Disclaimer: I don't own Goosebumps; it is the sole property of Scholastic Books, and its creator RL Stine. Original characters are of my own design.

Full Moon Monsters

Chapter 1: Day One of the Life of a Goblin

Mid-World

An Earth similar to the Earth of Prime, but with minor differences. The main difference, it parallels Earth in every way except that it is a world of fantasy. A world where creatures that you would read in fairy tales exist in flesh and blood. Where dragons are Lords of the Skies, and Magic is common every day. And where heroes rise to the challenge to defeat evil sorcerers and wicked demon kings of Hell. To where humanity is at its strongest with a sword in its hand and the people who fight alongside.

But this tale doesn't begin with humans.

Elsewhere

At first there was darkness. No sound, no light, no senses altogether. The warmth of the darkness seemed to envelop a small figure, curled up in a fetal position. The figure was safe and sound in the darkness; he did not wish to leave it at all. But neither did it know of the outside world from within where he was. The figure's ignorance was content from within.

Until… a small light shined through.

It soon became bigger and bigger with every second. But the being realized that the light wasn't coming towards it. He was being pulled towards the light. And this frightened the figure to a great length. Once he was brought into the light, it was bright light. Light bright enough to blind anyone. Luckily it faded now, as a small cough was being made, and a loud crying.

Little eyes blinked as they tried to make sense of the light, and those around him.

There were big figures, adults possibly, hidden in dusk shadow, keeping their features hidden. But if the figure that was crying could comprehend color, they would have seen that there was some kind of green tint to their skin. One such was wearing a cloak and had a wooden cane with them, slightly balding with tidbits of gray hair on the side sticking up, and a long beard he was stroking. He was the first one to speak up, as he looked down at the figure.

"Hmmmm, he seems like such a small one," the elderly green fellow stated. "But then again, all the front-liner Goblins are at times."

At the moment, the little figure was bundled in a gray brown blanket. It was a small little baby with light green skin, pointed ears, and a face only a mother could… well, maybe not considering what it was. A baby goblin.

"I think we'll name this one… Rouhan," the Elder stated, as he scooped up the little babe as it was feeling drowsy.

Before he was carted off with the elder goblin, two taller goblin beings were pulling away a near exhausted figure. It was female due to her figure, slender and hourglass, fair Caucasian skin, with flowing and semi-curly silky black hair, and exhausted brown eyes. And she was completely naked from head to toe, like an animal. It was evident that the woman being dragged away was its mother.

As soon as she was out of sight, something happened no goblin could have ever predicted, even for newborns. The baby started to cry, almost as if it wanted the human as its mother. Even the Gramps Goblin was confused by this, but still continued to take the little babe to the nursery. There, lying in a picnic-like fashion of a cloth, dozens of goblin babies were lying about. But unlike Rouhan, they were all sound asleep, as the newborn was placed along with them.

Gramps looked down at the little baby, and sighed, "There, there. Goblins don't have the luxury of having childhoods like humans, elves, dwarves, kobolds, or even any other species in this world. In three days, you'll understand." And with that, he left Rouhan to cry out for a mother who would not come to cradle him or sing him to sleep.

3 Days Later

The cave was still as dark and damp as ever, even with the newborns had fully grown to full-fledged Goblins. Even Rouhan had fully developed just as the other male Goblins; he had the body of a slim ten-year-old, bald, pointy ears, two canines jutting upward from his lower jaw, and a bald head. But unlike the other goblins who had yellow eyes… he had red eyes. But much like the other goblins, he was also naked.

He looked around as he also noticed the female goblins had the bodies of ten-year-old girls, pointy ears, and had yellow eyes too. But they also had small patches of short hair on their heads, so it was noticeably extinguishable from the males. That, and they also had female sex organs, which were noticeable since they were also naked. But one in particular caught his attention, as he noticed her. She was like the others; she had short green brown hair, but unlike the others, she had a silver tint to her eyes.

She soon noticed he was looking at her, and for a brief moment, he saw that she was blushing, and quickly averted her gaze from him, almost covering her front with her hands while turning to showcase her butt to him with no intention of flashing her a full moon, so to speak.

She turned to the young boy goblin, as she blushed, yelling at him frantically, "What are you looking at?!"

Rouhan quickly looked away, blushing, as he shook his head, "Nope. Not looking at anything. No."

At the moment, a more older and taller Goblin walked by, wearing a loincloth that went down to his knees, and started throwing large maggot-like creatures the size of bottles at them. The goblin offspring raced over there, and grabbed them, scavenging them and fighting one another to eat. But Rouhan arched an eyebrow at their behavior; it was as if he questioned the way things were. Just watching as both boy and girl, all naked since the day they were born, fighting each other for food.

He then noticed the older goblin walking away, as he finally asked, "Excuse me. But why don't you hand out clothing?" The Older goblin stopped, as he just looked at Rouhan like he grew a second head. But then Rouhan then asked, "Is there any way I can get some clothing?"

"You've got to earn it," the Bigger one answered.

Rouhan blinked at this, "Earn it? How?"

"Hunting, killing, surviving," the Bigger Goblin explained. "Out there in that world, it's survival of the fittest. Goblins age faster than humans; we don't have the luxury to take our time, have happy lives. Ours is a life of combat, killing, and death; we either kill to survive, or we die by the humans or anybody else that want us dead."

Rouhan thought about it, as he asked, "So I hunt and earn stuff for food and clothing on my own then?"

The Older goblin shrugged, "It's what the second generation did before you." And then proceeded to walk way.

Until Rouhan brought up another question, "Hey, where's my mom?"

He stopped again, and then gave him the same look as before, as he stated, "Kid. Goblins don't have moms or parents. All we've got are breeders."

Rouhan arched an eyebrow, looking away in thought, and then asked, "Okay…. Where do you keep the breeders?"

Later that Night

Treasure Trove

While all the goblins were asleep, adults and kids, Rouhan carefully and quietly started to sneak about the caves. It was large to say the least, well given that he was the size and build of a ten year old, to him they were quite enormous, but not a whole lot of rooms. There was one section were the 3rd generation and newborns slept, another one where the adults slept, a training/brawling section, a small room which they used for eating, and several other places some goblins used as their old storing cache. But there was one section of the cave that was forbidden for the other goblins but allowed for the older generation to go into: the Treasure Trove.

As Rouhan carefully made his way, passing the sleeping guard, who was only armed with a branch club, he slipped in and beheld what was inside. Inside was a bigger section of the cave, and stored in it were sacks and crates full of items and weapons. Some even had barrels of weapons, and bags of money laying around. It must have been where they had stored stuff they either found on battlefields or abandoned forts… or stuff they got from raids.

But the biggest prize they had was what Rouhan found in the back. There, laid against a tower of crates and barrels were human women, at least six or seven of them. They were all naked and dirtied like they hadn't bathed in a while, with food plates before them like they were animals but with no chains. As Rouhan got closer, he noticed why they were chained up. They each had eyes that looked like they had belonged to a deaf fish. And he knew why that was.

Rouhan learned not too long ago by the Elder Goblins: siring offspring is a tricky business for Goblins. Goblins that paired with Goblins often found themselves childless. Rouhan then learned the secret of how Goblins corrected this problem: by breeding with kidnapped human women. The mating and breeding was brutal, as Goblins were relentless, not slowing down or giving the women time to adjust what was going on. They were treated like animals, and as time went on, their minds would soon break, and they would become breeding stock; losing any personality the humans may have had.

But then Rouhan saw the woman from three days ago: the woman that gave birth to him. She seemed asleep, so he didn't know if her mind was shattered like the others. She crawled over, until he was five feet away from her form. He knelt down like a dog, as he saw his mother for the first time. Despite the dirt and grit that stuck to her, she was beautiful. It was almost as if this life of being nothing more than a mating meatbag had done nothing to shatter her.

And so, being very bold, Rouhan cleared his throat, slightly stirring the woman awake. Once she saw the Goblin, she thought that she would soon be mated again. But something happened then she didn't expect.

He looked at her, almost hoping, with no hint of lust in his eyes, and asked her, "Are you… my mother?"

The woman batted her eyelashes, still half asleep, but didn't respond to his question. Rouhan then asked again, "Please, are you my mother?" But still no reply. Rouhan sighed, looking down and saddened, as he confessed, "I'm sorry if I troubled you. I just wanted to know who you were. I also wanted to know who I was mothered from." He then looked at her with a saddened smile before he left, "But I just wanted you to know I was happy knowing I had someone like you for a mother." And then proceeded to leave.

"My son…"

Rouhan stopped in his tracks, as he turned around, and saw the woman… smiling at him. He walked back and knelt down next to her, as she smiled, and spoke again, "You have your grandfather's eyes, as well as his voice."

Rouhan blinked at this revelation, but then asked, "Thank you. But… I don't understand. How is it you're still intact with your mind while the others are a bunch of dead fish?"

The woman looked back at the women, all lying down sprawled on the floor or laying on the wall like lifeless dolls. "Because they fought back until they were broken," she confessed, as she looked to Rouhan and smiled, "But I willingly gave my body to them to do as they needed."

Rouhan sweatdropped and arched an eyebrow in confusion at his mother, "Huh?"

The woman understood his confusion, and replied, "Before I became a breeder here, I was a priestess serving in the temple of Gaiseric: the god of Origin and End. The temple was destroyed by a mercenary group revered to as the White Hawks, and the remainder of the temple fled. Later on, my troupe in particular were caught and captured by this horde. Most of the men were slaughtered, and I was the only woman. Though the priestesses and demigods/demigoddesses are trained to fight much like the fierce Gaiseric when he was mortal a thousand years ago."

"But that still doesn't explain why you let them catch you," Rouhan asked with an arched eyebrow.

"Before our temple was raided, our oracle foretold of a prophecy," his mother explained. "The oracle foretold that a priestess would give birth to a chosen being that would one day rise up, and defeat the Five Demon Lords of the Pit of Darkness. This child would have a human mother but an inhuman father, but would have the intelligence of the human parent. That's when I was confronted by a much stronger goblin, I surrendered to them, giving my body to them."

Rouhan blinked in shock at all this, as he asked, "And… how long have you been here since then?"

The woman thought about it, and then casually smiled, "A month now."

Rouhan's jaw dropped like a brick, as he blinked, "But around that time, you must have birthed countless goblin spawn."

She nodded, "Indeed, I did. Though most of them were merely like the other goblins. I almost gave up, accepting that the prophecy would never be real and I almost gave in." And then smiled warmly at him, "And then… you were born."

"Yeah, but how do you know I'm the one," Rouhan asked, pointing to himself, still uncertain on all of this.

"Most goblin children, when they're born, start off going through life and never question of their origin. Neither do they cry like a human child," she replied. "But you did." Her eyes then started to flow with tears, as she tearfully confessed, "You were born a goblin, but the heart and understanding of a human. You're the one to end the Darkness that would soon come."

And then much to Rouhan's confusion and shock, she leapt at him, hugging his body close to her warm embrace, as she wept with joy, "My son. I'm so happy that you are my child."

Rouhan didn't know how to respond to this; the action that she had done wasn't even known to the goblins. All he ever saw was them shoving, fighting, punching, or beating the living daylights out of each other just to survive. And from what he heard, Goblins had a limited lifespan of twenty years. Though with growth and strength, it was possible to extend it more. So there wasn't any time for strange things like what this woman was doing with him.

But for some reason, the young goblin seemed to relax, as he was being held so gently by the woman that gave birth to him. He smiled, closing his eyes, 'I don't know what this action is… but it feels nice and warm… I wonder… is this what being held by a parent is supposed to feel?'

The Next Day

Rouhan stood at the edge of the cave, seeing the brightness from outside. Now normally goblins were nocturnal beings, staying and being more comfortable in caves. But daytime was also a natural part of a goblin's life. They could venture out with no problems whatsoever. Though they preferred the cover of darkness at night; it made it easier to sneak up against an enemy. But if he would ever gain strength, or at least a decent pair of clothing, he needed to go out and hunt, build strength in order to survive.

He finally stepped out to the edge of the cavern walls, and straight into the light. He closed his eyes and shielded his face with his left arm, as it took a while for him to adjust his eyes to the light. Once he had, he was amazed to see the outside world before him. The cave he and the others dwelled in was in part of a vast and large forest. Trees grew as high to the sky, nearly blotting out parts of the sun as it were. They were pretty ancient, as vines were growing up on them. The ground was a mix of brown with green in them, typical for a forest. And deep far away, the darkness of the forest stretched on, as it seemed this was a big place in on itself. But who knew how far it stretched or what was in it.

Rouhan took a deep breath, as he puffed out his chest, and then sighed, "Okay… let's get started."

But at the moment, his mind wandered back last night on what his mother had told him.

"You're best chance to surviving out there, Rouhan, is to gain allies," his mother explained to him, as she smiled, "In other words, do what no normal goblin has ever done: make friends."

Rouhan looked confused at that word, as it seemed rather foreign. "What's a friend?"

His mother thought about it for a moment, and then answered, "A friend is an ally who is important to you. You would do anything to help them, and if they're true friends, they'll return the favor. Which is why it's so important whether or not the allies you make will either be your friend or a pawn. In truth, friends are far better than pawns."

Just as his train of thought ended, he heard picky fighting going out from behind him, as he turned to look.

"Dang it, Seiji, I wanted to be the first to go out after Rouhan," a low gruff voice cried out.

The figure ranting was a goblin, much like Rouhan. He was male and was the size of an elementary school kid with a bald head and green skin, such as the average typical goblin. Also, having completely yellow eyes, and much like Rouhan and all other goblins, he too was naked.

"You should have been faster than, Kichi," another voice spoke up, scratchy and annoyed.

The other figure was another goblin much like the two. He was male as well, elementary school boy build, bald head, green skin, and had yellow irises unlike Kichi. And yes, he too was naked. It was evident in their order that the big voiced one was Kichi and the scratchy voiced one was Seiji.

Rouhan took his mother's advice and decided to hunt in a group. Unfortunately, the other goblins seemed pretty dumb or just didn't care about any of each other. Rouhan had picked these two out due to their unique talents. Kichi was selected as he fought against a group of goblins ganging up on him, and he was able to throw or toss them away to get the most maggot bottle bugs. And Seiji apparently was the fastest, as he managed to grab and run rather fast. Kichi was obviously talented in strength and endurance, while Seiji was talented in speed, reflexes, and agility. Traits that would definitely be needed to hunt in this time. If the two could get along. But so far all they did was bicker and fight against one another; something all goblins apparently had in common with one another.

'It's no wonder we're at the bottom of the food chain,' Rouhan thought as he arched an eyebrow at the two arguing. 'Still though, we're not the toughest nuts to crack, since it was easy to convince these guys to help me out as a hunting group.'

Kichi walked up to Rouhan, as he asked, almost drooling, "So where are we gonna find our eats? You said if we went with you, we'd get something to eat."

"Yeah, I said that, but we've gotta hunt for it," Rouhan stated, as he pointed to the vastness of the forest. "And it starts going out there and looking."

The two looked out there, and both looked nervous on this, as Seiji gulped, "Isn't there a better way to do this than going out there?"

"You wanna eat," Rouhan asked in a deadpan tone and look on his face. The two nodded, as Rouhan talked normally, "Then stop whining and let's get going."

And with that, the trio walked into the forest to hunt, like all the other goblins did as others soon started going out, running around hunting.

Hours Later

The deeper they got into the forest, the farther they were from the cave. So far, all three looked worn out and exhausted, their hunger getting the better of them. Kichi looked the worst of it, as he was nibbling his fingers or sucking on them. Rouhan and Seiji paled at this, wondering if he would actually do so and eat his hand. Rouhan looked away and paled in particular, wondering if he would have to resort to cannibalism at this point. 'If we don't find at least something with meat in it, we might resort to eating each other,' Rouhan grumbled.

Seiji groaned, 'We've been walking for hours, and still no food. At this point, Kichi's legs look good enough to cut, cook, and eat.'

Kichi drooled and groaned, 'Hungry… need… food…' He looked at Rouhan and Seiji's heads, as he licked his lips, 'The back of their bald heads look like maggot heads… man, I could use some maggots now…'

Suddenly, a rustling from the bushes caught the three's attention, as they stopped, and looked around. The trio didn't know what to do, but Rouhan motioned them to move into a nearby bush next to a large fruit tree. The trio managed to do so, as they jumped onto a cluster of dead branches that had fallen from the tree. Once they were out of sight, they looked over to see what was rustling through. And then suddenly, it popped out.

It was a one foot brown and white rabbit… with a medium-sized unicorn horn on its head. It hopped around, sniffing the air, as the trio of male goblins watched its movement. They all may have had different looks once they were looking at it, but all thought the same thing: they had found their first hunt. Rouhan looked around for anything that could be used as a stabbing or bludgeoning weapon of any kind. He looked down below, and grabbed a medium long stick, perfect to be used as a training makeshift sword of sorts. He turned to look at Seiji and Kichi, as both saw what Rouhan did, and immediately got the same idea. Kichi grabbed a long but medium width thick branch, easily big enough to be a club sword of sorts, as Seiji picked up two medium sticks the same length and width as Rouhan's. Now that they were armed, they were ready.

Kichi was about to charged out at first, but Rouhan pulled him down, as he motioned for Seiji to do the same. The little horned rabbit, or Uni-Rabbit, tweaked to their direction, but saw nothing. Its ears flopped around hearing anything, but nothing came up, as it went back to hopping and grazing about.

Rouhan looked to the trio, and stated in a whispered tone, "If we're gonna do this, we need to be smart enough to catch it."

The two looked to each other, and then Seiji asked, "How do we do that?"

Rouhan smirked, "I think I have an idea."

A Few Seconds Later

The little rabbit was gnawing at the grass, not even aware of what would happen… until…

Kichi jumped out from the bushes, and roared out, "BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAGRABBABABLALBLALBALBLALBALBABBA!"

He started flaying his arms around like crazy, smashing his branch club around. The rabbit was freaked out to say the least, as it ran away from the 'crazy goblin'. Kichi saw it, as he chased after it, still roaring out like a maniac.

But just as the rabbit was heading out of there, Seiji jumped out, slashing down his two branch 'swords' down. They clubbed down in front of the rabbit, but luckily it turned and ran. But it couldn't run back the way it came, as Kichi was running towards it, clubbing away. The rabbit had no choice but to run straight ahead, as the two goblins were chasing after it. However, as it was passing a pass way of two trees… Rouhan appeared out of nowhere at the side, raising up his stick sword, and…

THWACK!

CRACK!

After two… or rather ten thwacks… Rouhan had smashed the uni-rabbit pretty brutally, breaking its back and neck, killing it instantly. The three goblin boys were taking a huge heaving of breath, after all the sprinting they had done. Rouhan looked at the kill, and walked over to pick it up. However, alarm bells in his head rang off, as he looked ahead of him. At that moment, Kichi and Seiji were readying their stick weapons, snarling at their 'leader'. They looked as though they wanted to fight him for the food.

Rouhan sighed, knowing full well what this would lead to, 'Ah I get it. The whole 'every goblin for his/herself' routine. Whether inside or outside the cave, it'll be the same everywhere.'

The two yelled out, as they pounced right at the kill… but then Rouhan swung at them both. Sounds of clanking and wood hitting bone were heard, as well as cries of pain. A few minutes later, both Seiji and Kichi were on the ground, sporting some bumps and bruises, with dizzied expressions on their faces as they twitched from the massive beat down. Rouhan stood there looking at both of them; the beat down was sort of his way of teaching these two about the pecking order in a way. But he gave up on it actually working, as Rouhan grabbed the uni-rabbit's corpse, and almost thought about leaving with it, seeing as how things weren't gonna work out.

But before he could make the first step, his mother's words echoed in his mind,

Which is why it's so important whether or not the allies you make will either be your friend or a pawn. In truth, friends are far better than pawns.

After hearing those words, Rouhan began to feel guilty over his actions as well as pity for the two that joined him. As Kichi and Seiji were getting back up, Rouhan looked back at the two, and then back down at the rabbit, as he sighed, 'She was right; friends are better than pawns.'

The two downed goblins got back up, each grabbing their wooden weapons and prepared to take Rouhan down again. Then after that, they would fight each other to get the uni-rabbit for the other's own. However, something happened that neither goblin intend to see happen… even if it was done by one of their own. Rouhan tore off the two legs and tossed them each one; the two grabbed the severed pieces, blinking in confusion and shock at this turn of events. Rouhan plopped down, holding the head and torso, as he tore open the chest, and started to feed off of the breast meat.

The two goblins looked clueless at this, and then back at one another to find an answer. But none was given, as Kichi arched an eyebrow and turned to Rouhan, "What the…? What is…?"

"It's call sharing," Rouhan answered, as he started to skin his piece. Though it was pretty messy as he had no blade but used his fingernails to do so. As he did so, he explained to the two, as Kichi and Seiji sat down, "All three of us caught this one, I figured we could share the spoils seeing as how it was our first, and possibly last, time hunting as a team."

The two goblins looked at each other in confusion, and then looked at Rouhan, as Seiji replied, "But… Goblins never share what they kill."

Rouhan looked at the horn that he had snapped off, and inspected it, thinking it would make a good sword due to his size and build. Then he turned to the others, as he gave them a half smirk, and replied, "Well, maybe it's about time we changed all that."

Unknown to the two, the female goblin girl that had scolded Rouhan for looking at her, along with a brown haired goblin girl, were sitting up a tree, eating fruit. They had come out earlier to scrounge for their own kill, but had no tools or weapons of their own. Instead, they had found a fruit tree and were mainly eating what they had managed to scrounge up. But the goblin girl was looking at Rouhan, amazed at what he had done. In fact, she seemed rather intrigued and fascinated by the leading goblin, almost blushing at his ingenuity and compassion.

Rouhan got up after he had finished his meal, and still had the fur in his hand, smiling at the two, while holding his new horn sword, "So, you guys wanna go hunt some more before night? If we work hard and fast, we should be able to get more furs for clothing, and more horns for weapons."

Seiji shot up, as he smirked, after finishing his drumstick, "Sounds like a plan."

Kichi hopped up, as he shouted, with the drumstick still in his mouth, "LETHS DO IT, RUUHNNN!"

Rouhan smirked, as he lifted his sword up, shouting, "THEN LET'S HUNT, GUYS!"

"YEAH!" the trio shouted, as they ran into the forest, forming a friendship that would soon have more in their lives.

Next Chapter: Rouhan's Team Growing; A Family is Made