Chapter 10: Any other Questions?

Karen brushed past an orc as she strode through the streets of the commoner district.

“Watch it, midget.”

Karen bowed her head in apology and the orc left it at that.

“Idiot,” she muttered and kept walking past the morning crowds.

The Commoner District was overcrowded by people trying to make a simple living while avoiding the dangers that lurked outside the walls of Hollow Shade. Cost of housing was expensive enough, coupled with the nameplate annual taxing, most commoners were barely making ends meet.

Everyone was in a rush. The majority were headed towards one job or another, some jobs were in the Commoner District, others in the Trade District. They didn’t have time to spare, most businesses didn’t condone tardiness. After all, there were plenty of others ready to take the employee’s job. Which meant they wouldn’t bother wasting time when bumping into a goblin like Karen.

She smiled as she jiggled the orc’s coin purse in her hand. Pickpocketing the orc had been too easy. A little bump, a small apology, and none were the wiser of Karen’s theft.

Unfortunately, the purse only held a few copper coins. She clicked her tongue in annoyance. Karen had hoped for a silver coin, but expected as much.

She dreamed of the day when she could make enough money to enter one of the four prestigious academies. The business academy would be the easiest to get into, since the only requirement was tuition. Karen didn’t have the family connections to get into the civics academy. And like the majority of people, she hadn’t shown the gift of magic, so the mage academy would never be an option. As a goblin, her physical abilities would never be enough to allow entrance into the martial academy either.

Like dwarves, goblins were short and at a disadvantage in terms of weapon range and speed compared to other species. Unlike dwarves however, goblins weren’t overly strong for their size. In other words, her prospects were slim.

Karen’s head shot up as a goblin dashed by. She barely managed to catch a glimpse of his silver hair as he passed through the crowd.

“...Who the hell?” Karen murmured.

She had never seen a goblin run that fast. Another goblin followed in his footsteps a few seconds later.

“Leroy?” Karen questioned.

“Karen?” Leeroy wheezed.

His face was flushed and he was drenched in sweat.

“Did you see *huff* where that fucker went? Goblin, *huff* bluish skin, grey hair. Oh gods, my legs are killing me.”

“Um, I think he went that way. Are you okay? What’s going on? Who was that?” Karen asked.

Leroy took a few moments to catch his breath before answering, “I’m not sure. He had a weird name. Twig, or something. I think he’s from a rival gang. He broke Jax’s nose and then ran.”

“What? Is Jax okay!?”

“He’s got a broken nose, how can he be okay? I was chasing after the bastard who did it, but he’s too fast.”

“Yeah, I saw. It’s like he was half vampire or something.”

Leroy choked out a laugh, “Have you ever seen a vampire talk to a goblin when it didn’t involve giving them one of us some kind of order? Those conceited bastards would never share a bed with a goblin. Not that I’d want them to either.”

“Yeah, I guess not…”

“I better get going. I gotta go check on Jax. I’ll look for that Twig bastard later. Keep an eye out for him will you?”

“Of course,” Karen glanced at the bustling crowd.

She was curious about the mysterious goblin.

~~~

Stryg surveyed his surroundings. People still milled about the cobblestone road, though there were far fewer than in the morning. He was pretty sure he had finally managed to get away from his attacker.

“Aghhh, dammit!” He ran his hands through his silver hair.

Stryg wasn’t sure where he had gone wrong. He thought he had done well in the initiation fight. Maybe the chief was simply angered because he lost? It wasn’t Stryg’s fault that their chief was feeble. If that was the best they had to offer then Stryg had to conclude that city goblins were just too weak. The lack of wolves, dire bears, and other fauna had clearly made them complacent.

Stryg’s jaw went slack, a chubby goblin walked by. They had fat goblins too! What kind of shoddy training would allow such a thing!? And where the hell did they have enough food to even gain that much weight? As if responding, Stryg’s stomach growled.

He had gone a long time without food before, but never after expending so much energy repeatedly. He needed to eat something, but there was no food around. He briefly thought of attacking one of the pedestrians and eating them, but he wasn’t much of a fan of eating others. They didn’t taste very good. Not to mention he didn’t have enough energy to run, let alone fight.

Maybe he could break into one of the houses and grab their food? Though, it was still daylight, onlookers would notice. He sighed, nothing was going as planned.

“Wow, I can’t believe I actually found you. Today really is my lucky day.”

Stryg took a step back as he eyed the cute stranger. She wore a white cotton shirt, a blue skirt, and her black hair was tied in a ponytail.

She smiled, “My name’s Karen. What’s yours?”

“...Stryg. Who are you?”

“Just another commoner trying to get by. I saw you running earlier,” she pointed a thumb behind her.

Stryg took two paces back.

“Hey, how did you get so fast? Why is your hair grey? Are you old? You don’t look old. Woah, your eyes are purple, I’ve never seen that before.”

Who was this girl? Was she an enemy? If so, he was too tired to fight back. Maybe he could scare her? No, he was too skinny and short for that.

“Not much of a talker huh?” Karen asked.

Stryg’s stomach growled in response.

She grinned, “Well, how about we make a deal? You answer my questions and I’ll buy you dinner. How does that sound?”

The promise of food was tempting, but he was still cautious. “I only have to answer your questions?”

“Yep,” she nodded. “And follow me.”

“Follow you? Why would I do that?”

“How else are we going to get dinner? I can’t buy food here, now can I?”

“Um, no?”

“Obviously. Come on, let’s go,” she walked away, not even bothering to check if he was following.

“Wait. Where are we going?”

“The trade district, of course,” she kept walking.

Stryg reluctantly followed. “What’s that?”

She glanced at him, her eyes narrowed, “You’re not from around here are you?”

“...I’m scouting for my tribe.” He lied.

She raised an eyebrow, “So you’re a spy from one of the valley tribes?”

“No. I’m from the Blood Fang tribe.”

“Never heard of them. Are they new to Dusk Valley?”

“No, we’re from Vulture Woods.”

“Wow, isn’t that place like super dangerous? I didn’t know there were any tribes over there. You must be super far from home, huh?”

Stryg lowered his head, “Not really.”

He felt disheartened as he mumbled the words.

“How did your parents let you travel so far by yourself?” Karen asked.

Stryg looked at her as if she had bumped her head, “Goblins don’t have parents.”

She returned the look, “Everyone has parents. ...It’s ok if you don’t want to talk about it, there are a lot of orphans here.”

Stryg shook his head, “No, I mean… Ugh, of course I technically have parents, but goblins aren’t raised by their parents.”

“What do you mean they aren’t raised by their parents? Who raises them then? Cats?” Karen giggled.

“No, the Mothers do, of course.”

“I thought you just said you weren’t raised by your parents. Just because you have two moms doesn’t mean they’re not your parents.”

“What? No. I mean, the Mothers. Mothers of the tribe. You know, the most talented, beautiful, and skilled women chosen from among the tribe to raise the next generation. They don’t ever have children of their own, because they are too busy training the next generation to be warriors… Why are you laughing?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Karen chuckled.

“Are you seriously telling me you’ve never heard of the Mothers?”

“I don’t know anyone who has ever heard of what you're talking about. Okay, so let me get this straight. These Mothers of yours, clothed and fed you, raised you, and then taught you how to fight?”

“They didn’t clothe us. The tanners handled making us clothes, while the cooks prepared the food. The builders took care of sheltering us with tents. The Mothers taught us the rules and ways of the tribe, and taught us how to fight. More like beat it into us, actually.”

“Stryg, that’s...those, aren’t parents.”

“Like I said, goblins don’t have parents.”

“Well, all the goblins I know have actual parents, at least at some point in time. I have a mom and dad.”

“Then your tribe is an oddity.”

“I’m not a part of a tribe and your tribe is clearly the weird one.”

Stryg frowned, “All the goblin tribes I know have Mothers. Wait, you’re tribeless. An exile?”

She was like him? An exile?

Karen giggled, “What? I think you’re confused. First of all, the only tribes that exist in Dusk Valley are the valley tribes, led by roaming warlords who raid outside the city and they’re not made up of only one kind of species, like a goblin tribe or whatever. Second of all, no one in the city is in any kind of tribe, although some do belong to powerful aristocratic Houses. Lastly, the only kind of exiles are the ones banished from the city of Hollow Shade and as you can see we’re both still here.”

Stryg furrowed his brow, he had a hard time understanding. “But... I thought the Great Cities were built by tribes making alliances with each other? Isn’t that why all these species aren’t killing each other?”

Stryg pointed his finger at people walking past. They gave him strange looks.

Karen shook her head, “Maybe it was like that in the other three Great Cities, I don’t know. But here in Hollow Shade we are all trying to get by, every species alike. People still get into fights, of course, sometimes based on their species, but more likely because of money.”

“Money?” Stryg cocked his head to the side.

There was the word again. Money… As if it somehow was more important than just being a piece of metal.

Karen laughed, “Yeah, money. Life here isn’t cheap. Just because we’re safe behind the city’s walls, doesn’t mean life isn’t rough. Well, except for aristocrats, those guys have it good.”

Stryg crossed his arms in thought. So people lived here together without fighting each other, because they just wanted to? What about food? Wouldn’t they fight over food? There surely wasn’t enough to feed everyone, especially since there were no animals in sight.

“We’re here, the Trade District.”

Karen’s words broke him from his thoughts.

They stood in front of a tall cobblestone bridge. A large river rushed beneath. Past the bridge lay a sprawl of stalls and shops.

As he walked over, Stryg noted there were far more guards stationed here. A cacophony of shouts promising the best of one product or another echoed throughout the district.

He felt overrun by the noise.

Karen laughed as she saw his face pale. “Come on, I know a great stall that sells amazing chicken dumplings.”

Stryg didn’t know what chicken or dumplings were, but he was hungry enough to eat anything at this point.

“I’ve basically spent half my time answering your questions. You better answer my questions now, if you want me to hold up my end of the deal.”

Stryg nodded, “Ask away.”

“How old are you?”

“I just turned eighteen a little over a week ago.”

“Wow, you’re only a little younger than me. I thought you were like fourteen or something.”

“What? Why?” He regretted asking as soon as the word left his lips.

“You know ‘cause, there isn’t a single hair on your cheek and you’re kind of, um, short for your age?” She winced in sympathy.

There was no need though. He knew what she’d say. He was used to such remarks.

Stryg nodded, “My skin is also blue, my hair is grey, and I have lilac colored eyes too.”

He laughed, bitterness creeping into his voice, “I know I look different... a freak of nature.”

It was the whole reason why he had landed in this awful predicament in the first place. Had he been like the other goblins, perhaps he could have been in his own tent by now, sleeping next to Bril or somebody. Oh, wait, Bril was dead, the snake lady had seen to that. Definitely someone else then.

He sighed, “Any other questions?”