The rest of Celeste’s journey back to Rusty’s cabin was uneventful, much to her relief. She didn’t know if she could stand another delay. Even the cot, as hard as it could be, was better than the ground.

Everything at Rusty’s place looked the same as when she left. It felt like she had been gone for weeks when it probably had only been a few days. She dismounted from Iza and took her over to the stable. Fortunately, Rusty had an extra stall she could go in. Celeste took the saddlebags and saddle off and headed to the shed. Once that was settled, she went into his cabin.

She stepped in something squishy. Celeste looked down and saw that it had been a berry of some kind. She looked up to see Buttercup's family spread out in the cabin. It was a bit of a mess, though nothing looked damaged.

"What’s going on?" She wasn’t sure why she bothered. While they seemed to understand her pretty well, she only knew a few things they said.

"Oh, you're finally back. I thought the directions I gave you were clear enough, but not." Mid was sitting at the table, drinking something out of one of Rusty's cups. "You must've gotten pretty lost."

"Your directions were fine. I just got delayed." She looked around the cabin. Two of Buttercup's younger siblings were wrestling on Rusty's bed. "What is everyone doing here?"

"I came here to check on this family and to see if they could tell me about the goblins who tried to take one of their pups. As for the rest, they're watching the house since you were gone and the door wasn't locked. Though to be honest…" There was a crash as a chair fell. "I think it's mainly being used as a playpen for the pups."

Hopefully, she could get this cleaned up before Rusty got home. He probably wouldn’t blame her, but the goblins didn't need to get on his bad side after they'd finally made peace. Mid just sipped her drink.

Buttercup and her mother came in carrying baskets of laundry. Once her mother saw Celeste, she let out a series of commands. All the pups stopped and ran outside. Some other goblins came in, probably Buttercup's immediate siblings or ones not much younger than her. The goblin mom issued some orders and they scrambled to obey her. She said something to Celeste.

"She said not to worry because they'll clean it up," Mis translated as she finished her drink. "I had to prevent them from going after you when you didn't arrive from Goblin Lake Town when you should've. I barely convinced them that you probably didn't come back right away because you had some business to take care of. The last thing they needed to do was attempt a rescue mission from Fort Invar."

"They'd do that for me?"

"You saved their pup. They wouldn’t think twice about it as a means of repaying the favor. And they will insist on repaying, so you better come up with a favor quickly."

She didn't know what they could do for her. The fact that they were cleaning up their mess was helpful. Everything else was out of their slimy, webbed hands.

"You look like you're deep in thought over something," Mid remarked as she handed her cup off to a passing goblin. "Would it have to do with the reason you left the Renewer camp so quickly?"

"How'd…?"

"Never underestimate the goblin rumor mill. But of course, I don't trust any of the details."

“You could say that.”

Mid nodded but didn’t press for any more details. She got out of the chair and helped the river goblins take the sheets off Rusty’s bed. She and Buttercup’s mother chatted. Then suddenly, Buttercup’s mom looked over to her and asked something.

“She wants to know why you’re living with Rusty instead of your family.”

“I don’t have one. My parents died a while back and…”

But before she could even finish, Buttercup’s mother seemed to get excited. She said something and dashed off. Mid stood there for a second and chuckled.

“It’s your lucky day, Celeste. You’re about to get a goblin mother. And it's no use saying no. She'll mother you whether you want her to or not."

"But why?" Buttercup's mother barely knew her. She was so often busy with the pups and other things that she didn’t see her that often. Maybe Buttercup had told her about her. "I'm too old to be adopted."

"I tried explaining that to her, but she insisted. I think she can feel the emotional turmoil you're going through with no family to help you, she decided to step in."

"Wait, feel my emotional turmoil?"

"Didn't you know that female goblins who have mothered pups can do that? They can't read the emotions of a human or a pup from another family as well as their pups, but they can usually at least make a good guess at it."

She didn't remember that from the book she had about goblins. Maybe it was yet another chapter she hadn't gotten to or the author didn't know. It sounded similar to what a certain someone could do.

"Do you know a man by the name of Malatar?"

"Davik's second? Who doesn't? Why do you…" It dawned on Mid. "Ah, his powers. Rumor has it that when he was made, his maker put some goblin blood in. I've never met a goblin who could use it to manipulate another's feelings though. But we goblins are simple creatures. Doing what Malatar does would be more complicated than many would care to try and accomplish."

Buttercup's mother came back in, grabbed Celeste’s hand, and started tugging on it. Celeste followed her outside. Buttercup’s whole family was gathered there, including a rather elderly-looking goblin with very pale green skin who sat on a carrier. Mid followed them out.

“Well, that didn’t take long. I suppose I should stick around and translate for you. Don’t worry; you won’t have to sign anything. But see that old goblin there? That’s the matriarch of the clan that Buttercup and her family are a part of. She has to approve the adoption.”

“Do goblins adopt non-goblins… often?”

“I wouldn’t say that, but it’s not unheard of. Honestly, it’s less adoption and more of identifying that you are a trusted friend of the family. Goblin mothers will still mother though, so most call it adoption. I’m not sure what a better word would be.”

Buttercup waved to Celeste as she passed before having to grab one of her younger siblings that were attempting to dash away. Celeste could’ve sworn that she saw jealous in that sibling's eyes. Buttercup’s mom brought her to the goblin matriarch and started to speak. Mid translated.

“She’s saying that your name is Celeste and that you’ve proven yourself a goblin friend by risking yourself to protect a goblin pup from those lake goblins and by how nicely you’ve treated Buttercup despite the initial meeting not going well.”

The Matriarch nodded and beckoned Celeste with a gnarled, webbed finger. Celeste stepped forward and the Matriarch pointed to the ground. She looked down and saw nothing but an ant crawling along. The old goblin sighed and spoke to Mid.

“Oh, she wants you to kneel so she can have a better look at you. A goblin’s eyesight isn’t that great in broad daylight and even less so the older they get.”

Celeste knelt. The Matriarch scooted closer to her and grabbed her face. She was gentle about it, but her claws made Celeste a bit nervous. Even though she had forgiven Buttercup for the whole incident, she still could remember how close her claw had come to taking one of her eyes out or how bad goblin scratches could get. Once the Matriarch was satisfied, she let go and began speaking.

“Lichen tells me that she doesn’t know all the details, but you have some very unique circumstances surrounding you that attract a lot of attention.” Mid translated. “Nonetheless, she wishes to invite you into her family. While you won’t be able to live with them, you will have allies and companions you can turn to in your times of need, not just from them, but also Clan Mossdeep. You can refuse this offer, but know that she doesn’t make it lightly and it won’t be offered again. It’s entirely your choice.”

People were sure asking about alliances a lot after she woke up. Celeste wished she had more time to think about it and the implications that this might have, but thinking hadn’t done her much good lately.

“I accept.”

Buttercup’s family cheered. Lichen, Buttercup’s mom, hugged her. Buttercup herself climbed up Celeste and hung on her shoulder, nuzzling her. It was an odd sensation, especially with the mucus she left behind. Mid shook her hand.

“Congratulations, you are now an official member of the Dwarf Smith Riverside family and by extension, the Mossdeep Clan. Do you have something they can put the clan symbol on?”

“I have a travel cloak…”

“That’ll do. Don’t worry, it’ll be small and on the inside so that no one will mistake it for a Reviver or Renewer or whatever that weird foreign group is that popped up recently.”

Celeste had to extract herself from the goblin hug pile and retrieve the cloak. She handed it off to Lichen. Mid nodded.

“Well, now that you’re here and the Matriarch has accepted you, it’s time for me to get back. Just one word of advice, Celeste. Whatever choice you have to make, make one that you can live with in the future. I’ve seen too many make a choice that suited them for the present but wasn’t very sustainable. After all, there is more than just the now.”

They all waved Mid off. Buttercup’s father and another one of her siblings picked up the Matriarch’s carrier and went off. Celeste joined Lichen and Buttercup in doing the rest of the laundry. Celeste’s mind kept going to the letter at the bottom of her bag. What was she going to do about that?