I was panicking. I had to reach the kids room before anything could happen, but at the same time was so scared for my life that I was second guessing taking any turn too fast lest I get blindsided in a corner.
As I finally reached the tunnel leading to the baby room, I could hear two voices arguing. To my surprise I could make out some of their words as part of the words the elder taught me were being repeated, but used in a different way.
“...babies! No... Threat!” A woman argued and if I was right, the voice was trying to convince the man that the babies were harmless.
I unsheathed my sword-dagger, keeping it close and hidden under my cloak while I creeped closer. Their torch may not let me get too close, at least if they were paying attention, but the babies wailing made it easy for me to blend my steps into the noise.
“You... no... understand! They die or you die.” The girl turned as the man said that and in that split second, she saw me. I let my instincts take over and ran as fast as my two legs and left arm could take me.
If I was still a human, I would look silly and dumb running like that, but the body of a goblin had long legs and arms, paired with my strangely large physique and it was now as if a night terror was rushing them.
“Watch out!” She managed to say, but he reacted too slow, trying to unsheathe his own sword. The moment he finished turning around and readying his sword, the tip of my sword-dagger was already poking outside his back, impaling him from his stomach.
I twisted my weapon and felt something break inside him and he went immediately limp.
The girl began conjuring something, her hands shining as translucent energy swirled around her. I could feel myself go pale instantly, remembering how powerful spells are.
I took a long step away from here, my back against the tunnel. My eyes stinging from the light, but refusing to close them out of fear, I reacted with the first thing that came to my mind.
“No threat!” I yelled at her repeating the words in the same tone she used before and it was hard. I probably had a heavy goblinoid accent after only speaking it for so long.
The energy was ready to be released, I could tell as it vibrated impatiently in her hands. The smell of ozone, sweat and blood, and the wailing of the babies was the only thing I could perceive for a while.
She was unsure. Looking from me towards the dead warrior and back towards the babies wailing.
“Babies. No. Threat.” I repeated, saying the words slower and then decided to risk it by adding something in goblinoid to see if she could at least understand it a bit. “Babies, do not like light. Light hurts them.”
After a moment she twisted, her hands still ready to release her spell, but now the torch that she still held was casting her shadow towards the baby's door. The wailing calmed and it made her and me more relaxed.
“Disarm” she said and it took me a moment to realize I was still carrying the spear on my back. I let it fall to the ground, knowing that I was not truly disarmed as long as I had my claws and teeth.
Then we proceeded to make the slowest dance of my life. Shuffling step by step in the tunnel so that my back ended towards the nursery and she could leave.
By the end of it I was expecting her to release the spell and kill me, but she didn’t. She simply nodded, took the warrior’s necklace in a swift motion and left with quick steps.
After securing my sword-dagger I checked that the kids were fine and closed the door.
I focused on my hearing for a moment longer and could catch faint fighting inside the tunnels echoing deeper, my sharp senses telling me that it was coming from the throne room side, meaning the elder was fine so far.
My loot craving and adrenaline-fueled mind sent me straight towards the warrior that now laid dead on the floor. He had armor protecting his upper chest, shoulders and hands. There were also boots, knee protection and some kind of metallic kilt. The rest of his body was protected by heavy clothing, leather and some mail, just not enough to stop me from charging through his midsection.
I took it all, leaving him with his clothing only.
For weapons he carried a longsword. If we were to fight fair, he would have the advantage of range over me. Strangely enough his longsword was almost the same weight of my sword-dagger. Strange.
He also had a knife on his boots that I took, some coins and a letter that I couldn’t understand. I stuffed everything into my backpack.
--
I stalked around the nursery for a while before running back towards the elder. He seemed happy to see me, bur frowned a bit when I dropped my loot in his room.
We didn’t talk as I decided to leave once more to check how things were going and I found myself staring at several goblin corpses around. Most of them with slashes all over their bodies.
There was some kind of epic fight happening in the throne room. I could feel faint vibrations on the floor and hear his fat growling even from afar.
Deciding that was too much for me, I stalked towards the other side to see if the entrance was open. To my surprise I saw a group of humans walking in the darkness, barely illuminated by the same mage girl magic from before.
The girl was leading a tall burly man with a two-handed axe that probably failed to do a lot inside these tunnels, and another girl with white robes that was silently sobbing.
I creeped around them and they didn’t seem to notice me. I was wondering just what they were doing still inside, instead of joining the big fight or leaving. They didn’t even smell of blood, which mean they didn’t fight at all.
A couple minutes of following around was enough to test my goblin patience, so I barked from quite the distance using a corner to hide most of my body.
“No threat!”
“Eek!” The white robbed girl almost peed herself as she crouched covering her head, fearful. The burly man turned around to put his body between me and the group, even if I could clearly see in the dark that he was positioned completely wrong.
The mage girl whispered a few reassuring words to them and then said “Babies. No. Threat.”
‘Heh, I can’t stop myself from petty’ I thought before talking one more. “Disarm.” I said and the axe man and white robed girl paled.
“Nyehehe. No. Disarm.” I laughed and I could see the ears of the mage girl go red from embarrassment, probably at having a goblin toy with them “Leave” I finally added making my voice as slow and serious as I could.
They looked at each other. The white robed girl crying, the burly man frowning and the mage girl getting more red.
Then she said “Lost” and all I could do was facepalm before bursting with laughter.
--
Leading them to the entrance was easy. It was actually a lot of fun to see just how out of their depth they were, so I assumed they were either new adventurers or have never been into a cave system like this.
I laughed so much at first that the mage girl was about to start crying so I decided to hold back a little. I did snicker quite a bit.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
When we reached the entrance, I looked around to see if there were more humans around, but it was just them. Then it was time for me to go back inside.
“Thank you.” I heard the white robed girl and the mage say at the same time.
When I turned around, I could see their breath hitch as they could look me with the light of the day. I nodded at them, the burly man nodded back and that was it, I went back into the den.
--
I went directly to the elder room and waited for the fight to die down. Then news came around the place that the chief was victorious in a deadly fight against a group of full armored humans.
The experience to me was once again, bittersweet. Goblins once more died without a chance, especially young ones. The few ones that survived among the young were the ones that rushed directly to the throne room.
On the flipside the humans showed the kind of behavior I would expect from them. Some good, some bad. Capable of trusting others even in the worst situation if showed with enough to believe.
If I was a regular goblin that learned a bit of how they think I could easily trick them into lowering their guard and defeat them. Those three got lucky, if they had found a fatguard or Tolio the hunter they would have died so fast it was no joke.
Maybe we could put some traps around the woods to keep humans away. What about a sign of this place being haunted? I would have to talk with both the elder and Tolio, give them ideas so they could talk to the chief.
The next day I was called to the throne room where most of the surviving goblins were already reunited. Tolio didn’t look me in the eyes when I tried to nod at him and that made me weary.
“Aha! Finally, the slim coward shows his face.” said Gortag “So when everyone was defending their good wide leader, you decided to hide under the old fart tunic.”
“I was-” Suddenly one of the guards punched me in the stomach so hard I immediately puked.
“I have no use for cowards in my den.” Gortag continued with a mischievous tone creeping into his speech “But I am as good as I am wide. If you show that you are at least as resistant me I will keep you around.”
That was when I saw the truly sadistic face on most of the goblins in the room as they charged at me, teeth bare and claws ready.
--
I woke up feeling only pain. I was mostly wheezing as I looked around with a single eye, unsure if I even had my other one.
“Are you awake?” I heard the voice of the elder walking towards me. I could also hear another set of feet in the room. I grunted a somewhat positive sound, because I really didn’t feel like talking.
“Good. Your wounds are clean, but your bones broke too much. I do not think you can heal on your own.” He said as he put a cold cloth and wet on my forehead. In the midst of such painful state, it was like heaven.
“Stay still, I will see what I can do.” said the elder and then he left the room.
To my surprise, the second set of steps stayed inside, moving around me right beyond my field of vision.
When the elder came back he was accompanied by the smell of dirt and leaves, which probably belonged to Tolio the hunter.
“I do not see a point of this, elder.” Tolio said as they were closing in.
“You were all too hasty. That fat fuck is going to be the end of us if he keeps pushing good goblins like this.” responded the elder with venom oozing from his words.
“Careful elder...”
There was a long pause before the elder clicked his tongue with disapproval.
“Zul? Are you still awake?” I grunted positively “Can you talk?” Another grunt “Then tell this dumb kid what you were doing during the invasion.”
It took me a while to find a tone loud enough to be heard and not harsh enough for me to keep for talking while. I recounted the facts, the warrior that wanted to kill the kids, my ambush. I told them the mage left scared, then I kept stalking close the nursery to keep the kids safe.
Tolio with perfect use of goblin etiquette simply said “Shit.” and the silence lingered for a while before he asked “Do you have proof?”
“Proof? The kid dumped his junk all over the place.” Some shuffling and then the metal sound of armor clinking against the floor could be heard.
“Shit!” exclaimed Tolio, angry. “Shit, shit, shit. They almost killed you for saving the newest batch.”
“Anything else to add?” Said the elder as if expecting hunter to say something specific.
“Shit fuck!”
With a sigh the elder kept going with that tone of a teacher that is disappointed in his student “His bones...”
“Right, I will go get some roots.” He started walking away and stopped by the edge of the cave “Do not die.”
---
The next few times I woke up it was just me being constantly in pain. My mind going places I didn’t know existed.
Once I even tried to stand up to go to work, that memory ingrained heavily inside my human mind.
I’m pretty sure I started talking in English, broken Spanish and maybe some French. It was like when I used to get wasted with my friends with college. Except for how painfully aware I was of my impending death.
There were short moments that snapped into my memory. Specially of the elder trying to understand whatever gibberish I was saying.
“Loot goblins do not exist and we do not bite ankles for fun!” I remember vividly the elder saying in outrage, followed by my laughter, then crying myself to sleep.
I also remember another voice “Is he going to get better oldblin?”
“Stop with that awful name kid. Yes, if that hunter finds the roots I need in time.”
When I asked about the voice the elder told me to stop listening to my fever.
--
I woke up again feeling a lot better, to my relief both of my eyes working. I took stock of my body and besides the lingering pain it was almost as good as new.
Then I saw my hands, both of my pinky fingers missing completely. I sat there in the floor while staring at my eight fingers.
“If you find a healer or purple potion from a human they can grow back, maybe.”
I didn’t yell like a little goblin from the elder surprising me, even if he kept laughing for a while about it.
He gave me an awful tea and told me to sleep more so I did just that.
--
The next day the elder told me more or less what happened in the last two weeks that I spent on bed. The hunter managed to find the roots, that the elder called the ‘Elven Roots’ and he used them to make a salve.
He explained a few things about what happened to my body after that. First, I was going to heal a little faster for a while, until the effects of the root flushed from my system. Second, my skin was going to be a lot more tough and that was a permanent change, an uncommon one because goblins that use that kind of salve rarely have so many wounds that need healing.
He also told me to never tell anyone about it because only the elder and the hunter, and now me, know about it and it should stay like that.
At last, he explained to me that the chief set his raid to the next new moon. Which was going to finally give us the chance to talk freely.
--
The changes were a bit deeper than what the elder said. My skin was almost impervious to goblin claws, which is not a lot, but should help with animal bites too. Goblin teeth were still capable of piercing my skin and so were most weapons.
Me bones felt different too, heavier. It took me a whole week of trying things around to start sneaking again.
I was also stronger. Not as strong as the fatguards or the chief, but enough to surprise even myself.
I had to relearn a bit how to use my weapons. Four finger hands are different, but once more goblin cunning proved brutally efficient at getting the basics working fast.
My eyes stung a little less from the light and that was really nice. The elder room was a lot more comfortable now, while early mornings and later afternoons were passable outside.
Besides my own physical changes there were some changes within the den. Some people still snarled at me when I walked by, but other lower their head in a sign of respect.
Later I found out that Tolio told people what I did to save the babies. Maybe the seasoned hunter didn’t have the chief good graces, but he was the one that brought the most food into the den so people always listened to him.
Life was not good and relaxed anymore in the den for me and leaving was constantly becoming something I wanted to do more eagerly. A choice I will take after I finally have that conversation with the elder.
--
Time tickled slowly now that I had a date for that fated conversation with the elder. In the mean time I had to busy myself with whatever I could.
I put more stitches into my cloak, backpack and scabbard so that it didn’t break. It looked worse, but felt more secure.
After that I did my best to use that armor, but the parts simply didn’t fit. I managed to put on the arm, shoulder and knee bits but that was it. At least my claws were free and I had enough protection to survive if I got lucky enough to get hit on those particular places.
My hunting trips started to take longer as I really didn’t want to stay too long inside the den. The stares and nervousness of the other goblins was too much to withstand for me. Especially when any kind of good mood dropped the moment I entered any cave.
So now, here I was sitting on a high branch of a tree, looking at the forest as dawn was beginning to break, drowning myself in my thoughts.
Besides the obvious anxiety, there was some development on that side. My personality was changed since being reborn here. No matter how I thought about it, I just didn’t even feel bad about killing that man during the invasion.
Stealing was easy, hunting and killing animals too. Things I wouldn’t dare to do on my previous life.
There was fear inside me, that those memories would fade away and what made me a human would simply disappear. But here, in this moment while looking at the dawn, I took a vow.
To be myself. If I was uncaring about that, so be it. As long as I could still be good with who or what I want, not kneeling to others, that was enough.
Maybe being a goblin, free of attachments to rules, was not such a bad thing after all.