The sharp-tipped stick hit the ripe fruit thus causing it to fall to the ground. 'He' had improved and that was one reason why she was happy.
Next to the roots of that big tree with full crowns, there were several fruits and each one of them had one of those pointy sticks like going through it. The goblin was breathing tiredly, salty water dripping from its green hide caused by the brutal heat on that sunny afternoon.
As long as he could concentrate, he could hit his close targets. Handling the human weapon felt as easy as it had never been before, the pain in his arm eased over time and his fingers no longer burned.
His back was straighter and this is something that had gone unnoticed by the monster. As he got used to the position necessary to use the strange human weapon, he started to walk with a posture that, although it didn't make any difference, lessened the pain he felt in the large bone in his back.
The monster now sought to improve even more in the use of the stolen objects. He would need to learn to shoot even more distant targets and also those that moved. Too many goals to occupy someone with little to do.
Her ability to move in water also improved, training in places where she wouldn't run was a wise decision. She'd traded the agony of banging her head on rocks for not being able to breathe after going under, and she preferred it that way.
She got closer and closer (or so she imagined) to what she wanted to achieve. Winning the big vine that says "sssss" seemed increasingly possible.
There was just one more thing the monster wanted to become able to do, 'it' wanted to walk through the branches. His encounter with the furry humans made him think about many things and one of them was what made them so dangerous.
It wasn't strength, as they were weaker than many of the monsters they fought, and it wasn't intelligence, as they could be distracted by the rolling of a rock. The characteristic that differentiated them from any other inhabitant of that jungle was the way they moved.
These animals were such a threat because they couldn't be caught, not from high in the trees. No monster could reach them, because no one in that forest could climb the branches with their mastery.
Until that moment at least.
He chose one with a long trunk and not many branches at first. Even though it could see in the dark, it would take advantage of the sunlight that used to ward off predators. She placed her palms against the hard, splintered wood and tried to use her claws to hold on.
Then he positioned his feet against the tree and tried to climb with his limbs that way. It did not rise higher than a blade of grass and fall to the ground.
Now that she thought about it, her new task somehow felt more difficult than the previous ones. Many beings moved in the water, many used weapons. However, other than the furry humans and the vine that says "sssss", the goblin had never seen creatures that walked along the branches.
The thoughts of how impossible that was occupied his head for a very short time. He had managed to use the human weapon that throws branches and was able to move reasonably well in the water. If he didn't give up until that moment even in the face of great difficulties, he couldn't be defeated by a big piece of wood that didn't even move.
His new method was now to wrap arms and legs around the torso. Then he would use the strength of his waist to move towards the sky. He started very well, his tough skin already used to the hardness of the walls of the tunnels through which he passed, protecting him from any wound that the splinters of the tree could cause.
What started out smoothly ended painfully. The members tired when the goblin hadn't even made it halfway. He closed his eyes knowing what would happen and the way he predicted, his body fell to the ground.
He had already recovered from the encounter with the furry humans, however falling like that made him remember the feeling of being thrown against the walls with no way to defend himself.
His mind was aware of the fact that now he was away from those animals, they couldn't hurt him at that moment. Yet he felt a shiver on his back telling him that at any moment the big female would appear to kill him.
If he concentrated he could hear the sounds of her howls and her growls. Looking carefully he would identify the movements of the leaves of the trees denouncing the presence of living beings on top. Smelling hard even he would smell their cave. Ears, eyes, smell, all of them finding signs.
Signals that didn't exist outside her head, no sounds around her, no branches swaying above her head, no smell of dirty fur.
He was scared, managed to distract himself with the many things he wanted to do, but a single fall was enough to remind him of how scared he was.
'He' was weak, he was so small and fragile. Anything could kill him and that made him want to run to his cave and not come out, as many of his peers used to do to stay alive.
Why did 'he' among so many goblins have to be different?
He didn't miss his peers, even on frosty nights where the proximity of other bodies could provide warmth he didn't want to be with them, the little green creature didn't feel the cold.
Yet he was beginning to question, wouldn't it be better to be like one of them and accept that he would never be more than a weak monster destined for a painful end?