"Hello, I am Nott the little Goblin girl, and once I was Veth Brenotto."

She stared up at the others, Caleb was devastated yet silent, Beau and Fjord were staring at her with intent interest, Jester was staring at her with her big blue loving eyes, Yasha was silent off to the side, and Clay was smiling contently, though his eyes showed true concern.

"I was a little Halfling girl once, and I was always told…what I wasn't. Not pretty, not smart…just not."

"Hey, freak!" Veth turned around quickly, hiding her latest find behind her back as a pair of human boys, and a small halfling boy walked up to her, the biggest of the group sneering down at her, "You steal anything today?"

"I-I don't steal…" Veth muttered, staring at her feet as he nervously backed away from them.

"Oh yeah? What do you have behind your back then?" He demanded, taking an aggressive step towards her.

"None of your business." Veth fired back, looking around slightly scared as the other human boy began to walk around her.

"Probably a frog or bug or something." That boy said, smiling at her his two front teeth missing, giving him an audible lisp, "Something ugly like her?"

"Guys…come on…just leave her alone." The halfling boy piped up, flinching slightly as they both turned on him.

"Shut up Yezza." The bigger boy commanded, turning around to face her, "Geoff, get what she's got."

She tried to run but for once her bully was too quick, and he caught her. He forced open her hands and pried from her hands the odd, beautiful gold shelled beetle she'd found by the river. He held it up to show the other boys, the larger one laughing cruelly.

"Knew it'd be something weird, though it's much nicer to look at than you." He scoffed, smiling as the tears began to brew up in her eyes.

"Knock it off." Yezza stated angrily, marching up to the larger boy, "She didn't do anything to us, so why are you acting like such…such…an ass!"

The boy turned around, even at that young age looming over Yezza, "Oh look at that…Yezza finally got brave! What is it? Do you like her? Think she's pretty?"

"You hear that!" He had shouted, calling the other kids near the river over, as Yezza had blustered and blush, "Yezza has a crush on the oddball! You want to kiss her Yezz?"

"We became friends, and eventually you do what you do…and we were married, and we had a baby boy…Luke."

Jester spoke up, "Was he right? Did…did you die?"

"I-I think so."

The others stare at her wide-eyed, a mixture of confusion, sadness, and worry.

"There was a really bad winter…and the goblins raided more and more, and eventually, they took me, and Yezza and our boy."

"Yezza is a very bright man but he is not a fighter. I'd been chased a lot my life…so I was pretty fast. I broke off and took a different way. The goblins followed me…and they surrounded me, and I fought."

"I love you. Go!" She'd yelled, pushing her husband away…the last time she would see him…now maybe forever. She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, kissed Luke on the head, and then ran making as much noise as she could to draw the goblins towards her.

"Ge' her!" Guttural shouts in broken common and Goblin following her as she ran before out of the brush a black furred worg erupted out of the woods in front of her snarling viciously.

She ground to a halt, whirling around as the glowing yellow eyes, snarling maws and pointed spears surrounded her, before separating as a bigger, one dressed in bone armor with an elaborate head-dress walked towards her.

"Nowhere to go girly." He'd snarled, taking a step towards her, "Whatchu gonna do now?"

Her only response had been to chuck the acid into his face and watch as he fell backward screaming gutturally as the others raced forward and beat her into the dirt.

"Make her suffer."

"This river is important…because this is where I was drowned. I can still feel the water entering my lungs." Not said, looking up at them all, watching as Fjord's face contorted into something hard and angry but his eyes were filled with shame, while the others were mainly shocked and saddened.

"And then I woke up and saw this…and I had become everything I had always been told I was, not pretty, not good, just not."

She looked up at the others, Jester offering comforting words with a sincere smile, Fjord's happy-go-lucky jack ass of a persona falling away as he became adamant about the protection of her son, Clay offering her solid advice and taking away the drunken haze that had come to define her, and she felt so, so much worse, yet her eyes and the world around her had zeroed in on Caleb, who was looking down at the ground dejected.

"I should have told you…you could have understood. I just didn't want to distract you from your path. I don't want to force you to do anything…but I need you now!"

He looked up at her slowly, his eyes broken yet there as always was that hungry light and bravery that he tried to hide deep down inside.

"You're name is Veth?" He asked, to which she nodded, "My name was Bren Aldric Ermandrud. Was."