The King Has Come
Looking at the entrance of the nest, a goblin yawned before taking a big bite out of a chicken that he had just roast. Once again, he yawned and gave a look at his brethren.
It has been a long day, in his opinion. They had just returned from stealing grains and livestock from a human village when they were suddenly being attacked by a group of adventurers. Many goblins were slaughtered before they managed to put the situation under control.
In the end, all of the adventurers were killed except one. It was a good thing that said survivor was a female and thus giving the nest one more woman to be used to breed and increasing their numbers.
"Let go of me you dirty goblins! I will kill all of you when I get away! You hear me?!"
Unfortunately, she wore an insane amount of armor. So far, they haven't taken off most of them. With the current pace, they would only be able to "enjoy" their new booty the next day.
It was a good thing that today's activities spent most of his energy. Otherwise, he would be like others who were on the verge of crying thinking that they can have a taste of their booty.
As he yet again yawned, the goblin looked around his nest. There were goblins who were still trying to get the human woman off her armor, those who decided to do other things, a bunch of goblins wearing hood entering the nest, a meat being…
Wait a minute.
The goblin looked back at the hooded goblins. As more of them enter the nest, he tried to remember whether there were among them that wore a hood. Most goblins tend to be minimally clothed, covering only their crotch. Older, more powerful goblins were more covered but they were rare.
Considering how many of these hooded goblins that enter the nest, they were likely not part of those powerful goblins.
His thought was interrupted when he felt a presence behind him. Slowly, he turned around and found himself being stared by a giant mouth on two feet.
The last thing that he saw was said mouth opening itself to swallow the goblin.
"Well, look wat we hav' 'ere."
The goblins that were trying to get the Knight out of her armor stopped their action and looked at the one who spoke. With the stripping stopped, she had a chance to control her breath and looked at the same direction as the goblins.
It was a big goblin; much bigger than ordinary goblins, almost reaching the size of an adult human. He wore a black hood with the head part being almost as tall as the wearer and adorned with horns. In his hand was a spear with the chain a skull and two coins.
His tone hid none of his disdain. He looked at the rest of the goblins – with the exception of the hooded ones – as if he was staring a bunch of filth. While she agreed with that notion, Knight never thought that a goblin would look at his brethren with the same disdain as other species.
"I hears 'bout de things ye do. How hummies pray dat yer nower ner dem. How countless hummies, stunties, long ears, and more met deir end by yer. So, I cem to ye, having plan dat could be beneficial for us both. And what do I fin' wen I step in?"
Knight blinked several times before she shook her head. As far as she could tell, her ears didn't deceive her; that goblin was indeed talking fluently in human language, albeit with a weird accent.
Suddenly, everyone's attention went toward a goblin crying in pain. His hand was bitten by a biped creature with a giant mouth full of sharp teeth. It then tossed him into the air before eating him whole, spraying blood everywhere.
"I find a bunch of cowards!" The goblin exclaimed, getting back the attention of the beings in the nest. "Not just cowards, morons as well! Ye know nothing 'bout growing 'shrooms! Nothing 'bout raising boars and squigs! Ye can't even make yer own choppa lik' proper gobs! Yer not gobs! Yer not even snotlings! I should let Gobbla ere eat the whole lot a ya!"
"Well, what do you expect from goblins?" Knight commented before she realized that that might not be such a good idea.
"Shut yer mouth, hummie!"
She decided to do what the goblin asked. Knight was basically at their…err, his mercy. So, it was not a good idea to make him mad. She knew what would happen to women that were captured by goblins. No need to make her fate more painful.
"Now listen, ladz. From now on, things will change!" The goblin declared as he gave a hard stare at the goblins in front of him. "From now on, I'm the Boss and me Night Goblins the leftenants! Yer no Waaagh, but I've made due wit less. We're going to visit every nest in dese mountain and forest and show dem whose the new Boss is. After that, well, you might finally know how ta be more valuable den snotlings."
Suffice to say, things didn't exactly go as well as he wanted. Though to be fair, things seemed to work differently here compared at home and it could be worse.
There was also a silver lining; the gobs under him were more loyal now. Though considering whoever managed to dispose of him – not that he will succeed – would have to deal with these…even more annoying version of snotlings, he couldn't blame them for postponing their coup attempts.
Still, it would simply be a matter of time until things return to normal.
As he and Gobbla walked towards their destination, Skarsnik was busy thinking on how to make sure that this event doesn't happen again. It all happened because the Skaven decided to use some kind of explosive that sent him, Gobbla, and some of his forces to this place. It seemed that those rats had enough of getting nothing from the King under the Mountain except corpses and decided to forgo taking the territory of Karak Eight Peaks under his control and just blew it up.
While that didn't sound like something that Skaven would do, considering they have no problem waiting and spending resource for ten generations to take the Karak from the Dwarfs, they were the only suspect that Skarsnik could think of that can create an explosion that strong.
Well, maybe the Dwarfs but they have even less reason to blow up a part of Karak Eight Peaks. There was also how rather than killing them, the "explosion" merely transported Skarsnik, Gobbla and his followers into Gork and Mork know where. It could be because warpstone was used and turning the explosive into an instant transportation device. Those stones have a tendency to be very unpredictable.
The more he thought about it, the more Skarsnik realized just how many unknown variables involved. He let out a sigh and decided to save the topic for some other time.
When they arrived, Skarsnik could see that the human prisoner was still functioning. The long hair looked at him as if trying to burn the Night Goblin with glare alone. She had been stripped off her armor and was put behind a cage to prevent those snotling slaves – he decided that he would dub them as such – from damaging her.
It was unfortunate that after few of them were killed for not dispersing, they decided to stay as far away as possible from the human. Had they still disobeyed the order, Gobbla could have a lot of snacks.
Then again, it was very likely that he would get a dinner.
"Ye understand wat me say, hummie?" Skarsnik asked the human.
"I don't recognize your accent but I get what you're trying to say, goblin." The human replied with a venomous tone.
"Good, good." Skarsnik took out a map and showed it at her. "Dis map showed, ugh, gobs' nests?"
The human looked at the map for a while before starring back at the King under the Mountain.
"Why should I tell anything to a stinking goblin?" The human asked back.
Skarsnik let out what could be described as a sinister laugh before giving two choices for the human.
"Ye tell me 'bout dis map and everyding ye 'now 'bout gobs, Gobbla will eat ye." The Night Goblin gave a thumb to his closest friend, who licked its teeth in excitement. "Do not, and de small gobs will continue what dey want to do wiv ye."
The human gulped in response. Despite that, it took her less than a minute to come to a decision.
"The X's in the map marks the location of nearby goblin nests. The ones with circles are nests that have been cleared." The long-haired human answered the question. "For the information about goblins, what do you want to know?"
When a night goblin was about to enter the captive room, he was stopped by the scream of a human accompanied by the sounds of chewing. He immediately turned around and decided to approach the King later. He knew better than to be near that squig when it was having a meal.
And this chapter is done.
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