’t give at all in a situation like this, and since the information had been shared now, arguing about it was pointless. “So, what do we do now?” she asked instead.
“Once more, I ask you not to talk about sensitive matters outside the cave.” Owl two said unhelpfully. He’d come a long way in understanding social cues, if some of her husband’s stories were to be believed about his early days with this man. Still, it was hard to believe that when he was acting so obstinate, seemingly out of ignorance.
“Fine.” Lily said with a sigh. “I’m going to go see her, you finish up what you’re doing here and meet me in the cave when I’m done. Don’t forget to bring Benjamin, I’m sure he will have forgotten everything we’ve been doing by now, too busy making his men run drills or something.” She said with a distracted roll of her eyes, as she turned away from Owl two, who’d already returned to his experiment. He’d be in the cave by the time she got there, Lily had no doubt. How he managed it was a mystery, but he always knew when they were ready for him there. Motioning to Vara to follow her, Lily retraced the path she’d walked into the goblin camp, back towards the base camp. This time, at a much quicker pace.
“What are you planning to do?” Vara asked as she matched Lily’s quickened stride. “You already declared yourself an ally to Eric, if you…”
“I am going to talk to him and Samantha,” Lily interrupted. “I don’t know anything yet, other than what Owl two said, and we both know he sometimes glosses over vital details.” Though, even as she said the words, Lily didn’t believe them, and she quickened her stride even more.
“Good evening, Eric.” Lily said as she and Vara entered his command tent. “How goes the training?” She asked as she settled herself into a chair. Eric looked up at her from the game of POWF he was playing with Andona and Thomas. With a smile that lacked the polished warmth he’d shown at the meeting those weeks ago. Now, there was a trace of anger in it.
“Good evening, Lily.” He said, laying his cards face down in front of him on the table and swiveling around to look at her directly. “I’m glad you stopped by actually.” He said, his angry grin sharpening. “I saw the dropship returning some time ago and had expected Samantha for a meeting. You don’t happen to know where she’s gone off to by chance would you?”
Lily’s mind froze at the words, but she did her best to maintain her outward composure. She leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs, readjusting her posture as she used the time to think. He’d taken Samantha away because she’d locked him out of the ships… Or at least that’s what Owl two had said. Now either Owl two was lying and had abducted Samantha for some reason, or Eric had in fact taken her and was trying to defect blame. Lily felt confident that if Owl two had feared Samantha posed a danger to his lord or the syndicate that he would have indeed taken her. Still, he wouldn’t have shifted blame to Eric. No, he would have just told her what he’d done and why as if it was obvious.
“I’m afraid I haven’t.” She answered at last, having decided that there was little point in doubting Owl two. “I was coming to see if she was with you. I asked her to get with me when she returned as well, I was thinking about taking a trip to the wall in the next week or so. Should I get some people out looking for her?” she didn’t have to try very hard to make her voice sound concerned.
“That shouldn’t be necessary,” Eric said. “She’s only been gone a few hours, it’s likely she’s just taking a bath, or catching up with some friends. I’ll get a few people looking for her myself… I know you are working with limited resources these days, since all the men in camp are mine. I wouldn’t want you to overextend yourself.”
Lily blinked at the thinly vailed threat. She’d known it was a risk, letting him assume so much control of the camp, but she didn’t think he’d come after her position so quickly.
“We’re all on the same team, the lord White flame’s team.” She replied with a sweet smile, “but speaking of the men, how is their training coming? Will they be ready to take on the tunnels when the others get back?”
“Don’t worry about my men,” Eric said. Lily couldn’t help noticing the emphasis on the word ‘my.’ “They will be ready for battle long before the others return.”
“I’m glad to hear it. This camp is nice, but it’s nothing compared to the castle underground. High walls, thick gates, a swarm of batlins to protect and serve whoever sits upon the throne. It’s a shame my husband wants to conquer the place by force. When a more, gentle approach, could win the crown without any bloodshed at all.” After speaking, she stood up and made her way to the tent flap Vara was already holding open for her.
“Thank you for the audience, Eric. I know you have many obligations on your time, so I’ll leave you too it. Do let me know if you find Samantha, won’t you?” she exited without any further words being exchanged, and breathed a silent sigh of relief when she reached the open air again.
That had been a risk. Eric wasn’t a fool, and her redirection hadn’t been subtle. Still, Lily had seen the look in his eyes when she’d mentioned the castle underground. Hopefully, it would capture his attention for a while and give her more time.
“My lady, I…” Vara said as they walked away from the tent, her face clouded with anger.
“Not now, Vara.” Lily said with a sigh, “come on, let’s go get in a few hands at the games tent. I’d like to get a feel for how the people are holding up.” A reluctant Vara nodded, and the pair entered the gaming tent, both hooded to at least try to maintain a low profile. It was less crowded than usual, but even louder than normal. Thanks entirely to the team of people seated in the center table.
Lily recognized them as the team who’d been running, and failing, the test simulation the last time she’d visited Eric. There were two human men wearing locust lamellar, two wood elf men wearing what looked like a mix of leather and bark armor, and a female bugbear. She was clearly the leader and was decked out in a mixed set of leather and steel lamellar.
“Why do you insist on playing with those foul goblin cards, Tupelo?” One of the humans asked one of the elves with disgust as the later took another point off his ‘life bar.’ “They’re not fit to be in our camp, let alone our deck.” The elf just snorted, as he turned two ration cards and dropped another pair of the worker goblins on the table.
“Because” Tupelo said with a grin as he indicated that his turn was over. “They’re cheap to play and the trade is full of them… your just jealous you can’t play any of those high-power cards since you don’t have the rations to feed them. Besides, it amuses me to watch such small creatures take down big strong men like you, Mike.”
“Shut the hell up tree hugger,” Mike said and spit on the ground. “Enjoy it while you can, cuz soon enough there won’t be any of those ugly goblins running around.”
“That’s enough Mike,” the chocolate brown bugbear woman said. “We’re all on the same team here, and if we’re ever going to get our shit straight, we need to work with each other, not fight like a bunch of children.”
“Who do you think you are to tell me I’m acting like a kid, Andessa? You think just because you’re Andona’s cousin you’re important around here? shit, you look more like one of those shaggy White mane bitc…” his words were cut off when Andessa slammed her large fist into his mouth.
“What did I tell you about calling me that?” Andessa asked the writhing Mike, who ignored her as he felt around in his mouth. “I assume that means you pass, so, I’m going to play Hunter, with a Mark V railgun… and before you even consider talking about this card, I’d like you to think how well you’d fair if she came for you, railgun or no.”
Lily watched the exchange with a bit of sympathy for the woman. Bugbear weren’t all the same, there were subtypes within their race, similar to how there were diverse types of elves or humans with differing skin tones. Also, just like humans, some of the bugbear subtypes were more desirable than others, depending on social norms. In the white mane clan, the norm was large, thickly muscled frames covered with thick wavy to curly fur that ranged from three to six inches in length.
In her old Gilded Lily clan, short soft and sleek fur covering lithe swift bodies was more often found. A human who’d visited from Andy’s Reef several years ago had once said in her hearing that White mane bugbears were like a type of house pet, they kept back home called a Maine coon. While the bugbears of the gilded Lily clan were like their Siamese. Lily hadn’t actually seen either of these animals before, but being compared to a house pet by a furless human hadn’t sat well with her. That gentleman had found himself outside the clan’s wall in short order.
The other clans had even more subtypes within their walls, and each and every one of them would intermarry between them. Hence why the old White mane had so many short hair bugbears. It was a normal part of clan life, but sadly, so was looking down on those whose body type didn’t match their own.
Lily took in the rest of the guests inside the tent. Some were still playing their own games, ignoring the loud antics of the team in their midst. Others were trying to look like they were playing but were actually just waiting for an opportunity to leave without making it obvious. Deciding to stay and listen for a while, Lily pulled out her own leather deck holder and began shuffling her cards. Vara, who’d sat with her instead of standing at her back, to sell the cover did the same with a low sigh.
When Lily had arrived at the camp and heard about the card game her husband to be commissioned for his people, she hadn’t appreciated the idea at all. The people were starving. Why would they care about a game when their lives were so difficult? Yet, it turned out that because everyone was having such a tough time, the game took off so well. Playing casual games or making bets or trades went a long way to pass the time. Without much of the black-market activity that normally happened in times of strife. Of course, it helped that the valley was drug and alcohol free… that was, before she’d let Eric bring it in.
“One ration card, to play gnarl tooth the goblin,” Vara said as she got the game started. Lily played her hand without much thought as most of her attention was paid to the table filled with guards.
“You knocked out one of my teeth,” Mike said as he climbed back into his chair. “And it doesn’t matter if that little killer could do me in or not, she’s never coming back. That stupid hussy the White flame bedded has been dancing to the bosses tune and got rid of them all for him. Hell, won’t be much longer before he gets rid of her too.” He snickered at his own joke as the other people at the table glanced around warily.
“Do you need me to knock more of your teeth out?” Andessa snapped at her teammate. “We’re not alone in here, and not everyone thinks like you do.”
“Who cares?” Mike said, spitting blood onto the tent’s floor as he finished wiping his mouth. “What are they going to do about it? The only people left in this damn valley who can stand up to us are Benjamin’s people, and he hasn’t made a peep. All he ever does is patrol and run drills. Clearly, the White flame messed up when he made that old man run laps, because it drove him right into Eric’s arms, Ha-ha.”
They stayed for another hour. They played three games during that time, and Vara won every one of them due to Lily’s preoccupation with the other table. When the sun had truly set outside the tent, she rose, putting away her deck.
“Let’s go get something to eat before the cafeteria closes,” she said. In truth, she was planning on heading to the cave for her meeting with Owl two and Benjamin, but she felt no need to broadcast who she was, by saying as much. She’d learned a lot during the game, more than she wanted to know, that’s for sure. She just hoped they’d be able to pull off the plan before something bad happened.