Chapter 188

Piece of You

I staggered. The uneven cobblestone hurt my chances of staying upright. My head spun, and I brought a hand up to still my head, but I couldn’t find myself. Using a Brewer’s Portal over such a distance felt like I’d absorbed too many skill books at once while being punched in the gut. Nausea welled within. Though the Brewer’s Portal was a diamond ranked beer, it still depleted my mana to near zero which left me feeling even more drained. I could barely make a fist. I fell to a knee as the street swayed in my vision.

“Holy shit,” I muttered.

“Up ye go!” said Eric.

He lifted me, and I shook my head to clear my vision. I regained my senses after a moment, and I leaned into a run the moment I felt sure of my foothold.

“Which way?” I said.

Eric pointed. “Ye don’t need to be a fish to spot the vast body of water straight over there.”

Eric raced past me, and I urged on. Footsteps beat the cobblestone right behind us. Hiccup and his butlers sprinted after us. Abigail flashed forward with Corylus beside her. Only Thrush was missing, but he said he’d be right by her side.

It was uncanny to be in a city again. Where there would have been pine needles, cobblestones filled the street as far as the eye could see. Where there would have been trees, people walked about. Where there would have been ridges, buildings blocked the view. Where there was the sea, there was still the sea. I kept my line of sight fixed on the water above Eric’s head as I trailed him. We nearly plowed through people.

“Excuse me!” I said.

After a few blocks, I started to see more and more goblins milling about.

“Excuse me, sorry!” I said as we broke through a group of folks.

What happened to Barnacle-eyes? I should have asked Eric, but I had instead jumped into action.

“Eric?” I called, but he was too far ahead of me.

I clipped someone’s shoulder and I nearly lost my balance.

“Watch where you’re going dingleberry!” they said.

“Apologies!” I said.

As we descended the hill to the pier, I saw tons of goblins. They surrounded a rough shack, and I knew they were going to be tricky to speed through. Eric tripped over a couple that ran right in his path.

“Listen up snots!” I said with my whole chest.

Every single goblin froze. Their ears went back, and they went wide-eyed. Most of them glanced around for the owner of that voice of authority. In their pause, I slipped by them without issue. Eric rose to his feet. A few goblins hung from his body like he’d picked up sticky hitchhikers in tall grass. He set them down one by one as he hurdled over others.

“That’s Green-fin!” he said, pointing at the rough shack right by on the water by the boardwalk. “She’s in there.”

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Goblins were in a panic just outside the doors to Green-fin. I recognized Gabby and Remember-not. They waved as they hopped. There were humans among the goblins. Some of them looked like the city guard. Others looked to be city Healers. Something must have happened. I hoped Barnacle-eyes wasn’t hurt.

I kept hoping as we came upon Green-fin. “Barnacle-eyes!” I said. “Where is the Admiral?”

Goblins wrung their hands, and they pushed me through the door to the shack. A goblin was wailing horribly. The sound was coming from someone’s soul. It was a sound that the heart and the voice was made to create together. Green-fin was packed, and all the goblins wrung their hands and ears.

“ Out of the way, please!” I said, as I pushed through the crowd.

Goblins pressed back, and I saw Thrush sitting beside Barnacle-eyes. She was crumpled over Slime-tooth’s body, rocking and wailing.

I halted. “Shit,” I whispered.

I knelt beside Barnacle-eyes. She had placed cheese all around him. There were cracked open dreambons and open bottles of spit beer.

“Barnacle-eyes, I’m so sorry,” I said.

The goblin was a wreck. It couldn’t be said that tears were falling from her eyes. Two streams of fast water flowed down her cheeks and fell from her chin.

“H-hawkin?” she said. She gestured to the cheese beside Slime-tooth’s body. “Hawkin, he’s not waking up for the cheese. The humans couldn’t wake him up either. They said… They said…”

City Healers came up beside me. Abigail, Eric, and Hiccup were there with them.

A city guard said, “He’s passed. There was nothing we could do. Several healers worked on him. They said it was his heart.”

“Barnacle-eyes, do you understand what’s going on?” I said.

“I don’t want to understand!” she said. “I want Slime-tooth!”

“I know you do, and I can see that. I want Slime-tooth too.”

“Why him? Why now? Why can’t the humans help him? Humans are supposed to have all the magic! Why isn’t anyone helping Slime-tooth? Is it because he’s a goblin?”

“There's a lot of things that magic can’t do. Did humans come in here and take a look at him?” Barnacle-eyes nodded as light sparkled from the two streams that poured from her heart. “Were they gentle?” She nodded. “They must've done everything they could.”

She looked at me with eyes that I could have sworn had changed since I last saw her. “What about you?” she said. “You’ve always done more than everything. You can do anything.”

I had to look away. “Slime-tooth was one of the best goblins I ever met,” I said at long last. “It seems like he’s gone now, but he’ll always be with you. And with me too. You’ll find him again after a while. He’s in our hearts now.”

“No, no, no! Don’t say that! You only say that when someone dies!”

“I know this is hard but—”

“Thrush, can you do something?” She said, and wailed after her sentence.

“No, Barnacle-eyes,” said Thrush. “Never more than now have I wished I could do something about that. Slime-tooth is dead.”

Barnacle-eyes clutched her dress over her heart. She toppled over her knees and said, “I think I’m going too! It hurts so much!”

That feeling was a ripping crushing madness that transformed a person. It was a true horror of the world. Thrush could not match its horror. It was a feeling that would stay with her all her life, and though it would change colors and shapes, there will forever be that endless hole.

“Do you feel like a piece of you is gone?” I said. Barnacle-eyes rolled to her knees, and she nodded big. “And it’s very, very painful.” She nodded. “It feels like a piece of me is gone too.”

“So it’s spreading?” she said.

“Look at all the goblins around you.”

She wiped her eyes over and over like she was trying to wipe away grease. “I can’t see anything.”

“Then I’ll tell you what’s happening. It looks like every goblin here knew Sime-tooth. Gabby, Pinky-chew, Remember-not, do you feel like a piece of you is gone too? What about everyone else?”

Goblins sniffled and murmured and whispered and choked on their own breaths.

“You guys too?” said Barnacle-eyes.

“We’re going to share our grief together, so that no goblin goes through it alone, okay?”

She looked straight through my eyes. “Me and Slime-tooth were supposed to be the best there ever was together. Why would he leave me behind?”