I was feeling better, once I had a rough idea of what we needed to do next , when Brandr’s gentle voice finally slinked back into my thoughts. “I’ve got the goblins here, and they appear to be settling into the new room. I think they thought I was going to kill them at first, but now they seem content to try and straighten up and repair the old igloo. I don’t think they’re going to run. Should I stay and watch them?”

I asked, “Was Jello still occupied?”

“It was moving this way once again, but slowly. It doesn’t seem to patrol fast.”

From my first experience with it, it didn’t seem to patrol quickly then either. Only when there was a fresh corpse, or blood in the hall, did it seem to get excited and move quickly. “Come on back and leave them there then,” I told her. “Let’s see if we can pack up all these little beasts and get them back to those rooms before Jello shows up and blocks our passage. I really don’t want to be stuck here in the dark for any extended period of time.”

“Affirmative,” was Brandr’s soft, one word reply in my head.

Gently, I laid Isabella down on the ground. I hated to just leave her lying there without a pillow, blanket, or anything, but I honestly couldn’t do much better at the moment. I had things which I had to be doing, and as much as I wanted to hold her, I couldn’t.

Slowly I eased out of her grip and got up. The goblins were all still in a group together, so I walked over and tapped one of them on the shoulder. It looked up, and seeing a huge human male, its eyes grew large and tears welled up in them. I didn’t want to disturb Isabella while she rested, so I simply tapped it on the mouth and made a slight shushing sound and motioned for it to follow me.

Hesitantly, the little gray-skinned goblin female shuffled along following me, and I led her over to where Isabella laid. I put both hands on the things shoulders and pushed downward lightly. It whimpered and easily sank down to its knees in front of me. Much to my disgust, the little beast opened its jaws as it started at my groin near its face. What the hell did it think I wanted it for!

Shivering at the image that came to my mind, I slid the female across the floor while she remained kneeling, and then I gently lifted Isabella’s head and sat it in her lap. “If you even think about hurting her, I’ll do things to you that might cause me nightmares for the next fifty years. But, I’ll do them anyway.” I growled at the little female since she probably couldn’t understand my words, and then I took her hand and gently used it to stroke Isabella’s hair. “Watch over her, and know: I’m going to be watch over you.” I stared at the little beast with my best stink-eye, and it shivered and then nodded and slowly caressed Isabella’s forehead.

I stood and watched for a few moments to make certain it didn’t have any odd thoughts or act like it might harm her, and then finally I walked over and tapped a few more of the females on their shoulders to get their attention. When they looked up, I went over to the first one which Isabella had been teaching to collect the mushrooms, and I tapped it.

It was still sitting where we’d last told it to stay. It looked up and I patted it on the head like I’d seen Isabella do. I don’t know if I was reassuring it or frightening it worse, but I tried to show it I meant it no ill will. “Nom nom nom,” I told it while putting my hands towards my mouth. The goblins looked at me a little puzzled, and I tried to think of the word they were using earlier. “Bupu-bupu?” I said, uncertain.

“Bupu-bupu!”, the little one exclaimed and hopped up grabbing its little bowl once more. When it started rummaging around, I pointed to the others I had tapped and told them, “bupu-bupu,” as well. Soon, there were several little females out gathering mushrooms from around the room.

Nodding in satisfaction to myself, I then pointed to several of the other little goblins. They were all starting to look up and around now that the others were moving and doing things again, and it wasn’t hard to get their attention on me. I had a feeling the goblins were a male dominate race, and they always kept an eye on the men around them. I might be a human, but I was still a male, so they all kept one wary eye in my direction.

“You, you, you, you, and you,” I pointed to five of the ones that were still sitting there at random. “Go and gather any weapons.” I pointed to my club on my belt, deliberately dropped it, and then picked it back up. They tilted their heads and looked at me strangely, and I added “learn goblin speech” to my endless list of things which needed to be done in the free time which I didn’t have.

Sighing, I dropped my club, pointed to it, and then picked it up again. Then I repeated the process a third time. Finally, I gave it a light toss in front of one of the females I’d pointed to earlier. Slowly, I pointed to her and then to the club, and I held out my hands towards her. She slowly picked it up, and while trembling, carried it over and offered it to me. I took it with a smile and then patted her on the head.

“Good job,” I told it, and then I pointed to my club once more and then to the other goblins, before finally pointing out across the room. They made little gibbering sounds to themselves and then hopped up and starting collecting the weapons around the room and bringing them to place in a pile at my feet. I really was starting to communicate and get them working for me!

Pleased with myself, I finally pointed to the rest of the group of females. They were staring and half squirming, as if they were eager to prove that they could be useful as well. As they looked at me, I made a little “Shoo! Shoo!” sound and waved my hands at them. I really didn’t know what else to tell them to do, so I was just trying to shoo them into doing whatever they might normally be doing.

They looked at me, then at each other, and then started gibbering amongst themselves. A few moments later, they all hopped up, in mass, and started rushing around and collecting various things and bring them before me. One brought me one of the male’s loincloths, and I patted her on the head and pointed to my right. Another brought me a stiffed mouse’s corpse, and I wrinkled my nose at her, pointed to my left, and then crossed my arms. It looked slightly disappointed, dropped the mouse where I had pointed, and then ran off to find something else.

It was like this that I had the little females working when Brandr showed back up in the room. If she thought the goblin’s behavior was odd, she didn’t show it as she simply faded into sight in front of me and nodded.

“Is it clear for us to go back?” I asked her.

“It is,” was her simple reply.

I whistled lightly to get the goblin’s attention, and they all stopped what they were doing to look at me. I pointed to the food gatherers and motioned for them to come over to me and to stand off to one side. I then pointed to the five designated weapon gatherers and pointed to them to come over, and I motioned to the pile of weapons they had collected. Mostly spears, daggers, and shortswords, but it was a good number of them. They quickly came scurrying over and starting to gather what they could up in their arms. Finally, I pointed to the rest of them and pointed to the rest of the weapons and the pile of “treasures” they had collected on my right. Soon, the whole little workforce had their arms full while standing there and staring at me.

“Brandr,” I asked, “can you try and get those two girls from the other room to follow you? Hell, drag them if you need to. I don’t want to leave them here alone. Let’s get out of here and get these guys settled into their new rooms before Jello blocks that tunnel.”

She just silently nodded to me and went into the other room. Gently, I picked Isabella up and carried her in my arms princess style towards the exit. I looked back to make certain my whole tribe was following me, and we started our mass migration to the goblin’s new lair.