Chapter 14: Clearing the rubble.

Chavu, Marcellus, and the gnomes went to the goblin den on the back of a wagon train. The adventurers were escorting them. Some travelers had stopped to gawk openly at them, staring at the wagons filled with mobs with wonder.

What sort of dungeon core was this one? Was it powerful, or a smooth talker? Could it rein in the goblins? What of the ogres?

A bard broke off from the crowd and approached Chavu's wagon, a smile on his lips.

"Naga, may I speak with you?" The bard asked. Chavu wanted to ask him to go somewhere else. They had permission from the king to travel through these roads. It was not like they were breaking the law.

Still, he knew that, if he didn't want the lute player to sing a song about how awful the Naga was, he had to accommodate him.

"Get in the wagon. You must be tired," Chavu spoke, and, with one jump, the bard was inside the wagon. The bard sat cross-legged opposite of Chavu and leaned on the Naga's tail.

"May I also ask for your name? I think you won't think much of me, if I keep calling you Naga," the bard asked. Chavu nodded.

"My name is Chavu. I am the dungeon core of the Still Pond Dungeon," Chavu took a glass jug filled with orange juice and a glass and poured some for the bard. He handed it over and the man took a couple of grateful sips.

"Thank you, it is a very hot day today. Anyway, I am Gregory. A bard. Would you please tell me how a dungeon core talked adventurers into helping him? This is shaping up to be quite the tale," Gregory asked, his dimples on display.

 Chavu just shrugged at that, not affected by the man's charms.

"It is nothing special," the Naga said. "I just passed off my dungeon as a dental clinic. Which it is — now. Plus, a building brigade, I suppose."

Then, Chavu began to tell the bard his tale. The bard even asked him about Chavu's earlier life and the system. The Naga answered to the best of his abilities, for he saw no harm in doing so.

"So, you are a con artist?" Gregory asked. He could make a jolly tune out of such a tale!

"Why do people keep calling me that? I earned my achievements," Chavu protested.

"Yet, you talked a prince into becoming a peddler. He, in turn, learned from you and became a con artist in his own right. Becoming a goblin chieftain," Gregory said with a chuckle.

 Chavu wrapped his tail around the bard and squeezed.

"If you spread such things, I will bite you! I will have you know that my bite is poisonous," Chavu threatened. The bard smirked at him.

"Do bite me, I won't mind. I was dropped in a multipurpose antidote potion as a baby. Nothing will happen to me," the bard looked too calm, for that to be a lie.

 Chavu grumbled, but unwrapped his tail.

The bard bombarded him with more questions, and even played him a couple of tunes on his lute. Asking the Naga which ones he liked for his songs.

Chavu would have liked it, if the bard did not compose him a song, no matter how jolly it was going to be. But the elf had different ideas.

They reached the goblin "town", and Chavu heard the gnomes get out of their wagons. Chavu slithered out of his, too. He was greeted by Alaric and five other goblins. The prince had a crown of bones on his head and looked happy, if a bit filthy.

"Don't they have a water source in here?" Chavu asked the prince, wrinkling his nose at the smell that was coming from the prince.

"They don't. You have to fix that, boss. Anyway, these are Goglina, Gog, Bob, Bas, and Gaz. My council of five," Alaric pointed at each one of them in turn. "Goglina is the leader."

"Well, I have plans for this place," Chavu said. "Gnomes, line up."

The little gnomes did so, and Chavu slithered back and forth before them. Like a general inspecting his army before a battle. He saw that they either had their pickaxes or little shovels in their hands.

That should do.

"Tear down all the shacks. Separate the timber that can be used from the timber that can't. Begin with the laying of the stone foundation," Chavu ordered them.

As one, the gnomes surged and began to head towards the houses.

"The goblins won't stay idle as the gnomes work," Chavu told Alaric and his council of five. "They will move the heavier things. Do inform them."

"What sort of pay will we get for our work?" Goglina asked. Chavu's eyebrows rose. Weren't the houses a good enough payment? He voiced these thoughts, and the goblin woman made a threatening step forward.

"Now, listen here, dungeon core," she began, but Marcellus intercepted her and picked her up in the air. He bared his fangs at her.

"You listen here, Gog...something. This," Marcellus, pointed at Chavu, who did his best to look disinterested. "Is your dungeon core. His command is the law. Now, get the rest of your kind to work, or be driven away from here."

Marcellus placed the shaken goblin down, and she ran to hide behind Alaric.

"Come now, Goglina. Just get everyone to do their share of the work. I promise no one is getting hurt as long as you follow Chavu," Alaric assured the shaken goblin, yet he failed to convince her.

Goglina and the other four might have gone to go and get the goblins to work, but they had a hidden agenda.

Their former chieftain had tried to use them as provisions for the winter. Their current had sold them off as slaves to a dungeon core.

Yet, the five did not despair.

For, they were crafty goblins, and they knew that the invaders wouldn't stay in the town all the time. Their moment will come, of that much, the five were sure.

They would rebel, get the council recognized by the other goblins, and rule in their own names.

That was their plan. And yet, the best laid plans often had the same fate…