Goblins, young and old, poked their heads out between the large Lament Willow roots.

There were about 20-30 of them that I counted, the youngest being a baby held to it's mother's bare breast. She was the only female that I could distinguish, with her slightly larger breasts in comparison to the males. But other than her breasts and smaller canines, she looked exactly the same as the other goblins.

I cover the top of my beak where my nose-holes were with one wing.

Urgh. They all stunk. The heavy rain should have washed the worst bits of poop and urine away, but the ground was covered in filth. This was so much worse than Greenie's cave. I miss it so much…

One storm wasn't enough to get rid of the stench.

{Common Forest Goblin Female}
{Common Forest Goblin Male}
{Common Forest Goblin Male}
{Common Forest Goblin Male}
{Common Forest Goblin Male}

Their names may be common, but the smell they gave off sure wasn't. It felt weird seeing so many of them, with faces so similar to Greenie's.

I'd noticed on the way here that the closer we got to this place, the less monsters that were around. The only occasional bird and insect flying by were the only living things here besides me and the goblins.

The woods here were more of an open space. With the stench, I was sure that most predators would turn away from this place instead of coming here to hunt some goblin.

I made sure not to let down my guard as the goblin that had "captured" me brought me in. I just watched the sight around me.

All the goblins had skin in different shades of green, light green like the color of green grapes at birth but growing darker to evergreen tones with age. This must be the tribes that the description Appraisal had given me was talking about.

The one that had captured me, I'll call him scarface for now, pointed to me perched atop his stick and grinned.

He was the biggest out of them all, a little shorter than the average human male. Other male goblins began to crowd around him, trying to poke at me with their sticks and grab at my feathers. 

Nuh-uh!

"Kieeek!" I let out a goblin call, a firm tone that should get my no across.

And they get it. They pause, cocking their heads at the sight of a black raven able to call out just like them. I blink as their faces come closer, all the twisted goblin faces surrounding me making me a bit nervous. Though the younger goblins had smoother, if somewhat wrinkled skin, the male goblins with spears all had some sort of circular scars dotted under their lines. The more circles they had carved in their face, there were also more colorful and brighter feathers.

I shift my weight atop Scarface's spear. If they tried any funny business, I was out of here. It was easy enough to escape and take to the skies.

But I could already predict where this was going.

After all, there was a fire going in the base of one of the trees, protected from the rain inside while smoke escaped through gaps between twisted roots.

Scarface walks deeper into the center in the midst of the Lament Willows. I was enthralled at the beauty of these humongous trees, and their long wavy branches that shook with the wind.

With one stronger gust of wind, the leaves part, allowing me to see something I would never have noticed with my vision as a human.

There were some words carved into the base of the tree above the gnarled roots.

But I was too far away, and the waving leaves too thick to see what it said. But I knew there were words there, not random markings.

"Kiek! Ki!" Scarface breaks off some dry branches growing out of the wall and adds them to the fire, stoking it to burn brighter.

The warm gust of wind blows towards me, the smoke making my eyes water. But I wasn't too worried. More than that, what I could see inside the base of the tree we were in was making me freeze in shock.

The dry branches that Scarface had broken off from inside the Lament WIllow were actually part of larger, twisted walls of branches formed together to become several things. I could see knobs on the wall, and holes which held what looked like fabric and jars and bottles. Everything was darkened, covered with a layer of thick ash. The goblins must have kept the fire going in here for ages.

While most of the items in the lower holes in the walls were disturbed, cracked open or empty, the upper ones that were too high for the short goblins to reach were interesting. These things definitely didn't belong to the goblins.

And the floor too. Scarface's 3 toes sunk into the filthy moss like a thick carpet. But the way it bounced back with his every footstep looked comfortable. It was the kind of carpet I would want in my own home.

{Silverfur Moss}

The description said silver but the moss was more of a dark grey-black color. Such a waste, for it to be covered in ashes and dried blood. Yes, blood. This room inside the tree seemed to have become the goblin's kitchen, from the bloodstains on the ground and littered fragments of broken knives.

I look up from the ground and back towards the low campfire with glowing embers.

Scarface had brought me to the fire that burned in a pit in the center of the room. And from the way the drool dripped from the corner of his mouth, I was sure what he wanted.

He wanted to cook me.

Hahhh. I was hoping the goblins here were more like Greenie. Greenie had wanted to make me his pet, not eat? or take my feathers by force.

Sigh. Shrugging my shoulders, another breath heaves out of me.

Scarface reaches one hand towards my torso...

Oh no you don't!

One『Peck』was enough to shatter the spear I was tied to, and I took off. The strips of leather tied around my talons slip off and drop to the ground.

"Kriie!!" Scarface calls out in alarm as I smack him in the face on my way up. That's what you get for trying to cook me! Even if I'd expected something like this.

I don't try to injure him though. Thinking of Greenie, if this was his tribe, I wanted to make sure his relationship with his people didn't go bad because of me.

I flew up and out of the roomy base of the tree, following the trails of smoke to land on the higher branches.

The overgrown trees above me made it hard for me to rise all the way up past the treetops, but that didn't matter. As long as I was out of reach of the grasing goblin hands, all was good.

Scarface comes out of the bottom of the tree while the other goblins gather together to stare up at me, canines glinting at me as their mouths open, agape.

But I don't fly off to escape just yet. This place was too weird. There were notches carved into the tree bark on the sides of the Lament Willow, like stairs, but too shallow to be of any use to the three-toed goblins. Some other intelligent species had lived here, agile enough to climb these trees with the notches on the bark. 

Was there anyone among the goblins that could tell me what happened here? One of them should have some degree of intelligence. They all looked quite similar to Greenie except for the decorative scars on their faces.

Was this Greenie's tribe?

Either way, this was the perfect time to test out Thought Transmission.

I had a captive audience below me too. Looking out over the green, wrinkled and scarred faces below me, I focus on activating the skill.

E-hem.

Hello?

Everyone looks back at me with blank faces. Some grew bored of looking at me and went back to wandering about while others started fighting with each other.

Almost all the male goblins had their own spears. Each spear had at least one feather attached below the tip, though the color and size of the feather varied.

Was I using Thought Transmission right?

If I think about it, the rats wouldn't have been able to speak in a language to each other. They hadn't been able to warn each other of the cliff they'd all leaped off of too. But maybe Taunt had disturbed their ability to transmit then. Hmm.

Maybe transmitting pictures or emotions was better?

I try sending out thoughts of a black raven sitting next to a goblin before a warm campfire. Cozy, comforting feelings of friendship and camaraderie.

It didn't work.

One by one, the goblins leave, with only Scarface remaining. But even he was starting to look bored.

I give up on communicating and observe the goblin's camp from my higher vantage point. The way the Lament Willows were spaced out evenly in a perfect circle around a grassy open space was strange. It looked calculated, giving off the sense of natural orderliness that was somewhat similar to the feel of the planned communities from my old world.

This place wasn't just some roughly built campground. Nor was it the kind of home a tribe would have, with established traditions and usages.

It looked like the goblins had moved in and taken over, not knowing the true value of the place they lived in. It wasn't like the goblins could catch me if they wanted to, so I take the time and fly around, flitting through each tree root to peek inside the rooms at the base of the trees.

One held a bubbling clear spring inside, another strewn about with destroyed woven baskets. Nothing was inside the baskets. Probably rotted away or eaten by the goblins a long time ago. The rest of the rooms laid empty. Whatever previous inhabitants that lived here had cleared the place out.

When I got to the third room, I froze. My talons were stuck atop a root growing out from the ceiling of the darkened room as I took in the horrifying sight before me.

There were people in here. Emphasis on the were.

Since the people were dead. 5-6 human women, eyes glassy and lower halves bloodied lay strewn about the floor, emitting a terrible stench.

Their rough articles of clothing, bloodstained and a coarse sort of cloth spoke volumes of the kind of lives they led. Some were even missing their hair, heads smooth from where their hair must have fallen out from the trauma.

Aurghhhhh. I turn around and dry heave, although nothing comes out. All my food had already been digested during the evolution. The image of the dead women were still seared into my mind even as I kept them from my sight. From the state of their bodies, I knew they'd all died from childbirth. But I had only seen one goblin baby in the tribe. THe rest had all been mature goblin males.

Were these people the mothers of the goblin males, then??

Their bodies still looked fresh enough to have died at least a few days before. I remind myself not to think in human standards. These goblins could have a much shorter maturation period than a human did. But I didn't care to go down and explore the inside of this Lament Willow.

This whole place had turned from a fun mystery to solve into the scene of a horrifying tragedy.

I quickly move my wings, beating them hard to get out of there as fast as I can.

I was done with exploring this place. It was better to quickly leave. Go back to Greenie and our humble cave, try to fix it back up again after the number the rats had done on the place.
I fly out and land on one of the upper branches of the Lament Willow outside. The goblins all ignored me by now, even Scarface, who'd disappeared sometime while I explored this place.

To get out of here, first I needed to find which direction to go in. Staring up at the waving willow branches, I watch for a gap between them that I could squeeze through that'll let me get out into the open skies. As soon as I find one, I could fly out, get my bearings on my location, and fly in the general direction of our cave.

There's one!

I was focused on getting out of here. The recurring image of the dead women in that Lament Willow was messing me up. I'd never seen something like that before. It reminded me of the horrible vision I'd had during the last evolution, of someone hurting me with a happy look on their face, I-

"KIEK! "Kii!!"

"KEIII!"

A chorus of angry goblin cries makes me start and look down from atop the tree branches.

The long, trailing fronds blocked my vision to see out past the branches of the Lament Willow but-

I use Pet Detection and test the string that connected me with Greenie. One tug, and I knew. Though I couldn't see him,

Greenie was here!

And the other goblins didn't seem to like him.