Chapter 119: [v2] Chapter Thirty-eight – In which Kiwi, a jack-of-all-trades goblin does her very best!

[v2] Chapter Thirty-eight – In which Kiwi, a jack-of-all-trades goblin does her very best!

~~** Interlude | Kiwi **~~

My Husband and my sisters are all so amazing. It’s hard for me to find something I’m good at that either an adult goblin or one of my big sister goblins aren’t already amazing at. Forget fighting. While I have learned how to use different weapons for the hunt, I’m by no means as good as the adult hunters like Prima and Jewel, or my big sisters Diana, Orchid, Lilac, and Nova. When it comes to magic, how can I possibly compare myself to Vera, Glace, Ebony, or Selene? And as for making things? I’m not as good at creating fun new games as Game and Toy are, or even when it comes to making tasty food like big sister Melon is.

I know Pear is disappointed that I’m not a big fat goblin like she and Melon are so that Husband will love me lots, but it’s not like I chose to be like this!

I know I also disappoint Husband by always pestering him to as much as possible about everything he knows, unlike my sisters who only need to know a little bit and can do or make amazing things having only talked with him about something for a little bit.

I think, sometimes, that’s about the only thing I’m good at—talking.

Well, I’m also good at listening, too.

That’s why I thought I might try something different today. Recently, I became a big-sister goblin. Before that, I was the youngest strong-one in the tribe. As the youngest, I couldn’t help but look up in amazement at all the amazing things my big-sister goblins could do that I couldn’t. And when I see my little-sister goblin Gremory being carried around on Husband’s shoulders all the time, playing with him, I can’t help but think that she’s also going to be more amazing a goblin than I am.

That’s why I wanted to see if there was something I could do better than any other goblin, and my idea came from something I had talked about with Husband.

He had mentioned something called a store before. It’s supposed to be something found in big places that not-goblins gather outside of Goblinhome called towns. Basically, it’s a gathering of outside cave-holes called houses made of tree-wood that not-goblins live inside of.

There are people who make things and sell them to these big houses called stores that gather all kinds of things and make it easy to buy them. According to Husband, it’s not only in a goblin’s nature to be lazy. A store is a place where instead of having to go all over the place to different cave-holes and order things, they can just make one lazy trip to the store and get just about everything they could want or need.

Husband taught me about something called currency or as it’s better known as in the outside world: money. It’s the same thing that we use now called standing, which is what goblins now use instead of just trading favors to other goblins in order to get the things they want.

In the Goblin’s Guild, there are requests put up on the wall—a few specifically that never need to come down, and filling those requests are both an easy way to earn (and sometimes spend) standing. In fact, sometimes filling one request also fills another.

In order to maximize earning standing when I started out, I went to talk with Ivory first about what bones she was low on that she needed and wound up hunting the beasties that usually had those exact bones. Whitefeathers, stripe-faces, king snakes, and even on two occasions with help from Primrose and Selene, some many-horns were the bones in demand the most. Black-claws too, but that felt a bit dangerous for now. Most of the meat from those hunted beasties Melon used her Kitchen’s standing budget to buy, and the pelts I had worked to strip cleanly off having been taught by Pepper were bought by both Pepper and the Orc, Krushka.

Husband says what I was doing back then was properly creating and exploiting the economy of Goblinhome, and ruffled my hair, telling me he was proud of me for being the first goblin to really understand that.

I don’t think any words ever mattered to me more than hearing him say that.

Game and Fun, when not busy in their workshop, often work at the Goblin’s Guild when Vera or Husband aren’t there to do so. They verify the things brought in and record the payment logs of standing to each goblin. They call it calculating and I had to spend some standing to learn how to do it. I’ve also learned how to read and write gob, so I figured now was the best time to try my hand at doing something I might actually be good at.

When talking about something called commerce with Husband, he mentioned that sometimes goblins and not-goblins may be unsure if they really need something they don’t yet know serves a good purpose.

For instance, there is a tool Husband told me about called a Fishing Rod. While Pepper wades into the Eastern stream and hunts fish with a spear, not everyone is that skilled to do so. Fish taste good but aren’t as popular to eat as beasts are because they are tricky to catch. With the fishing rod, any goblin can catch a fish if they are willing to be lazy for a little while, and that’s most of the goblins in Goblinhome!

So, I decided the first thing I wanted to try making and selling with standing were fishing rods. Initially, I wanted to use long bones, but they are a lot harder to come by than wood. So, I paid doll some standing to have her cut a tree down for me and chop it up into long pieces. I then took it to Toy and we worked on cutting and smoothing the pieces with the tools she has so that they would be long and easy to hold. Then I went to Pepper to see if she could make me some thin rope to attach to it. But Pepper is also a busy goblin. Instead, I wound up being sent to Crow who knew how to make thin rope just as good as Pepper did.

Crow’s injured leg doesn’t leave her with much to do, and little way to earn standing. As a result, she was interested in doing something to stay active, and so I made a deal with her. I visited Ivory to see about having her make me the thing known as a hook which was used to catch fish. It’s the thin fishbones that are the best for catching fish, surprisingly.

I had to do the assembling myself, but at the cost of twenty-five total standing, I had managed to make ten fishing rods in total. If I sold them each for five standing, which was more than reasonable considering the amount of work I had to put in myself and pay for up front, I could double my total standing if I managed to sell them all.

However, the only goblins that know how to use a fishing rod are Husband and myself, so, no matter what goblin I tried to get to buy it, they weren’t all that interested.

Except one.

“Kiwi… is that… a fishing rod?”

Husband had seen me sitting outside by the fire pit dangling a piece of meat from a bone hood at the end of one of my fishing rods while sitting on a log.

“Yes. I tried making it as you described.”

“Mind if I see it?”

I handed it over and Husband played around with it for a bit, mentioning something about it needing a bit more rope, and that something called a reel was probably not possible to include on it just yet. He admired the bone hook saying that it looked nice, and that all it was really missing was a small weight on it.

My curiosity got the better of me, as it usually did, and I once again pestered Husband to tell me what was wrong with it.

“Nothing’s wrong with this. It’s really well made, Kiwi. I was just talking about things you could consider upgrades to this rod.”

“Upgrades? What’s that?”

“Ah, let’s say you make something, but you think oh, I wish what I have could do this or that, or do something it already does a bit easier or simpler. That’s an upgrade. Let’s take this fishing rod for example. The string on it is good and tight, but with it only being this long, you have to constantly stand close to the water. With a longer string, you can cast the string into the water and sit or lay down on the bank instead of having to constantly stand and hold it. I have no complaints about the hook, since it’s perfect already, but there are many different kinds of hooks

which the design, shape, and material of can possibly attract different kinds of fish. If one was made of metal, sometimes the sunlight might hit it and make it shine, which will make a fish think it’s something they can eat and want to try biting it not knowing they’ll get hooked. Then there’s the weight… something just a little bit heavy and not buoyant… uh… not something that floats. If the string sinks easily then that opens up the opportunity for fish that swim deep to come across the hook. There’s more to it, but I really think you’ve done a great job with the resources you have available.”

I listened carefully to what Husband said, even some of the words he used that weren’t gob and I had a little trouble understanding at first. I asked more about the different kinds of hooks he talked about, and the weight and how it was supposed to fit on the thin rope. Usually by this point, Husband would get this look on his face and say to me “I’m sorry, Kiwi, but that’s all I really know about it.”

However, that didn’t happen this time.

“Hey kiddo, want to go fishing with your old man?”

I did.

I wanted to go fishing with Husband very much.

So, I went to go fetch another fishing rod for us to use.

Husband picked me up and put me on his shoulders, and then the two of us with our fishing rods in hand headed East from Goblinhome to the stream. Right about when we got there, Husband pointed out a particular spot where the bushes ended and there was only grass leading to the stream.

“You know the story about Diana Artemis and me hunting the Black-claws, right?”

“I’ve heard it. What about it?”

“This was the place where it ended. I had used some hasting magic and we ran from this big tree a bit back all the way here. Doll was in the stream with her tree-chopping axe with four Black-claws ready to attack her. Prima, Jewel, Me, and Diana were right here. I had to use a wind spell to knock the four Black-claws into the water. It was my last bit of mana before I succumbed to mana fatigue and fell on my butt. The four of them managed to kill the Black-claws and rescue Doll. After that, I was dragged back to Goblinhome. I feel a bit sad knowing there was nothing I could do to save Beast-talker, but I’m glad everyone else lived.”

I’ve heard some of my older big-sister goblins talk about it, but as for the exact details, never this specific. That story is something of a legend told to us younger goblins. Diana Artemis is very much the epitome of a big-sister goblin. Even more now that she’s the head of her own Moon Clan, and that both she and Berry have undergone a Blood Fury.

While there are a couple of my big-sister goblins who think Button is stronger, I don’t believe it. When Nova was teaching me how to use a sword, Diana Artemis was watching and offered to spar with me. I have never seen a goblin who could move and react as fast as she could. Not even Prima, and she is a master at dodging and countering almost any attack with her spear!

The way Husband explained the story in detail, I could feel how proud he was of Diana Artemis. And how completely he trusted her. He never once doubted her ability or her place as the next Guardian of the Bloodmaw Goblin Tribe.

She was barely older than me when this happened.

For us younger goblins, which is essentially everyone not an adult goblin already, Diana Artemis is like this huge impenetrable, impassable wall we can never measure up to. And here I am, in such a famous spot, wasting Husband’s time… going fishing.

Setting me down on the ground, I stood close to the stream and held my fishing rod out, letting the hook sink into the water.

Husband stood next to me but didn’t put his hook into the water.

“Eager to catch something so soon?” He asked, with a bit of a laugh.

“Am I not fishing the right way?”

“Well… there is a step missing.”

Husband reached for the string and showed me the hook on the end of his fishing rod.

“Fishing is just like an economy. You can’t expect to just catch a fish for free.”

I lifted my fishing rod and brought my hook out of the water.

“Then how am I supposed to catch one?”

“Bait. We… need something to put on the hook that will make a fish interested in biting it. Only then can we reel them in.”

“What are fish interested in?”

“Worms, flies, generally anything like an insect or bug. You can think of it like one of Berry’s poison traps. Well, we don’t want to use poison since we’ll be eating these, but we’re pretty much tricking the fish into thinking that it’s going to get an easy free meal, then when it’s caught on the hook, it won’t even realize that it’s going to become our meal until it’s too late. And all it costs us is a worm or two.”

“But we don’t have any worms. Or flies.”

“True, but… do you think there aren’t any all around us?”

Husband put his fishing rod down and walked back towards the bushes. He used his land magic to raise some pillars of dirt and then said “Aha!” before returning with two worms, handing me one.

“Don’t eat that. Watch what I do, and then do the same, okay?”

I nodded.

Husband carefully stabbed the worm onto the hook, moving it so that it was a bit down on the loop before holding out his rod and dunking the hook into the water. The worm was still squirming even in the water.

“When the fish see a squirming worm, they’ll go for it. It might take a while for them to notice it though. Patience is the name of the game when it comes to fishing.”

I followed Husband’s words and put the worm he gave me onto my fishing rod’s hook and then held it out, dunking the hook adorned with a squirming worm into the water. The two of us just stood there, waiting, with nothing happening. No fish trying to eat either of our worms at all. I decided to ask him a question, since I thought talking about anything was better than just standing around in silence.

“Husband, since you had a strong-one with Lumi, and big-sister Melon says her strong-one will come into the world in less than a moon, are you not thinking about making a strong-one with Diana Artemis?”

Husband gently swished his fishing rod a few times before answering.

“Well, Diana is doing her best to try and make one with me every chance she gets, but it’s not like I’m in any hurry for her to have one. I’m sure when it’s the right time, it’ll happen. I certainly never thought Lumi would be the first of my daughters to… well… make a…”

Husband seemed to be unsure how to finish his thought. Was it because Gremory was a bit different from us in appearance, having wings and a tail?

“I’m not actually sure if she’s not both my daughter and granddaughter at the same time…”

“Isn’t it just easier to say she’s your strong-one?”

“Yeah, I guess calling her that in gob makes it way less complicated than it needs to be.”

“Do you think big-sister Melon’s strong one will be a fat goblin like she and Pear are?”

“Could be.”

“Husband prefers fat goblins, right?”

“Hm? What makes you think that?”n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Didn’t you tell Pear that you wanted her to make you chubby goblins for the rest of her life.”

“Sounds like something I’d say. But it’s not like I prefer them over any other goblin.”

“Then why tell her that?”

“Kiwi… your mother… hmm… how do I put this? The fact that Pear is a very adventurous chubby goblin makes me seriously enjoy both making strong-ones with her and wasting big-seed with her. Really, I just like that she’s squishy. She’s very enjoyable to hug after we… um…”

“Make strong-ones?”

“Yep.”

“Then you also like Melon because she’s fat and squishy too?”

“It’s certainly not the only reason, but yes, I love giving her squishy hugs too.”

“Then… what about me?”

Husband laughed all of a sudden.

“Kiwi, do you think I wouldn’t enjoy your hugs just because you aren’t a chubby goblin?”

“Isn’t that what you are saying?”

“No, baby girl. I love your hugs just as much as Pear’s or Melon’s. Oh!”

Suddenly, Husband held onto his fishing rod firmly and pulled it upwards, taking a few steps back. The sound of splashing water filled my ears and with a small grunt, Husband had yanked the fishing rod high up over his head and a small fish was dangling on the end of the tiny rope.

“Looks like we managed to catch one!”

Husband brought the fishing rod to a standing position and held on to the fish with one hand, tucking the fishing rod in his armpit, and used his now freed hand to pull the bone hook out of the mouth of the small fish.

“It’s a sturdy rod. Could do with having a bit more flexibility, but really, no complaints so far considering the materials you had to work with.”

Husband put the fishing rod down and then used his land magic to make a small pot hardened from grass and dirt. Then he dunked it in the stream to fill it with water before putting the fish he caught in it, leaving it on the ground just behind where he was standing.

My fishing rod still didn’t have a single bite. I’m pretty sure my worm was dead by now, too. Husband went to go fetch a new worm to put on his hook and quickly returned to the bank of the stream, sitting down next to me.

“Want to sit in my lap while we wait for the fish to bite?”

I eagerly sat down in his lap, leaning back against his chest while the two of us held onto our rods.

“This brings back good memories… When I was a strong-one, I used to go fishing with my father once or twice a moon or so. He taught me everything I know about fishing.”

I don’t think I’ve ever heard about Husband’s maker’s Husband before from any conversations I’ve had with him or any other goblin before.

“What kind of goblin was your maker’s Husband?”

“Hmm. He was a fair man, if not a bit stricter than me. He worked a lot, since his job was to make money by selling things to people in order to support our family… uh… our clan… and on his days off, he tried to spend what time he could with my mother and me and my siblings.”

“He sold things?”

“Oh yes. He was a businessman, and so worked from sunup to sundown five out of every seven days at a minimum. Thanks to his hard work, the life I was able to live growing up from a strong-one into an adult was rather luxurious compared to many other families… clans… whatever.”

Husband talked about his former clan in depth as the two of us sat there holding fishing rods that received no bites from any fish. The strange thing about his story was that Husband’s maker’s Husband didn’t have more than one goblin he made strong ones with. Only five strong-ones in total came into the world and the third one was Husband. According to Husband, his next younger brother-goblin was kind of like Vera, which is why caring for her in his cave-hole is something he demanded Prima to let him do.

But that wasn’t all he had to say.

“So, before Husband became an adventurer, he also sold things?”

“Yes. While not the same exact things that my father did, after attending a place where I learned worldly things for a long time, I joined a company just as my father had long before me and sold plenty of things just as he did. I didn’t have anyone at the time to… take care of, like I do the adult goblins here in Goblinhome. I lived by myself and either saved my money, hoping I might find someone in the future to spend it on who might end up living with and making strong-ones together with me, or spend it on things to decorate my apartment… uh… cave-hole with that I enjoy.”

“Things like games, and the big bath?”

“Most cave-holes came with a smaller bath, but yeah, for sure there were plenty of games. I even had a collection of… figurines.”

“Figurine?”

“Think of it as something similar to smaller statues like the two found in Lumi’s chapel. Not much bigger than my hand and they would decorate shelves in my room. They would bring me great pleasure to look at.”

“What was your favorite figurine to look at?”

“Hmm, that’s a toss-up. I had a game I used to play every day for years about a group of female soldiers led by a commander who tried to reclaim the surface hundreds of moons after humanity had to retreat to an underground city to live in or face extinction from the rapture queen—a big metal golem that sought to destroy everything and rule the world as the supreme civilization. Rather than say I had a single favorite one to look at, I would enjoy collecting as many of them as I could since each of them were different and enjoyable in their own way, just like all of the adult goblins and my daughters are.”

I suddenly felt something pull on my fishing rod. I gripped it tightly and let Husband know. He put his down and held onto mine with me while I stood up first. Husband moved to the side from behind me and cheered me on as I struggled to take steps backward and lift the fishing rod up high, eventually managing to bring the splashing struggling fish out of the water. It wasn’t much bigger than the one Husband caught earlier, but I felt happy that I was able to also catch one now!

“Great going, Kiwi!” Husband cheered me on.

With the fish dangling from the end of the tiny rope, Husband helped me undo the hook from its mouth and put it into the stone bucket with the other fish he had caught.

Once more his hand pressed down upon my head and ruffled my hair.

“Isn’t this fun? This is the kind of laziness your daddy can get behind.”

“You like being lazy?”

I actually found that to be shocking information. Husband was always busy!

“Sure. While being busy and productive is a good trait to have, if you’re always busy… then you’ll eventually become worn out. Taking time every so often to be lazy and enjoy the things you’ve worked hard for is important for your personal growth as a goblin. For me, a nice lazy day is taking a long warm bath and then playing with my daughters. I would certainly count going fishing with my baby girl as an enjoyable lazy day to have.”

“GGGRRRARK! GRARK!”

Catching us from surprise from behind, a large Black beast had suddenly appeared!

Husband quickly extended his arms and stood in front of me protectively.

While I had never seen one alive before, I knew exactly what it was—a Black-claw!

“Shit. This isn’t good. Stay behind me, Kiwi… Daddy… will do something.”

I could see well enough to know that this Black-claw, even though it was only this one, was already planning on hunting us both.

“Kiwi… how’s your throwing arm?” Husband asked me all of a sudden.

“Want me to try and find a stone in the stream?”

“No. Reach in the pot and throw a fish close to it. Stay behind me while you do, okay?”

Listening to Husband, I reached into the nearby pot and pulled one of the two fish out, throwing it right in front of the Black-claw. We both watched as it was on full alert for a moment, before sniffing the air and taking a tentative step forward to sniff it. Then opening its mouth to grab it off the ground and begin chewing and swallowing it.

While it ate the fish, I don’t think that was enough of an offering to let us go.

“Kiwi. I want to lock it down with some land magic. I want you to throw the other fish so that it will be distracted enough while eating for me to do so. After that, the two of us are going to run. Forget about the rods, okay?”

“Why not kill it.”

“I would never forgive myself if something happened to you, Kiwi.”

“I might not be Diana Artemis, but I can fight, too.”

“I don’t doubt that. But do you have a weapon?”

“No, but… will you trust me?”

Husband was quiet, locking eyes with the Black-claw.

“I trust you. Throw the fish or we won’t even have a chance to find out how much I trust you.”

I lobbed the last remaining fish at the Black-claw again, and it once more cautiously approached it to snatch it up.

All of a sudden, land rose up around all four legs of the Black claw and solidified quickly, locking it into place.

I rushed forward, hearing Husband yell at me to be careful.

I might not be as strong as my sisters, but I knew a few things.

“Kiwi-ken Upper!”

Shouting the name of my attack as Button had taught me to do, since it made attacks more powerful, I dove forward into a roll just under the Black-claw’s face and sprung up with a tightly clenched fist, impacting the underside of its maw and snapping its head upwards and back, hearing a satisfying crack as I did.

“Kiwi-ken Claw Barrage!”

I then began to slash at its vulnerable neck as fast as I could with a series of slashing strikes with my bare hands before leaping backwards out of range of any counterattack.

But it was unnecessary.

Its throat was heavily torn and it half-collapsed, held up only by the stone surrounding its legs. The head of the Black-claw hung limply, blood pouring out onto the ground.

Husband had quickly secured it further, raising more land around it and solidifying it into stone so that even if the Black-claw was still alive, it wouldn’t be able to escape. Then he came to check on me.

“Kiwi, are you alright?”

I nodded. I was perfectly fine.

“How did I do?”

Husband chopped the top of my head with his hand, but didn’t say a word. Instead, he knelt down and pulled me into a hug.

“You did great, baby girl. You did great.”

It was a while before Husband let go of me, not that I minded. He could have hugged me forever and that would have been fine.

We had lost the fish we had caught, and even one of the rods. The hook attached to the tiny rope on Husband’s fishing rod was still in the water of the stream and something must have pulled it in while we were dealing with the Black-claw.

Husband carefully inspected the Black-claw for a while before deciding it was dead enough to remove the stone bonds he had created, securing it in place.

“I think we should head back now. I’ll handle this guy, you keep an eye out for anything else that might be trying to hunt us, okay Kiwi?”

I agreed. Husband grabbed hold of the back legs with both hands, dragging the body behind him slowly. It took us a while to get back to Goblinhome, along the way Husband asked me when I learned how to fight like that.

“Button gives lessons. She says all her sisters should know a little about the swirly-whirly to keep themselves safe.”

Truthfully, I didn’t understand the whole swirly-whirly thing she talked about, but the lessons I had taken with Prima, Diana, and Nova had taught me enough that a weapon wasn’t the only weapon a goblin had. Our claws were sharp for a reason, and that reason was to hunt. Button has her own martial art called the Mushroom Fist, but says that since I am a fruit-goblin, I should discover my own martial art.

The result, of course, is my Kiwi-ken Fist.

“I can’t beat Button or Figurine with it, though. Those two are just too strong. Everyone is… too strong.”

“That’s okay. The purpose of learning a martial art isn’t for beating someone… it’s for protecting yourself and the people you care about, and that’s exactly what you did. While it might have been safer to run away, I’m still incredibly proud of you, Kiwi.”

I held the remaining fishing rod in my hand and swished it about as I basked in the praise Husband gave me.

He was proud of me!

Me, who wasn’t better at a single thing than any of my big-sisters were…

There was nothing that dared to hunt us in the forest on the way back to Goblinhome. When we got back, Husband asked me if he could have the bones and skin of the Black-claw. He said he had something important in mind for them. I didn’t mind, since he made it possible for us to kill it in the first place.

With some help from Pepper, Melon, Stella, Ivory and even Diana Artemis, the Black-claw was quickly disassembled and butchered. Melon had taken a bit of the meat to cook with, but left much of it for what came later. Husband asked the entire tribe to come out to the fire-pit when it became dark, and everyone was given some of the Black-claw to eat. I think there might have been part of another Black-claw added because the one we brought back couldn’t have possibly had that much meat on it.

Goblins eat a lot, especially tasty bloody meat!

While eating, Husband recounted the story of us going out to fish at the stream, recounted the part of the story of Diana and Husband’s hunt where they reached the stream to rescue Doll, and then recounted the story of Husband and me fighting the single Black-claw who thought us easy prey!

The way he told it was a bit more elaborate than what happened, but everyone was listening intently and giving me nods of approval. Diana Artemis told me she was glad I am becoming a strong goblin who can protect Husband.

Diana Artemis said that!

I didn’t protect him, though… he…

I could see something in her eyes that told me nothing I would say would matter at this point. This was her judgment of my kill. Of my and Husband’s kill…

Button and Prima had also given me approving nods as they ate some of the bloody Black-claw meat.

Riding some kind of high, Husband invited me to spend the night with him in his cave-hole. I held onto him tight as we talked about many more things. Especially on how to improve the fishing rod. I slept well, only to wake up and find Husband gone.

Husband had been busy the next day, but I tried not to let that bring my spirits down.

Instead, Primrose, Selene, Chanterelle asked me to tell the story again to them, which I did, happily. Lumi was there too with my little sister goblin Gremory, giving us all pushes on the swings.

After that, I returned to Pear’s cave-hole and tried to understand the part called a reel that Husband said would be important to the new fishing rod I wanted to make. It would be another whole day before I saw Husband again.

At that time, he had something for me.

It was some kind of Black-claw clothing. Husband had been working with Pepper to make it. The top half of the Black-claw’s head was able to rest on my head or be pulled back. The back of the Black-claw became like a cloak that covered my back, down to my butt where the tail was. And two front paws came across my chest, tied with a bit of thin rope. There was also a necklace he gave me—all of the bottom teeth from the Black-claw strung together, proof of my kill.

But that wasn’t all.

He had made me a grand weapon, too!

Modeled a bit after Ripper, part of Diana’s original grand weapons Ripper and Bleed, two long bone-claws made from sharpened bone done by Ivory and some sharpened metal on the undersides of the bone-claws added by Dara who lives under Husband’s cave-hole. They had some padding on the insides so that they would fit comfortably on my arms. They also could be attached to my new clothes so that I didn’t have to wear them all the time. I could just put them on when I was ready to hunt.

There was also something else. There was a pocket of some kind that had been made out of the belly-skin from the Black-claw on the inside so that I could store things I wanted to carry or keep hidden inside of it.

Even Glace’s Shaman’s clothes weren’t as amazing as mine!

I found myself exceptionally busy after that. Not only the modifications to the fishing rod, I also began to try and make a few new things that didn’t exist yet in Goblinhome. Getting permission from Vera, I was allowed to use a small bit of space behind the Goblin’s Guild counter to run my new store.

I had all sorts of interesting things I thought goblins might want to buy now.

With help from Dara, I managed to create the reel Husband spoke of, increased the length of the thin rope, and added a small smooth stone Vera helped me make with land magic. Now any goblin could fish lazily! Husband even agreed to go fishing with any goblins who bought them and wanted to learn how to use it!

I also made some of the figurines Husband talked about out of small bones, only they were all designed after my big sister goblins. I even made ones to resemble Black-claws and Husband too! Turns out, they became popular as replacement chess-pieces!

Husband is naturally the King piece.

Game and Fun, seeing that goblins came almost every day to my new store talked about having the things they make be sold in my shop. There were a few things that I didn’t sell—Ivory’s bone charms and Truffle’s color-spin-think powder. Those are items those two are best known for and I didn’t want to take away all their business.

I did, however, buy many common items made from bone from Ivory, since if they were readily available, goblins would buy them. Chanterelle had actually started her own little mushroom farm, and she wanted me to sell them for her because she was too lazy to sell them herself. Apparently, they are mushrooms made by Kino’s spores. They have a… unique taste. But they certainly aren’t bad. Big-sister Melon made a soup out of them, and it was actually pretty tasty.

Turns out, Husband had used some of the Black-claw leg bones to make some kind of outer bone-leg for Crow with help from Dara, along with a metal stick that let her move a bit more freely. While slow, she could even make it upstairs to the Goblin’s Guild on her own.

So now, Crow watches my store while I go about my day making or sourcing things to be sold there.

All in all, things are going great lately. I have earned way more standing than I thought possible.

Crow has also recently been in a good mood. Husband managed to put another strong-one inside of her belly. I’m happy for her. Crow says it’ll soon be time for the strong-one inside my big-sister Melon to come into the world.

I wonder, will it be a fat goblin like she is, or a skinny goblin like me?

Crow tells me not to worry. When I get bigger, Husband will help me become an adult goblin and give me a strong-one of my own. I’m looking forward to it, but time is money, and I have a lot more standing I want to earn before then.

Until then, I will do my best with my store and continue to make Husband proud of me.

The only store in all of Goblinhome—Kiwi’s Lazy-buy! We have things goblins want to buy!