Silence.
That was all Olivia could reply with. After hearing Carinthel's casual remark about most of the life in this world dying, a stunned look was the only thing that formed on her face. She was tempted to actually try and say something in response to this, but they continued talking about the situation before she could.
"So, because of the possibility of the other sentient races killing everyone, we had to make something that could stand up to them, give them a challenge so to speak. That is how we ended up making the orcs and goblins, where in the forest they kept the sentient races in check which lived nearby and travelled past them as well as help to stop animals and monsters from growing to rapidly. They were a middle man so to speak." Lilestia chimed in with.
"I designed the Orcs." Was what Carinthel's jumped in with. "I just love the idea of someone tall, strong and fierce taking hold of me in their massive arms, making me helpless to do anything and unable to free myself. Ohh, so good." This was accompanied by Carinthel shivering as she thought about this image. To her side, Lilestia made a gagging motion.
'I did not need to know that. Who just tells someone their fetish out of nowhere.'
"So that is how I designed the Orcs. I made them just how I like, tall, strong and aggressive giving the other races a tough opponent to face. We were not allowed to make them truly intelligent beings like humans and elves, and so to help them survive, I made their skin tone green to allow them to blend in well with the forest since they were unlikely to build something like a human town. To add to their strengths, I gave them increased sexual stamina and the ability to reproduce with any other sentient race. This meant there should always be a good number of them to fight against the other races as they breed multiple times one after the other. There was also the added benefit that breeding with women of other races helps to stunt the growth of that race."
The last part put a horrified look on Olivia's face. While she knew that this is what Orcs did, to hear that they were created for this purpose is just horrible.
"I know it sounds horrible, but we had a lot of rules to follow and needed to come up with ways to curb the mistake the higher gods made but do not admit to, as of course 'they could never be wrong.'" It was Carinthel's turn to make a gagging motion as she spoke the last part of her sentence. "Plus, it would be boring to watch a world where all the different races just lived in peace. Anyway, there are plenty of other animals and monsters in this world that are way worse than the Orcs and Goblins."
'Oh, I did not need to know that. I really hope I never run into one of these monsters she's talking about.'
"Anyway, while she did the Orcs, I made the Goblins. I've always loved being with a lot of people at the same time, and that idea is what I used to design the Goblins. Even though they are small and not as strong as Orcs, they more than makeup for it with their numbers, agility and aggression. With their dark brown skin tone, they can blend in well with the dirt and the trees improving their survival. They also work well together, better than the Orcs do, which is what they do when breeding as well. Oh, and like the Orcs, they can also mate with multiple women and breed with any other sentient species."
'This one is the same, I don't need to know you like being with several people at once. What are these goddess's problems.'
"We were both pretty proud of our creations and they ended up doing their job well. They mainly kept to the forest, attacking travellers that went by and capturing women when they could. This then forced the other races to send warriors into the forest to deal with them to keep traders and travellers safe. With them being focused on so much, while wars still happened, they were nowhere near as devastating as they could have been as they had to focus on multiple enemies."
"But, over time we noticed there were some problems with how we designed them. The aggressiveness we gave them mixed too well with the ability to breed with any sentient species, as I am sure you are aware. It was like the aggressive part of the Orcs and Goblins ended up focusing only on the need to breed with women from other races, giving them urges to do so. It got to the point where that was their only goal, to get more and more women from other races to breed with. They also got bolder and bolder when looking for women, venturing closer and closer to towns to find them. At some point, they probably would have attacked a village or town, practically starting a war themselves, when they're only supposed to distract and cause some trouble for them. Then there was the attack on the elven princess."
Olivia could recall the story of the elven princess being attacked near the human city and being taken by them, where as a result they were hunted to near extinction.
"Because of that incident, it has caused a big problem. I imagine you may be thinking that fewer monsters in the world is a good thing, but they still have important roles to play. Without them, the other animals and monsters in the forest are growing rapidly, getting stronger and stronger by the day. While they could be used to keep the other races in line, they were made to be unpredictable and there is a chance they may become too strong and end up doing irreparable damage. Also, with the Orcs and Goblins no longer around, the other sentient races don't have anything keeping them on their toes, aside from the odd random animal or monster attack. This means that they are building up power and are likely to end up going to war again…and it will be a big one, since they can now just focus on each other."
It made sense. As much as she did think that having fewer monsters in the world was a good thing, with the other races just left to their devices who knows what they would do having nothing but each other to focus on. While she could hope they would focus on peace, the history of Earth very clearly showed that wouldn't last forever. But there was still that one big question on all of this.
"But, how can I help with that."
"We want you to find the remaining Goblins and Orcs… and help them."
"What?"
"Yes. The thing is, the only ones that have survived are the best of the best so to speak. Natural selection has left the world with some very smart Orcs and Goblins. They grouped together and decided for themselves to leave the forest and hide. That has never happened before as they never work together. They have also been able to resist their urges much better than other Orcs and Goblins, which is probably another main reason they are still alive."
"Because of this, you should be able to talk to them where you can then help them, and sort them out. You might be able to rehabilitate them, maybe even get some of the other races to like them. We don't know how you should do it, but it needs to be done, for the sake of this world you are living in."
"But how does that stop a war… and if the Orcs and Goblins are there to keep the other races in line, trying to integrate them into the other races just defeats the purpose, doesn't it?
"Doing this obviously won't stop the war from happening, but there are many years before that is going to happen, so we have time to figure it out. But you helping the Orcs and Goblins, needs to happen in order to keep the last remaining ones alive. They need to start building themselves back up in order for the race to survive and the only way for this to happen though is if they are no longer being actively hunted. Getting at least some of other races to not fear them but actually help them, is sure to do that. Some will probably never help them, the humans and possibly the elves being a couple, but the demons might be more…sympathetic. Hopefully."
'That doesn't sound good. But also it still didn't make sense to Olivia, were they not supposed to attack the other races. How does possibly joining with the demons, who I assume they also attack, help anyone.'
"There are a lot of problems, and there will be more. One of them is that with their current numbers, it will take a long time before they will get back to where they were and they will need protection for that to happen. Because of this, there is no point in them attacking the other races right now. They can however help with culling the animals and monsters. If they were to do both or even just go back to attacking the races, they would just end up extinct. Once they have the numbers, they can go back to doing it, but who knows when or if that will happen. But like I said, there is plenty of time before the wars should happen, so we will figure things out before then."
'Ok, this is getting very complicated. I really wish I didn't have to be involved with this. Oh, that reminds me of something I need to check.'
"So, while that is all well and good, with you telling me all this, does this mean you can't just magic me back to Earth then?"
"Err… no." Embarrassment flooded both of the goddess's faces after they said that. "That's where the other messes came into play."
She had a feeling it wouldn't be that easy to get back to Earth. Knowing now that she couldn't, for the moment anyway, she decided to follow up on what the goddess said.
"What happened then."
"Well, err."
"We might as well just tell her. What does it matter if she knows."
"But it's embarrassing."
*sigh* "As the hunt for all of the Orcs and Goblins in the land happened, we realised we needed to do something. We came up with a plan-"
"You- you came up with a plan." Carinthel quickly added.
"Fine, I came up with a plan to steal an item from the higher gods that would let us… remake the Orcs and Goblins. It should only be used by the higher gods, and they said they couldn't just remake our creations and mess with the world. I thought that if we could steal it, we could use it to reign them in a little, curbing their urges, which would stop the same thing from happening again. We were also going to change some others things to keep them in the fight as well, but we never managed to steal the damn thing."
"We were… distracted when we were trying to steal it. We got caught and were exiled to Earth, thankfully with a lot of our magic still. But, when we messed up again during our fight and sent you to this world, we were caught again, and they exiled us here as a 'fitting punishment'." Carinthel air quoted.
"We have only a slither of our magic compared to what we used to have. Enough to keep us alive and let us travel, but that's it really. There is nowhere near enough for us to send you back to Earth."
"And even if we did, we would only get punished again for messing with things again."
'But how would sending me back to where I came from be a problem? Is it just the act of the gods or goddesses doing anything to affect the world since they made it, seen as a problem?'
"So will you help us?"
"I can't really say no can I? If I do, I'm probably going to get killed since everyone still hates Orcs and Goblins, so fixing that, if only slightly definitely helps me. Then it's just the problem of the war. You are going to figure out how to stop it though… right?"
"Yes, yes of course. We are both very smart and have plenty of time to figure it out. We might not even need your help with the plan either. Now, with the Orcs and Goblins in hiding it will take some time for them to be killed off so you have probably a year or so before they die, in which time you need to find and help them. Other than that, I guess you can just enjoy your new life. Oh, and sorry again for sending you here."
*pop*
And with that, Carinthel vanished.
"Yeah, sorry again. But anyway, have fun."
*pop*
And so was Lilestia.
"Urrggh" Olivia ran her hand down her face now that they were gone at the absurdity of it all.
'I have a year or so to save the last remaining Orcs and Goblins in this world. If I don't, they end up extinct, and monsters and animals will roam free probably causing destruction. But even if I do that, the other races will probably end up killing everyone anyway. Well, that's just great. If I forget about the war for a bit, the first big problem is how I'm going to find the Orcs and Goblins when they've gone off the grid. Then there is actually helping them, improving their image and possibly getting another races protection. How am I going to do all of this."
She held her head in her hands for a while as she though about all of this, but quickly decided to look up into the sky before shaking her head.
'Now, I'm sure I could go on thinking about this for a long time, but I really need to get some sleep before the sun rises, and there is no way I can think clearly on this matter at this time. Time to wake Lyrika.'
Olivia expected something to happen when the goddesses left in regards to the sleeping spell, but aside from the fact that the talk lasted quite some time and that the new day was close to dawning, everything looked the same. Hoping that the sleeping spell had worn off Lyrika she calmly shook her shoulder to wake her.
"Umm, no, let me sleep more." Lyrika groggily moaned out before rolling over and trying to go back to sleep.
"Lyrika, you need to wake up. It's your turn for the watch."
It took a little more rousing, but Lyrika finally woke up. She looked around at the darkness and eventually saw Olivia. She did jump a little at the sight, but seeing someone, whether a monster or not, right next to you as you wake up would startle anyone.
"Wha-, Why did you wake me up."
"You know why, it's your turn to take watch."
"Oh…ok." She finished with a yawn.
It was clear to see that Lyrika was not happy about it, but it had to be done. Olivia could only imagine what would happen the next night when she would have to wake her up earlier than she did today.
Olivia took her place in the bedding and slowly closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.