I'm standing in front of the bar with a knife to my throat, and a room full of hostile goblins in arms ready to gut me. But no one is moving now. My head feels like it's pulsing and I could soon see a dim light blur my left eye. The ugly one backs off with his knife still pointed at me. Toba had backed away too. Now what? I was heated and depressed as I looked around to see everyone now filled with fear as they back away from me.
I don't know what's going on and I'm too afraid to ask. I look to Starling and see she had a mark glowing on her right shoulder and trace down her arm as a fireball was forming in her hand ready to fire at any moment. Rolba finally walks out of the back room and sees the scene before him.
"Stay back. This one not normal." She demands him. He only looks to my with no expression.
He ignores her warning and approaches me swiftly and fearless, then pats my head.
"Rolba!" Starling calls to him in worry. "What you do now?"
He continues to pat me and ignores her calls. "Toba. Tessa like brother Sanguis."
Toba suddenly gives an expression of epiphany and his fear is seldomly replaced with slight joy and a hint of nervousness. He steps behind me and takes hold of the ugly ones knife by the blade.
"That right. Sanguis was feral but smart like Tessa." He takes the knife from him and grabs my wrist. "Feral have black blood. Goblin have violet, and golem not bleed." Before I could react to what was going on with those two, he cuts my forearm and I bleed.
"Ow!!"
My face glows and pulses faster and the cut disappears as fast as it was made. Now they look confused. As they said earlier goblins have purple blood, feral goblins have black. I can bleed and it was proven with that cut. But my blood was red. What did that mean?
Rolba takes the knife and cuts his palm making me freak out in confusion as to why he did it. His blood was violet. More red-violet but nowhere as red as mine.
"Rolba!?" Starling is flipping out now. Why? He's just comparing isn't he? His wound healed almost as fast as mine did.
"Come. Rolba take you to room now." He says as he takes my shoulder and guilds me upstairs. I keep my head down when I notice everyone now looking at me confused and afraid.
"Rolba!! Stop!! That not goblin!!" Starling shouts.
"So what?" Toba retorts to her. "You not true goblin either. What is difference?"
They escort me to the upper level without hearing her. I instinctively look back at the room and take one last look at everyone's eyes. Fear and confusion. I would be too if some... Thing walked into my town looking like my kind and doesn't have the same features on the inside. What am I if I'm not really a goblin? Thank god but god Dammit.
We continue down the halls until they take me to the last room at the end against the back wall. It was in an eerie area too. Very creepy.
Once inside the room the guys jester me to sit at the chair by a mirror dresser and Toba leaves the room, leaving me with Rolba. No! Don't leave me here!! I'm too scared.
"Toba get record books of goblins. Be back soon." Rolba explains.
"There's a record book?"
"For goblins, some types are rare. Like Other brother, you are rare goblin with human blood. Issue is you are not like other brother at all."
"I don't get it. What does that mean."
"That why Toba get book. Not easy to explain with words, but Rolba do best."
Rolba indeed does his best to explain to me what the different types of goblins there are from commons to rarities. The basics are lower goblins, hobgoblins like Toba, ogres like Rolba, trolls, 'yoni', which is a type of nocturnal goblin that stay in the demon continents, and 'obas' also in the demon continents. Yoni and Obas are known as uncommon here in the mainland region were we are. Other uncommon types are goblin champions, casters like mages and necromancer and so on, and hybrid goblins that are mixed with one or more other species since goblins are considered universal breeders. Rolba's wife is a hybrid, which explains Toba's comment to her earlier.
Rarities are where it gets complicated, because they are either born or reformed with a different type of blood. Red blood or 'human core' blood as he calls it. Its similar to having human blood but the attributes are like that of a goblins. Say if we were to make a transfusion of blood we would only be able to share with each other and other goblins but not humans, however they age differently from the basic goblin standards and develop their skills with that age like humans do. Makes sense I guess.
The rarities are tier goblins, a lower goblin that can basically level up their skills to match that of an yoni or holy knight and can use the same skills as a human adventurer.
Subspecies goblins are goblins that grow in custom to their surroundings. For example, a goblin born in the mountains will develop attributes similar to the animal that share that environment like hooves of a goat for narrow space balance, talons for tricky grips and so on. The current subspecies are actually more common than rare but they are seen as rare since they can only breed in the terrain they were born and raised in. The known one so far are 'mouse', forest, mountain, cave, and riversides.
Next are feral and gargoyles. These are taboo types that are often seen with more demonic attributes. They are seen as omens for the tribe nest or hord they were pressed from. They are highly instinctive and sharp hunters that use their primitive nature to survive their habitats. Most feral are mistaken for normal goblins depending on where they were raised. The greatest difference is their eyes. Gargoyles aren't seen anywhere other than near the savanna or demon continents so they are often known as a close relation to the succubus race of the demon continents since they can fly and have seductive natures with crazy high intelligence, hence the taboo. So one is street smart, the other book smart. That is indeed terrifying considering goblins apparently aren't that smart still.
Finally the rarest breed is called a dragonjaw. These are the rarest because they can only be born through gargoyles and their birth rate is only one out of ten generations. That's not even one in a thousand considering how much goblins breed in the first place. Their first distinct features are a strong jaw with jagged teeth and snake tongue that can be used as a secondary sensory like a reptile. Why does that sound oddly familiar? The second would be more dragon like on the outside complete with stalagmites growing down their spines and hind legs but only for some of them. Lastly they have large hands and claws with padding on the palm.
Dragonjaws are considered unnatural since they can be born through every type of hybrid and still retain these features so long as one parent is a gargoyle, who also has a low birth rate. It would make sense that everyone would be scared of me now. I shouldn't really exist other than in the demon continents unless one of the gargoyles were here. Even stranger, they take on the basic attributes from the second parent as far as skills go like a subspecies. They're basically cheat breeds.
The greatest problem here though is I don't smell like a gargoyle or anything from the demon continents. I smell like earth. Pure nature and soil. If I had parents here, I would smell like something alive to them at least.
Toba finally returns with a book that had mostly pictures in it. He hands it to me and flips it to a page that had the dragonjaw in it. The only depiction was its head and the tailed full body.
"Open mouth. Toba must see." Toba demands.
"What'll happen if I do?" I'm scared to ask but I have to know what the heck he wants to do after he confirms what I am.
"Toba just must know you are this one. Toba never seen one before since not here."
"Rolba either. Sanguis not here to confirm for us so we see for ourselves."
Neither of them seemed to be showing any hostility, but a lot of curiosity and caution was blatantly obvious. I look in the mirror and open my mouth as wide as I could, which was way wider than I thought, actually. I saw a split in my tongue that I could control at will and a second set of teeth behind my bottom set it was similar to the picture. The only difference is the music note on the roof of my mouth that glowed with each breath I took. The hell is that!? I am so confused but at least I think I know what I am?
Toba and Rolba look to me in amaze when Rolba saw the note in my mouth.
"What that is? A tune?" He asks Toba.
"Hm?" Toba grabs my head and holds my mouth open to see it better. "It is! Maybe that why she understand human and goblin language."
"Does that mean no lesson?"
"... Does it?"
Oh god. Now what? "What? What's wrong?"
"Nothing wrong. You run into humans before come here?" Toba asks.
"...Yeah. I did. They were getting assaulted by bandits so I helped them out so I could follow them here in secret... Kind of."
"You save humans!?"
"What!?"
"Leave Toba. Tessa is brave for helping humans. Most would not accept us for help so you did well to hide." I just got praised after an examination by an ogre. Progress. "Anyway, Rolba wonder what Sanguis would think if he come here."
"Ahh... Toba not know. Toba realize Toba not going to learn human language anytime soon so Toba not care no more." And toba is upset. Kind of cute but why?
I want to sleep. Instinct is taking over right now and I don't have the will to fight it off. "Can I sleep please?" I ask as I bob and sway.
"Go ahead. We leave you be for night." Rolba tells me as he grabs the now sulking Toba and drags him out the room. "Dream well." He closes the door behind him.
This is kind of a nice room to be put in. A single bed to the opposite side of the door, a Marquette at the foot, and a dresser next to the door with a window overlooking the back end of the building. Since the building aren't that tall I could see the moon clearly. Talk about a clear night to sleep under.
° ° ° ° °
Its morning. I wake up to the wooden ceiling and a burned out candle at my side on the bedside dresser. I sit up and look around while the sun now shines through the window that faces me from the foot of the bed. It was warm and it felt nice. I kinda wanna go back to sleep and enjoy this but a knock on the door wakes me from this enjoyment.
"Hello?" I call out nervously. Something was telling me I didn't want to answer it directly.
"It's Starling." She calls back. Called it. Fuck that. "There is a human here asking for you. He is a guard."
A what!? What's a guard doing here looking for me!? What did I do!? What didn't I do?! "... Why?"
"Something about the royals! I don't know, just get them out of here,You criminal!"
I get up and storm to the door and throw it open. "I am NOT a criminal!"
"Then you will have no trouble coming with me then, sir goblin." A guard in full body armor and a large glistening sword at his side and helmet in his arm stood behind Starling looking down at me with an empty expression that was more terrifying than starlings death glare.
"... Miss." I say for some ungodly reason.
"Hm?"
"I'm a girl. Despite my lack of hair and... other things." I glance at starlings well tones figure in envy.
"Ah. My apologies then." He says with a bow. Unexpected.
"Um.. Should I get my stuff?"
"I would recommend it. If you wish I will help you."
"No it's fine but you can come in and wait. I don't really have much."
"Then pardon the intrusion."
I let him in and he stands by the door waiting as I grab the few things I own, a pack of coin chips and my fur since I slept in my clothes. I make the bed then walk out with him behind me. Starling shuts the door and we all continue down the steps and to the counter where Rolba and Toba stood talking about me to another goblin. A real horrendously frightening looking one at that. I think it's a goblin champion. He had a row of tusks protruding between his bottom lip and chin.
"Oh. Tessa." God dammit Toba!! He Rolba and the Champ look at me as we approach them. Starling walks behind the counter completely avoiding the champ and walks into the back room. "You rest well?"
"Yes. Thank you for asking." I say as I try my damndest to ignore the heavy gaze I got from the champ.
"This Sanguis." Rolba says as he pats the champ on the shoulder. This is him!? "He is gargoyle under church protection and was once known as feral. He cast illusion charm to keep from intimidating other goblins. He like you with red blood. He work for church guard."
"Ah. It's nice to meet... You?" I say as Sanguis stands and examines me with his empty, pale gold eyes. I stand at his torso at best so he was just under Rolba's height right now. Just his presence is petrifyingly fighting. I get cold chills down my spine from a completely different feeling all together though. He sniff me once and takes my hand to shake it like a normal first meeting. "Ha... Haha." Why do I feel so embarrassed suddenly?
"It's a pleasure." He says, so naturally that it was creepy. "Are we ready, Gilson?"
"Yes. Let's get going." The guard replies. "The carriage is at the entrance of the alley."
"Tessa so lucky." Toba remarks as we leave. "Get to be summoned by human royals with brother Sanguis as escort."
...am I!?