’I want to cry.’ Magna slowly came back to his senses.
The pain itself had vanished completely, but the sheer memory of what he’d just endured was enough to break a grown man, let alone someone stuck inside a baby’s body.
Still, he swallowed the urge, moved by the sight of the face holding him so tightly.
’Who on earth came up with the idea that goblins are nothing but ferocious, heartless monsters?’ He couldn’t help but curse that one anime, the one about the man who’d dedicated his whole life to slaughtering goblins.
Looking at the one holding him now, the whole thing felt like nothing more than racist propaganda.
At least this one was nothing like that. If anything, she was rather more human than most humans he’d known.
Sensing her anxiety, her fear, he decided to let her know the pain had passed, while, at the same time, testing out these newly mutated vocal cords of his.
He opened his mouth and gave speaking a try.
"Aaaa... Aaaa... Go... Go... Fuk..."
Unsurprisingly, all that came out was meaningless babbling, though he’d rather expected as much.
Vocal cords alone weren’t nearly enough to speak properly. His lips, his tongue, his jaw muscles, even his lungs, which needed to supply enough air to shape proper words, all of it still needed time to develop.
By his own estimate, it would be another four or five months, at least, before he could pronounce words the way he wanted to.
And once he was old enough to chant a spell, he knew his real life here would finally begin.
Time slipped by in a blur, days melting into weeks, weeks into months, until four whole months had passed, seemingly in the blink of an eye.
Through all of it, Magna never once left the cave, growing rather faster than expected under the tender care of the goblin who’d taken him in.
He’d long since shed the frail look of a newborn.
His once-wrinkled skin had gone smooth and healthy, filling out with soft baby fat. He could hold his head up easily now, kick his plump little legs through the air, and roll from his stomach onto his back.
He’d even started growing hair, his head now covered in a soft shade of black.
Lying flat on his back on the bed of soft leaves, watching sunlight filter gently through the cracks in the cavern ceiling, he began to mumble.
"O... Vein... o’ da Livin’ Worl’... Wiva... dat has fwowed... since... befowe... da Firs’ Dawn... Siwent Motha... o’ Wain an’ Sea... g-give me... puwe wata..."
It was the Water Sapphire incantation, the very spell the goblin cast most often around him, that one and her fire spell.
His vocal cords were remarkably developed for his age, and he carried the mind of a full grown adult, but speaking remained an uphill climb all the same.
His lungs simply couldn’t supply enough breath for a full, uninterrupted chant. On top of that, his tongue and lips weren’t nearly reflexive enough yet, and certain syllables kept slipping and slurring past him.
Still, it was an impressive attempt, especially given the goblin herself wasn’t exactly fluent either, casting her own spells in that broken cadence of hers.
’Why isn’t it working when I try it?’ His tiny face screwed up in frustration.
Either his pronunciation still fell short of whatever threshold the spell needed, or something else entirely was missing.
His failure to cast magic wasn’t the only troubling thing to come out of these past four months.
There was another problem too, he’d stopped gaining energy from the goblin’s milk entirely.
For some reason, ever since his vocal cords had changed, Gaia’s notifications during feedings had grown rarer and rarer, until they stopped showing up at all, about a month back. It was plain enough that the milk had hit its absolute limit as a source of raw energy.
And now a second problem, a far worse one, was creeping up on him.
While he lay there alone, the sound of footsteps echoed in from the tunnel entrance.
A small green figure stepped into the cave soon after, swaying slightly with every step.
It was his goblin mother, the one who’d raised him this whole time, though she looked rather different from how she had four months back.
She’d grown noticeably thinner, her body marked with countless scars, some fresh and still bleeding, others already sealed beneath dark scabs.
Magna had never actually seen what happened whenever she left the cave to hunt, but he could piece the truth together well enough on his own.
After bringing a human baby back into the nest, she’d clearly clashed with the rest of her pack, and ended up banished for it.
Goblins depended entirely on group hunting, on shared strength, to survive at all, so forcing one out on her own was about as close to a death sentence as it got.
Nearly every time she went out, she came back with an empty stomach and fresh wounds to show for it.
And yet, no matter how brutal her day had been, the moment she stepped back into the cave and laid eyes on Magna, her whole face lit up with something like real joy.
"Kah-kah-keh!" she cackled softly, taking exaggerated, bouncing steps before scooping him up into her arms.
"Geen!" Magna greeted her back, his face bright.
Green was the name he’d given his newfound mother, a simple little sound that never once failed to fill her with happiness.
Today was no different. She let out a low, throaty laugh, cradling him close. "Hun’gee, lil’ un?"
She was using human words far more often these days, and between her efforts and his own struggling attempts, the two of them had slowly built themselves a strange, patchwork little language all their own.
With a gentle pat on his back, she pulled aside the dirty, frayed cloth covering her chest, ready to feed him once more.
He went through the motions of his usual routine, but Gaia stayed silent, same as always. No glowing text appeared. No notification came announcing any rise in energy.
Even the familiar warmth that usually spread through him while nursing was gone now, proof enough that his usual meal simply wasn’t cutting it anymore.
He couldn’t tell whether her malnutrition was draining the nutrients right out of her milk, or whether his body had simply started needing some other source of energy entirely.
Looking up at her scarred, sunken face, he knew there was no way he could ask her for more. She was already pushing herself to the very edge, just to keep the two of them alive one day at a time.
’Damn it. If this keeps up, we’re both going to die.’
Magna stopped nursing, pretending to be full even though his stomach was still hollow and growling away.
The mere thought of draining this soft-hearted goblin any further was enough to kill his appetite anyway.