“Wait for me!” A scrawny green goblin cries out to the others ahead of him.
“Come on, Sizzlepop! We have to hurry to make it back before sunset!” A slightly bigger big goblin shouts back at Sizzlepop.
There are a total of seven small goblins, each carrying a stack of hay on their shoulder. The sacks are bigger than the goblins themselves, so it is quite a feat that they even managed to lift them up without falling over.
“We’ve really outdone ourselves this time!” A bronze-colored goblin says with a wide grin. “Finally, a harvest I can be proud of!”
“That’s right, Proudnose!” The goblin at the front nods in agreement. “That’s why I want to show this to Lady Ariadne as soon as possible!”
“Yes, Musclebob,” a female goblin named Liliana agrees with the biggest of the goblins. “She’s been having such a hard time, it’s the least we could do!”
“I’m happy I could be a part of this,” a reddish goblin says with a frail voice. He carries the smallest amount of hay. “Since this is the last harvest before my retirement from fieldwork. Ah! I’ll finally get to meet my grandchildren!”
The old goblin has tears in his eyes. The others smile at him warmly.
“It’s going to be a real shame to see the most experienced of us go,” Liliana says.
“But you deserve it for all your hard work during the years, Minknad!” Proudnose says. “It was so generous for Lady Ariadne to agree to your retirement!”
“Alright, alright! Let’s finish this first!” Musclebob says and looks forward. “It’s just a little more until the gates—”
The goblin loses his train of thought when he looks at the clearly visible large gates in the distance. There, sitting on rocks, he sees two strange girls. They both wear a short white skirt and black waistcoat. The strangest are the bunny ears, sticking out of the black military visor cap, each of the girls have on their head. Musclebob has never seen such strange creatures.
“What’s wrong, Musclebob?” Proudnose asks and walks up to the bigger goblin. “What do you see?”
“What do you mean what? Look!” Musclebob points at the two bunny girls.
“Come on, Musclebob! You know none of us have sight as good as yours!” Liliana speaks up approaching them. Soon all the goblins are standing together.
“There are two strange girls at the gates. They have ears like bunnies, but otherwise, they look human.”
“Oh, bunnies, you say?” Minknad asks and winces, looking in the distance. “I’ve seen plenty of them in my day. Though it is rare to find them in these lands.”
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“Could they be enemies?” one of the goblins drops his sack of hay and ducks, covering his head. His tiny legs shake, knees hitting each other.
“Nonsense, Scyratac!” the shortest of the goblins, named Geracu, pats Scyratac on the shoulder. “If there were enemies, Ariadne would have already turned them into a pile of red mush!”
“But there were those humans, who have come twice this month already!” Scyratac cries.
“And what was their fate?” Geracu asks reassuringly.
“Red... mush...” Scyratac calms down.
“Could it be some of Lady Ariadne’s Sisters?” Sizzlepop asks.
“No way!” Liliana dismisses such a possibility. “None of them have come here for as long as I worked for Lady Ariadne! And they wouldn’t just stand at the gates like that!”
“Neither would robbers!” Proudnose says. “They would be either looting the dungeons or running away!”
“Lady Ariadne was consumed by her summoning efforts for some time now,” Minknad says and rubs his chin. “Perhaps these two are the ones she was looking for?”
“Only one way to find out!” Geracu adjusts his sack of hay on his shoulder and walks forward, toward the gates. One by one the other goblins follow, Scyratac trailing behind.
“Heads up, Delta!” the bunny girl with the biggerer tits of the two stands up and takes the hilt of her whip. “We’ve got some small fry incoming!”
Delta raises her head and places her hand on one of her two axes.
“And looks like there’s no one with them,” Epsilon says and licks her lips. “Would you say that those goblins are "on sight", Delta?”
Delta nods and swiftly dashes to the side, to cut off the goblins, should they try to escape.
“I thought so too!” Epsilon says that loudly and, with excitement, cracks her whip above her head and charges at the small goblins.
“AAAAAH!” The goblins scream in unison dropping their harvest.
Liliana and Proudnose hug each other, shaking and screaming in horror as they watch a bunny girl twice their size approach them. Geracu runs away with his hands raised, Sizzlepop follows him in a similar fashion. Scyratac falls to the ground, covering his head and crying. Musclebob stands in front of Minknad with his fists raised, ready to defend his kin. The last thing Musclebob hears is a second crack of the bunny girl’s whip...