Poniard developed slowly over the next few days but develop… they did.
That first day was spent defining its feet and lower legs while the silhouettes of arms appeared on the sides. The feet were pretty long for a goblin but were still on the small side for a human and they had small but slightly curving points that were probably claws. The lower legs were skinny with a hard shin in front but curved to display large and long calf muscles.
The hands and knees were defined the next morning, showing similar five-digit hands that were also markedly larger than before despite a barely noticeable shortening of the pinkie. The upper lower leg under the knee had slightly larger bones and similar a continuation of the lower calf in the form of a large block of already hardening muscle. Above the knees were a broad and almost defined bottom of quadriceps.
When we came home from a hard day of training the kobolds to wield various weapons, with me being the only archery trainer for the older kobolds, not much had changed with the legs but the forearms were conformed to show defined carpi muscles that were proportionally half of my own forearms.
The sac had begun conforming to the top of the head and thick but short hairs had begun growing out of the scalp area.
The sac itself was also shrinking inward as it organized Poniard's inwards, placing organs and tubes around bones and then layers of tissues around the insides however, it was not until the next morning that Poniard's ears were even showing at the top sides of its head or any other development took place.
His ears were half the length they were previously, by proportion, and the head itself was somewhat taller like most hob heads would be. However, the crown and forehead were already proportionally larger than the average hobs with a familiar roundness. The legs had finished conforming thick quadriceps that fed into a still vaguely swollen waist area while armpits and ribs had separated from one another.
Our training regime for the goblins and kobolds suffered a little that day because I was distracted trying to imagine what kind of hobs would have these proportions. I was pretty much fluent with everything D grade and under as well as familiar with C grade beasts, but I had not heard of any… like this. I basically left the kobold archers to shoot at their leisure while wandering the training grounds.
Without Poniard I could only have Glaive teach fencing and swordplay to one group while the third group was left to watch videos.
When we came home, the back of Poniard's head, ears, shoulders, and waist had finished forming. However, I was somewhat worried. Poniard's genitalia were not yet formed and from the looks of it he might have a cloaca.
The hips were neither wide nor small and the waist itself was only slightly angled from underlying muscles but Poniard's soft belly had not changed much. The skin was a little smoother than the bumpy frog-like skin I remembered but it was still a swollen sac in the torso. Because genitalia would technically still be showing, I decided not to take pictures anymore under Poniard could wear clothes.
Poniard's face has mostly formed by morning, showing undeveloped eyes that were literally inches closer together than they used to be. Under them the nose had a slight protrusion to them that was actually the stretching of a short and slightly broad snout. They still had a wide mouth, but only the bones had formed so far so the sac was stretched tight to his teeth.
The front four teeth in the snout were slightly rounded incisors instead of canines while the rounding sides of the snout were rounded around two canines on both sides of top and bottom rows. The rest of Poniard's teeth were kind of pointed premolars all of the way to the back. His entire skull and dental structure had changed to look somewhat like a kobold and a human.
Even though I was pretty sure a cloaca would be okay to post in my business page I took only a picture of Poniard's face and did my best to attribute all of the changes to kobold 'exposure'. Everyone who knew I fed my goblin hearts and cores would know what that meant. Hopefully, nobody would think I had fed it human hearts.
At least, by the end of two weeks, the kobolds had reached the memorized level of proficiency for their weaponry sets or could at least heat one in every third arrow on the foam target from eighty yards. The kobold archers were actually doing better than I would have thought since they were left to their own devices, but I had shown them everything I showed Poniard and left a one-minute demonstration video playing on a tablet nearby.
The goblins were doing much better than I thought since two of their weapons sets had little focus on legs outside of movement techniques. The third was doing even better, putting to use the explosive strength that training with weight caused when performing attacks without them. The other would know how that felt soon enough.
Glaive had honestly been picking up all of my slack during this process and it made me feel bad. She even coordinated with the hobs whenever they had issues but I was somewhere else on the property wandering. The only time she got to spend playing with her glaive was during the two-hour rest period after everyone was done running.
Finally, after four days since we could first see Poniard's feet, the body had been conformed to their entirety and I found myself dismayed on multiple levels for multiple reasons. Some of the torso was still soft that morning but there was no denying from the bone structure shapes and two small SLOPES. Luckily, Lucinda was home so I could have her check the lower region for me.
Poniard had been or become a girl and, unlike most hobs and goblin species… had boobs. It was not like they were big, even only partially developed they were only at the lower medium range, but goblins do not have boobs! Right?
If it was human hearts that did this then why was he a SHE? All the hearts Poniard ate came from guys, how does four guys make one girl? That just is not how it works!
Poniard still did not wake up that day and I was up late listening to Si-Pon trying to meditate. The flashes of mana had begun to last longer and I could feel the smaller pulses even when what the bird said was useless. However, that night, I could hardly feel anything but confusion about how Poniard was going to live their life from now on.
Before, breeding my goblin would have been as simple as evolving him and locking him in a room with the two hobs so my son can grow into a man. Now… do I lock my DAUGHTER in a room with two male hobs and just live with that? The intelligence of goblins nearly doubles when they become hobs- which is not usually that much but for memory- but Poniard was already a genius for goblins.
If Poniard is more human, would she not also be… fully sentient, now? I could never lock a full-blown person in a room like that. Do I just find some other goblin to feed hearts and hope it comes out male? Even then, do I let it touch my daughter or only breed it to the two normal hobs?
At some point early in the morning more than late in the night, I fell asleep. While I was asleep I even dreamed about a female Poniard. I had turned into an over-protective father and no longer took her to portals so I came home one day to find she and Lucinda were putting together a feast in the kitchen and had redecorated the house with portal materials.
Then in my dream I fell asleep while watching the same family movie Lucinda made me watch the other night only to wake up late in the morning. The TV was not only on but that same movie was currently playing on TV pretty much where it had left off in my dream. Needless to say, I was suddenly scared.
On the couch and floor and table was a small ocean of empty bottles, meat packages, and snack wrappers while in my lap sat a contentedly eating Poniard. Her originally short black hair had grown to several shaggy inches and now had a raven's purple iridescence in the light. She was maybe five feet and two inches tall weighing over one hundred and fifty pounds with a well built but athletically toned body.
I hated to use this word to describe her but the ratio of fat to muscle in her limbs and body made her thick. Worse, still, she was sitting in my lap in only a sheet watching TV while in the background I could hear noises from the kitchen. "Lucinda?" I call out helplessly, carefully picking up the bundled hobgoblin by their shoulders before putting them on the couch beside me.
"You're awake?" Lucinda asks pleasantly. "It's about time, Malcolm! Would you believe the absolute mess I woke up to this morning? I left all that there for you to clean up since h- she was still eating it, though."
"H-" I start to say, almost making the same mistake that she had in calling Poniard a boy. "She had not eaten anything for nearly a day, but I had some stuff set aside in the freezer for her."
"The meat loaf and salmon? She got it," Lucinda asks and then assures me without waiting for an answer. "She got it frozen, but believe me when I say she got it. She completely cleaned us out, I'll be out all day shopping thanks to her. Give me some money so I can buy her a thousand pounds of meat or something."
I did not even think about it at that point, I just dug my wallet out of the couch and threw it to her before it was thrown back at me a moment later. Then I just started cleaning while doing my best to never look away from the trash. Pretending everything was okay was one thing, but pretending like I was not a healthy young man of almost seventeen with a sudden and absurd curiosity was impossible.
Finally, when the living room was clean only a few minutes later I was faced with the thing I was avoiding. I had to address my goblin. While looking at them.
When I finally turn to face Poniard there was a brief second in which I simply saw everything before I could stop myself and I was caught between cringing and continuing to stare. However, after that ONE second I focused on my familiar's new mammalian face and simply followed the magic lines that looked like a closed eye on her forehead while speaking. "Poniard," I said simply and almost casually despite some seriousness. "Go put clothes on."
"N-o cl-o-thes," Poniard replies with intentional emphasis of her new manner of speech. Her words were clearer with harder enunciation and lacked the previous hoarseness. It was like her current body was more suited to this form of speaking. Then, raising her head so that I was forced to meet her actual eyes that now had a small amount of whites around black irises enclosing vividly glowing purple slit pupils, she continued speaking.
"Lucy say get clothes. She use you money. I just wear shit-" she starts to say in a more normal fashion despite suddenly being cut off.
"SHEET!" Lucinda suddenly calls out from the kitchen upon hearing what Poniard just said. However, she could not see the half smirk on Poniard's face to know Poniard had said it intentionally. Lucinda had probably messed up the first time and told her it was a 'bad word'. Never let kids know NOT to say something.
Poniard's voice had a slight huskiness, almost depth, to it that probably came from the size of her body and hybridized insides, but it was undeniably feminine and even somewhat soft? Not just the fact that she did not seem to speak loudly but that her voice was much easier to listen to than it used to be.
I did not even bother continuing the discussion, I just went up to my room to search my closet for some of my old clothes from before the surgery. Finding several pairs of black gym shorts and simple but dark shirts, I pick out a simple white hoodie that contrasted with her vaguely greenish light tan skin. If not for the green tinge in her skin she would almost have looked Hispanic, like two of the people the hearts she ate belonged to.
Returning downstairs to the living room where Poniard was gathering up their newest trash on the table, I find myself momentarily blinded when I walk into the room and reflexively throw the wad of clothes in my arms like a basketball. At Poniard.
Less than five pounds of cloth and polyester hit the new Poniard in the shoulder hard enough to knock them by surprise sideways on the couch and explode into the air.
Shaking my head and pretending I had meant to do that as shorts, shirts, and a hoodie rain down on the couch, I simply shrug and say, "Those are your new clothes, you're not allowed to leave the house without the hood. Lucinda might have some old boots that can fit your feet, my socks will have to do. Lucinda, have you called… anyone?"
"Your goblin, your job," she replies with no hesitation or care whatsoever. "If you were a little older, I'd make you take her shopping for her first underwear. But, you'd probably make things even weirder than you already have been. Keep it together, Malcolm, it's the same goblin you used to shower with."
"She's been showering with Glaive ever since we got back from the territory," I argue triumphantly, as if that really mattered. Then I just held my face in my hands while Poniard got dressed and then went back to watching TV. "She can shower well enough on her own for now."
"Remember how you needed help bathing those first few days after your operation?" Lucinda asks with a crooked smile and victorious voice. "She tore up the stairs climbing down while we were asleep, she can't be left alone in a bath tub. Even with Glaive, Glaive probably barely understands how to wash herself properly yet."
"Could y-" I start to ask only for Lucinda to cut me off with a barking laugh.
"Your goblin, your job!"
*