Chapter 37

During this time everyone was pretty busy.

Fall was quickly passing, and winter was coming.

The whole Lost Tooth Tribe was preparing and even Divine was no exception.

But mostly, Divine went out hunting more often.

All the surplus meat he brought got salted, dried and stored.

The salt they had was coarse and wouldn’t last too long anymore.

Then the time for Divine to visit the Misty Mountain Tribe would come.

He wondered if the goblins there still housed these orcs.

But that was for the future.

Minion Scarface sent the other minions out to gather more often, too.

The two woodcutters were the busiest, being responsible that no one in the cavern froze to death this winter.

Beorn had a lot of trouble and even more work with the minion prospects.

Divine enjoyed watching Beorn’s frustrated efforts.

The work had only become harder after the work of transporting the stones and earth from the new cave had been completed, because now Beorn was teaching them to make rudimentary tools to build furniture later.

That was obviously much harder than just supervising the goblins carrying stones from A to B.

Now, in the newly expanded cave, Divine was getting rid of the last crumbs and a whole lot of dust, fusing it into the ground with his earth manipulation.

The goblings were at his side, spectating excitedly.

That surprised Divine a little, because the only visual effect was that the floor rippled a little and smoothened out as if spreading butter.

Such a display should be completely ordinary for his Disciples.

When Divine was finished and the goblings grew only more excited, he realized they were here for something else.

"What are you four so excited about?" Divine decided to just ask them.

"Master, is our cave ready now? Can we go get our stuff?" First Disciple's questions answered Divine's.

Actually, Divine had not thought about how they were going to use the new cave specifically.

What was important to him was that there was enough space available for all the cavern's inhabitants.

"What makes you think that this cave is yours?" Divine was curious, but sounded strict.

The goblings were surprised and thought their Master would say no.

They lost their smiling faces, feeling a little awkward and disappointed.

"We are master's disciples. Master, are you really giving the cave to someone else?" Third Disciple whined and made a pitiful face at him.

Her siblings followed suit and suddenly four pairs of puppy goblin eyes stared up at him.

Divine couldn't decide if the goblins' naturally big eyes empowered the puppy eyes or made them look strange.

Maybe, a little of both.

Divine laughed bemused.

"Okay, okay. You can move into the cave, but Minion Scarface is going to join you." Divine was worried they would be against the addition, but he had thought too much.

The little ones liked Scarface very much and were happy that she would join them.

She definitely pampered them too much, but she was the one he trusted the most to look after these troublemakers.

"We still have five newly dried pelts, they can be laid out here. Bring them before you get your stuff!" Divine watched as the goblings ran out into the cavern excitedly.

First Disciple was the first to arrive where the five pelts were hanging.

She put two into Second Disciple’s and Fourth Disciple’s hands respectively, and one into Third Disciple’s.

Then she sent them to their new cave and went to get her stuff first.

Her siblings only noticed something was up when they came back out to get their own stuff and their elder sister was coming towards them with her stuff already bundled up in her arms.

They realized she wanted to be the first to choose her section. Second Disciple and Third Disciple called unfair and wanted to stop her from stepping into the cave, but they quickly ran to get their own stuff, when they noticed Fourth Disciple was already on his way to get his.

Their youthful enthusiasm was refreshing and amused Divine.

Divine had just finished laying out the pelts they had brought when First Disciple arrived with her arms full.

Divine let her choose where to put her stuff and waited for her Junior Brothers and Junior Sister.

After some struggle and some shouting, they had all moved into one corner each. First Disciple had managed to keep her corner of choice.

Divine gazed at his Disciples’ possessions.

They had brought their spare robes, their beddings and some miscellaneous stuff they had collected over time.

Divine noticed that First Disciple had collected many different little bones, but Divine didn't know why. At least, he didn't know yet.

The chunky Fourth Disciple mostly brought food. Leftovers from the earlier meal, different nuts, some dried meat and dried fruits.

Third Disciple had a wooden knife, a bone knife and the skeletal bear claw.

The least stuff did the slim Second Disciple have.

The only special thing he possessed was a little pouch filled with excellent pointy stones, suitable for wall etching.

He left them to their devices and went to give the news to Scarface.

Surprisingly, Scarface liked the idea very much and smiled happily.

She and the goblings infected everyone else with their good mood in the next hours.

Later, when some goblin hastily came running to Divine's cavern to notify him about a five-tailed fox outside, Divine was a little disappointed to leave the atmospheric cavern behind.

Of course, he could've just chosen to ignore Flaming Paw, but better safe than sorry.

Especially since the tribe’s goblins had grown bolder, because the foxes hadn't eaten one of them for quite some time.

Who knew what that could potentially develop into if they were left with Flaming Paw for a longer time, while the fox got increasingly impatient waiting for Divine?