Colleen looked at the goblin before sighing and walking over to him.

“W-wait.” Gavin said. He struggled to get back to his feet and slowly walked over to it.

“My dad says these things are monsters.”

“And?” She asked expectantly.

She grabbed his shoulder when he tried to walk by. He looked up in her face. “I'm supposed to kill it, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “And why would I let you do that?”

He was unsure why she stopped him.

“Listen, kid, if you're seriously trying to kill a monster like that, it can sense it.”

“But I want to be a hero. I can't be one if I'm too afraid of being hurt to take out even a goblin.” He stubbornly argued, while pulling on her hand.

“It's not about being hurt, it's about going back home alive. If that thing senses you're really trying to kill it then it won't hesitate to put its life on the line and kill you.” She coldly answered.

“But, but, it's weak so it should be fine right?” He asked.

She shook her head and firmly held his shoulder. “If you want to risk your life, be my guest, but I hope your father doesn't mind if you don't make it back home.” She held a cruel smirk on her after finishing her sentence and let go of his shoulder. She even patted him on the back and encouraged him to go forward.

His face quickly became covered in doubt.

“Can it really still attack?”

The witch sighed before walking over to the goblin. She crouched down and examined its limbs.

“Watch.” She asked him.

She held her hand straight and brought it down on the goblin's neck like a guillotine. The moment the goblin heard it, he made a desperate lunge at Colleen and quickly lay motionless on the ground.

She backed with more than enough space to avoid but the boy who looked on, seemed as though he had his eyes glued open.

She walked back to Gavin and used her hands to point to the goblin.

“He's all yours.” She said, sounding neither concerned nor frightened. He supposed witches didn't get scared easily.

“Ah, well, um…” the boy looked away while idly kicking the ground.

“Do you want the witch to get rid of this monster?”

The discomfort was clear as day on his face.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I guess a witch should do some good deeds if she wants to live with other people. Right, this is to make sure you've truly kicked your wicked ways!” He boisterously said.

He quickly began making his way back to town. Not even a few steps away from the goblin he turned and spoke once more.

“But… Miss witch, are you sure you don't need help getting rid of him?” He begrudgingly asked.

“Don't worry I'll take care of him in a quick manner.” She walked over to the goblin and picked it up. “Though it'd be quite an eye-sore if a dead goblin was lying by the side of the road. The forest should be a good place to dispose of him.”

“O-okay, Miss Witch.” He quickly turned around and increased his pace as he headed back to town.

“Pft, the little shit actually believed that crap?” She giggled as she watched him walk off. It took all she had to keep a straight face during all of that.

The only reason the goblin moved was because she wrapped a magic string around his arm and dragged him towards her.

“Go kick rocks with your friends or something. The last thing this place needs is some runt pretending to play hero and turning a goblin’s dinner.” She said in a far less gentle tone than when the children were present.

She looked at the goblin dangling in her hands.

“In a for a penny, in a for a pound I suppose.”

She threw him over her shoulder and headed back towards her cabin.

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“God, this is awful,” Colleen said.

The wounds were deep and it seemed like a miracle he survived in the first place. He was covered in so much gauze you'd think he was half mummy.

That wasn't what she was commenting on.

She laid several layers of sheets on her bed, learning from her past experience with him.

“Holy crap why can something so little smell so awful?”

She flung back her head and covered her nose after smelling. The last time she placed him on her bed, she was shocked at how dirt and grime wiped off him. After laying him down on it, he left the bed with a stink that required some elbow grease to get out.

So she wasn't sure why she didn't expect him to smell as bad this time around. She didn't notice his current smell until she threw him on her shoulder. Even then, she didn't catch a proper whiff of him until the wind eased up.

So when she brought her nose inches within him for a sniff, she got a full extent of the smell.

“Fucking hell. I need to get some soap.”

She had already treated his wounds and wrapped him up properly, so his health was no longer a concern.

She ran out of the room and within moments came back with a bar of soap and a bucket of water.

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“Holy shit, this is whiter than I thought.” She had reached his hair and was amazed by the extent of its colour.

She assumed an eggshell white was natural for it, but after a good scrub, it shone like polished quartz.

“I guess there is a reason male goblins don't have hair and the females have very little. Imagine how gross that'd feel dirty.”

She was finished and sat on the stool in contemplation.

“What do I do now? I mean, obviously, I'm gonna release him back in the wild. But if he keeps coming back it is gonna be a pain. (Screw that whole mother crap, I just don't want any misunderstandings surrounding a goblin showing at my house like clockwork. But I mean, if he is gonna keep coming here then I suppose it wouldn't be too out of left field to keep him around. I mean, keeping him in the house is a lot better than having him outside for anyone to see. Plus I am curious to see how he behaves. It isn't just goblin in him after all.)”

After trying to convince herself otherwise, she came around to the idea of keeping the little guy around.

(“But, it won't be long. I'll have to do some interaction with his own species, so he'll learn to live with his own.”)