I mean, even Berry seems to be having a rough time with raising Diana… and she's capable!
"Prima, what does she know about me giving her big seed?"
"Tell what need know. Husband put seed-stick inside, three moons pass, she have strong one."
"Okay. Now how much of that does she actually understand?"
"What mean?"
"How prepared is she for what it means to be a mother? To have a strong one? Are you her support system? Can she hunt on her own? Do you hunt for her? Does she even have the first clue as to how to raise a strong one? About feeding it food, milk from her milkies, cleaning up after it?"
Prima frowned at me before yelling.
"All goblins get big seed!"
I returned the favor.
"Who is caring for the strong ones that come out of her?"
"Stupid-one! Need have strong ones. Even if stupid!"
If I wasn't already suffering from mana exhaustion and had the makings of a headache, I'd have an actual headache right now.
"Where does she live in the cave?"
"Across Prima cave-hole."
"Okay, so you are at least able to keep an eye on her. Can we take a field trip to her room, please?"
"Why Husband want go?"
"Just humor me, please."
"Fine. Show Husband."
I followed Prima along with the dimwitted goblin to her cave-hole and it was not good. Her room was a mess. Not an unkempt mess, but a nasty hoarding mess. There were bones that had pieces of rotting meat with maggots on them scattered all over, bed straw was strewn about all over the room, she had one of those bone-charm dolls that looked like it had been heavily gnawed on, and it was just pure atrocious living conditions here.
"Who looks after her?"
"Look after self."
"Does she actually hunt?"
"Prima… take hunt…" The way Prima hesitated while saying it was both dubious and concerning.
This… was not good. This girl was not even remotely prepared for what it means to have a child.
And Prima fucking knew it.
The tightness in her face as she saw me make that judgment was clear, torchlight or not.
Yet, I could only lower my head and sigh.
"This is when I actually become a monster, Prima. I want you to know. There is no way she has any actual fucking clue what is going to happen to her."
Prima was about to say something but I threw a hand up before her face, urging her to not say anything.
"I can only imagine you goblins have some kind of ridiculous immune system, because she should be dead from living in these horrible conditions. Now, I'll put a strong one in her belly as you want, but you're damning them both to a cruel life by making her a mother without a strong support system in place."
Now, I speak from the heart here when it comes to this kind of thing. My youngest brother in my previous life was antisocial, and later diagnosed as being on the spectrum. He had things he liked, sure. He was good at video games, especially puzzle games, but only our mother was ever truly able to communicate with him at any real level. He'd come to the dinner table, but always kept his head down, eyes averted, and hardly ever talked with us–his siblings, or our father, and conversations often felt like they went over his head with how rarely, if ever, he had any input or opinion to contribute.
There was no lover in his life, and no visible future for him outside of his room and his computer.
He would have not made a good father, and that's my opinion as his older brother. But, this is an opinion. I never got to see him become a father, and to the best of my knowledge when I died, he had never once had a sexual encounter, be it with a man or a woman.
Prima and her goblin sister only shared a near similar hair color, with her younger sister having more of a witchy-blue tint. Almost nothing else looked the same, so maybe I can reduce it further and say at the genetic level, they are possibly half-sisters and not much else.
"Prima, I can't even sit down in this room… It's… beyond my ability to. She's clearly unfit to be living alone."
Prima's face tightened further.
"So, she'll stay with me from now on."
"Stay Husband?"
"Yes. We'll clear this cave-hole out slowly. Have her only take the things she absolutely wants or needs to keep, and move her to my cave-hole for now. I'll make a special room for her with my land magic, and I'll look after her. If you're going to put this kind of burden on your younger sister, then she needs to be cared for the entire time."
I watched as Prima's face softened a bit.
"But you're going to help me prepare her for what's going to happen. I don't like the idea of just forcing myself on her. Can you give me that much to work with?"
"Prima tell other goblins not pick tonight. Understand because stupid-one only chance."
It's worth noting that her sister hadn't spoken a single word to me up to this point. She was standing right there, and had to be listening to us talk, but that was it. As a goblin, she wasn't particularly ugly or anything either, but I wasn't exactly familiar enough with goblin appearances to note tell-tale signs of things like Down's Syndrome, so as to what developmental issues she had, I had no way of knowing or diagnosing.
I just had to wing it, and do my best as I began setting in motion the events which would put a burden on her so heavy that the devil itself would build me an air-conditioned express elevator to the lowest ring of hell just for the thought alone of what I was about to do to her.
Squatting down enough so that we were at eye level, I took her hand in mine and asked her to pick her three favorite things in this cave-hole, and that from now on she would be staying with me in mine. She could take her time in picking, but only three things (for now), so they should be special and important to her.
She seemed to grasp what I was asking her to do at least, and she was able to look for the items she wanted on her own. One of them was the bone doll that had signs of being chewed on that I saw earlier. There was also a smooth round stone, and the last was a shiny metal spoon that had once been mine, and was likely one of the leftover spoils from my pack.
So, with those three things in hand, we departed from her filthy cave-hole for now, and moved back to mine. We had to snag Jewel along the way, but I wasn't planning on going overboard with what I needed to make from magic. Just a small room big enough for her to live in.