The Goblin Husbandry Project Pt. 03

His eyes were hidden behind the glare of tight, circular glasses so beside his thick, dirty fingers and the corners of his face, this man showed absolutely no skin. He came up beside Leigh and kept pace with the donkey using long, slow strides, and when he spoke, his beard merely allowed the words to nudge their way through the tangled hair.

"Sorry 'bout the holdup ladies," he said, "Y'see there's hardly any reason to widen these roads fer more traffic when it's pretty much jus' us usin' it. Now, the foreman did say some mage had moved out into the Wirewood, so I'm thinkin' that's you, yeh?"

Leigh nodded. "So long as these logs reach the city before mid afternoon I will be able to keep the promise I made my young sister this morning. I can't imagine you fine, Dwarfish gentlemen want to take so long as that."

Through the gap between her hood and scarf, Lappy gawked. So this thing was a dwarf? It wasn't as though Leigh hadn't described them in the last couple years, and showed Lappy some illustrations as well, but the real thing in the flesh was an entirely different matter. He smelled, not bad, just a lot, like old leather, dirt, and sawdust. Her kin back in the forest also smelled like dirt, though she'd only ever thought of it as being simply how they smelled, but that was because they lived in it, slept on it, and never cared to bathe to take it off. This dirt was more homey, subtle like perfume, like the smell of the air just after a rainfall.

The man scratched his oddly well-coiffed head. "Well, I'm sorry to say that this cart shouldn't be able to get back within the day, but it won't matter in the end. Y'see, the road does widen enough back near our camp that you should be able to pass. Until then, however, I'm afraid you're stuck with us. Fancy a game to dull the wait?"

"Game?" Lappy said.

He tipped his head to the hidden goblin and his beard contorted with a smile underneath. "Interested, then? We have a Ratsled set and it's easy enough to learn."

Lappy looked to Leigh for approval and the woman rolled her eyes like it was a given. So she nodded vigorously in line to the dwarf, who strode off to retrieve the game.

They managed, being bumped around by the ass on the road as they were, to set up in the back of the cart with two boxes as seats with a third to set up the folding board, ringed with spaces for the pieces: little rats on sleds carved from painted red and blue wood.

"Um, I'm Lappy, by the way..." she said, shaking the game's dice in gloved hands, then moving her piece. It wasn't the most interesting game ever, even though Lappy's only experience with board games had been Leigh's copy of checkers. This one was apparently just a race around the perimeter of the board.

"Ah, where are my manners?" the dwarf said. He touched a forelock in respect. "They named me Radhat."

She looked. "But you're not wearing a hat?"

"Ah, it means 'root head'. Comes from this one time I was standing behind my mother as she cooked and she accidentally beaned me with a beetroot. And yerself?"

Leigh leaned back from the driver's seat to say, "Lappy means 'licker'. Don't ask me why."

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because I'd tell you."

Beneath her layers, Lappy blushed deep green. She was named that because the night she met Leigh, she'd dived between her tender thighs and licked her right up. Funny thing: she hadn't considered the name embarrassing until this very moment, the first moment it had been questioned by anyone. It wasn't as though goblin names were much better on the whole, they tended to be appended on a moment's notice based on some kind of observation. A goblin named "Muddy" might only be named that until he waded into the nearby river, then he'd be "Soggy" until he was dried out. Thus, the tendancy of Leigh's to name any of them with heavy ears "Flop".

Thankfully, Radhat dropped the matter and returned to the obscure and hidden rules of Ratsled. "Alright missy, here's what you need te know 'bout Ratsled: you go the number of spaces that's on yer dice, an iffin you land on the same colour that yer piece is, you keep goin' 'till ye hit another colour. Land on a corner, then ye can go one space back or one space forward as ye choose."

"Why would you go backward?" Lappy said.

"Eh, sumtimes yer thinkin' that you go too many spaces an you'll hit the wrong colour, so's you can manage the risk by goin' back iffin ye want. There's pretty much the way ye give yerself the best chance of winnin. An' ye win by goin' all the way 'round an' overtakin' the other rat. There's another version I like better what uses cards an' you move accordin' to yer hand, but it's hard enough to keep things from gettin' filched around here as it is and you c'n always jus' carve another pair of dice anyway. Ready? You start."

So, those were not the full rules of Ratsled, as Lappy would soon learn when she set off one or another situation and Radhat would stop everything to explain what that specific one required. Curiously, most of these situations gave him some kind of advantage and Leigh up front was staring dutifully at the log cart to hide her growing smile. They continued until Lappy had won one out of five games, relying on her memory of the tricks her dwarfen opponent had used before, which she was becoming certain had been made up on the spot to give a temporary advantage, but she was in fact enjoying herself for those couple hours before the log cart rolled onto a wide enough tract of road that Leigh's ass could pull them around and soon enough leave the loggers in the dust.

Radhat, however, saw a chance to get into town ahead of his mates and added himself to the party on its way.

"So," he said as the log cart and its several beasts of burden shrank to a speck in the distance, "They did say a mage was up t' some shady business out here. Don't look the type, but I coul'd'a said the same 'bout that witch a couple'a years back what cursed me with moss foot. Does a guy hav'ta keep a lookout?"

"It's nothing to be worried about," Leigh said, "I'm studying the ecology of that part of the forest with an eye toward making goblin extermination unnecessary."

Beneath her hood, Lappy's ears perked up. She hadn't asked too many questions about what the woman was doing with the tribe. She'd been too busy enjoying her new life to care, but what was this about extermination?

"Ah, all the power to ye, then." Radhat laughed and slapped his knee. "Nasty buggers, I'll tell ye, got no business bein' anywhere near a decent man's home. Why, my gran says her first hole, they dug until they broke their way into one of them gob holes an' the damn things gushed out of it like a broken pipe. Gran says she an' gramp 'ventually had'te pour down oil an' light it up to get rid of the things, stank fer weeks."

A twinge of fear running through her, Lappy looked to Leigh for comfort, but the woman was nodding along with the dwarf's story.

"I prefer an asphyxiant, myself," Leigh said, "That's what gets them anyway when you burn the warren, the smoke more than the heat, so just using a gentler gas makes them go peacefully to sleep and doesn't risk lighting the brush on fire at another entrance to the underground. That said, I hear there has been some success in training clans to take care of certain simple tasks."

"Yer talkin' 'bout them whatchacallits? Them ones with the curvy bits 'n all that? Ye, there's some human back in the city what got a pack of 'em he rents out, not that anyone'd admit to usin' 'em. 's just gross, ya know... but that's not a topic fer ladies an' I'm sorry."

Lappy twisted in her seat, wanting so much to ask what he meant by that, but Leigh kept her eyes on the road ahead. And besides, the woman herself had said some troubling things...

-o-

The city walls came into focus over a hill. Lappy had taken a light nap, or tried anyway, but her trepidation in the company of people who spoke easily about the killing of her kind was blown to the side by the excitement of seeing for the first time a real city.

It was said to be very large, and to Lappy's mind this had meant it would be maybe ten times the size of Leigh's tower in the forest. That thought was nothing compared to the real thing, the wall that seemed to stretch from the foothills of the nearby mountain into the far distance where vast, flat fields began. From seeing it to arriving at the entrance itself took a fair while, then there was the handling of papers between Leigh and the men at the gate: dwarfs wearing strange, metal clothing. Just past the gate, Radhat hopped off the back of their cart and pushed himself off toward a bar to wait for his fellows to catch up, while Leigh and Lappy continued down a street made from large, even stones down into the depths of the sea of buildings.

There were so many people, so many different kinds as well. The dwarfs trod slowly at the street's side while all the others meandered within, able to scoot out of the way as a cart passed more quickly than the short-legged men. Lappy hadn't considered the case of skin color before, except to notice that Leigh's was pale and her own was leafy green, but within seconds of entering this city her mental palate teemed with shades of white, brown, red, blue, though hardly any green.

"Aren't there goblins in here, somewhere?" she asked quietly, taking a seat beside Leigh so she could make herself heard from below the rumbling noise of every other person.

"Kind of," Leigh said, "but they should all be Mallow goblins. You know how mothers grow breasts while they're pregnant?"

The goblin girl nodded.

"Mallow was a man who spent his whole life with one clan, forcing them to breed only with the ones who had the biggest boobs, the most shapely butts, the prettiest faces, and the least fight in them. Thus, you get Marshmallow goblins, soft and cuddly, dumb and compliant, too weak to survive on their own in the wild. Humans most often buy up the strain and use them in pretty shady areas as cheap prostitutes. You're nothing like them, so don't worry." Leigh petted Lappy's head from above through the girl's many layers, but it was hardly comforting at this point.

"You kill them?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Leigh put her arm around Lappy and hugged her up into her lap, resting her chin atop the goblin's head. "You remember when you met me, they were debating whether to eat me or fuck me and then eat me, or eat my arms and legs off so it would be easier to fuck me and eat me later? Your clan isn't nearly the worst one I've ever seen. People all over the world see you all as vermin, if they are so kind, and that's an opinion I'm trying to turn around."

The mage drove their cart to a certain building, magically froze the ass in space and time, and took them both inside where they were given a room on the second floor, already furnished, to stay for the night. It wasn't as luxurious as Leigh's tower, the bathroom consisted of a pot, but Lappy was happy just to take off her hood and scarf to let her ears unfold. That was a new ache she was discovering, similar to sleeping the wrong way on a pillow.

Then, for some reason, Leigh went to the open window, summoned an imp, and had the little, winged demon flap away holding a scrap of paper, hastily written on. She sat on the bed, patting the spot to her side as a summons for Lappy who complied of course, and undressed until she was left in nothing but her thin blouse and the cute triangle of her underwear barely visible beneath its hem. For Lappy, Leigh also undressed the girl until she was in nothing but a slip and bloomers, much more cloth than the loincloths she'd worn most of her life but somehow left her feeling more naked.

"So then," Leigh said, "Tomorrow we go to the market, but for tonight we'll just stay indoors and have some fun." She laughed when Lappy's ears perked up. Their playtime in the bath seemed so long ago, Lappy was overjoyed by her love bending down for a warm, loving kiss. "My sweet, I have someone coming to be with us tonight because I want you to see some variety."

Lappy sighed, leaning into her lover and basking in the comfort of another gentle kiss. "Someone? But they'll see me?"

"That's right." Leigh slipped her hand beneath Lappy's slip, sliding her fingertips up all the way to Lappy's small breast, swirling lazily around a hardening nipple. "Don't worry, I made sure there wouldn't be a problem. Okay, I have a man and a woman coming, so don't feel like you have to play with the man if you don't want to, or either of them for that matter."

"Okay~" Lappy said, head lolled back and thoroughly enjoying her lover's touch, "He won't be like... the ones back home, right?"

"No," Leigh said. She laid Lappy on her back, pulling the girl's slip up and over her head, brought her lips down to Lappy's pale, green skin and laid a line of kisses down from her neck, through the shallow valley of the goblin girl's breasts, and tingling all the way down her belly with a swirling of the tip of her tongue in the girl's navel. She stopped just before the waist of Lappy's bloomers, coming up and smirking at the girl's bashful, desperate expression.

There was a quiet knock at the door and Leigh rose to allow their guests entry, leaving Lappy cross-legged on the bed, clutching her doffed slip to her bare chest.

The first to enter was a tall woman with deeply red skin and flowing, dark hair, curling black horns, and a long tail tipped with a spade which lashed through the air behind her with the motion of her luscious, swaying hips. She wore only two strips of cloth, one across her breasts like hanging teardrops and the other across her hips, tied to hang before her thighs and give brief glimpses of the outline of her womanhood. And despite her gorgeous curves, her deliciously swinging breasts, her belly was tight and clearly not at all pregnant. The horny woman regarded Lappy on the bed with a curled lip, licked her lips with a forked tongue and winked.

The second was not nearly as sexy... not in the same way, or any way so far as Lappy was immediately concerned. However...

"Radhat!?" Lappy said, "What are you doing here?"

His bushy brows raised in surprise and his beard lowered with a gaping mouth. "Well... I'm makin' some extra cash... Huh, and I thought that note might'a been a joke..."

The red-skinned woman pushed him the rest of the way inside. "You agreed to the contract with full knowledge of its terms. I will not suffer further disrespect, whelp."

"Not sayin' ye were lyin' to me, yeesh." Radhat crossed the room the where Lappy was, still half-naked on the bed, and he bowed his head to her. "Are you the lucky lady who's 'bout to lay on down with me?"

Leigh said, "That's up to her, but I'm going to be taking the first moustache ride either way."

She went down to her knees to come face to face with the stout man, pressed her lips deeply within the bush of his face while her hand traced down her shirt, nimbly pulling buttons through until it slid off her shoulders. As they kissed, she unbuckled his belt and let his trousers fall, helping him step out of his boots but loath to stop their smooching. Leigh moaned like she meant it, in the very same way that she did when her tongue was dipping between Lappy's own lips, and the goblin girl sat there clutching her slip, legs curled defensively and her butt rolling against the bedding with the remnants of lust already built up before teasing her.

Not fair, Lappy thought, feeling the heat in her cheeks rise as the woman she loved gave herself to this man. She knew, of course she did, of Leigh's walks in the forest, that the woman was going back to that warren and letting the males there use her body over and over again, but that wasn't anything like this loving embrace the woman showed off. Lappy bit her lip, felt her hard nipples dragging against the sheer surface of her slip, knew that her smooth-waxed mound would be getting wet in anticipation, but she saw the dwarf's cock, short and thick hanging between his legs, and wondered whether Leigh intended on having her give herself to it.

Fear mixed with lust between Lappy's ears, and she could feel them drooping as she watched Leigh take the dwarf's shirt and drew it over his head, airing out near all of his pale, hairy flesh. He wasn't fat, the way his shirt's billow made him appear, but a thin layer of pudge spread all across his strong, heavy muscle. For how short he was, that Leigh had to kneel to embrace him, Radhat would have had no trouble picking up the woman entirely and carrying her to bed.

Not yet, Leigh looked to the side, made sure Lappy was still entranced by the sight, and put herself back into the kiss, throwing her arms around the dwarf and likewise letting him cup her pert ass in his thick hands. He squeezed and molded her cheeks, spreading her apart so her asshole was clearly visible: something she responded to with bubbly giggles. Had Lappy thought she was allowed, she might have shot down there to plant her face between those cushy cheeks and give Leigh something else to moan about, slip her tongue around the rim of the woman's puckered hole.

She had almost forgotten about the red-skinned woman until the bed creaked with her arrival and Lappy found herself encircled by a pair of strong, red arms. A hot breath caressed her drooping ear, a long, forked tongue trailing up from her cheek and up the lobe to her right ear's peak.

"Not going to join in? It seems you have some self restraint for your breed," the red woman said, and Lappy might have recoiled at being called a 'breed', but she felt a clawed fingertip tracing circles on her belly, dipping dangerously toward the waist of her bloomers and what lay below. "Ticklish? Come on then, tell miss Rubra what you'd like, don't just sit there trembling. We have all night to make your wildest dreams come true."

This was a gentle touch, but firm, the way Leigh sometimes did it for her. Lappy felt she could get out of it at any time with a token resistance, but the red woman's guidance made her feel that all she had to do was lie back and let her take care of things. Without Lappy allowing it explicitly, Rubra coaxed the slip from the goblin girl's fingers and laid it softly to the side, her hand slipped across Lappy's breast and cupped her cheek, turning her head so the two of them could see eye to eye. And Lappy, already panting, looked deeply into slit eyes as Rubra's pursed lips grew closer.

It was, Lappy hated to admit it, a better kiss than Leigh had ever given her. Soft lips against hers, pressing forward when she retreated, searching out Lappy's favorite motions and skillfully drawing out the goblin's tongue to suckle on, Rubra's long, forked tongue exploring Lappy's mouth, flirting with the danger of slithering deeper into the girl's throat. All the while, Rubra tightened her hug, slipping her other arm around Lappy's hips and drawing her in closer, Rubra's massive breasts cushioning Lappy's back as if the girl was supported on the surface of a wonderfully warm bath. Smothered in pleasure, Lappy hardly noticed anything beside her own moans, eyes closed so she could savor the embrace; she barely felt her bloomers at last being slid off her hips and couldn't care less about her nudity.

Then something wrapped around her thigh and she was almost taken out of her floating pleasure, the tip of something coming between her legs and slowly rubbing against her mound. The sensation of it made Lappy tense, arch her back. Rubra broke off the kiss and smiled down into Lappy's panting expression, said, "Don't worry, my sweet, it's only my tail."

That explained that, and so the kissing resumed, redoubled. Rubra drank in Lappy's sweet gasps as the blade of her tail stroked the goblin girl's sensitive, plush skin became slippery with the girl's juices even more so when she added her fingertip between Lappy's thighs and immediately began circling the area just around the goblin's hidden, throbbing clit.