My sister was nervous, and he gave me that stare from when he cursed me, so I also touched her head and told her she was doing good.
My sister reached for my hand and cried out as Ark pushed himself into her, then quieted again fast. He waited a long time and carefully rubbed her back and sides for a while before telling her he was going to move again. My sister who hardly ever looks me in the eyes was staring now, and she looked scared. Husband went slow with his seed-stick at first, and I could see my sister's fear turning to pleasure as she got used to it. Her mouth opened and she drooled. I nodded at Husband that things were well, and he continued to give her his seed-stick until he told us both that his big-seed was coming.
Ark breathed heavily, grunted, and then stopped.
He had pulled his seed stick out of my sister and immediately cleaned the blood off of it. He also washed the outside of my sister's fuckhole clean again with more water. It was done. My sister would have a strong one in a few moons. Ark had sat on his bed and pulled her onto his lap, holding her carefully with her face pressed into his chest and his hands kept going from rubbing her back to patting her head.
Husband nodded to me once he seemed to have her tamed.
"Want Prima to hunt? Bring Husband some fire meat?" I asked him. I knew it was getting late and there was a risk of running into the Black-claws who prowled the forest at night, but I could find something.
"Please do." He asked me, and I left my sister with him to go out and find something.
While hunting alone, I remembered the words of my long dead mother.
I was little back then. I was with Old One and she, me, and a few others who were still too young to get big seed were there to watch the third litter crawl out of my mother. Mother's eyes were tired, but for a moment, when the strong ones came out of her, amidst her screams, she grabbed hold of me with her big hands, eyes suddenly wide open, and told me to protect them.
Mother knew among all the strong ones she had that I was the strongest one who crawled out of her. She had enough in her milkies to feed the third litter, but less than a moon later, she died. My sister and I were all that was left from all the strong ones my mother made in her entire life from big seed.
That was why I needed to make sure she received Husband's big seed properly.
A goblin who is stupid like she is and can't hunt good... if she can't at least contribute by having a strong one, there is no place for her in the goblin tribe. Even I as the Guardian can't go against that.
I wanted my sister to live, even if she was stupid, even if Ark didn't understand the true importance of it all.
It's… hard to talk with him sometimes. Many of the words he says don't always make sense. It's like listening to someone speaking broken gob. I wonder if we sound the same to him?
I returned to goblin-home by the time the half-moon was high in the sky. It took time to cook the fire meat from what I caught for Husband, and with a portion of it fresh and raw for both my sister and myself, I found those two exactly as I had left them. She was still sitting on his lap, and he was still holding her to his chest, only he was rocking back and forth, and saying words to her in his strange Human language. It sounded pleasant, but I had no idea what any of it meant.
But she was calm.
Ark carried her over to the table and placed her on the floor right next to him so she pressed up against his side while I gave them both their meat.
"Her name Vera."
"is it Stupid-one's Human name? What does it mean?"
"Faith, Trust, Vision. Many meanings each Human tribe."
"Why give her the name Vera?"
"She simple. Can only trust us, think we not hurt her. Husband think exactly what we do. Every time call by name, know husband did wrong. Spend much time try to do right Vera future."
I want to tell Ark he's wrong, but for some reason I can only call him stupid. He doesn't understand that he has saved her life by giving her big seed. I held back from telling him what would happen if he hadn't, because I didn't want him to call us all monsters again.
Why is it because we are goblins and he is a human he can just call us monsters anyway?
I ate my meat angrily in big pieces if only to make it harder for me to call him stupid. My stupid little sister is called Vera now? It doesn't sound as good as Prima. I am the first-seed after all. It is the best name. Not a stupid name like Truffle or Berry or Lily.
I thought Ark would make her sleep in her new cave-hole tonight, but he invited me to stay and wanted me to sleep on the new bed made with his magic together with him and Vera. He had told her to bring one of the three things she wanted out to him, so she brought the bone charm I had Ivory make for her long ago. He then had her lay next to him, as she held onto the bone charm and clung once more against Ark, hiding her face in his chest. I was asked to sleep on her other side, so that she was lying in the middle between us.
Vera had quickly gone to sleep after Husband draped his arm over both of us.
He started a strange conversation with me afterwards.
"Prima, goblins believe in afterlife?"
"What that?"
Another of Husband's strange words that don't sound right in gob.
"Uh… if goblin die, part of goblin go next world. If goblin do good, go good world, if goblin do bad, go very bad world, Hurt much long time."
"No. We don't believe in that. If a goblin dies, then a goblin dies."
"Prima believe in gods?"
"Prima only believes in the Great Protector. Prima has never seen any God help the goblin tribe. Only the Great Protector has ever helped us."
"Husband see…"
It was all he said for the rest of the night before he too went to sleep.
Did Husband still think I was a monster?