"Goblins are small hairy creatures which infest the entirety of Edor. They like to inhabit dark and wet places like caves or flooded ruins which match their filthy personalities. They are weak as an individual but one can be sure that where there is one there are more, many had died for underestimating the little hairy vermin. Not only are they pests which kill and eat anything they can find but when a goblin infestation happenes it is extremely difficult to end it without substantial effort due to their unique anatomy. Goblins do not reproduce like any other animal on Niuran. When a goblin reaches about three months old he gains the ability to lay eggs which he would do every month. They lay their small eggs in the ground in the batches of two dozen and can hide dorment in the soil for half a year waiting for the right moment to emerge. Because of this, they are extremely hard to eradicate, which usually requires liberal application of fire. But that is not all the goblin-kind posses, special individuals like shamans or hobgoblins have to be raised with the help of other races and they do not care if its a mare or a women. To our confusion dwarfs argue that goblins do not lay eggs but we couldn't find any evidence supporting their theories...

-Extract from "Beast and Monsters of Niuran"

 

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"Hello~," Iris said to Kia turning her head to the elf. Her blue and golden eyes glowed slightly in the darkness casting a tired look at Iris. "Rising early today?" In the response, the girl resting on Iris's knees closed her eyes again and snuggled her way higher up the pair of elven legs.

 

The silvery moon highlighted the edge of Kia's dress as she stretched her body, arching her back and after some more wriggling and snuggling of her head in search of the most comfortable spot on Iris's thighs, the girl settled peacefully laying on her two soft pillows. Iris watched Kia's adorable cat-like moves with both delight and guilt. Her cheeks turning red and an urge to fidget in joy came to the elf as she stared at the snuggled girl.

 

Nothing bad could happen after a bit of innocent staring, Iris tried to rationalise her situation or perhaps trying to find solace in a grey area of her reason, allowing her to continue partaking in what felt like consuming a forbidden fruit.

 

"Kitty cat wake up." She shook the sleeping girl.

 

"Mm...kitty?" Meowed, the slowly waking girl.

 

"Stand up, stand up. We have looots to do!" The risen extended her arms and made a big circle with them, trying to instill some energy in the not yet fully conscious Kia.

 

Kia swayed on her legs as she obediently stood up without Iris's usual need to peel her off. Iris gathered their items leaving behind the ashen circle in which small orange ambers still burned.

 

"Ready?" The elf asked as she helped Kia with putting on her backpack.

 

She sluggishly bopped her head in understanding while rubbing her eyes, only now beginning to become aware of her surroundings. Kia stretched her delicate arm toward Iris waiting for her to accept her offering. The elf walked east with Kia in tow, getting back on the dirt path and continuing from where they had stopped.

The road led them to the edge of a leafy forest. When they walked deeper into the forest the leafy roof above them blocked all light from illuminating the forest floor causing even her night vision to start struggling with the darkness.

 

"That's worse, somehow?" Muttered elf when she silently casted Mana Light causing an orb of frosted glass to appear above her open palm, casting long shadows of trees and creating a wall of pitch-black darkness at the edge of the circle of light.

 

"What are you doing?" A puzzled voice emerged from beside Iris.

 

"Trying to see things better, but my spell does not work that well." The elf while put her palms to her side caused the ball of light to dissipate into nothingness causing the world to be plunged into twilight.

 

A sudden blinding white light emerged from behind her making Iris stop. The light dimed quickly and changed its colour gradually. The final result of Kia's spell was a dim ball of light hanging above her, causing Iris to be able to see like if it was day without much problem.

 

"Thank you, Kia." The elf said, receiving a bashful smile from Kia.

 

After a considerable amount of time spent walking down the winding path meandering its way between trees, the women spot a carriage turned on its side with rotting bodies scattered around it. When they approached the blood-coated wreck, Iris climbed on the cart and opened its door with her spear ready by her side. Inside the wreck were three more bloody corpses, two women and a man but unlike the humans outside they wore expensive clothing.

 

"Interesting." The elf said out loud.

 

"What's interesting?" Kia looked up at Iris, lifting her gaze away from the wooden carriage wheel which she spun around. The sight must have looked bizarre to anyone who would have witnessed this scene of a delicate girl playing with a wheel while corpses surrounded her.

 

"Just wondering who could have done this and why. Goblins do not take jewellery from women and then kill them..." She said omitting to Kia what would happened to women who were unlucky enough to be captured by the hairy vermin. "... and if they were ghouls or other monsters we would stumble upon a carriage filled with torn clothes instead of corpses." She continued.

 

Kia did not comment but returned her attention to the wheel which she spun once more, uninterested in the cause of human death around her. The elf did not find Kia's reaction surprising. To her it must have been ordinary to see bodies. An idea came to Iris, to ask the girl below her to talk to the dead, she abandoned the idea, not wanting to risk leaving any evidence of necromancy on the corpses of these humans and causing humans which find them to send adventures to investigate. The elf jumped off the carriage, landing on the ground with a small cloud of dust to rising around her. She walked away from the carriage with Kia in tow and continued their search for goblins figuring out that they were not hired to investigate murder sites.

 

The two continued to walk on the path until a small creek crossed their path and Iris went off the path and followed the water upstream. She remembered someone talking about goblins to Dian or Brad and that they like their lairs to be beside the water for a couple of reasons which she could not remember. As they walked on the muddy ground along the stream, Iris spotted a small hairy figure far in front of them. The goblin was trusting his spear which was a sharpened stick into the river. He made incoherent noises of frustration and flayed his hands in the air each time he failed hit to spear a fish. He suddenly threw himself into the rocky creek. After some splashing, the goblin came back to shore with a flailing fish between his hairy arms which then he rip a part with jagged brown and yellow teeth. Even with her being undead the elf really wanted to avoid getting bit by a goblin.

 

"Kia?" Iris whispered.

 

"Yes?" Kia answered mimicking elf's tone.

 

"Could you kill him with a spell?"

 

When elf stopped speaking, Kia punch the air in front of her sending a bolt of dark energy toward the occupied goblin who fell on his back with considerable force, chucking the lifeless body face first into the muddy river bank.

 

"Nice aim," Iris spoke, seeing a goblin in front of her with a dark patch of skin in the centre of his hairy body.

 

"Th-thanks." Kia fidgeted a bit after receiving a compliment from the elf, appearing not bothered by just murdering a goblin.

 

When they walked toward the place where the goblin was they saw a small creature in front of them laying on the sand, maybe the size of a human nine-year-old. The goblin was covered in a thick coat of dense brown fur covering all of his body except his feet, hands and the ugly face which still had a chunk of fish stuck between the yellow teeth erratically positioned in his big mouth. The goblin's face was dominated by a large hawk shape nose in between the small dark-green eyes. The long pointy ears formed a slight curve towards the ground and had a long thin flap of skin hagging from his ears. This goblin appeared to got himself into many fights as his face bore many scars which made his face even more repelling.

 

"Now we have to find their lair. Sad this fellow can't talk were are more of his brethren." Iris said while lightly kicking the goblin knowing how much of a pain finding their lair would be.

 

"I can fix that!" Kia announced with sudden excitement and casted a spell causing a flame of soft blue light to appear in the goblin's eyes.

 

Iris watched as whatever spell the necromancer used to raise the goblin had caused a blue fire to erupt from his mouth, ears and eyes. His thick hide covered most of it but Iris could see the blue light coming from the goblin's chest before in an instant everything died down back to normality. Iris had never seen a corpse being raised in front of her saw she watched with morbid curiosity as the goblin's lifeless corpse began to move, his body showing no signs of the blue inferno which should have burned him into a wet puddle. With a unnatural wobble the goblin stood up, his eyes replaced with two whips of blue fire. He stared at his master, waiting for his order. "Go to your lair," Kia said to the goblin with a voice Iris never heard. The hairy undead turned around and ran upstream. The elf stared at the running goblin with a small frown which disappeared with a shrug. Who would check goblin corpses for a sign of necromancy, anyway?

 

The two followed the undead goblin tracks up the creek. When they arrived at the end of the track they saw the small undead who stood still beside an entry to a small cave covered by a large bush which grew above the entrance.