Another day had come with another set of problems. Greg was currently in the chief's house with Bog, Eka, and old lady May.

  "Say that again," Greg said with a dark look.

  "Eka is pregnant!" Bog started jumping all around the place.

  As Greg had become their new chief, he claimed the old chief's house as his own and invited the goblin couple to live with him. He didn't have anywhere else to go, and he didn't want to sleep here alone while the old man's ghost decided to prey on him.

  Jokes aside, Greg had a headache now.

  It was not that he was unhappy for his friend, or that he didn't want him to become a father and have his football team of goblins, but... and a big BUT... this was not really an ideal environment.

  So, after getting the news and leaving the overstimulated Bog inside, he took old lady May to a corner.

  "Are you absolutely sure?" Greg said in a low voice.

  "Of course I'm sure. I've helped birth almost everyone's child or children in this village."

  The old lady seemed very proud. She then started explaining how she was sure, and that explanation revolved around peeing on some strange flower that nobody wants to hear about.

  Greg stopped her before he could feel bad about eating breakfast this early and started asking more about the whole goblin pregnancy situation to educate himself.

  The old lady, like all other old ladies out there, was always ready to talk, and she explained the progress a little too much in detail. So here's the gist of it: Goblins always birthed in pairs. It can be either a two-pair or a four-pair. Their gestation period would last about ninety days and they were always fertile... and by always... twenty-four-seven, three hundred and sixty-five days a year.

  Some goblinas (female goblins) have managed to birth a single child, but it was so rare that people never talked about it. And that's not all; birthing one child always came with risks.

  A single newborn could die immediately after coming in contact with the air, or they would get some weird disease, or they become paralyzed for some unknown reason, or five hundred other problems. So giving birth to one child was considered very, very bad.

  Also, any visible changes in the mother usually started showing from the second month until their bellies were pumped like watermelons and they would not be able to move around a lot.

  Unlike human females, goblinas need to lay flat in their last month of pregnancy to birth a healthy child.

  Greg didn't know if this was superstition or something locals have found out over the years. He did know one thing, though… this stupid village was not safe for birthing any child.

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  Forget laying flat for one month; for any sanitation activities, you would have to walk twenty minutes away because the river was the only source of fresh water here. These people didn't have a renewable food source or well or water at close proximity, or a house that could stay standing in a thunderstorm, and they couldn't stop fucking! AHHH!!

  Apparently, Eka was not the only one pregnant this season, and five out of the total thirty-nine leftover population were in their gestation period or just about to give birth.

  Greg was happy that the village was now under his rule, but he really wanted to relocate it to some other place. Not only was this land less fertile than land close to the cave, it was covered with forest in all directions, and it could get attacked again at any moment by those vicious wolves or some other creature that walked into their camp.

  And yes, he thought about making a few canals to at least make the water problem go away, but it was no permanent solution. Also, keeping the access of that magical cave a few hours far didn't sit well with him.

  But for now, he had the food problem to worry about, so he grabbed his jumping and overexcited friend and a few of the male goblins and left the village premises. He didn't forget to task some people to man the gates and watch the perimeter before leaving.

  As the walk felt very dry and he wanted to know everyone here, he decided to start. "Don't you guys interact with the other villages?"

  Bog was in his own world, so his mind didn't even register the question.

  It was one of the skinny goblins who replied, "We rarely do."

  "What is your name? And tell me more," Greg said in a friendly way.

  "My name is Mandi," the skinny goblin replied. "If we come in contact with the goblins we don't know, we try to avoid them. Well, unless a fight for food starts. Then whoever was stronger would get the item."

  Greg nodded. "Then you have never been to these other villages?"

  All the five adult goblins shook their heads in unison. Soon they spotted one of the lizard creatures called Runners, and the group wanted to avoid them because they were never alone. And here they saw four just rubbing their sides against the trees.

  "Just wait and watch from here," Greg said and immediately rushed the small dinosaur-like creatures.

  Runners were never known for their cowardly attitude, so as soon as they smelled and saw Greg, they turned towards him and rushed him too.

  By the time it took to reach them, Greg extended his claws, covered them with his energy, and pierced them directly in the head one by one. The creatures fell one by one and Greg stood there in the middle of the sharp clearing with bloodied nails.

  The goblins gasped and Bog was the first one to approach him. Others did too, and they started calling Greg "Lord" instead of "Chief" like they called their previous leader.

  Greg had two things planned from the show of this demonstration. The first was to get rid of any of their doubts regarding his strength and his capability to lead, and the second was...

  "We have more than enough meat for everyone," Mandi talked among his companions.

  "Lord Greg made it look so easy."

  "At this rate we will never have to sleep hungry again," another one added.

  It was obvious these goblins were trying to talk sweet and high about their new leader to make a good image, but Greg didn't mind. He needed people like them to get more support when, in the future, he passed some laws that might go against the norm.

  But unbeknownst to them, there was a battle of life and death going on in the distance. When Greg was about to speak, he heard the faint sounds of screams and growls and immediately looked in that direction.

  The goblins with him also stopped laughing and looked in the direction where Greg was looking, but they didn't hear or see anything. Greg was now sure the faint sounds of battle were coming from one of the other goblin villages close to their territory.