After satisfying his hunger and completing his normal routine post-meal, he wandered into the hall. He had finished his most recent book and had a mighty need for a new piece of literature. So he poked his head into the library and was shocked. The singular shelf was no longer alone. There was now a small collection of shelves, all stuffed to the brim with books.

  Eagerly he stretched out his hand and ran his thin fingers across the spines. His fingers trembled as he struggled to resist the urge to immediately grab a book from the shelf. Perusing the titles, he finally decided to indulge in some fiction. He found a suitable candidate, “Of Wands and Woo.”

  He excitedly grabbed it and ran his thin fingers across the pages; of course, he began to read. Much to his satisfaction, it was precisely what he hoped for. It was an absolutely cheesy, over-the-top romance novel that didn't skimp on the more intimate segments, if you know what I mean. A book this good needs to be indulged in the proper environment, thought the goblin.

  The goblin decided to try out that comfy-looking chair. He ran out of the library, down the hall, and leapt towards the chair, colliding with such force that the sturdy chair nearly tipped over. Almost like a cat, he curled up into the fluffy folds and resumed his reading.

  He remained near motionless for untold hours; the sound of the crackling flames was occasionally interrupted by the sound of the snap of a hurried page turn. And so he burned down the candle on another day, not that he could keep track without the sun.

  In fact, many a day passed as the goblin indulged in the deluge of books. Of course he performed his duties and maintained the pristine condition of the underground structure. He dined on raw fish and mushrooms when his stomach ached. For any other goblin, it was practically heaven, even if they would rather be caught dead than clean.

  But no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t escape the all encompassing pain, the books helped distract his grief but did not cure it. The uncounted days turned to months, the goblin soon finished the contents of the library that he could read. Many of the books were filled with symbols that he couldn’t understand but couldn’t help but feel that they held untold wisdom.

  What remained of the books were mostly cheesy romance novels, which he was not complaining about. There were not a lot of informative books but he read them nonetheless. “Tale of a Tailor,” was particularly useful. He crafted some basic clothes from fish skin, it was a pain but he felt like it was necessary for someone being employed as a cleaner. He attempted following along with “Collateral Cooking,” but after ruining several dishes he decided to stay out of the kitchen game.

  He was soon reading through the readily readable books and had to begin re-reading material. Luckily, his monotony was soon interrupted when he heard the creaking of door hinges. The worrisome part of this being he was seated and reading by the fire. He felt heart palpitations as heard cautious footsteps heading down the hall.

  The goblin tried to extricate himself from his blankets but all he could manage was awkwardly flop to the floor where he was left awkwardly face to face with a young woman. She was cautiously peaking through the doorway, and the last thing she expected to see was a goblin tangled in blankets staring back at her with an equally curious, terrified, and clueless expression.

  An eternity passed between the two of them clearly at a disadvantage. The goblin decided to break the silence, “Welcome home?” Clearly mistaking the new face as the owner of this subterranean lair.

  “Excuse me?” she gaffed. After everything that happened to her, her torn clothes, the scrapes and burns covering her body, and the faint permeating frostburn along what was left of her clothes, this was the last thing she expected.

  The goblin began to slowly extricate himself from the blankets, in turn she in turn shakily raised an old rusty dagger. He in turn raised his hands, regardless of culture or race was a sign of surrender easily recognized by the youth across from him.

  Only now could the young woman recognize the creature before her eyes but even then she still did not believe it. The creature before her had the ugly green complexion, knobbly bits, and the paunch clearly of a goblin, but it was cloaked in clothes, something most goblins forgo.

  The notorious odor of the filthy species was also suspiciously lacking, this one was clean. A clean and semi-compently dressed goblin? This seemed more like a creature from the wandering circus than the vile, loathed man-shaped beast of the wilds.

  “I’m sorry if I intruded on your home,” spoke the goblin wringing his hands. He really didn’t want to fight, he was never much of a warrior, even back when he was a member of the goblin horde.

  “What are you talking about! This isn’t my home!” The girl couldn’t really wrap her head around why the goblin’s mind went this direction. Home, the word that brought much joy now only rang with melancholy.

  “Really?” the goblin exclaimed, tension visibly draining from his body. “I thought I was about to be kicked out!” He picked up the blanket that was on the ground, shook it a little and then began to carefully fold it. The girl was still cautious but now felt more quizzical.

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  “Are you really a goblin?” The girl couldn’t help but ask. The behaviors were more of a middle aged lady.

  “I am! More learned perhaps but a green-skin nonetheless.” He chuckled having finished folding the blanket. He eyed up the youth before him, while a delicate youth, she had callouses upon her hands and the visible parts of her arms were toned and defined. Clearly someone who worked hard.

  His inspection did not overlook her dirty completion and clothing. “Well we can’t have you messing up my hard work.” The goblin said, his nonchalance setting the girl on edge again. She prepared for the worst as the goblin approached, dagger raised but eyes closed. The expected impact never came as she felt a breeze as he passed. “Ya coming?’ His voice came from behind her. She turned around to see him holding a door open in what to her was just a hallway.

  “Where are we going?” Her voice trembled a little, still on edge.

  “The bathroom, obviously!” The goblin cried, getting a little exasperated. “YOUR GONNA GET THE FLOORS DIRTY!” He cried out. “I just scrubbed them clean so come on!” She stood there, dumbfounded. The goblin began to tap his foot in annoyance, making up her mind she finally approached, held her breath and entered the room.

  She still half expected to be lead to some torture chamber, but was instead greeted to a luxurious bathroom that even nobles would be jealous of. “There’s the tub.” The goblin said, pointing at the steam bronze tub in the corner. “I’ll get some food going.” He grumbled as he walked out, the door shutting behind him. “Don’t forget the clothes!" his muffled shout could be heard through the wood.

  With nothing else to do the youth eventually did as she was told. As she lowered her foot into the cauldronlike tub she couldn’t help but consider this as a clever plot to become a willing sacrifice for a stew. Well with how nice this, maybe I would be willing, she thought as she sank into hot water.

  An unknown amount of time passed, the originally clear water had become cloudy, and her complexion significantly improved, and her clothes were as clean as she could get. She wrung out her hair and clothes over the tub, once she deemed herself sufficiently dry, she cautiously made her way through the door and down the hall.

  Upon looking into the hall she was greeted by the sight of her new goblin acquaintance, sitting at a wooden table, impatiently tapping his fingers against its surface. “Finally,” spat out the goblin. “I was thinking of starting without you.” Upon the wooden table sat a raw fish and a small pile of multicolored mushrooms.

  “Oh,,, Uhh…” She began and tried to find the best way to put it without angering the pint sized figure. “Is this it?”

  “It is what I got!” The goblin replied.

  “Do you want to cook it at all?” She tentatively asked.

  “Not really, most of the stuff I cook tastes worse than it is right now.” The goblin admitted. He shuffled to the corner of the room, which had become a collection heap of sorts, the standard form of goblin organization. He pulled out some rough cast iron pans and wandered over. Setting them on the table, “You can try if it makes you feel better, but I tell you cooked food is no good.”

  She accepted the cookware, and looked around for a range, only the roaring purple flame sat in the middle of the room. “Did you try to cook on that?” She asked.

  “Yes. the book says put the food on fire! So I did, and it only got black and dry, not very tasty at all.” He calmly replied.

  “Okay, is there anything else besides the stuff here?” The girl asked, kinda feeling a little sad after hearing how the goblin had been subsisting himself.

  “You would have to check out the cave!” He said as he waddled passed. She followed into the hall, she could still see the bathroom door that was previously not visible to her. She was then astonished to see him grasp onto what looked like a wall, and almost out of the blue a door appeared before her eyes.

  “That wasn’t there before,” She whispered aloud to herself. She looked at the goblin pass through the doorway as they stepped into a massive cavern. She looked in awe of the hidden ecosystem contained within.

  “I get fish from there,” he said pointing at the water, “and mushrooms there.” He then pointed towards some rotting vegetation.

  “Is there anything else in this cave?” She asked.

  The goblin shrugged, “I have never needed to go past here.”

  “Well why don’t we go look?” She asked, while hungry, the raw fish and mushrooms did not seem very appetizing.

  “Fine, but first…” The goblin left the cave, and returned a few moments later, a fishing spear in one hand and half a fish in the other. “Traveling snack?” He held the half fish out to the young girl, who just stared back in disgust. He shrugged and threw the remaining half in his mouth, and continued walking. The youth visibly grimaced every time she heard the crunching of bone, luckily it didn’t take long for the sound to stop.

  They ventured deeper into the cave, they stuck along the lake's edge. There was far more life there than simply fish and fungus. A multitude of different insects crawled over rotting vegetation, the goblin tasted them, much to the disgust of his companion. But at least he confirmed that the fish and mushrooms indeed tasted far better than that light snack.

  The passed under the large purple and blue trees that rimmed the lake, and happened upon a clearing of deep blue grass. The girl bent down and stroked her hand across the blades of grass. “This would be good for raising livestock,” she couldn’t help but mutter, her upbringing showing through.

  She noticed that there were some freshly cut stems, and as soon as she went to vocalize another realization, she was violently interrupted as a green blur tackled her. Only after said collision did she notice a blur of grey and brown fly pass, the wind from its tremendous speed tussling her hair and clothes.

  The blur struggled to stop and crashed headfirst into one of the purple trees, smashing it to smithereens. When the sawdust settled, emerged a large pig-like creature with a single large grey horn. Its teeth were a mix of sharp and flat, an opportunistic feeder. Vapor poured from its nostrils like a volcano. Only one word came to the girl's mind, monster.