Chapter 18: Chief
Then the settlement came apart.
"CHIEF!"
"A GOBLIN WARRIOR!"
"THE CHIEF HAS COME!"
Doors opened.
Figures appeared from every direction, small and green, moving with the urgency of people who had been waiting for news and had just received better news than they expected. In the space of thirty seconds, the area below the ridge had tripled in visible population.
Vedas took one step backward. "...Arthur."
Arthur looked out over the arriving crowd. "They seem happy."
"...help."
Mithra was laughing before Vedas finished the word. Athena had her notebook out already.
The old goblin rose from the ground and moved toward them, stopping at a distance that communicated respect.
His eyes moved across the Goblin Warrior slowly.
The shield.
The armor.
The spear.
Then back to Vedas’s face.
"We never thought we would see one," the old goblin said.
Vedas pointed at himself. "You mean me?"
The old goblin blinked. "...yes," he said.
Arthur nodded. "That makes sense."
Arthur looked around. "So this is what a goblin village looks like." He smiled. "I’ve never seen one before."
Vedas looked at him. "...Really?"
Arthur nodded. "It’s amazing."
Several nearby goblins blinked. Nobody had ever called their village amazing before.
They looked at Arthur and then flinched when he smiled down at them. The old goblin suddenly looked much more cautious. The younger ones near the settlement wall tightened their hands on their weapons.
Arthur looked around. "You think I’m dangerous."
The nearest goblins froze.
The old goblin nodded slowly.
Arthur smiled. "That’s fair. Most people think that."
Athena nearly dropped her notebook.
Mithra doubled over laughing.
Vedas buried his face in his hand.
The Goblins looked horrified. "He admitted it!"
"The dangerous human knows he’s terrifying!"
"W-Why is he here?"
"Maybe to eat us? I heard some humans like doing that."
Arthur blinked. "I actually came to say hello."
The goblins looked even more frightened. "...He’s pretending to be friendly!"
Arthur blinked. "Aren’t they exaggerating a bit?"
"Maybe," Mithra replied between laughs.
Vedas groaned. "...This is getting worse."
The old goblin introduced himself shortly after. His name was Gruk, and his titles were Village Elder and Chief Hunter, and he was, by his own account, the oldest goblin currently living in the settlement.
He led them in through the main entrance without ceremony, and Arthur followed quietly, and his smile went somewhere else as they walked.
...
The village was poor.
The walls were patched with whatever materials the goblins could find, and their weapons were old. Many carried old injuries that had never healed properly. Several goblins they passed carried injuries that had healed without proper care and had become permanent features.
Arthur walked and looked and said nothing.
Then he saw the child.
She was watching from behind the wheel of a broken cart at the edge of the path. The moment Arthur’s eyes moved in that direction, the girl pulled back out of sight with the speed of something that had been caught doing something it had decided was dangerous.
Arthur slowed; Vedas used to hide like that too. He looked toward Vedas and saw he was already looking at the cart. Neither of them said anything. There was nothing that needed to be said as both of them already came to the same conclusion. The child peeked around the edge of the wheel, saw Vedas looking, and vanished again.
They kept walking.
At the center of the settlement, Arthur turned to Gruk. "What makes him Chief?"
Gruk looked at him. "He is a Goblin Warrior." He said it the way people said things that were self-evident.
Arthur looked thoughtful, and then his eyes drifted across the settlement.
The damaged walls.
The hungry faces.
The injured hunters.
Yet they were smiling.
Not because life had suddenly become easier. But because, for the first time in a long time... They could finally breathe again.
Gruk smiled. "A Chief protects the tribe."
"Vedas can do that," Arthur said.
Vedas nearly choked. "...what?"
"You already protect me." Arthur counted on his fingers. "Mithra and Melo."
The three-tailed fox rolled her eyes but still nodded.
Arthur shrugged. "So I think you’ll be fine."
Several Goblins gasped.
Then one of them started whispering, and then it spread, and the whispers were in the same language as before, but the tone was unmistakable regardless of the vocabulary.
"He protected the powerful humans."
"He protected multiple people."
"A true Chief."
Athena immediately began writing.
Vedas looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him.
But then Arthur said. "I’m pretty average."
The entire village froze.
"Y-You are?"
Arthur pointed at Mithra. "She’s the scary one."
Mithra blinked. "...Excuse me?"
He nodded. "She was cutting through boars with every slash. In fact, she even helped Vedas get stronger."
The goblin’s eyes widened in disbelief.
Athena stopped writing again before sighing.
Mithra’s lips twitched, and then she released a giggle. "H-He wrong. I’m average as well."
The eyes of the goblins grew even wider.
Vedas immediately said. "Both of you...please stop talking."
...
The tour continued.
Athena stopped beside a hut. "Interesting."
The goblin inside closed the window.
She wrote something down and moved to another building. "Interesting."
A goblin carrying a basket changed direction without looking back and disappeared between two structures. She wrote something else down.
Arthur watched this for a moment. "You’re scaring them."
Athena glanced up. "Good observation... But wasn’t Vedas also like that?"
Vedas blinked before saying. "... I wasn’t scared!"
Arthur nodded and said. "He was shy instead. It was actually pretty cute sometimes–"
Vedas blushed and said. "...Arthur!"
He chuckled and said. "Fine."
Then he saw Athena’s eyes staring deep at a nearby Goblin. The Goblin shivered before she quickly turned around and rushed away.
Mithra almost fell over laughing.
Even Gruk looked uncomfortable.
Athena wrote that down too.
...
When they reached the structure Gruk had been leading them toward, the Elder stopped and turned, and his expression was different from anything it had been since they arrived. The warmth was still there, but something else had come into it, something older and heavier.
"I’m sure you’re confused about why we look so desperate and reacted the way we did," Gruk said with a sigh before his expression softened. "It’s because you represent hope for us."
Vedas looked at him.
"What kind of hope?" Mithra asked with a frown, feeling something off.
Gruk’s voice was quiet enough that the conversation was mostly for the people immediately around him. "For the first time in many years," he said, and stopped for a moment, and then continued, "our children can sleep tonight."
The village became quiet.
Several Goblins lowered their heads.
A mother near the edge of the group pulled her child against her side. One of the injured hunters exhaled and did not fill his chest again immediately.
Vedas stood still.
The Goblin Warrior’s eyes had moved away from Gruk’s face. People had looked at Vedas with disgust.
Sometimes admiration.
But never like this.
Never as hope or a beacon that allowed children to sleep at night.
Arthur smiled and asked another question. "Were there other Goblin Warriors? Before now?"
The Elder became quiet.
Athena immediately looked up.
"Long ago." Everyone focused on him, and the Elder pointed toward the ruins beyond the village. "Before my grandfather."
He pointed further. "Before his grandfather."
Athena already had her notebook open. "Ancient records?"
The Elder nodded. "Ancient Chiefs."
Athena wrote.
"Ancient Commanders."
Athena wrote faster.
Then the Elder smiled.
"Ancient Kings."
The pen stopped, and Athena raised her head very slowly. "Goblin Kings were real," she said. It was not quite a question.
Gruk looked confused. "Of course."
Athy looked deeply offended by reality.
Several years of research had just exploded.
Mithra immediately noticed Arthur’s smile and said. "Don’t."
Arthur blinked. "Don’t what?"
"Whatever you’re thinking."
Arthur’s smile grew. "I’m not thinking about anything."
Athena immediately looked concerned but continued speaking with the chief.
Arthur looked around. "...Something’s missing." He frowned. "There should be more goblins." He looked at Gruk. "Where is everyone?"
The smile disappeared from the old Goblin’s face. And immediately, the atmosphere changed.
Several goblins within earshot lowered their heads. The child behind the cart, who had crept back into view during the last few minutes, disappeared again completely.
Fear spread through the settlement.
Vedas noticed this and trembled before looking at Gruk with a questioning gaze. Mithra’s eyes narrowed while Athena paused and stepped closer to listen.
Arthur frowned. "What happened?"
Gruk gripped his staff, and the knuckles of both hands went pale. "They took them," he said.
Arthur’s eyes narrowed. "Who?"
The Elder looked at the forest beyond the settlement’s wall, toward a direction that the other goblins were avoiding looking at. "The Hobgoblins..."
The entire village froze.
Several Goblins lowered their heads.
One hunter clenched his fists.
A mother pulled her child closer.
Fear spread through the settlement.
"They take our hunters. They take our food." He paused. "They even take our children."
Arthur looked at the settlement while Mithra trembled, Melo’s eyes narrowed, and Vedas frowned.
He asked the important questions. "How many did they take?"
Gruk blinked. "Twenty."
Silence.
"And how many Hobgoblins are there?"
Gruk went quiet.
Mithra immediately noticed.
Bad sign.
Gruk said with a bitter look. "One."
Silence.
Mithra covered her face.
Vedas turned toward Arthur.
Athena already had her notebook open.
Because they all recognized that look. That smile. The smile Arthur always wore before doing something ridiculous.
Arthur’s green eyes shone. "Vedas."
Vedas already knew that smile and he sighed.
Arthur pointed toward the village. "Looks like your team is waiting."
Vedas slowly turned.
Every goblin was looking at him.
Nobody looked away.
Arthur smiled. "I told you. You’d inspire people."
Vedas looked at the village. Then at Arthur. "...You’re impossible. Someone help me please."
Mithra burst into laughter.
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