“A-a human!” shouted one of them with a high-pitched, raspy voice as it pointed a finger at Helena.

The other one didn’t miss a beat and immediately ran for the small kitchen counter at the side of the living room. On the wooden table, next to the few things that Helena had, was a knife, glinting under the already dim light of dusk.

Helena just watched as the little thing jumped on the table and desperately grabbed the knife, before pointing it at her. “S-stay back, human! If you—If you try anything, I’ll—I’ll harm you!”

“Is that so…?” Helena calmly replied, her eyes inspecting the little goblin.

It was holding the knife with both hands, but they were shaking heavily, just as its legs. She then looked at the other one, whose body was shaking all over, much more evidently than the other one, while looking at Helena with its eyes widened. She then turned her eyes to inspect the state of her home.

The counter on which the goblin was standing was just a handful of steps away from the entrance, placed against a wall and under a window to Helena’s right. Next to the goblin’s feet were toppled wooden containers, flipped wood plates and cups, and a handful of spoons dropped all over. She could also see crumbs of bread, but she had left no bread after having breakfast in the morning, so they were likely something that the goblins thought about eating, but gave up since it wasn’t enough.

Her eyes then turned to the left. The other goblin remained standing still, not daring to move its shaking body. Under its feet, the simple red rug that she had as decoration was slightly moved aside, likely from the surprise that she gave them. And behind, to the left of the goblin, was a small round table with just two chairs, one of which was tossed on the ground on its side, while splinters of the wooden window closest to this table littered the place all around it; damage from where they came in.

Finally, she turned her eyes behind all of it to the back. There were two doors. The one on the left was her bedroom, and the one on the right was for things that she kept but didn’t use as often. Both doors were closed, so it seemed like the only thing these goblins messed with was just this small living room.

“K-Kala!” urgently said the shaking goblin on her left, “S-she’s not doing anything!”

“She must be scared!” excitedly replied the one with the knife, before taking a fearful, short step towards Helena. “I-if you let us go, nothing is going to happen to you!”

Helena didn’t act and simply looked at the shaking goblin for a moment. “What makes you think you can get into my house and leave just like that?”

“B-because y-you… You could die!” shouted the goblin, waving the knife in front threateningly but not taking a step forward.

“Me? Die?” Helena questioned, after which she released the magic power she was suppressing.

“Ah!” gasped both goblins at the same time, their shaking increasing and sweat forming over their heads.

“Well?” Helena taunted, lifting her chin up slightly to look down at the one with the knife.

The one holding hesitated slightly for a short moment, before snapping its head in the direction of the other goblin. “Korr! I’ll distract her and you’ll get away from here!”

“W-what!? No! You’ll die! I can’t lose you too after what happened at—”

“It’s the only way!” shouted this goblin before looking back at Helena. “Run!”

The other goblin looked at the one holding the knife, unsure of what to do for a second, only to then shut its eyes tightly and turn to the broken window. The one with the knife shouted, took a couple of steps on top of the table, and leaped from it to Helena with its eyes shut. Soon after, the fleeing one also leaped from its spot to the window, and when both were already in the air, Helena finally moved.

She let go of the basket, allowing it to hit the ground, before lifting both of her arms with the palms of each hand facing each goblin. A wave of invisible mana filled the space, and with a gasp, both goblins stopped mid-air. The one holding the knife unwillingly dropped it, causing it to bounce on the floor a couple of times, and the other goblin simply kicked and waved its arms in the air as if it was trying to swim towards the window.

“N-no…!” the one closest to Helena despaired, “P-please don’t! Kill me alone if you must, but let my brother go!”

“Kill you?” Helena calmly asked with a slight tilt of her head. “Why would I kill you?”

“Eh?” the closest goblin confusedly reacted, raising its eyebrows, “But you said you weren’t going to let us go.”

“I did say that, but I didn’t say I was going to kill you,” Helena said, bringing her left arm close to her, and making it so the other goblin softly floated closer to her. “You’ll have to pay for breaking into my house and trying to steal from me.”

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“D-doesn’t that mean you’re going to kill us!?” shouted the goblin on her right.

“Kala’s right! Humans usually kill us on sight! That’s what they did when—”

“Shhh! Korr! Don’t give her any ideas!”

They both remained quiet after that and just looked fearfully at Helena. She looked at them both for a moment, inspecting them from top to bottom. “You’re both children, aren’t you?”

“You can tell?” asked Korr, turning his eyes to the other goblin, Kala.

“More or less,” Helena replied, nodding slightly. “What are a couple of goblin children doing here? Where is your family?”

“We were—”

“Shut up, Korr!” interrupted Kala, its face now turned into a suspicious glare at Helena, “How come you are not killing us right away?”

“Let's just say I’m curious about you.”

Kala looked at Helena, the suspicions not lessening at all. “Does that mean that you’ll kill us once we answer your questions?”

Hearing that, Korr had a sharp intake of air, but remained quiet otherwise. Helena just considered Kala for a moment; her face unreadable.

“No,” she finally answered after a minute, lowering her hands and allowing the goblins to stand on the ground once more. “If you don’t threaten or try to harm me, then I won’t do it either.”

Korr quickly moved to stand behind Kala, who had slightly hunched down while keeping the same suspicious glare directed at Helena. “Do you—do you really promise not to harm us?”

Helena nodded. The goblin’s face didn’t change, but after a moment, it half-turned its head to glance back from the edge of its eyes to the other one that was cowering behind it. Kala bit its lower lip with yellowish, pointy teeth, and after a few seconds, it finally let out a sigh.

“I guess… I guess we don’t really have a way out anyway…” it said and looked at Helena with a neutral expression. “I’ll tell you.”

Once it seemed to calm down, Helena picked up the basket she left by the door, walked past them, pointed a finger at the dropped chair, and with a flick of her finger, the chair suddenly flew up to stand once more. She then placed her basket on the table, and finally sat down while looking at the goblins.

“I’m listening.”

Kala remained silent, wringing its hands together for a moment, after which, it took a deep breath and finally spoke.

“We come from north of this place. We used to live with our friends and family, as far away from humans, elves, the short ones, and the beast people as we could. Some years ago, someone really powerful destroyed most of the communities there were, but thankfully, they didn’t find ours.”

“O-or didn’t think we were worth the effort,” Korr interjected, slightly glancing up from Kala’s back, who just nodded.

After a moment, Kala lowered its head. “We thought… we thought we were going to live in peace if we remained quiet but…”

“We didn’t listen to our elders and wandered off too far from home, and… a human saw me…” Korr followed up, hiding its face behind Kala’s back.

“By the time we told our elders and were getting ready to run, some other humans appeared, with large weapons, shiny armors, and throwing spells at everyone without a word or mercy, and everyone was killed; everyone save for…” Kala continued, but its voice was lowered until no more came out.

“For the two of you,” Helena finished with a nod of understanding, which the other two softly matched. She then crossed her arms under her chest and looked down at the goblins. “Then, after running away, you just happened to find my humble home in the middle of the woods and broke in to get something to eat.”

Both goblins hesitantly nodded. There was some silence in the room as Helena considered them. The pressure of her gaze eventually became too much for Kala, who finally lifted its head to look at her. “B-but we promise we’ll leave and you won’t see us ever again!”

“Yes! Yes! That’s right!”

“What’s stopping me from going to the guards and telling them about you?” Helena asked, and the green faces of the goblins appeared to pale. “Worse yet, what if other people see you; ones who won’t have any mercy on you?”

“W-w-we’ll…! We’ll run!” exclaimed Kala, taking a step forward.

“You won’t be able to run forever, and you won’t survive long enough in the wild without a community,” Helena retorted with a shake of her head.

“We’ll… We’ll…” Kala tried to argue, but fell short and just lowered its head.

“Here,” Helena said, causing both goblins to look at her, only to be surprised when Helena threw the round piece of bread from her basket to Kala.

It looked at the soft piece of bread for a moment, and the corners of its mouth watered. However, it refused to bite into it as it instead looked at Helena. “Can we really have this?”

“Sure,” Helena replied with a gesture of her hand to go-ahead.

It smiled, broke the bread in half, and passed it to Korr, whose mouth had watered as well. They didn’t waste a second as the piece of bread disappeared into their mouth, being swallowed after just a couple of chomps. There was a wide smile painted on their green faces, which was turned to Helena.

“Thank you!” Kala shouted, lowering its head almost to the ground and being matched by Korr. “We’ll leave you now.”

It was then that Helena stood up, causing them both to quickly look at her. She uncrossed her arms and looked coldly at them. “You’re not going anywhere.”

The two of them quickly stood back up and took a step back, with Korr hiding once more behind Kala, who raised its hands. “B-but you said you weren’t going to harm us!”

“That’s true. However… you still haven’t paid for the damage you caused by breaking into my home—besides…” Helena said with a smirk. “I’ll give you your first lesson…”

They both remained quiet with their eyes widened as they fearfully looked at Helena. Kala swallowed heavily, while Korr lowered its head behind Kala’s back.

“There’s no such thing as a free meal,” Helena affirmed, her smirk getting wider. “You’ll stay with me and pay for both the things that you broke and the bread that you’ll eat. Only then, you’ll be allowed to go.”

Both goblins looked at Helena confused, then turned that same confusion to each other, but before they could say anything, Helena flicked one finger at them, and they were both lifted from the ground.

“We’ll start right away.”