Author's Note: This has been rewritten. Revised chapters will have V2 next to the chapter name. Click here to see V1

Chapter 9 - Stage Complete

***Day 13***

***Unknown Cave***

***Goblin Queen***

"ARG, THIS IS SO FRUSTRATING! What is wrong with me! This is all his fault!"

She sat up from the queen's platform. After sending that male to exile, she kept thinking about him each night, worry about his safety. Out of frustration, she throws a little tantrum on the platform, kicking and yelling.

"Me? The queen? Worrying about a runt that is barely an adult? Even worse, I declared him to be my mate!"

She angrily thought in her mind. She didn't dare to say those thoughts out loud. If any other female heard about the queen's worry, that goblin would definitely try to overthrow the current queen, believing that she had gone soft. This would cause a tremendous turmoil within the tribe. As a responsibility of the queen, she had to make sure that she nipped any potential revolts in the bud.

"Someone get a bowl of water for me!"

As soon as she said that, an obedient male goblin rushed out, and came back with a stone bowl full of water and lay it in front of her. Then he sat down waiting for the next order. She took off her Ki'th, dipped it into the water, and started to clean herself. She thought that even if cleaning herself won't cleanse her worries, it would cleanse her fatigue. She noticed a male goblin staring at her body with a speck of lust. Their eyes met, and he quickly turned away, trying to hide his desires.

"What are you looking at? This is not the first time you watched me bathe, and now you want me? Are you in heat or something? GET OUT!"

She threw the bowl of water as hard as she can at her servant. Luckily for him, she barely missed. The bowl shattered in force, breaking into millions of tiny rock. If that had hit him, it would have dealt life threatening damage. Fearing of her wrath, all the goblins quickly gathered the broken pieces and left the room, leaving the queen alone in the spacious sleeping quarter. After calming down a bit from her anger, it dawned on her.

"On heat? That must be it. It must be time for me to produce a litter. At the sight of the first male that beat me, I made the move without thinking thoroughly. I cannot possible take a runt that lands a lucky hit on me as a mate. Worst of all, he disobeyed my order about eating meat. All I have to do to correct this is to take the biggest and strongest male to mate tonight to quench my thirst."

She continued to comfort with herself with lies.

"Even if the exiled one returns, I will just deny his right to mate with me, saying that his Ki'th is not worthy. For my Ki'th, it took a party of 7 goblins to hunt down an old lone wolf, which ends in death for 2 members. With no hunting party to support him, the best that he can hunt down is a small fawn."

Satisfied with her own reasoning and her plans, she stretched a bit and put her Ki'th back on. She tried to recall the conversations she had with the exiled one, trying to nit pick and conjure up more reasons why he should not be her mate.

"Heh, goblin god. As if such things exist. If there were a goblin god, he would have blessed us with a bigger tribe. If there were goblin god, none of us would die from a hunt. If there was a goblin god..."

Interrupting the queen's thoughts, another goblin rushed in to deliver breaking news to the queen.

"My queen, the exiled one has come back with his Ki'th!"

For a fleeting moment, the queen's heart fluttered with joy at the thought of the exiled one coming back. That feeling ended as soon as it started as the logical part of her quickly beat that thought into submission.

"I will just have to stick with my plan."

She promptly exited the sleeping quarters and headed to the cave entrance. A small crowd gathered on top of the cliff watching the spectacle. When the other goblins saw their queen approaching the cliff, they dispersed to make a front row seat for her. From the top of the cliff, she saw the exiled one dragging a large brown pelt in one hand and holding her spear in the other. He was clearly struggling to carry the pelt all by himself, as he kicked the pelt several times in frustration.

"He did far better than I expected, being able to hunt down a doe or a buck by himself. Still, I will deny his right to be my mate."

As he got closer, all the other goblins that were on the forest floor started to kneel down and bow before him. Her anger flared as this was an apparent act treason towards her. Just before she yelled out her decree to punish those that bowed, she caught a better glimpse of the pelt. She saw something that she never even dreamed of. It was the head of a grizzly bear. Finally understanding why the other goblins were on their knees, she prostrated as well. All the other goblins soon follow suit. For the first time in her life, she is truly humbled by another goblin. For the first time in her life, she truly and undoubtedly believed that there is a goblin god, and he had blessed this exiled one.