Chapter VIII: Lessons & Growth

Alakar calls out, “Yee, get your butt over here and stop smelling the rabbits.”

He looks over, “Yesh fadder, I comes to yous”, and he skips to him.

“Remember, we can’t eat them until they’re cooked”, he exclaims.

He pouts, “Buts, you lets Ruo eat them…”

“I shouldn’t have to keep reminding you that we don’t eat the food raw! And I didn’t ‘let’ him eat the rabbit raw, he did it when I wasn’t looking…”

He scuffs the grass with his feet and says, “Okay…”

“Did you bait and reset the snares like I showed you? There won’t be any rabbit there tomorrow if you didn’t.”

“Yesh!”

“Good, now let’s head back, I’m sure everyone is hungry.”

The two set back to their homestead and Alakar felt drained. It wasn’t even midday yet, and the kids had been burning his nerves at both ends as of late. He enjoyed having children that he could play with right out of the womb, as he was never sure what his role with an infant would be. A certain level of hypocrisy played out in his mind over these past two weeks; to him, goblins were some of the worst monsters, yet he couldn’t bring himself to look at his own children in this way.

As they traversed along the forest floor, he made Yee walk behind him. It was necessary to stay in the lead. He almost learned this the hard way a few days ago when Ruo ran ahead of him and was almost taken by an owl. This was partly due from having to watch two kids at the same time on his hunts. Right now, he could barely handle himself and one other. It would make him anxious just thinking about it. And there was no way he or Margrett would forgive him for losing one of their children.

An hour or so of uneventful marching went on, and they noticed that all of the leaves from the trees had fallen and even some of the pine trees were shedding their needles. Their surroundings felt very open since the canopy was gone. The first frost was soon to come any day now, and a harsh winter would surely set upon the forest. Their fence came into view, in addition to a few figures.

Yee pokes his back, “Can I goes?”

“Yes, but make sure you help your mother prepare the food. Don’t go running off again!”

The small goblin nodded and ran ahead of him with glee on his face and rabbits in hand. Alakar walked at a slow pace while admiring his lands. There were many beds of vegetables laid out in segmented rows on his property. It wasn’t enough to be considered a farm, but it was definitely enough area to provide sustenance for his family and then some for trade.

Before reaching the beds, he watched Yee run-up to his mother and two brothers, and then bolt into the house. It was almost lunchtime and his stomach growled at him. His stomach was craving some vegetable-meat stew. It was one of his favorites, after all, well…, right next to eating raw meat. Ever since his change, his desire for raw meat was strong. It made a lot of sense to him as to why his children would sneak raw meats, especially bugs when he wasn’t watching. Yet part of him, mainly Margrett, wouldn’t stand for it. She required more appropriate meals.

He walks up to his wife, “How are you, Hun? Everything going alright?”

She hugs him and says, “Yes! My little helpers have made this last harvest so much easier on me, and they look so damn cute doing it too!”

“Ha, really now? That’s good to hear. What about Rou? He seems kinda bord over there”, and he looks over at a goblin slumped on top of a barrel.

“Well, he didn’t enjoy picking the yumpuses or the pels so I had him haul some sacks, and yet he ended up fighting with Boo…”

He frowns and says, “Hm, so he’s in time out right now, huh? Maybe he just needs some exercise”, and he walks towards him.

She grabs the back of his arm, “Go easy… Make sure you show some restraint…”

He picks up two long staves used to support the viny pel beans, and states, “That’s the whole point of this, isn’t it? To learn restraint?”

She let go of him and huffed. From there, she continued to supervise Boo and let her husband spend time with Rou. Boo diligently pulled starchy bulbs from the ground and tended to the soil afterward. The art of cultivation took a great deal of patience and attention to detail, which almost came naturally to the both of them.

Alakar then confronts Rou and asks, “So…, how did planting go?”

He crosses his arms and sticks his pointy nose up at him, “Me no like plants, they’re lame…”

“Hm, I feel the same way, but you have to listen to your mother”, and he tosses him one of the hardwood staves.

An evil grin crosses his face, “Can wes fight now?”

“Yes, we’re gonna spar and work up more of an appetite for a bit”, and he roots his feet in a stance with the staff pointed outwards.

Rou leaped off of the barrel with a blood-thirsty look in his eyes and let out a small war cry.

While his opponent is in mid-air, he cracks him in the shoulder, sending him straight into the dirt.

Rou picked himself up. Anger filled him, and they began to knock each other staves.

*Bang* *Crack* *Bang* *Crack*

They went back and forth. One would swing, the other would parry the blow or dodge and thrust. Rou attempted to land many thrust attacks, yet he couldn’t hit his mark. In comparison, Alakar greatly outmatched him when it came to the spear or staff. The fight was clearly one-sided, and whatever little ground Rou gained was voluntarily handed over. Soon, the swings gradually picked up, and so did the intensity.

*Crack* *Bang* *Crack* *Bang*

He trusts the flat end of the staff in between his small ribs, sending him onto his butt in pain.

Alakar then points the staff at him and asks, “You pick on him because he’s blue, don’t you?! You think being red makes you special?!”

Rou stands up and points his staff back at him and yells, “No, he’s weak, and red is da best!”

He then charged forward in a rage with his staff overextended. The thrust was too far out, and his footwork was abysmal. With a simple sidestep, his father moved out of the way, and he couldn’t see the swing.

*Crack*

Rou’s body crumpled into the ground, and his staff went flying. A huge lump swelled up on his back and he turned over onto his side in fear of his father’s second swing.

It didn’t come.

Alakar sticks his hand out in front of his face and says, “Remember? This is called mercy; you take the hand that you are given…”

He looked at him in disbelief, yet he eventually took the hand and hoisted himself up.

“I think you’re finally getting it”, he chuckles.

Rou just gawked at him and rubbed the sores on his body. Showing restraint or mercy had been such a foreign concept to him and really for all his brothers. They were not normal-human children, quite primitive in fact, so much so that they often had to learn the hard way. Alakar understood this, even though he was human, he too had to learn this way.

He collected both of the staves and handed them to the two onlookers. Boo was amazed yet Margrett was appalled. She was upset and started to slap his chest and face.

Alakar flinches, puts his hands up, and pleads, “Hey now! We both went through similar training, no need to overreact!”

She stops swinging and yells, “Babe, you’re too rough with them! Next time, be more considerate…”

“I’ll try Hun, but you know just as well as I do that the forest won’t be as forgiving. It’s best they learn it here.”

She folds her arms and says, “You’re right… It’s just hard for me to watch my babies get hit like that…”

He caresses her shoulder and speaks, “I know, I know. But hey, hopefully, they won’t need it for much longer. Mel should be here any day now to change us all back.

“I really hope so! I sent him the letter almost a week ago, so he should be here by now.”

“Yeah, I might starve before then though. Any idea when lunch is gonna be ready?”

She shoves him and says, “All you think about is food! And lunch is ready as soon as Yee finishes slicing up the meat.”

“Okay, I’m gonna go check on him then, and make sure he’s not eating it all.”

He jogged into the cabin and walked into the workroom. There, a yellowish-looking goblin stood on top of a stool in front of a cut board.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

The little goblin froze. He was dangling a stripe of meat over his head and had his long tongue wrapped around it. Caught in the act, he now tried to explain himself with food in his mouth, yet it was inaudible. Alakar was about to lecture him until he recognized the fine cuts on the table.

“Hey, these cuts look pretty good, nice job. But that’s your last piece, now go add them to the pot.”

He shimmied out of the room with the food, and Alakar followed him. As they exited, the sun shined down on them. The weather was perfect for a family lunch, and everyone gathered around a pot of stew. It was a large cast-iron pot that sat in a firepit surrounded by stones. The aroma that wafted off the pot was tantalizing, and the little ones could be seen drooling with excitement.

Margrett speaks to her children, “Go sit down babies, food is almost ready.”

Alakar leans over the pot, “How’s it coming, dear?”

“Do you listen?! I just said it’s almost ready.”

He takes a sip of it from the ladle and rolls to the ground.

“Ah! It’s really fucking hot!”

“No shit, you doofus.”

His children point and laugh at him from their stools. Yet they all ran from him since he stood up and chased them for mocking him. Margrett ignored them while stirring the pot.

Before, the children were only able to make primal sounds and hand signs, but they caught on quickly to the native language. They created their own dialect. So much so, that they had names for each other long before they could even be named, and the parents just went with it. It would have been too difficult to give them human names as their pronunciation was horrible.

She then puts her hands on her hips and speaks to all of them, “Okay, it’s ready, go get your bowls and spoons.”

In a flash, the males all ran into the cabin and came out with their bowls presented. They lined up, yet Alakar had to boot all three of them to the back of the line. He was the man of the house, and most of all, he was the hungriest. Margrett didn’t care for their shenanigans and poured each of them some stew, and finally some for herself.

The area was filled with slurping sounds and joy. All of them were lost in the food. Their appetites were great considering their size. The husband and wife were a little over a hundred centimeters tall, and the children were around seventy-five centimeters now. And they were all growing day by day.

It didn’t take long, and the family went for seconds and then thirds. The stew made everyone feel lethargic, and the boys eventually toppled over with green pot bellies. Before anyone could take a nap, a horse and cart appeared in the distance. It was coming right for the open gate of their homestead. Margrett was first to notice, and she jumped from her seat, smiling ear to ear.

“Babe! Your cousin is here!”

He covers his eyes from the sun, looks, and asks, “Where is he?”

She points and exclaims, “He’s riding right towards the gate! See him now?!”

From afar, it looked like a small black dot, yet it came closer and ever more apparent.

“Okay, get everyone inside. We’re gonna stick to the plan. Let me talk to him first. We can’t have him freaking out and blowing us all up.”

She gave him a confident nod and hustled the kids inside before he arrived. He was given some pointers earlier on what not to do from his wife. No one, not even most mages would believe a human could turn into a monster. And for all Mel knew, goblins may have butchered his family before he managed to arrive. He had to make sure his cousin didn’t jump to any sort of conclusion like that.

He walked up to the open portion of the fence, and Mel’s pointy hat came into view. This was his moment, and he started to sweat profusely under a cloth sack. The horse came to a halt, and it reared up at him from a ways a way.

Mel stands up from his seat and points his wand at him, and asks, “Who goes there?”