“Nature provides.” - Goblin proverb.

The hunting group returned to the first place they made a harvest in, where they chopped down some trees to hollow them out and stuff the mashed insides back into their own barks earlier in the morning. By then most of the day had passed, and the sun was already low on the horizon, probably no more than an hour away from sunset.

When they arrived, they were greeted by the three goblins that stood guard over the trunks they processed since earlier that morning, with a small pile of birds, squirrels, and other edible small animals gathered by them, all already gutted and cleaned. The critters must have been attracted by whatever had been brewing and the goblins on guard simply took care of them and added them to the harvest pile.

As for why Aideen thought that, it was because of the pervasive aroma that became noticeable once they approached the area. Kino even picked up the smell from much further away, which was telling of how fragrant it was. Naturally, the source of the scene emanated from the trunks the goblins had previously processed, a sweet, somewhat fermented sort of fragrance.

Which explained why the goblins carried so many leather waterskins with them but had never used them so far.

“Ahh, it should be about ready, just in time,” said the old goblin as he took a deep whiff of the smell in the air. Much like Aideen expected, the goblins asked for the waterskins she had been carrying for them, and several of them gathered around one of the trunks as the old goblin started to carefully carve a hole near the bottom of the hollowed-out tree.

She saw how the goblins signaled to one another and one of them held an open waterskin right under the area being worked on, before the old goblin used the handle of his dagger to strike the hole he had made in a quick motion. The blow caused a cracking noise, followed by a murky liquid gushing out from the opening that he created.

Every drop of which was captured in the waterskin held below the opening by one of the younger goblins.

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Satisfied, the old goblin moved over to another of the processed trunks, while two of the younger goblins took turns holding waterskins under the gushing opening on the trunk, swiftly sealing the filled waterskins and setting them aside while making sure that nothing went to waste. Once the flow slowed down to a trickle and finally ceased, one of the goblins used the pestle they previously used to mash the tree’s insides to squish the remaining bits inside the trunk, which squeezed out the last of the liquid they contained.

It took a while for the goblins to drain out all the liquid from the trunks they processed, which Aideen guessed created some sort of drink, given the fermented smell it had after even such a short while. Sure enough, the old goblin came over and gathered everyone, passing one of the waterskins to Aideen and offered her to take a drink.

“It’s very good, can only get this way, no good by tomorrow, so have to drink by end of the night,” said the old goblin with a grin on his wizened face. He also explained that it was traditional for the hunting group sent out to gather the drink – apparently the mashed insides of the trunk reacted with the juice of the fruit they poured in and fermented through the day – to enjoy the privilege of sharing a drink amongst themselves as a reward for their work.

Aideen drank a mouthful from the waterskin – which seemed about the right amount when its content was to be shared amongst the twenty-one of them – and found that the juice inside had developed a smooth consistency on the palate. It also had a pleasantly refreshing, sweet, and tangy taste to it that made her want to drink more, as well as a slight alcoholic kick at the end, which confirmed her suspicion that it fermented quite swiftly indeed.

She passed the waterskin down to Celia, who similarly drank a mouthful then passed it on to Kino, and so onwards, until it made the round and everyone had their share of the drink and sighed in contentment. The drink had a flavor unlike anything they had before, and clearly everyone – even Rhys, who was not much into drinking – showed approval to it.

“Very good, but hard to make. Can’t keep the juice from the fruit for long. It goes bad after a day once the fruit is taken from the tree,” explained the old goblin, to which Aideen nodded. The goblins practically had to make a fresh batch of the drink on the morning of the day they wanted to drink it in, due to how poorly it keeps. Apparently even the slight fermentation was not enough to keep it from going bad by the next day.

As they walked back from where they harvested the liquor to the goblin village, Aideen noticed that a few other goblins had gone out and cut down several other palm-like trees closer to the village. Those ones she had seen the previous day, and were the main source of sustenance for the goblins of the village. The presence of so many of the trees near the village was probably why they set it up there to begin with.

Much like what she had once seen in the south, the goblins would peel off the harder, outermost bark layer of the tree, and then they would pound the inner bark until it turned to mush. The mush would then be dried and ground into flour, which the goblins used for many of their food, which gave it a rather characteristic texture and flavor profile.

It was truly something, the way the goblins in the jungle lived a way of life where they made the most out of the bounties of the natural world around them.