Astro skimmed through the shelf of books on Rosetta's shelf. Recently he had been taking a look through more of his mother's research. Both out of a genuine curiosity, and because he thought it might help him later down the line. He'd seen information recorded in her books that even his grandmother hadn't been aware of. Info on species and places in mewni that would serve him well later.

He didn't see any need not to further inform himself on it. And, while he couldn't quite say it made him feel closer to her, he was just interested in seeing what else his mother got up to during her years of traveling and collecting data on everything. Just the other day he found out a shocking amount of info on Underworld Warnicorns, which were considered rare and quite mysterious. She really did seem to have knowledge one everything.

He stopped when he noticed a book labeled as info on Goliaths. That definitely piqued his interest. What little he knew about them was through Puff, and… well, they might have been close, but seeing as he was an orphan he didn't know much about his own culture.

Everything else he heard about them was just general information from the public. They were seen as a bloodthirsty and savage race, craving battle and bloodshed. For a while he thought maybe it just was rumors, but seeing how Puff acted sometimes he thought that maybe there was some merit to it.

He wondered if the goliath would be interested in reading whatever his mother had written down about his people. He grabbed the book and made his way out of the office, making sure to lock it behind him.

Puff hummed and he looked over Astro's shoulder at the book. "A book on goliaths huh?" he asked, rubbing his chin.

The prince nodded. "Yeah. I thought maybe you might be interested in seeing what research my mother put together on them," he explained.

Puff grunted. Truth be told, he wasn't all that concerned with his tribe's traditions and costume. He didn't remember anything about his parents or tribe, so it wasn't like he had any attachments. But he was somewhat curious about it. He might learn something useful about himself. Or maybe some smithing technique unique to his people. "Sure, why not?" he asked shrugging.

Astro chuckled and then opened the book. "Alright then. Let's see what we have…"

"The Goliaths. A rather bloodthirsty race to be certain. They very much resemble the giants in their love for battle. But the difference comes in the sadistic pleasure the goliaths take in not only the fight, but the absolute destruction of their opponents. From what I have observed from most, they seem to relish in completely overpowering and crushing their enemies."

Astro winced as the excerpt. So it looked like a lot of what he heard had been true after all. He looked towards Puff, who didn't seem at all fazed by what he'd read. "Uh… did you want to keep going?" Astro asked. He didn't want to come across anything that might offend the fellow captain.

Puff grunted. "Don't see why we should stop yet."

"Okay then…"

"Another difference between the giants and goliaths is their lack of magical prowess. The giants all have a very natural connection to the earth, and thus all have at least some affinity for earth magic. Goliaths on the other hand seem to lack any talent for magic at all. In fact, they have a rather exploitable weakness to it. Odd considering how durable their bodies are when it comes to nearly all other forms of attack. If there is one who is capable of using or resisting magic, I haven't had the chance to meet them."

Puff grunted again. He obviously knew about his weakness to magic. Whenever he'd spared against Astro or one of the other magic users, he'd always had to look out for it. His armor had been made with the specific purpose to mitigate magical attacks.

There was also the fact that the Moon had wiped out most of the goliath's stronghold. Everyone who knew the details knew how she'd managed to pull it off. The only reason his weakness wasn't considered common knowledge is because there were so few of the goliaths left. So it wasn't something most people looked into.

"When I asked Typhon about the Goliaths tribes, he told me that his pseudo son Gadfly worked closely with them. In fact, he led an entire battalion against mewmans forces during the war between monsters and mewmans. I was rather surprised that such a rowdy tribe would be willing to listen to one so much younger and inexperienced than them, but apparently Gadfly had earned the respect of the tribe through combat."

"He challenged the one known as Ar-Janek the Tyrant, the current leader of the tribe at the time, to one on one combat. Though he didn't mention who the victor was, I assume that Gadfly must have prevailed since he walked away with not only his life, but with the allegiance and respect of the Goliath tribe. With Ar-Janek serving as his right hand, Gadfly gained quite a few crushing victories again mewman kind."

Astro hummed. "Huh, my father never mentioned that," he said. Then again, he'd never thought to ask his father about the research his mother inquired from him. He had no doubt with Rosetta being as curious as he was she'd asked him quite a few things. He was going to have to ask him about this later. "Good lord. It says Ar-Janek was sixteen feet tall. He was huge. It also says the average height was… huh…"

"What?" Puff asked, looking towards him.

"Nothing, I was just… I was just thinking, by typical Goliaths standards, you're really not all that tall," Astro said. It was an odd thing to think about considering he loomed over almost everyone else he knew. Save the giants of course. If the other goliaths were still around, Puff would be considered a runt by their standards.

Puff just grunted. "Well, unless the one they're talking about in this book are gonna suddenly grow six feet taller, I don't think I have to worry about the competition," he said bluntly. His height honestly didn't matter to him. So what if he was a runt? He was alive, which was more than he could say for most of his people.

Astro clicked his tongue. "Right then, moving on…'

"Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on which side you stood on, Ar-Janek's rampage didn't last as long as he would have liked. The Goliath fell to the Queen of mewni in battle, and it was upon his death that his people learned of their crippling weakness to magic. It was quite a shock to not just their own tribe, but many others as well. Many had considered them to be invincible by the standards of normal monsters. So the fact that he was felled by the Queen left many in disbelief."

"Still, the effect that Ar-Janek had on his people can still be felt to this day in those remains of them. He set a precedent for war mongering and bloody competition, one which nearly all goliath still dogmatically upheld until their untimely end. It's quite ironic really. Both they and the giants were so feared for their size and strength, but it was ultimately the former's more savagely aggressive lifestyle that led to their downfall."

Astro tapped his chin curiously. "I wonder about the other surviving tribes..." Maybe he could convince them to rebuild. And of course advise them to take a less aggressive and sadistic route. He knew it might have been a longshot, but it seemed like a waste to let an entire race of people die out. He kept on skimming through the pages, wondering if his mother had any additional info on them. Eventually he found it.

"In my travels through mewni, I've managed to locate and converse with members of each of the remaining tribes. I learned quite a bit about their different values, costumes, and ideologies. I also noted that each tribe seems to have rather different approaches when it comes to sexuel intercourse. It varies from individual of course, but they all seem to have at least vaguely similar approaches depending on the tribe. I'm disappointed to say that the ones known at the Nameless Horde have quite a dull and basic approach to it. It'd be more effective to do it yourself if I'm being-"

"Okay, we can skip the rest of this one…" Astro said flipping to the next page. He was sure his mother had written about whatever that was going in more detail in her other book. Not that he was all that eager to read it there either.

"What's that one?" Puff asked, pointing down.

Astro narrowed his eyes as he saw another except about Ar-Janek.

"Both Typhon and those of the tribes I've met have confirmed that long before common goliath mating rituals were put into place, Ar-Janek had a harem of females that he spawned quite a few children with. I don't imagine that the Butterfly family would tolerate anyone with relations to someone of his history and his reputation. And the culling of their people have lowered the odds even more. But, however small, there's still a chance that living descendants may still be around."

"I've thought about looking into this, but to even know where to begin I would need a sample from someone's of Ar-Janek's blood. Or I would have to collect a sample from the remains of the Goliath himself. Though I have located his tomb, a rather powerful and ancient magic protects it, as well as a guardian left behind. I don't think it would be terribly difficult to dispel or dispatch either, but I'd rather not have to resort to that until absolutely necessary. I have other research to do after all. Perhaps if my curiosity piques of the need arises, I shall come up with a way to slip inside the tomb without dispatching the guardian or the curse. Until then however, any blood relatives he may or may not have living are a mystery."

Astro whistled. "Wow… do you really think that any blood relatives of his may still be alive?" he asked looking up towards Puff.

"If they are, they better lay low. There's no way the Commission would let them live…" They had merely wanted him around. He remembered how much they freaked out when he joined the guard, and how much of a fit they threw when he was named captain.

"They might not even know," Astro reasoned. With their tribes scattered and their race on the brink of extinction, he couldn't imagine there were many ways to keep track of such a thing. Not unless you had some powerful magic… magic his mother apparently had gotten a hold off. "Did… did you want to try and find out?"

Puff grunted. "Why?"

Astro blinked and looked up at him. Right, Puff… didn't really care. He supposed that made sense. But he thought maybe he would be a little bit curious about his own people. Still, if he wasn't going to press the issue, then Astro would leave it alone. As curious as he was about it, he had other things to worry about.

And it really wasn't his secret to uncover at the end of the day. Still, maybe he would seek out and talk to this guardian of Ar-Janek's tomb. He was bound to know something else that wasn't mentioned here. Or maybe his other had it written down in another book or something. Either way, it was worth looking into.

"Are there any smithing techniques in that thing?" Puff asked.

Astro began flipping through it. "Uh, let me check…" Knowing Rosetta he would find something on it. Either in here or in another book.

That woman had seemed hellbent on uncovering every single secret mewni had to offer, and he had no doubt if she was still here, she would have succeeded.

A/N: One-shot on Astro and Puff checking out Rosetta's info on the Goliaths for thepaladin!