The Forest Feeds No Idle Goblins

"Is this what you Centaurs call loyalty?" Scarface the goblin slammed a few tubers down in front of the Centaur Race. "I am the Commander-in-Chief. You are to provide me with venison, understand?"

"Commander-in-Chief, we have no more venison to spare." The Centaur Clan Leader held back a few of his people, his tone careful.

"I saw those Big-horned Deer you’re raising. If you don’t want me to order the Ogres to kill them, then provide me with one adult Big-horned Deer." Scarface sneered, the three long scars on his face twisting and making him look even uglier.

"That’s all the food we have left!" a Centaur shouted, but his mouth was immediately covered.

Hearing this, Scarface said nothing, merely sneering. He knew the Clan Leader was afraid he would report the Centaur Race’s situation to General Evil Throat. If that happened, the Centaurs might be forced to hand over even more of their supplies.

"Bring one of the Big-horned Deer." The Clan Leader finally gave in. He stared at the diminutive goblin before him, but his gaze flickered to the Ogres standing a short distance away. Their greedy eyes were sizing up the Centaurs around them.

"Clan Leader..." A few Centaurs started to speak, but the Clan Leader silenced them with a wave of his hand. Moments later, a Big-horned Deer was led over, a rope looped around its neck.

"You know how to behave." Scarface grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. They were clearly incomplete; several were missing, though who might have knocked them out was anyone’s guess.

The confrontation ended quickly. The Centaurs watched in anger as the Ogres carried the Big-horned Deer away, while Scarface swaggered ahead of them like a mongrel that had just won a scrap with the other dogs.

"He can only eat half a leg at most, yet he demanded a whole deer."

"So greedy."

"We never should have signed that pledge of fealty."

The clan members stood in the village, murmuring amongst themselves, while the Centaur Clan Leader returned to his thatched hut with a heavy heart. His daughter’s recent disappearance, coupled with this period of oppression, was making him doubt his decisions. Yet he knew all too well that they had no chance of winning in a direct fight. In that scenario, not only would their village be destroyed, but many of his people would die in the subsequent exile.

’Those Ogres are camped right outside the village. It seems the Earth Goblins arranged this deliberately.’ The Clan Leader took out his Longbow and a few bone-tipped arrows. ’If there’s any sign of an uprising in the village now, those Ogres will attack us at once.’

The Centaurs were unlike the armies of the Earth Goblins; they relied mostly on their Bows and Arrows. The race’s supply of iron goods was already low, to say nothing of "high-tech" items like metal arrowheads. In contrast, their enemies could, at the very least, Charge armed with thick wooden clubs, which put the Centaurs’ combat effectiveness at a discount.

"Father." A soft voice startled the Centaur Clan Leader. He spun around to see Evita huddled in a shadowed corner. He had been so lost in thought that he hadn’t even noticed his daughter hiding there.

"You’re back? When did you get here?" he said, overjoyed. But then, remembering how his daughter had ignored his warnings and run off on her own, his expression hardened.

"Just now. I slipped in while you were all dealing with that... Commander-in-Chief." Evita stood up. "Father, I found the Unicorn."

"Truly?" The Clan Leader took a few steps toward his daughter, but he quickly stopped. Reason told him it couldn’t be that simple.

"It’s true. The Unicorn is to the south." Evita took a lock of long, golden hair from her waist pouch, offering it to her father with both hands.

The Centaur Clan Leader didn’t immediately take the lock of hair. Instead, he looked his daughter up and down. She was wearing a strange set of gear; even her Longbow and Arrows were not the clan-made Horned Wood Composite Bows.

"What happened to you?" he asked grimly. As he spoke, he reached out and took the lock of golden hair. His eyes widened. "This is tail hair from the Unicorn! Who cut this? How could anyone do such a thing?"

The corner of Evita’s mouth twitched. She was tempted to say that someone had not only cut its tail hair, but also planned to build a shed for the Unicorn, and maybe even set up a stone mill or some such thing.

"Father, I’m sorry. I didn’t listen to you, and I left the village on my own. But on my journey..." Evita began to recount, in great detail, everything that had happened to her over the past few days.

A few minutes later, the Centaur Clan Leader interrupted her. "Are you telling me the Unicorn went south, found a new territory, and now serves the master of that land?"

His voice trembled slightly, and a flicker of hope appeared in his eyes. "What Race are they? Human? Or a Fairy Dragon?"

’If they are powerful,’ he thought, ’I could leverage their strength to ensure the safety of my people’s migration.’

"Uh, they’re..." Evita hesitated, then said carefully, "A band of goblins."

She couldn’t even meet his eyes as she spoke. Evita didn’t know how to explain the situation to her father.

"Goblins?" The Centaur Clan Leader’s brow furrowed. That answer was completely unexpected. He had just been dealing with those little monsters—greedy and stupid. He found it impossible to believe the Unicorn would abandon the Centaurs to go and "pledge allegiance" to a bunch of goblins.

He stared at his daughter, as if searching for signs that she had fallen prey to a Magic Illusion Realm or some kind of Mind Confusion Technique.

An awkward silence hung in the air for a few moments before the Centaur Clan Leader broke it. "Stay here in the village. Do not run off again."

He didn’t believe a word of what his daughter was saying. His long years of experience told him she must have been captured by the Earth Goblins. They must have used some strange Magic to make her believe she had seen the Unicorn. It was a ploy to lure his people into a trap during a migration, allowing them to capture and enslave the entire race at minimal cost.

"Father, please listen to me! I really did meet the Unicorn. I know the part about the goblins sounds incredible, but it’s true." Evita gestured frantically, desperate to explain. "These goblins are different! They have exploding fruits, they protect the Tree-man and little goblin races, and they can even ride giant ants! They eat and live much better than we do."

"Enough," her father interrupted in a low voice. "Do you even believe your own words? You were dreaming, or you were caught in an Illusion. How could goblins possibly be as you describe?"

"But, Father..." Evita tried desperately to convince him, but her father completely ignored her. He simply could not believe that a group of goblins could achieve such a level of development.

"Stay obediently in the village. Do not run off again," the Centaur Clan Leader ordered his daughter sternly. The more he heard, the more convinced he became that she had been "brainwashed" by evil Magic. ’How could a goblin pat a Unicorn on the rump and personally cut a lock of its tail hair?’ he thought. ’The Unicorn would either have gored him to death or kicked him into the next valley!’

"I am going out now. It’s dangerous out there. I expect you to still be here when I return." After saying this with a stone-faced expression, he walked out of the thatched hut and called over a powerfully built Centaur. "Oreco, watch her. Don’t let her run off."

The Centaur stamped a front hoof heavily on the ground. "Yes, Clan Leader."

Then, Evita’s father gathered a few others and prepared to head to General Evil Throat’s military encampment. He intended to find a way to request that the General ease the oppression on the Centaur Race; after all, they still had need of his people.

"Goblins," he muttered with disgust. He had seen those creatures cowering in holes in the ground during previous visits to the encampment. His own race had clashed with them many times in battle, to say nothing of the "Commander-in-Chief" just outside their village, who made his blood boil.

...

An unknown amount of time passed. Evita looked with discouragement at the muscular Centaur standing guard at the doorway. She had tried several times to persuade him to let her leave the hut, but had been flatly refused each time.

’What do I do? Father doesn’t believe me, and I have no way of telling the goblin leader about the situation here.’ She paced back and forth inside the hut, racking her brain.

’Knock out the Centaur at the door? Oreco is the strongest Warrior in the race, and a cautious Hunter besides. There’s no way I could overpower him.’

’Sneak out after Father gets back and falls asleep? That’s useless, too. I can’t bring the Unicorn back here by myself, and rashly leading Shire and his people to the Centaur Race would only put them in danger.’

Just as she was pacing anxiously, a series of taps echoed from a shadowy corner of the hut.

Evita’s head snapped toward the sound. A green arm was emerging from the shadows, tapping a black dagger against a nearby object.

"Who’s there?" she whispered, drawing the Short Blade from her belt.

A goblin’s head popped out of the shadows, followed by its body. The creature’s strange entrance put Evita on high alert, but the sight of its clothes sparked an immediate thought.

"Did your leader send you?" Evita had no time to wonder how he had appeared in her hut. "I couldn’t convince the Clan Leader. My father."

Broken Tooth looked at the young Centaur, who seemed on the verge of frustrated tears. He held up a hand to quiet her, then pulled two small cloth pouches from his pocket.

Broken Tooth looked at the pouches, trying hard to recall Shire’s instructions. He had been following Evita ever since she left the Fortress, his mission being to escort her safely to the Centaurs’ forest village.

Without a word, he held out one of the pouches to the young Centaur, gesturing for her to open it.

Evita took it and opened it. Inside was a note with a single sentence written in Common Speech.

"Bring a few people here."