It was tight. So tight that I was experiencing extreme discomfort.

Ever since I had at least some resemblance of consciousness all I knew was darkness. Yes, occasionally I could hear voices, especially in recent times (that was probably related to my growth), but excluding that and the existence of something like walls surrounding me from all directions, all I had was darkness.

But I was growing. At some point I reached a size where I was so big that I would always be in contact with the walls. And now... Now my entire being felt like it was squishing me from every possible.

I needed to do something. The walls had to be destroyed. I started moving. It was actually not that difficult. I could sense that I was being successful.

"The larva' hatchin'!" I heard a voice. "Call its father."

Meanwhile I had reached a literal breakthrough. I pushed forward and took my first breath, air entering my lungs for the first time. A heart that used to beat no more than five times a minute was making at least a hundred. But the worst part was certainly the light. It was so bright. My eyes were full of tear.

"No worry." that same voice assured me "You safe. Just calm."

"Th-thanks." I mutter, although I didn't feel very well.

"No, worry. Everything get fine. Swear. Tell me when feel better."

After what felt like an eternity my sight sight started to improve. The light stopped hurting me and I was soon capable of seeing silhouettes and eventually even colors.

So where was I? The answer to that question was some kind of big hut. There were eight white worms like creatures here. One of looked like it had been from the inside out. That was what was left of my larva form. In the center of the hut was the person to whom belonged the voice I was hearing, a being like me. I made a comparison between us two. We had a rather similar appearance: green skin, elongated canine teeth, two arms, two legs, etc. There were also some minor differences like that fact that I was about ten centimeters shorter and my skin was paler. And then there were the major differences. The person had a bunch of orange hairs on his head, while I didn't have any. He also had two weird bumps on his chest. Would these things come with age? I couldn't tell.

"I'm fine now." I said.

"Excellent! I know bein' is born confusing and hurts. I here to help. My name Thiz, by the way."

"Thanks, Thiz. I'm... "

What was my name? I was certain that it had to start with the sound "stra" since that was one of the things I used to hear the most often when larva.

"You Stralk, son of Freyr and Fleria." This helped me out. "Ask any question 'till chief get here."

"Ok. Who are Freyr and Fleria?"

"Freyr's your father and our chief. An old shaman. Fleria is your mother."

"Uh, understood."

Honestly what she meant wasn't exactly understood, but I came to the conclusion that it would all clear when I met him. I would also him about the world in more detail. He was described as a knowledgeable person after all.

"Why are we different?" I asked.

"I female, you male. Males not have hair and breasts." she pointed at her head first and then her chest.

"Why you have these things?" to me it all seemed pointless.

"Er, hair make us pretty. I guess. The breasts too. Also feeding larvae."

I must admit, I felt like the concept of being attracted to somebody was alien to me. Still my behavior must be fitting.

"And what type exactly is attractive?"

"Huh." she shrugged her shoulders "I guess big, like mine."

Like hers? I did feel like that was a pretty biased statement. Probably asking such simple things was pointless.

Finally I asked for a simple loincloth since she was wearing one too.

And then another person entered the hut. He (I was certain that it was a he) appeared to be much more muscular than either me or Thiz, hight wise he was at least thirty centimeters above.

After noticing him Thiz left the room.

"Hello, little Stralk." the man said as gently as possible for such a behemoth. "I'm Freyr."

"Uhh, hi... Fa..? Chief?"

He smiled at my confusion: "Chief is the one that matters. If you need a parental figure just for you and your siblings... I guess Fleria is a bit better. A bit."

"Understood... chief. What must I do from now on?"

"Today's late. So I guess it will be tomorrow. You'll go gathering food for the tribe for the first time. You'll need to prove yourself, so you won't be given any equipment. After you return with... I don't know one or two rabbits or something... you'll get to use whatever is in the warehouse: materials, food, some tools etc. Are you fine with that?"

"Yes." I nodded.

"Excellent. Better go to sleep then. I will take you to your hut."

"Thank you."

On the way there Freyr described as well and fast as he could the features of the environment around. Freyr's village is inhabited by roughly one hundred goblins. It is at the base of a mountain. My mother was there, higher up into the mountains, at the moment, dealing with the local population of undead, which was why I couldn't meet her. The rest of the surrounding area is mainly forest, although there were marshes in the east. The closest village (Garo's) is about a day away to the south, although there are also many others not too far away. When the descriptions of such places started pilling up I soon realized that my chief is likely one of the most influential goblins in the area: the heads of the other tribes either owed him quite a lot, or were related to him by blood. He also informed me on most of the animals in the area.

And so Freyr left before an empty grass hut.

"Good luck." were his last words before going away.

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Feel free to skip:

Authour notes (sorry, but I've got quite a lot of things to say, so I write here).

First, welcome readers!

English is not my native language, so there might be some mistakes in the text. Generally you can expect the same quality you saw here, in chapter one. I have to personal goals for this side project of mine:

First (and the initial reason I'm doing this although that's not important for whoever reads that) is to improve my language skills. I'd really appreciate having gramatical and spelling errors pointed out.

Second is developing an interesting fantasy world where some lesser details are explored, like some kind of thought experiment.

I hope you'll enjoy what I make.

PS: By the way, if you wonder why I chose a goblin for protagonist: 1) I can just exmplain him getting hurt badly one chapter and then being fine several days later with "Goblins are not humans; they heal faster." 2) What the life of a member of the stereotypical goblin you get to see in some anime is like?

Sorry for the text dump.