“Don’t let the sometimes diminutive size of the goblins fool you. Anything that manages to survive, much less thrive in the environment they lived their whole lives in, cannot be taken lightly.” - Hervinder Sovan Al-Andras, Heir to Andras County, circa 309 VA, after a rather disastrous attempt to colonize the jungles north of the County.
Later that same year, as it happened to be the year for the great gathering that took place once every decade, Aideen decided to pay a visit to one of the mixed orcish and goblin clans that inhabited the east side of the prairie. She hoped to gain access and an introduction to the goblin tribes that inhabited the jungles further east through them.
During her previous visit to the north Aideen had entirely focused on the prairie, partly to help the orcs prepare their resistance against further expeditions from the Empire and other nations to their south. She had not had the chance to pay a visit to their goblin cousins to the east, so she decided to make up for that missed opportunity on her current visit instead.
Together with the group was Miro – who had acquaintances in the east and volunteered to help show the way – as well as Jort of Clan Blacktower, shaman for one of the largest orc/goblin hybrid clans on the east of the prairie. Unlike the orcish clans which tended to be more often than not relatively independent from one another, the hybrid clans tended to have several weaker clans live under the umbrella of protection of a stronger clan.
Clan Blacktower was one of the very strongest in the east, even when the purer orcish clans were included.
As it happened, Miro had taught Jort and his predecessor and his predecessor’s predecessor as shaman some tricks, so he had a tight friendship with the shamans of Clan Blacktower, given how many saw him as a benefactor. That naturally made it simple for Miro to ask them a small favor, in this case to help introduce them to some of the goblin tribes that lived in the rainforests they called home further east from the plains.
Given the usual location of the gathering at Clan Greentusk’s territory, it only took them around two weeks – part of the travel was done on rafts headed downstream on the river, which saved them some days at the least – traveling eastwards to reach the territory under Clan Blacktower’s rule. Just by entering the region Aideen could already notice the difference.
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Compared to the prairie, the air was noticeably more humid, though not quite to the point where it felt like it clung to one’s skin. There was also noticeably more greenery and plants growing, more shrubs and bushes compared to grasslands, often in clusters so dense that it would be difficult to cut one’s way through. Even the locals went around such dense clusters, which often had thorns or worse to defend themselves with.
There were simply more living things clustered together in smaller areas compared to the wider, emptier prairie. Even as the group walked around clusters of dense bushes, all sorts of wildlife, from insects to rodents to snakes and birds moved as they were disturbed by their presence. More than a few actually went over towards the group, especially things like bloodsucking insects or fearless – if small – predators.
Eilonwy frowned with some disgust when she saw a near-cloud of mosquitoes flying towards the group, and when she noticed Jort torching another such cloud further to the front with fire magic, did the same to the nearest swarm using her own Death affinity. She kept it dilute as it took little to take down creatures that small, sending it out in the shape of a diffuse cloud that snuffed the insects as soon as they touched it.
As for the other predators, they were some sort of large rodents by appearance, if they had armor-like plates growing over their backs and sides, the largest of which measured about as long as Eilonwy’s foot. The little critters were utterly fearless and rushed towards the group with loud squeaks and mouths wide open, displaying their sharp little fangs to the world.
Their bites were ineffectual, though, unable to even pierce through the soft leather wrappings around Miro and Jort’s feet. Jort just whistled a tune as he whacked the rodents with his staff one after another, collecting their carcasses and holding them bundled by the tail.
“These things are useful, I reckon?” asked Aideen as she gently snapped the necks of the rodents biting at her shoe. She didn’t dare use her staff for the job as it was far too heavy and the creatures too small and fragile, so instead she just lifted her leg and flipped the rodents onto their backs before she twisted her leg a bit, breaking their necks as they refused to let their bite go.
“Oh, yes, indeed,” replied Jort with a grin that displayed his pointed teeth – characteristic of goblins and goblin descent people – as he turned to look to Aideen. “Unhinged Shrews, common pest around here. They go after their prey crazily like this and only live for about three years at most, but leave a pair alone and you have a horde in the hundreds by the end of the season. Always plentiful. Good eating, too!”
“That’s convenient,” commented Aideen. A pest that was extremely aggressive but posed no threat – except maybe to very young children, and even then it was rather questionable – and was edible, with the capability to repopulate their numbers explosively, basically meant that they were meals that delivered themselves to the locals. “I imagine that made it easy to get food around here.”
“We even breed them at the village,” replied Jort with the same grin. “These things eat pretty much anything and grow really fast, really good sources of meat,” he said. “Not sure why, though, but the couple of human adoptees we took seemed to have issues with them. Can’t really stomach them, for some reason.”