The situation with Crow is heart-wrenching. Do I dare to think I can comprehend what she’s going through right now, being so young and becoming disabled? I dare not. Berry may have broken my arm, and sohow it beca a goblin arm when Lumi healed it, but at least it’s functional. The sa cannot be said about Crow’s leg. There is no modern science to repair it. Between Dara and I… we could probably sohow create a prosthetic, but that would also an her leg would need to be amputated. There was also the matter of a leg brace, but I wasn’t completely sure about how to go about creating it.
I stayed by Crow’s side whenever possible over the next week, receiving help from Toy and Lily, stating that they were my Clan, and that if I wished to make Crow’s troubles my own, then they would help shoulder the burden. Diana Artemis also helped out, doing a little extra hunting so that Crow wouldn’t need to worry about hunting her own food.
For the first couple of days, Crow was in and out of consciousness thanks to Truffle’s color-spin-think powder. What caused Crow to refuse taking any more of the drug was when Button, Glace, Figurine, and Nova all ca into the room on the third day afterwards to deliver a ssage to Crow when she was awake.
I had assud Magpie was avoiding seeing her mother like this. Or maybe she didn’t want to see because I was in Crow’s cave-hole for long periods of ti.
I was wrong.
The ssage my daughters delivered was to inform Crow that Magpie had run away.
While there were words left behind for Crow. There were none left for .
Before I could feel any anger or guilt at her actions, my children inford that Magpie’s decision was sothing they all supported. If any goblin among them had the knowledge and skillset to survive outside of Goblinho without support, it was Magpie. Now that the Bloodmaw were increasing in number, my gathered children felt that it was a smart move to have Magpie see if she could make a place for herself among the many civilized races that I have spoken to them at length about. If it was possible that she could be accepted, then there was a chance that Goblinho wouldn’t need to remain isolated forever.
I also hoped for sothing like this, but not so soon. Not with a goblin so young. Magpie was still my daughter, and I still thought of her as a child. Obviously, I was extrely worried. Crow, on the other hand, seed satisfied with the decision our daughter made.
“Crow taught Magpie the way of the Sneaky Clan. Magpie is cautious and won’t die easily.”
I want to believe that as well. It was just that seeing how easily Diana Artemis… handled her the other day. Then again, Diana Artemis is also sothing like a massive wall for my other daughters to asure themselves up against.
Not just them, but as well. I haven’t forgotten how easily she subdued during her Blood Fury, and how even if Glace hadn’t shackled to Diana’s bed with magic, I still might not have actually been able to avoid what happened to that night…
I guess, as a father, I have to just trust and believe that Crow and I have taught her the most important things she needs to know and that it will have to be enough as she makes her own way into the world.
What didn’t get ntioned with any specifics was how she left Goblinho, but I’m fairly certain it involved Cobi and those Kobolds in so manner. I felt a strange kinship with him, as if he and I weren’t entirely unalike in how we dealt with the overbearing won in our lives. For him, six Kobolds. For , a nagerie that will only continue to grow. If she went with them, as I figure she had, I felt confident they would see her safely to whatever town they ventured from.
With any luck, it might be Thorn.
Though, that might also be a bad option. Rembering what the Great Protector said to about not having killed Kairos… it’s entirely possible she might co across him. If she sohow ntions my na or that I’m here in this forest…
No. I’d rather not think of what would happen were she to find out.
And by she, yes, I an my dear old mother in this world… Salondra Wyze.
Sigh.
The day after my children brought news of Magpie’s departure, Prima had co to visit Crow. The matter was exactly what I expected it to be about. Crow’s… disability.
Crow was also one of the few goblins not pregnant currently… I think.
So, Prima ca with an ultimatum for her.
“It would be stupid to die when you could still make many strong-ones for the tribe. Even if you cannot teach them to hunt, there are others who can. In that way, you will still be useful.”
I hadn’t considered that Crow thought to die so that she wasn’t a burden, but that’s also because I wasn’t thinking like a goblin. I an, Prima’s rcy for Vera back then was to have forcefully breed her, thinking her incapable of contributing to the tribe… or being able to take care of herself in any aningful way other than that. So, it really shouldn’t have co as a surprise that she would say this to Crow.
I could even see the look in Prima’s eyes, as if she was expecting to challenge her right now on this, what is clearly a basic matter to the Bloodmaw, and intrinsic to the goblin way.
I didn’t.
“Not going to call a monster, Ark? Or threaten to bring our ho down?”
I shook my head.
“No. I think I’ll be the monster this ti.”
“You?”
“Yes. I’ll keep her belly full of goblins, even if she wants to refuse . However, I will also need to make so changes to Goblinho. She might not have use of one leg anymore, but she still has another perfectly good one, and I intend to make a way for her to be mobile again.”
I stared at Crow for a mont.
“I don’t know if I misunderstood what happened just now, but whether I did or not doesn’t matter. I have no intention of letting you die, Crow. I am your Husband, and if there is a way to keep you living, then I will do it even if you co to hate for it.”
Prima crossed her arms.
“Then make whatever changes you need. As long as her belly is fat, I have nothing to else to say.”
Prima then left the room, and us, alone once more.
Crow remained quiet for a while, before eventually speaking to .
“Husband… still wants to make strong-ones with Crow now that she is a weak-one?”
What?
“You aren’t a weak-one. Surviving that attack… living on… that’s proof that you are a strong-one, Crow. I hear it from Prima… Old One… even Diana Artemis more tis than I care to. Weak-ones die so that strong-ones can live. Together with everyone, you hunted fifteen Black-claws, captured two more for us to raise and breed, and even the damn Jaguar that got you was killed by Button. No one important died. No one needs to feel sad over losing a sister like they did for Beast-talker.”
“Beast-talker still has all her bones.”
“She does, but the trade-off is that she can’t make strong-ones anymore.”
Crow touched her belly thoughtfully for a mont.
“Do you think Crow will ever walk again?”
“Maybe not the sa as you once did, but I don’t think it’s impossible.”
“…Then Crow trusts Husband. Only Husband cleans my shit and piss, takes to the bath and washes , brings food, stays to eat with …”
“What about Lily and Toy?”
Crow didn’t reply. I know that both Lily and Toy have kept an eye on Crow when I had things that needing doing around Goblinho that pulled away from her side. Which ans we both know she’s embellishing so facts here.
But…
There was truth to what she said.
I took care of her when she unintentionally soiled herself while under the dicated effects of color-spin-think powder. I scooped her up as carefully as I could and brought her to the bath, letting her soak in the warm water draped over my lap, scooping handfuls of it and gently washing her skin and hair, and, yes, I ate with her in her cave… going so far as to borrow lon’s Kitchen in order to make so easy-to-digest food. Raw when applicable.
While I know I would do the sa for any other of my goblin wives, and most certainly my daughters were this kind of life altering injury befall them, I’ve often thought that Crow… was sothing like the kind of wife I might have wound up with in my previous life. An otherwise unassuming woman who for so reason found to be… enjoyable to be around.
Nothing excessive.
Just soone to enjoy passing the ti of life with.
She’s fine with caring for her, but she also has a private side to herself that she is unwilling to show completely. And that’s okay. I won’t press her about it. I won’t try and force her to be Clan with . I’m fine just co-existing with her and continuing to put little goblin children inside of her belly, because that’s also what she wants from .
So as ti passed, I began renovating her cave to make way for her to be able to move about both it, and with the permission I obtained from Prima, Goblinho.
Small rails were created along the walls so that she could leverage her weight and hop-step through the main thoroughfare. Small pillars with handles in certain places allowed her to enter cave-holes while not getting in everyone else’s way, locations such as the breeding room so she could take baths on her own, or to enter lon’s Kitchen or the shit-pit. Independence is a very ingrained trait in a goblin, and Crow was very goblin to begin with.
While Crow was the main focus of my ti, I had made other promises that needed to be kept.
I promised to teach Button the Fist of the Hungry Wolf. So, in our place of practice in the nearby forest, we fought. I taught her the Cracking Shot, the Burning Knuckle, and the Geyser of Power. And once more Button grew stronger. Button also wanted my attention as a man, and I, having opened Pandora’s Box with her, didn’t refuse. Thankfully, she was fine with the thod we had used before.
But… I’m starting to think that my so-called big-seed is doing strange things to these girls.
Back at Goblinho, Krushka and Rushk had been patient in waiting for the reward I promised them for doing an excellent job planting the seeds Cobi had brought us. Krushka’s request was simple enough. She just wanted to spend ti with and drink.
For as big as she is, and Krushka is the biggest and tallest Orc out of all four, with my forehead just about reaching the front of her collarbone, she’s rather straightforward about her wants and needs from , as her War-chief Husband.
She even had her own stash of blue water. The only thing missing was my participation.
She was curious about my life and how it led to becoming the goblin War-chief that I apparently am. I opened up in exchange for learning about the art on her mams. We slowly drained the jar of blue water as we told each other our stories. Krushka, having been a war-bride multiple tis, is dostically-oriented. She has given birth and raised a number of children. She’s skilled in cooking, making clothes, and child-rearing. While she can fight, she’s not formally trained in anything. It’s more like, she can grab a branch and give soone hell with a few whacks with it.
Of the people she was a war-bride to, she said most of them were tolerable. The worst one was her most recent. He was too arrogant for her liking, and not good enough in the sack to warrant it. He also eyed one of her daughters lasciviously and sent her youngest son who was still rather young to a war-camp to be taught to fight for a lesser chieftain’s army who he was aligned with. While it sounded terrible, it was rather standard where orc society was concerned.
I spoke about my life as the son of a famous magician, not going too in-depth about how famous she was, growing up in her shadow, learning magic, often being a disappointnt to her. My ti spent at the academy never making much progress in the realm of formulaic magic and spending my ti learning the ins and outs of being a force magician, which I enjoyed imnsely.
She asked if our child when it ca would know how to use magic.
I didn’t have an answer, but I said there was a good chance it might. That seed to please her. There weren’t really orc magicians. Orcs beca Shaman, and that was it. Whether their magic was of a divine or arcane origin wasn’t of particular importance.
Being a Shaman to an orc was like having a guaranteed career as a civil servant. She spoke much like a mother who wanted her children to have a good shot at success in their lives, and I couldn’t help but think of her as being far from uncivilized, as orcs often were thought of as.
We both beca rather tipsy. I wasn’t very good at consuming alcohol, but I think Krushka was worse. She was quick to get naked and we had an egregious amount of violent and sloppy sex. But that’s her nature, I suppose. She was able to vent whatever frustrations she must have accrued recently, and after a few healthy doses of my liquid calming agent, she was soon comfortably out cold.
I stayed with her for a while, not wanting to just abandon her right away, but as was the case, I inevitably had to go. This had all happened the first night after Crow had been brought back.
Rushk was willing to wait for the next day, at which point the reward she wanted was a little more practical. Rushk, while having been partially goblinized as well as showing a bump indicating she was for sure carrying a goblin strong-one inside of her, was looking for sothing to do to feel useful.
She had lived a sowhat sheltered life, with her only real interest to be found in learning spearplay. When spears are involved, my imdiate thought would be to point her in Prima’s direction. Turns out, that was exactly what needed to happen.
Rushk is by no ans a hunter, but Prima was more than willing to teach her the ropes.
I had even gone on a hunt with them, though the only thing I had to offer was the limited land-based magic I could use with the Topaz stone, since my Quartz Focus Orb had been integrated into my youngest daughter, Selene Hecate.
After a successful hunt, nothing too crazy, just so blue-haired foxes, the two of them tore right into one almost imdiately after securing the kill. Rushk seems to enjoy both cooked and raw at. The latter being an adjustnt due to her becoming part goblin.
I didn’t judge.
I also didn’t judge when Prima helped instigate a post-al rape.
Rushk was a little apologetic afterwards, but she was also in a much better mood. Seeing that, I also was happy. After that, in the early mornings that followed, Prima could be found sparring with Rushk with spears, not being too overbearing.
I actually got an earful from Nova about how Prima never let her off easily when it ca to sparring.
But that’s how it is sotis…
Mint, who was reclusive ever since the incident where I turned into the Monster, had begun to show herself more often now that the field had been planted. Maybe it was due to her position in the tribe as its [Bloody Druid], but she was often found there just… doing things.
I worried that whatever trauma I caused her was long-lasting, but she assured that she would be fine eventually. She also said she had acquired so… ability that would allow her to cultivate the field and that she hoped it would produce so beneficial results soon.
I would have expected to find Ebony by her side, but no. Ebony was busy with other matters. Matters in the form of one young goblin strong-one with far too much destructive power on tap.
Yes.
Ebony was teaching Selene Hecate how to use magic.
I figured for sure it would have been Glace getting involved with the matter at Diana’s behest, but no. Ebony, as it turns out, possesses true Bloodmaw Magic. Selene Hecate apparently doesn’t need to use Runes or Formulas to cast magic at all.
I feel like there needed to be soone with a rational mind to oversee this strange ntor-ntee relationship, but Ebony assured that she was a very capable big-sister goblin, and that she had it all under control.
Naturally, I didn’t believe that for a fucking second.
But, true to her word, Selene Hecate seed to look up to Ebony and along with Bitey and Beastie, those four went out into the forest on a hunt, with Diana occasionally keeping an eye on things after all.
With all the business of my days in the past week now coming to a head, I found myself visiting Truffle at long last. I wanted to keep my promise to repay her for her help with Crow. She had been working on a new strain of her mushroom powder, and with a small bit of reluctance… we indulged.
Unlike with Button, I didn’t experience anything too… strange. It was quite enjoyable. I had beco a mushroom, and Truffle was a mushroom… even Button was there, and she was a mushroom! I sohow did a spore-dance and all the mushrooms were happy.
When I ca to, Truffle was in my arms, caressing my face and grinning.
“Husband. It’s ti again.”
Yes. Another mushroom-goblin was about to co into the world.
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