Living the Goblin Life (2)

2 years after he was born as a goblin, Klun was more or less used to this life. Goblins grow rather fast, so at this point he was already involved with hunting and gathering for the cave. But he wasn't quite an adult yet, so his role was more of watching and supporting the others.

But outside of the cave, there were many dangers. Monsters, other races, sometimes even plants would attack goblins without hesitating. And pretty much any of these could easily kill a lone goblin, which is why they always went out in groups.

This time, Klun and his younger brother, Trok, were going to hunt together with a group of 6 goblins, with the others being adults. The mission was to trail a giant boar. The boar had around 3 meters in height, while goblins would barely have over 1 meter. They knew if the boar took the initiative, it would be over in an instant, so moving stealthy was a given.

This forest nearby the cave had really huge trees, so big you wouldn't be able to see their top by looking up. It was also the home of many big monsters. But because everything else was so big, it was a good place for small creatures to move without being noticed.

"Are we going to jump now?" Whispered Trok, while holding his wooden spear.

"No, not yet." Klun quietly answered his brother.

Every goblin here had a wooden spear with them, while hiding in the bushes waiting for a good chance. But the boar still wasn't alone. It was accompanied by another boar, so going in right now would be a mistake.

While they were waiting, a subtle hustling sound could be heard from the opposite direction from them, closer to the boars.

"Trok, get back a bit." Klun whispered, and started moving back with his brother.

When suddenly, a giant wolf appeared from the bushes, leaping straight to one of the boars, biting its neck. The wolf was just as big or even bigger than the boar. The other boar ran away. While the two remained to fight.

Meanwhile, the goblins readied their spears and waited. Klun understood that the plan was to wait for the fight to be over, then gang up on the weakened victor. Truly a goblin-like approach.

The wolf had managed to land the first hit, and the boar's neck was bleeding, but it wasn't going down easily, and used its horns and fangs to fight back. The wolf suffered some damage, but after a few claw attacks, the boar fell down. And that was the chance for the wolf to jump down and deal the finishing blow.

After doing a loud sound, the boar was no longer moving. The wolf was clearly hurt, but started to carry away the body of its prey.

"NOW!" One of the adult goblins screamed. And suddenly, all goblins moved towards the wolf, pointing their spears. Klun and his brother were right behind them.

The wolf backed a bit, clearly aware of its own injuries. So despite its enemies being goblins, it decided to take a few steps back. The goblins and the wolf stared at each other for a while, without any of them committing to an attack. When suddenly, the wolf did a loud howl. The goblins knew what it meant, so they were the ones taking a few steps back this time.

Suddenly, another wolf jumped from the bushes behind it, and approached the goblins. Without any other warning, all goblins started immediately running away.

While the environment made it easy to hide, the wolves were way faster. Suddenly one of the goblins was already in the mouth of a wolf, but somehow that was enough for the others to manage to run away.

Every other goblin had successfully arrived back at the cave, out of breath from all the running. This kind of situation wasn't that uncommon. One of the reasons goblins reproduce so fast was because of the incredibly high death rate. Even simple hunting was a deadly situation for them, rarely they would come back with the same amount of people that left.

"So how was the hunting?" One of the goblins inside the cave asked.

The goblins looked at each other awkwardly, but then when Klun took something from its clothes and placed it in front of the others.

It was a giant boar's leg. It was the size of half of Klun's body, and full of meat. He had managed to tear it from the boar when the others were pushing the wolf away.

"How's that? It was hard to carry this while running away." He said proudly.

Every goblin there rejoiced.

"Good job, kid." Some adult goblins praised him. "This part is mine." They soon started competing for who was going to eat which part of the leg.

A full boar would be enough to feed the cave for around a week. A simple leg could last a day or two, but a hunt that brought anything more than grass or insects would already be considered a success.

"Wow, this means you are stronger now, right?" Suddenly Proya, a female goblin the same age as Klun, appeared from somewhere in the cave. "I was so bored waiting. Wanna fight?" She asked the usual question.

"It wasn't about being strong. It was just about-" But she didn't let him finish before jumping on him for a fight.

At this point, he was able to withstand taking a beating or two, but he was still no match for Proya, who defeated him in a couple minutes.

"Gahaha, that was fun." She wiped the sweat on her forehead after her victory.

"Do you think of nothing but fighting?" Klun still had his face glued to the ground.

"Don't worry, you are getting better. Try training for a few more years." She smiled as she left.

This freaking muscle brain.

Klun sighed. But that was just the usual routine.

"Hey Klun, dinner is almost ready. They will eat all the good parts of the leg if we don't come soon." His brother, who was watching the whole thing, called out to him.

"Going." Klun got up instantly. He really had gotten used to this. This kind of thing didn't even hurt much anymore.

He sat together with other goblins around a fire. They were taking turns cooking the meat. Some fights naturally happened for parts of the meat, but to Klun, that was just friendly banter. He enjoyed dinner together with his brother, his mom and his friends. At this point, he considered all of them as family. These moments made him forget about the fact he was a goblin, or that he used to consider himself unlucky for this situation. Everyone else already saw him as one of them as well.

Soon, morning came. Klun slept soundly after eating plenty. But something suddenly interrupted his peace.

"Humans! Humans are invading the cave!" A loud alarm noise echoed through the place, waking everyone up.