Chapter 66: Chapter Sixty-five – In which Ark’s credit score with Prima tanks, and Diana comes to establish the pecking order with Glace.

“Ark break deal with Prima!”

“Huh?”

“Ark deal make belly fat! Disappear last night, not make Prima belly fat! Make Vera belly fat! Now Vera have runt smart one!”

“Prima, I already told you that I don’t know why her belly got fat! I only know that it had nothing to do with me! When I went to my cave-hole, I found Vera already had a fat belly, and I haven’t wasted big seed with her in three days because I’ve been putting all that I have inside of you!”

“Not care anymore. Change deal. Make Prima grand weapon!”

I was given an out, I think. I don’t know why… maybe it was because it was Vera and no one else, but now I’m on the hook to make an excessive weapon for the woman who has just about all the best weapons to be found in the cave as it is.

“Alright, fine. If it makes you happy. What kind of weapon do you want?”

“Prima best hunt with spear.”

“Any particular kind of spear?”

“Don’t care. Only care Ark make. Deal for weapon now. Grand weapon, like Fear-fang or Crunch-maul!”

She’s really being insecure about her position as the strongest in the tribe, isn’t she?

“Then give me some time. Diana wants one as well. I’ll make them both in a few days. Let me have time with Vera and Glace first, please.”

“Not trick Prima again with bad deal. Will kick you many many times!”

I, who have been on the receiving end of many of Prima’s punches and kicks, would like to avoid that as much as possible. Mostly due to the usage of many many, which as far as I can figure is some vague number between five and infinity. So, with my already impossibly large schedule of things to do, and Prima’s room officially crossed off as needing further renovation for now, I need to finish building Toy’s workshop, talk with Lily to see if she got the animal skin and rope I wanted so I can make a padded leg-guard and rope belt to hold it for Orchid’s bone-saw, and a simple cloth holster for Lilac’s spiked hammer.

If not for Diana also asking me for a weapon as well, I would have asked Berry to get some skin, if available, for Diana’s long knife so she could have a better sheath.

Speaking of those three, I heard they took over the human-like room I made for Stella, which she apparently refused, and declared it as their base. Honestly, I’m a little happy to find out the three of them plan to live together when it’s time to get their own cave-holes in a few months. It’s like a little sorority house now.

Maybe they took some inspiration in deciding to do so from Ivory and Truffle?

I’m just glad Lily and Berry wouldn’t do such a thing. I’m pretty sure I barely survived that encounter. I’d heard about maneaters before, but I’m well aware I did not come out of that encounter the victor.

Let’s see, am I forgetting anything?

Ah. Yes I am. I need to visit Ivory for a thin bone that could qualify as a threading needle. There is some kind of weed-like grass that never seems to dry which Lily has in abundance, and I can easily use that as threading for what I want to make. I’d also like to use my visit to Ivory’s as an excuse to see Button.

I find her to be silly and cute, and I can’t help but wonder if she’s forgiven me for what happened the other day when she got spanked by Ivory for getting lost in the cave and mistakenly thought to have fallen into the shit-pit.

I won’t begin work on Toy’s workshop until Vera is mobile again. That’s why I intend to do some sewing while I’m caring for Vera and Glace.

It’s been quite a while already and Vera hasn’t woken up yet. The Old One came back for a visit when Berry showed some concern about her not waking up, but all the Old One had to say about it was that Vera was a stupid and lazy goblin.

Glace is doing well, and hasn’t given me too many problems when it comes to holding her. While Vera is perfectly able to provide milkies to Glace, that does nothing to stop her from trying to sample what Berry still has available. If I didn’t know any better, I think she’s trying to gob-block me from being close to anyone other than Vera.

While Vera slept and it was just Glace and I, using the carving bone, I drew Runes on the ground and had Glace demonstrate to me that she can manifest each one with little effort. She also hasn’t spoken a single word to me, but I don’t know if that’s normal or not for newborn baby goblins.

But, I made the effort to talk to her as much as possible so she could develop socially.

Still, she’s so… tiny, in comparison to her sisters at birth, that is.

And speaking of her sisters, before the day came on in full force, Diana, Orchid, and Lilac all came to see their newest little sister.

“Husband, we came to see the smart one!” Diana was acting like a little leader, with Lilac and Orchid right behind her.

Vera and Glace were still in their bedroom, while I was a bit more mobile, tidying up the breeding room while leaving those two in relative peace when it was Glace’s nap time. Vera had woken up for a little bit, before my daughters arrived, mostly enough to hold her daughter for a moment, then quietly say hungry before going back to sleep.

Prima would be bringing food for Vera to eat soon enough.

“Alright, just try not to wake Vera. Glace is your sister’s name and she’s in Vera’s cave-hole.”

Diana and the girls continued on to Vera’s room and after some quiet chatter in gob which I couldn’t make out properly, Glace had emerged from the room on her own with the three of them. Glace was not like the other three. She was clumsy and tiny and frail. But she wasn’t weak. That’s not to say she was physically strong in any way, but she didn’t need to be. Her mind was as sharp as Diana’s body was dexterous.

“Husband, Glace can use human magic?” Diana asked me.

“Yeah, she might look as small as a runt, but she’s going to definitely be stronger than me when it comes to magic.”

Diana squinted at me for a moment, before turning around to look at her youngest sister again.

“Do you know how to dig hole in the ground and make the wind push far?”

Glace nodded.

“Me Diana Artemis! Next guardian of goblin tribe and oldest of sisters. You show me magic so I know how strong Glace!”

I wasn’t sure if Glace was going to see it as a hazing of some kind. It was already made clear to me there was a certain pecking order with all of my goblin girls, both the adults and my daughters. But Glace seemed prepared for it, keeping the equivalent of a poker face on while she squatted down and drew a circle in the little dirt of the breeding room floor with her tiny pointy finger. When it was done, she pointed at them to move to three separate spots.

I guess Diana was humoring her, because she had Orchid and Lilac do the same, moving to the appropriate places. Diana stood ready to watch, having seen both of my magics in action due to having had access to the quartz focus orb when we went to rescue Prima, Jewel, and Doll from the pack of large Black-claw wolves.

Glace, up until this point, had only used one hand to manifest formula magic runes, and not more than five at once. I also struggle not to be completely drained, manifesting a meager three runes. But as she doesn’t seem to have any internal mana to speak of, it’s utterly mind-boggling how she can do it at all without suffering exhaustion.

Her two hands came up, and I watched as she chained five runes together on her right hand. Power-Wide-Wind-Charge-Push. I felt the wind churn around my bare skin as a ferocious blast of wind, nearly as powerful as the one I had used on the Black-claw wolves at the stream, was unleashed from her right hand, inside this windless cavern. And even with Diana digging her sharp toes into the ground she was standing on, she was lifted a tiny bit off her feet and blown back.

The runes that surrounded Glace’s right hand burned away, and new runes manifested into her left.

Power-Wide-Pull-Land-Charge.

A long wall of dirt rose up from the ground in a crescent shape behind my hunter daughters before they would be flung by the wind blast into the South wall of the breeding room. Each of the girls impacted it, but the dirt wasn’t made compact, so it was like landing on a rough cushion. Two runes circling Glace’s hand burned away, and only a single rune, Push, was added to a new four-rune formula chain. Power-Wide-Land-Push.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

A wide trench about half of the body size of Diana, Orchid, and Lilac, had opened beneath each of them, and the three of them slid down the dirt-wall cushion behind them and into the trench. Keeping the runes active, she dismissed all the runes she was using and manifested a single one, Decay, which caused the dirt wall to crumble into the pit, trapping all three of them from below the ribs down.

“What is this! Nghh.” Diana was struggling to pull herself out. Lilac and Orchid were doing the same, complaining that they were stuck. I walked over to Glace and put my hand on her head.

“I think you showed them what you can do for now.”

Glace turned around to look up at me, and then peed on my foot before falling onto her butt.

Well, there had to be a limit to her power, I imagine, wherever it was coming from. I had the topaz on hand and began to shift the dirt so the three of them would be freed from their temporary prison.

“Alright you three, satisfied? Go hit the shower.” I said to them before they could decide to take any ill feelings out on Glace.

They all did so, and I scooped up my little sorceress-shaman-whatever cutie and brought her to the shower as well. Activating the rune panel in there, water poured out from the ceiling and washed off a good amount of the dirt they were coated in. I went straight into the bath, keeping Glace safely on my lap after sitting down in the water. My trio of eldest daughters also joined us in the bath, with all three of them looking at their newest sister with active interest.

“Thought she would be weak like Button.” Diana said without a single shred of reservation in her words.

“Glace is small. Is she runt like Lily?” Lilac asked.

Orchid skipped saying anything and waded through the bath to come sit on my lap next to Glace. She leaned into my body and hugged me.

“Daddy! I flew like a bird!” Well, at least someone found that fun. If that was how she wanted to view that experience, instead of as a loss, I wasn’t going to take it away from her.

“Husband, she not use shiny stone. Don’t you need shiny stone?” Diana pressed.

“There are two types of magic, princess. Force magic which uses a focus orb and my mana, and formula magic which can be drawn on things,” I pointed to the rune panel which powered the heating runes in the bath, “or if the magician has a strong enough mind, they can take shape like what you saw earlier. I’m much better at force magic which obeys my will, where Vera is better with the written kind that follows instructions… kind of like doing something the goblin way. And Glace here… is looking to be well above that.”

“In many sun, we will take Glace on the hunt.” Diana decreed.

“That soon?” I asked her. “Old One seems to want her to be something other than a hunter.”

“Already know. But Diana Artemis as next Guardian want know how strong all sisters are. Diana Artemis hunt with Prima and Vera. Hunt with Jewel and Doll. Hunt with Husband. Diana Artemis keep Glace safe when can go hunt in many days.”

“Alright, as long as you promise to keep her out of immediate danger, as in not letting her get close to whatever you are going to prey upon, she can go. In fact, she will be good at helping you from a distance.”

“Diana Artemis listen Husband.”

It was her way of saying she understood. Okay. I can’t say I’m thrilled to let this little goblin nugget go out into the wilds, but I’ve seen Diana in action, and the fact that Lilac and Orchid were able to take down a fairly sizeable wild boar working together, I didn’t think too negatively about it.

“Promise me her first kill with you is something you three have already managed to kill together. After that, I’ll trust you on what to hunt,”

“Diana Artemis promise.”

“Lilac promise.”

“Orchid promise!” and then my third oldest clung to me with a hug as she said it.

“The Old One said she was going to teach Glace about being a Shaman. If that’s the case, Glace may not always be available to hunt.”

“What is shaman?” Lilac inquired.

“A goblin magician, I think. But like, an important one.” I answered.

Most of the mages from the so-called civilized races considered tribal magicians to barely be in the realm of first-circle mages. At most they were slightly intelligent beings who accidentally discovered that they had mana, and crudely used a mixture of force magic with runes they probably had little understanding of to make incidental and crude magic like bursts of fire or even small curses. But almost all magicians from the second circle and beyond were elitist, shunning the study or use of any kind of tribal magic at all as fully barbaric in nature.

“I hate to sound weak here in front of you three, but is there any chance you have any meat leftover from whatever you’ve hunted recently?” The single word from Vera a little earlier was still present in my mind.

“Daddy wants to eat meat?” Orchid asked me, still clinging to me happily.

“It’s more for Vera and Glace. I know Prima went to hunt something for her, but Vera said she was hungry and Prima hasn’t come back yet.. I also haven’t seen Glace eat anything so far. She’s only uh… had milikes?”

“Glace eat fire-meat or bloody meat?” Diana asked me.

I could only shake my head and shrug.

“I don’t know. Glace? Do you have a preference?”

Glace just stared at me blankly.

“Not matter. Lilac, Orchid. We bring meat from base-hole here first. Glace eat and become strong enough to go on hunt with us in many days.”

It was good to see my big ones looking out for my little ones, even though to me they were all still my precious babies.

“Husband. Diana Artemis have big-think about weapon want Husband make. Want weapon not need let go when climb tree.”

“Thinking about how Prima had to drop her spear?” I asked Diana.

“Yes. Diana Artemis brave goblin! Want brave weapon!”

“Alright. I’ll think of something appropriate. I’m going to visit Ivory to see what kind of bones she has to work with. If you all are going out hunting later, remember to bring back the bones of whatever you hunt so I can get some ideas on what to make.”

That seemed to pique Diana’s interest. She had rallied the other two and they set off on their quest to bring some meat back to the breeding room for Vera and Glace. (Not before Lilac got to cling to me for just a little bit longer, though! I love my little daddy’s girl.)

“Shall we take a trip somewhere quick ourselves, Glace? I need to get something from Ivory, and you can meet your other sister, Button.”

Glace seemed uninterested, but didn’t fuss at all when I personally carried her out of the breeding room and down the cave to the merged cave-holes of Ivory and Truffle.