It took mother roughly a week to make the day ware for each of my brothers, going in order of who was given their 'bath' first. Each was given their own deel that closed in the front, complete with waist sashes, headbands, and their own pendant and chain to hang around their waist. I noticed that while all of them were in varying shades of red, orange, and yellow, Malkadian and mine were the most vibrant shade of red.

On closer inspection I also found that ours had more hand stitching and details, Mal also had delicate beadwork on his sash, but as you progressed down the line of children the detailing became less and less. They all had pendants made of a similar metal to mine, but they seemed to get progressively smaller, and only mine and Malkadian had the gems at each point of the beautifully engraved star.

Mal's actually had the addition of a small metal bar that hung below his pendant with extra beading. Similarly, Malkadian's metal headband was also the largest, a thick and heavily engraved piece with another pendant welded to the front that rested on his forehead, the other boy's headband and pendant got progressively smaller and less detailed.

I wondered if it was a result of my mother spending less time in an attempt to make clothes for everyone, or maybe the materials simply ran out. But that didn't seem to be the case, as when I sometimes sat beside her watching her work, she seemed to take the utmost care in crafting each garment. A cursory glance around the workroom also proved that she was in no short supply of fabric, metals, or ornaments. After watching her fit the last of my brothers into his new outfit I could no longer quell my curiosity.

“Mother?” I asked and she gave a hum of acknowledgment as she put away her tools.

“Why is it that my and . . .” I paused for a moment. None of us had ever referred to one another by our names, at least not around mother. We didn't really know why, but something told us we weren't supposed to. This was only reinforced by the fact that she never called us by our names either, just 'boy' or 'girl' or 'child'. The only time I had ever heard her say my name was that first night when she comforted me as a baby.

“That my and my eldest brother's clothes are so much nicer than the rest of our brothers?” I finally asked. She continued to return her tools to their rightful places as she spoke.

“You and he are my eldest son and eldest daughter. As such, you both carry the responsibility for securing the future of the Bloodstorm clan. With that responsibility are greater expectations than that of the rest of your brothers,” she gave me a sideways glance and smirked at me.

“And greater rewards and standing within the family,” she concluded.

“So,” I began mulling over what she had just told me.

“The younger my brothers get, the less responsibility they have and the lower standing in the family. And you express that in our clothes, with us having the better clothing and ornaments,” I concluded and looked up to find my mother staring at me, still smirking. I felt my face flush a little, forgetting that I had been speaking out loud. Mother just chuckled and tucked a strand of hair behind my pointed ear.

“It appears Ignis has given me quite a clever daughter. But is that a blessing or a curse?” she mused to herself.

“I know goblins grow quickly, but at this rate, she will be an old woman by sunrise tomorrow,” and she let out a sigh. That piqued my interest, over the past week we noticed that despite not achieving any more milestones we had all earned another 2% of growth. This made me rather anxious, as I had begun to worry that by quickly working so hard to complete one milestone after the other, we might have permanently affected the rate we grew at.

“Do all Goblin's grow quickly?” I asked her and she nodded her head.

“Yes they do, although not quite as fast as you brood,” she said giving me a somewhat annoyed look as I tried not to meet her gaze.

“Goblins breed quickly and will become fully grown in roughly four or five months, that is if they don't complete their milestones. It goes more quickly if they do,” she finished. I felt somewhat relieved that we hadn't done some horrible damage to our bodies with the progress we made.

It also meant we would continue to age and grow normally even if we couldn't manage to figure out the rest of our milestones. But then something else occurred to me. Four to five months to go from a baby to a fully grown adult was a very short amount of time, and I seemed to remember something I had learned from my past life. The less time something takes to mature to adulthood, the shorter its lifespan. I did my best to push that train of thought to the back of my mind as I hopped off the table I was sitting on and followed my mother out of the workroom and into the main yurt.

Mother quickly corralled us around the cooking pot and served us our morning helping of stew. As we all haply slurped away she began to address us.

“Now that all of you are children and have been cleansed and given your proper clothes,” she stated, at the mention of the fat bath several of the boys cringed and some looked like they might throw up in their stew.

“You will be expected to do your share to provide for the clan. And yes, that means chores,” several of us began to whine at that but were quickly silenced by Mother's fierce glare and the sight of her outreached hand, ready to summon the paddle. Everyone fell silent. Mother let out a sound that was somewhere between a chuckle and a snort, then continued.

“With those responsibilities also come some privileges,” at those words eight pairs of Goblin eyes widened in expectation.

“You will now be allowed time to play out in the yard,” she informed us and there were several gasps as we began to chatter excitedly amongst ourselves. Mother loudly cleared her throat and we fell silent once more. “As long as either Sha'ree or Suu'der are outside with you. If I find any one of you venture into the yard without them, all of you will pay the price. Do I make myself clear?” her golden eyes blazed at us and we all nodded our understanding.

I glanced over at the door that led to the room Suu'der had first appeared from. Over the past week, I had found out that it led to a stable of sorts, where both Suu'der and Sha'ree had their own fur-lined beds, bones to gnaw on, and large barrels of clean water. Mother had shown me how to brush their coats, clean their teeth, and trim their claws. During that time she also educated me about what they were.

Sha'ree and Suu'der were creatures called 'Wargs', giant wolf-like beings that held serious significance to our culture. They were used to transport goods but primarily functioned as war mounts for our soldiers and warriors. I thought back to Suu'der's scars, mother had said he was our father's war mount and Sha'ree was hers. Our father must have been a prolific warrior for his mount to have accumulated so many battle scars. I wondered about who my father was, what he looked like, and why we never saw him. But my thoughts were interrupted when mother spoke again.

“After you all finish your morning meal I will take you to the yard,” at this declaration the sound of slurping filled the room as we all hurried to finish our breakfast. After we finished we quickly washed the bowls in a shallow bucket of water and formed a line and followed after our mother. She led us out of the main yurt and into the short hallway. We passed by three doors to our left, they led to the Brood Room, the workroom, and what I had decided to call The Forge.

To our right there were two more doorways, I hadn't been allowed into either one, but I had figured out that the door closest to the main yurt was our mother and father's room. She stopped at the second doorway, pulling the leather cloth door aside and letting a blinding stream of light into the small room. We all covered our eyes for a moment adjusting to the brightness and slowly stepped through the door. I was immediately struck by the heat, it had to have been at least thirty degrees hotter outside than it had been in the yurt. Some of my brothers stood, looking dazed at the sudden change and I noticed Drazahar walking in and out of the door, looking amazed and confused each time he emerged back outside.

After taking a moment to adjust to the sweltering heat, I began to take in my surroundings. The ground beneath my feet was a mix of coarse dirt and sand and was spotted with patches of yellow-green grass and the sky that stretched out above us was a pale blue color, without a cloud in sight. Taking in the yard where we stood I saw the outside of a large hide-covered yurt to my right, that seemed to connect back to the hallway, and to the left of it was a much smaller yurt whose doorway faced us. The two yurts were connected by a large fence that appeared to be crafted from giant rib bones, their curved tips pointed inward toward our home.

“What's that?” I asked my mother, pointing to the small yurt ahead of us, and I turned my head to look at her.

“The store room,” she replied.

“It's where we keep anything we are not using at the moment. If I ask you to fetch something and you don't know where it is, you most certainly will find it in there,” she then gave us a stern look.

“You are only to be in there when doing your chores, it is not a place for you to play. We have valuable items in there if you break anything I would haft to sell you to recoup the cost. Maybe even a few of you,” our eyes went wide at that and a few of the boys took several steps back from the yurt. I furrowed my brow, staring at my mother, and caught sight of a smile twitching at the corner of her lips. A smile spread across my own face, I was starting to get better at reading her.

I turned my attention back to the yard, the area where we stood was rather small, it seemed odd for a home as large as ours to have such a small yard. It was then that I noticed a path that led around the storeroom yurt and proceeded to follow it. The path was rather narrow, with the storeroom on one side and the hall on the other, but when they both broke away I found I was in another yard. This one was at least four times the size of the space we had originally found ourselves in, it was surrounded by the same bone fencing that started at the store room and made a sort of square shape, connecting to another yurt far off to the left.

My brothers quickly followed behind me and began excitedly running around. It was the most open space we had ever seen and I quickly joined them. We all began jumping, rolling, and racing each other, we even started an impromptu game where one person was chosen and had to chase the others around till they touch someone, then the person they touched had to do the same. A faint memory of playing a game like this stirred, I think we called it 'tag'.

But our antics were interrupted when we noticed two large and lumbering animals slowly making their trek across the yard. The beasts towered over us, they had enormous round feet with three segmented toes that could easily crush us with a single step, and four short, thick legs that carried their barrel-shaped body. Their backs were arched and covered in tan-colored fur that went past their large shoulders, the rest of the creature's bodies were covered in a grayish leathery skin.

Both had a long muzzle that was topped with two very large horns, the one closest to the tip of the nose being the larger of the two, and a large pair of antlers sprouting from their skulls that swooped backward towards their body and small black eyes on either side of its head. Most of our brothers ran to hide behind mothers skirt, Malkadian and I tensed where we were, standing side by side, with Drazahar standing close behind us.

Malkadian and I exchanged worried glances, though our instincts were to protect our younger siblings, we were well aware that if these creatures decided to charge we were dead. I glanced back at mother hoping she would come to our aid but she didn't move, her expression seemed unconcerned and she watched us carefully. Looking back at the massive creatures I saw that they continued to lazily lumbar around the yard, stopping occasionally to graze on the tuffs of grass that grew and considered them for a moment.

Sense Activated

You are able to determine that these creatures are docile in nature and pose no immediate threat.

New Soul Tip: Sense gives you the ability to discern information about a situation/individual/creature/item that you otherwise would not be able to know

I was surprised for a moment as I read the notification, I remembered seeing something listed as 'sense' in my attributes. But the vague naming had resulted in me skipping over it. I looked back at Malkadian and placed a hand on his shoulder, gesturing my head toward the creatures. He raised an eyebrow at me and I gave him a reassuring look and he nodded. We slowly crept toward the creatures in near silence.

When we were right next to them their ears twitched and they lifted their heads to look at us. We froze in place, our legs tensed, ready to run. The creatures considered us for a moment then with a snort went back to grazing. We relaxed completely and finished our approach, and I lightly placed a hand on one of them. Malkadian did the same and we gave them a few light pats, the lumbering creatures appeared unconcerned. Drazahar stepped forward and mirrored our actions. I looked over my shoulder to see my remaining brothers watching us, eyes wide, as they slowly crept out from behind our mother. With a smile, I gave them a wave to beckon them over. They cautiously began to approach.

The three of us guided the others to pet the animals, some became excited while others were still hesitant, but soon enough we were all happily giggling and petting the massive creatures as they continued to graze. I heard footsteps approach us from behind and turned to find our mother standing over us, a smile at the corners of her mouth.

We were caught off guard as a couple of the boys grew slightly larger after petting the animals. I hesitantly cast a glance back at our mother, but the look on her face was just tired. It was then that I noticed that the boy's clothes fit just as perfectly as before, She must have augmented their clothes the same way she had mine.

“These are our Staghorns,” mother told us.

“They are pack animals and are invaluable when we move or form caravans,” she reached out her hand and gave one of the Staghorns a pat on its wide rump.

“They are grazing creatures and generally calm and even-tempered, though they can certainly appear rather intimidating to some,” mother gave a smirk as she gave a sideways glance at us. A few of my brothers blushed in embarrassment as they continued petting the Staghorns.