46. The Goblins (After-Battle) 1

While the group of "adults" and Queliand discussed how much help to send since Morton had not said an exact amount, Matt remained silent thinking about something, once he finished he entered the conversation with a somewhat unusual question.

"If those goblins that attacked the village could talk to humans, couldn't the ones that attacked us?"

Then the older people stopped talking and looked at him, Sofi was the first to respond.

"I doubt it, if they could understand what we said, they would have adapted the way of fighting, like perhaps sending a group to flank us with a bigger vote, but they didn't."

"But they weren't normal either, maybe there's more to them than just Anne needing food."

Liem said after thinking a bit about the behavior those two larger goblins had displayed.

"I agree, they acted in a rational and calculated way to eliminate that bigger goblin, and they also showed a deep resentment against him." Hannah added.

Matt preferred not to comment on why he really thought this, in fact it was more of a wish he had that those goblins weren't normal.

Even though he couldn't look closely, he was sure he had seen a familiar face in the goblin that had pointed at him at the last moment before the monstrous goblin made love with him. Not that he had ever seen any goblins remotely like them before, but he felt something familiar in their eyes, something he couldn't explain or understand even to himself.

'What happened to them after that?'

******************

(Going back to just after Evrolk was killed)

Yag-gob maneuvered her war boar as best she could through the dense forest until he reached a clearing further away from the village behind. This clearing was previously used as a resting point for warriors before the fight and as such still had traces of everyone who had slept there before, serving as a temporary base and meeting point in case anything went wrong.

Unsurprisingly, Yag-gob and her brother were the first to arrive, but they didn't have to wait long until the few remaining warriors began to appear, all exhausted from both the fight and the frantic rush to the "camp". Yag-gob left her boar to rest and eat some of the "emergency ration" while she and her brother organized the warriors as best they could.

Soon the warriors who had arrived, around 40 to 50, were sitting in groups of 5 spread across the clearing. Those who still had energy were tasked with distributing water and food to the others. While they were doing their tasks, sitting on the ground or just passed out from exhaustion, Yag and her brother Gronb-go, called the last "captains" of their forces still alive.

"How are things?"

Yag asked, still wearing her helmet, which made her voice seem more stealthy and muffled than it was.

"Ruins..gruuf.. they arrived, very tired.. injured... gruf, few, chances."

The captain on the right of the 3 spoke the best he could, unlike Yag, her brothers and her... father. Most goblins avoided communicating with words, not because they wanted to, but because theirs mouth was more difficult to articulate words, preferring instead to use gestures, guttural sounds that were easier to produce and in some clans even smells were used.

'No wonder most races regard them as animals or monsters.'

Yag often thought this every time she spoke to normal goblins and realized the vast difference both physically and mentally between them and hers family. Well, what was left of her.

"How many can still walk and run until we return to the nest?"

Gronb asked the 3, they looked at each other and stared at the goblin on the left. This one was a little more different than the others, he not only had the typical scars on his shoulders that distinguish him as a captain (a way of distinguishing them that her father had come up with, making a cut on the shoulders close to the bones to show that these goblins would be strong to win even with injuries close to his bones, so you can see how intelligent he was), as well as having several scars on his hands. These scars indicated that he was also a patcher of wounds.

A patcher of wounds would be the goblin equivalent of doctors but in a much more rudimentary form, these scars on mothers were something that goblins in this position had had for as long as goblins could remember, as most injured people are in a lot of pain and rarely cooperate, it is not uncommon for those those treating them end up injured. From there came the custom of those responsible for the injured to injure their hands to a certain extent so that when they went to treat the injured and they saw the goblin's hands, they would know that he could help.

"Hmmmm, 27 or 30, gruuf, sir...if they, eat."

He replied after taking a look at the scattered goblins.

That was a very small number considering how much they had brought to attack, naturally they had suffered defeats before but there was never that point. They had brought basically all the fighting force they could in this invasion attempt, and not only did they lose, they were basically decimated.

'Well at least it wasn't a complete loss.'

Yag consoled herself, yes they had lost many warriors, including some females who had come along to get more respect in the clan. But at least the biggest threat to her clan had finally been eradicated, hers sire.

Looking to the side she saw her brother in deep thought, certainly considering who they should save and who should be...slaughtered, for the sake of others. She was happy that she wouldn't have to make that decision but she felt sorry for her brother, to some extent at least.

Even if Gronb was the brother she had the best relationship with, she couldn't say they were, as humans would say, friends. Even though you were often brothers in goblin communities it just meant you would have more competition for food and possibly a constant opponent to improve your fighting skills. In the Yag community, this notion was no different, it was even worse considering her father, until now the clan leader.

As many intelligent races know, goblins are not so against cannibalism, if you have few resources and many mouths to feed it is not so incredible that you can reduce the number of mouths and still get food during this process.

What the other races do not know is that goblin cannibalism is something more ritualistic and sacred, it is seen as the maximum form of devotion for the clan, and therefore those who are devoured are not brutally slaughtered as they believe. But treated with the utmost respect, having their names remembered on special parchments that all, absolutely all, goblin clans must have, a last reminder of a immemorial time, when ironically the goblins were not so... primitive.

That is, until his parent was born, he subverted this practice to the extreme, turning an ancient sacred act into a banal and routine act, if you are not strong enough it has no use other than food. This was his logic, in part it was well aligned with goblin values, but even they have respect for life and give the weakest places as workers in low positions such as excrement cleaners or those responsible for poisons.

But her father didn't care about that, for him only strength was important, so he not only eliminated and devoured those he considered useless but also forced others to do the same. Especially his descendants, at these times he showed that he was not only stronger than common goblins or just a brute with his brains in his belly, but that he was also more cruel than most goblins.

Goblins also have family ties and understand emotions, after all they are also living and intelligent beings (contrary to what some races claim), even if between siblings it is usually due to rivalry, but mainly they form bonds with their mothers, except when they are from different races (with some exceptions). They are welcomed by goblin mothers in the community and they become responsible for them.

Mothers are even more important than chiefs in many cases, because during the first moments of life the most important moments of newborns and mothers are shared, they are the ones who instill the notion of belonging to the clan in young people. They teach the basics and respect (from a goblin point of view) to the young, but in the case of Yag and his brothers, as soon as they grew up and could use weapons, Evrolk forced them to kill and devour their own mothers, as well as he had done.

From his point of view, perhaps this is nothing more than a rite of passage that would strengthen them as it strengthened him, but he forgot that he didn't even have the chance to meet his mother, who died when he was still in the womb, their children on the other hand did. That's why it was an extremely cruel thing for them to do, and when they refused, he himself killed them in front of them and forced them to eat their flesh, and if they refused to do that, they were eaten alive by him.

After all, from his point of view, they would be too weak and would not deserve to continue with their lives, not only that but they would have "wasted" both food and potential by making him kill their mothers.

Every time Yag looked at her parent (she refused and always refused to call him father) she remembered her mother, and how she had seen him looked at her that day. Not with shock, anger or fear, but with love, acceptance and regret, she already knew that the clan head would do something like this and was ready for it. She only seemed to feel sorry for her daughter, who would be forced to live with this pain, but at least she would live, unlike several of her brothers who refused.

Before they had more than 10 brothers, but after that day there were only 5 left.

And after today only 1.