Chapter Text
“Annnd-done!” Gricko said placing the last bits of breakfast onto the various plates strewn over a picnic blanket in place of a table.
Beside him, Kremy was sitting on a nearby stool.
The little gator had been carefully watching him cook the simple meal, though he was very quiet and didn't say much of anything.
He went to go call for the kids that were a short distance away, in another part of the clearing that held their campsite they had begun a very serious game of tag.
As he came up on the view of them he saw hootsie had clearly been tagged and was chasing after a screaming torbek, though gricko could tell they were screams of excitement as he saw the large grin plastered on the furry face of the bugbear.
Though Torbek was her main target for a bit she turned sharply mid run to charge after Gideon instead, the fiery skinned child was then quickly tagged by the owlbear and turned to try and tag Torbek himself since Hootsie didn't.
Not seeing him involved in the game at hand, Gricko looked around a moment before spying Frost picking some flowers near a closeby tree.
Unfortunately he had to call off the fun playing to fuel them for more, their energy may be bursting but if they dont get some chow they are gonna tire out quick
And a hungry and tired child, is a grumpy and uncooperative child.
“FOOD'S READY!” he shouted with his hands cupped around his mouth trying to make sure he was heard over the noise
As soon as the words finished the gaggle of kids ran up to the breakfast spread hungerly, Kremy already having laid claim to his spot since he was there first.
As they all began to eat up the meal Gricko lost himself to his thought, staying unusually silent during the meal and letting the childish conversations fill the air
“Mr Gricko!” Called the voice of a young tabaxi cub. Clearly having been trying to get his attention for some time before the goblin finally focused out of his thoughts
“Ah! Sorry lad, what were ya’ saying?” The Goblin apologized and questioned
A frown and furrowed brows was still present on his striped face although he seemingly conceded at the apology and explained what he had been trying to ask the goblinoid
“I was asking! How did you meet grown up me?” His furry brows furrowed again although this time in curiosity “I don't think I've ever met a goblin in Yulong ” he added as an explanation for the simple question, his tail flicking with his barely concealed eagerness to know more about his situation
“Oh! You wanna know the story? It's been a Lil' while since I told someone who never heard it!” Gricko's grin was genuine and his blue eyes sparkled at the prospect
He would just have to leave a few details out, for a children's appropriate story anyway.
As he sorted through certain details to leave out very quickly he clapped his hands together over the small table where the other children still sat as well, now seemingly just as curious.
And so the tale of Gricko and Frost's friendship was spun very theatrical, it was a rather simple tale of Gricko and him meeting due to Frost being hurt in the woods (he downplayed how bad the actual wound was) and how he had kept frost some company into the next town over and eventually just stuck around and the rest was history
As he wrapped up the story, his small audience started to groan at the sudden stop, they quite liked his storytelling skills he noticed with a small spark of pride
No longer than a second or two had passed since the final word left his lips did a fiery red arm shoot up into the air similar to a child in school
“Oh oh!” Gideon started eagerly “What about me? How do you know me?”
Outwardly Gricko kept his usual playful grin but inside he cringed at the idea of trying to explain that one
There was certainly a lot more to cover up in that one, you can't just go tell a kid you met by helping him and his friend con someone out of their riches (no matter how deserved)
Well it looks like he might have to use the great power of improv for this one, even if he hated that class in Goblin College it was pretty darn helpful in some situations if he did say so himself…
“Well,...”
_______________________
After successfully recounting the tales of their friendship founded on ““having each other's backs in the face of people who wished them harm”” (from a certain point of view…) the children slowly dispersed into groups to do….whatever they wanted that wasn't harmful, Frosty and Kremy had gone to kneel in the grass by some odd looking trees, and Torbek and Gideon had wandered a little further for space to race each other back and forth, both seemed to be nearly matched in speed.
It was time for him to come up with a game plan if he could, just like with the early days of having saved Hootsie when he had to build up her daily routines
Hold on- wait why didn't he think of it before!
He could just ask them about the routines they remembered and trying to fit them together like a new puzzle
His mind set he started towards the pair by the Forrest edge, the tabaxi and gatorfolk both kneeled near some odd looking mushrooms, however thankfully not the same mushrooms from Torbek’s nightmares, instead these were flakey looking orange fungi, they didn't have a stem and instead grew from the bark of the trees.
The grassy plain shifted as the goblin strode towards the pair, as he grew closer he could hear snippets of a conversation between the two.
“-look like chicken of the woods, but the trees don't look like the right ones to grow on”
“Well, my Meemaw showed me a cool way to test if they are okay to eat if you wanna see?”
“Is there really a way to test it?” Curiosity was evident in his tone of voice as he spoke
“Well, it needs some magic but I think Mr Gricko has some because of his statue things”
Just then the two were interrupted by the very subject of conversation, a grin on his face as he crouched down to join them in looking at the mushrooms
“Whats that? Some mushrooms?” He asked, despite his questioning tone he knew full well what these looked like, he forged in the woods more times than he could count, but it never hurts to humor them to be supportive
“It's called chicken of the woods…I think, the tree looks wrong though...”
Frost said sounding a little disconcerting towards the uncertainty of what he thought was fact
“Ooo, why's it called that, do ya fink?” Gricko tilted his head in a questioning manner
A green scaly arm shot up in the air, eager to answer this one.
“Oh oh! I know!” Kremy grinned showing off his razor sharp teeth in a large smile, the visual could have looked unsettling if it weren't on the face of the littlest gator with the biggest green eyes you ever did see
Kremy proceeded to explain the taste of the mushroom if cooked correctly, of which he knew from experience, however he acknowledged that he didn't have a lot of experience harvesting it himself; that was more of his meemaw's task.
__________elsewhere_________
Towards the other end of the campsite Gideon and Torbek were continuing to race each other from place to place, the finish line for the races changing in rapid succession.
To the edge of where the two were running was one adolescent owlbear
Hootsie watched as the two ran round and round as quick as they could, eventually the two had to stop to regain their breath and sat next to her for a moment, she cooed at them and rubbed her cheek on their heads, trying to convey that she was proud of how fast they were, they were super good at racing after all!
The owlbear then decided to help the pair by going over to the picnic blanket that still sat out in the sun to retrieve water, that would help them cool down, she thought happily trotting over.
She grabbed two canteens of clean water into her beak, grasping the leather straps tightly, she could hear the water sloshing faintly inside as she moved to turn back to the boys
Though as she turned she saw a distinct lack of one young bugbear cub and one young fire genasi cub.
Oh no
Oh no!!
She didn't stop to drop the items in her beak as she started to frantically look around for the young humanoids
This was very not good, the owlbear cub couldn't seem to find them anywhere! So regretfully, she headed over to where she last saw her Papa to get his help
She moved across the clearing quickly and came to an abrupt stop just a foot away from the goblin
She started hooting and cooing incessantly, trying to convey the emerg-antsy
“Hootsie-?” Her Papa looked shocked at her sudden arrival but quickly picked up on what she was trying to say, or at least picked up that there was an issue and noticed the boys no longer in her presence.
“Gideon and Torbek are lost?” His eyes widened, brows shooting up his forehead, he didn't yell but his tone was serious and concerned
The short man shot up onto his legs, taking a moment to shake some feeling back into them, the blood flow having been disturbed by his crouching position.
Then Hootsie's Papa looked at her then the little gator cub and tiger cub still sat in the dirt then back to her golden eyes
“Hootsie,” he spoke the way he did when things got serious, no joking or merry tone and all business “ I need you to stay right here with Kremy and Frosty, don't leave the camp unless it's an emerg-antsy okay?”
Hootsie nodded and sat tall and straight like the guards she had seen in some of the places they visited in Agwe
He smiled for a second and then it fell as he ventured towards the woods in the direction he saw them playing near not 20 minutes ago
Hootsie watched him rush away for the moment before turning back to the little cubs near her and tilting her head curiously
Kremy and Frosty looked at her still surprised at what had Gricko walking off so quickly
Frosty furrowed his brows as he tilted his head in a mimicry of what the owl bear had done
Kremy then asked a question to her with a slight furrowed to his forehead, she could imagine that if he had eyebrows he would be raising one questioningly
“So…” he dragged the first word a bit “you can really understand us? I thought so but I didnt wanna assume, Meemaw says that assuming makes an-” he cut himself off, seemingly to not say any bad words, Hootsie guessed, she was very smart, she knows cause her papa and Uncles and Auntie Twig tell her so.
Hm, where is-?
She flicked the thought to the side for a moment, the gator cub had asked her something.
She gave as much of a smile as she could with her beak and nodded twice.
“chirp!”
Beside the gator cub, Frosty's eyes shone with interest as he spoke
“Oh wow, I didn't know that was possible! My teachers told me animals couldn't understand us ever, unless magic was involved.”
Kremy smiled widely at her, rows and rows of sharp pearly whites, his eyes a glittery green.
“Jumping Juniper! That's so cool!” he clapped his clawed hands excitedly
The owlbear puffed up her chest proudly with a smug expression on her feather covered face.
_______________________
Now a fair distance away from the clearing Gricko marched through muddy grounds with intense focus, he just hoped he wasn't too far from wherever the duo had wandered off to
There was a consistent crease in his forehead from the moment he stepped away from hootsie, kremy, and frosty.
WHACK
The goblin stumbled a moment as a tree limb he didn't see whacked him straight in the face
He rubbed his nose with a hand to soothe the ache now present, fuck, that was gonna bruise
These kids are going to be the reason he goes gray in a week, of that he was sure…
Just then he heard voices in the short distance to his left and his ears perked up and he made haste in the direction of the noise.
He hopped over a hole in the ground and ran through some tall mushrooms and then he saw…. The kids but also…
Was that a birdhouse??
In the feywild??
A lost and confused expression contorted onto his green complexion as he approached the kids who were talking at the birdhouse rather loudly
“Gideon! Torbek!” He shouted even though he was sure they could have heard him normally, just a bit of relief escaped him as he took stock that they seemed alright
The two turned to him in surprise before that quickly fell way to Gideon's frustrated expression, he pointed to the birdhouse
“Mr Gricko! Something was crying up there-” just then Torbek waved his hand for attention and he interrupted loudly
“TORBEK TRIED TO ASK IF THEY WERE OKAYYYYY BUT TORBEK THINKS THEY GOT SCAREDDDD”
The little genasi covered his ears and flinched away from the loud bugbear with a grimace
“Stop yellin’! I already told you!”
Before the fighting could escalate gricko put two hands up in a “pause” motion
“Hold on! Hold on!”
They stopped and looked at him
“Gideon,” he started, trying to gather what's actually happening from a….not so loud source
“You said you heard crying?” He asked with a small tilt to his head, silently asking the child to elaborate.
“Oh yeah! We were lookin’ at the weird forest and we heard crying and then we found the itty bitty house and somebody was moving in there but I can't see them”
The genasi crossed his arms with a frustrated huff and a pout upon his face.
Crying? Like humanoid crying?
Gricko put a hand to his chin as he speculated how to go about this
If there really was someone in trouble he couldn't just leave, not only would that be mighty heartless it would be a terrible example for the little ones
And if it was an animal he could just ask the boys to stay back a bit while he helped em out
Making up his mind the goblin nodded resolutely and motioned for the two to back up a bit as he approached the birdhouse
“Ello’?” He greeted in a quieter than normal voice but still loud enough to be heard inside the little house hopefully.
The goblin man could hear the faint sounds of rustling inside, something or someone was certainly in there then.
“Me name’s Gricko, Me mates here heard some crying, is everyfing alright?” He tried to look inside the house but it was as though all the tiny windows were covered by little curtains.
A moment passed, long enough for him to doubt if whatever was inside could understand him, he debated pulling out his ocarina to communicate if it was in fact an animal.
Just then after the moment passed and he was preparing to step back a bit he saw the tiny wooden door slowly open…
Twig!?