Chapter 8 Confrontation Pt. 2

Tect awoke early this morning, today he had to talk to the people of the town, and he was nervous. When he spoke in front of the goblins yesterday he knew that he might not have their support, but he also knew none would be disrespectful to him. With the humans in town it was different, humans didn't value the opinion of a goblin any more than they did a horse, maybe even less. Tect had too many people depending on him to miss this chance so he forced down the pit in his stomach and walked outside. at the center of camp a young goblin and her brother were preparing a meager breakfast for the clan. Inside of a massive cast iron pot boiled the carcass of a chicken saved from the night before, and a small amount of hard grains, this is what the goblins ate on a good day. Tect skimmed a small amount of the flavorless broth from the pot, he didn't want to take any nutrition from the few goblins who were left, hopefully after today their meals would be better.

After the sun rose above the trees Tect set out to town. As with every day before this the guard let him pass, after all the smith had paid for his service, if he stopped Tect he could get in trouble. It was a cold day with a light layer of powdery dry snow, thankfully the sun was to Tect's back or he would have been blinded. On foot the walk to town took about an hour, during this time Tect could not keep from thinking about every possible way this could go wrong it was a horrible self inflicted torture that he just couldn't escape. As he reached the town gates Tect saw the old man waiting for him. "Mornin Tect." Tect smiled at the old man "Good Morning sir." The pleasantries aside the old mans smile became weaker, "I have a bit of bad news, I talked to everyone in town willing to hear but it looks like only about 800 showed. Still that's more than half, and the mayor is here as well." Tect Smiled, "It's a better turnout than a goblin has ever recieved from humans, except for an execution or at a fighting pit." The old man shrugged helplessly and escorted Tect to the inn, he would be addressing the crowd from the balcony so that everyone could see and hear him better. As he passed through the crowd people began to whisper, some he could make out others he couldn't but most of the ones he could were very negative. A few people in the crowd he recognized, mostly old customers, the miners, farmers, and ferriers. The foreman of the mine stepped in front of Tect as he walk through, the foreman was every bit of six and a half feet tall and covered in thick muscle, as Tect looked up into his eyes the foreman smiled and stuck out his hand. "Good to see you well Tect." Tect shook his hand, "You too sir." The foreman stepped back into the crowd and Tect continued forward, his back a little straighter and his breathing more even. As the reached the balcony the mayor stood up and greeted the old man. "Arnold, we're all here. I hope this isn't a total waste of our time." He cast a sideways glance towards Tect. "Aye mayor it won't be, I think we can all benefit from what this young man has to say." The mayor nods his head, "Ok young... goblin, you'll have a few minutes to talk to everyone, I have guards out back, if things go badly run to them and they will get you outside of town." Tect nodded, "Thank you mayor, hopefully it doesn't come to that."

The old Smith stepped out on the balcony, " Hello everyone, you all know me. I've been the smith in this town goin on 40 years. Recently this town has fallen on hard times. Our families were torn apart by sickness and now when we should be mourning our loved ones and healing our hearts tragedy strikes again. Though we don't know how, a new kind of vermin has infested the town, it tunnels between cellars, chews through the bricks and eats our stores. Only a few of the lived in houses have been hit, but all the abandoned houses have been made into nest. Because of this we are now dangerously low on food, as many of you already know. Some of you have even considered raiding the Slaves camp and stealing food from the goblins. I don't blame you, hunger is a mighty powerful motivator, but I got bad news for you. The goblins are gonna starve before we do." The murmur of the crowd grows louder at this revelations. "I do have some good news, most of you know my assistant Tect. Tect is also the Chieftain of the enslaved goblins and we have discussed a plan which may save both our people from starving this winter. Tect, Please come forward." The old man steps to the side. Tect steps forward he stands straight and tall, he knows he must show his confidence for the plan to work. " Hello, people of Nadteifelt. My name is Tect and I am the Chieftain of the Darh goblin clan. I am here today to inform you that within two weeks my people will run out of food. The fairy tale you've been told about us having farms and earning a wage has all been a lie, we have been starving for years, we have no food to spare." The crowd is struck dumb, one man yells out. "Liar, you filthy goblins just don't want to share your food, we know you lot farm mushrooms and have chickens." Tect raises his hand to stop the man, "Sir you are correct, we have 24 chickens, when a hen gets too old to lay eggs the overseer would occasionally throw her over the fence. As for the mushroom farms you are mistaken, on three occasions since my capture goblins have tried to grow mushrooms in secret and every time the overseer found out, the garden was destroyed and the ground was salted, two of the goblins who tried were beaten to death in front of the whole clan as a warning." This revelation brought gasps from the crowd, the man shouted out again, "More lies, you can't trust goblins, if they are all starving why does he look so healthy." Tect lets out a sigh, "The only reason Im less sickly than my kin is because Master Arnold feeds me on work days. You have all seen the two goblins that work the stables? You've seen how small and thin they are?" the man pipes up again," Aye we have, all goblin children look skinny." Tect smiles at the man "Those aren't children, they are nearly four years older than I am." Once again this draws a gasp from the crowd, the man who runs the stables looks down in shame. He had never once had a real conversation with the two goblins, he too gave them lunch but only a small piece of cheese and cracker, and even less than he gave human workers at that. One of the miners moves towards the front of the crowd, "Tect, Arnold said you have a solution to our food problem, what is it?" Tect nods his head, "I do have a solution, but first there is something we have to discuss, as it affects whether or not we can implement the full solution or not. Before anything else can be discussed I need the people of this town to guarantee the freedom of my people starting immediately." The mayor steps forward, "Now Tect I'm afraid we have no say in that. The law makes slavery legal, we can't just set you free, we would be committing theft from the overseer." Tect nods, "Yes I am aware of what the law states, but I also know that a dead slave has zero value so at the end of the day, what are the overseers losses?" An older lady comes forward from the crowd, "I am Overseer Brian's sister, the sickness took Brian's mind, as his only living relative I can approve the freeing of the slave if it's what everyone wants?" The mayor considered it for a moment, "This is acceptable to me. If you agree to free the slaves say aye." a fair portion of the crowd shouted their consent, mostly the miners and a few kind hearted people. "All those opposed say nay." Only a few people offered a nay, many simply took neither side. The mayor could tell the yay's outnumbered the nay's and yet neither side had half of the townsfolk present. "As mayor I am going to go ahead and approve the freedom of the goblins. We face life and death this is not the time to sit on the fence, if we all just wait and see we will be staring at death. Tect what is the plan you and Arnold have concocted?" Tect stepped forward, "There are a few ways we can help your people get food. First, we can teach you how to use the scraps from the lumber mill and hay to start a mushroom farm. Second, we can teach your children how to set snares to catch an rats that enter your cellars, if you're too squeamish to eat the rats we will trade with you but our chickens are limited. Next, with Master Arnolds help we will create an auger to drill the ice from the lake so that we can catch some fish. Finally, we will assist your hunters in tracking, hunting, and carrying animals from the mountains. If we all work together I think we can not only all survive but prosper, then come spring when my people are able we will leave the town. We hold no grudges towards the people of this town, but many of my brothers and sisters wish to move far away and never deal with humans again. I hope you can all understand their feelings." The mayor once again steps forward, "Thank you Tect, we shall discuss what you have said and let you know what we decide." Tect nodded, "Please be quick, at sunrise tomorrow my people will be moving, if it's not to town then its too the mountains, we only have a few weeks to find shelter and food. We can't afford to delay." Tect holds out his hand to the mayor, the mayor shakes it and even smiles at Tect, truly not all humans are bad, and even the biased ones can change. Tect left through the back of the inn and headed towards the slave pens. A wide smile plastered across his face. "Freedom, finally I can say I did something good for my people." Tect thought on the walk home.