by Alexis Ward
I stepped around the bonfire to stand before her as she reclined on her makeshift throne. “Yes. And clearly, you are her.” I said as I made a mock bow and tipped my imaginary hat with one hand.
The queen sprang up from her chair and landed on her feet. She lifted her legs more than was necessary as she stepped down the steps of the dais till her head was level with mine. Her eyes were a light gray color, almost white. “Indeed. I am Queen Celia Runs-With-Knives the First. And this castle belongs to me by goblin law. Who are you and why do you dare come before me?” she proclaimed, her smile growing even wider. It looked like she had more than one row of teeth in her mouth.
“I am Clive Dumont, a soldier. Leader of… well, a small party that lives in the woods nearby. One of my friends has a bloodline claim to this castle and its surrounding lands. We skirmished with some goblins earlier, and it seems there are some conflicting claims to the castle that need to be worked out.” I said, intensely aware of how close she was and how little she was wearing. Up this close she didn’t seem so different from a human, and an attractive one at that, other than the strangely sharp teeth.
She tilted her head to the side, till it was almost sideways. She seemed strangely flexible, and even while standing, she fidgeted with her hands, and occasionally hopped from foot to foot, as if she possessed a boundless energy that craved release. “So it’s war then? Haven’t had a good war since we pushed the kobolds out of these halls and back into their holes in the hills.” she mused as she ran one hand along her chin.
“Not at all, your Highness. In fact, I propose an alliance. Perhaps we can both find some benefits in… coexistence.” I said as I looked at her, trying to gauge her reaction.
The goblin queen remained silent and completely still for a moment, which was very unusual. Then she threw her head back and started to laugh. Definitely multiple rows of teeth in that mouth. She laughed so hard she wrapped her arms around her delicate and small breasts, momentarily she tumbled over sideways. She lay on the stone step and laughed till she ran out of breath. I glanced at the musician, who seemed intent on continuing to play, ignoring the proceedings around him. The guards along the opposite wall had lost interest in me and in their queen, they sat on the ground, absorbed in playing some kind of game that involved live beetles, lots of dice, and a small handful of teeth.
Eventually the goblin queen caught her breath and crawled up a few steps, then sat down, still at eye level with me, but now a few feet away. “Alliance. Sorry, that’s the funniest thing I’ve heard in my life. There’s been no cooperation between goblinkind and humans for centuries. If you trust goblin recordkeeping. But hey, is all we have. It’s so ridiculous it’s intriguing. Do tell me about these supposed benefits.” she said with a waggle of her eyebrows.
“Well, I have good reason to believe there is wealth beneath this castle. Unfortunately, if me and mine are to leverage that into anything, it’s going to draw attention from our neighbors. Thus our goal is twofold, extract that wealth and be able to spend it to improve our lives, and also get this castle into some semblance of defensible so that we can hold onto our wealth, and keep ourselves safe. If you were to join forces with us, you’d continue to live here with your tribe as normal, but would share these halls with the other occupants of the castle, peacefully. And we’d cut you in on the wealth. I mean, surely there are things you’d like, that you find difficult to get. We could dispatch a human trade caravan to buy things for you, perhaps?” I said. She grimaced at the part about sharing the space, but her eyes lit up when I mentioned wealth and ‘things she’d like’.
“I like the sounds of this. You can bring me weapons? Shiny jewelry? Silk? Oh oh, perfume! I’ve heard about that stuff. And books? I’ve run out of books.” everything she said after this was an unintelligible babble spoken in her native tongue. She waved her hands excitedly in the air, lost in her own rambling.
“Yes. We can work on some of that. But first I need some help. I have an expert mason with me, and lots of the exterior walls of the castle need repair. She would need workers to help her out, as many as you can spare. And obviously we need to not be trying to spill each other’s blood from here on out.” I said.
Celia stopped and rubbed her temples suddenly. “Ah… how skilled do those workers need to be?” she said, her voice shifting in a moment from frantic to timidly hesitant.
“I think… skill level is negotiable? Marybeth has worked with goblins before, is what she implied.” I said. I had a bad feeling about this, but I saw no other more expedient option.
Queen Celia clapped her hands together gleefully. “Excellent. Then we shall speak again tomorrow. I’ll wrangle the chieftains in line tonight, and… handle any who disagree. Then we can consummate the exact terms of our alliance tomorrow Dumonty. Agreeable?” she said.
I nodded. “Yes. It’s Dumont though. I’ll be back tomorrow then?” I asked.
“I expect you to be. So… you’d better be? Or else I’ll hunt you down.” Queen Celia said with a wink. I couldn’t tell if the gesture was meant to be affectionate, or laced with violent intent. Or both.
I started to inch my way around the fire pit and back toward the door I had entered through. “Well then, I guess I’ll be going?” I said.
Celia cocked her head comically sideways again, then pounced down the stone steps, landing between me and the shortest path to the door. “Not without a token of our soon to be everlasting friendship and alliance!” she said. Before I could react, she practically crawled up my shirt and brought her face level with mine. There was a horrible crunching noise and her oversized teeth retracted into her face, leaving behind surprising human-like lips. She dove forward and kissed me on the cheek, then released her grip on my clothes and dropped back to the floor. In the background, I heard a sharp twang, and the music stopped. I glanced toward the musician, he had broken multiple strings on his guitar, and started at his queen with a blank expression on his face.
I watched as Celia prowled back toward her throne, moving slowly on all fours, her ass raised in the air, pointed just about directly at me. I felt my cock grow hard with longing. I shook my head and tried to push those feelings aside. I already had enough complications with multiple women in my life. How many more did I need to add? As she curled back up in her throne there was a harsh popping sound, and her oversized teeth shot back out, and her mouth shifted into a toothy smile again.
As I went out the door and returned to my companions, I heard her say, “See you later Dumonty. I’m looking forward to it.”
I explained the technical bits of what had transpired to everyone as Sasha led us back to the side of the castle she was more familiar with. I left out my heavy suspicions thats queen Celia had distinctly physical intentions toward me. That was a problem for another day.
Later that night, Sasha and I occupied one room, while Marybeth and Tabitha shared the other small bedroom just across the hallway. It was late into the night, and we lay naked in eachothers arms on an old mattress, under our travel blankets, basking in post orgasmic bliss. It was then that I remembered there was something I was supposed to ask her about. “Tabitha mentioned something to me a few days ago. That once this whole enterprise was up, running and publicly known, you would have suitors lining up at your door, trying to ah, marry you.” I whispered.
Her blue eyes met mine in the dark and she brushed a strand of her own blonde hair out of her face. “Well yes. Let me guess, your plan is to head all of that off by marrying me yourself, since we’re already getting along so well and all?” she said.
“Huh. Saw right through me on that, did you?” I replied.
Sasha sighed. “So, that would be all well and good, and I wouldn’t mind, except that there’s a bit of a sticky law in the way, which I must abide by if I’m going to go back to being proper nobility. Which is that I can’t marry someone who doesn’t possess a noble title of some sort.” she said.
“That kind shoots my plan in the foot then. But I am going
to remember that you essentially said yes.” I said, but the look on her face implied that she had more to say.
“Well, there is a way for you to acquire a noble title. But you’d have to take it from another noble. Traditionally that’s done by dueling, and though you possess a powerful weapon, I don’t think you’re much a swordsman.” she said.
“Ah, true. But that’s not an insurmountable obstacle. And don’t your neighbors already hate you? So removing a few of them could be… efficient. If gruesome.” I said. I mean, it could be, assuming I could pull it off without getting skewered by some fellow who had been learning to live by the sword his whole life.
“Well, we’ll have to find someone to teach you how to use a sword them. But enough scheming for one night, okay?” Sasha said as she pulled her lips close to mine and then kissed me. We kept busy throughout the night, but we didn’t do much talking.
Chapter 10 - Goblin Queen Celia joins the Party
The next day we returned to the same dining chamber as before, with it’s low table and many cushions to eat our breakfast, then we proceeded straight back to the queen goblin’s lair. As before, I left my companions standing near the pillars as I approached the guards. They recognized me from yesterday, and I was quickly ushered back into Celia’s throne room. The setup was similar to before, except that there was no musician, instead, a number of male goblins stood before the throne. Directly behind them were a few other goblins, face down on the carpet in pools of blood. Queen Celia was the first to notice my arrival. “Dumonty, you came back! I was almost looking forward to chasing you through the halls. So, all of my remaining chieftains are completely on board with our new alliance. They’ll be rounding up a large crew of workers for you momentarily. And by momentarily I mean now.” She clapped her hands together twice, and her toothy smile grew even wider. “Get moving you lot! Out, out out!” she shouted.
The other goblins all left the room through the guarded door, at varying paces. Some sprinted, others walked, some shuffled. All of them glanced at me. Some with indifference, some with a sharp glare and a grimace. I got the feeling that this wouldn’t be as easy as Celia was implying, though I could imagine vividly what had happened to those that had voiced their displeasure too strongly. The corpses left no doubt about that. I stepped carefully over the corpses and around the firepit to stand before her throne once again. “So, we’re allies then?” I asked.
Queen Celia hopped off of her throne and strode down the stairs to meet me eye to eye, much as she had yesterday. She held up a finger and wagged it back and forth while her long slender tongue played across her teeth. “Not quite Dumonty. It’s all, well, in writing is what you would say, I imagine. But there is the matter of consummating it. I mean, what proper alliance between powers is complete without a little proper mating ceremony as a gesture of goodwill?” she said softly.
I tugged at the collar of my shirt, even as my eyes were drawn down to her nipples as they hardened beneath her clothes. “Ah… I, a goblin tradition, is it?” I asked as she stepped closer to me.
There was a pop as her oversized teeth retracted into her face. Standing next to me, her face barely came up to my chest. “A tradition shared across all races, actually. I’m surprised you didn’t know? Not from around here mm? Nobody tried to have you yet, eh? Shame that, given how handsome you are.” she whispered. Then she buried her face in my chest and almost pushed me backwards into the fire pit. I felt her grab onto my shirt and pull me back toward her, and we both fell down in a tangle of limbs onto the stone floor. “Sorry, sorry, wasn’t trying to kill you there. Accident. Promise.” she muttered from underneath me.
“Uh, I mean, there are a few girls that are kinda on my team already, if you catch my meaning.” I muttered.
She took a few steps back and looked up at me. “Oh, well that’s okay. At least you have some experience then.” she said as she winked at me. “Come on, I’ll show you to my little hide-a-way.” she said as she bounded up the steps and disappeared behind her throne.
I followed her at a walking pace. “I should probably let the others know if I’m going to be gone much longer.” I said.
When I came around the throne Celia was crouched in front of a small square opening, that had been concealed by a panel of the wall. Another secret door. She glanced back and me and waved her hand dismissively. “I’ll send a messenger out to them, they can enjoy some festivities or hang out in a sitting room or something. Maybe you should send along a note or something so they know you’re okay. Fair?” she asked. I nodded.
“Yeah.” I couldn’t help but let my eyes wander down her slim form to her shapely dark skinned legs. Much like yesterday, she barely wore anything that could be called clothing.
She turned and let out a high pitched shout, a word in goblin, I assumed. One goblin cautiously peered around the door and looked into the throne room. She pointed at him and gestured toward the door through which I had entered and shouted a long string of guttural words at him. The unfortunate goblin leapt to attention, saluted so hard that he smashed his hand against his metal helmet, then dashed through back through the door. “Lucky us, Gort can actually speak a few hundred words in your tongue. It’s hit or miss whether we’re born with the right vocal cords for it. Well, come along then.” Queen Celia said as she disappeared into the lightless square tunnel. She barely had to crouch to fit inside, whereas I had to get down on my hands and knees then shuffle forward awkwardly in the darkness.
I could hear her moving in front of me, barely. Her bare feet slapped against the stone floor. I got the feeling that if she didn’t want to be heard, she wouldn’t be. I realized there were going to be some navigational issues when I bumped nose first into a hard slimy surface. “Ow. Celia?” I reached out with my hand and felt the cool texture of stone.
From up ahead I heard her chuckle. “Right. Human. Can’t see in the dark. Just a moment. I got something for that, somewhere.” she said. I could hear the clatter of metal, like a bagful of coins being shaken. Then the tunnel filled slowly with a soft red glow, which outlined the silhouette of Celia, some distance ahead, where the tunnel widened out into a small chamber. I crawled toward her and came up beside her. In one hand she held a glowing red orb, about an inch in diameter, her other hand was buried in a loose pile of coins and metal jewelry on the floor.
“Looking for something specific?” I asked. She turned and gave me wide toothy grin, then returned her focus to the pile of stuff. A moment later she pulled free another orb, much like the first, and handed it to me.
“Give it a lick to activate it, and it’ll glow for days. Giant fire beetle eye. Not hard to come by, not easy to kill though.” Celia said as she ran her tongue through the air suggestively at the glowing orb in her hand. Then she glanced upward, toward an opening in the ceiling I hadn’t noticed before, and leapt upward, grabbing on to a handhold above us. Her hip smashed into my face as her foot found a purchase on my shoulder, and then she was above me, peering down over the edge. “Come on Dumonty. My rooms are up here. This is just where I keep my loot.” she said.
I stood up, through the hole in the ceiling, and easily heaved myself up into the next chamber. As she placed the fire beetle eye into an apparatus made of wire and shards of glass, the light it emanated reflected and filled the room. Her room had a high enough ceiling to accommodate me. As she kicked shut a wooden trap door, which closed off the hole that we had entered through, I gave the room a more in depth look. A pile of dirty blankets and furs piled high in a corner comprised the bed, there were a couple regular size doors, that presumably led elsewhere. A dresser with a cracked mirror, piled high with trinkets that were a bit less tarnished and cracked than those in the secret passage down below. “Isn’t it marvelous?” Celia said.
“I mean. Kinda. You should come see my room at the old house sometime.” I said.
“Oh, bringing a dirty girl home before you’ve even tried the goods.” she chuckled and pressed her body against me. I felt a shiver
of arousal run down my spine, and reached out to wrap an arm around her, but she slipped under it and danced away toward the dresser, and rummaged through it’s drawers. “Oh here it is!” she pulled a length of dull steel chain out of a drawer. As she withdrew the full length, perhaps five feet worth, I saw that on the end dangled a metal ring with a clasp. It looked big enough to go around my calf muscle. She held it up to her neck tentatively. “Hum. The shoe still fits. If you dare claim your new goblin queen?” she whispered.
The confusion on my face must have been apparent. She stomped her foot. “Yeesh humie, it’s nothing weird. I like to play at these things. I’m like--” she paused and counted on her fingers. “Thirty human years old! Too many to count in goblin years! So spare me if I’ve gained some weird interests over that time.” she exclaimed.
I held up my hands in front of me, palms out, in a placating gesture. “Hey hey, no shaming here. Just not what I was expecting. So this is a requirement of our little alliance then?” I asked.
She shook her head violently. “No no no! That’ll work out just fine. This is me wanting new experiences! I don’t know any other goblin who has done-- you know, with a human. I bet it’s exhilarating.” she said with her eyes fixed on my crotch as she fidgeted absently with the chain and collar in her hands.
