2 pairs of beady eyes stare at each other.

One raven and a goblin.

The goblin gives a gap-toothed grin, canines glinting with the thin sheen of saliva that the sunlight hits at just the right angle, making it glimmer.

That ugly face of his seemed to be happy.

Whatever.

I was outta here.

“Sweeek!” The goblin cries out behind me.

Flapping my wings, I head towards the exit of the cave. Now if my stupid bird brain could figure out how to take off…

All I was doing now was going hippity hoppity over the ground, long claws scratching at the hard stone and loose pebbles.

Somehow I make it out, into the gloomy forest. Turning my head around to get a look around the trees loom over me, I head to the closest shadow I can find.

Here in the green grass, it would be too easy for that goblin to find me.

I didn’t know what his reason was for healing me, but I’m not the type to trust so easily. After all, my own siblings had knocked me out of my own nest. Made sense if they were all someday growing into big crows like that Potato Chip Thief.

That goblin probably wanted to eat me raw, my baby crow meat all tender and juicy.

Shivering, I wrap my wings around myself. I missed Mother. At least she stroked my head when I was upset.

Now I was all alone in this giant forest, a runty baby crow.

My first goal was to find the tallest tree in the forest..By the time I got there, hopefully I would’ve learned to fly so I can go back up to the nest and give my brothers and sisters a taste of their own medicine.

“Hisssss!”

With a rustling and cracking noise, a giant emerald green snake looms over me, fangs bared and ready to strike. It had been curled up around the trunk of the tree I conveniently chose to hide behind, a short way from the cave.

This was not good.

“Kieeek!”

My trusty knight in dirty loincloth, the goblin had arrived. Here to defend his meal, I guessed.

He had no spear, with only his loincloth and the necklace of jangling teeth around his neck, unarmed.

My body freezes up in fear. I had never seen a snake so big before.

The snake hisses again, this time focused on the much bigger prey before it. The head of the snake was big enough to swallow the thin goblin, whose knees were shaking and knocking together, whole.

Wait a minute.

If that snake’s focused on the goblin..

my body relaxes.

Then I’m home free!

Flapping my wings to give myself an extra boost, I turn my plump baby chick body away from the two.

Time to go~

Tra~la~la~eeeek!

…Aaaand I’m caught again as the goblin grabs my wings, scooping me up off the ground so I have a great view of the snake’s eyes that seem to glow..

Wait, they were actually glowing.

The knobby shoulders of the goblin relaxes, and I look up, just in time for a wet feeling on my feathers.

What made my back wet was the goblin’s drool that dripped down on a silver string, right on me.

Before with nasty breath, now I was gonna smell like a goblin. Its mouth was hanging lax above me, mesmerized by the giant snake’s eyes.

So this snake was some sort of magical snake, then. I knew enough not to look into its eyes.

Never mind that. The snake was drawing closer, mouth opening up impossible wide to swallow the goblin, and I, whole.

I flutter my wings and scratch at the goblin, successfully digging in my claws deep enough into the rough skin on his chest to make green blood ooze out.

The goblin’s dilated pupils focus, and it immediately takes off, towards the snake.

I repeat.

He went. towards. the. snake.

WHAT!

DUMB GOBLIN!!

THAT’S THE WRONG WAY!!

I screech in anger, while he springs forward, and to the side of the large snake, whose lower body is still wrapped around the base of the tree trunk.

He keeps going, repeatedly making several sharp turns, until the excited hisses quiet down.

I blink my eyes at the sight before me once he finally stops.

What the!

This goblin was smart.

It had run around the same tree, circling it around and around, long enough, until the snake had knotted itself into the thin branches of the tree and its own body prevented it from moving forward another step.

“Kraaaaaagh!”

The goblin gives a little victory dance, and springs off, crawling back to its cave, with me still cupped to its side.

“Kreik! Kra!”

Seriously. What’s up with this guy.

“Kreik! Kra!”

I mimic his goblin noises in exasperation, and pause.

Somehow, the exact same noise he’d just made had come out of my throat.

“Kekr?” The goblin taps me on the head, making sure my sharp claws don’t nick him as I try my best to break out of his hold.

“Kkeeer?”

I respond, like one of those toys that mimic your words right back at you.

Hugging me to his concave chest, he heads deeper into the cave, and hunkers down in front of one broken jar. In it, I see some glistening pink chunks, some a little green with mold, but I didn’t care. I was a crow. My stomach was practically made of iron now.

“Keeik!” The goblin makes another one of its grating noises, and I oblige, repeating his words back to him.

“Kreeik!”

It shakes its head and flaps its arms, copying me and giggling.

Now it was being weird. I ignore it and focus on my meal. My stomach was clenched in hunger. Turns out baby crows needed to eat. A LOT.

Moldy meat was way better than the Mother’s special that would squirm down my throat in the nest.

Setting the cracked jar in front of me, he strokes the meat softly like it was his lover in a past life.

What a weird little goblin.

I thought that goblins were more eat! kill! destroy! type of creatures, but this green guy was proving me wrong.

Twice, he had helped me, fixing my wing and saving me from the snake. Now he was offering me food.

While I gorge myself on the pink chunks that he’d so kindly offered, I let him stroke my head and pat at my wings.

[Goblin would like you to become his pet. Do you accept? Y/N]

The mechanical lady’s voice echoes in my head again. This time, it’s accompanied by a white box that displays text within it.

The goblin squatting on the ground next to me is busy picking fleas off his scalp. Looks like he can’t hear the voice. He sat there like he had no care in the world.

Yeah, no. You might’ve saved my life, but me, a pet? Unacceptable.

Nope!

[You have selected No. Will you proceed?]

Of course!

With that thought, the white bar with words written on it shatters into tiny pixelated squares.

I wouldn’t even be a pet for a human in my crow form.

It made more sense if he was my pet. I could be the brains, and he could be the scrawny brawns.

Looking around at the mess that littered the cave, piles of feces scattered here and there, I gave the crow-equivalent of a human sigh. Though the goblin could fight off a humongous snake well enough, wth the state of his living conditions, it was only a matter of time before we both died of disease or hunger.

Staring at the scrawny goblin that absent-mindedly scratches at the cut I’d given him on his chest, I decide to name him.

You can be Greenie. I told him in my mind, since I couldn’t speak.

“Kreeai?”

The goblin looks confused when a white light shimmers around him.