Chapter 25: The backstory of a demon

Yurek was happy. Gog had gotten a couple of human worshipers, who have come more often than the rest. He was glad that the God was not ignored, just because he was a goblin.

Once he got a tribe, he was going to show everyone that goblins were more than filthy creatures. That they had a rich history, a good family foundation.

Well, maybe the tribe he had called his own before had not been the warmest, but he had never been beaten back there. Just denied food, as the runt.

They were all in Anmu's house, and the Naga was doing his best to make them all feel welcome. Karakon was in his dragon form, and lying before the cave, where the house was. Alistair and Eleric hunted, Fen lazed around.

Yurek wouldn't exchange the family he had now for another one, no matter how kind others could be. He went to a cloth basket, and took a hold of a cotton bundle from inside.

Ever since he had made the armor, he decided that he liked sewing things. At the very least, he liked making his own clothes. He also made Fen's, the others having enough of their own and not needing him to toil with the needle and thread yet.

Fen came then, and looked at his son.

"Would you like some help, son?" The incubus asked. Yurek nodded. He liked sewing with Fen. The incubus always had a good story for him, as they worked.

"Will you tell me a story?" Yurek asked. Fen nodded.

"I can tell you something about me, if you'd like? But you have to promise to not tell the rest," Fen asked of him, and the goblin nodded.

"I'll keep mum," Yurek assured him.

"Well then, I will tell you now about how I became imprisoned," Fen told him, as he took some cotton in his hands. "It was many centuries ago. I was young and foolish."

"And in love?" Yurek could understand where this was going. He had heard many such tales.

"And in love, yes," Fen looked around. When he didn't see what he was looking for, he looked at Yurek. "Where are the scissors?"

"Here," the goblin passed him the scissors, and began to listen to the tale again.

"I was feeding off souls, back then. I was too young to know that my desires laid with the flesh of others, and not with their souls. So, I killed and killed. Until I met him," Fen looked wistful at that. Wistful and bitter.

"Was he kind?" Yurek asked. If the memory of that man was making his father sad, then he would chase it away.

"He was. Anmu reminds me of him, to an extent. He was the son of a powerful witch, although he had a gentle heart," Fen spoke, and sighed. His fingers worked deathly into cutting up the cotton. The scissors moving along the length of the fabric.

"But he didn't love you?" Yurek asked. "Did you try to romance him?"

The goblin couldn't imagine someone like Anmu saying no to Fen. Anmu himself was deeply besotted. Although, Yurek thought that Karakon was the Naga's favorite.

"How could he love such a cruel creature as I? I captured him, tied him up, and made him mad with my pheromones," Fen spoke. "I had him until he died."

"You...raped the one you loved?" Yurek was blinking at the man who he considered a father. "But you are so..."

"I wasn't like I am now, back then. His mother found out when I dumped his body at her doorstep. The doorstep of the house that she used to chain me at," Fen spoke. The woman had been furious, and heartbroken.

Her only son, a victim of a demon who didn't know what he wanted. Fen had been cursed that day, and the regret that he felt for killing his first love had manifested in him for the first time.

"You won't do the same to them," Yurek spoke, not needing to specify who them were. "You love them."

"I loved him, as well. Yurek, you are a good son, so I feel that you are the only one I can ask. If I ever go mad with lust one day, if I refuse to let them rest. If I am selfish..." Fen sighed. He got his point across, if Yurek's frightened eyes were any indication.

"I won't harm you," the goblin murmured. He took a needle from the basket, and accepted the cut cotton. "You are my father."

"I killed off your tribe in such a way that they were left no dignity," Fen reminded his adoptive son.

"If you are ever selfish, if you are ever that far gone, I will stop you," Yurek spoke, promising the impossible. "Still, you will come to no harm."

Fen giggled, and leaned over so that he could kiss the goblin on the forehead.

"I lucked out with a son like you," Fen ran his fingers over Yurek's bald head next. "You should grow some hair on that head of yours. A nice braid would look good on you. The ladies and the lads will love it."

Yurek blushed, and allowed for the conversation to take on a lighter tone.

"I am too young, father," Yurek protested. Fen just laughed, and took more fabric to cut, so he would have something to sew as well.

"You won't be a boy of ten forever. Don't goblin chieftains have at least three wives?" Fen teased, and Yurek blushed even more.

"Five, but I don't think I can provide for that many," Yurek mumbled. Fen arched an elegant blonde eyebrow.

"Five? Are you going to have a harem to rival my own, son? That would be the day," Fen began to chuckled then.

"Father," Yurek whined. He didn't want as big of a harem as his father's. "I want a single soul mate, that is all."

"What a romantic. You take after Anmu the most," Fen spoke. Yurek began to pointedly ignore him, busying himself with making himself cotton pants.

Fen let out one final chuckle, and began to sew up a tunic for Yurek. A day would come, when his son would leave his side, but today was not that day. Until Yurek lived near him, Fen was going to tease him silly. That was final.