King of the Goblins—Chapter 4

When I woke, I found myself in a strange room. The roof and walls were both carved from stone, with no windows. Two sconces held candles on the wall, but there were otherwise no decorations. The furniture was strange, and made from wood and something that reminded me of wicker.

I turned my head to see more and pain lanced through every fiber of my existence. I grunted and laid there for a moment, waiting for the agony to subside. It was then that I realized I was tied to the bed, although not very securely. Not like someone wanted to restrain me, but more like someone wanted to keep me from thrashing around.

The strange woman in the hooded cloak suddenly stood at my side, looking down at me with those large blue eyes. Her face was filled with compassion as she reached out and gently placed her hand on my forehead. She looked me over, taking a moment to examine my clothes that were probably strange to her.

“Blerg?” she asked, leaning her head to one side.

“What the fuck is blerg?” I replied, then winced. The pain in my jaw was worse than I had ever felt. I wasn’t sure what a broken jaw felt like, but I began to wonder if I had one. Considering that asshole had kicked me in the face, I probably did.

“Zin. Fel blerg,” she said with a small nod, as if stating fact. She placed her hands on her hips and pursed her full lips as she looked at me.

I opened my mouth to speak but immediately closed it at the pain in my face. Instead, I closed my eyes and took a few shallow breaths, then looked over at her. 

The strange little woman walked over to a table on the other side of the small room and began to rummage through several items atop it. She returned a few minutes later with something in her hand. It looked like a small, egg-shaped gemstone, but it glowed with its own faint internal light. It was a faint pink tone, almost like the color of flesh.

“Floobee?” she asked, then gently placed the stone upon my forehead.

I wasn’t sure what she was doing but I was in no shape to resist. She began uttering something under her breath, words in a strange language I didn’t understand. Warmth radiated from the stone into my skin. Well, at least it was better than being cold. I hated being cold.

She placed her other hand on my shoulder to calm me and continued speaking in that strange language. Compared to the words she had said to me earlier, this had a very different sound. 

The warmth from the stone on my forehead continued to flow into my skin, and it slowly spread through my face. A sharp pain lanced through my nose as it straightened itself. My left eye had been nearly swollen shut, but the swelling reduced and I could see again. I felt my jaw shift, confirming that it had indeed been broken. 

I gasped at the feeling of my body and face healing. Cuts and scrapes on my body faded, and a broken rib healed itself as well. The sensation of things sliding in place was all at once relieving and sickening. Seriously, the day you feel your ribs move on their own, you’ll understand.

After a moment, the woman sagged and closed her eyes as if tired, then removed the stone from my head. She took a deep breath, her hand still on my shoulder. Instead of calming me though, her hand was there to steady herself. She turned and went back to the table, where she set the stone. She selected a different stone, as well as a small figure made from straw and cloth, like a crude children’s doll.

I watched with interest as she came back to where I lay. The pain in my body was completely gone. I didn’t even have a hangover, which was impressive considering I had downed a dozen beers. Two was usually enough for me.

“Hey,” I said, smiling at her. “Thank you for healing me. That was very kind.” I knew she couldn’t understand my words, but hopefully she would be able to understand my tone, or at least my smile.

She set the new stone on my chest. This one glowed like the previous one, but it was green instead of being fleshtone. The woman pointed at my hair, then made a snatching motion. She then pointed at her doll and held up a single finger. Did she need to pull a hair from me? I nodded.

She smiled, and plucked a hair from my head. At least she was quick. She put it on the small doll, which she then set on my chest. The green stone pulsated once, and she moved it to my forehead. After that, she placed a hand over my lips and began uttering in that strange language again.

I didn’t feel anything this time. No warmth spreading through my skin, nothing. But when she finished, she let out a great sigh and slumped over on me, as if she had passed out. Her head rested on my stomach, and her hood had partially fallen off, revealing her long, black hair and pointed ears. 

The lighting in her room was much better than it was in the tunnel, so I got a better look at her. Those big eyes, long, pointed ears, and green skin freaked me out a bit, but not as much as they would have earlier. She had just healed me, after all. 

What I found most interesting was the sheer beauty of her face. I wouldn’t expect to find myself attracted to a middle-aged woman with green skin and pointed ears, but she was absolutely gorgeous. Her facial structure was humanlike with the exception of her large eyes. Full lips twisted and puckered and finally curved into a faint smile as she opened her eyes and looked up at me.

“I wish that wasn’t so tiring,” she said in perfect English. Her voice was low, almost sultry.

“Hey, I can understand you now,” I said. “I didn’t realize you spoke my language.”

“I don’t,” she replied, straightening up. She knuckled the small of her back and winced. “But after that spell, we can understand each other with ease.”

“First off, thank you for healing me,” I said. “I really, really appreciate it.”

She waved it away. “Sometimes, goblin magic can be powerful. Healing magic is one of the stronger ones, at least with me.”

“And second, what are—wait, did you say goblin?”

She blinked. “Yes, I did. What other kind of magic would I use?”

“So, you’re a goblin?” I asked, feeling slightly in a daze. Goblins? Seriously? I didn’t feel like I was still drunk, but I had to double check.

“Of course I am,” she said. “What else would I be?”

“Holy shit,” I said. “What were those men I saw out in the forest? Were they elves?”

“Probably,” she replied. “There are some other types that live out there, but elves are the closest. We tend to avoid most of the other races, though. They aren’t the kindest to goblins.”

“Can you untie me?” I asked, looking down at the strap across my chest.

“Oh, sorry,” she said. She reached out and quickly untied the wide strap that held me to the bed.

I sat up slowly, cautiously testing my limbs for pain. Of course, I felt fine. Better than I had in months, to be honest. That goblin healing magic was something special.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s start from the beginning. Well, maybe not the beginning. I don’t think you’ll know how I got here. But what happened back in the tunnel?”

She sighed. “The guards are overzealous at times. Well, all of the time. To be honest, they’re quite horrible, and I hate them.” She took a deep breath, as if to calm a sudden rise of anger. “They don’t like intruders. Especially with how big you are, there’s no way to tell if you mean us harm or not. I suspected you were kind from the moment I saw you.”

“So, that guy kicked my ass because I trespassed into goblin territory?” I asked.

“Basically,” she replied. 

“Why did he hit you?” I asked her.

She frowned prettily. “I am not well liked among many goblins, especially the men. They see me as evil because I do magic, even though they often benefit from my magic. Even with my history, I am tolerated at best, as long as I avoid everyone. But, I have nowhere else to go, so I live here, on the edge of the city.”

That was a lot to take in at once. “City?” I asked. “There’s an underground goblin city here?”

She nodded, and looked at me strangely. “Do you not know anything about goblins?” she asked.

I thought of some of the silly stories I had read as a child, and movies I had later seen, all depicting goblins as two-foot-tall monsters with huge noses that were eager to gnaw your foot off. None of them were even remotely as attractive as her.

“Not really,” I said. “I’m new to your world. Mine was destroyed in an accident just a few hours before we met, and I somehow wound up here.”

“Strange,” she replied. “How are you called? Do you have a name?”

“Aaron,” I told her. “Aaron Parker. What about you?”

“I am called Silvy,” she replied.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and ran my fingers through my hair. “This is crazy,” I muttered. “I don’t even know where to start with all this. Why are you so pretty and that goblin man was the exact opposite? He looked like a walking chainsaw with muscles.”

She frowned. “We have been bred that way for countless years. Only the strongest men are allowed to breed, and they always choose the most beautiful women. Many centuries ago, we used to be more similar, men and women. Now the men are savage brutes, while most of the women look like me. Any children that are born that don’t fit those qualities are killed.”

She still wore the cloak, so I couldn’t see much more than her face, although that alone was beautiful. When she moved her arms, the front of her cloak opened enough for me to see that she wore a simple brown dress and had large breasts.

“What do you do down here?” I asked, although to be honest I wasn’t entirely sure what I even meant. 

“Sometimes I am called upon for magic,” she said. “Although often in secret, as many would prefer to forget I exist.”

“Why would they treat you that way?” I asked. “I mean, you just healed me with magic. Can they not see how useful it is?”

She scoffed. Even that was pretty. “Men fear what they don’t understand,” she said. “None of them are able to do magic; it is only available to women and even then it is rare. They think it is a thing of evil. So they will shun me and chastise me in public and treat me as an outcast, but call for me in secret when they need my powers.”

“That’s horrible,” I said.

She shrugged. “It’s how I have survived the last two hundred years.”

Two hundred years? This just got more and more strange with every passing moment.

“What did you do before then?” I asked.

Silvy sighed. “Oh, I used to be much more than just a crazy old witch woman,” she said. “I was the king’s favorite wife. I bore him his eldest, his heir, and he favored me above his other wives.”

“And then what happened?” I asked.

“I warned him that Ralcor would rise up against him,” she said with a sad shake of her head. “And that he did. I told the king that he needed to rally support among the people or he would lose his throne.” She sighed. “He tied me to a stake and whipped me in front of everyone for not believing in him. After that, he cast me aside. I never saw my son again.”

“Never?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Never.” Her eyes gleamed and a tear leaked down her cheek. “Even after all these years, the memory burns. Ralcor overthrew the king and put himself on the throne. When goblin men conquer the throne, they often kill any children from the previous ruler, then get the wives pregnant as soon as possible, just to try to erase his bloodline. Later, he killed most of the wives and took new ones.”

“That is horrible,” I said. “It’s barbaric!”

“I am one of the rare women that can do magic, so I was called to Ralcor. His men came and took me from my home and brought me before him. He demanded that I use my magic to bless him and give him a long, fruitful life.”

I looked at her expectantly.

The sadness in Silvy’s voice changed to fierce pride. “Instead, I made him sterile. The only children he bore were from the first few days. He has only two sons and one daughter, and they detest him.”

“Wow,” I said. “Sterile, eh? Remind me not to piss you off.”

“He was furious,” she said. “He stripped me naked and took his revenge right there in his throne room, in front of everyone. At least I never had to worry about having his child. I would have ripped it from my womb myself.”

“Why doesn’t someone do something about this guy?” I asked.

She barked a laugh, though there was no mirth in it. “You cannot begin to understand how cruel Ralcor is. The kind of violence he is capable of. I get the feeling you come from a peaceful world. Things are different here.”

She reached up to her throat and untied her cloak, then tossed it aside. My eyes widened at the sight of her. Beneath her simple brown dress was the most ridiculous figure I had ever seen; huge breasts on her slender, four-foot-tall frame, with wide hips just made to grab onto. I couldn’t see her butt from that angle but I just knew it was big and round. Her thick thighs were further evidence of that.

She unlaced the front of her dress and I began to wonder if she was going to strip for me. Taking her figure into consideration, that sounded pretty awesome, but we were just talking about something pretty damn dark so it didn’t seem to fit the mood.

With the front of her dress unlaced, I caught a glimpse of one of her large breasts as she pulled on the neck opening of her dress. She pulled it down to expose her shoulder, and slid her arm from her dress. Scars marked her arm, from her wrist all the way to her shoulder. She stood there, still as a statue, waiting for me to see. I squinted and realized I was seeing bite marks on her arm.

“Jesus,” I said. “Why didn’t he just kill you?”

“Because he still needs me sometimes,” Silvy replied, stuffing her arm back into her dress. I was a little sad to see her tie the laces back up, but I understood that now was not the best time for that sort of thing. “As I said, I am one of the only people capable of magic. So once every few years, he calls on me.”

“And you work for him?” I asked. “The guy that did that to you?”

She shrugged. “It’s better than being killed, or forced into exile.”

I shook my head. “Someone should do something about that guy. That’s horrible to have such a bad person as king.”

Her sudden smile caught me off guard. “Don’t worry, Aaron. Someone is going to do something about him. And that someone is you.”