The tides of war waned and another tide roared in to take its place.

A week after the alliance between the Gu and Ku tribes was formed another tribe arrived. The man was called from his house by Gally and was presented with the leader of the GiGi Tribe. She was an older woman with graying wisps of hair and wrinkled foil skin. Instantly she dropped to a knee when Gunt introduced him.

The man thought her action was strange. And more so he thought Gunt’s introduction for him had been weird.

‘The king of the Goblin’s’ He had claimed.

Who’s the king? The words surely didn’t match him. Had Gunt proclaimed himself king while he was resting? Just what is going on?

The woman slowly rose once the man shook the surprise out of his head and indicated such.

An attendant of Gunt then appeared reporting the sound of another arriving tribe.

The man thought it was a big deal but none of the goblins showed any sign of surprise. Three leaders had already assembled, just how many more will come?

One.

Two.

The group now included the Vilt Covenant and Wok family.

By lunch time the reported number of goblins assembled in the great hall of the Gu tribe was four thousand.

The man was frantic about how he would cook for this many but the tribe leaders nervously insisted that they had enough food for themselves. The Ku tribe was the only one in direct trouble food wise so their slack was picked up by both the Gigi and Gu tribe’s coffers.

Still the man was perplexed. Why were all of these goblins coming and bowing to him? Why did it sound like they saw him as a king?

Unable to get his head around it, the man slinked away and began milling Roya.

This always cleared his head. Even if the tools change, the smell of the crushed flower is always calming.

Running the mill was a bit of an art the man found. The hopper could be filled to only so much. Any more and the weight would force the powder out too quickly or even jam the mill. The man realized if he could properly maintain the pile in the hopper the usual ‘five pound a week’ order could be filled in a half hours time.

Before he knew it he had more Roya powder than sacks. He also had the rough Roya powder that was too grainy to cook with. If that could be milled properly with this new equipment he could probably prepare more than fifty pounds.

He couldn’t help but wonder where it all came from. Had he and the goblins really collected fifty pounds of these flowers collectively? That number seemed far too high. But there was no other way to explain it. This new mill was magic. Figuratively of course.

With the mill’s clutch disengaged the man sighed. With no more work he had to face the likely growing crowd outside his house.

Any normal human would see this group of twenty plus goblins as a thing to fear but the man had a totally different reason for his fear.

‘How many new heads will bow’ the man wondered as he walked.

Qi, Vee, Ket, and Won. With the addition of the early arrivals. Every representative of the nine tribes had assembled and now bowed to him.

The man was truly perplexed.

"For someone other than the old master to assemble us is strange. But I suppose it is a new age. And the feat of winning a Goblin War without a single loss of life on either side is surely enough to qualify him." Old lady Gigi says loud enough for the nearby goblins to hear.

"I would never question it." Gunt adds, understanding Gigi’s intention.

"Mhm." Another leader agrees nodding with a gleaming eye towards the man.

The man, finally impatient about the whole situation, asked the obvious question. "How exactly have I become your king? I understand the battle and all but really that was mostly Gunt and his men I just helped with the strategy."

"And the field operation…" Gally adds with a shrug.

"Calling a Goblin Alliance is something the master did." Gigi explains stretching her back out carefully before accepting the seat offered by the man. "Back then it wasn’t peaceful though. The master came in and forced us to ally with brute strength. With the tribes gathered our strength was at it’s peak. And for the goblins, life was actually good. We possessed strength, and we used it to increase or knowledge. We began the recreation of human weapons. We began harvesting from the earth, investigating the unearthed ancient objects. Truly it was the heyday for the goblins even in spite of the old master. My mother talked about it fondly. But within her generation the alliance crumbled. The old master died and the tribe separated. Perhaps all these leaders felt as I did when I heard you had called an alliance between the Gu and Ku. A glimmer of hope for the future."

The leaders, Vee and Wok grew tears at the statement and nodded their heads silently.

Suddenly a large amount of responsibility is being thrust upon the man. He was unsure how exactly to handle it. A dozen thoughts came to mind, should he leave, should he kindly reject them, should he attempt to take over the world?

The thought that kept coming back though was that he would never feel lonely again.

Perhaps they had come at exactly the time he needed. A group of kind neighbors.