AGoblin'sTale

by Scott

  “Wait a second. This is interesting,” the other said with a raised hand. He peered into the cage and looked the goblin over. “I wonder…” Looking it directly in the eyes, he commanded, “Sit.”

  The goblin sat down instantly, then smiled at the men hopefully. Orders were good; they meant the men might consider sparing him. He really didn't want to be stabbed by the ugly one. The taller man looked friendlier, but the hairless one was still giving him an evil look. Clearly, he had to put more effort into his groveling.

  “Yes, master, I obey,” he exclaimed in his best “weak and harmless” voice. From experience, he knew it was impossible to suck up to his masters too much.

  “What the hells, it talks?” the bald man responded.

  The taller grey-haired one shook his head. He obviously wasn't impressed by the other man's intelligence. “It's not wild, Buck. It's trained, like a dog. They use them in some places to do dirty work in mines and workshops,” the older man explained condescendingly.

  “Well, we don't have any use for it and there are more than enough goblins around here. We don't need freakish talking ones too. So let's just kill it already, Saeter,” the shorter one suggested.

  The goblin felt a stab of fear. He didn't want to die! There were so many tasty things he hadn't had a chance to try yet.

  Luckily, the taller man, named Saeter, frowned at Buck in disagreement. “No, I might have a use for it. These things are supposed to have a good sense of smell, and good dogs are hard to keep out here. They get eaten.”

  “Me good smeller! Me no be eaten!” the goblin interjected helpfully. He could do anything better than a stupid dog, and he had a lifetime of experience in not being eaten. He had gotten pretty good at it.

  Buck gave the goblin a doubtful look, but the goblin thought he saw Saeter smile slightly. The older man was obviously the one he needed to suck up to.

  “What if the little freak runs off?” Buck asked skeptically.

  “Then like you just said, this area has more than enough goblins already. One more won't make any difference. Unless you think it's going to talk us to death,” Saeter answered with a hint of authority in his voice and body language.

  Buck frowned a bit, but much to the goblin's relief, he was clearly backing down. Obviously Saeter was the more dominant male, and much smarter as well since he saw the goblin's worth.

  “Whatever, if you want the bloody little thing, I doubt anyone will care. Just keep it out of my way. I'll fill the boss in on the actual useful stuff we found.” Buck huffed before walking away.

  When he was gone, Saeter turned to the goblin and got a large toothy smile of gratitude from the green midget.

  “So do you have a name then, goblin?” Saeter asked.

  It took the creature a few seconds to figure out what the man's words meant, and then the question itself surprised him. Among the sewer goblins, he was addressed by his position in the pack, and the humans hadn't ever felt the need to name their slaves.

  After a second of hesitation, he answered, “No, master.” He didn't know where this was going.

  Saeter looked thoughtful for a second. “All right, from now on your name is… Blacknail, because your one toenail is darker than the rest. Do you understand?”

  “Me Blacknail,” the goblin replied excitedly. Having a name, something to call himself that was his own, felt weird. He liked the feeling though. He also liked that his new name described something that set him apart from other goblins—his dark nail. Not just any goblin could have his name. They couldn't even beat him up and steal it!

  “Now if I let you out, are you going to stay close to me and do as I say?” Saeter asked the goblin sternly.

  Blacknail once again detected a hint of threat in his voice. Well, that was normal in the masters. They were always angry at goblins for something. They should really stop leaving all their shiny and tasty things lying around if they didn't want goblins to rescue them.

  “You master,” Blacknail gravely replied. He didn't understand everything Saeter had just said, but he understood enough. Besides, calling humans master was always the right answer.

  Saeter grinned gruffly and with a bit of humor. “You certainly get right to the point. All right then.” He moved over and unlatched the cage.

  When it was open, Blacknail took a few careful steps out before slowly stretching, then turning back to face his new master expectantly. Getting out of the cage felt so good. He just wished he was home and not in this strange place.

  His first instinct was to make a run for it as soon as the man’s back was turned. However, Blacknail was stuck out here among all the unsettling trees and nasty-looking men. Home was very far away, and the goblin had no idea what sorts of dangers lay in wait for him among the trees, but he was sure there were lots!

  Thus, he planned on staying close to this new non-hostile human named Saeter. He was big even for a human, so being close to him should be fairly safe, and that was worth a few beatings.

  The top of the goblin's head reached only slightly more than halfway up Saeter's body. His green-skinned body was shaped like a small stumpy person’s. He also had a bald head, two long pointy ears, and sharp nails on his hands and feet. His nose was large, long, and beak-like. His eyes were small and squinty while his teeth were sharp and needle-like.

  Blacknail thought of himself as quite the handsome creature, but he was pretty sure his masters thought otherwise. Saeter, however, did not seem surprised nor repulsed by Blacknail’s appearance.

  “All right, let's see how well trained you are. Go, Blacknail,” Saeter said forcefully while pointing at a spot on the ground a dozen feet from him.

  The goblin rushed over to stand on that spot, then turned to smile proudly at his master. Too easy! This was a command he had mastered long ago!

  “Stay,” Saeter commanded as he placed a piece of dried meat on the ground in front of himself.

  The scent of the meat reminded Blacknail that he hadn't eaten since that morning and that the men of the wagons hadn't been feeding him much anyway. He liked gruel as much as the next goblin, but it got old after a few weeks. Now he wanted something different.

  However, he ignored the rumble in his tummy and didn't move. He was far too clever for that. He knew this was a trick. He had figured it out in the city after only five beatings! Truly, he was a genius among goblins.

  “Good goblin. Now come,” Saeter told him next.

  Blacknail moved to stand in front of Saeter. He had been called a good goblin! His old masters had never done that.

  Saeter picked up the meat and, to Blacknail's surprise, handed it to him. The goblin shoved the delicious-smelling meat into his mouth before his master could change his mind. He managed to get it down with only a tiny bit of choking and gagging. The men of the city had never given him anything so tasty.

  “Hungry, were you?” Saeter asked while giving Blacknail an odd look. “Well, good. You've got discipline. I can work with that.” Saeter’s rough voice held just a bit of satisfaction.

  Blacknail belched loudly as the food he had eaten too quickly tried to come up again.

  His new master's smile faded a little, and he hesitated for a second before pressing on. “Anyway, follow me. Back at camp, we'll see what you can really do.”

  Saeter began to walk off. The goblin knew the follow command, but he mostly knew he didn't want to be left alone without his nice new safe master. He was unused to being above ground in the day, and the bright blinding sunlight and strange fresh air unnerved him. Bleh, he dearly wished for the safe darkness and comforting smells of the sewers.

  Blacknail followed Saeter through the remains of the caravan. It was much more interesting looking and smelling, with all the bandits scattered around, looting corpses and wagons. Blacknail stuck close to his new master for safety as the men around them looked huge and dangerous. They were all obviously armed; some of their weapons were still slick with red human blood.

  A few of the attackers stared
at Blacknail as he passed, and they called out to Saeter. Blacknail was relieved that after a brief response from Saeter, all of the men quickly lost interest in him and went back to looting and carrying stuff.

  After walking down the road a bit, Saeter led the goblin over to the woods. After so many days of seeing the trees from a distance, Blacknail was surprised at how intimidating they looked close up. In front of him, a wall of greenery stretched. Trees many times his height towered overhead, and their long branches stretched out in every direction. Thick bushes sat underneath them and blocked most of the ways forward. Only a few areas were thin enough for people to pass through.

  Blacknail gulped nervously as he approached the twisted mass of twigs and leaves. He much preferred trees when they weren't all so close together and hard to see through. However, the goblin’s new master calmly strode through a gap in the bushes and into the strange overgrown domain beyond. Blacknail hesitated a second before following. Briefly, he considered trying to find another master who was still out on the road, but then he gathered up his courage and stepped into the woods.

  Branches cloaked in greenery towered above him as he passed over the threshold. The canopy wasn’t thick enough to block most of the sunlight, but it still concealed way too much from the goblin's sight for him to be comfortable.

  His earlier thoughts of human-eating forest monsters didn't seem so exciting now. They were actually quite terrifying. As he nervously followed the man named Saeter under the tree branches, Blacknail couldn't help but imagine legions of fearful beasts with bad intentions laying in wait above him.

  With a start, Blacknail realized his new master was beginning to pull ahead. That would be bad! He really didn't want to be left alone without a huge tough human to scare away everything hungry for goblin. All the trees and bushes looked exactly the same to Blacknail, so if he lost sight of his master, he would quickly become hopelessly lost.

  The goblin plunged through the bushes in pursuit of his new master. He immediately regretted his actions though. The branches poked and scratched him painfully, so he had to slow down.

  Ack, why were the bushes so pointy? He hissed in frustration and annoyance. Moving more slowly, he carefully skulked after Saeter while trying to make as little noise as possible and keep an eye on everything around him.

  A few minutes later, he heard what he thought was his master's voice, but Blacknail couldn't see him or make out his words. The concerned goblin quickly pushed through the bushes again, and after a brief prickly resistance, he found himself stepping through the last barrier at the edge of a small clearing.

  Blacknail shuddered. There were also so many new, confusing smells, and he itched terribly now from the poking bushes. As he scratched himself vigorously, he heard a sound off to his side. He turned to look and jumped in alarm at what he saw there. Only a few feet away, a strange tall human with a drawn sword was scowling at him.

  “Now what do we have here? Looks like a scrawny little goblin,” the big ugly pink human drawled as Blacknail took a frightened step back. “Maybe I should save us all some trouble and kill you. I doubt Saeter would really care too much.” The dirty, rough-shaven man sneered as he towered over the goblin.

  The human's foul breath washed over the goblin as he talked, and Blacknail froze in terror. The huge human man was so close!

  “Enough, Ferret. Stop scaring my goblin,” Saeter shouted irritably. Blacknail’s new master had stopped walking away and turned back toward them. There was a dangerous look in his eye as he stared at the other man.

  “I’m just having a little fun. Don't you worry,” the foul-smelling man said with a laugh. His eyes, however, were still hostile when he turned away from the goblin.

  Sighing in relief, the goblin scurried after his master. Blacknail was pretty sure Saeter didn't want to kill him, but he wasn't so sure about this new human. Obviously he feared challenging Blacknail and his new master though, because he didn’t pursue them.

  The meadow the goblin found himself scrambling through seemed to have been filled with long grass in the recent past, but most of the plants had been trampled down. Only a few patches of standing plants remained. Several crude tents of various sizes were scattered around, along with the remains of a fair number of burnt-out fire pits. Heaps of various types of equipment were piled in seemingly random places, making the camp seem haphazard.

  Saeter was headed toward one of the fire pits off to the side of the clearing, and Blacknail trailed him. His master reached the campsite and rummaged through a bag. After taking out a few items, Saeter straightened up and turned to the goblin.

  “All right, time for some real tests,” he told Blacknail sternly.

  The goblin felt a hint of alarm, but only a hint. Surely he was a clever goblin who wouldn't fail any tests. He grinned eagerly at the thought of showing off his intelligence. The more his new master trusted him, the safer he would be. It would also make it easier for him to eventually escape back to his old home.

  Saeter drilled Blacknail through various commands. They worked through some very simple ones to some more complex ones. If Blacknail didn't know a command, then Saeter showed him, which was a system the goblin liked much more than being smacked with a stick every time he did something wrong. That was what his old masters had done.

  Blacknail learned every new command after seeing it once, and in the process, he learned quite a few new human words as well. Saeter was pleased at his quick progress and showed it with comments such as “Good,” and “Well done.”

  Saeter was constantly giving him new things to do. Blacknail was careful to try to remember all the new commands so that he would not be punished when his master demanded he perform them. He was really not sure why Saeter had taught him to shake his hand or play dead though. Maybe it was to lure prey closer? He hoped he wouldn't be used as bait…

  “Hmm, that will do. You learn quickly enough. Now for a real test. You can't run around bare-assed every day, so let's see if you can make your own clothes,” Saeter announced.

  The grey-haired man headed over to the side of the clearing that the bandits hadn't trampled, where some tall plants were still growing. After a quick inspection, he chose one and pulled it out of the ground.

  “Here, see, this is Wolf’s Mane,” he told Blacknail slowly and clearly as he held up the dead plant for him to see. “I want you to pull up these plants like I just did. Get to it.”

  “Yes, master,” Blacknail said and nodded vigorously.

  He scanned the vegetation in front of him until he found a dead plant like the one his master had pulled out, then he moved to stand beside it. He grabbed it low, close to the ground, and pulled. It didn't budge.

  Afraid of taking too long and incurring a punishment, he tried again. This time, he put all his strength into it. The plant came loose with a sudden jerk, and Blacknail was sent spiralling over backward. His momentum carried him until a rough impact with Saeter's boots stopped his roll.

  Blacknail cringed in horror. He hadn't meant to touch his master and incur his terrible wrath. He shielded his face with his hands and peeked up. Much to the goblin's confusion, Saeter was just scowling at him and made no move to hit him. The edges of his mouth were twitching upward for some reason though.

  “Try again,” Saeter told the goblin.

  Blacknail rushed to his feet and found another stalk. This time he pulled it out correctly. After a few minutes, he had pulled out several more with no further problems.

  “That should be enough. Follow me,” Saeter said before he gathered all the plants and carried them back to his camp. Once there, he sat down and began to pull the plants apart. “Watch and do this. You need the fibers, the stringy bits.” He held them up for Blacknail to look at.

  Saeter pulled another stalk apart and extracted the long, stringy fibers. Then he rubbed them gently between his fingers till they came loose. When he was done, he handed Blacknail a plant.

  The goblin took it and gave it a doubtful look. This w
as nothing like anything his old masters had made him do. With a shrug, the goblin copied Saeter’s actions and stripped out the fibers and cleaned them by rubbing them.

  “Good, now the hard part,” Saeter continued. He straightened the fibers out and began to weave them together carefully with his fingers. “Watch carefully.”

  The goblin peered at the cord forming in Saeter's hand as he twisted the fibers together. It seemed sort of complicated, but how hard could twisting pieces of plant be for a genius goblin like him? He eagerly went to work.

  Chapter 3

  Blacknail spent almost the next hour working on twisting plant fibers into rope, and he rapidly came to the conclusion that it was hopeless and he was a stupid, stupid goblin. Much to his despair, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make a single piece of cord.

  Saeter had made it look so easy, but every time Blacknail tried, he ruined the fibers or tied them into a useless knot. One time he had even somehow managed to get his hand entangled in the fibers and had been forced to chew himself free. Everything he touched was destroyed!

  After instructing him, his master had moved over to the other side of his camp and, for some reason, was repeatedly stabbing and slicing a small block of wood with a knife. Clearly he was furious. Saeter would look up every once in a while to check on the goblin, and every time he did, Blacknail cringed in shame. He whimpered in self-pity and fear of punishment.

  He had been doing so well earlier! He had completed every task his new master had given him, but now all that was ruined because he couldn't twist a bunch of plants together. His new master would surely throw him out into the forest or kill him himself!

  “That's enough,” Saeter said suddenly as he put down the piece of wood. He walked over to the goblin with an exasperated expression.

  Blacknail looked up from the rope he was desperately trying to weave and cringed at his master's approach.

  “You'll have plenty of time to practice later. Eventually you'll get it. Right now you're trying too hard,” Saeter told Blacknail.