Gigi had made tremendous progress on her rounds as the sun hurled its rays of light and heat over the village. She was over a dozen drop-offs into her route and things were settling into an easy pace. That was until she began to make her way up the winding path that would take her and Glorp directly to the Vistane ranch.

The farm wasn’t a bad sort of place at all. It was as idyllic a patch of rural bliss as one could hope to find. Yellow wheat rose high into the sky and the serpentine bodies of the lamia that ran the place deftly slithered between the vast harvests. Gigi knew a lot of folks found the lamias with their snake bodies and human torsos unnerving. However, she knew appearances could be deceiving. Take her for example. At a glance she could have been lumped in with any other doe-eyed goblin girl.

Serena, the mistress of the farm, languidly glided over to where the cart stopped. Her belly was swollen from this year’s clutch. Gigi wasn’t sure the lamia even believed in marriage. Despite having been friends with Serena since the two were girls, she felt like knew very little about the woman. They weren’t a species of many words, but they did love Gigi’s mother’s meat pies. For years they had been exchanging wheat and flour for their succulent treats.

Every year Gigi came here there were increasingly more little snakes scampering around the yard. Her and her, erm, husband? An enormous lamia that had the same black and gold coloring as a python, seemed very happy in their way. However, everything about this place made Gigi feel bad, though she wasn’t ordinarily the kind of person to be hurt by the success of others. All the same, there was something about the farm that made her insides twist.

“Oh, Gigi, it’s been so long, it’s so good to see you!” the encumbered lamia chirped, embracing the goblin woman.

Gigi always forgot how touchy lamias were. She resisted the urge to pull away and pat herself down, ensuring nothing was stolen, but quickly remembered that lamias were not like goblins. They didn’t give you hugs to steal something, they genuinely meant the gesture, so Gigi embraced her back.

“Meat! Meat! Meat!” came the chorus of a cadre of young lamia that slithered up to the cart behind their mother.

Gigi remembered when Serena and her lover took over, just the two of them. Gigi barely liked her siblings, let alone children as a concept. The little things made her uneasy. They were so fragile, so loud, so...binding. The little snakes had their father’s powerful black and gold frame with their mother’s hair, red as the autumn leaves.

It wasn’t that she disliked children, but she did hate that there was an iron-clad expectation for her to have them. However, she couldn’t stand the pitying looks and words from her peers and the older women in Poppy. Still, as the swollen lamia took some of the boxes from Gigi, she felt a pang of envy.

Not because she wanted the life Serena was living; Gigi was fairly certain she would hang herself if she had to constantly listen to the many tiny voices. It was because the woman before her had found peace, and Gigi had only found that something inside her was missing.

The two women spoke of mundane things: the weather, how big the children were getting. Yes, Gigi had heard about Lily. Yes, she was happy for her. Yes, Gigi was still living at home. No, that was not likely to change anytime soon. The goblin woman cringed when Serena went quiet for a moment, her reptilian eyes managing to somehow scream “You poor thing.”

She wasn’t some poor thing though; she was fine. She was fine, right? Right. It was then a small lamia that was practically a little copy of her mother slid up to them. Gigi reckoned she couldn’t have been older than a year or two. The little girl reached her arms toward Gigi.

“Up, up!” the little snake cried.

“Now, Ms. Gigi has plenty to carry without you,” Serena said, gently running her fingers through the child’s hair.

“I don’t mind.” She did mind.

Awkwardly, Gigi bent down to pick up the excited lamia, its arms still up in expectation. Gigi could never really remember which species were made of tougher stuff like her own goblin kin and which ones she had to treat like dolls - like humans. She erred on the side of caution and used a tiny fraction of strength to pick up the diminutive creature.

The little girl squealed with happiness as Gigi raised her up to her chest, wrapping its tail around Gigi’s middle for support and warmth. She forgot what little heat thieves these cold-blooded folks were.

“Oh, you look so natural,” Serena cooed.

Gigi certainly didn’t feel the maternal spirit. She was too focused on not crushing the snakeling that was treating her like a playground.

“My, she is certainly a handful,” Gigi said struggling.

“Come to Mama,” the lamia whispered sweetly to the little girl. Serena scooped the child up under the arms, setting the little lamia on one hip while the little one flashed Gigi a particularly gummy smile.

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“You know, it really is a shame you never found a nice goblin boy-” Serena blurted before cutting herself off. “Not that you won’t!” she followed up quickly.

Another small piece of Gigi died, like a leaf falling from a stem. She wasn’t sure if it was the bluntness or the earnestness which stung her more.

“Nice goblin boys don’t exist,” she said, pasting on her best smile. “Give...” she realized she didn’t know her husband's name, “the family my love!”

She wanted to scurry away but realized her graceless exit was, in fact, premature. She still had to unload the rest of the damn meat pies. Gigi pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. She truly hated delivery duty.

After what felt like an eternity at the ranch, she was finally several dozen meat pies lighter and on her way again. As she began to wrap up her route, she found herself thinking about the very concept of a “nice goblin boy.” The words filled her with a smoldering rage the longer she turned them over in her mind. Goblin boys thought they owned you if they smashed a few boulders for you. As if she couldn’t smash her own boulders.

These thoughts plagued her as she finished the deliveries until there was only one stop left - Lady Beatrice. Gigi was never really sure what to make of the village’s de facto authority figure. She was one of the few things about the village that never changed. The Lady of Poppy resided in a diminutive cottage by the cemetery. The woman whittled away eternity, staring into the distance as the crows sang their guileful song.

Gigi shuddered at the thought of the eerie woman. Her hair was so white it almost took on a light blue hue while sallow skin hung from high cheekbones. Lady Beatrice always reminded Gigi of a dying flower. Gigi hated talking to the timeless woman, there was something about the way she stared through you. Like she was talking to your ghost instead of you.

She had been here as long as the village, and she was as cursed as the rest of her elf kin. Gigi didn’t believe in superstitions, but according to the stories, the elves had once been the chosen vessels of the beings locked behind the Veil. The elves tried to chain them and steal the power of the gods. Instead, the gods stripped them of their gifts and cursed them with eternal life to think about what they had lost. The few that remained Gigi assumed hung out in little nowhere villages like Poppy, just like Lady B.

To many in the realms, the elves were a myth, just like jabberwockies and Swengringles. To Gigi, they were a creepy reality, and they really liked pumpkin bread. She liked feeding it to those irritating crows at any rate Gigi thought with a scowl.

That was when Gigi remembered she had forgotten the bag of crumbs for the crows. Now, she would have to deal with their cackles and calls for certain. She heard the screeching caws and a tinge of dread shot through her.

“BREAD! BREAD!” they cried from a nearby tree, black feathers puffed up as they spread their wings demandingly. The sun glinted off their shiny black beaks. Gigi frowned.

“I don’t have any for you, you miserable black chickens.” The crows went silent for a moment.

“BREAD! BREAD!” they demanded.

“NO BREAD!” Gigi shouted back. The birds considered this as they bristled back and forth.

“GIGI IS UGLY! GIGI IS MEAN! GIGI IS ALONE!”

The goblin gritted her teeth. She didn’t have to sit here and take this. She hopped off the cart, scooping up a good-sized rock. She hurled it at the branches, taking care not to actually hit any of the feathery cretins. The birds, unaware of her caution, scattered with a squawk.

“Making friends as always I see.”

A thin but firm voice came from behind Gigi. She spun around and nearly jumped out of her skin seeing the ghostly elf towered there. How the hell had the woman snuck up on her like that? This is why everyone thought she was so damn creepy.

“They started it.”

“Do you have my deliveries?”

“Of course!” she said with forced enthusiasm.

Gigi unfastened the back and began to assemble her order.

“I suppose you heard about the army marching by here?”

“I did,” she grunted as she pulled out the parcels.

“Your mother caught you.”

“She did.”

“Well then, after you’re done here, you can run right along then can’t you?” Gigi’s ears twitched. “If you can keep a secret, so can I.” Lady Beatrice smiled at Gigi. Her pale complexion and pointed features gave her a ghostly appearance even when being friendly. Gigi sighed.

“What’s the point? I’m sure they will just reject me like the others.”

Lady Beatrice seemed puzzled by the question. “The point is to follow your dreams, silly.”

Gigi placed the packages on the shack’s decrepit porch, thinking over what the old elf had said. “Nobody cares about my dream but me.”

“Exactly! You understand. Now follow them.” Lady Beatrice pat Gigi on the head as if she were a child before gliding past the goblin back to her home. She gave a faint wave to the woman, disappearing inside with the parcels in hand.

Gigi punched her palm. If nobody was going to care about her dreams but her, then she was going to chase them, alone if she had to.