Noah swishes around his trusty watering can, alternating between the patch of blossomed flowers on his left, and the new budding patch to his right. “Some water for Titan. Some water for Linda. More water for Titan. More water for Linda” he chants gleefully. He puts the tool down and brushes the sweat off his brow, the sun’s reflection glistening off his bald head. With his hands on his hips, he looks over at his handy work, embracing the difficult five minutes it took him to achieve this apparently labour filled feat. “Now for breakfast!”.

Tired and covered in sweat, Noah stumbles through the wide open backdoor, lugging the watering can with him. “Theresa! Flowers are done! Sand Witches please!”. June spits out a mouthful of tea onto the table, breaking into a fit of laughter. Theresa hops off her chair and approaches Noah. The juvenile puffs out his chest, believing he looks masculine. Such a curtain of masculinity tears as a result of Theresa’s grip on his ear. “Don’t you ‘Theresa’ me until you’ve looked after three infants you’ve never birthed! Now make your own damn Sand Witches before I show you a real witch!” her growls of anger are nearly overpowered by June’s failed attempts of quite sniggering. The sight reminding her of the squabbles her children often entertained her with.

Sheepishly, Noah backs up into the fridge and proceeds to follow Theresa’s hostile recommendations as she sits back at the kitchen table with June. “My lord Theresa, you’re a mother of teenagers already" June mutters in-between sips. “Well luckily, the girls are currently asleep upstairs at the minute. Gerald’s up there with them” Theresa opens up the newspaper and proceeds to work on a crossword. “You’ve gotta give it to him. One leg and 6 month old triplets, he’s doing quite well” June finishes her tea and starts stacking the used dirty crockery. “Good thing he’s not a human. I know a few good girls who’d have him.” June continues.

June’s tangent is cut short as the wall phone rings. She gets up and answers. As she puts the phone to her ear, her eyes widen and smiles from ear to ear. “I’ll unlock the door now! I’ll get Theresa to get the kettle going!” June quickly slams the phone back into the holder. Upon hearing her name, Theresa stands up. “Who’s coming over?” she asks. June starts pacing to the door, “Jenny’s here with the boys!” she responds, shouting it through the house.

Unlocking the door and opening it, June is welcomed to the appearance of a tall, casually dressed woman. Beside the woman are two twin boys, both dark haired and dark eyed. “My word, you’ve both grown, you must be in your forties!” June exclaims, opening her arms wide. The twin boys jump into her embrace. “No Nana, we’re ten!” the boy on the left answers. “Oh do I know it!” their mother responds. “Now go on boys, Rodry’s downstairs, he’d love to see you both” June gestures towards the basement door, to which the twins rush to. “Come on Jenny, Theresa’s got a cuppa going” June welcomes her in.

Jenny sits down at the table with Theresa bringing her a full cup of tea. She quickly picks up the cup, takes a long swig and rests the cup down, releasing a sigh of relief. “Fair play Theresa, you make tea better than any human I know” she lets out before slouching into the chair and undoing the top button of her jeans, allowing the tension of the material to relax. “Never take long to make yourself at home, do you Jen?” Theresa chuckles. Both mother and daughter join in the laughter. “And who taught her banter?” Jenny playfully slaps June on the shoulder

Jacob and Terry rush down the basement stairs. “Teacher!” Terry calls. Rodry stands tall and turns to the twins. “My students, you’ve returned in perfect timing!” he mimics the young boy’s enthusiasm. Rodry opens a crate, frisking it quickly before pulling out three plastic toy swords. “Have you been training boys?!” he shouts as he throws the twins a toy weapon each, keeping his own held firm. They both catch theirs and rush at him, letting out a valiant battle cry. Mindless swings of plastic swords are blocked and parried by Rodry, unable to hide his joy of training the youths, a hobby he indulges in whenever they visit.

“It’s okay Rodry! I’m here!” shouts a muscularly built goblin, although the same height as the twins. He quickly picks up a broom and charges towards the training session. “Go get him Terry!” Jason orders his brother. “Come here Bruce!” Terry yells as his plastic sword playfully clashes with Bruce’s broom handle. “No Noah! Don’t go out there!” echoes through the open basement doors. The physical activity halts. “Noah!” is screamed again, more panicked than the first time. “Boys, stay here and train amongst yourselves” Rodry hides his concerns before both him and Bruce rush upstairs.

“Filthy goblin lover!” the teenager screams from the roadside, before throwing another egg at June’s living room window. The egg cracks, leaving the contents to slide down the window alongside the previously thrown. “My father said he’s gonna bring our wolf around and eat those green rats!” the teenager’s friend joins in the vandalism, launching another egg. The front door swings open, allowing a small goblin covered in casual shorts and a short sleeved t-shirt to run into the front garden. “Look at it! She even dresses them like kids!” the teens gawk. “Leave Nana alone!” the young goblin screams at the top of his lungs. “Nana is nice to us! Why can’t you be nice like Nana!”

The delinquents freeze in shock. A goblin just spoke to them perfectly. June and Jenny show up behind him, dragging him back in before Jenny storms out, quickly pointing to the boy holding the empty egg carton. “You’re Beckett’s lad aren’t you? The one with the wolf?” The teen regains his composure, revitalising his cockiness. “Yeah and?” he throws the empty carton over the fence, littering June’s front garden. “You wait until I get a hold of your folks! Now I suggest you get out of here before I let the whole clan out here!”. Both teens scoff and laugh at her before riding their bikes down the road.

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Jenny marches back into the house. “Mum, why do you deal with the hassle?”

“The people around here don’t understand Jenny. They just need to learn goblins are good people”

“They haven’t got an excuse to give you grief! Does Malcolm know?” Jenny starts looking through her contacts list.

“We both know a clan of goblins are easier to control than Malcolm”

Theresa holds Noah, who’s shaking with adrenaline. She looks upstairs, seeing Gerald looking down at her, tilting his head in concern. She slowly shakes her head. “They’re mean to Nana” Noah repeats into Theresa’s chest, slowly quietening as she brushes his head.

Bruce and Rodry both enter the kitchen, where Theresa, Noah, Jenny and June have stayed. “Did the children return?” Bruce asked. His question is ignored, as everyone sits in silence, Noah still in Theresa’s arms. Both of the male goblins look at each other. “Should I get Gerald-”

“No!” June interrupts Rodry. “He’s with his children. Let him have some peace.”

An hour passes as the women continue to converse. Jenny slams her fist onto the table, nearly red with rage. “You raised half the people on this damn street-” the sound of the doorbell interrupts Jenny’s verbale rampage. “I bet it’s him!” she quickly rises to her feet and storms to the door, nearly ripping it from its hinges. Standing there is a short man with a bald head, yet looks around Jenny’s age. As he inhales to speak, Jenny’s voice fills the street. “Let me tell you something, if you, your boy or his mates come over here and harass my mother-”. The man tries cutting her off, almost raising both his hands submissively. “No you wait till I’m finished!”

June exhaustingly rubs her head. “There she goes. I swear all my children were dragons”. The filtering of the walls causes Jenny’s ranting to become inaudible, yet do very little to muffle the volume. After what felt like forever, the one-sided arguing stops and the door slams shut. Jenny struts into the room “He said he’s sorry and his boy will keep to himself” she sits down, wearing a big grin.

The day passes quickly without any more hostility or interruptions and Jenny soon leaves before the moon rises. As darkness covers the sky, the street lamps brighten the urban world. “You keep watch for humans, I’ll sneak in and investigate” Rodry whispers to Bruce as they both dawn black cowls and evade into the tree line behind the homestead. They traverse through the forestry before reaching the roadside and start progressing down the street. Being the more rural outskirts of the town, the streets are empty and most house lights are off.

The goblins reach a house much smaller than June’s with a familiar looking bike outside. “There’s the enemy’s mount Rodry” Bruce points to the bike.

“Don’t destroy it Bruce, we’re only here for information” Rodry starts walking slightly ahead of Bruce and steers to the side of the building, where they find a gate leading to the back garden. Rodry sniffs the air and gestures to Bruce to halt. “Dire wolf urine. Fresh. This homestead has a defender”. Rodry climbs over the gate into the garden and rushes to the small patch of dirt, covering himself in it.

Bruce witnesses Rodry’s acrobatics and walks back into the street, looking either side. His hairs stand on end as his eyes catch a tall stumbling figure almost falling through the darkness. “Hey mate, have you got a cigarette?” the figure asks Bruce, the slurring voice accompanied by the harsh scent of alcohol. Bruce looks at him blankly, unaware of what a cigarette is. He reaches into his small satchel. “Bread?” Bruce offers, holding a clump of homemade bread in his hand.

“Screw the cigarette! I’ll have some bread!” the figure thumps himself onto the ground next to Bruce and gently takes the bread. He takes a big bite and chews audibly. “So, bread friend.” the man pauses as he swallows the bread. “What are your plans for the night?”. In an almost perfect level of innocence that rivals Noah, Bruce responds truthfully. “Someone keeps harassing Nana. Rodry has gone in and looked around before we do anything.” The man bell-laughs loudly, echoing through the street.

Rodry, covered in dirt, starts climbing up the building’s outer accessories. He quickly climbs up the guttering before clinging onto the outside windowsill of the nearest window. He pears in, seeing a dark room lit up by a single small screen. A familiar looking teenage boy sits inches away yet screams in frustration almost as if it’s a rehearsed tantrum. In-between childish fits of rage is the click-clacking of plastic as he practically hammers his controller.

Rodry climbs up onto the windowsill and leaps onto the next one, just about catching it in his fingers, preventing his fall. He climbs up to witness a clearly opposite sight. A brightly lit room covered in green wallpaper. In the room, he sees a small boy alone on the floor, playing with small figurines. Rodry pauses his investigation and curiously watches the boy. The child stops his imaginative play, halting the making of combat sounds, and looks up. Their eyes meet. The boy smiles and waves. Rodry, unable to control himself, mimics the boy’s greeting. The heartwarming greeting stops as screams are heard from the front of the house.

A deep man’s scream is heard, causing the boy to rush to his bed and hide under a blanket. Rodry quickly retraces his route to descend down the building.

“Do you think it’s nice messing with a bloke’s nan eh?” Bruce’s new friend screams at the man in the home’s doorway.

“What are you on about?” the short bald man in the doorway responds, matching the aggravator's hostility.

“Oh shut up you filthy bald munchkin!” he continues to scream, throwing an empty bottle at the home's brick wall, shattering into pieces. Rodry quickly comes around from the corner and looks at Bruce. “What's going on?”

“Right I’m ringing the police if you ain’t gone in two minutes!” the short man slams his front door. The drunk man stumbles over to Bruce and Rodry. “Come on lads, we’ll had to my mother’s for the night. We’ll deal with Humpty Dumpty in the morning!”.

Rodry and Bruce, both oddly curious with the man, follow him. He stumbles through the streets, rambling about a random topic before quickly traversing into another. After what seemed like a half hour long walk, that Rodry and Bruce start recognizing, they reach their home. “Here we go boys!”

The drunk man rushes to the door, slamming his fist onto it. “Oi ma! I forgot my keys!”. Bruce pulls off his cowl and starts twisting it into a makeshift garrote and slowly approaches the man from behind. Before he reaches him, the door swings open. June gazes at the man, tears start developing in her eyes.

“”You never call first, do you Junior?”