It took me a bit of time to understand what was going. Maybe a few weeks even, but when the fog left my mind, I was shaken to the core.
I remembered that last moment. The woman slipping while her arms held a baby, my rushing to pull her away from the broken railing on those damned stairs, and my short yet infinite time falling to my death.
Now here I was, waking up once more, in a body that most definitely was not the one I remembered. Then darkness again as the shock was simply too much for me to stay conscious.
I don’t know how much time passed, but as soon as I woke up, I felt more alert. The fog in my mind slipping away leaving just my regular anxious thought process and even that was slowly calming.
It was as if my mind became sharper and was getting even better as my senses slowly upgraded. No, they were simply starting to work, because this body was too young.
The tiny hands that were attached to my tiny arms were my first clue. The dozen or so babies around me, some crying some calm, the second clue.
I decided to go back to sleep, let the fog recede completely before thinking anymore.
The next time I woke up it was as if the baby-wheels came off for the first time in both of my life's. My mind was crystal clear in a way I had never experienced and my senses let me pick up sound even beyond the room I was in.
Then I noticed that it was not a room, but a cave, with some makeshift door. All the place smelled exactly of what you would expect a dozen soiled babies if you had superhuman senses, and what was worse, I was pretty sure the next room had a worse smell.
My mouth and itched terribly. A quick inspection told me my teeth were growing and they were coming out very sharp. My nails too, or should I say claws? Because that was exactly what they looked like.
“Holy shit, this is not a normal human body.”
I felt silly thinking so late about it with so many obvious reasons to notice piling in my mind. I was seeing everything in total darkness, babies with long ears and noses, claws and sharp teeth.
For a moment I tried to do my best to think just what I was. The ears were very elven like, but the claws threw me off. The babies were too round faced and chubby to actually give me an idea.
So, I waited, dozing off for a while and waking up to the crying babies to see if some adult came. Not that I could move a lot, this body was too weak and even just moving my neck and arms was exhausting.
Then the door finally creaked open, light so bright it stung my eyes painfully, it was a torch. A wave of crying babies shrieked as if they were being burned alive as a creature came into view.
Green, long ears, long nose, claws. Some makeshift clothes barely covering enough. His red, bloodshot eyes looked around as he began chucking some kind of round fruit to each baby, including me.
He left just as he came and soon darkness filled the room again, but even as the other babies were slowly starting to eat their fruits, I was too shocked.
That was a goblin. I was a goblin.
-
Around a week passed and we were moved into smaller groups in different rooms inside the cave. Most of the babies already crawling around, but a few including me, walking around in unsteady legs.
As scary as it was to be one of the most hated, killed and totally underestimated races in all of the fantasy there was some silver lining.
For starters my mind was like switching from some old pc to a state-of-the-art new gaming one. That was it, the only real upside.
Yeah, enhanced senses sound great, but not when you live with goblins as they use even their own makeshift beds as toilets, preferring to simply use another cave until the smell in the first one was more... acceptable.
Night vision was great except that it was really hard to pick up colors beside red. So, goblin red eyes? Easy to see. Blood? If for some reason you didn’t smell, sure. Then it was the fact any light source would make your eyes water and hurt as if someone was pushing needles into them. Great, but not that great.
Faster healing was a thing too, which made me realize something about the ugly creatures around me. Besides the obvious big nose, long ears and clawed hands and feet, they weren’t that ugly, if you squinted a bit.
Those skin deformities and weird malformations came from bad healing. Goblins are like sharks and they bite and claw each other for whatever reason they find important or amusing, which in turn leave nails and teeth embedded into each other. No one, and I mean not a single goblin, have i seen actually taking out those things out. So, skin grows over it, around it and then we have the perfect horrible looking, nightmare inducing goblin.
Yeah, not me. Fuck that, I take out every bit I can from any wound the babies (brothers?) leave me. I even managed to get a cute, dirt smelling vest to keep my back protected.
-
Another week passes and most baby goblins have graduated to teenage goblins, at least in my mind.
They walk, run and jump around. Growl, fight, bite and pretty much annoy everyone, even themselves.
The adults swat them around and laugh about it. At least I believe the “Gyhie” sound they make is a laugh.
Food is doubled. One fruit and some dubious meat slice that is not enough to feed them all so they have to fight for it.
The first couple days they gave us some of that meat I decided to skip the fight and just keep eating my fruits. By the third day my stomach was growling so much I had to let my instincts work and fight for it.
Luckily for me I was not actually a baby goblin so I knew how to fight a bit, cheat, hide stuff and be a general terror of the feeding time. I still felt bad for stealing food from kids so I simply took a big share and let them fight for the rest.
This earned me some praises from the adults and some respect from my peers. At least I think so, reading goblin emotion is hard when even the kids have fantasy witch face.
By the end of that week, I could feel and see the difference in size to the rest. I was taller, more bulky and stronger.
-
The next week was an eye opener. I thought that maybe it was my mind that was simply sharper from being reborn in a fantasy world. It was in fact not the case as every goblin seems to have that cunning mental process.
I believe it is in part to being so young, but when we were put all together in a room with a small brazier and an old looking goblin began teaching us how to speak, I was left... speechless by just how fast everyone was learning.
It actually took me a bit longer to learn, probably because I kept translating things in my mind until I purposedly stopped doing it, and holy green monster, this language is deep.
There are words for everything and rules for writing that are even more complex than English. Only a few of us kept coming back to the lessons to learn to write properly, which was seen with divisive views. The more warrior like goblins sneered while the more (and lesser in quantity) mindfully oriented ones praised us from afar.
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It was fun and gave me a lot to do with my free time. The elder really didn’t care too much and kept answering any and all question related to the language, not so much about anything else.
-
I stopped counting time as I noticed a second batch of babies being fed four to five times a day. Which means until I can get out and feel a whole cycle of day and night, I couldn’t trust my own senses to keep track of time.
In the meantime, I started secretly working out. Basic routines, nothing too hard, but the results were obvious to me when compared to my brothers (batch?). I was even stronger and faster than anyone on my weight class. Big goblins were still a ‘don’t even fucking try’.
-
One day there was a big fight. I didn’t quite catch what was going on at first, but it was clear once the biggest meanest of the goblins charged at the fattest one that it was a Coup de Etat. The goblin kind, which meant the two leaders fought to the death while all and every other goblin able to fight started trying to kill whoever they hated the most for shits and giggles.
I survived. My vest didn’t.
Armor was overpowered against unarmed goblins. I had to fight off at least three at the same time and if not for that cheap leather piece that was a bit too small for my current size, I would have ended my Isekai career quite early.
In the heat of the moment, killing my peers was easy. Adrenaline giving me that extra punch to go all rip and tear on them.
After the things calmed down, I retreated to the place of the elder in his brazier lit room. I sat down and cried for quite some time. The elder didn’t say a word.
I didn’t enjoy killing them, even after watching their little goblin sneering faces trying to end my life. Maybe it was because I had to do it with my own hands, feeling their hot blood and their bodies going limp. Maybe because I remembered being a human.
I noticed this was the first time since waking up that anxiety was creeping on my mind.
In the end it was a do or die situation and there was nothing else for me to do. So still rattled and more than a bit sad (and angry) I decided to focus on more practical things, like taking out their teeth and claws before I healed completely.
To my surprise, the elder helped me cleaning my back and head where I couldn’t see.
When I was finished, he smiled, and holy hell, how come a goblin smiling is 100x creepier than them sneering angrily?
“Rest here, I will wake you when the chief war is over.” He said, talking to me for the first time without me asking a question about how to say something.
I nodded and as soon as my back was against the floor, exhaustion took me.
-
The new chief was strong. For a goblin, which I still believe are one of the tiniest threat in a fantasy world, when there are probably huge dragons and demons somewhere.
Still, he could crack stones with his punches and that was surprising to me as he was so fat he had problems breathing.
From what I heard from listening (eavesdropping) to the adults we lost half the den to the fight. They still refused to talk to the kids even if we were slowly reaching their size.
Soon it would be time to send us outside to gather resources. I was scared but also wanted to taste some clean air for the first time since waking up here.
-
“Kid.” The elder called to me when I was going to sleep and I quickly turned around. “Your name?”
And that was a whole can of worms I didn’t even know existed. No one has ever given me a name here, nor any other goblin besides the chief. Not that I cared too much about learning his name though.
“I see.” The elder says as I kept staring at him drawing blanks and noticing just how detached goblin society is. “Zul. It is a good name. My brother had blue eyes like you and that was his name, take it and keep it.”
I wanted to ask more, but the elder never answered questions beyond language ones. Yet I could sense that this, naming me, was a big deal.
Wait, blue eyes?
-
The next few days I began sneaking around, first to confirm that the elder was indeed correct about my eye color and second to see just how much I could pull off.
Turns out goblins are no very attentive, relaying too much in the fact that they can notice the red color easily in the dark.
So, I started taking more food for me and the elder and with how much the chief ‘Gortag the Wide’ was eating no one seemed to notice.
-
Hunting parties started to go out. Armed with daggers and spears, some even with old rusty short swords and shields.
My batch was deemed “Not wide enough!” by chief Gortag so we were to be sent last to see if we could at least survive.
For a while I thought it was a good thing, but when I noticed how our share of food was lower, as the hunters took the best stuff for them, I had to double on my stealing.
As days passed the whole den shifted from the skinny goblin to more fat bodies. Besides my batch that was kept bordering starvation (not me and the elder thanks to my sneaking around) it was clear that the goblins were following suit of the chief and everyone was getting more and more mass. The fact that their bodies shifted so quick was another wake-up call to understand just how different the goblin body was.
There were a lot of darker questions living rent free in the back of my mind about goblins, but for the sake of my sanity I decided to keep them there until I was unable to hide anymore.
I did keep training my body constantly and the elder approved of me doing it, which was one of the few positive interactions I had with someone.
Truth be told, goblins make for very bad conversationalist and even worse company in general.
So, with that routine, working out, sneaking for food and learning goblinoid, days passed until it was our group time to venture outside.
As I was by far the tallest and strongest of the group I was given a choice of weapon. I took the spear because a quick inspection told me it was the least prone to break on the first stab.
I took stock of my party, four malnourished goblins, three of them with dagger and the last one and me with spears. Not a lot to work with.
I did hope to find some kind of clothing on the outside because I really missed my vest. That and going around naked like most of the goblins was slowly eroding my sanity.
We walked outside for the first time and once on the opening of the cave accompanied by one of the most seasoned hunters of the den. The other adult besides the elder to not pay attention to the chief and his eating disorder.
“Come back before the sun is right above you and don’t leave too much tracks.” He said as we saw the forest barely illuminated by the starry sky.
“What is sun?” The goblin spearman in my party asked.
It took several seconds of staring in disbelief before the hunter seemingly remembered we were something like the black sheep batch. “Big shiny, do not watch for long. It moves so come back before it is above your head.” He adds slowly as if talking with people that barely grasp a language.
“Big shiny bad.” Adds one of the dagger goblins and that is the last word spoken before the hunter goes back into the cave.
The collective group turns then to me and it takes me a beat to understand they need guidance and I’m the bigger one which mean I'm the leader. With a sigh I signaled them to follow me and into the forest we slowly made our way.
It took a good 100 feet to finally leave behind the stench of the goblin cave and when I finally tried to breathe in deep the clean air I started coughing up. It was too much, like I was assaulted by the smells of nature.
The senses of a goblin were too strong, which means that maybe the filthy lifestyle had a deeper meaning. Maybe destroying your sense of smell to stop this from happening? Or maybe I was giving the goblins too much credit by even thinking there was something more to it.
As I turned around, I could see the other goblins going through the same, some even going as far as trying to stuff their nose with whatever they found. I just took some dirt and smeared it under my nose just to have a grounding smell to focus on.
I waited a bit more for the goblins and then called at them to keep going. I was pretty sure we didn’t have a lot of time to learn and even less of a chance of not getting killed if we came back empty handed. Which did open a line of though, should I even come back to the den?
We walked for hours and the whole group slowly started walking softly above the earth to not sink our claws in it, which made our footsteps leave very little trace. Then we started stepping on roots and stones for the same reason and just like that ground tracks were gone. We kept getting little cuts from bushes and low branches so we evaded those too.
In a couple hours we went from leaving tracks so easy to follow it was a joke to seasoned scout. It was terrifying to me to think just how brutally cunning such simple creatures can be, even worse was the fact that I was one of them and I didn’t do any of that on purpose, just instincts.
Shaking off that uncanny feeling I kept guiding the small group deeper into the forest. We did find some birds, rabbits and even a fox, but even with how fast we were there was no way for us to kill them and after throwing his spear once, the second goblin spearman in my group was degraded to regular goblin. His sad face almost made me feel bad.
As I was dwelling on the idea of never going back because there was no way for us to get any food, we came across a clearing just as the light of the dawn was breaking.
Then we froze, looking at a group of creatures. Some were sleeping and a couple of them was going around their camp. The smell of food barely noticeable as we were approaching was now making us salivate.
I was sure the only reason they didn’t smell our stench was because they were simple, regular humans, but i could spy armors, swords and real spears. There was also a tent that was filled with subtly bright books that shouted ‘magic’ to me.
As i turned to asses my group I suppressed the urge to facepalm as they were slowly starting to creep into the clearing, teeth bare and daggers out. I started signaling them to stop, but it was all for nothing, they didn’t listen.
These were not regular humans, these were adventurers and goblins like us, away from their den, were just a footnote or less.