Paul woke up in the morning and heard that someone was in his camp.
He quickly got ready to fight as there was little chance that the visitor was a human or any other humanoid race.
He had chosen this spot precisely because it was far away from any settlements and he could cultivate and heal himself without worrying that someone would find him here.
After arming himself he crawled out of his shelter as quietly as he could and saw a small green skinned creature sitting by his fire and eating the rabbit meat that he had left over the fire last night.
If he could, he would kick himself for his stupidity as the smell of the roasted meat was the probable cause that he had a visitor right now.
His visitor was a goblin judging from the skin color and a small stature but what was strange was that this goblin had long ash gray hair on its head and it lacked pointy ears.
Most goblins were bald,no matter if it was a male or a female and they also had big pointy ears.
The only exception to this rule were mixed blood goblins,in other words:goblins that were birthed by a human,elf,dryad,or any other species.
These small differences didn't matter as in most cases if there was one goblin then there would be at least half a dozen others or even more depending on the size of their clan.
He's wounds from the battle with the blood rabbits haven't even healed yet and now he was in even greater danger as goblins had some intelligence and once they found out that he was paralyzed they would immediately use that against him,not to mention that they used spears that could be used as a ranged weapons.
He was lucky enough that they didn't kill him in his sleep but now he had to find a way to deal with them or he would be dead.
Paul considered his options and decided it would be best if he could take out the goblin by the fire quietly and without raising an alarm.
He continued to crawl slowly using the fact that the goblin was busy eating and didn't pay much attention to his surroundings and in a few moments he was directly behind it.
When he was ready to strike he caught the long hair and pulled at it with all his strength.
The surprised goblin fell to its back but before it could scream from pain,Paul managed to hold its mouth with his hand and used the other to put a tip of his short spear on its throat.
The goblin momentarily stiffened in fear and its eyes filled out with tears.
Paul didn't kill it as he just now discovered that this was a small goblin girl and she was scared to death.
This was unusual as goblin females always stayed in the clan and were not permitted to go out.
Just as he was thinking that he heard footsteps coming in his direction,but it was just one set of steps that he heard and not the whole bunch like he was expecting.
-Please,not,kill!
Shouted another goblin who also was a young girl only slightly older than the one he just caught,by the looks of it.
The goblin that came was also a mixed blood as she also had long gray hair and looked just like a green skinned human girl.
When she saw that he held a weapon to the throat of her companion she knelt before him and lowered her head to the ground.
-I beg you don't kill sister,I apologize for food we hungry two days no food she young not know that food we not take.
She tried her best to apologize and beg for her sister's life.
Thanks to the gods that sent humanity and other races here they could understand each other and now it came in handy as this was a situation that Paul wasn't prepared for.
He expected another battle and he would consider it luck if he managed to survive.
What he got instead were two mixed blooded goblin girls that looked malnourished and tired and one was already crying while her older sister pleaded for him to spare her life.
-How many of you have come here?
He asked, trying to gain some information.
-We alone, no more here.
the older goblin girl answered, raising her head from the ground.
-Why are you here? The goblin females are forbidden to leave the clan.
He probed as this was a strange situation that defied everything that he had read about goblins.
-Clan dead,we run the last of the clan.
The girl said with her head hung down and her gaze on the ground.
-You let sister go? she scared.
The older goblin girl asked with worry in her eyes as she wasn't sure if he would let them go or just kill them.
Paul thought about it for a moment and decided that they weren't a threat since they didn't even have any weapons and released the younger girl who ran to her sister crying and scared.
It took a while for the older girl to calm her little sister down but she finally quieted down after being reassured many times that everything would be alright.
Now she was still in her sister's arms and only looked at the human from time to time with fear in her eyes.
Paul was thinking what to do right now as he felt sorry for the two girls that had lost their clan,in a way they were in a similar situation.
He didn't doubt the words of the goblin girl as she had nothing to gain by lying and her sister was in his hands when he questioned her.
Soon he made a decision.
-If you want food then I can share some with you but in exchange you will have to bring firewood for me.
In this world there was nothing for free so he decided to ask them for help in exchange for food.
The older girl looked at him with astonishment written all over her face as this was a good opportunity for her to at least feed her little sister.
What's more, a human that a moment ago was ready to kill her sister,not only let her go but even proposed to give them food in exchange for some wood.
It was only now that she had figured out that he didn't get up from the ground which meant that he couldn't walk.
-What you give for wood?
She asked,as she did not trust this human in the slightest.
Paul understood that she wanted to know what he would offer them for their work?
A moment later he took out two hind legs of a blood rabbit and showed them to the girl.
She was shocked to see him bring out so much food and offer it for some wood and her stomach growled with hunger once she saw the meat.
She decided that they would trade as they really didn't have anything to eat for the last two days and even before then,their clan was weak so they often did not have any food for days.
-We agree,we bring wood ,you give food.
Paul smiled and nodded in agreement to this deal.
He didn't offer it to them just from the kindness of his heart.
The main reason was that it was hard for him to move and he really needed the fire wood as well as some wood to craft some more tools and more traps for fish.
After they both agreed the girls went to gather the wood and Paul made himself busy with roasting the meat as well as checking his fish traps.
To his astonishment he caught over a dozen fish and they were all quite big.
The day before he baited the traps with internal organs of the blood rabbits leaving only their hearts and livers for himself to eat as they were quite tasty.
Before he was done cleaning all the fish the goblin girls came back with the fire wood and their eyes became as big as saucers when they saw how much food the human had.
But they shortly came back to their senses,dropped the wood and went to gather more as the wood that they brought wasn't enough to be of equal value to the amount of food they would receive.