Following the edge of a sharp cliff for a short time, Kevin was able to appreciate the beautiful view of the ocean below all over again. The very fact he was living on yet another alien world could hit him at odd moments and the natural beauty around him would feel fresh and new. However, he couldn't allow himself to spend much time on it.
His father had called for him.
Even after growing up in this new body, he sometimes felt like he still wasn't quite used to it. In his two past lives, he'd been human, so now, living as a goblin was requiring some adjustment. Even though he sometimes had to remind himself that he was physically smaller and green now, he'd actually come to appreciate his new form. Now his strides were shorter, but his legs could move surprisingly fast. He was also nimble, and his physical reaction speed was impressive.
In a surprisingly short amount of time in this life, despite the occasional feelings of strangeness, he’d gotten used to his new existence and even thought of himself as a goblin now. There were some other advantages he’d learned along the way, past just his relative speed and reaction time. Since he was smaller than he’d ever been, it was easier to get into smaller areas. He didn't need to eat as much, and despite being shorter than a human, he could actually jump higher.
"Kevin!" He heard his name called again, carried on the wind again and he sighed. He'd been getting lost in his thoughts again, but his father didn't usually call for him unless it was important. With a grumble, Kevin picked up the pace and absently made sure that his long dagger was riding correctly on his belt. His cargo pants, sewn to fit his stature, were one of the only throwbacks to his human lives that he outwardly expressed. The fact that in this world, nobody really used pockets yet was maddening to him. And since he had to sew all of his clothes anyway, he'd tailored them to his taste.
Rounding a bend ahead, Kevin walked boldly into the giant cave in the cliffside. As a goblin, he had excellent night vision, but in this case, he wouldn't have needed it anyway. Glowing moss all throughout the ceiling lit the tunnel and caverns in an ethereal glow. Kevin wasn't sure if it was his new perspective in this life or his change in physiology that made him so comfortable underground and in dark places now. All he knew was caves felt extremely cozy.
His parents' cave and tunnel system was, of course, much larger than he needed. He actually thought it was a wonder the dragons were able to find homes at all. He knew some of them were actually experts in stone magic and could make their own caves and tunnel systems. Many likely did. After all, some were far too large for most natural cave openings. Ironically, he also understood that there was a primal side to dragons that longed for a natural cave system like this.
Finally, the huge tunnel opened up into an even larger cavern, one that was partially open to the sky. A natural drainage system in the floor of the cave carried away rain and other precipitation to the sea, but Kevin had improved on it over the years. Now it was even more efficient. The topmost opening was actually how Kevin's parents entered and exited their den. They’d both grown too large over the years to fit through the tunnel systems that Kevin had just walked down.
Dragons didn't actually stop growing as they aged. Their rate of growth would slow down over time, getting slower and slower, almost a parabolic function, but they'd still grow at least a little bit every year. And Kevin's parents were ancient. The humans of this world would refer to them as ancient dragons. Perhaps two of the most well-known ancient dragons in the world, or at least on this continent.
"There you are," rumbled Kevin's father. Before the great dragon, there was a nervous-looking dark elf wearing extremely fancy clothing standing next to a couple other noble-looking dark elves, and a few guards behind them. The fancy-dressed man goggled upon seeing Kevin. "B-b-but I thought—" He didn't finish the thought. Probably wisely, Kevin figured. His parents could be awfully touchy about his race after some of the things the other dragons had said or done over the years.
He was obviously adopted.
Kevin’s father rumbled, "Now that my son has arrived and I can ask his opinion, I will have an answer for you soon." The dark elf bowed deeply.
He blinked. This was new. His parents had received visitors before but he’d never been called to give an opinion like this. Kevin ambled up to his father, all the way up to his claws, and gave his massive toe a hug. "I heard you calling for me. I'm sorry it took a while."
"It's okay, little one." Most people in this world couldn't read dragon expressions, but to Kevin, his father was smiling widely. "It just so happens that today might be your lucky day."
"Oh really?" Kevin asked, intrigued. "How so?"
He walked to one side of the cavern and fetched a wooden chair he'd fashioned for himself. One of the reasons he genuinely loved his dragon parents in this lifetime was because of how truly good of parents they'd actually been. In fact, it still shocked him how understanding they were, even after he’d told them the truth that he could remember his past lives. If anything, they'd mostly just been intrigued, especially to hear about Earth.
There was something about being thousands of years old magical apex predators of their world that made his parents take almost everything in stride. It was an attitude that Kevin had been trying to emulate for the last several years. He’d had a number of…truly horrible experiences over his past lives. In this life, he was trying to take everything in stride, stay calm, and to emulate his parents.
To them, everything was a potential subject for study or reasoning out. They were usually fairly positive and unflappable.
Once he had his chair in place and was sitting down, the dark elf delegation was very obviously extremely uncomfortable. Kevin could imagine why. To them, he was only a goblin, physically a lowly dream goblin, a subspecies of goblin that very rarely was in charge of anything. Dream goblins were lighter green, one of the thinnest and least muscular goblins, and almost the lowest on the pecking order. Only white-skinned goblins were lower in goblin society than his species.
The reaction of the dark elf was understandable since any visits to this mountain range where dragons roosted were extremely rare, and elves were fairly long-lived as well. There hadn't been a dark elf delegation to greet his parents before this within his lifetime. Kevin was twenty years old, his presence here was new to this delegation.
Of course, at twenty years old, Kevin had been fully grown for a while. He’d actually been physically mature at five years old. That was one reason why goblins could reproduce so quickly. But the oldest goblins only lived to thirty or forty years, fifty years, max. Kevin suspected that was not the case for himself after whatever it was his parents had done to him when he was a baby. The magic they’d used for “health” and “safety” might have gone a bit overboard.
"Father," Kevin began, “what is this about?”
Parganatanemnon turned to him. “'Your mother will probably be arriving soon. She was hunting before, but... I believe I can discuss this with you and get your answer prior to talking about it with her.'" This entire conversation was happening silently with his father. Kevin could hear him out loud, and when he spoke out loud, his father would be able to hear him, but the dark elf envoy wouldn't. This was a very minor magic ability that dragons could do.
Dragons called abilities like this, “life skills.” Over the years, Kevin had picked up on how to speak multiple languages and even learned about the greater world courtesy of his parents' extensive library. Watching his parents lift books carefully through telekinesis, open them with their power, and then read using a magnification spell never ceased to be amusing to him.
If there was one thing dragons had difficulty with, it was writing books. However, they could still do it. And using a pen or a pencil with such fine control of telekinesis was an absolutely astounding feat. As far as Kevin knew, it was something only ancient dragons were usually capable of.
It was safe to say that the dragon’s life skills had been as interesting to Kevin as all the knowledge collected in his parents’ library.
Kevin frowned. "What do you have to discuss, Father?”
“Well…it potentially involves you going on a trip.”
“Really!?”
“Yes.”
“Well, in that case…I really do think it would probably be better to wait for Mother."
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Parganatanemnon chuckled. "Your mother is going to be emotional either way. And I would like to have a calm discussion with you ahead of time, right now, because I have a feeling I know what you will decide. That way we can get this elf out of our lair quicker."
Kevin nodded in understanding. “Alright. I’m listening.”
"It's quite simple," his father said. "The dark elves are having problems on two borders right now, and because of that, their empire has been weakening enough that some of the human countries might decide to either fight each other or invade the elven kingdoms."
"Kingdoms?" Kevin said, "plural?"
"That's correct. The biggest problem right now is with the instability of the goblin kingdom. As you know, the balance of power on this world is extremely tenuous, especially on this continent. And this continent is the one that you and your mother and I are ultimately at least somewhat responsible for."
"Responsible? It's not like you answer to anybody," Kevin said.
His father huffed. A plume of smoke blew out his nose in irritated amusement, but the three dark elf delegates and their guards quailed in terror. Since Kevin’s father was of considerable size and was one of the most accomplished draconic mages on the planet, as well as one of the strongest beings in the world, he could be intimidating with his mere presence.
Draconic magic fascinated Kevin. Unfortunately, he’d never been able to pick up actual dragon magic, or any magic at all. Secret dragon language, dragon runes, dragon bindings, dragon life skills, and a few other blessings and abilities his parents had given him right after birth, those had been no problem. But he couldn't use any magic at all. None of the human magic books in his parents' large library had ever worked for him. Nothing had clicked. He hated to admit it, but the fact that he was a goblin probably meant his physiology just wasn't a good match.
And he’d never been able to learn any magic in any of his past lives, either, even on worlds with magic. Elemental magic, and standard magics could never take root. It was a mystery.
Not being able to learn magic had been frustrating, but once he’d run into that wall, he’d focused on academics instead. Goblins and goblin history had been of particular interest.
He had asked his father about goblin society a long time ago and learned more about it through books. When he’d been young, his parents had forbidden him to leave until he was an adult, especially to seek out the goblin nation on this continent. Now he understood why. It’d been the right call. His parents made very, very few mistakes.
So Kevin had had plenty of time to work on dragon life skills and to study. In fact, even without his other lifetimes' worth of knowledge prior to this life, with only what he’d learned in his parents’ cave, he was probably something of a scholar at this point. He’d been blessed with access to such an amazing private library, and the ability to pick his parents’ minds for two decades. On top of that, he genuinely enjoyed their company, and the three of them had routinely spent weeks just chatting.
Kevin’s parents were immortal, so such things were normal to them. Being mortal, especially a goblin, spending entire days on a single scholarly subject likely shouldn’t be normal for Kevin. However, now that he was living yet another life, his perception of time was different. A year went by in a blink. It was a curious sort of thing, and he wondered what the future would hold.
His father continued, "The various Adom nations are asking for the dragons of this continent to nominate or send an ambassador representative to help promote peace among the nations, the various races, and help with some of the issues that have arisen. This is not the first time in the last few years I’ve heard about instability and the possibility of another world war. That would be bad business for everyone. Of course, we can’t be sure, but this request by the elves now is reasonable.”
Kevin could see where this was going. He would have jumped to have an adventure ten years ago, but now he had mixed feelings about it. He’d been in the middle of learning another ancient language in the library. “Why send me? Why not one of the dragons?”
“Well, your mother and I could probably go, but doing so would mean revealing to the world that we can still polymorph. It would also violate dragon neutrality since this would be a matter of politics and the rule of sovereign nations. So that's not going to happen."
"Well, that’s understandable," Kevin said. The fact that ancient dragons could still polymorph was a closely guarded secret. Humankind on this world believed only hatchling dragons and young adults below a certain size could polymorph into humans, which was still terrifying to them. If they knew that Kevin’s parents could also casually walk around looking like elves, their reactions would not be good.
Although dragons were basically neutral and kept to themselves, Kevin's understanding was that many, many years ago there had been a terrible war that dragons had directly taken part in. A great war of good and evil. The problem was, not all of the dragons had been on the same side. Luckily, it’d been so long ago that most mortals had forgotten, so long ago that demons and angels had freely walked the earth. So the odds of dragons going to war ever again weren't very high.
But some instinctive fear from those times still remained.
Kevin immediately grasped what his father was trying to tell him now, but he couldn't quite believe it at first. On one hand, he was objectively strong. Despite the fact he was twenty years old now, he could breathe a bit of fire, he had dragon life skills, and he had all of the warrior skills of his past lives that he continued to build on, to refine. Kevin was likely also the largest and strongest dream goblin on the continent now. But despite all that, his parents could be extremely overprotective. Their concern wasn’t entirely misplaced, though. Without magic, even as an extremely skilled warrior, there was a limit to how strong he could grow. Kevin had been getting close to that level already.
He slowly asked, "Are you suggesting that I leave the mountains to explore the world, and build relationships with multiple races to prevent a future war?"
His father had a sparkle in his eye when he said, "That's exactly what I'm suggesting. You are uniquely suited to do so. I’m sure there are other mortal scholars who can best you, but not many. Even the long-lived mortal races like elves have time, but not the resources that you’ve had. And your ability to process and memorize information has been astonishing even to us. I will admit, I am a bit worried because of your relative weakness, but I have to look at this objectively."
"What do you mean?”
“Well, although you don’t have magic, you are an impressive warrior. What is more, your past lives have imparted a great deal of practical experience. This world has been at relative peace for a human lifetime or two. I know that you prefer to study now, but those skills are still there. Your mother will probably disagree with me, but I believe you will have at least a fighting chance to protect yourself in most normal situations. And by the time you meet anyone or anything with any real power, I believe in your decency. By then, you should have friends to help you. But most importantly, you should not stay in this cave with us forever, and this is an important matter. Your mother and I have wished we could directly intervene in mortal affairs many times. We still cannot, but you can.
“I will admit that I do not like the idea of putting you in danger, but there comes a point we must let a child leave our protection to grow, even if it means they could lose their life, or get hurt. It is the joy and sorrow of a parent. I have lived too long to ignore this reality.”
Kevin blinked. “Just like that? Giving your blessing to leave the mountains?”
“Yes. You are a skilled warrior, you are intelligent, and more importantly, you have some dragon life skills. Although most mortals consider the monsters in the nearby forests quite dangerous, they are still not the most powerful in the world. You should be able to run away if nothing else. And of course, in civilization, where words can be weapons as surely as swords, I believe in your ability to navigate danger.”
“So you are serious about this? Giving me a mission this important and sending me out into the world with your blessing?”
“Do you think I’m talking for no reason?” Parga grunted and puffed out a jet of smoke. “You know me better than that, my son. So what say you?”
A smile slowly lit up Kevin’s face. “Well, then my answer is yes, of course. This is sort of what I've been asking for for the last three years. In fact, it's even better."
His father chuckled. "I had a feeling you would say that. Although I will admit I was hoping you would have a change of heart and stay home, this time comes for every parent. It is perhaps a bit harder for your mother and I because you are so young. Twenty years is just a blink! But we knew this was inevitable when we adopted you. To ignore reality would be cruel to you, and reflect poorly on us."
Then the ancient dragon turned to the dark elves and, for their benefit, gave them an exaggerated nod. He removed the dragon life skill that muted his words. "What are your names again, dark elves? You told me, but I have forgotten."
Even as his father spoke, Kevin knew he was lying. He was asking them to introduce themselves again for his benefit. All three elves present bowed as one. The one who seemed the oldest, and the most simply dressed, spoke. "I am Cordial, your lordship. I have been nominated to speak as one of the representatives of all dark elves. My title prior to that was Second Prince of the Kingdom of Ryloth." Now that Kevin was getting a proper look at his face, he seemed about five hundred years old or so--right at the cusp of transitioning out of middle age for their kind.
The dark elves probably didn't notice a change, but Kevin could see a hint of crinkling around his father’s eyes. He understood why–Kevin was surprised, too. The two dark elf countries hated each other, so for there to be an entourage with leaders from both countries meant the problem was probably dire indeed.
“I am Gehennit, if you please,” said the first dark elf Kevin had seen. Kevin had originally pegged him as the highest status, but now he might just be the best dressed. Even though Kevin could not feel mana to gauge a mage’s ability, sometimes he could feel the presence of magic. This man was probably a powerful mage.
The last elf, a woman of mature beauty, bowed respectfully and said, "I am Morabab, Head Historian for all Elvenkind."
This time Kevin showed outward surprise. There were very few offices or guilds that encompassed all of any nation. But the scholars, in particular, generally didn't leave their offices. For this woman to be here was not only to add legitimacy to this group, it was likely because she wanted to witness history in the making herself.
He asked, “Historian for all Elvenkind? So you have been recognized by the High Elves and Forest elves?”
“Correct. I currently also hold an S rank in the Magi Guild. It is impolitic to say so, but for the sake of brevity, I will be blunt. Scholars of the other elven races are not happy that a dark elf has the title of Head Historian, but after all three nations created the office, competition has been fierce and regular to hold it. If any other individual wants the recognition, they must merely prove they are more fit.”
Kevin smiled. He admired the woman’s confidence. And for her to beat other elves on the subject of history, she must be a fearsome scholar indeed.
His father gently shook his huge, dark-red, horned head. His starling blue eyes flicked to Kevin before settling on the dark elves. "Now that you have introduced yourselves again, I know who to find if there are any problems in the future." He huffed, and smoke left his nostrils again. The three elves impressively stood their ground and merely gave slight nods. They all kept their silence about Kevin. None of them dared ask for more information about the goblin man.
Then Parga said, "You will receive your ambassador from the dragons. After I prep the person I have in mind, I will be sending them to the goblins within a year's time. After that, they can visit your realm and help resolve your growing conflict."
"We will be awaiting their arrival, Great One," said Morabab.
Then the three bowed again. Parga gently tapped the floor of the cave with one giant talon. The sound was like a steel gavel striking a block. Kevin’s father said, "You are dismissed. I have already sent a pulse of my aura out. You should not yet have any difficulties with the denizens of the forest until you reach the very foot of my mountains."
"Thank you, Great One," said Gehennit.
And then the three turned and began climbing the rope ladder to leave the cave. They were long gone by the time Kevin’s mother arrived. And as soon as his father explained to her what had happened, she began wailing and thrashing her tail. To anybody who hadn’t been raised by dragons, it would have probably sounded like a massive fight to the death.
As Kevin watched with a bit of bittersweet exasperation, he’d bet that if the dark elf delegation was still in earshot, they were probably moving a lot faster to get away.