Pale blue lights shone, piercing through the glass window situated right beside a goblin’s bedroom. Grant stirred from his peaceful slumber with the hazy light providing his face a bit of unwarranted splendor.

The goblin sat up on his bead, rubbing eyes and blinking silly a few times. His vision out of sync with his brain functions thanks to his body just restarting and readying itself for another day. The goblin yawned, jumped off the bed after fixing it then started stretching.

Smacking his lips, the little green stomach of his protested, groaning, begging for food and Grant patted it gently. “I’m free for two days. I think some things need a little change.” The quiet little room greeted him. A room consisting of only five cubic meters of free space, and that space were then occupied by a bed, a bedside cabinet and a flight of stairs leading downwards.

Cold was the wooden floor, and it sent a chill up Grant, starting from his feet and rousing him to full consciousness. With his bright energetic green eyes, he stared at a makeshift calendar with “X” marks filling out the days that had long since gone by.

It was currently Saturday. 26th of June on the year XVICMLXXVIII. Sixteen Thousand Nine Hundred Seventy Eight.

Grant cringed at the long strong of numerals. Regardless of the whole Ortus village being stuck inside the Blackrock mountain, unable to go out. Some things from the outside world still carried inside, and this calendar was up to date.

Twelve months a year. Usually thirty-one, to thirty days per month unless you count February.

Thanks to the calendar being so long everyone agreed on shortening it to year Nine Hundred and Seventy Eight of the sixteenth cycle. As for what a cycle was, Grant did not know no matter how curious he was about it. Its definition wasn’t taught in school, and when the goblin had asked Marks the topic only got brushed to the side.

Speaking of Marks, Grant felt troubled and his brows furrowed into the deepest of frowns. He still remembered everything the worried teacher asked him yesterday. And one particular set of words etched itself in his mind and never bothered leaving.

“Do you have the qualifications of leading the last remaining goblin settlement in all of Shard to prosperity?”

Thinking about it now stunned Grant. He wasn’t one to take things as they were and he would often question everything down to the smallest detail. Mark’s interrogation gave way to more thought and confusion.

“Are goblins nearly extinct?” Grant wondered. He shook his head and descended downstairs, observing his living room nearly barren. A wooden table and a few chairs, a small makeshift kitchen with an stone oven having a chimney leading through the hardened, mud roof.

In search of food, Grant left the living room and wandered into his garden. A blue sunstone crystal embedded onto the post above one red roofed well at the middle of the area glittered. It nourished the leafy green plants, substituting as a mini sun since even the massive sunstone crystals on the cave ceiling sometimes didn’t shine on a few places, courtesy of the cave’s geography or the village’s structures casting shadows on other areas.

He stared at the massive pillar on the center of the village, the pillar wherein the Great Chieftain’s lodging was built by and saw that the yellowish fiery red glow of the lines dimmed into blue and only one line or bar glowed softly. Even the sunstones too were infected by that glow and became blue.

It was a sight to behold seeing the soft glow of blue crystals illuminate all of Ortus village.

“Twelve strict hours of daytime. And then at noon the world is blanketed by darkness… What kind of world is this?” The goblin couldn’t make heads or tails of how the sun and the moon worked on Shard. Once he had stayed up all day outside of Ortus, blankly sitting on his favorite rock and staring at the lands beyond Blackrock mountain while counting the seconds.

And upon reaching midday, the sun had sunk onto the horizon and his favorite silvery like moon greeted him again.

Grant squinted his eyes at the edges of the cave far away from the sunstones. Usually these light source’s sun like harsh shine would overpower the softer lights in the cave, yet when nightfall comes and the light dims softer, others signal their existence.

Green bioluminescent bridges could be seen stretched around the pillars, others even branching outwards from their dark corners. Small red dots in pairs of four would jitter about, vanishing into the darkness and sometimes growing harsher, crueler.

More sinister.

“Luckily I’m not an arachnophobe.” Grant sighed, prying his attention off the main root of danger hiding between crags and those poisonous bioluminescent webs.

The goblin watered his plants, for a few seconds the goblin frowned. He felt as if they were rejoicing upon being blessed with water and the gentle light from the sunstone.

The more Grant stared at the leaves of his plants, the more he felt ill hearted.

“Uno said the leaves on you guys are green. And I know you’re all green. Why can’t you all be as colorful as the sunstones or that winged serpent?” Green eyes dimming, Grant mumbled to himself while harvesting his crops.

Unlike the vibrant sunstones, unlike the majestic magic beasts like those spiders scuttling around their mystical green glowing nests. Other things were grey.

The leaves were grey, his house was grey and everything else was grey.

Even goblins whom he knew had green skin were colored grey.

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Only Uno, Marks and a few mysterious beings had shades of color to them. And those colors looked faded.

A fresh batch of harvested potatoes jumped out of the soil and Grant took them back to the house after fixing his garden up a little. The brunch of baked potatoes and a few roasted grasshoppers tasted bland. But food was food and Grant had no qualms on eating, he wasn’t particularly picky unless the food really was disgusting or poisoned.

Still having the rest of the day past noon to his choosing. Grant sniffed his clothes and he stunk.

Bad.

The goblin grabbed a new set of clean grey clothes and a second pair of brown boots then headed towards the pillar at the center of the village. On one side his eyes brightened at the sight of the regal, colorful house belonging to the chieftain. And on the other he clicked his tongue seeing a long line of freshly graduated student goblins and adults each having their laundry with them.

All of them stunk.

Grant especially made sure to keep his distance away from the seemingly glowing pairs of amazon and goblin or hobgoblin adults.

Those wedded ones usually reeked of the stench of sex.

Regarding that topic, Grant was helpless. Goblins were too virile and almost throughout the whole year, amazon wives were pregnant. Luckily, they were freakishly strong and built different, so that working while pregnant wouldn’t harm their babies.

“Should I get married?” He started thinking of his future life choices. No penalty existed on a goblin not marrying but the villagers highly recommend it. Thinking of him giving into his lust thanks to having an consenting partner made Grant worry.

He didn’t want to do it every late hours of the night every day. It could hinder some of his plans thanks to that particular activity eating up some time.

The line shrank and once Grant was up next, he marveled at the gushing stream of crystal-clear fluid gushing out of the Great Pillar. At certain angles it wasn’t visible when looking at the cave’s primary foundation but up front, it was the only thing one’s eyes could look at.

A set of wooden walls blocked out the rest of the waterfall. Hiding the specialized buildings and billowing smoke from within. This place was the village’s source of water and relaxation.

“Welcome to Joyous Springs! We have a public laundry area, a segregated male, female public bathing area, mixed bathing area, the relaxation baths and even some private sections if you and your partner are feeling a bit adventurous. Just be careful, the walls aren’t that thick and you could startle others or even start a competition! How may I help you?”

From Grant’s side popped up a hobgoblin that was all smiles. He had clear blue eyes and a head full of brown hair. Grant shot the hobgoblin a blank look and the smiling man sighed. “Ah… You’re always like this Grant. Shouldn’t you smile more and be a bit less non-enthusiastic?” The goblin elbowed him and Grant sagged his arms defeated.

“Cliff, I don’t have time. I’ll humor you next time but for now I just really need my clothes cleaned and my body scrubbed. As for my payment I’ll give you a sack of potatoes once I return for another wash.”

Cliff the hobgoblin lost his smile and sadly allowed Grant entrance after nodding. The concept of medium of exchanges existed not in Ortus. The citizens were honest and disciplined enough that conning others were rare and extremely frowned upon.

Barter ruled Ortus. Things are exchanged for work services or goods as long as the two parties agree that their trade would be of equal value. Food usually sufficed for small cost things.

Grant disappeared into the interiors of the Joyous Springs. Entering a public laundry area and getting to work immediately. Grabbing a cup of powdered makeshift detergent, he stripped himself naked. Sitting besides other goblins scrubbing their clothes by the goblin made pool, Grant and his acquaintances did their best on focusing on laundry.

“DARLING~ YES!”

“YEARGH!”

‘God fucking damn it. I forgot the horny ones use this place during nightly hours.’ Grant cringed again, reeling back his desire of running away from the Joyous Springs. Living up to its double-sided meaning, Grant had thoughts of trying one of those relaxation baths one day. And all that melted away at the idea of hearing moans during bathing.

With his eyes hollowing out from despair and secondhand embarrassment, Grant finished his laundry and grabbed two baskets. One had the clothes he would wear next, and the other stored the freshly washed ones.

“Alright finish washing them then get your legs off the damn pool!” Out came a shout. Goblins hurried their laundry and a few seconds after the pool full of now murky, soapy water vanished down a huge hole which opened up at the bottom of the pool.

Up next new clear water filled in the old one and the people went back to washing.

The goblin took a bath, entering another special pool full of goblins easing up and sinking into the water as if laxative forced them asleep. Bubbles surfaced from underneath and soon stopped.

No, they weren’t drowning.

Grant sank into the pool as well, and he let the waters take him and held his breath.

As his body sank into the water, he opened his eyes and saw strange red runes glowing on the bottom of the pool. Their glow soon turned into a burst of heat, warming up the waters and soon causing the pool to steam. Effectively turning into a hot spring.

‘This is nice.’ Grant eyed the filth hugging his body and he could see them being stripped off by the hot water. Dead skin cells and dried sweat mixed into the water, although it would have been disgusting the more one would think about it, the bathing pool in itself was magical.

All the dirt were sucked into the scalding hot runes. Disintegrating into nothingness.

Grant felt the heat caress his body, easing his worries and relaxing tensed muscles.

A successful bathing session later, the goblin exited the springs and Cliff waved him off with a smile he ignored. The little tour around Ortus which he had combined with his brunch gave the goblin enough energy in tackling the new day.

Grant went back home, grabbed a small and a large sack of spare potatoes, paid his fee at the springs then headed somewhere else. Coming close to the great pillar he climbed the set of ropes and ladders tied firmly on the side and ascended, sometimes stopping at a few designated resting spots that have water barrels and mugs.

Grant climbed.

Higher and higher until he was at the edge of nearly reaching the ceiling of the cave connected to the Great Pillar. Isolated from the rest of Ortus lay holes digging up into the ceiling themselves. Just standing at the entrance leading higher, Grant could already hear dinging sounds coming, resonating and tickling his ears.

The sounds of roaring flames. Hearty laughs and hammers striking metal.

Grant entered Ortus’ blacksmiths and he presented his large harvest of potatoes, cheeks slightly reddening at a doubt whether or not one large sack of potatoes big enough in enveloping a hobgoblin whole is enough payment.

Grant presented the potatoes on the counter in front of a one eyed hobgoblin wearing an eyepatch.

“Hmn? A goblin?” The eye patch hobgoblin craned his head forwards, opting a closer look. His hand left the counter’s underside and one traced over to his eyepatch and he raised it. Unveiling a sinister golden eye staring at Grant.

A chill ran down Grant’s spine. The eye glowed and a flash of understanding gleamed inside the goblin’s eyes. “So what are you here for Grant?” The hobgoblin laughed then leaned back on his seat, easing visibly all the while Grant started overthinking again.

‘I haven’t even introduced myself yet…’

‘Something’s wrong with that eye.’

‘Should I leave?’

Lost in a labyrinth of thoughts, Grant presented his payment method on the stone counter and the hobgoblin Grant would refer to as “Eyepatch” fiddled with the goods.

“Potatoes? These things are fine, we could always use some food up here since climbing back up is a hassle. What do you want little goblin? I can give you something simple but anything more expensive won’t do.” Eyepatch scratched his chin and tossed the food down one of the dark corridors and a bunch of excited yells resounded.

“I need a bow fitted to my size and maybe a few spare arrows.”

“Will do.”

Eyepatch left his counter and effectively disappeared into the dark corridors. Surfacing moments later and tossing a bow bent into an “M” like shape down Grant’s way.

Grant caught it and inspected the bow. A small composite bow fitted to his size crafted from horn, wood and spider silk laminated together. Eyepatch tossed a single strap quiver to the goblin with twenty stone tipped arrows inside it.

Now that he had a weapon, Grant turned around and looked down at the whole village. The climb wasn’t really pleasant and it took a whole hour getting up here from hundreds of feet from the ground.

The goblin turned around and saw Eyepatch looking at him with a smile. “It’s a long way down. You’re gonna waste a whole lot of time going the hard path.”

“Then how am I going to get down faster?” Grant inquired. Eyepatch laughed at him and tied some ropes to him and picked him up.

“I think I’ll go down the hard way.”

“Nah, its your first time here and this is how we do things here for our customers!”

“Have a safe trip!” Eyepatch laughed and tossed Grant off the ceiling of the cave.

The ropes tied on his back grew taut, a baggy sheet of silk curved into a semi balloon shape and acted as a parachute.

The climb took Grant an hour, the descent took no more than a few minutes.

With his feet touching the ground, Grant’s body drowning in adrenaline stumbled and he fell down.

He gasped for breath and shook himself calm. Folding the parachute with curses ringing inside his head.

Bow and arrows in hand, Grant snuck out of Ortus and arrived at his usual hangout. The cliff overlooking the forests and twirled an arrow in his fingertips. With one breath he drew the bow and accidentally let go.

His arrow flew and it pierced through the eye of a goat that was staring at him.

"Shit my bad." Grant scratched his head.