Spin Offs, Beans C

Spin Offs, Beans C

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Despite having had a full day of work Kik was determined to move his most recent gains to his most prized home. Maybe, if he had the energy, he would also move some of the treasures he had earlier positioned to be transported beyond the Grey. It had been a long time since he had slept and he was hungry again, but he was still excited from the heist.

The humans thought that most of the city’s goblins were confined to the Grey, with the main exception being those goblins hired by the city council to maintain the sewers. The truth was that most of GreensBridge’s goblin-folk lived in the sewers, or at the very least, under the city. Maybe as many as three times more than lived in the Grey. The goblin-folk had their own little town away from the concerns of the day, many of them never went above ground. If an enterprising goblin wanted to go to other parts of the city it was easier and safer to do so via the sewers.

Kik had been doing this for a number of years, long enough to have learned the best routes to avoid if one wished to stay away from other goblins. So he was surprised when he heard the chatter of his own kind up ahead of him. He froze, perking his ears up. He could hear three other goblins, certainly younger than he and they were excited about food by the sounds of it. He carefully set his treasures down, the lock box was heavier than he had first thought, he was not displeased to take a break. What upset him was that there were goblins along what he considered to be one of his secret passageways.

It was not really secret, just too populated by humans to be a place one would likely find goblins. Here he had not even been in the sewers, this passage was part of the freshwater system, not far from the city’s main cisterns. The humans might not have had much active concern about the waste system of the city, but they certainly took great care of their drinking water. During the day there were often humans around this area, sometimes Lamplighters as well. Most goblins avoided this place, mages were usually too much trouble and the Lamplighters tended to be very inquisitive when one of their own went missing or showed up murdered. Kik only used this passage well after the sun was down, after most of the humans had retired from their day of work.

Curious, Kik crept forward. He came to a narrow stairwell, he was surprised to see a dim, consistent light from below and there was certainly an odd smell. More curious now, he moved quietly down the stairs. He thought that maybe this was one of the spillways. Near the bottom he noted silvery tendrils along the stairs and walls. They gave off a soft glow and also seemed to exude a glistening goop of some sort. He had never seen this before.

Stepping out from the stairwell he saw much more of the strange tendrils all along the length of the spillway. In the shallow water, three young goblins, barely into their adulthood, waded knee high, periodically they snatched something from the water and tossed it into a bucket one of them carried. After a moment they noticed him, stood straight and regarded him with surprised expressions. Kik blinked at them.

” ‘Eans, what you do here?” He hated it when other goblins called him that.

“I think that is my question? My name is Kik.”

Another one of them, with a more aggressive posture, said, ” ‘Eans is what everyone knows you as. What-do-say-to-self?” His accompanying gestures had been rude and dismissive.

“Funny-you. I-not-ask-self. Ask-you. What you do here?”

The third one, carrying the bucket, approached. He pulled a black squirming thing from the container, slightly bigger than his middle finger, the young goblin held it up victoriously. “New-tasty-things. Not-fish. Not-frog. You-want-you-hungry?” His gestures were excited and casual.

Kik took a careful look at the creature. It had large eyes, three of them, no obvious mouth or nose, it was thin and to him appeared to be an overly large tadpole. Despite his surprise he gave a dismissive gesture, “No-want. You-eat?”

“Lots-of-yum.”

The more aggressive youth came forward and took the bucket from his companion, “We take this to mates-to-be. You-no-want. You-no-tell?”

“No-tell. No-tell.” He pointed to the strange glowing tendrils, “What-that?”

The two that had come forward flipped their ears dismissively, seemingly unconcerned. The third lad though, he splashed around excitedly and after catching a much fatter critter he came over to show Kik, “Big-bellied-one,” He expanded his own stomach to make the point, “Soon he crawl around on little fins and poop it out.”

Kik looked along the passage again, the silvery tendrils were all over the place. “Okay. Good-luck-on-the-mating.” He made some appropriately rude gestures which made the three of them laugh. He turned and went back up the stairs.

The aggressive one called up after him, “No tell?”

“No tell.”

Thankfully they left him alone and resumed their hunt. Kik was not sure they would have much luck with the females though. Maybe if the things tasted really good.

He also suspected that the critters would be gone quick enough, they were too close to the fresh water. Some Lamplighter would come along and clean up the mess.

Kids-these-days, he gestured to himself as he stopped to reclaim his loot. He headed along the passage and eventually reentered the sewers again.

Heading southwest he arrived near his destination. He climbed the ladder to a wooden grate and listened for a long while before pushing it out of the way. He came up into a walled courtyard, shared by four buildings, behind a large chicken coop. After replacing the grate he took the time to gather some eggs and ate a number of them on the spot. He was very hungry.

After he had sated himself, he tucked a few eggs into a pouch for later. Cautiously he left the courtyard and stayed in the shadows, he moved slowly down the street. There were lots of shops and a few small parks in this area of town, the humans were often out late and there were regular patrols here. He made his way into the back yard of the Baker Brothers Bakery, a dumb name for the place, everyone knew they weren’t brothers. Carefully he climbed to the third story.

It was a tight fit, squeezing his head through the small window that gave him access to the attic. Once he was inside he replaced the board that blocked the window and carefully checked the place out. Everything was as he had left it.

Exhausted from all he had done, he set aside the eggs and his recently claimed treasures then curled up on the pile of empty bean sacks he had brought many moons ago. The heat from the ovens made the place cozy. He slept.

 

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