I remember that the trees were green.

We were moving with our tribe. I don’t remember why we moved. I was young. Couldn’t walk by myself for long. Some goblin carried me on his back. I remember that he only had one ear.

We moved until we saw a river. There we stopped to make a camp. We were there until the leaves fell down. I was walking alone already. I was special. Offsprings of the old chief were treated differently than others, but it only dawned on me later.

It was the first time I ate fish. It is all that I can remember. There were other youngling's like me, but I don’t think I did much with them. The old chief wanted me to speak, or at least forced me to.

Goblins speak little. We have basic words for weather and animals, but we don’t really talk like you humans. It takes time from the green leaves to first snow for a goblin to start speaking.

The chief didn’t want to wait. He spoke in human to me. He was smart. Smartest in the tribe. He knew many words. It helped me talk earlier than most. I didn’t want to speak back then, but he still forced me.

When I didn’t want to speak he showed me a book. I saw nothing like that. I don’t think our tribe did much with humans at the time. I learned from pictures. He spoke words. It was messy compared to how I speak now. Still. I liked this book.

When the leaves fell everything changed. Goblins were scared. The tribe was scared and wanted to move. I couldn’t tell why. Chief kept many things hidden back then, but I felt that they wanted to go.

However food was scarce. We couldn’t just go away from fish and the chief was old. He didn’t move much.

I usually slept in his tent, but that night I was away. Stars were visible. I often watched them alone. I came back to the sound of screams. It was the first time I saw a hobgoblin. They attacked us in the dark. Goblins see in the dark, but we caught the fish during day making us sleep at night.

Thinking back to it was obvious that we would get attacked. Hobgoblins came for food before winter. They killed some of our kin and took young goblins with them. I was also caught. I barely remember how it happened.

When I woke up I was already in the caverns of the hobgoblin tribe. It was already winter and so we were made to work for hobgoblins as their gatherers for any food we could find. I was big enough to walk. I was scared and powerless, so I walked and searched for any food I could.

I tried to eat it at first, but if I were to come back empty handed, I would be beaten. There were many goblins like me in this tribe, but it didn’t take long for our numbers to dwindle. Opposing were killed, unproductive were left behind. I barely lasted this winter. Few goblins did.

Most of the survivors came from our tribe. It took me years to notice, but we were smarter than others. We made better food. We used tools. Other forest goblins weren’t as smart. They died first or killed others to please the hobs.

Among our tribe some helped me in the beginning. I was the old chiefs offspring. They wanted me to live even if they were to die. It was stupid. They all died or turned they back when the harsh snow came.

Still it made me survive.

When snow went away I was made to work with other goblins. After the winter I understood the tribe better. There were important goblins and important hobgoblins. The hobgoblins were fed by the goblins. Important goblins managed the tribe.

They assigned us to hobgoblins. Each had about five goblins to command. Before the winter they had at least twice as much. I was lucky to be with a hobgoblin set as a sentry. He was tasked with searching for humans. The one to assign us was a goblin shaman. He was an old goblin with a large staff in his hand. He chose me with other small goblins. Presumably because we were likely to die and any grown goblin that survived the winter was worth more than we did.

I learned how to walk silently. Our hob was smaller than others. He was good at sneaking. In time I met first humans. We never attacked them unless it was a lonely man. Since we had no weapons, we only reported back. If we were spotted we would run away, but the hobgoblin would hit us, so we learned to not get spotted too much.

One time we stumbled upon many human soldiers. Our hobgoblin got killed in an instant. I ran back to the camp with few others. It was the first time I saw hobgoblin die. It made me curious of humans. Because I was the only one that could properly speak I told what happened to the shaman. It was when things began to change.

I was recognized as smart because I used some human words to describe what happened. He was impressed to the point where he made me hold magic embers. It was a ceremony he did once every snowfall, but he chose to did it just for me. If I were to pass it, then I would probably become his new apprentice at the spot, but my resistance was too high to make any visible effect. I didn’t know it back then and I don’t think the shaman did either.

I was made to go back to the human camp and watch. It was important that it would be me as the shaman wanted someone expendable yet able to properly talk. He was one of the few smart goblins in the tribe. And so I returned to spy on humans with a few scouts.

It was scary, but it was a much better job than others. I just sat in the bushes for days, only going back to the tribe for food which was given to us by the shaman. I learned many things from soldiers. They spoke a lot. Many words that others didn’t care for I remembered and used myself. I started to train like humans did. It was the first time in my life I felt good after work.

As time passed, the humans came and went and I began to change. It was simple at first, but as the time went goblins seemed to realize that I looked different from how they did. More like a hobgoblin. I started to wear clothes to hide my body. The shaman allowed me to meet important goblins. The Elder had books. He knew words. I wanted more.

When the soldiers went away, I was free to do whatever. I followed the strongest hobgoblin at a time, but he got killed by a hunter. There was a young hobgoblin in his group. I used him. He followed me if I brought back stuff he liked. He was in command, but he rarely did anything without me.

I did what I wanted. I wasn’t forced to kill or steal from my kin. Because the swords were heavy, I trained with daggers. I think it went like this since the third winter.

The shaman had fallen ill and a new one got the ones that pass the test of embers killed and thrown into a pit. Without the old shaman the elder didn’t want to teach me, despite all the information I provided.

It was then when I heard about a female assigned to some old goblin near the river. I think I expected something more. Maybe I was just frustrated that the tribe didn’t want me to grow. It was why I left for some time. I followed the female and found out that the old chieftain was alive. He somehow survived on his own and the old shaman wanted him to have new offspring, but it was too late for that.

I remember shouting at him the moment the female left us. I was angry that he hadn’t come for me. He couldn’t. He was old and sick, but it was something that I felt he should have done.

The rest of our original tribe was gone. They left him behind and went somewhere else in search of food and scared of the hobgoblins. Old chief didn’t talk much. He only wanted me to say a new word to him, but I didn’t want to. Still, I stayed with the two for some time.

I taught the female to catch fish. She liked that. With practise she became much better than I was. It was almost winter when I came back to my hob. Everything was upside down there. The shaman got a name. He was called Nozgu. Goblins say that when they are satisfied with their food. I guess it would mean “sated hunger” in human. The Elder didn’t want to see me and the shaman didn’t like me from the start. Still, because I was useful to my hob who became strong in the tribe I was left to be. I think they both wanted me gone. The Elder wasn’t a mage and Nozgu’s position wasn’t set in stone. They probably feared me as much as they feared the old shaman who was still alive.

Many things have changed. The humans were coming closer. Many monsters moved from their homes. We were attacked by kobolds once. They wanted to take the mines and caverns below for themselves. We started to double the offerings to orcs as they kept the ones that gave the most save.

But the biggest change came from the soldiers in the forest. They began to talk with me and other smart goblins. They didn’t mindlessly killed us. Sometimes they allowed us to plunder the other humans they killed.

When winter came, I became scared once more. I was stronger than goblins, but not the hobs. Humans were interesting, but they killed other humans just like we killed our kin. The old chieftain was about to die. I was almost coming to his place daily. I wanted him to teach me more since the Elder didn’t, but he slept all the time and when he didn’t, he wanted me to say this word I didn’t know.

It was around this time when I found a girl in the cave… She survived the attack of humans. She smelled of magic like the old shaman did. Only I knew about her. The humans didn’t pursue her because I lied to them. They probably believed I would give her to the hobgoblin chief to mate and she wouldn’t survive like other females.

I wanted her to teach me and she did. She told stories. She read the book… With the magic I defeated both my hob and the shaman… and then…

He came and killed everyone. The Shaman, the Elder... the female.

Gob looked at Viper. He was at the verge of crying, but he couldn’t tell that she also was because of her disguise. After a long silent pause Viper spoke.

“This book she read you. Is this the one you read with Fritz?”

“Yes. Old chieftain gave me it after I spoke the word. It’s the same.”

Viper looked away and said.

“I will teach you magic after it gets dark. We would train here.”

She then looked back at Gob and silently asked.

“The word he made you speak. What was it?”

Gob looked at her. He seemed tired. All those memories were crawling in his head when he replied.

“Father.”