Tribe.

The green girl walked stealthy through the woods, making no sound at all. I, in comparison, felt like an elephant stamping on crackers. How interesting. Obviously she was a native to the woods, which, contrary to everything that everyone had said about them, seemed to be perfectly lovely. 

A variety of plants and flowers I'd never seen before grew here, and insects skittered over the ground and the tree trunks. It seemed quite idyllic.

Then again, there had been that big ass hairy monster, which had not been in any way idyllic, so maybe I was just being naive. I looked down at my hand, flexing my fingers. Concentrated Storm Ball, silly name aside, had been an unequivocal success at least. Still needed to do something about that recoil, although maybe with slightly less power that wouldn't be an issue. I hadn't exactly been prepared.

My guide whistled suddenly, a birdsong kind of whistle. No doubt a signal.

Definitely a signal. Seconds later two more green figures stepped out from seemingly nowhere. And they were not small, or pretty. They were squat, muscular, and ferocious looking, and held crude, but very efficient looking weapons. 

Realisation dawned. They were goblins! 

One of them raised his sword and took a step forward, towards me. I suspect it had ill intent, but he stopped when my small friend stepped in front of me and shouted something at him.

There followed an energetic discussion, with lots of pointing and handwaving. Once a shake of a weapon at me. However, the guards, for they were surely guards, seemed to listen to the girl, because, finally, they took a step back, allowing a clear path ahead.

This was quite surprising to me. Why would they listen to someone so young? It seemed rather too enlightened for what was supposed to be a primitive race of beings. But then again, what did I know about goblin culture here? I was basing my assumptions on stories from my last world!

My young escort gestured at me, and started walking forward again. I followed, rather nervously passing through the two guards, who snarled. 

And suddenly we were in a clearing, a large one, walking down a makeshift main street with large, semi-permanent tents on each side, and filled with a variety of goblins going about what I assumed was goblin daily life.

My mouth hung open as I walked next to my girl, taking in a whole village that had been hidden away from me moments ago. Surely there must be a spell around this place, to camouflage it so, otherwise I would have seen, heard and smelled, definitely smelled, the place long back.

The girl seemed to be a lot more relaxed now, back on home territory, and she even kept up a monologue, occasionally pointing at things and people as we walked along, with many an odd stare following us. She was no doubt explaining what and who things were, but of course I couldn't understand a thing. I made a resolution that that would have to be remedied.

After a good five minutes we approached a grander tent than all the others. It was blood red, much larger and decorated with an assortment of colourful feathers, stones, skulls of various types, including some human looking ones I noted, and the odd weapon.

There was another goblin guard at the entrance, leaning on a spear. He straightened up and saluted as little miss approached, and realisation dawned. I'd rescued the daughter of someone important!

Well, if you're going to rescue someone, I guess that's the way to go.

We walked into the tent, to find a kind of impromptu court going on.

Sat on a large seat at the back, was an older, fatter, goblin. He had a makeshift crown on his head, made from scrap metal, and an impressive looking sword leaning against the arm of the throne. I squinted, and sure enough, the weapon was streaming mana. A magical sword then. Cool.

Standing by his side was another old goblin, leaning on a staff and dressed in robes. That would be the court wizard, or maybe royal advisor. 

And around the rest of the tent, a number of other goblins, mostly dressed in slightly finer robes than the ones outside. One of them, near the chief, was a huge beast, short he may have been, but he was as muscular as anyone I'd ever seen, and was dressed in well used, brown studded leather. On his back he carried an impressive looking sword.

General, I thought.

The girl stalked through the crowd and, rather rudely, pushed an older goblin female out of the way, to finally kneel before the throne. I, hastily, followed her example. Not the pushing, the kneeling.

The chief let out a gruff, and rather loud question, to which the girl, standing up, replied in an equally gruff tone.

Another question and answer session followed, with many glances given in my direction at one point. No doubt telling of my fearless heroism in the face of bugbear attacks.

Finally, the chief held a hand up, and gestured at the goblin advisor.

The advisor stepped forward and looked at me.

"What is your name?" he asked, in perfect, well, whatever language I spoke. Human? Common? Basic? I'd not considered this before. Anyway, I understood him.

"I'm Theodore. Theodore Helmage."

"How old are you, young human. You are human, aren't you?"

"Yes. I'm four. Well, four and a half." That sounded rather childish, but what was I going to say? Four and a half plus fifty-odd from another universe?

"Four?"

The chief grunted then, and the advisor spoke in goblin language, which produced some gasps of astonishment from the watching crowd, and my girl too.

"You are only four?"

"And a half."

"And you defeated a bugbear?"

Hah! Nailed it.

"Yes." Best to keep things simple.

"With magic?"

Well, it wasn't my shining wit.

"Yes."

Another back and forth, with the chief growling out a long sentence.

The advisor replied, and there was another argument. It seemed that goblins weren't that big on taking orders, or something.

Finally, the old guy turned back to me.

"You have saved the life of our beloved Gisel, the heir-apparent to our tribe."

"I'm just happy to help."

"The law of our land means that she now owes you a life debt."

Eh?

"What?"

"A life debt. As it is the heir apparent, such a debt is a large one indeed." The advisor glanced at the chief then went on a little more bashfully. "Ah, unfortunately, the clan doesn't have enough treasure to pay you the full worth of our beautiful heir apparent. Perhaps you would accept her hand in marriage instead?"

"I… wait. What? I'm only four," I protested.

"And a half," he reminded me.

"Even so, I'm far too young."

"It would not be until you were both of age, of course," he explained. "In the meantime, Gisel would be indentured to you as a hand maiden. She is, it goes without saying, a talented and intelligent young maiden. I'm sure any male would be very happy to have such a right hand to call upon." He gave a lecherous grin.

"Ho… how old is the fair Gisel?" I asked, trying to gain time whilst I sorted things out in my head.

"She is five. And a third."

"Oh." I scratched my head. This was a bit of a pickle. "What if I refused?"

"It would bring great shame upon the chief, and he would be forced to kill you."

"Oh dear." 

"Yes."

This was silly, but perhaps I could stall for time.

"Look, really appreciate this, but I can't just show up at home with an, admittedly talented, intelligent and cute young goblin in tow. I mean, I can't even speak your language! Perhaps… could you give me time to learn to speak it at least? She can wait here, live her usual life, until I can find a way to bring her into my life. Or wait, you weren't expecting me to live here were you? That would bring a lot of unwanted attention! My mothers are both powerful and influential women."

"We don't wish trouble, of course, your solution seems acceptable. However, how will you learn our language? We have very few books. Do you? We speak, what do man-creatures call it? Monster-dialect something? I do not recall the name. However, it is common for those of us that your species label monsters. Quite hurtfully, I would add."

Well, that could be a useful skill at least.

"Very well. How about I meet regularly with Gisel, just outside the forest, and she can teach me?"

The advisor had a short discussion with both Gisel and the chief at this, with the usual amount of raised voices, before turning back to me.

"Gisel will meet you one finger past the high sun each day, if that is acceptable? She will have an escort with her, but the guard will stay back. The forest is a dangerous place after all."

"This seems fine, although I may not be able to make every day."

"Then the debt repayment must be sealed." He nodded at Gisel, who was now standing and looking at me.

Nodding back, Gisel reached under her tunic and pulled out a small, but very wicked looking curved dagger from somewhere. Had she had that all the time? Stepping close to me, she grabbed my hand, twisted it palm up, and ran the dagger across my finger.

"Ow!"

Ignoring my protest, she did the same to her own finger, and then wrapped our wounds together, saying something in Monster I couldn't follow. I gasped, as a swirl of mana circled us both briefly, before tightening around our fingers and being absorbed into the blood dripping from the cuts.

This was a magical contract! 

Gisel looked at me then, smiled, a rather strained smile, and stepped back.

I looked down at my finger. There was a slight scar where the cut had been. It glowed, very slightly, when I squinted at it.

"It is done," the advisor said.

Well, this day hadn't turned out at all how I expected.