When Oer first opened his bulbous eyes, and heard from his tiny, pointed green ears, there was near silence surrounding him. It was also extremely dark, except in the small distant red glow of a crude clay fire alter.
Constant inhalations of vile breath transmited rhythmically around him, some were quite loud and could be heard from the opposite end of the oval shaped room, which appeared very cavernous. There were a few broken crevices in the rock above, providing brief glimpses of the stars.
Oer rolled onto his side to face the scource of one particularly loud participant.
Under the dim lights, he could barely make out a small mound of dark green, whos body gradually contracted and expanded along with the disturbing noises it was emitting.
"?"
Oer wanted to move closer, and strain his eyes for a better view, but felt himself lose the power to do so. His tiny eyelids were growing heavier and heavier by the moment - against his will.
Soon, he himself was making the same repetitive soft snorting noise all the same, fast asleep.
==================================================
Upon Oer's second awakening things were different. Instead of the somewhat calm quiet, there was a flurry of activity. Constant mangled growls filled his ear, and shrieks of pain as well...
Pain?
His eyes bursted open, and he flailed his small limbs, which had suprisingly grown much larger over the course of the night. A trait specific to goblins was the ability to age into adulthood quite quickly, in perhaps less than a week.
Either way, Oer naturally rolled onto his stomach to view the commotion. Sunlight drifted sparsely from above with a warm glow, illuminating the rooms rocky red walls comfortably.
It was madness...
Tiny, slightly deformed green humanoid figures crawled around the dusty floor tackling and biting one another. As far as he could see however, there was no blood being shed, and as soon as the bitten ones shrieked out in pain the perpetrator would release their jaws and voice stupid repetitive squeaks...
...laughter?
In Oer's mind he came to instinctively recognize this as childs play.....
But instead off wanting to participate, he felt rather disconnected from the beings frolicking about, as if he was almost incapable of feeling the desire to interact with them. That wasn't to say he felt nothing at all. Oer did feel some excitement and will to play.......but he subconsciously supressed them.
Meanwhile, to his left, another goblin newborn took notice of his awakening. They shortly eyed him with excitement, before rushing over and leaping at him, jaws extended.
After sailing through the air a bit, the bite connected with Oer's right leg, whereupon said goblin turned to face this new contact. His face was not the least bit in pain, confusing the new goblin, who tried biting harder.
Oer had yet to discover this fact, but amidst supressing his will to play; his excitement and happiness, his other emotions would recieve an exponential boost in severity. For instance, he would become much more angry and bloodthirsty than the usual goblin when provoked. Goblins here were known to be irrational and moody creatures.
Oer simply stared at the other goblin, as if to say 'Let go', but they just kept tightening their jaw in confusion. The other goblin had began to clench on his leg so badly that he could feel warm fluid gush from a small break in his skin.
The other 'biting' newborn goblin, released their jaws, as soon as the liquid reached thair mouths, growing suprised and crazed at how good blood tasted.
On the other hand, a glimpse of anger sparked within Oer, and the emotional power flooded into his brain.
The biting newborn goblin didn't even care to look at Oer's face as he leant over to lick the tiny stream of blood , to taste its deliciousness again. He made it halfway before something jammed its way into the newborn goblin's right eye, penetrating the skull, and clawing deeply into the undeveloped brain.
It was Oer's hand.
Blood squirted like a miniature waterfall upon his hand's removal, causing some nearby goblin newborns to stop playing and turn their attention to Oer, and the newly crumpled lifeless body of the goblin next to him.
A swift silence enveloped the room as more became aware.
Then something interesting happened.....
Ding!
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[Level Up!] ~ [( 1/7 >> 2/7 )]
[Levels Until Evolution] ~ [( 5 )]
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Oer was too stunned by the messages sudden appearance, that he wasn't able to react in time to the mass of newborn goblins charging towards him and the corpse, red eyed and filled with hunger.
They completely bypassed Oer and tore the desceased body to pieces, sending blood and tiny organs all over the place. Mere seconds later, there was a doggy pile of newborn goblins on top of the corpse, devouring it, until nothing but the bones were left.
Oer managed to escape from the mass of bodies, but not before feeling his right leg become stiff.
*SHeetttt!!!!!*
On the wall to Oer's far left, a rotten door that he hadn't taken notice of before opened itself. A gruff grumble could be heard coming from the other side.
Only Oer noticed this fact, due to the preoccupied hoarde of hungry newborns continuing their meal, unhindered by any other influence.
"Wat spawnss here inn doing?!" A severely broken language translated itself naturally in Oer's head, intruiging him.
Stumpy green legs, one after the other entered the spacious room, revealing a looming figure five times Oer's size. As the newborn goblin examined them, in their sparsely dressed form; a single cloth-like article covering their nether reigions, he viewed their contorting horrid facial features morph into an expression of shock and fear.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"
The being, a goblin, half the size af an adult human male, ran towards the pile of baby goblins, and flung them off of one another, splitting the mass untill they reached the center, where their complection became unsightly. They scooped up the bloody pulp that was the 'biting goblin' with a sadness hinted in their gaze, lifting it out of reach of the frenzied spawns.
It's eyes scanned the room for clues as to what might have been involved, thouroughly sweeping the crowd of newborns in the process. The adult goblin's eyes landed on Oer.
"?"
They noticed the blood soaked hand of his, alongside Oer's stiffening bloody leg.
"T-thiss one?!", the clothed goblin charged over to Oer, picking him up within its grasp with no evident resistance. Oer had already sensed the futility in such actions, seeing as how the more vital and bodily points were out of reach from within the goblins hands. And, if he attacked the hands themselves, it would serve no purpose but to either infuriate the small humanoid, or further confuse it.
So.....he continued to observe the goblin, even from within the thing's grasp. Oers couldn't tell, but this only served to make him appear more and more strange in the larger goblin's eyes.
"Dis onsss no voyce? Mute?"
A ruptured gargle of broken language cackled out of the larger goblins mouth as it studied Oer from head to toe, especially placing focus on his arm and leg, It stood there in deep thought and speculation - something that one wouldn't expect from the casually stupid goblin - then it began nodding to itself.
"Yes yes! Brings outer room fur legg fixes! Goe bos an tel big brave story!"
Its big eyes grew in excitement.
"Yotap bravve storie win Gootche hart !!!"
Oer raised his tiny brows at whatever nonsensical grammar had just passed into his ears..it pained him for some reason.....but he would still try deciphering the message in the end.
"Brings outer room for legg fixes" ~ Probably stated the will to remove Oer from this room to heal his leg? Next was ~ "Goe bos an tel big brave story!" - This one Oer had trouble decoding. Bos? Boss?
Oer recognized since the incident of the big goblin waltzing into the room that he was in some sort of species gathering or soceiety. Otherwise, the big guy wouldn't seem to care too much about them, nor would he appear distraught at the death of a youngling. But the deciding factor was when he called them spawns; a word - like many other, that Oer somehow knew the meaning to, without haveing been taught....it was something that deeply intruiged him....but that was a topic for another time.
Calling them "spawns" implied the possibility of their parentage, and therefor the possibility of more than one parent. Goblins had the natural ability to detect blood relations between themselves and their "family". Oer was born with this information stuffed into his brain. A passive ability like that had to be in place to serve some purpose, maybe to prevent inbreeding?
Either way, he couldn't detect any of his "family" in this room. Yet there were over 3 dozen newborn goblins rolling around the place. What did this mean? It meant that there had to be more than one pair of parent goblins. And since he believed his situation not to be unique, there were bound to be multiple.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
...Multiple adult goblins who organized themselves into a group with a heiarchy, thus the goblin before him spouting out the mention of a 'Bos' which Oer believed to be 'Boss'...most likely the goblin in charge of the social structure.
.....but even after all was said and done.....this was all speculation on Oer's part. In order to know absolutely, he would require direct experience..
Last but not least, and the most confusing part of the goblin's rabble was: ~ "Yotap bravve storie win Gootche hart"....
This "Brave Story" had to be something this goblin in front of him was going to "construct" in order to account for the newborn Oer had just killed. "Yotap" was likely this very goblin's name, just as "Gootche" was most probably a name as well...
So this goblin, Yotap, wants the affection or attention of another figure, Gootche, from his "brave story"? Who was Gootche? The leader? A female goblin? Someone else?
Rare mirth was shown in Oer's eyes as he gazed deeply into Yotap's pupils.
Yotap was just a careless idiotic goblin with aspirations...."idiotic" - enough not to question the murder of a newborn goblin, and ambitious enough to place his own goals above everything else.
That was the conclusion Oer came to, and honestly....
He couldn't care.
As long as his leg was repaired to functionality by the end of it all.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
As Yotap wandered over to the door, Oer in one hand, and the bloody corpse in another, the newborn goblin was still percieving events that had taken place a while back, especially the wierd message which popped up about "Levels" and "Evolution".
From what he could gather from his little experience. After killing something, you gain a form of energy from it and that energy translates - when it reaches a specific bottleneck - into these "levels".
From there, "levels" are accumulated, leading to whatever this 'evolution' is. Would he become something other than a goblin? something...more? The concept not only forced upon him a state of enrapturement and extreme curiosity, but it also felt as if it was deeeply rooted into his conscious fibers that it should be striven towards.
Oer was profoundly suprised how much he himself could gather just from killing a playmate out of anger.
The big goblin maeuvered past the rotting wood, taking the half-broken handle under his left elbow to shut the door once more. Yotap proceeded to navigate a winding tunnel with few other entrances to similar oval cavern rooms. Some of these rooms had a door; rotting like the first, some were only fragments or chinks of wood on a hinge, or they had none at all. Even the placements of the "doorframes" if you could see them as such, were crude and disorderly.
Finaly, Oer saw a light at the end of the tunneling hallway. Once Yotap reached it, the space opened up to a massive underground clearing. Sunlight poured in unhindered from a miniscule sinkhole above, spreading orange warmth across a smooth light tan cave floor.
A buzz of activity swarmed before them, and a multitude of goblins; maybe 50 and above, wandered around the open space, helping Oer to confirm that this was a goblin tribe. Many sat around interacting with others, while more slept on the barren floor, and a few play fought, releasing painful shrieks when bitten or scratched.
They all wore simple brown rags like Yotap to cover their genitals, except for those who had scraps of leather armor draped acros their chests.... who knew where they got all of this stuff?
Piss and excrement were nowhere to be found, causing Oer to question how these idiotic goblins managed to accomplish that too.
Three sizable tunnels were vivible from their standpoint, each equidistant from their own, which apparently led other places. Oer knew one of them very well had to be the exit to the cave system they were all in. The other two left him at a loss.
From Yotap's direction of movement, they were evidently headed towards the furthest tunnel on the opposite wall. The reason should be that the either the "boss" resides there, it was the place Oer would be healed.
... or both.
As Yotap passed by, some goblins turned their heads towards him, as consequence taking sight of the small corpse in his hand and Oer in the other. A few yelps were released. Their eyes widened in a mix of emotions; primarily present was extreme shock at seeing a newborn goblin's dead body, aslo present was fear and anger of whatever caused such a tragedy.
More and more grew quiet as Yotap passed, but the stupid goblin couldn't see this somehow, and continued on with a gleeful mug. The others grew suspicious and sent him glares, but none did anything to stop him on his journey.
Did Yotap hold some sort of position within this group?
Along the way, Yotap chose to walk around to the right of the central fire alter, so they had the opportunity to pass one of the other tunnels. Oer wondered if it held rooms with more newborn goblins running amok, but soon came the conclusion that it probably wasn't the case.
A few of the goblins surrounded the entrance to the tunnel, seeming as though they couldn't wait to see or hear what was inside. Their eyes were glazed, and their mouths were salivating. Small mounds grew erect under their unsightly loincloths.
As Oer continued studying these goblins, he took note that Yotap's gaze faltered from their destination onto the right tunnel as well, his expression clouding and turning more agressive. Lustful.
"..."
The intelligent newborn was creasing his forehead when he was all of a sudden struck with an invasive odor. The smell was incredibly tantalizing to a goblin.
It came from the crowded tunnel.
Females? Oer guessed from the sexual atmosphere surrounding him.....
The scent nearly debilitated his young mind before he willfuly and stubbornly suppressed the emotion entirely. He knew he was begginning to fight the emotions originating from his biology, with his psychology. Goblins were a creature of many problems; emotional control was one of them.
Only time would tell if this was a mistake, but Oer told himself he could make due without the unnecessary hindrance of feelings, at least until he sorted out his situation and decided what to do from there.
He wasn't dissapointed that the adult goblins surrounding him, had no sense of decency around a newborn. Even Yotap who held a child's corpse in his other hand, couldn't help but express his desires. Oer had already decided that the goblin species was hopeless mere days from his birth.
Yotap slowed his pace considerably after passing the 'lust tunnel' as Oer began to call it, not taking notice that the name would cause uprorious laughter if ever heard aloud. He obviously wanted to go back with the other goblins and wait at the lust tunnel. Yotap shook his head vigorously.
"Noe. Umnim Vigler not wurth bigg brave storie....Gootche worth story! Yes! Gootche worth!"
Umnim Vigler? A name? not worth it? Oer racked his head to make sense of it, but didn't have the time.
They had arrived at another tunnel entrance, the one where there must be either a boss or a healer, so Oer aptly named it: Boss tunnel. It's entrance was guarded by 4 goblins wearing more or less complete brown leather vests. They also wore rusted metal caps, and wielded pointy metal daggers, observations that didn't go unnoticed in Oer's eyes.
They were guards.
This fact only served to further solidify Oer's thoughts that this tunnel led towards the boss room.
The guards looked at Yotap up and down disdainfully with their ugly expressions as he approached. Their eyes came into focus on the objects he held, aknowledging Oer with a grin, and slowly registering the mass of gore on his left hand for what it truly was.
All of the guards pupils shrunk, darting back and forth between Yotap and the bloody mess, trying to find some sort of correlation.
"Yotap ere to speek Iki-Min Bos...." He held up the bloody corpse to their faces, making the guards flinch, and return an angry stare afterwards.
The goblin gazed down at Oer.
"....an heel spawn legg"
Shorty thereafter, the guards warily allowed them to pass, and the two were walking down a very dimly lit tunnel once more. In reality it was just Yotap walking, and Oer hitching a ride in the goblins right hand.
They passed a series of doors, mirror images of those he way back in the 'newborn tunnel', extending into cavernous rooms glistening in sunlight.
Oer wondered how big this cave system was, and how it formed. These tunnels seemed roughly constructed, and too far out of reach height-wise for them to be goblin-made, the fire alter in the central room was particularly suspicious in this aspect...
Yotap's feet planted themself firmly in front of a door at the end of the tunnel. Was this the boss' room?
"Okkey Y-yotap....tdis is- zis is itt" He stared nervously down at the mass of gore in his hand, before looking ar Oer, who nonchalantly stared back.
"..."
That stare seemed to suck the confidence out of him, so he turned back to the door and gave one final outward breath. He opened the door.
What they saw next stunned the both of them.
The room was filled with an abundance of cheap treasures, copper coins, few silvers, and even rarer gold. A couple of short swords hung themselves louslily on one side of the wall, while other armor accessories and weapons sparsely seperated themselves in the loot.
None of these were the real kicker though.
That would be the two humanoid forms committing sexual acts on top of one of said larger treasure piles. One was a suprising shade of red, and the other light green.
"..."
Oer watched momentarily, but soon became confused when he wasn't affected by it in the least.....Peculiar.....there was the definite stench of a female goblin in the air, most likely belonging to that ugly thing up there, but it didn't match up in the least - to the erotic odor from the 'lust tunnel'. Although he had supressed his lust to a great extent...there still should have been some minor feeling.... What could this mean? Were thay not the same? More importantly...just who was this Umnim Vigler in the lust tunnel then?
Oer would have given more thought into this contemplation if not for the trembling hands that held him. He looked back to see Yotap's eyes frozen solid on the image of the two beings on top of the pile. It looked for a second as if he'd lost his soul. Look.....this guy's mouth was trembling too....
".....G"
Oer raised his tiny eyebrows when Yotap began to speak.
"....Ggo-go"
And even before the goblin could completely speak the name, Oer had a look of understanding on his face, and he could recognize the gist of the situation now.
"Go-Gootche.....?"
"...."
The two on top of the pile halted their intercourse, and whipped their heads at the intruder. One of them had an intensely angered expression, probably at being interrupted, while the other...the less ugly light green one....a female had her eyes widen considerably, starting to shake....
Oer seemed the only stoic person in this charade.
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A few minutes later, Oer found himself back in the nursery... What he now labeled the room for him and his fellow newborns.
...
Why you ask?
Because upon witnessing the scene of his crush or lover or whatever Gootche was to him being with another, Yotap, with the mental capacity of a child, took off running. Leaving the special red goblin, who ought to be the "boss" , Ike-Min, and Gootche alone.
Yotap took off with such a speed that Oer didn't even get to see their complete reactions, which was dissapointing to Oer, because unknown to everyone else, he found the scenario quite amusing.
Now....back in the nursery, surrounded by little newborn goblins, Yotap set down Oers, whos leg had already sealed off the wound by itself, and was recovering at a snails pace, as well as the corpse that now had a distinctive nasty smell of its own.
The surrounding newborn goblins rushed at it as soon as it reached the ground, but Yotap didn't seem to care. He was a heartbroken goblin.....amusing....considering how hideous Gootche was in Oer's view.
He guessed it was the power of love that made such attraction possible...some nonsense like that.....
Oers also knew that Ike-Min, the boss, or chief goblin, from his posture and expression when facing Yotap would not let go of the incident of him intruding on the "fun-time" he was having with Gootche. That red crumpled face reeked of anger, and the arrogance of a leader...a tyrant....
In the most probable outcome, Ike-Min would kill Yotap by some means out of contempt. In a less likely event, Yotap would be banished from the group/ tribe.
It was so interesting and hilarious how Oer stumbled across such a tragic short story that was Yotap's.
...that fabricated "brave story" of his....all but dead.
Oer wanted to laugh terribly hard. He was only a newborn, yet this stupid bullshit story took place right before his eyes, dragged him out of the room, exposed him to the brief outside world, and threw him back in here with a goblin that would most likely die or be banished in the next day or so.
What a day!
Goblins! Such imbeciles!
It would take a while to digest all the info he'd gained, but in the meanwhile there was something he wanted to test out. Something that the boss goblin's red skin reminded him of...
Leveling up.
Ike-min, the chief or boss, was likely an evolved goblin of some sort, giving him the qualification of leadership. Leadership was something Oer had no intention of usurping. Evolution only interested him for the primal excitement he felt for it....It was something that would help to separate him from all of these idiots, hopefully.
Oer looked over to the mentally unstable Yotap; kneeling, depessed, in the furthest corner from the door.
...something came to mind.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
One slow movement after another, Oer made his way over to the kneeling goblin, easliy evading the massive heap of bloody mouthed goblin newborns.
They must have it really bad with their cravings for blood....
As he approached Yotap, Oer studied the weak, slumped posture, of an emotionaly devastated goblin, with eyes glazed over in show of his deep conscious thoughts. Yotap was most likely stuck with that moment playing over and over in his head, conquering all of his mind, sending it into a feeble state.
In other word, he was exceptionally easy to approach. The adult goblin didn't even respond when Oer tapped his hand against the goblin's arm, much less turn to look at him, Yotap remained in place, eyes focused on the ground.
Good.
Oer had thought this would be much more difficult. There was a use to heartbreak after all.
The newborn maneuvered casually under Yotaps outstretched supporting arms, getting an even more clear view of the goblins blank gaze.
Oer looked down at his own small hands, fingers tipped with sharp albiet miniscule black nails.
They would do just fine.
And without further notice, he repositioned himself and leapt directly at Yotap's face, hands outstretched to their fullest, aimed towards their target; the eyes.
In the brief moment of calm after the event, Oer held two bloody pupils in his hands, which he nonchalantly tossed towards the other newborns.
Looking back up at Yotap's face, the younger goblin was suprised. Honestly, how ugly could these things get? That face was already grotesque, but those bloody sockets, and that definitely pained expression made it all the more unappealing.
He noticed the older goblin's trembling mouth widen, along with the hands planting themselves rapidly on his face.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"