Chapter Text
Gricko awoke with a start, his slumbering snores cutting off abruptly, as he sat up straight from his sleeping bag, where his head once lay was an equally surprised Hootsie, the owlbear's wide eyes looking to her Papa for explanation
“Huh…?” The Goblin grumbled sleepily, wondering why he had jolted awake, a nightmare of some kind?
He didn't have to wonder long before he heard a scream
Quickly he jumped up out of his sleeping bag and onto his feet, Hootsie slowly getting up herself, she shook her feathers out comfortably before then following Gricko as they both raced out of the tent in a hurry, so much so they don't even question why that scream sounded higher than it should have
With haste the father daughter duo made it the short ways to the other tents that should hold their friends
As Gricko came to a stop at the opening of one of the tents- Gideon and Kremy's specifically- with wide eyes
Because as he looked inside the sight before him absolutely baffled the goblin, what the hell??
He saw two small children sitting in the center of the tent, one was a short lizardfolk hatchling, he was clad in some dusty brown overalls, it seemed like this gator- the one that Really looked like Kremy, might have been the cause of the scream earlier sans the grey eyes;which were now returned to their yellow and green color.
Because in front of the scaled hatching was a young fire genasi, hands on fire and the little guy kept flailing his arms around in an attempt to put out the flame; although the effort seemed to only be making the flames larger.
Oh Fuck.
Oh! Fuck!
As he registered the fire and the now apparent danger to the strange kids the goblinoid father entered the tent swiftly, making his way to the mini Gideon with great haste
“Hey hey hey..” he said in a soft tone of voice drawing both kids attention
The Goblin crouched next to the fiery kid who he was guessing was mini Gideon
To the side mini Kremy kept looking around with wide startled eyes, still processing the new environment and a kid he didn't know catching on fire rapidly before his eyes.
“It's okay,” he said, smiling reassuringly. “It's your own fire, it won't hurt ya- promise! and we can make it go away, you wanna try?”
Gricko had seen the few times Gideon had lost control of his flame and so had an idea on how to help the boy
Gideon took a moment to take the words in before quietly nodding to the now only adult around, carefully trusting the stranger for now
“Okay good! So first we’s gonna take a biiiig deep breath” as he said this the Goblin demonstrated doing so by inhaling deeply, puffy out his chest in an exaggerated manner to make the example helpful and hopefully slightly entertaining
Mini Gideon copied him, his cheeks blown like a chipmunk as he tried to keep as much air as he could inside his mouth all at once
“And exhale- slowly” the goblin said as he let out a lung full of air in a slow deliberate pace
Mini Gideon copied him yet again and as he let out as much air as he could the flames in his hands shrunk until they disappeared in a small trail of Grey smoke
“It's gone!” Gideon said with a grin, embers shone for a moment in his dark messy hair before putting themselves out
Gricko chuckled lightly before playfully ruffling the kids hair, careful of his short horns
“Yep” he said popping the p at the end
Now that that was settled Gricko turned to the other new kid in the tent to see if he was still in need of some help
Only when he turned he saw the gator child snuggled up next to Hootsie and playing with her feathers with a content yet confused look on his face
“Welllll~ now that the fire is out allow me ta introduce me self, hallo there! my name is Gricko Grimgrin and that there darling little owlbear is me daughter Hootsie!”
Hootsie chirped her own hello after the introduction much to the awe of the young gator still snuggled up to her
The young fire genasi looked at him shyly for a moment now that the chaotic environment had faded before greeting them in turn
“Hi, my names Gideon, um Gideon Coal” he fumbled a bit at the end clearly not used to also introducing his last name
“Good to meet you, Gideon!” With great enthusiasm Gricko grabbed his small red hand and shook it up and down
And up and down for longer than normal and as he kept shaking his hand gideon gave a little giggle at the shenanigans
Finally pulling away from the handshake the goblin turned to mini Kremy still huddled next to Hootsie, the owlbear's size making the hatchling look adorably tinier than he was
“Um” the young gatorfolk said “im Kremy, Delune” with that he gave a small wave but made no move to shake hands and leave his new owlbear friend
“Good to meet you too, Kremy!” The blonde said, though this time he secretly was confused by the last name change but decided not to dwell on that for the moment
Perhaps something to bring up when things changed back to normal…
After doing a small tally in his head Gricko realized that there were more members of their party still unaccounted for- clearly his mind was still trying to wake itself up
“I'll be riiiiight back okay lads? Hootsie watch them while I check on the others” as he left the tent he saw his daughter give a serious nod as she now took on her role to watch over the littler ones
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A few paces away he found a dark green tent that should be housing his best mate frosty- though now the goblin was half expecting a smaller frosty instead
He pulled the flaps for the entrance aside and gazed into the dark tent
And huh, yep, looks about right.
Just as he was beginning to suspect he saw a small tiger tabaxi curled over a sleeping mat, features smaller and fluffier than Gricko had ever seen them, he was curled up so it was hard to make out but he seemed to be wearing a shiny green poncho as opposed to his usual intricate robes.
And as the goblin scanned the room he also saw against a corner a small brown and furry shape that had to be Torbek-also kid-ified.
He was hidden from view for the most part, the shadows along the edges of the tent hiding him well, but faintly there was just enough light for gricko to make out the raggedy clothes on his furry body.
Oh man, so that means he and Hootsie are the only ones unaffected by whatever this fey curse is
The Goblin took his second deep breath of the day, this time grounding himself into this bizarre situation
Ok, sure, he can do this, in all honesty if anyone else was stuck with the party as kids he's sure they wouldn't know what to do so he's just grateful it was him, he does have more experience than the others having a daughter of his own in the form of an adolescent owlbear.
And how long could this really last anyway? All the other curses wore off after an hour or two right?
He just needs–
His thoughts were cut short at the sound of soft rustling as the tiny tabaxi readjusted his sleeping form
Right, yeah, plan later right now he's gotta get all of the kiddos on the same page, otherwise who knows if they will run away to try and go back to their childhood homes, and with their luck that would only end in four lost kids in the wild…
Slowly and quietly the goblin approached frosty first, seeing as he knew him a little better than he knew Torbek
The green skinned man hummed a moment bring his hand to his chin as he wasn't sure how lightly the cub slept
Better safe than sorry
He laid a hand on frosty shoulder and gave a small shake
“Mrnm…” the tiger grumbled in response to the jostling
“Frost? Hey man can you wake up for me buddy?”
Frost's too big paws come up to rub the sleep from his eyes reluctantly, the adorable sight gaining a coo from Gricko
“Awhh look at you!” He clasps his green hands together over his chest adoringly
The statement gets a little startled jolt from the cub, his bright yellow(?) Eyes peering at the goblin curiously and tilts his striped head
“Who are you?” Frost said with furrowed brows
Gricko smiled “me name’s Gricko!”
The tabaxi nods before asking another question
“...you knew my name already.” It's more of a statement but the confusion on his small furry face makes it clear he is trying to find out why
“Yeah, i did,” Gricko nods. “I can explain in a bit when we get you and the other kiddos together, don't wanna tell the same thing four times ya know?”
Mini Frosty looked frustrated but nodded his head anyway in hopes this wouldn't be a long wait
After assessing that frost would be fine for a minute he turned his bright blue eyes towards the spot he saw Torbek only—
He wasn't there anymore?
Oh shoot! He really hoped he didn't lose one already!
Just as the goblin was about to panic he felt a fuzzy feeling on his hand that was at his side
With only a brief jump he turned and saw the little bear bug cub, grubcub? At his side staring big dark eyes up at him silently
Gricko stared back a moment before slowly blinking at the child holding his hand
The bugbear blinked back
The goblin huffed a little in amusement before greeting the little guy
“Hi there,” he said with a grin “when did you wake up?” He asked genuinely curious how long Torbek had been silently hiding in the shadows for, it seemed the knack for stealth was still present
“Torbek saw you talk to the tiger kid” he said with a little mumbling towards the end
“Oh well, I guess that means I don't gotta introduce meself again” Gricko snarked
Still holding torbek's hand Gricko looked to frost and spoke
“Okay then, follow me and I can explain some fings to everybody” he gestured to the door with his head
Frost got up from the ground with crossed arms and waited for Gricko and Torbek to step out before following The duo out
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After they were back in Kremy and Gideon's tent (seeing as its the biggest) Gricko sat the kids down in a half circle in front of him, Kremy was no longer cuddled with Hootsie but still sat next to her clearly having become attached to the now oldest child of the group, next to him to his right was Gideon sitting crosslegged looking at the newer additions to the room in curiosity, and to his right was frost, a perturbed expression on his face, glaring at the short goblin man, and at the most right side sat Torbek, his knees pulled up to his chin as he hugged his legs.
Gricko clapped his hands once to get their attention on him before he spoke
“Okay lads, and Hootsie,” he started “so first fings first, somethin happened to make yall kids but usually you lot are big ol grownups and we are friends, so until this fixes itself ill be happy to help with anyfing you need” he tried to lay out all the basics in one go in hopes it would make the situation a little more understandable
They all stared with wide eyes for a moment
“WHAT!?” shouted all four kids in surprise or disbelief
“How do we know you aint lying?” mini Kremy said with an unconvinced glare towards the goblin, yellow eyes piercing.
“Oh, yeah! How?” Gideon tacked on, clearly not having thought to question it before the gator said something
Frost was quite a moment, Gricko could tell he was piecing things together, he recognized the look after years of traveling with the tabaxi.
Still not looking at the other kids and instead staring into space with a too large paw on his furry chin frost spoke up his own opinion
“...is that how you know my name?” slowly his yellow eyes looked back at Gricko’s blue with apprehension evident
“Sure is!” Gricko said, quick to try and convince the kids of this truth- bizarre as it may be
The mini Frost furrowed his brows further before standing from his seated position and gave a firm nod, clearly displaying that he believed the tale told
Gricko let out a breath
Well at least one of them is convinced, hopefully Gideon and Kremy will come around but as long as the goblin dad could could keep them relatively safe then it would be fine
Wait-...
Gideon, Kremy, Frosty, Hootsie…
Oh for goodie-ness sake- not again!
With a sigh he drooped his shoulders bit in an exaggerated manner
“Torbek…., where did you go?” he said calmly, expecting him to not have wandered off far
From a dark corner of the tent Gricko heard a young voice reply
“Torbek is in the corner…Torbek didn't want to be in the wayyyy” now that the goblin was looking he could make out the shape of the young grubcub fidgeting with his claws in a nervous manner
A sympathetic look graced his goblinoid features
“Aw buddy it's okay, you don't have to hide, we’s all friends here!”
Frost looked at him at the statement
“I don't know him, he's not my friend.” he said in a matter of fact tone that could only come from a young frost
Oh yeah, now that he recalled the brief appearance of the young tabaxi at the witchlight carnival he remembered the lad being a bit of a jerk at times
Well that's gonna be fun, he thought sarcastically.
“Well Frosty, when ya grow up he does become your friend, just like everyone else here, so let's try to be a little nicer to each other, okay?”
The tiger cub rolled his eyes in a moody display, still he sighed and replied with a quite “ok”
Torbek approaches and decides to stand just on the edge of the group but much closer than before, gricko spied a small smile upon his fluffy face.
Well, damnit Gricko is gonna make sure this little guy gets to feel included for however long he's here!
Just then his ears picked up on the distinct sound of stomach rumbling in hunger, and as he turned he saw that the noise was coming from the young fire genasi who was wrapping his arms around himself with a sheepish expression
“Oh right! Breakfast!” Gricko said, forgetting that nobody had eaten anything after dinner last night, and so it seems that task falls onto his shoulders now that their resident cook is too little to do much help with cooking.
…..
Along with all the other chores too… fuck he hates the idea already
He held back a resigned groan at the realization before making his way to the exit of the tent, intent on going to their fire pit to try and cook something,he may not be as good of a cook as Kremy but he can make a few things okay; thats how he and Hootsie, and later Frosty got by camping until they met kremy and Gideon.
Frost tried to cook once…empphasis on tried.
The goblin still remembers the burned meats and soggy vegetables way too vividly for his liking
So needless to say the goblin has a lot more practice than other members of the party.
As he walked the short distance to the center of their improvised campground he called to the lot of children and one adolescent owlbear with a cheerful tone
“I hope ya lads like steak and eggs! We just restocked on some goods!”
At his call he heard cheers of excitement and the sounds of battering feet coming out into the grassy clearing.