The light is quickly fading as we're approaching the farm. The trip went well, nothing happened, or at least I didn't notice much. I was drowned in my thoughts about what I would want in my future, what I want so I can live a happy life with those that I care about. And even though I only have one person I care about now, something tells me he won't stay the only one.
And the conclusion I came upon was that I want to build a village. A village where people I care about can live, where we grow our own food, bake our own bread, build our own houses. But a village isn't the safest place, there are monsters in the wild that aren't as nice to people as Goba is now, there are people who want to have what you have, so they'll come and take what they want if you lack strength.
And so the most important thing I need to do now is become stronger, cause people only respect and fear the strong. So they won't come with evil intentions if they don't think they're strong enough.
With my plan figured out, and nodding to myself to confirm it, I turn to Goba.
"Goba, I need to become strong, strong enough to protect."
He turns to me, his green eyes with plus shaped pupils staring right through me. His look turns satisfied but he still asks:
"Protect what?"
"Protect everyone I care about, even those that I don't know that I care about yet. Also I need to protect their houses and their food, and everything that they need to be happy."
I say this while raising my hands as if I'm praising the sun to show how much I want to protect. Goba smiles at this, at least, I think he smiles.
"Brother, home."
He says this while pointing his hand forward. I see a low wooden fence, and behind that a red shed. To the right I see a field filled with golden grain, and beyond the field is a big house. The house doesn't look like any farm houses I've ever seen, it looks at least as beautiful as the old mayor's house.
But I don't fail to notice the extra faul look in Goba's eyes when his gaze follows mine to that house. But he he quickly snapped out of it and jumped over the fence toward the shed. It looked so smooth, almost gracefully.
And here I come, awkwardly climbing over it. But I manage, and then I approach the shed. Goba is holding the door for me already.
As I enter I notice it's almost empty, there are four things in total. A big pile of straw in one corner, a chest, and a shelf above it. On that shelf there's one book, and even though I can't really read, I do recognise that those aren't the letters they use around here.
"Brother, this home, only now."
Goba moves to the pile of straw and halves it, he moves one half to the other corner of the shed. He points at it.
"Brothers bed, now sleep, tomorrow teach."
A pile of straw has never seemed so comfortable before, I let myself fall in it.
"Goodnight Goba."
I smiled and before I heard his reply I fell asleep.
~~~~~~~~~
I wake up with a hand on my mouth, it startles me, before I can suck in a breath of air the hand moves up and covers my nose so I can't do that either. Then I look up and see Goba with his finger in front of his mouth, he wants me to be quiet, so I nod at him and steady my breathing now his hand is gone.
Just as I do so there's noise outside, it sounds like heavy, stumbling steps.
"Hey, Grinch!! Get out here!"
Goba looks back at me again, holding his finger in front of his mouth again. I try to be as silent as possible, this is something I've learned on the street. I've noticed that using a special image let's you do certain things better, when I want to hide and make my existence as small as possible I see myself as the sun hiding behind the horizon. The sun is still there, but non of its endless light can be seen. And as the sun I hide my light, hide my light behind the world we live in.
This sounds long, but I can do this quickly, even before Goba walked out the door. He peeks back ones and there's a bit of surprise in his eyes. But it disappears quickly as he walks outside. If only I could use this at daytime, it'd help out greatly.
"You stupid goblin, you stupid Grimacing Goblin, why do you always have the same scowling look on your face? I've heard that Grimacing Goblins have that look because their hearts try to shrink all the time, and the pain from that gives you that stupid look. But I don't believe it, I think it's the other theory, it's just that the Great Creator frowned when he looked at your ugly mut, and that frown mirrored on your faces as punishment."
The man starts laughing after he said that, I can practically hear the booze coming from his voice. But it honestly is an interesting question, why does Goba frown all the time? But that's for another time. The more important thing now is if this man, probably Pridove, just came here to mock Goba? Or did he notice me? I don't think so, as he sounds way too drunk to notice anything.
"But don't worry, I'm just here to see how you're doing? Adapting to your new environment and all, away from your family. At least you still have that cloak and book, hehe a shame that's all you'll ever see from your family again. The only time I saw another look in your eyes was when that cloak found its way back to you. And remember you can't take it off, or wash it. Hehehe goodnight Grinch, maybe you still want to read a story before sleeping."
I hear him stumble away again, other than that I only hear his maniacal laughter. I don't know who's cloak that was originally, but I don't think Goba truly wants to wear it like this.
Goba only comes back in quite some time after the man left.
"That Master, Master just mock, Master no honour."
He says this with his side facing me, I can't read his expression like this.
"Sons cloak, cloak green, green faded, dark blood."
I don't need to see his face to feel his sadness, it's practically suffocating me. My heart aches, my longs reject air and my eyes fog up.
"Wifes book, book teach danger, danger came, me live."
I see a tear fall as he's speaking, I stand up and walk to him, I've never done this, only seen it. But u put my arms around him, from the side. It's rather awkward as my arms are a bit short, but it doesn't feel bad. I can feel the sadness drain slightly from the air.
"Me live, master killed wife and son, take me slave, me endure, me take vengeance."
As he's saying this the sadness in the air changes, it gives me shivers and frightens me. Even though I feel it isn't a feeling for me it still is scary.
"No brother, we will take revenge together. After you taught me I'll take him out."
His expression goes through a lot of changes quickly, I can see gratitude, doubt, realisation and hope. But it's all overshadowed by his resentful scowl.
"First sleep."