The other goblins nodded in agreement, but Voglo frowned. “Indeed, we could still catch fish from the river, but we would become closer to the humans. There are more human settlements and travellers at the edge of the forest, we would be easily spotted. The human lords will send people to wipe us out.”

“That’s true, but where there are more humans there will be fewer wild monsters. Humans will also be less active in the winter, not many of them would be so bold as to explore the forest during winter. We could merely stay there until it's safe to come back.”

Not to mention, I knew how to speak with humans, negotiation was always an option. But I didn't think this argument would be convincing to others.

“Humans far outnumber us, if they do decide to take action, we won’t have a chance!” Voglo adamantly protested. The other goblins were timid, unsure whose side to take, they were shooting glances back and forth between us.

“That would depend on the location we choose,” I snarled. “There are no beasts here, the hunters have been returning with nothing week after week. Would you rather starve in this tiny hole? It only makes sense to move to survive!” I slammed the table. There was no time to waste, yet these people were doing just that!

“Rugum, you will take the hunters up to the river and try and locate a safe area in which we can reside. It has to be easily defendable, inaccessible to humans, and close to the river.” I told him. He stared blankly at me in response. “Go now!” I yelled.

He immediately shuffled to his feet and bowed down. “Yes, great chief!”

“The rest of you make whatever preparations you need to.” Everyone got up and shuffled outside, Voglo giving me an unhappy stare down.

Soon the news of the relocation spread through the entire camp. It wasn't very good news to those who became attached to this tiny cave. They spent nearly a year in this home in relative safety, their reluctance was understandable. But I had no qualms about such things, winter was a cruel mistress, I would rather not have my tribe freeze and starve to death under layers of snow. There was an air of unease among the goblins, preparations for the journey were slowly being made.

With my magic, I prepared 4 stone wheels along with a large number of rock nails. I ordered the goblins to use these materials to assemble some carts and wagons. The carts they made were shoddy and rough, but they would be filled with cargo anyway, so comfort was not of importance. As an experiment, we tied the carts around the frogs, and loaded them with miscellaneous luggage, like rocks and wood. Much to the entire tribe's disappointment, these frogs did not prove to be useful beasts of burden. When walking, they were slow to move and had difficulty pulling. When they hopped, they would rapidly yank the carts, which caused them to almost break. These frogs were no better at pulling carts than the goblins.

The days passed quickly and Rugum had returned with his team, to report on the lay of the land.

“We found lots of spots that might be useful. The first we found was a cave entrance in a mountain, we went a bit inside and it was very spacious, the only problem is that you have to hike a bit to get to it. There is also a valley with plenty of space, only thing is that there is a road passing through it and it seems active. There is an abandoned fort, it's small and in ruins but it's within walking distance to a human village. Lastly, there was this abandoned mine, we couldn’t figure out why it was abandoned, but it seemed like the digging didn’t go on for too long, all the tunnels were shallow. It's close to the river so the mine is somewhat protected by it, you’d have to go around the river to get to the mine. There was also some red ore in the mine.”

A mountain home is certainly inaccessible for humans, but for us as well. Hiking up and down every day for wood, food and water seemed like a terrible idea. The valley had humans going through it, though one could not know if they would be passing through it in winter, they certainly would in spring. The ruined fort was within walking distance from humans, it was clearly not suitable for us. The only viable option was the mine. It was extremely suspicious that a mine would be abandoned like that, but there could be millions of explanations for it. Transaction, political manoeuvring, shortage in manpower. A mine could be easily fortified, and it had easy access to resources.

"Do you have any ore from that mine?" I asked Rugum.

He took out a reddish-brown piece of rock from a pouch and handed it to me. The ore brought back memories of a trade deal I was doing with an Australian mining company, the head engineer had gifted me an ore from the mine. It was iron ore. My grin turned devilish, the iron that had evaded me for so long was finally within my grasp. I had to stop myself from cackling, it would have been uncouth of me to do so in front of others.

"This is iron ore. If we stay in the mine, we could start gathering our own iron and make our own armour and weapons." I explained, the goblin's eyes shone in awe.

“In that case, we must go to the cave,” Voglo said. “It’s the safest place.”

“What? If we gain iron, we would be able to arm ourselves better.” I grimaced. “We are going to the mine. Do you expect to crawl up and down a mountain for water?” I asked him.

Voglo furrowed his brow. “A cave is the safest place for a goblin. Rugum had said so himself, the mineshafts were shallow. Why would people stop digging if they uncovered ore? It's highly suspicious.”

“We cannot afford to give up a resource such as iron. We must improve our fighter capacity. Not to mention, we’ll have an easier time setting up in the mine. This decision is final.” I growled, and Voglo begrudgingly nodded.