Bula shared some alcohol that was made by the Slendals. The taste was pretty awful but after just a few sips I could already feel my mind starting to relax.

“This seems pretty strong for a cup this big,” as I pointed to the massive stone cup that was the size of my head.

Bula laughed and nodded as she tipped hers back and took a few swigs. She set her cup down on the ground she leaned back in her chair.

“It is not easy making smaller cups out of this rock. That is why they are all so large and poorly made. Most of the ore we find goes to Yashk and his group. If he would share more ore with us we could craft more tools and other useful things.”

I had learned that Yashk was the leader of the Slendals and that they usually stayed in a few of the other caves and caverns off of the main one we had come down in. They used these glowing worms for a variety of things. Alcohol, fishing bait, and other things she said she did not want to talk about.

“Why do they need so much ore? Are they making weapons or something with it?”

“Yashk likes shiny things. He lets us keep some so we can make more tools to mine with but I have been told that he has a massive cavern filled with ore and metal objects. All the Slendals work without complaining. If Yashk says something they obey without question.”

I had more questions about them and their relationship with the Slendals. Knowing that they had made a few goblin Slendals was one topic I would wait to discuss but what I really wanted to know was how long both groups could really live down here without a fight breaking out. An enclosed space, a lack of shared resources, it just seemed like a fight waiting to happen.

“They do all of the fishing too?”

Bula nodded and waved off a goblin who had come in with more alcohol.

“We provide the physical labor of searching and mining for more ore. They struggled with that side of things. Being as big as they are requires massive tools and digging huge caves. Our needs were much smaller so he was more than happy to trade one task for another.”

It made some sense. Like a symbiotic relationship of some kind. Each got what they needed from the other.

Bula stood up and swayed a little bit on her feet.

“Enough with the questions! It is time for you and I to complete our pact in making our tribe stronger,” she declared with a grin.

She walked over to me and straddled me as I sat on my rock.

I could feel her and smell her as she started to grind against me. Part of me wanted this but the part of me that was committed to my wife told me I did not.

“You need to take me to the back part of my cave and show me what a champion can do,” she said as she put her mouth against my ear and started to bite down on it.

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I felt trapped. I knew if I told her no and pushed her away that there would be a great fallout. The other part of me wished there was more than just some primal desire to procreate with the strongest male she could find. I knew she would just ignore me after she got what she wanted and that did not sit well with me.

I wrapped my arms around her and stood up as she wrapped her legs around my waist.

“I will do what I do to prove myself on one condition," I said as I looked her in the eyes.

She saw the look I was giving her and she leaned her head to her side. I was not sure if she was upset that I would give her a condition about this or intrigued.

“I’m listening.”

“You will not ask this from Turk or Dirk, the two younger ones who follow me. Promise me that and I am yours.”

Bula glared at me for a moment.

“And if I say no?”

“I’ll drop you right now on your arse and leave this cave,” I said with a slight growl.

Her eyes went wide and then a smile came over her face.

“I accept your terms. Prove to me I made a good trade,” she said with a growl that almost felt like a purr.

I took a breath and nodded as I let it out. The things I would do to protect my sons seemed to have no limits.

Time was hard to tell in the confines of a cave. No sun or moon to tell you what time of the day it was. I knew a fair amount of time had passed before Bula had let me leave the cave. When I had walked out of her private cave I noticed that Vreek and my boys were missing.

As I finished attaching my sword to my belt, I decided to explore. Walking back towards the main cavern I saw goblins and orcs sleeping off the drinking that they had partaken in. I wondered if this was the best solution to grow the numbers of this tribe.

Would drinking and sleeping out in the open like this train them for what awaited them outside of the mountain? Should I be angry or happy that for a brief moment, it appeared that goblins and orcs could feel like they were safe enough to be able to relax like this? How did Bula expect the orcs and goblins to be prepared for a fight if they did not have armor and weapons? So many other thoughts flew through my mind that I almost had not realized I was already in the main cavern so quickly.

I glanced at the massive cave openings that led to different parts and decided I would try and wander down the one closest to the ramp we had come down on.

Standing outside the mouth of the cave I almost turned back around. The smell that was coming from it was overpowering. It smelled rotten and nasty. I took a deep breath and then realized I could almost taste that smell as well. Gah it was foul. Worse than any of the farting contests the boys and the soccer team had in the van as we traveled.

As I wandered down the long tunnel I saw two figures standing at the end of it. I wondered for a moment if they were statues and then saw the flick of the tail on the one on the right. Both of them were easily twelve-feet-tall Slendals standing guard at the entrance of the cavern the tunnel turned into.

They saw me as I got closer and stiffened up as both moved to the center of the tunnel and appeared ready to block me.

Waving I put on my best goblin smile.

“Hello!” I shouted like a fool as it echoed off the cavern walls.

The one on the right bent down and looked at me. His tongue snaked out a few times as he looked me over.

“Yous smells differents ands sames. Yous new ones whos cames?”

“I am,” I replied with a big nod of my head. “I wanted to explore the caverns and caves some if that is ok.”

He shook his head at me and then turned to the other one with him. I watched as they flicked their tongues and heard a weird sound coming from both of them but I could not make out a thing that they were saying or communicating.

After a short moment, the same one turned back to me and glared at me.

“Yous no touchs ours metals. Yous cans looks ifs nos touchs.”

I nodded and smiled again.

“I will not touch your metal. I promise!”

Both of them nodded and slowly moved back to the edge of the tunnel so I could move past them.

It was time to see what the Slendals section was like.