Chapter 25

Divine watched as his third disciple threw mudballs at her three siblings.

She stood behind the earth hill Divine had created while clearing out the new room.

The top of the hill had been turned to mud with water. It seemed like the third disciple had that idea and peppered the others with mudballs.

Of course the other disciples couldn't tolerate such an attack.

They had created their own mud supply and fought back against Third Disciple.

It was one of the throws that had missed the third disciple that had almost hit Divine.

The mudballs were flying continuously, dirtying the cavern and the goblings.

But they were at it with such a happy enthusiasm that Divine just stood there and let them have their fun.

Third Disciple had the superior position behind the earth hill, that served her as cover and ammunition depot.

The others suffered under her vicious and well placed throws.

They were hit so many times by now, that a few more hits didn't matter to them anymore.

What mattered to them was getting back at Third Disciple.

After putting their heads together and taking a few hits for it, they made two big mudballs per gobling and spread out.

They acted together. They closed the distance quickly and the three of them pelted the mischievous third disciple from three directions.

The three pounced on her. They grabbed her and dunked her head in the mud.

She struggled vehemently, but stood no chance against her three siblings holding her down together.

When she finally relented and stopped struggling, the others let go of her.

Third Disciple coughed and spluttered out mud.

They kept a wary eye on her, because Third Disciple liked to take immediate revenge after she had already lost.

But before she could start the fight anew, Divine cleared his throat.

The goblings jumped up and turned in his direction.

They looked quite comical, dirty like a swamp monster and bowing so earnestly.

They gave him innocent looks as if nothing had happened. As if that would work on Divine.

"Minion Scarface." Divine called and she immediately came running.

"Me sorry for not stopping them. But they had so much fun. Please let them off this time." His favorite minion really cared about the goblings.

The disciples gave Scarface appreciative looks and then stared hopefully at Divine.

Divine snorted in amusement, but pretended it was in anger.

"Punishment is inevitable. You made a real mess this time. Look at the cavern and look at yourselfs." Divine scolded the goblings in English.

Switching to Gobble, he gave Minion Scarface her orders. "Take goblings to draw water. It's time for thorough washing." Divine looked at the other minions, who had transported earth and stones the whole time, and the humans, who were even dirtier than the goblins. "Take minions and humans to wash too."

Scarface's expression became a little helpless. "Goblings, minions and humans? Wash all?"

Divine considered it for a moment. She was right. She would need his help with this unruly bunch.

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The minions alone were a piece of work. The goblings were much more unrestrained and even harder to handle.

And the humans were very new here and not even housebroken.

He had seen the old man pissing at a wall, instead of using one of the latrine pits.

The humans weren't educated yet. Who knew what would happen with them?

"No worries. Me help keep all in line." Divine decided that without him this would end in total chaos.

"Me thankful, Master Divine." Minion Scarface was visibly relieved and delighted.

"Before me forget, remember to wash only near the shit pits so water can flow in there." There was no word like 'latrine' in Gobble. That reminded Divine of something else. "Tell minions to spread a layer of earth on and near shit pits, but let ground remain going downward so water always flow into pits."

Divine really hoped Scarface got that. Her enthusiastic nodding didn't inspire much confidence, but she had managed to surprise him before.

Meanwhile the goblings had grown bored, especially since they didn't understand a word, and were surreptitiously poking at each other.

Divine turned to them with a heavy and foreboding expression.

"Now, get ready to recieve your punishment. You are going to be scrubbed from head to toe. It's washing time!" Divine enjoyed the goblings' dread and let out an evil chuckle.

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When Nola had finally realized that they had been captured by goblins, it hadn't changed anything for her.

She didn't care. Everything was meaningless.

There wasn't anything that they could do to hurt her.

She cared about nothing anymore. It hurt too much.

The cavern was especially lively right know. Even Nola noticed that, despite her indifference.

The goblins were getting lots of water. The well was not far from where she and the two men were bound.

She could hear Torm saying a little prayer under his breath every time the goblins' steps sounded very close.

Torm was annoying.

But she didn't care.

Another pair of steps had arrived near them.

Different from the others, she didn't hear them disappear.

There was something in the air. Suddenly there was a tension.

Torm's little prayers ceased completely.

"*Get up!*" Something was said in the grating language of the goblins.

Suddenly Nola felt something that made her heart skip a beat. The vine binding her ankle loosened.

She looked up and saw a goblin, even weirder than the others she had seen out of the corner of her eyes in this goblin den.

The other goblins wore such robes too, but theirs weren't in the same pristine condition. And not of that quality.

With the other goblins it was more like their robes wore them.

This goblin carried himself completely differently. It reminded her of the nobles of the empire.

She really missed her father and her brothers.

Beorn stood up and pulled Torm to his feet.

The extraordinary goblin nodded at Beorn and looked at Nola, waiting for her to get up too, probably.

With empty eyes, she stared back.

An eyebrow twitched in the goblin's face. It was growing irritated.

Nola wondered a moment if she should care. She didn't and just continued staring.

"*Minion Scarface.*" The goblin called something. It didn't sound like words from the language of the goblins this time.

She couldn't place the language at all.

She was sure it wasn't a language spoken on Cathalien. She knew enough to at least identify the different languages spoken on this continent.

The humans spoke the same language, the Holy Lumodian Empire and the Kingdom of Medani only had different dialects.

It wasn't orcish, dwarfen or elvish and from what she had read it definitely couldn't be the beast language.

But what did it matter? Why was she even thinking about this?

Another goblin came to stand by the other's side.

A few words were exchanged. This time she recognized the goblin language again.

The new goblin deferred to the noble looking one. That much was obvious.

The goblin bowed to the leader and came towards Nola.

It grabbed Nola's arm and pulled her up.

The goblin looked pretty scary with that disfigured face.

Nola thought about resisting, but what use would that be.

From up close, Nola noticed the goblin pulling her was a girl. And for that small size, the goblin girl was incredibly strong.

Standing up on her legs again, Nola's whole body ached. She had been lying down for too long, getting stiff all over.

Nola followed behind the goblin girl.

They came to a few pits in the ground, that were sorrounded by Ghost Mushrooms. A stange smell was in the air.

Eleven goblins were gathered around the pits. Not only the leader and the goblin girl with the scarred face, there were five other goblins and four goblin children, too.

Beorn and Trom were already there, too.

The goblins were all looking surprisingly clean and well groomed, even if some were still a little wet.

Then she noticed the pots filled with water by the side and the wet ground around the pits.

Nola got a bad feeling.

The two men were first.

Under the leader's direction the goblins stepped forward to take the men's armor and clothes.

Torm tried resisting. He kicked one goblin away.

Before Torm could do anything else, a stone hit him on the chest, thrown by the leader.

That would definitely bruise horribly.

The goblin children laughed and started throwing stones at Torm too.

They managed to land some nasty throws on him. But in their youthful enthusiasm, they hit the goblins, wanting to strip Torm, too.

The goblins cried out, grumbled and cursed, dodging to the side.

"*Stop that!*" The leader of the goblins only said one thing and they stopped immediately.

Torm was lying miserably on the ground and the goblins used that chance to strip him down.

Even though Nola didn't care whether she was dead or alive, she had a bad feeling in her guts.