“Well, well, well, look what the beast dragged in.” The much larger voice startled me to attention. I had zoned out with nothing to do, trying to ignore the protest of my limbs as the ropes continued to bind me tight. I twisted, trying to get a look at the speaker.
“Hold on, I’ll get you down,” they said, voice low and gravely. “Don’t panic. You’ll hurt yourself.”
I… actually, that was sound advice. I waited patiently until the net gave a little lurch and began to lower slowly to the ground. I sprawled onto the ground in relief, staring up at the trees above. Lying on the rocky ground naked had never felt so good.
A hulking figure stood over me, a giant of a woman. Pale yellowish green skin, those same yellow eyes and elongated ears. But she was big, and she was hefty. Her biceps were probably as thick as my head, and she was easily at least 8 feet tall. A massive woman of muscle and fat, she was… unbelievable. Like a green sumo wrestler.
She wore simple clothing, leather and fabric, as well as some kind of honest-to-God armoured chestplate. Probably copper or bronze, or however metal worked. Brown but strong, shiny but definitely not silver.
On top of everything, she carried a massive battle axe over her shoulder, chipped from use.
Fuck I was still naked, I quickly curled up as she promptly laughed at me.
“See, very silly lady,” the goblin said, emerging into view from behind her.
The giant offered me a massive calloused hand. Still trying to take everything in, I took it and nearly had my arm pulled out of the socket as she dragged me to my feet.
“Ow,” I whimpered, rubbing my arm. But I hadn’t taken more damage, at least.
“Sorry bout that, hun. You do seem rather fragile,” she hummed, pulling the cloak from her shoulders and holding it out to me.
I scrambled to pull it around myself, endlessly grateful for some degree of clothing. “Thanks. Fuck… thanks.”
Though standing there in an oversized, rather worn cloak with nothing underneath, I actually felt more naked. Jesus fucking christ, I had been running through the stupid forest naked. I… I was an idiot.
“I’m Gozka,” the giant smiled. “This is Ilgat.”
The goblin waved.
“Uh… hi,” I huffed. “I’m Pamela. Thanks. Sorry. It’s been… I don’t even have a good explanation.”
The giant chuckled. “That's all right, hun. Why don’t we get some food and water into you, then figure out what to do with you?”
“Oh yeah, good idea,” I nodded, relieved to follow someone else's lead right about now. I felt bone dead tired and on the verge of another breakdown.
“Went running, not even with shoes,” Ilgat muttered. “Silly lady.”
Gozka smiled, amused. “Sounds like it. Come on then, Pamela. Camp is literally right through the tree line there. We don’t have far to go.”
I let out a sigh. Well… what choice did I really have?
Breaking through the trees made my jaw drop. The camp was bustling. Wooden palisades, hanging bridges and structures through the trees, tents, a large campfire, and an entire makeshift fortification around a cave descending into the ground. Goblins of various sizes bustled about. A few were even smaller than Ilgat; almost all were smaller than Gozka. Though one even bigger than her sat beside the fire, rotating a hog which had been impaled on a stick and set to roast.
“Holy shit,” I breathed. It was… magnificent. The kind of thing you dreamed of building in your backyard when you were a kid, and before the logistics of a project like this could be understood. It was really fucking cool.
“This is amazing,” I smiled.
Gozka stared at me for a moment. “You’re a real weird one.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know. Can I borrow some pants?”
Satisfied that I was actually being treated like a guest and not some prisoner at an enhanced interrogation facility, I found myself sitting around the fire, now dressed in admittedly rather smelly clothes. I had given Gozka her giant cloak back and tied the pants extra tight with a segment of rope to stop them from falling off. My shirt was a leathery thing that had taken me embarrassingly long to wiggle into. Still, I wasn’t naked anymore, so I wasn’t going to complain.
Gozka handed me a bushel of cheese and berries, and a few other goblins sat around the fire eating or staring at the boar with lecherous hunger. It was the closest of any kind of lecherous look I had seen. Now I felt like a horrible person for assuming. Everyone was… well… pretty chill.
“So… how did you end up running around the woods with no clothes on?” Gozka asked, bemused by my misfortune.
I took a bite of the crumbly cheese, horribly pungent but actually pretty good if you liked that kinda thing. I didn’t know what to say. Mentioning the transported to another world thing sounded crazy and should probably not be what I started with.
“My clothes got eaten by a slime,” I offered blandly.
Everyone around the fire turned to look at me with sudden attention. Ah shit.
“Told you,” Ilgat chirped, clearly satisfied.
Gozka ignored him. “That's… quite a close call,” she replied, her meaning indecipherable.
“Yeah, uh… well… it was definitely unpleasant,” I forced a laugh.
“I can imagine,” she nodded. “Well… you’re welcome to stay the night here before you’re off to wherever you came from.”
“Thanks,” I breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re a lifesaver.”
“Yes, because lady silly,” Ilgat added, sucking the marrow from a large bone.
Gozka shrugged. “It’s not often we have guests, and you were clearly in a desperate situation before running into our traps.”
I flushed with embarrassment. “Yeah uh… yeah,” I sighed.
“She can’t stay.” Everyone swivelled to look at the largest goblin as she spoke. She looked ancient, her skin leathery and almost stone-like. If I thought Gozka was big, this woman was like a massive toad but humanoid. I had been trying not to stare. Though now I definitely was.
“She’s got one of em’ inside her,” the massive goblin continued, waggling a long, bony finger in my direction. “A powerful one, too. Trouble for all of us once it spawns.”
I swallowed. Oh fuck. How did she even know?! Oh wait… [Analisis]
Ogre Giant.
Name: unknown.
Seems to hold a position of power amongst the goblins.
Okay, well, it didn’t tell me much. But maybe she had a fancier version?
“Ah,” Gozka sighed, giving me a sympathetic grimace. “Is there nothing to be done?”
The ogre giant shook her head. “There's something different with that one. Were you in the hive, girl?”
“What? Hive? No,” I shook my head vehemently. “I was just in the forest and got attacked.”
She hummed. “Royals don’t come to the surface. I find that hard to believe.”
“Royals?” I huffed. What was going on? I was so lost again. I had just gotten comfortable here.
“Slime monarchs,” Gozka supplied with a suspicious frown. “The worst of the worst. What colour was the slime that ambushed you?”
“Pink, small, definitely not the worst of the worst,” I flailed slightly. I wasn't lying, but the intense focus on me made me feel guilty regardless.
The ogre giant sighed. “You cannot honestly expect me to believe that a lesser slime has the name Mythic Empress Slime. I may not know what that is, but I’m no fool. Mythic tier monsters are always very bad news.”
A murmur went around the fire pit.
My stomach dropped. So much for friends. So much for feeling welcome.
“You may finish your food, but then you should go. You seem like a nice girl, but I won’t let this become our problem,” she hummed, rotating the boar once again.
“Okay,” I nodded weakly. What else could I say?
I analyzed Gozka; she was an ogre. Ilgat was a goblin, at least I had been right on that front. The size up were orcs. And one of the tiny little goblins running about had been classified as a gremlin. Were they all the same species? Were they different species? I had no idea, but thinking about it while I ate my berries was the best I could do not to cry.
There was a monster incubating inside me. I could only dread what would happen when it hatched.