Backyard Goblins ch. 2

I know that the relationship pacing feels a bit rushed, but I wanted to get the story moving. I'll come back during the editing phase and slow it down a bit with a couple new scenes, but it's going to get pretty fun in the next few chapters!

Three figures stood before me. Not just any figures. Women, I was certain, but short, all hovering around four feet tall, their heads barely reaching my stomach. I took in their unique appearances, a sense of awe blanketing my initial shock.

The one in the center, her eyes a vibrant yellow, wore an outfit fashioned from fur and leather. A tribal camisole clung to her frame, scarcely covering her round breasts, let alone anything else. A simple brown loincloth hung from her waist from a skimpy cord, and with her body tilted to the side, I caught a glimpse of something wonderful under the loincloth that I usually have to wait until at least the second date to see. She had Jet black hair pulled into a straight but messy ponytail, swinging gently with her movements as she cocked her head to look at me.

Next to her, the one with grayish-brown eyes seemed taller, courtesy of her startlingly long, red hair. It was tied into two chunky braids that hung behind her shoulders, almost brushing the ground. Her outfit was similar to the first girl’s, but the fluffy white fur top seemed to amplify her already ample chest. Her impressively thick shortstack body had me in sweats just from looking at her.

The third, the one with the spooky red eyes, wore the scantiest attire. Her clothes, more straps of leather than an actual outfit, left little to the imagination. Rather than a loincloth, her nether regions appeared to be covered by a single brown strap that had been wrapped around her crotch and waist multiple times. Her brown hair hung straight and heavy, almost looking wet, strands carelessly hanging in front of her face.

All three, though unique in their own ways, shared a couple of features. Firstly, their skin, an unusual shade of green, was smooth and luminescent in the glow of my flashlight. Their bodies, despite their height, were curvaceous and undeniably feminine in the most awesome way. And their teeth, sharp as daggers, gleamed ominously. Also, each one had undeniably attractive faces with huge eyes.

For a moment, I stood speechless. And then, my mouth seemed to work on its own. "Who the hell are you?"

Their laughter echoed again in the confined cave, an eerie melody that sent shivers down my spine. Before I could react, the red-haired woman pounced, her weight knocking me back onto the cave floor. For a moment, all I saw was a blur of green and red.

“Moppi, Poppi, chitinka usu mei kari!” she squealed as she tried to hold me down. I was too stunned to overpower her—honestly a bit afraid to hurt her. Call me a simp if you must, but the idea of tossing around an unarmed cutie half my size didn’t come easily to me.

The other two were soon by my side, standing over me with mischievous grins. From my vantage point on the ground, the black-haired one’s hanging loincloth displayed everything, and though I was sure she noticed me taking note, she didn’t seem fazed by it.

“Now, ladies,” I muttered, clearing my throat. “I think we got off on the wrong foot.”

As if on cue, the red-haired one shoved her foot into my face. It didn’t stink, thank God—in fact, it had a pleasant, earthy scent to it. Even so, when it touched my lips, and she cackled menacingly, I spat to try and get her to remove it. She took the opportunity to get me to suck her toe, shoving her foot into my mouth.

“Mmmf!” I murmured, mouth full of cute, feminine feet.

And then they started talking. The red-haired one, her voice as light and airy as a summer breeze, cooed over me as she took her toe out of my mouth. "Look, human! So cute! I want! Poppi, I want! Can have?"

The brown-haired one had a different idea. "Mmm, maybe tasty. Could be eat."

The black-haired woman, however, had a bit more sense, thankfully. "Quiet. No eat. No keep. Talk. Human, speak Common, yes?"

I nodded frantically. Where I came from, we called it English, but hey, I could understand them all of a sudden, so that was good. That was what we call ‘a positive development’.

“Yes, I can understand you. You can understand me, right?”

“Yes!” the black-haired one squeaked happily. Judging from the fact that the middle one looked at her when she said ‘Poppi’, I guessed that was her name. “Can understand you, human. You tasty? Say no.”

“No, I’m not tasty,” I said.

Poppi gestured at the brown-haired one. “You see? Not tasty. No eat.”

With a grunt, I finally moved the redhead off me and pushed myself up. I was back on my feet, dusting off my clothes and looking down at the grinning trio.

“Hey, uh—buddy, I can still taste your feet.”

The redhead giggled so cutely it was impossible to be upset with her, her high pitched voice ringing in the cave. When a new set of eyes appeared in the darkness behind her. I froze for a moment, my hand instinctively reaching for the flashlight.

When I illuminated the area, what I saw was a sight straight out of a nightmare. It was a creature that seemed like a monstrous hybrid of an owl and a bear, its beady eyes reflecting the flashlight beam.

“Holy crap!” I shouted, and the girls all screamed when they looked to see what I spotted.

Without wasting a moment, I shoved the surprised redhead aside and stepped in front. She gave a squeak of alarm, tumbling away as I leveled my rifle at the monstrosity. Then I fired, the loud bang echoing in the confines of the cave as the bullet met the creature's skull.

The creature crumpled to the floor of the cave, lifeless, with a crashing thud. For a moment, there was silence. Then I felt a small form press against me. Looking down, the redhead was staring up at me, her eyes wide.

"Be husband now," she declared. I blinked, my mouth dropping open in confusion.

Before I could say anything, a red orb appeared, and the owlbear thingy’s body seemed to flicker for a minute before dispersing into a cloud of dust. Only the red orb remained, but that, too, wasn’t long for this world as it got sucked up inside of me.

“Poppi, you see?!” The redhead said as she clung to me. “Human have S Tier Soul. Can collect monster soul!”

The other two exchanged stunned expressions, shaking their heads in disbelief as their gazes found me again. “Not possible,” the brown-haired girl rasped. “Not possible.”

All I could muster was a, "Let's get out of here," before turning and heading out of the cave. The girls followed without protest, a strange sort of quiet and respect seeping into their previously mischievous expressions.

Back on my property, I managed to start a fire despite my trembling hands, shaking with the after effects of adrenaline coursing through me. Sitting around the crackling flames, we finally exchanged introductions. "I'm Daryl," I began. "This is my land. Who exactly are you all, now?"

They looked at me with a mix of surprise and awe. "Just you?" the brunette—I think Moppi—asked. "Where Daryl clan?"

"I don't have a clan," I replied frankly.

Koko, the redhead, quipped, "Yes, do now." She fluttered her eyelashes at me sweetly, tapping her chest. “Koko. Koko Daryl wife. Koko and Daryl start clan. Many baby. So gooood!”

I blinked at her, letting out a sigh. “What a long day,” I muttered. “And how about you two?”

The one with the black ponytail raised her hand. “I Poppi.” She gestured at the feisty looking brunette. “This Moppi.”

“Your names are similar,” I noted. “Are you sisters?”

They shook their heads in unison, their hair swishing back and forth. “Not sister,” Moppi said. “Same tribe, similar name. Koko different tribe. Name very different.”

“Koko have sister!” Koko gushed for a moment, but then suddenly looked deflated. “Had sister. I run. She stay. Never see again.”

After a pause, I decided to ask the question that had been gnawing at me. "What exactly are you?" I asked.

They laughed, the sound echoing in the night. "Stupid human," Moppi chided playfully. "Us goblins."

"Goblins?" I repeated, incredulous. "But…goblins don’t exist here. That thing and the cave and you…came—from another world? To my world?"

Their laughter died immediately, all three staring at me in stunned silence. The easy atmosphere from before seemed to dissolve instantly, replaced by a tension that hung heavy in the air.

The black-haired one’s eyes went wide, her yellow irises gleaming at me. “No goblin? You sure?”

I shook my head. “Just humans. How did you even get here?”

Poppi looked like she was going to faint. “We come through silver door. Door gone now. Wait. No orc? No elf?”

"No orcs," I replied, shaking my head. “No elves.” A strange feeling of having landed in the middle of a fantasy novel tickled at my mind, but I pushed it aside.

I continued to answer in the negative when she asked about monsters. Her reaction to my final 'no' was a turning point. She whipped around to face Moppi, her mouth opening wide in a gasp that echoed off the trees. "This nonmagical world! We escape!"

Their words felt like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, a puzzle that was far from being complete. "Escape?" I questioned, my mind racing to catch up with the increasingly bizarre situation. "From who? What was that creature in the cave? And why, out of all places, are you here?"

The barrage of inquiries seemed to piss off Moppi. She scowled at me, her tone gruff when she spoke. "So many questions," she muttered, running her fingers through her messy hair. "Can bite human, Poppi?"

“No bite human. No bite Daryl. This Daryl land, so we Daryl girls. Safe here.”

“Huh?” I grunted, not quite sure I understood what she meant by that, but I certainly thought it sounded a certain way.

Koko, the chesty redhead, tried to answer. Her voice was soft, the words jumbled and awkward, "We…run away. Bad goblin king. Unite clans. Take all wives. No like." It was clear that explaining in English wasn't her forte, but I got the gist of it.

Poppi stepped in, taking over the narrative. She started to speak, and she took it slow, but when she got going her sentences were more complete than before. "Our tribe…had a new leader," she began, her voice a lot calmer now, "he want all the goblin girl for self. We not want that, not like him, so we steal his token and run." As if to add emphasis, she produced a penny from her pocket.

The sight of the familiar coin in this far-from-familiar situation left me startled. "That's from Earth," I managed to say, my gaze still fixed on the coin. “That’s from here.”

Poppi nodded, her eyes meeting mine. "I know," she replied simply. "It lead us Silver Portal and your world."

"Why didn't you just find another clan to join in your world?" I asked, trying to make sense of their strange journey.

Moppi's answer was a sharp snort, her red eyes hardened. "Not can happen," she declared, her voice filled with finality. "We die or slaves."

The words hit me hard. These girls, these goblins, had no way back and nobody else to turn to. They ran from a bad situation into one that was brand new. There was no magical portal left in the cave that I could see—whatever mystical gateway had brought them here was now seemingly as lost as they were. The penny, while it may have been their key to my world, was just a piece of copper and zinc now. It held no magic here.

And so there I sat, on my humble property, surrounded by chickens, crops, and now, three green-skinned, scantily clad, actually kinda super sexy goblin girls with nowhere to go and no way to return to their own world. Over the dull crackle of the fire, I posed my question, "So...what's your plan?"

Koko's answer was immediate, which was far from a surprise. Her grayish eyes glinted under the firelight as a broad, toothy grin spread across her face. "Lots of breeding!" She declared with an enthusiasm that left me blinking in disbelief. “Please breed now! Koko ready.”

The silence that followed was one that could have rivaled the quietest of nights. As the shock wore off, I found myself fumbling for words, "I...uh...I'm going to need some clarification on that."

Poppi brought a dose of practicality to the situation. Shaking her head slightly at Koko's overly direct proposition, she laid out her plan, clearly the self-appointed leader among the three of them.

"For now, we just need safe place. This land," she gestured around the campfire at my off-grid property, her yellow eyes sparkling in the firelight, "It have fence, good food, and handsome human king." She pointed at me with a grin that was equal parts devious and endearing. “We stay.”

A sense of surrealism washed over me as I stared at the three goblins. Their words sunk in slowly and the blunt reality of the situation fully settled on me. "So," I finally muttered, the words hanging in the cool night air, "You're not exactly giving me much of a choice in the matter, are you?" I asked, my voice laced with a blend of disbelief and resignation.

Moppi's voice cut through my words, a tiny hint of worry creeping into her otherwise playful demeanor. "No like goblin girl?" She asked, her red eyes flicking to mine.

"Well, I can't exactly say that I've ever considered goblin girls as an option available to me before," I admitted with an awkward chuckle.

Koko's grin widened even more, if that were possible. "Now very available! Every day available!" She exclaimed with such enthusiasm that I found myself almost laughing at her cute but perhaps worry-inspiring display of excitement.

Gathering my thoughts, I stood up and began to pace in front of the fire, talking more to myself than to them, though I wanted them to understand as well. "The way I see it," I began, "If I report you to the government, they'll probably lock you up, or worse. If a corporation or some special interest group gets their hands on you...well, it wouldn't be good, let's just leave it at that. There's no place out there where I can guarantee you'd be safe. Honestly, it really is pretty much just here."

I gestured around us at the silent, peaceful land that I called home. The land that was now, it seemed, their home too. Poppi mulled over my words for a moment before nodding. "Portal send us here on purpose," she said, a thoughtful expression crossing her face, "This where meant to be."

I wondered how much of that was just her interpretation, and how much was the  truth. In any case, my mind was already overloaded. There were questions—so many questions—but they could wait. For now, I simply nodded at the girls, welcoming them hesitantly to their new home—at least for now. "Welcome to the middle of nowhere, ladies. You're safe here, I guess."