Over the next few days we began to settle into a new rhythm, we woke up early to a pot of stew already boiling and had breakfast. From there we fed Sha'ree, Suu'der, and the Staghorns then reported to mother for our morning chores. The mornings passed quickly as we ran about gathering, cleaning, sorting, and so on. At noon we had lunch, fed the animals, and reported back to mother for our afternoon chores. This usually didn’t take long and we spent the rest of the day playing in the yard or the main room till mother served dinner.
We tried to peer over the back fence to get a better look at the area surrounding our home, but the fences were near the middle of the yurts they connected to and we weren’t able to see around the bulk of the yurts. The only glimpse we got of the world around our home was the view over the back fence. This presented a wide expanse of yellow-green grass, spotted with small shrubs and tall trees, their leaves clumped at the top in a canopy-like shape. In the distance, I could see the distinct shape of large sand dunes.
“Mother,” I asked that night as we all sat around the fire, eating our evening meal. “Where do we live?” I asked and my brothers looked to our mother, also curious about the answer. She gave us a blank look.
“Most call the place they live ‘home’,” she replied and I had to exert all my self-control to not roll my eyes. “But I suppose you could call it the ‘yurt’ as well, you could also name the rooms if you like,” she gave us a smirk and we all were stifling groans. We had started to become very aware of our mother's odd sense of humor.
“That’s not what I meant,” I tried to clarify. “I meant the place our yurt is, what’s it called? We can see sand dunes when we are in the yard, are we in a desert?” I posed my conjecture, and some of my brothers nodded.
“I haven’t seen any other people or animals either,” Malkadian added. “Does anyone else live here?” we all looked at our mother intently, she brought her bowl to her mouth, slowly draining the remaining broth. Then she set the bowl down, wiped her mouth, and turned to face us.
“The place we live is known as The Great Daemon Desert,” she began, “It is where those that are bound to Ignis have lived for generations. And we are not the only ones here, we are part of the Dyeing Sun horde,” she looked at each of us carefully before giving a slight sigh. “You will see it tomorrow. At first light, I will be taking you out into the camp,” at this revelation we all began to chatter excitedly among ourselves, dinner forgotten, as we began to discuss what we thought the camp would be like and the people and creatures we would see.
While in mid-discussion with Malkadian and Drazahar I glanced over at my mother, expecting to see the usual sardonic grin at our antics, but what I saw instead made my heart clench. Her eyes looked far away and her expression was painted with a mixture of sorrow, regret, and even anger. There was barely time for me to take it in when her eyes focused again and her expression shifted back to placid. Though a ‘sense’ window didn’t appear I had a strange feeling I had seen something I wasn’t supposed to.
Our mother then stood up. “I suggest you all finish your meals, you will need your strength for tomorrow as it will be a long day. Don’t forget to clean up, and try to keep quiet, I will be in the workroom for the rest of the evening and do not want to be disturbed. I want you all to get a good night's rest, I don’t want to deal with any cranky goblins in the morning,” with that she washed her bowl and put it away, exiting the main room and heading to the workshop. The chatter continued once again.
“Why do you think she decided to take us outside?” Malkadian asked as we took our bowls to the washtub and began to scrub them.
“Maybe she thinks we’re old enough that she can take us places without causing too much of a ruckus,” I suggested and we moved to put our, now clean, bowls and spoons away.
“Maybe,” Mal said. “But it just feels a little weird, especially with how adamant she has been about us not going outside. We’re not even allowed in the yard without Sha'ree or Suu'der,” he countered and I couldn’t argue with the points he made.
“You’re right, it is weird,” I conceded to him as we began to change into our night ware, which was simple loose-fitting robes, made of a light cloth material that tied off in the front. “Whatever the reason is, we won't figure it out mulling it over all night. Our best bet is to get some rest and keep our eyes and ears open tomorrow,” I concluded and Malkadian nodded.
“Do you think we'll see more goblins?” he asked, “Or others who are,” he glanced over his shoulder towards the workroom before lowering his voice, “Different, like us?” he concluded and I gave a shrug.
“Other Goblins? Probably. As far as the other option, I don't think we would be able to tell even if we meet them,” I stated plainly, “We only knew about one another because we spoke about it and I don't think it would be a good idea to rave about past lives and someone called 'The Dutchess' in a public place,” Mal frowned but nodded in agreement.
“Ya, that would probably cause a lot of trouble,” he admitted then asked. “So what are you excited about seeing tomorrow?” I pondered this for a moment before answering.
“The other races,” I finally answered, “Mother said there are six races bound to Ignis. One of them was lost to time according to mother, and the Shahara, I think that's what mother called them, don't show themselves very often,” I explained, Malkadian nodded absorbing the information, “So that leaves four more, Goblins like us, Hoblins like mother and then the Orcus and the Ograsi. Those last two are the ones I'm really looking forward to seeing, I'm curious about what they look like and what they are,” I concluded.
“Do you think we'll see our father on our trip tomorrow?” a voice chimed in startling us, we turned to see Dahkan standing nearby. I considered his question for a moment then shook my head.
“No, probably not. Mother once told me we wouldn't meet him till we're grown, maybe it's tradition?” I offered, Dahkan looked down and nodded his head before heading back to his fur-lined bed and curling up with some of the other boys who had already fallen asleep. I felt a pang as I watched him, understanding his disappointment. Malkadian placed a hand on my shoulder.
“I'm sure we'll see him soon, he's our father after all,” he offered trying to disperse my gloomy mood, I gave him a weak smile. While he was right I couldn't help but feel hurt, aside from the fact that Suu'der was his war mount and that Dwart Blood Stick was his favorite sweet, I knew nothing about him. I didn't even know if he was a Hoblin. While our mother did mention him she never actually talked about him. There had to be a reason we hadn't seen him, right? I mean, what kind of father just left his wife to care for their eight children all alone?
Did he abandon us? But that didn't add up, mother talked about him fondly and had mentioned how he would have been excited about our growth, surely if he had abandoned us she wouldn't act that way. But, if not seeing their children till they had come of age was tradition for a father, why hadn't mother told us that? It felt like I was trying to piece together a puzzle but large chunks were missing, so I was only getting glimpses of the full picture. I bid Malkadian goodnight and we went our separate ways to our beds.
As I closed my screen behind me I gave a sigh before heading to my plush pile of furs. As I settled into bed more questions kept circling in my mind and as I grasped for answers it only left me with even more questions. Burrowing into the soft furs I hoped that tomorrow would finally give some answers.