Chapter 8: Blind Side

Sunlight pouring from a nearby window awoke me from my rather peaceful slumber as I slowly pulled myself up into a sitting position, staring blankly at a large mirror on the opposite end of the room as I slowly regained awareness. It took a while for me to remember the event's that had transpired yesterday, which is fair enough considering what I drank last night, the first thing that came to mind was why I agreed to spend the night with a…..goblin girl! The realization of what I had done struck me like a bolt of lightning as I slowly turned my gaze to the left side of the bed; Amina was already awake, she was just sitting there, hugging her pillow tightly in her arms and staring at me with a look of excitement and…..fear?

"….um…good morning" She offered weakly, her face turning bright red now that I was staring right back at her. "….yeah….morning" Was the only thing I could respond with. Looking down I soon realized I was semi naked, I quickly returned my attention to Amina and it appeared as though she wasn't wearing much herself! The situation was bad, I was beginning to freak out, and Amina's staring was not helping at all! Fortunately Amina took action first and quickly jumped off the bed, covering herself with her pillow in a failed attempt to hide both her rose coloured under garments and face which was now a similar shade of red (she had no problems being in her underwear yesterday.) "Ok, I'm going to get changed over there, you wait here and I'll find you some clean cloths, ok?" Without even waiting for a response Amina quickly scurried away to another part of the shack where she was now out of sight, though not out of mind.

Looking around I realized that the shed was huge; you could actually fit the farm house inside twice over and still have some room to spare! Along the walls were racks and shelves containing all sorts of bit and pieces such as candles, teacups, cutlery and tools as an example. Further inwards were crates and chests filled with goodness knows what, many of them looked to have been here for well over a decade judging from the dust covering most of them and no doubt originated from all corners of the known world. One appeared to have been made from deep sea coral, indicating it likely came from the Sunken City, another had an exotic emblem etched into the lock which I had never seen before, though I did recognize the metal it's made from. "Obsidian" I whispered to myself excitedly, such materials are very rare to come by and the lock itself would likely be worth thousands of gold coins on its own (wonder how much the contents worth.)

Looking further down to the other end of the shack I noticed that some boxes and shelves had recently been pushed away to make room for what appeared to have been living space for a large host of people as there were still some old bed rolls and fire drums spread across the floor in an unorganized manor. "Is Amina a squatter?" I asked myself out loud, "But why is her side of the shack so clean and fancy?" I was beginning to think that Amina was not at all what she seemed; her lovely cloths and lady like composure could just have been a false show of éclat in order to get herself a male.

I had to hand it to Amina, she did a bloody good job luring me into a tavern and getting me drunk so she can could tempt me with her bed. Though it did seem strange that she would go through all this trouble when she could just have dragged me away like other goblins do, she wouldn't have had any trouble overpowering me from the very beginning and I'm pretty sure most goblins hunt in packs to increase their success rate.I suppose towns like this would still have laws in place to prevent guys like me from getting gang raped on the streets at any given moment (trading and tourism would suffer as a result.)

I was beginning to consider making a run for the door when Amina quickly reappeared wearing….a hair net? Not only that but she was now covered appropriately in a simple clay coloured dress made from wool and over her front was a white apron stained in too many colours to count. Amina's face turned red again though this time her expression seemed rather annoyed. "What?" She huffed, "Never seen a lady in an apron before?" "Ah, umm no sorry!" I stammered apologetically, desperately looking for a conversation changer, "Are those cloths for me?" Amina's mood quickly brightened as she handed me the contents of her arms. The shirt and leggings were made from the same materials as Amina's only they seemed to be a tad wrinkled and it took a little shaking to remove the dust that had gathered in a few places. A pair of leather flip flops was the only thing I could wear over my feet as my old leather shoes seemed to have reached the end of their days (it's a miracle they lasted this long to be honest) and now the scratch over my left eye was starting to throb painfully under an eyepatch that was slowly coming apart.

After buttoning up my shirt I turned back to Amina and jumped back in fright when I realized she was observing my injury a lot more closely than I would have liked. "Relax!" she drawled, pulling me back towards her with her freakishly great strength, she didn't need to pull off the eyepatch to see things were bad and it was clear that she didn't want to judging from the rather repulsed expression on her face (it did smell rather badly.) "C'mon, I'll take into the main building and Sana can have a look at it."

It didn't take us long to navigate our way out of the shack now that we could both see where we were going. Amina quickly made her way towards the back door of the estate with me dragging my feet behind her. I'll be honest with you; I had to rub my good eye to see if what I was seeing was actually real. Last night I was too tired and sick to take much notice, but now that the sun was out and I felt more like my old self it was quite strange seeing what looked like a massive cake covered in icing and cream. The construction workers appeared to have put a thick layer of what was likely clay over the entire structure, then added another layer but finishing higher off the ground then continuously adding more in a similar manor until there were ten layers all together, each painted different shades of white and pink which shone brightly in the sunlight thanks to what appeared to have been a powerful coat of gloss.

As Amina approached the door and began to knock, I noticed something nearby that made me chuckle, there were teeth marks on the wall half hidden behind a rose bush, and from the size of them I'd say they belonged to a particular goblin girl. "Something funny sweaty?" Amina asked me, but the ridiculously innocent look on her face only reignited the chuckling and before I knew it I was laughing uncontrollably in front of a now baffled Amina. It must have been quite a strange sight for the old man opening the door, there I was , on the ground laughing like a lunatic, Amina was holding me by the collar demanding answers like a school ground bully but that only made things worse as I redoubled my laughter.

It wasn't until I was wheezing for air did we look up to see the household's personal butler, staring down at us rather blankly without any show of emotion whatsoever. Overall he was quite tall and skinny; he had a pale but unblemished completion on a somewhat sagging face and not a single hair could be found on his round head. His clothing was what you would expect of a butler, though I couldn't help but notice his bow tie was a bright shade of pink. Fortunately I had enough laughing for the day and quickly stood up with Amina and faced him with restored composure (rather difficult when you're still gasping for air.)

"I see you have made a new friend, Miss Amina." The old butler greeted with a surprisingly strong voice. "Hi Eldir! This is Bain!" She responded excitedly as I stepped forward to shake his hand. "Very nice to meet you Eldir, I hope I'm not intruding in any way." "Oh but of course not my boy, it's wonderful to see Amina has finally found a hus-" Amina quickly stepped forward and cleared her throat loudly before he could finish, though in all honesty I already knew what her intentions were from the very beginning. "Bain was injured a few days ago and has had quite a rough time lately, would it be ok if we had Sana fix him up a bit?" Eldir turned his attention to my eyepatch and gave a nod. "I think that can be arranged, but don't forget your duties in the kitchen young lady." Amina simply responded with a nod and Eldir slowly walked back into the mansion with the two of us following closely behind.

I would just like to say thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read the first few chapters I've put together for my very first fan fiction. I hope you are enjoying yourselves and I'll try to keep thing's as interesting as possible as the story progresses, but please let me know if there is anything you think might need any improvements as I'll welcome any feedback you guys have to offer.