Chapter XVI: The Unexpected

Alakar tosses two high bogs off of him and says, “Alright, that’s enough boys. I need to go see your mother now. Where have you guys been staying at?”

Rou stands up and asks, “Where has you beens?! We killed many things without yous,” with a glum expression on his face.

Yee promptly smacks Rou upside the head and shouts, “Answer father, he asked yous first ape!” and he clenches his fists.

Alakar then rests his hands on the shoulders of both his sons and says, “Both of you knock it off. I just came back, and I can’t stand to see you two squabble. Please, will the both of you lead me back home?”

Rou looks at the ground in dismay, and replies, “Yes father,” and starts to walk off.

Yee pulls his head up, hands Alakar a gold chain, and states, “By right, dis is yours fadder.”

Alakar dangles the golden chain between his two fingers and asks, “What do you mean? You know I don’t care for luxuries like this, right?”

Yee clasps both of his hands together and says, “But, but, shinies are da best, and you are da best,” as he continues to gawk at his father with round black eyes.

Alakar then smiles, rubs Yee’s bald head, and says, “There are more important things in life than ‘shinies,’ but I’ll wear it for you. Thank you, now run along. I’ll follow your trail while I catch up with Mel.”

Yee nodded and then dashed across the clearing after Rou. Alakar made sure to watch his sons meet and exit the clearing before he turned to Mel. The caster had been waiting on the side ever so patiently to speak.

Mel says, “Cousin… I thought you were dead. Where did you go, and how did you get so big?” as he pokes his chest.

Alakar swats his hand away, and replies with, “Now that you mention it, I am taller than you, huh, as I should be,” and he laughs.

Mel bites his lip, stiffs his arms down, and yells, “Making fun of my height like always?! You can blow off my questions, but you know you’re going to have to explain yourself to Margrett.”

Alakar pauses and asks, “...How is she doing?”

Mel simmers down and says, “She’s been doing alright. The boys have been helping me take care of her. Or at least when they’re not murdering or stealing shit, they help their mom…”

Alakar folds his arms, and asks, “Murder, as in people?! And stealing what?! My sons would never!”

Mel blinks several times and stares intently at Alakar, and says, “Did you forget they’re not human? Just look at the carnage around you!”

Alakar glances around at the dozens of goblin corpses and replies with, “Goblins don’t count as a people, and they don’t have much value to constitute stealing.”

Mel pulls at his hair and yells, “Do you fucking hear yourself?! You’re a goblin! Your wife and sons are goblins! You’re the biggest hypocrite I’ve ever met!”

Alakar walks off, turns away from Mel, and says, “You have no right to call me that. I know that you’ve experimented on goblins in the university. And we both know goblins have no right as a people, however, I’m not really a goblin but a man trapped in the body of a monster…”

Mel follows his cousin through the clearing and mumbles, “There is some truth to what you say… But your situation is much different than you know, and I’ve had some change of heart over this past month.”

Alakar walks halfway down an incline and asks, “A change of heart? And what do mean about my situation? Did you find a cure for me while I was gone, yet?”

Mel stops at the top of the incline, looks down on Alakar, and states, “No. There is no simple way to say, but before the reapers came and took you. I learned something from your body that I thought to only be heresy or lore at best.”

Alakar stops, looks up at Mel, and asks, “Out with it. What are you talking about?”

Mel bows his head, quivers, and says, “There is no easy way to say this, but you have been forsaken by God, specifically the demigod known as Olmer...”

Alakar snorts, goes back to walking down the incline, and states, “What nonsense! It looks like I’m going to have to find someone else to help me turn back.”

Mel tried to follow his cousin down the incline, yet he tripped over his own robes and tumbled down the hill. Alakar ignored his blunder and continued to walk past the heaping mess on the ground that was his cousin.

Mel reaches his hand out and yells, “Cousin! I have no way to change your family back, but you still need me for there may be another way!”

Alakar stops, turns around to lift Mel up, and asks, “Another way? How?”

Mel pulls himself up with the help of his cousin and says, “I believe if you safely remove the stone from your chest, you may go back to normal, and the rest of your family as well. However, you will need to hone your magic to do so.”

Alakar frowns and asks, “How will I do that? I can barely use a light stone, let alone cast spells…”

Mel flicks dirt off his robe and says, “For some reason, your body contains more magic than mine own now, and with some training, I’m sure that you can learn.”

Alakar smiles with glee and says, “I won’t believe it until you train me, but thank you. You have watched over my family and given me more than I could have ever asked for. Watching over a wife and children that aren't even yours; you are a better man than me for sure.”

Mel smirks, and says, “Ah, what can I say, I’m pretty awesome,” and he tries to shove him.

Alakar side steps, grabs his arm, and then throws him onto his back, and says, “Okay enough with the mushiness. We have somewhere to be,” and he bolts through the mud and ferns of the soaked lands.

The two passed through the swamp lands like a dart in mid-flight. The air was musty and added to the sweat on their bodies. Yet the slight breeze dampened their fatigue. It wasn’t long until the Alakar’s breakneck speeds cut through the terrain, and they arrived at their intended destination.

Mel points and leans forward on Alakar’s back, and says, “This is it. We’re here,” and he jumps off.

Alakar scratches his head and asks, “Here?! This is just the base of the plateau. I don’t see anything.”

Mel points again, and yells, “You fool! Look over there near that pond!”

It wasn’t clear to Alakar at first, but he eventually recognized the structure that his family had been calling home. The domicile was a wooden shack built upon stilts over a shallow bed of water. Wood was tied together via vines, and the gaps were covered over in moss.

Alakar shakes his fist at Mel, and yells, “What the fuck. This looks like a shit shack. You probably built this thing, didn’t you?! It looks like it could fall down at any moment!”

Mel gives his cousin a sideways look, and says, “Not to bruise your pride there, but your sons built it for their mother. It was indeed a ‘shit shack’ as you called it, but me and Boo reinforced it with earth magic.”

Alakar walks towards the Z-shaped stairway and asks, “My son learned magic?! I knew he’d do great things!”

Mel follows up and uses the handrail, and says, “Why yes. His talent is unique, not sure if it’s because he’s a goblin or what have you. But I expressed the teachings of my Goddess, yet he refused and succeeded in great feats nonetheless; truly interesting.”

Alakar comes to a door and says, “I will have to ask him to show me some time,” and he pushes the door open.

The inside appeared much different than the outside. All four corners of the room were shaved down flat, yet the holes were still visible. Several light stones mounted on the walls lit up the room instead of light coming in through the gaps in the walls. There was also a clear lack of furniture, excluding a bed of pelts that collected in the back of the room. And on the pile of pelts laid a large high bog with an exuding smile.

Margrett leaps from her bed hugs Alakar, and cries, “I never thought I’d see you again! I’m so happy to see you!”

Alakar embraces her, and weeps, “I love you so much. I’m glad to be back home,” and then kisses her.

Margrett's face of joy quickly switches though, and she asks, “What happened to you? Why did you not come with us?!

Alakar looks away, scratches the back of his head, and states, “Eh, I felt like I needed to buy everyone some time to escape, and I found myself imprisoned for a time…”

Margret huffs, puts her hands on her hips, and says, “Hmm, I’ll need to hear more later. This whole ditching me thing seems to run in the family.”

Alakar raises a brow and asks, “How can that be? Mel told me everyone was taking care of you while I was gone.”

Mel butts in and states, “That’s true, however, Boo’s most recent adventure has kept him away for a few more days than usual…”

*Knock* *Knock*

Alakar opened the door behind himself, and a frail high bog stumbled on through. He heaved in and out from exhaustion, as he held something wrapped in a cloth.

Mel says, “Well speak of the devil. We have been praying for your return caster Boo,” and he helps prop him upright.

Boo heaves and says, “When I heards of Father’s return. I hurried backs.”

Alakar rubs Boo’s back, and says, “I’m glad to see you again my son. But what do you have there?”

Boo’s eyes flick as if he forgot something, and goes down onto one knee in between his parents, and says, “I brings yous the most valuable gift.”

Alakar folded his arms and acted skeptical, as it looked to be just a golden laced piece of cloth. However, Margrett had a very different reaction, and she was almost jumping with excitement. Mel stood across from Boo knowing full well what it was already. It was only when Margrett seized and unraveled the bundle of cloth when everyone knew for sure of its contents.

“Waaahhh! Waaahhh! Waaahhh!”

Alakar yells, “What?! A baby?! Nooooo!”

*Boom*

Before anything else could be said. An intense blue glow filled the room. The glow was so intense that it blinded everyone. And right as the glow exploded, Alakar noticed that he was the only one shielding himself from the light.

Everyone closed their eyes besides Margrett, who stared into the center of it with exhilaration. Yet soon the glow subsided, almost as quickly as it appeared, and something had changed.

Margrett coddles the infant and says, “Thank you Boo. She is so adorable, and I love her,” and she stares into the baby’s eyes.

Alakar grits his teeth and asks, “What’s going on here?! What the fuck was that?!”

Boo stands up, looks down at the ground while rubbing his foot on the floor, and says, “Well, well, mothers love babus, so I brings Mother babu.”

Mel touches Alakar’s shoulder and says, “This has been somewhat of a normal occurrence. It fascinates me, as I’ve never seen such magic before. Definitely a field that needs greater study.”

Alakar paces back and forth within the room, and eventually asks, “Why is everyone so okay with this?! Where are the babies coming from? How many are there? And what am I gonna do with all these kids?!”

Mel laughs and says, “I don’t know. I’m not their dad. I just make sure they don’t kill each other,” as he strokes his beard and continues to chuckle.

Boo props open the door and says, “Fathers, if you walks out onto the stairs here, your questions wills be answered.”

Alakar struts out onto the top of the stairwell, grips the railing and leans in, and says, “Oh, I’m fucked. No way.”

Down below him was a group of fifty some odd bogarts loitering in the area. They were seen making tools, fighting amongst each other, and hauling sacks off of a large frog. However, as Alakar peered down onto them, they all stopped and stared up at him in silence.

*Clomp* *Clomp* *Clomp* *Clomp*

Yee exclaims, “Fadder, there is someones lurking around. He covers his smells and looks like a large stone.”

Alakar looks at Yee, then looks back down at the goblins, then looks back at Yee again, and says, “Huh, you know this day is really throwing me for a loop, right?”

Yee jumps up and down, and yells, “Fadder! There is an intruder! Enemy! We musts kills dem!”