[IC] Apotheosis

[Moonlit Sonata]

A flowing darkness surrounds all. A pure darkness unlike any other, impenetrable by anything that is or could be. There was no light, no sound, no motion. There was only that transcendent black, endlessly expanding in all directions. And yet...rather than disturbing, this eerie ocean of black was calming. Like the feeling a child has when closing its eyes to sleep, like the fading world at the end of a play. The darkness is embraced with open arms and hearts, taken in like air and water as the warmth it brings is recognized.

Light pierces the dark. A lance stabbed upwards from the Kingdom Below, the light pervades this space of tranquil knowledge. The darkness is burned away, twisted and perverted by the all-consuming light. Fear strikes, as just moments after embracing the blackness, it is forcibly torn away. The warmth is replaced by a burning pain. Born from the interplay of shadow and light, figures take form, but they cannot possibly be acknowledged. No, the only site of importance is this light, this damnable light that takes away everything.

The light cools. The scars left from its searing pain throb in the recesses of existence as their cause recedes. The light returns, but this time it does not crush the darkness; this time it merely illuminates what was present. Eyes cracking open for the first time. Formless figures who steadily take shape as the light is adjusted to, beings that aren't recognized but still feel familiar.

A single word takes form in the mind, not spoken in a language but in something more primal, something that appeals to the deepest part of existence as information in a language that was never learned streams into the soul.

"Goblin."

And before the crowd of these now-awakening bodies stood a lone figure, back turned to them as she called out to those nearby.

Come now, we've wasted enough time already. No sense in wasting any more.

Wake up.

---

Now, it is worth noting the current situation for the Goblin tribe of the Ironwood Forest.

After being birthed, the youngest group of Goblins had remained asleep for three full days, a sleep that none of the elder Goblins could rouse them from despite their best efforts, and now several of them seemed to have begun stirring within mere seconds of each other. Accordingly, they were waking up for the first time in bodies that were just a hair's breadth away from being fully grown.

This rate of growth is only natural. When compared to the civilization built by humans, who grew up without worry of being attacked by a foreign enemy, goblins, since the moment of their birth, must deal with the fierce struggle for survival. Humans could afford to grow more slowly than the Goblins living in the wilds, where the law of the jungle requires their offspring grow faster. Of course, one of the elders had been sure to help feed them while they were in the depths of sleep so that they wouldn't starve, though it had been difficult to do so without causing them to choke to death. In truth, there had actually been more children present, but some had choked to death while the elders tried to feed them, and their corpses had been carried out two days prior. Necessary experience, and whatnot.

The other children from this group of newborns were still asleep, slumbering peacefully in the further recesses of the cavern, as if they were comatose. The elder who had seen some of them awakening had carried the waking ones out of those recesses mere minutes earlier, when she noticed them starting to stir. Hopefully the others would also wake up soon, but only time would tell.

As the newborns gained some bearing of their surroundings, they would notice that they were in the middle of a cave, a natural cave with a few traces of sunlight from the midday world outside filtering in.

"Chief, chief, some of them are waking up!"

[Holy Grail]

Lyminia

Heat. Searing, deathly heat. But where did this sensation come from? What...what did it mean? Why...why did it hurt so much?! No memories arose to clarify the matter, no comforting words to tell her that it was all over. Just that singular painful sensation, which faded as quickly as it had come before she could utter a single word. Then a cool feeling began to set in, sinking, sinking, sinking into her like a wave of relief to save her from the unknown sensation.

Yet eventually her senses began to come about her, the flickering, burning memory of that searing pain fading rapidly as she stirred from her deep and undisturbed slumber. Crumbs of carefully fed food seemed to linger in her mouth, their mixed and strange flavors hitting her as her senses themselves became more alert and awake. The female Goblin's eyes began to flutter open as her nearly grown body began to move to prop her up into a sitting position, their color a golden hazel with...flecks of fiery red in them? The strange appearance of her eyes aside, as her body moved into a siting position on the cold cave floor, Lyminia blinked as she saw the light for the first time, looking about her at the other stirring young Goblins as her eyes adjusted to the dark of the cave and the lovely daylight flitting into the dark and dank surroundings. Stretching her arms after moving her legs into a siting position, the female goblin let out a long and loud yawn, before looking down at herself for the first time.

It was an odd sight...well, not really. The world had given her enough to understand some basic things right away, such as the fact she was in reality a Goblin. Giving a light huff to herself, the green-skinned female Goblin known as Lyminia slowly began to stand up as her body continued the process of awakening. Slightly wobbly for a moment, it only took a brief few seconds for her to find her balance before she was standing just fine in the spot she had formerly been sleeping. It was then that she cast her eyes in the direction of a voice she had heard, somewhat muffled amidst the sleep that had bound her mind only a minute or two ago. Yet it had been discernible, and clear enough to be recognized as "Goblin" at least.

Hey, might as well say something to try to get things cleared up. For example, where were they and where could she get some damned digging tools?

"Hey, can someone here explain a few things to me?" the female Goblin said in the direction of the voice that had called for some "Chief" not long ago, a sense of exasperation and quickly fading tiredness lacing her tone of voice, though it could be said that she also sounded slightly irritable regardless, "And for that matter, what am i tasting in my mouth right now?"

That was one way to start things off, she supposed.....

[Hammerman]

When Kluuto woke up, she couldn't remember anything.

It shouldn't be odd for her as she was a newborn after all so she had nothing to remember. But somehow, she felt like she was forgotting some really important that she should know. She tried dragging that thing out of the recess of her mind but found nothing. It seemed to be more of a "hunch" than an actual memory, something she just knew without any rhyme or reason. She would've called in an "instinct" but it felt quite different from it.

She shook her head. No sense trying to make something out of a mere hunch. It could just be her mind playing tricks with her.

"Chief, chief, some of them are waking up!"

She looked at the creatures in front of her, calling frantically towards who they called "Chief". Somehow, she just knew they were called goblins, and without looking to her own body, she also knew that she was also a goblin.

The word "goblin" brought back that strange feeling, as if she should know more about goblins than she did right now. But once again, her hunch didn't lead her to anything.

She looked around her to see other goblins like her who just woke up. Once again, she instinctively knew they were newborns, just like her. They seemed to be in a cave of some sorts, not a totally dark one however as there were some sunlight coming in from the ceiling.

One of the newborns actually stood up however, and she (she knew her gender instinctively from her body figure) immediately demanded for an explanation for what she was feeling in her mouth.

Hmph, she was quite loud for a newborn, Kluuto thought. But her words made her notice that there were something in her mouth as well, leftovers of something. She didn't know whether it was food or not but it tasted decently delicious so she didn't really mind.

Now, she just waited for the so-called Chief to come, as her mind was too muddled to try anything else.

@Moonlit Sonata@Holy Grail

[DracoLunaris]

mentions:@HammermanKluuto, @Holy GrailLyminia, @Moonlit Sonata's NPCs

Reality dawned and it was not a pleasant awakening. Her body was stiff, her eyes tarred with sleep and she had been laying in a position so that her arm was suffering pins and needles. Her eyes slowly came open and she became aware of her surroundings, a natural cave among a whole heap of other goblins, most still fast asleep. Light came from somewhere beyond a noisy adult, its warm rays felt pleasant when they reached her green skin. She also became aware of the contents of her mouth, little bits of stuff. Tasty stuff. Her tongue explored the insides of her mouth for the first time, tasted for the first time and what it found was yummy. She quickly cleaned her teeth with her tongue, getting every last morsel out of them.

After her internal scrubbing she corrected the first time bit, because she could vaguely remember some stuff about the plants she just licked off her teeth. In a similar way to how she knew she was a goblin called Iris, she knew that these plants were edible and relatively nutritious. It was rather pleasant to know things like this, it almost added to the flavor, in some ways surpassed it as she experienced a little dopamine high (or whatever the magic being equivalent is) from using her gift. She wanted to feel that again.

She sat up, working her jaw, trying to find somewhere where it could settle comfortably, eventually coming to an overbite, her long front teeth poking out from her lips. Then she stretched, fresh muscles and bones creaking a little as they get their first use, feeling returning to her arm, and then stood up.

"And for that matter, what am I tasting in my mouth right now?"

Another goblin child, who looked like they had woken just before Iris had stepped up to find out some things from an older one. There were indeed so many questions to be answered. However she went with the most impotent one right now.

"better question, where can we get more?"

She walked up besides the golden eyed goblin and gave her a toothy smile. Her own eyes weren't quite as fancy, though their hazle hue did match what hair she had. She stood next to the other goblin who had used their legs today, rocking back and forth on her heels impatiently waiting for the others to join them, like the lazy bones with the knife ears.

[Malchivo]

Rekzild

’Too much noise damn it. We just woke up, can’t they keep the volume down for another five minutes?’ Rekzild made a noise of discontent as the thoughts drifted lazily through his mind. The voices of two of his fellow newborns grated on his nerves, more so the first rather than the second. It had nothing to do with the sound of their voices, they were regular enough overall, no it was the simple fact that they were interrupting his attempt at continued slumber.

He rolled over onto his side, his breathing slow and calm in an attempt to mimic sleep. If he was lucky it would fool everyone enough for him to be left alone. A grumble left his lips, knowing that there wasn’t any chance he was going to be able to fall back asleep regardless. With a frown on his ugly, by other creatures standards but average among his own race, mug he sat up and opened his dark brown eyes to gaze around the cavern that was their temporary home.

His lips curled up into a grimace when a shard of light from the outside world struck him directly in his eyes. Lifting an arm he rubbed it against his face, trying to remove the stinging along with the stars in his vision that accompanied it. Blinking slowly for a few minutes he finally stood when his sight was cleared once more.

Rekzild shambled his way over to an uninhabited portion of the cavern but close enough so he could still watch the main entrance. Plopping back down onto his hindquarters he leaned against the cool rock that the cave was made of. From what he could tell nothing of importance was going to occur immediately.

With a little amount of free time available he turned so he was facing the wall he had been leaning on. Looking around he happened upon a rock not too far away. Retrieving it he took to scratching words in the Goblin tongue on the cavern wall, describing the current scene around him to pass the time.

[Leotamer]

Redd had gotten up without much noise. He was not one for self-reflection. He is, and so he is. He had something in his mouth. He chewed it and swallowed it. It was good, but deep down, he knew that there was something better and he knew it name well. "Blood". Though, while he did not care what others thought of his taste, he also had the pre-built that donors would be hard to find. Besides, while he was chewing, he bite his lip and tasted his own blood. It was not bad, but it was not great either. Though, he still did not know much and decided to bide his time and simply sat down and waited.

[Rice Porridge]

Rahak
----------
Wake up.

Rahak's eyes shot open. There was something soggy in his mouth, but, since it tasted good, he didn't hesitate to swallow whatever it was. Pushing off of his back, he leapt to his feet with a surprising deftness for someone who had just woken up. He twisted his body, stretching out.

"Gyah ha ha!" Rahak exhaled a hearty laugh as he posed with his hands at his waist. "I haven't felt this well-rested since the day I was born!"

This was strange in context, but technically true nonetheless.

Sporting a wide grin, he looked around the cave. Stone walls. Stone floor. Stones. Rocks. "Right," he said, nodding as if he'd just confirmed something. There was absolutely nothing in that cave. Convinced of this, he began heading over to the entrance. "There'll be more to do out there than in here, so let's get going!"

[Lauder]

Eek

The light fluttered in, annoying the likes of the newborn goblin that was Eek, forcing open eyes who had not yet seen anything like it before. Though, the timid one wished that she had kept her eyes forced shut for she only saw green, ugly beings which we mildly intimidating to her unlike those who had already begun to conversated with each other. Eek forced out a small squeak as she backed up and her hands, dragging herself across the ground until she met the wall of the once comforting cave. Her eyes bore surprise and fear, unknowing of the situation that she was in, but that was what scared her. She knew not what would happen, merely knowing that she was there.

Her eyes flicked between those that spoke, watching them for brief moments as her panicked self began to breathe rapidly. The word ‘Goblin’ seemed to come to her mind as she began to try piece together the situation in a vain attempt to calm herself. These people she did not know, in a strange yet calming cave, with someone in the entrance calling for some form of ‘chief’. Curiouser and curiouser did this rabbit hole seem to get as she watched the others begin to stumble around and fully wake up, yet all she felt was fear and paranoia that one of these beings were going to harm her.

Eek slid her back up the wall, getting to her feet with the support of the rocky surface with hazel eyes continuing to dart between others. Her fingers felt the wall of the cave, the grooves working to busy her nervous hands. It was soothing, somewhat, playing with that rocky surface as she nervously looked at all those who were waking up around her. She let out another squeak of surprise upon hearing one suddenly begin to laugh, rather obnoxiously one might add.

[JaceBeleren]

Ow. Apparently, sudden and inexpeciable incarnation after several days in a coma freaking hurts.

Kreshakin-Rakultak snapped his eyes open and woke up in an instant. He rolled onto his side and up to his feet in one fluid motion, fast-moving from the get-go, while saying:

"Alright! I've no idea who I am or why I'm here, but let's get this party star-"Before he was cut off by a sudden realisation. "Really? I'm one of the last up? One of the freakin' last?"

If you didn't realise already, Kreshakin-Rakultak can be quite a spontaneous person. Goblin. Whatever.

---

Anyway, after he got over the fact that he'd been relatively slow, coming into the world, he noticed a goblin in the corner, looking awfully worried. Being a generally nice goblin, he decided to speak to her, see if he could help her out.

"Hi, I'm Kreshakin-Rakultak. Actually, that's a bit of a mouthful. Call me Kresh. Anyway, are you alright? Couldn't help noticing you looking pretty damn unhappy."

[Moonlit Sonata]

Aya

@Rice Porridge@DracoLunaris@Holy Grail

With their vision clearing, the figure at the cave entrance became fully visible to the young Goblins. It seemed to be a female of their own race, clothed in furs with a wooden staff nearly as tall as her gripped in her right hand. Her body didn't appear to be very different from the others, but she nonetheless emitted a sort of presence beyond the physical that distinguished her as different.

"..."

To say that this Goblin who had been calling for the chief seconds earlier was taken aback would be a severe understatement. While she could hardly be called an elder of the tribe, that title being reserved for ones like the chief instead of the younger generation like herself and Sabu, the sight was nonetheless one she felt ought to have been pretty unusual. Last she checked, newborns weren't supposed to wake up and start doing all of this rubbish that they were up to. One of them was already trying to walk out of the cave.

Was she supposed to stop him? She felt like in this sort of situation, she ought to stop him, but wasn't entirely sure. She could probably just knock him down with her staff, or cast a quick restraint spell or something. Was he fragile enough that those could cause serious injury, though? That could be a problem.

"...uh, hey kid, hold up for a second. You just woke up for the first time. Chief's gonna want to talk to all of you. The ones talking about food, be patient, you can eat later."

Restraining her impulse to whack the exiting Goblin with her stick, Aya instead attempted a conversational approach while she waited for her superior's arrival.

"Just...mmf, of course I had to be the one put on infant watch duty."

[Holy Grail]

Lyminia

Lyminia looked to her right at the toothy-smiling Iris, sighing at the sudden enthusiasm that came as the opposite to her current slight irritability. The energy of this other female could be acceptable to her...depending on how the energy was put to us. She had nothing against having some amount of energy in one's self, and being able to look at the bright side of a situation in general, but in this situation she was only meeting her fellow young for the first time. Wasn't enough contact to really give her a good judgement on them, though as she looked about once more she could tell some of these young were already going to be a handful. Well, at least when it came to her initial perception anyways. One was using a stone to scratch into a wall, one was trying to walk out of the blasted cave much to the exasperation of the older Goblin that she could now see had spoken perhaps only moments ago.

At least the toothy, smiling one was standing and sitting put awaiting the arrival of this "Chief". That was one brownie point she had gained with Lyminia thus far, at least in the golden-eyes goblin's opinion.

But it was when her own question seemed misinterpreted by the adult to have been asking for more food, perhaps due to the comments of others, that Lyminia could not help but finally give a roll of her eyes at this point in time. She scratched the top of her attractive little Goblin head for a moment with her right hand, wondering just what life had thrown into her path at the moment. Though from what she could see, her and the others waking up and acting like this was most definitely an unusual thing in the eyes of this adult.

Though since they had a moment to talk, at least, perhaps she could try to say something more distinct and possibly competent than those around her?

"It seems like you got the short end of the stick being here from the sounds of it," Lyminia said to the adult female goblin with the stick, standing in a casual stance as she waited for this 'Chief' to arrive and speak to them, being patient unlike the one 'dodo' of the group who was walking towards the exit without a care, audibly trying to be less irritable and more respectful in tone as she spoke to an older member of her species, "Just to be clear, though, is this...normal for Goblins to be waking up like this for the first time? Or is this pretty abnormal behavior for newly-awakened Goblins?"

---

@DracoLunaris@Moonlit Sonata

[Lauder]

Eek

Eek had slowly begun to come off of the wall, seeing that none of the other goblins seemed to actually care about her, a good thing in her mind. However, some other goblin, the one who had awoken last and made a big deal about how he had woken up last to the ‘party’, had noticed her and began to conversate with her. She let out another speak and raised her arms and lowered her head, obviously afraid of Kresh for no real reason other than that it was a part of her nature to be scared. Once more, she huddled close to the wall vainly attempting to find some of comfort that would erase that fearful feeling she had of the others.

”P-P-please go away! Don't come near me!” Eek cried in a soft voice, shuffling away from the other goblin in a rather timid manner. Before she knew it, she accidentally tripped and fell onto her side - granted, she caught herself on the way down - scrapping part of her body, primarily her hands, before she even got out of the cave. Yet, despite falling down, she continued to try and scramble as far away as she could from Kresh, and the other ‘newborns’ as well. Eventually she found herself against the wall once more, with hands hurting and bleeding on a very small amount. Still, Eek looked at Kresh with terror filled eyes, clearly not wanting anything to do with him in the slightest.

Her eyes did, though, begin to flicker towards the others, in particular the woman dressed in fur and with the long staff. Something about that goblin mystified her, some mysterious power that seek could not quite wrap her paranoid mind around. For a moment, she felt a different emotion, curiosity. However, the feeling was not meant to last as she forced herself to look away, instead burying her head in her knees and closing her eyes in an attempt to calm herself once more.

---

@JaceBeleren

[Hammerman]

Kluuto

---

Kluuto decided to rise up, before doing some stretchings of her own. Once again, she had that odd feeling, this time when she moved her body along. It was as if there was something fundamentally wrong about the way she moved, her posture, her joints, and just her body in general. It was as if this wasn't really her body. But that couldn't be right. She was a goblin after all. And she was a newborn so there was no logical chance she could've been anything else but.

She looked at the others. It seemed there were all waking up one by one themselves. A newborn @DracoLunaris asked where they could get more of the stuff they got in their mouth. Hmph, a gluttonous one. The taste wasn't even that delicious.

Another newborn @Malchivo was scribbling something in cave walls. Curious on what he was writing, she walked towards him and took a peek over his shoulders. Hmph, he was just writing the description of this cave. Not interesting at all.

She noticed out of the corner of her eyes one newborn @Lauder who seemed to be cowering on the corner of the cave. She had no idea what she was so scared for. They were all goblins here. Newborn goblins at that.

Another newborn @Rice Porridge suddenly let out a loud, obnoxious laugh, before he announced to everyone present that he was leaving the cave. Was he brave or just dumb, she thought. They were newborns and newborns weren't supposed to go out to the wilds right away! There should be adults guiding and supervising them first before they really knew how to survive out there. So she decided to give him a little piece of her mind.

"Hey, we should stay here and wait for the chief to come back!" she said to him, arms folded over her chest, "We know nothing about the world out there after all! Do you want to die right away? I wouldn't particularly care if you do but you shouldn't drag me and the others with you."

She then heard another goblin @JaceBeleren loudly announcing that he was displeased he was amongst the last to wake up. She rolled her eyes. Another obnoxious one. At least he was making himself useful by comforting the scared goblin.

She returned her attention back to the nearly-escaping newborn only to find that he was also stopped by another goblin, though she wasn't among the newborns for sure, judging by the fur and the staff she wore. She seemed to be perplexed by the situation. She symphatized with her really. This whole thing had been one rush after the other.

A newborn goblin @Holy Grail, a particularly pretty one she had to admit, though oddly there was some part of her who thought she looked ugly, a complete opposite from her former assessment, asked the furred goblin whether or not it was normal for newborn goblins to act like this right away. Judging from the adult goblin's reaction to them, Kluuto was willing to bet that it wasn't normal at all. She herself thought this whole situation odd. She still couldn't shake the feeling that she had forgotton something really important. Perhaps that forgotten thing had something to do with how strange everything was.

[Rice Porridge]

Rahak

----------
"Is this...normal for Goblins to be waking up like this for the first time?"

Rahak laughed at the question, which wasn't even directed to him.

"Gyah ha ha, of course it's not normal!" he said, slapping his knee. If it were normal, the goblin who stopped him from leaving probably wouldn't have had such a befuddled expression plastered on her face. He didn't say that out loud, though. She already looked ready to thwack someone. He moved to sit against the wall. "I think I'd make more sense to go out to meet the elder instead of having him come over here. We have legs, so we might as well use them, right? Bit of a rhetorical question, though, seeing that no one wants to. Gyah ha ha!"

A few of his fellow goblins were sitting in their own personal corners, and one of them actually told him off for trying to go out on his own.

"The best way to learn about the world is to get out and see it yourself, after all! There are plenty of things that you can't learn from words; even if someone told you how to fight, would you be able to do it when you needed to?" Rahak's paused to let out another laugh. "Your caution is good! It'll save you someday. But Experience is always a good teacher. If you have experienced something before, it becomes less scary, even if you are alone!"

"Besides," he said, calming down as his tension lowered slightly. "It's probably safe enough out there. How do you think the food got into our mouths if nobody could come over?"

[DracoLunaris]

mentions: everyone

food being soon was good, though she had also kind of wanted to know what the food she couldn't identify had been but oh well. she got the answer to the most impotent question and that was good for now. It didn't look like golden eyes was happy with his question not being answered, giving a sigh as they looked at her. She gave him an apologetic smile and then turned her attentions to the rest of the rabble.

It looked like most of everyone was up and about now and most of them were busy doing their own thing. One was scratching away at the walls, one appeared to be having a melt down at another trying to talk to them and there was another just sitting on the floor minding their own business. Miss knife ears was apparently quite the haughty little lady, looking at everyone with disdain like she was superior to them all, despite each and every one of them having just been born.

Of more importance was that the older goblin, a woman in furs and with an odd additional weight to her presence that Iris did not really understand, had told them that this Chief wanted to talk to them. Hopefully they would have lots of info because the lady didn’t really seem like she liked the newborns, and also looked almost as confused with this situation as them. Then there was the surprising handsome goblin who was quite insistent on getting out of here, who had this odd tendency of punctuation either the start or end of about half his sentences with a hearty gawf. It was slightly annoying but she liked his attitude, much less dower than golden eyes and knife ears.

"She were shouting for the chief when I woke up, they’ll be here any second. I think. I’m looking forwards to going out too, but if we go out there then we’ll be all split up and getting back together will mean more time till the ‘splaining happens and I wanna know the stuff that the boss wants to tell us."

She wandered back and forth trying to see past the older goblin so she see what she could spy beyond the cave, see if she could spot the chief first and also to stretch her legs some more.

[Moonlit Sonata]

Aya

"..."

"..."

"..."

Okay, maybe she was wrong. Maybe this group of newborns had wound up suffering severe brain damage.

Very severe brain damage.

"Okay, kid, just stay put. The chief'll be here in a second and run you lot through everything. You've all been asleep for the past three days, and this isn't a normal occurrence, so we want to make sure you're all stable before you start walking around." Aya explained in an attempt to placate the audacious Goblin and the inquisitive Goblin alike, though a vein did pulse in her head when the latter mentioned her getting the short end of the stick. The trace of a glare formed as she shot Rahak another glance. "You're probably going to get along with Sabu well. Too well." She muttered offhandedly.

"Oh? They're finally up? Good, I was worried."

A new voice cut through the air without warning, seeming to emanate from the mouth of the cave despite nobody save for the staff-wielding Goblin being present. The voice was deep, authoritative, but seemed to have an almost sibilant lilt to it. No sooner than had the new voice been heard than did a figure appear, seeming to melt out of the air as if by magic.

Well, no, it was almost definitely by magic.

While Aya seemed to be nearly identical to the newborns, the new arrival was far different. While the approximate shape of his body and features was similar, that was where the equivalence ended. His form towered above theirs, lean muscle stacked onto every edge of his form and his hands tapering out into claws. His skin was a sort of mottled dark grey, yellow eyes glinting with a feral intelligence as a bemused grin split his face. Simply by existing, he seemed to output a sort of presence that even the newborns could feel, the sort of primal fear that one would have in the face of a predator.

"Well, children, it's good to see that some of you are up. I am Kichi, chieftain of our little tribe that you are the newest additions of. And of course, you've already met Aya." He explained, gesturing towards the stick-wielding Goblin as he spoke. After doing so, his eyes flitted over the group, glowing for a moment as each newborn Goblin felt a strange sensation, as if they were being stared at from a distance. After this brief glance, the being that called itself chief frowned slightly, confusion briefly dancing over his countenance. "...all of them? Really, all of them." He murmured to himself.

"...chief, is something wrong with them?"

"Oh, no, not at all. They're all perfectly healthy. It's just...all of them have Gifts. That one has a Blood affinity, that one has charisma, that one has...what looks like some form of plant analysis." He explained, pointing to each of the younglings as he pointed out, albeit in vague terms, each of their Gifts. While he certainly didn't have to do that, it would likely at least help them to hear it. They'd at least know what a Gift is, unless the world had somehow failed to give them that knowledge, which it didn't seem like it had. "I've never seen anything like it, we usually have a few per group, but the entire group? Maybe there's something to do with the complications these ones had."

Shrugging it off for later pondering, Kichi looked back towards the group. "Now then, most of the others, your parents included, are out on a hunting party and won't be back until tomorrow. You certainly have questions, newborns always do, so feel free to ask what you will before I explain our tribe. It will give me a good chance to get to know each of you, if nothing else." He remarked with a toothy grin.

[Leotamer]

Redd found this new person interesting. He was similar to a goblin, but Redd didn't think he was a goblin, or at least not exactly goblin. He did not quite have the words to state how was related, nor the context to give those words any meaning. While he had only seen goblins other than possibly this one person, or what he presumes is all goblins, he had some understanding that there was more than rocks and goblins.

A thought nagged at the back of his mind, he didn't look like a goblin, maybe his blood tasted differently than goblins, and maybe different goblins blood tasted differently, however looking around, the most appeasing "doner" was the big guy. Surely he had enough blood to share a bit of it. However, he didn't know if he could simply ask. What if he was greedy and did not want to share.

Redd began to hug the wall of the cave, and tried to sneaky move towards the two older creatures. However, he failed miserably. Firstly, he was red, and that didn't help him blend into the stone wall. Secondly, he was not very good on his feet. About half-way to the two figures, he tripped over a rock.

[Hammerman]

Kluuto

---

"I have to admit, you have a point, but that doesn't mean we should rush out right away without knowing about anything beforehand! I never said we shouldn't go out ever after all! I'm only saying we should stay put for the moment and wait for the older goblins to give us some information first!" Kluuto responded, visibly annoyed that she was being antagonized. "And we don't know that our "safe" is the same as the older goblins' definition of "safe". We're newborns after all and I wouldn't be surprised that we're weaker than the older goblins. And there's the fact that we can be ambushed by other creatures out there, unlike the older goblins who would already be familiar with their ways from living here for long. Not to mention, we can get lost and wander off away from the safety of our brethren to some strong monster's lair or something." Kluuto tore her gaze away from him, not wanting to spend more of her precious time conversing with him. She'd rather pay attention to the furred goblin, who told them to stay put as they wanted to examine whether or not they had stabilized, and that the Chief would be here soon.

And sure enough, Kluuto then heard a deep voice coming out of nowhere. She looked around, trying to find who was talking but she couldn't find anyone who looked the part. She didn't have to look for long though, as the figure responsible for the voice suddenly appear right in the middle of the room, melting out of thin air. He must have used magic, Kluuto thought.

As he spoke once more, Kluuto could already tell right away that he was the Chief. No, even before that, with how different he looked from the other goblins, she could already surmise that he was a special person in the goblin tribe. She felt fear towards him, as her instincts flared up, telling her that he was the superior creature in between them.

He introduced himself as Kichi, and he told the furred goblin named Aya that they all had Gifts with them. Once again, her brain had stored information that weren't supposed to be there. She didn't remember when she learned about Gifts, but she knew that she had one, and it would be the ability of Language Comprehension. For now, this meant she could communicate with humans right away, though just barely.

...Human? Human... human... that word gave her a strange feeling of recollection and familiarity. It shouldn't as she was just born and she had never met a human before...

Kluuto was snapped out of her ponderings when Kichi offered to answer any questions they might have. Quickly, her hand shot up in the air before saying, "Umm, is it normal that we have... strange, hazy memories and hunches that logically we shouldn't have if we have a Gift? I feel like... I'm forgetting something, which should be impossible seeing how I am a newborn and all... Perhaps it's just my brain still working out its kinks but it has been bothering me ever since I woke up in this room..."

@Rice Porridge@Moonlit Sonata

[Holy Grail]

Lyminia

The arrival of the being that called himself the "Chief" of this tribe was interesting to say the least, though the chill of fear that attempted to take hold of her was a sign that he had gained some kind of power. But how did he endure such a change into...that thing if he was perhaps formerly a Goblin? Amidst her pondering, the sound of someone tripping caught her attention, causing Lyminia to look over at the fallen Redd before rolling her eyes and letting out a sigh at what to her seemed to be an idiotic action. It made the newborn wonder just what in the hell she had done to be born alongside some of these idiots that were in her age group. Still, the situation was not at a loss, and they had the chance to ask the Chief about things before they continued on with what would be their "tutorial" after having woken up.

Though before that...

"You, the one with the common sense. Thanks for speaking like you have a brain unlike the guy who tripped over there," Lyminia said, not holding back on her words as she addressed Kluuto directly and bluntly, seeming to approve of the other female's words to the charismatic 'idiot' who had tried to walk out and attempted to justify it to them all in the process.

After this, however, Lyminia looked back to the Chief with an overt and obvious level of careful attentiveness, listening as Kluuto spoke to him before deciding to pipe up once more before anyone else decided speaking. After all, she had said she had a few questions to ask before things happened, and thus far the furred Goblin had not really helped her get answers at all.

"If i may interject for a moment," Lyminia said to the chief, taking a step forward closer to the towering being as she spoke in order to help her assert herself into things, "On top of that good question, i have a couple things to ask as well really quickly. One, what is the layout of this area? Is it full of caves, is it a forest? Any dangerous towns nearby or something? That's the sort of stuff i mean when i ask that. And two, is there anyone here that can show me how to making digging tools?"

Maybe a tad assertive in how she asked it an interjected herself into things, but throwing in a personal question and a general question would get her the most answers right now, she supposed. She wanted to get to business soon, if they were to survive in whatever place this was. That, and if she wanted to get to fulfilling that strange desire to dig that she had felt within her since waking up. Not that digging would be all she did, but still...

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@Moonlit Sonata @Leotamer @Hammerman

[DracoLunaris]

They had been sleeping for 3 whole days, so much wasted time that she could have spent doing… actually she wasn’t sure what she would have done with those three days. Found out what she liked doing perhaps. Anyway apparently their little group had a 3 day booting sequence, she wondered what made them all different.

She did not have to wait long to find out as the chief to arrive soon after, a big muscular guy with sharp claws who appeared out of thin air. His gaze made her feel like a tiny squirrel that had come face to face with a hungry fox and then he did this thing where his eyes glowed and he looked at them from far away while being right there and knew stuff about them. All in all the boss was. So! Freaking! Cool! The fact that he seemed to be somewhat kind despite being a big scary guy was also pretty great, she liked him already.

She wondered what she could ask. Knife ears had already asked for some clarification on this gift thing, it was nice to know she wasn't the only one receiving data from nowhere, though she probably had to stick more plants in her mouth rather than just knowing things. Gold Eyes was asking questions about the area which also was good though some of the answers they could get by just going outside. Apparently she also liked Knife Ears and was showing of some of the same superiority complex. Which was a shame, the two of them might get quite obnoxious together or worse be put in charge of them all because they acted like they should be. Well she was going to show them, other people could ask good questions too!

"What did you do that let you get to be so big Boss? And what did she do to get so..." she tried to find the words to describe the furred goblins mystical presence and failed miserably"existy? Also how’d you do that appearing from nowhere trick?"

Maybe not the best questions, she sort of knew how the evolution thing worked from her not memory memories but more info on what made you turn into what was helpful. Then she thought of another question that maybe she should have thought of first, ones that might be better.

"Who are our parents and what are they like? Now that we are born what will we mean to them?"

She was struck by a little bit of anxiety: would they like her or would she disappoint them? She stood with her arms folded next to the two other question askers, looking a little less exited than she had moments earlier.