Goblore Pt. 01

Considering his previous epithet, Jesse was reluctant to hitch his wagon to this particular horse. Then again, they were both captives of a people who had wanted to kill him only moments before.

"Let me put it this way: if you find a way out, I'll look the other way before taking it myself. That way I can tell them I have no idea where you went."

Lial's grin returned. "I like you, Jesse the Human."

***

The village's largest hut looked much more comfortable than the one he'd awoken in. Soft fur carpets belonging to animals he couldn't even guess the shape of covered the floor. Light was provided by a combination of a hearthfire and several of those strange bottled phosphorescent insects that he'd noticed before. On the former, two roasted lizards were suspended from a spit above the crackling flames, filling the house with a strange yet appealing smell. Since he hadn't eaten anything since that jerky, Jesse couldn't help it when his stomach audibly complained.

Next to the fire was a large (relatively speaking) table. Sat there were a trio of familiar Goblins. The religious leader who had condemned him to die sat at the far end of one side, while Vee, his likely saviour, sat to the other. Subtle. In the center, in a slightly better cushioned chair, was the grey haired Goblin that had made the final call.

"Leave us," she said to the guards beside Jesse. There was a moment of indecision, and the guards visibly looked confused by the request. "If he was going to attack us, he likely would have done it when he was about to be burned to death. Please, if you would."

The guards stepped out of the hut, though the taller of the two did say that they would be standing sentry outside should they need anything. Jesse was unsure how to take the idea that these tiny women weren't considering him a threat. On the one hand, that's what he'd been saying this whole time. But on the other, it did hurt his pride in a bizarre way. It wasn't like he was helpless!

The leader held out her hand toward the lone chair facing their group. It was small, but if he scrunched up his butt he might be able to sit on it for a while. However, he shook his head. "I've been sitting down for a few hours now in that cell. I'd rather stand, if that's alright."

She nodded, grimacing a little at his choice of words. "I...apologize at how we treated you initially. Please understand that we've been under a great deal of pressure. My name is Nell and I speak for the whole village. You've likely already met Vee, and on the opposite side is the head of our religious services, Glora."

The sublime fanatic attempted a reconciliatory smile. "I apologize for my hasty judgement. In my zeal to protect my flock, I may have lead them astray."

"So that execution was empty ritual," Vee said, her arms folded and voice clipped. "I'm glad we can agree to that."

Glora bristled. "You would mock the very gods who gave you life?"

"Enough, you two!" Once she looked between the pair to confirm they weren't about to bite each other's heads off for the moment, her gaze returned to Jesse. "As you can see, it's been a trying time."

"What has happened recently that has put you all on edge?"

Nell tented her fingers. "It's a bit of a long story. Suffice it to say we are refugees, our boat having smashed aground southwest of here after a terrible storm. Making the call to start building shelter rather than wait for the crew to fix the boat wasn't easy. We hadn't seen another person of any intelligent race beside those that crashed with us in the week since we'd crashed. It took the Folk five months to run into us. Specifically, a Highborn survey contingent claiming these lands for their own. There was very little preamble to the breakout of hostilities, just some threats and some harsh words before they struck the first time. The majority of our males went out to counter-strike, and we haven't heard from them since."

The rubbed his chin. "Ah, so that's why I haven't seen any men around. I was thinking you were an all female race or something."

"No, we aren't like the Florans. Our gender ratio is usually two females to one male birth, but we have plenty of males. Or did, at least."

"Where's the rest of your people?"

"Unreachable. The Captain of our vessel tried to patch it up and refloat it, but it was torn apart by razor-reefs on its way out of Sanctuary Bay. He didn't make it off."

He nodded his understanding, then exhaled hard. "I guess we're both stuck out here. Though my world is slightly farther away, I will admit. I get how me, a big, lumpy person showing up out of nowhere, might have looked suspicious. But trust me, I'm not a threat to you or your people. Honestly I just want to get back home."

"And where is home, exactly?" Glora asked. The facetious tone of the question make Jesse think it was just a trap to get him to admit who he Really was, but he answered it as guilelessly as possible.

"I don't exactly know how it happened, but I come from an entirely different planet. Earth. No Goblins or Folk or Shifters, just humans. I didn't come here by choice either. No offence, but I'd much rather go back."

"Why don't you?" asked the Leader.

"As soon as you see another tear in space," Jesse said, "I'll be there. Like I said, didn't really have a choice."

"It sounds unbelievable, but look at his aura." Vee pulled the spectacles from her previous examination and put them back onto her nose. "That colour, those forms...he's not from around here."

The Goblin priestess nodded slowly, as if what he'd said had carried some grand import. "I think I see. It's possible that you have been sent by one of our Gods. Why, though, is another matter entirely." She outstretched her tiny arm and closed her eyes. Her fingers moved like they were feeling out an invisible fabric just in front of her.

"What are-" Jesse asked before the Leader shh'd him hard. He said nothing further.

"I was correct. Your aura is that of a Deviant."

"Excuse me?"

Vee held up a forestalling gesture. "She didn't mean it as an insult, I think, it's just what we call them. All life in our world has an aura to it. A flavour, almost, that delineates it as one thing or another. Few things can change an aura, one of the exceptions being a Shifter, and it remains one of the strict differences between individuals and species. There are a very rare group of people who have an aura unlike anything on Argos. They are called Deviants, and they are exempt from some of the rules."

Deviants might just be names for people who had broken through the walls of reality like he had, Jesse reasoned. Whatever system this aura represented, he was likely removed from it by virtue of being from a different universe.

"Whose rules?" he asked Vee.

"Most say the Gods. Whether it be one or many, depending on who you ask. Others say these are just the way things are. Regardless, as a Deviant, you are allowed certain privileges that aren't available to most people."

"And you're more vulnerable," the Priestess added. "Without the protection of the Gods, you may prove to just be a target."

Vee nodded vigorously. "All the more reason for you to stay with us, really. We can give you some measure of protection."

Alarm bells went off in Jesse's head as the Goblins suddenly became a lot more friendly than they had been. "So...what does that all mean for me exactly."

"It means," Nell supplied, "That you may be the answer to our current predicament. With most of the village's males gone, and the others of our kind months of sea voyage away, our numbers are doomed to wither out without replenishment. In the absence of any males of our own race willing to provide their assistance, we're going to have to turn to unorthodox alternatives."

Jesse laughed, eyes swapping between the small women and waiting for them to break too. They never did. "You can't be serious."

Vee leaned in, tenting her fingers. "Deathly so, I'm afraid. The lifespan of the Kith is short. Your species, apparently, is unhindered by the preventative magics that would keep you from being compatible with us. And I assume you are interested?"

He sputtered. "Hold on a second. Jesus, you first wanted to kill me. A few minutes ago you had me in jail. Now you want me to..." He made an indistinct gesture with his hands, trying to convey the idea of 'sex for the sake of procreation' without actually saying the phrase.

"It doesn't have to be an emotional commitment."

"It doesn't?!"

"We're just looking for a seed-bearer, not a father figure. This is purely a survival measure, understand."

"No, I don't understand! You can't be the only ones around! And there's no telling that I'd be compatible. I'm twice your height for chrissakes!"

"All good points. Yes, we might not be the only settlement of our kind on this continent. We had thought these areas abandoned, but it is possible there are others who have made it past the Strait of Tears. But this entire area is unexplored territory. Our backers have no idea where we went, or any clue where to start looking. And yes, you are significantly different in appearance. But we're both mammals, we both express our sexes similarly. I'd need some samples to make sure, if you're willing to provide-"

Jesse turned beet red. "I'm not breeding stock! I'm not gonna just...damnit, Vee, I thought you were the reasonable one here."

The Goblin in the glasses furrowed her brow. Or Kith in the glasses, as they apparently called themselves. She lifted up some of the notes in front of her, cycling through them one by one. "I've done the calculations. If we don't start having kids now, we will have a serious population crisis within a few years. We'd never stand a chance of getting back if we don't develop the resources to, and I don't want that to happen."

"Even if they're half-breeds?" he asked.

"They'd still be sons and daughters of Uni," Glora said. "They would carry our legacy forward no matter their appearance," She spoke with the surety of any church councillor, though Jesse doubted he'd ever let his guard down around her.

Nell stood up, signalling the others to do so as well. "You don't have to do anything right away. In the meantime," the Leader held out her hand toward the door, "You'll be staying in a nearby hut for now. We are glad to house you as a guest. Please know, however, that if you desire to remain with us that your continued protection necessitates successful procreative efforts on your part."

***

The walk from the Leader's hut was even more unnerving that the one before. Now the Goblins weren't just looking at him like some kind of threat or a circus attraction, they were sizing him up like a cut of meat. The guards were no longer in sight, presumably having gone back to whatever they did when they weren't the town's militia. Instead, he was escorted by the Huntress who had captured him, who looked indifferent at finding out he hadn't been burned to death. Her hands rested on a bow and unnocked arrow. She trailed a few feet behind him; if worse came to worse, she could see him either using the bow to put the arrow through his back or stabbing it in herself, depending on what direction he ran in.

"This isn't charity," explained his escort. "Housing goes to those who can contribute to the community, after all. Turn left. We do have some spare accommodations due to the loss of so many of our males. For example, this one." She held out her hand to the squat building to their right. Jesse eventually took the hint. He inched toward the ovoid door and opened it. The interior was dark, only illuminated by a single bottled buglight that the Goblins used. He had to duck to get through the door, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that he could actually stand up in the building. His hair merely grazed the ceiling.

"Burrok was our tallest," she answered his unvoiced question. Her Ladyship thought you would need it."

He spun around, examining the abode. It reminded him a lot of some of the more open-concept apartments he'd toured while looking for a place to live in his third year of uni. A cooking area, a mixed eating/living space, and mattresses for sleeping, all within the same room.

"Suitable?" she asked sarcastically.

"Beats incarceration," he replied, letting his fingers drag along the ceiling.

She grunted, then stepped out from the door to close it behind her. Before it slammed shut, however, she glared like a vengeful bird of prey at him.

"Remember: if you don't start picking partners and get copulating, you'll be less than useless. You probably eat more than three of us. Earn your place, or get yourself gone."

She didn't wait to hear his response. Jesse slid down to the mattress, which was more like a body pillow than anything meant to take the length of a person his size. Still, it would beat sleeping on the dirt or a floor.

Just what in the fuck had he gotten himself into?

The light was fading through the slats in the wood. It had only been a day since he arrived on this world, though it had already been early afternoon on Earth when his car had been abducted. Without his phone's clock, it was difficult to know for sure, but he reasoned that he'd been awake for over 24 hours at that point. His fatigue was manifesting, even in these strange environs.

A knock at the door jolted him back to awareness.

"It's Vee!" the voice behind the door declared.

Jesse sighed with relief. Whatever his relationship to the other Goblins, it seemed that him and the alchemist woman were on the same page. For the most part, at least. He opened the door wide enough for the small woman to enter.

"Burrok's place, eh? It's not bad. I'll miss that big oaf. His wife moved in with Leez after word came back that the counterattack was a disaster. Poor thing couldn't stay in the home they'd shared." She stepped over to a storage chest at the back. She touched the blocky script on the front of the wood, whispering something that the human could hear.

"Thank you, by the way," Jesse began. "If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead right now."

She let the box go reluctantly, her fingers trailing off the top. "You're welcome. I was sure you were worth more to us than as a pointless sacrifice, and my aura lenses confirmed that. I never thought I'd meet a Deviant in my life."

"I'm still having difficulty understanding what that is. Could you explain?" Jesse pointed to the mattress opposite the one he'd been sitting on. She sat cross-legged easily, which Jesse had problem managing. It's not like his job had left him particularly nimble.

"Our world has many races. Us, the Krosen, the various races of the Folk, Wolven...some others you'll probably never see. We're all similar in shape, but we all have separate auras. The energy fields around our bodies serve as markers to who we are. Like invisible tags that tell us what side we're on. We may look similar, and the procedure for...procreating is similar. But there's no crossover. Krosen can't impregnate Kith, Kith can't knock up Folk, etc. The Folk can crossbreed among themselves, but they're all the same tiny-eared jerks, anyways. No offence."

Jesse started to wish that he brought his notebook to jot down all these details. "And you said there were Gods behind this?"

The Alchemist made a so-so gesture with her hand, waggling it back and forth. "I don't know why the species have different auras. Any hole in academic knowledge is easily filled with faith. Doesn't mean it belongs there. I've debated Glora on this point but she refuses to budge."

He nodded. "This isn't what I expected from a village in the middle of the woods, I'm going to be honest. Or maybe my attempted murder when I first arrived gave me the wrong impression."

"You're wondering why we're not worshipping you and banging stones together?" she asked.

"Well...sorta. This is just a village...wait," Jesse pointed to the giant rows of glass containers, beakers, and other equipment. "Where the hell did you get all this sculpted glass?"

She grabbed one of the empty vessels and held it upside down, showing off a maker's mark on the bottom in that same language he'd seen before. "We're not actually displaced tribespeople. We were on an expedition of exploration aboard a sailing vessel. Most of the people around us are, or were, academics of some description. I was Assistant Dean of the Department of Alchemy, Glora taught archaeology, Huntress was a professor of-"

"So why are you so eager to get pregnant?"

Vee blushed. "I...I didn't say I was! I said that if we don't start having kids, our fertility's going to drop off precipitously."

"And you can't ever go back to your homeland?"

"How? Our boat's in pieces, half swallowed by the bay. The Captain went down with the ship, and his first mate lead the attack against the Folk encroachment. These bugly bastards would never sell us anything but our own nooses, even if we could afford it."

"But you can't be the last of your people to come this way."

Nell answered that one. "We paid for an independent freighter, not a Navy ship. The trade company will chalk it up to razor-reef or pirates or simple navigation error. The University used a lot of money for this voyage. And after we entered the Strait of Tears, they would have no idea where we went. If we stumble onto a neutral party, like a Bulari fishing vessel, maybe we can get a message back. Maybe. But finding someone to take us all back at once? Not with the resources we have. And leaving some or a few of us behind weakens those who remain, making them easy pickings for the Highborn. I won't let anyone be a martyr."

He was beginning to understand their plight, but at the same time, he wasn't really looking to be loaned out like a babymaking machine. Sure, a lot of the women were attractive if you were into gals you could stand on one another in trenchcoats to sneak two of them into a movie at a time. But he couldn't be knocking some poor woman up at random!

"I can't deal with this." He collapsed onto his back to stare at the ceiling, warn out from all of this and aching in ways he'd never felt before. In his haste, he knocked his shoulder against one of the nearby table's chairlegs.

Vee laughed. "Sorry, again. We don't exactly build to your scale. If you stick around, maybe we could build a nice big, dumb house for you to live. And why not? I would have thought an entire village of women throwing themselves at you would be an appealing prospect for any fertile male."

Jesse shuddered. "Ugh. Don't...say it like that. Now I feel like livestock."

"In a way, you kinda are. Everyone in our community contributes in some fashion. I make healing tinctures, Huntress hunts for food, Kalvis makes tools. If you had another way of giving to the village to earn your keep, I'm sure they'd see you less as an animal to be drained. What did you do in your own world?"

Jesse made a face. "I designed network architectural distributables for mid-level marketing and retail clients."

Silence.

"I worked with machines that could think."

More silence, followed by a tilt of her head. "You mean like morgots?"

"Sure. Regardless, my work was predicated on a complicated infrastructure that doesn't exist here. Besides my phone, I guess."

His phone! He'd forgotten it in the excitement. The copy of QuickiePedia that he had installed didn't just have sport stats and historical birthdays. It was a repository for all human knowledge! Well...at least a skim of the top of human knowledge. But what little data there was in detail might represent the greatest source of information on this planet at the moment.

"I think I might have an idea how I can contribute," he began. "One of my machines came through the portal with me. It's a flat rectangle that has many, many books worth of information stored inside. From what I've seen, a lot of this world operates on the same tenants that mine does. If I can get my phone, I can give you guys a boost in knowledge by at least a few centuries."