I feel light...

Am I…dead?

...

Yes, I must be dead.

...

Then why do I still have thoughts, this makes no sense.

What’s going on?

…

…

…

Leaves rustle. Footsteps patter outside.

Low murmurs and children yelling.

Wait…am I not dead?

He opened his eyes. He was no longer knelt in the courtyard of the palace, but now staring up at a low thatched roof of some run-down dwelling. He was lying on a rough bed of straw.

A grunt beside him made him turn his head. There sat a rather ugly looking goblin, with tufts of hair protruding haphazardly under a cloth hat. The goblin seemed asleep.

He yelled.

He didn’t really mean to, but the sudden appearance of the monster right beside him had startled him into the involuntary reaction.

The goblin woke up, falling over in sheer surprise.

“Well. You wake up in good condition, it seem,” he grunted, clearly pissed at his own rude awakening, “okay, you go now. Get out of my house.”

And with that, he was ushered to the front door. A foot was planted in his backside, quite literally kicking him out of the house.

He found himself in the centre of a few rough and tumble dwellings, each made from mud and awkwardly angled sticks held together with vines and seemingly a refusal to obey any reasonable building logic.

Stakes and vines formed a fenced enclosure around these makeshift homes. In the very centre, a well was raised on a platform, complete with its own bucket and rope. All in all, a very humble yet dismal setting that he found himself in. A very simple goblin village.

The thick foliage surrounded the village, swaying in the breeze. It seemed that it was in the middle of a forest.

What in the Creator’s good name is happening. Where am I, he wondered, how did I get here? Wait…am I…a goblin?

He stepped up to the well and looked down. A green face with tousled hair stared dazedly back at him. Green skin with deep black eyes set in a sharp face with ears that fanned out in typical goblin style. He was rather small in stature so he supposed he was still young; having been only just reincarnated as a goblin. Honestly, he couldn’t really tell since goblin babies and elders alike had the same wrinkly skin.

Perhaps this was a trick. Maybe even punishment. Goblins were historically the weakest of the 6 main races, barely qualifying as the sixth one. Inferior in strength to the orcs, dismally lacking in intelligence to the elves and simply outnumbered by humans. They held no advantages.

He dimly remembered something of a dream, with a woman's voice speaking to him. Something about a blessing and fate? He couldn't quite remember.

Whatever his fate, all he could do was move forward.

A sudden flurry beside him, followed by a squeak and a small body colliding into his midriff.

“He’s alive! Yay, we saved him!” crowed a young female goblin. She grinned up at him from his waist. “Didn’t we, elder!”

“It is good to see you well young one, we feared you had passed,” the one who spoke was an elder goblin leaning on a cane. For the uncultured and barbaric goblins, he spoke with surprising dignity. Though he looked fragile, almost fighting against gravity as he stood, there was a glint in his eye that spoke of his wisdom. “There have been many attacks recently. We’re glad another life was not claimed today.”

It seemed that the village had found him somewhere in the surrounding area, though he was not sure how he got there in the first place. The palace was inside the capital city, a mighty citadel towering above the craggy plains it sat on. No forests were close enough for him to arrive at, let alone house a small goblin village such as this.

So, it seemed he was far away from home then. Perhaps he could find his bearings from here?

“Um, e-elder? I do humbly thank you for saving my life,” he began. The goblin mouth was a clumsy tool. “Where is this place? I believe I am lost.” The elder looked surprised.

“Oh my, you speak quite well for such a young goblin. It is certainly a most rare thing,” he mused, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “Well, to answer your question, we are in the eastern region of the forest.”

…

“W-well, to clarify,” he continued, in the awkward silence, “This is the Abyssal Forest. Land of the free dwellers, tree folk and earth-kin.”

…

“Um, is geography perhaps not your strong suit?” the elder quipped cheerfully.

Truthfully, none of these places rang a bell. And yes, he did skip a couple of geography lessons in the academy, but he did have extensive knowledge of the terrain in the kingdom. Perhaps…he was farther than that?

“Elder, what lies outside the forest?”

“Hum, you are testing my knowledge now young one,” he huffed. The small female goblin had gotten bored and long since wandered off. The elder slowly used his cane to draw in the mud.

“Well say this is our forest, to the east of here is the mountain crags where the harpies and dragons dwell. To the north is the ice sheets, a place where few can go and even fewer can return,” as he spoke, a simple outline of the continent appeared on the ground. “South of the forest is the volcanic region, where the demons make their domain.”

As the map took shape, he noticed that the west part was left blank.

“What is to the west, elder?” his suspicions seemed almost met with each added detail.

“…to the west is where those loathsome humans reside, this dotted line marks their territory,” grimaced the elder.

The anger in the elder’s words surprised him. Why did this goblin harbour such hate towards the innocent humans? As far as her could tell, they had never attacked this forest before or tried conquering this area. It seemed a very strong reaction to this, but he pushed this to the back of his mind.

That point was formed as he made the connection to the map on the ground. Although some parts were grossly incorrect, the two forked rivers were unmistakable. The kingdom was located right between where the twin rivers met. While there was some distance, he was still somewhat near the kingdom.

He nodded. “Thank you elder, that helps me a great deal. I owe you a great debt.” The elder simply chuckled.

“Well young one, I hope you will stay in our village for now, we could always use an extra pair of hands to protect our humble village,” he smiled sadly, “but if you choose to leave, we cannot stop you.”

“You mentioned this before, what threatens your village so?” he asked.

“A fearsome beast, one that haunts us everyday. In the common tongue it is called the White Death,” he sighed, shaking his grey head, “Too many goblin warriors have been lost to this threat. We live in fear every day.”

Hmm, seems like the village is in a pickle. The thing is, I can’t go to the capital like this so there’d be no point trying to get back at this point, he thought, pondering his options.

Looking around, he saw they were mostly elderly and children, with only a few healthy males and females.

As darkness fell, the elder offered his hut to rest for the night. He thanked him and they settled down for dinner.

***

Oh god.

“Mm, we’ve got more today. Eat up everyone, this is all to celebrate our dear friend not dying on us!” crowed the elder raising his clay cup.

Oh dear god.

“Yeah, mister, we thought you were a goner! Eat so you don’t die again yeah?” beamed the little goblin.

Urp…

“What’s wrong young’un, you don’t look so good. In fact…you look a little green!” cackled the elder. He was already on this third cup of thistle wine. The small goblin rolled her eyes.

“Um, well…” he began hesitantly, “is this what you eat every day?” He pointed to the spread in front of him.

On the table lay wooden plates of steaming bugs and miscellaneous creatures. Centipedes with hundreds of legs still twitching slightly about, fried pill bugs curled and uncurled and big fat cockroaches roasted on skewers.

Compared to the spreads prepared by the top chefs in the kingdom this was rather…ordinary?

Actually. No, it was just plain disgusting.

“Oh yes, well when we had more warriors, we could hunt small animals and fish but now we make do with foraging for grubs,” the elder said, crestfallen. “I’m sorry we couldn’t prepare a nicer meal for you young one.”

“Oh no, I’m very grateful to you this is a fine meal. I’m just about to dig in!” he said, plastering a fake and rather pained smile on his green face. He picked up a fat cockroach and looked at it. God it was worse up close. Wait, did its antennae just move?

“GAH, AHH,” he squealed as the cockroach sprang to life and scuttled out of his grasp and out of sight.

The little female goblin was rolling on the floor, tears streaming as she laughed while the elder scolded her.

“Listen elder, I’m going to get some fresh air okay,” he said as he turned to the door.

“Okay, apologies for her she must have put a live one in while I wasn’t looking. Make sure you don’t wander outside the village,” replied the elder, now holding the little goblin by the scruff of her neck.

He left the hut and approached the front gate.

“Sorry elder, I can’t eat bugs. At least not yet. I’ll see what I can find the forest.”

He picked up an unused stake from the fence and headed into the dark woods illuminated only by the light from the moon.