The first thing Bonehead did was send Klutz out with some kind of instruction. Obviously, I did not understand a word, but there was a lot of gesturing included. Finishing their one-sided discussion, Klutz waved to me with a toothy smile before he left. Being alone in the hut with a mad mushroom scientist was not my number one priority, but Bonehead only gave me a short look before getting back to his work.

He continued cutting the corrosive mushroom up and carefully added it into the pot which by now was releasing bubbling sounds and steam into the surroundings. After wiping his knife and cutting board down with some more moss, he looked at me and said some words.

Judging by his facial expression and the slight tilt of his head it was a question. His open hand pointing at me indicating he wanted to know something about me. Or he wanted me to do something. I was not really sure so I just tilted my head and clicked my tongue.

With a huff and an exasperated eye-roll Bonehead walked over to one of his shelves to pick up a dead insect and a pile of leaves giving off a blue sheen. When he returned he started talking out loud while cutting the leaves and then crushing them together with the insect and a bit of water in a mortar.

Once done, he placed his cutting board next to me and dipped a sharpened bone into the mixture. Then he placed it on the board and started drawing lines. Curious I drew closer. He painted first a crude face of an owl, then a goblin head on the other side. Then he made a circle with some deformed chunks in it and something resembling a rat. Finally, he drew an arrow from both of the shapes in the middle to the goblin’s mouth.

With a questioning look, he held out the bone-pen to me. So, goblins eat rats and stew? And now he wanted to know if I eat both as well? Hopping over to the bowl with ink I dipped in a talon and then carefully drew an arrow from the rat to the owl. Between the ‘stew’ and the owl, I put an X.

‘No soup for me, please!’

Tapping his chin for a bit, Bonehead shrugged before putting the ink and pen away. I followed his lead and wiped my talon on some moss to clean it. Then he pointed at himself and made an important sound.

“Roguk”

I tilted my head. He repeated the sound a few times, always pointing at himself. Was that his name? Or was that the word for goblin? I bobbed my head, then pointed at the cutting board and back at him. He was confused. I pointed at the goblin head, then him.

“Goblin” he nodded at me. So Roguk really was his name. And now I also knew the word for “goblin”. Although only in goblin language. Next, I pointed at the owl drawing on the board.

“Owl.”, he said. Then ‘stew’. And ‘rat’. Or maybe it was ‘food’ and ‘mouse’. Similar enough. Roguk was smiling at me by that point. He pointed at me and made a questioning sound. I tilted my head. He pointed at himself and said his name followed by the same word he used for his question. Then he pointed at me again. ‘Name’, he wanted to know my name!

I shook my head and looked down.

Hoot.

“Hoo?”, Roguk asked. I shook my head again. This time I hissed. Then hooted again.

“Sss Hoo? Mmm.”

The goblin put his hand on his chin. He started mumbling some sounds.

“Soo. Siooh. Sio… Ssfff… Fio!”

Finally he exclaimed. Fio. Did he want to call me Fio? He excitedly ran to one of his shelves and brought back a mushroom. It had a white stem with a brown hood and a few black and grey splotches all over.

“Fio!” the goblin pointed at the mushroom. “Fio!” he said again, pointing at me. He named me after a mushroom. Because it had the same colour scheme as my feathers. Great.

I hissed at him, but he was too excited to notice, already returning the mushroom to its place on the shelf all the while giggling to himself as if he made a great joke.

He named me. After a mushroom. Ugh!

At least it sounded nice. It could be short for Fiona or Fiora. Beautiful names. But it was my full name. As my status now showed as well.

Species: Great Eagle Owl (fledgeling)

Age: 0

Name: Fio

Gender: female

Status: sapient, slightly wounded

Level: 4

Class: [Assassin lvl 9], -

Strength: 8

Constitution: 8

Dexterity: 15

Perception: 20

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 9

AP: 0

Skills:

Racial:

Utility: [Owl Senses lvl 3], [Preening lvl 3], [Owl Stomach lvl 3], [Soundless Flight lvl 3]

Offensive: [Solid Grip lvl 3], [Intimidating Screech lvl 2], [Owl’s Shadow lvl 3], [Aerial Combat lvl 2]

General:

[Maths lvl 4], [Identify lvl 2]

Assassin:

[Sneak lvl 4], [Surprise Attack lvl 3]

I had a name. That told me I was now in some part a member of this community, even though I only really met two of the goblins. My status also showed ‘slightly wounded’. That was probably the half-molten talon I had dipped in that acid. Nothing to worry about. It would grow back. Probably. Talons were just like toenails. I had read that somewhere.

A short while later I was sitting in the village square. The goblins had formed a loose circle of small groups and pairs around the community pot and were eating from wooden bowls. I was sitting between Roguk and Klutz, who I found out was called Grag. Grag’s pouch was sitting on the ground next to me, flap open. A few dead rats and large beetles for my dinner. I was not hungry.

Before everyone got their food Roguk had addressed the almost one hundred goblins and explained my presence with wild gestures. I understood my name and goblin. He also said rat a few times. Though the details eluded me. By the end of his little speech, most goblins smiled at me, the children looking somewhere between scared and excited with their parents a bit more reserved.

About a fifth of the villagers were what I deemed children. Some of them were taller than me and probably teenagers or the goblin equivalent but I still considered them kids.

As I was sitting there watching the goblins feast I considered my options. This place was nice, but I could not stay inside the cave. Even with there being enough space to fly, I wanted to hunt stronger targets than rats and bugs. And I did not want to hunt my hosts. That would be impolite!

On the other hand, I could learn a lot from them. If I was able to somehow ask questions. They did not seem to use any form of writing so even if I stayed long enough to learn the language it would be difficult to communicate.

I had not seen all of the cave yet. Maybe there was some interesting stuff around. Somewhere might be another exit. Maybe the caves had strong monsters deeper down. I had some of the best hearing any animal could have and very good eyes. I should be able to hunt in the darkness.

For now, I would stay in the village at least for a few days. I wanted to learn a bit of their language. Maybe it was some kind of common tongue and everyone spoke it?

As dinner came to a close a few goblins walked up to us. There was some talking and gesturing before nods and smiles were exchanged along with the contents of some pouches. Roguk distributed small bone flasks he had filled with his mushroom concoction and in return received several pouches filled to the brim with all the stuff he needed to make more nefarious liquids.

After they left Grag also said his goodbyes and stepped into a hut across the square. Roguk waved me to come along and started walking but I had other plans and shook my head. There was exploring to do.

The goblin shrugged and stepped into his hut. At the doorstep, he turned around and extended a hand to me before patting the curtain door. It looked like I was welcome to rest in his home. I lowered my head and hooted in thanks before taking off towards the ceiling.

As I rose upwards, the lights of the village spread out around me. They had gone to sleep but left the outsides of their huts lit up. The crystals beneath the large pot in the square were the only ones that stopped glowing. The pot had been brought away and now I saw where to. Excepting the original entrance, three other tunnels were leading out of the cavern. Two on the left side, one on the right, as seen from where we entered earlier.

The first one on the left had the large pot and the villagers’ bowls and spoons stacked up neat and clean. Listening carefully water was babbling a few steps into the entrance. There was probably a river or a small spring hidden away. The second entrance, maybe twenty metres further down the wall was barred off, as was the one on the right. Both gates were simple but sturdy, made from the usual white wood. I could only guess where they led to.

Around the square, which was centred in the middle of the cave, the houses spread out in messy rings. Not much planning had gone into their placement. Between the outermost houses and the cave walls, a stretch of about ten to fifteen metres was cleared from stalagmites with that same distance again hosting the rocky pillars up to the wall. I spotted the occasional movement in there, rats, centipedes and spiders being the most prevalent. Food aplenty!

After a quick snack, I flew to investigate the water. All three tunnels were large enough for me to fly comfortably with this one being the smallest at three metres wide and a little over half that in height. After a bend to the left, I came upon an underground river. It came from the front and turned just before a slippery slope. Someone had driven poles of wood into the ground and laid a few planks across to make it less treacherous.

There were a few large buckets lined up on the walls, most of them tied to ropes. If I had to guess the goblins threw the roped buckets into the river and then pulled them out by the lines. On the downstream side of the cave, they had not built their stairs. This would make it easier to pull the buckets out.

If I wanted to, I could fly up or down the river. For now, though I would return to the village. Tomorrow they might open up the other tunnels for me to scout. The trees had to come from somewhere.