Chapter 09 The Great Selection

We, who had hatched only a few hours ago, had never sniffed anything but the pungent stench of steaming feces and manure. As the cool air rushed over us, we let out high-pitched chirps and adorable gasps, coughing and sneezing as the cold air filled our lungs. Our tiny bodies started to shiver uncontrollably from the sudden coolness.

Gruk managed to mutter through his shivers, "What is this... achoo... stuff? It's so... achoo... cold!"

Slippinfeet, equally bewildered, stammered, "I can't stop... achoo... shivering! What's happening?"

Munchkinsnout offered an explanation, "I think... achoo... It's fresh air, gobbie friends. We've never... achoo... had this before!"

Dizzyhead whined, "I don't like it! It's too... achoo... cold!"

Bumblebelly chimed in, "But it smells... achoo... better than that awful stench. It tickles funny my sniffer but it does not burn with stink!"

Muddlehead tried to reassure them, "We need to... achoo... get used to it, gobbies."

Klutzfingers, with a hint of nostalgia, lamented, "I want to go... achoo... back where it's warm!"

The four colossal goblins were an astonishing sight, their proportions dwarfing our diminutive forms as they loomed like ancient titans in the cavern's dimly lit expanse. Though they shared a semblance of physical features with us, the differences were big, their monstrous size accentuated by their ragged attire and massive buckets.

The two giants at the forefront of this imposing group were clad in tattered leather hide armor, a stark contrast to our naked forms. Each step they took sent tremors through the earth, and their buckets, each large enough to house a family of goblin hatchlings, swung heavily from their massive hands.

Behind these brutish figures, the two smaller giant goblins followed in an aura of misery. These poor souls appeared horribly abused, their bare, hulking bodies bearing scars and bruises. Their heads were hung low in a posture of defeated submission, their eyes cast downward in a display of profound shame.

These unfortunate souls stood in stark contrast to their brutish comrades, naked and vulnerable. They huddled together, their heads bowed in a posture of submission. Their hands frantically twirled between their legs as if attempting to stave off the urge to pee, and held their bulbous bellies as they made squelching guttural sounds. Their downcast gazes remained fixated on the cavern floor, their spirits broken by a lifetime of slave servitude and suffering.

Among us was Daddy, a weak and prematurely hatched goblin, whose eyes widened in recognition at the appearance of these giants. He believed they were his parents, and his heart surged with joy. Tears streamed from his eyes as he scuttled toward them, his tiny arms outstretched in what he thought was a loving embrace. Daddy was barely up to their ankles in size.

"Goo goo! Mama! Dada! I found you! Mama, Dada, love you! Dada! Muma! You're back, you're back! Gime Hug! Hug!" Daddy squealed in sheer delight, his high-pitched voice filled with the innocent joy of a child.

Daddy continued his jubilant chatter, blissfully unaware of the somber reality surrounding him. 

"I've been waiting for you! It was so dark and scary in there," he babbled, his tiny voice filled with warmth and affection.

 "But now you're here to protect me, right? I love you so much!"

The adult goblin giant, however, glanced around at the mess that was our goblin hatchery, his expression twisted in annoyance. He muttered angrily, "Phe! One step into the hatchery and met with a pathetic hatchling. Disgraceful! And what is this mess?! Useless slave! Too much piss on shit! The ground is covered in feces now!"

With an annoyed grunt, he raised his massive foot and brought it down upon Daddy, crushing him underfoot. With a grotesque squelching sound, "Ghreeeh!" Daddy's insides were forced out of his mouth like toothpaste from a tube, his joy and hope extinguished in an instant. The rest of us watched in horror, realizing that our encounter with these colossal goblin giants held dangers beyond our comprehension.

"Oh no! Daddy! Daddy!" one of the baby goblins cried out, their tiny voices filled with anguish and disbelief, "What happened to Daddy?!"

"I don't want to be squished like Daddy!" another one wailed, their small eyes wide with fear as they huddled together in a tight-knit group.

"Why are the big goblins so scary?" a third tiny goblin whispered, their voice trembling as they stared at the gruesome scene before them.

 "I thought they were supposed to protect us!"

The goblins exchanged frightened glances, their innocence shattered in an instant. They clung to one another, seeking comfort in the midst of their newfound terror.

"I just want to go back to our cozy egg," one of them whimpered, tears streaming down his chubby cheeks. 

"This is all so scary and strange!"

The remaining goblin hatchlings gasped in horror at the gruesome sight before them, realizing that these giants were not the loving parents they had hoped for. Their world had just taken a dark and terrifying turn, and they were now at the mercy of these colossal beings.

We stood frozen in disbelief and shock, our tiny eyes wide open, and our jaws hanging agape in horror. Some of our fellow gobbies, without even realizing it, involuntarily shot out a little poop from pure shock and fear. But the gruesome sight of Daddy's guts spilling out of his mouth with a sickening, echoing pop brought us back to our senses.

The giant who squished Daddy was angry at one of the slave goblins for neglecting the goblin hatchery. 

"You worthless hound crap! You can't even look after a pile of shit! You shit! We don't need useless shit like you!" 

He seized the goblin by the skin on his head and hoisted him off the ground. We watched in horror as his face peeled away, and he let out a piercing scream, pleading for mercy, all while desperately trying to reach the hands that tormented him. The enraged goblin forcefully slammed the slave goblin into the wall, shattering his face. Then, he ground his face against the wall and repeatedly bashed his head against it until his face was smeared on the surface, revealing his crushed skull.

He then hurled the lifeless slave goblin to the ground, causing his brains to splatter out of his ears and split-open skull. The goblin was dead, and his body unleashed a torrent of feces that erupted from his butt along with thunderous farts, creating a foul and repulsive scene of bodily release. The goblin was laying in a lake of piss and shit.

One of the goblin hatchlings screamed in a horrified scream of chirps and clicks, "Run for your beings! We all gonna get smushed!"

Panic and chaos erupted among us like wildfire, and there was only one thought echoing in our minds: run and hide. Without a moment's hesitation, over a hundred hatchlings scrambled for their puny lives, looking out only for themselves in the frenzied escape.

The cavern turned into a chaotic maelstrom of tiny goblins darting in every possible direction, their minuscule legs carrying them as fast as their trembling bodies could manage. Fear was the driving force, propelling us to seek any nook or cranny that might offer refuge from the looming, colossal goblin giants. It was survival at its most primal, and the once-unified group of goblins had now disintegrated into a desperate scattering of individuals, each struggling to avoid the same gruesome fate that had befallen poor Daddy.

The giant goblins, with their crude and ruthless examinations, started to pick up one goblin hatchling after another. Their gigantic hands gripped our fragile forms, threatening to crush us with each touch. Some of the hatchlings screamed in terror, pooping themselves, and even vomited their belly contents as the giants nabbed them in their tight grasp. Once satisfied, the giants casually tossed the unfortunate hatchlings into their buckets as if they were rocks.

It didn't take long for the situation to escalate from bad to worse. The giant goblins seized Dizzyhead, who was scrawny and had meager ears. Horror washed over me as one of the giants, with a disgusted expression, bellowed, "Braaahh! Disgusting! Pathetic ears and scrawny! Useless hatchling! We don't need such pathetic shits!"

With a heart-wrenching force, he flung Dizzyhead at the ominous, bloodstained wall. It suddenly became horrifyingly clear why the wall was covered in gory filth; the giants were brutally slamming and smashing all the goblin hatchlings who were scrawny and had meager ears. It was a nightmarish selection process, the survival of the fittest in the most ghoulish sense.

I watched with horror as Dizzyhead beamed through the air with a sorrowful screech and collided with the wall, his feeble body exploded into a splat of bloody gore smearing against the wall.

Amidst the chaos, a hundred goblin hatchlings scuttled for their lives from the towering giant goblins, each tiny figure displaying a desperate and often comical attempt to evade capture.

Munchkinsnout, the tiniest and most cunning among us, whispered through gritted teeth, "Stay still, stay still... They won't see me. I'm just a rock, right?"

He decided that hiding in plain sight was the best strategy. He stood perfectly still, attempting to mimic an oddly shaped rock with his stubby arms wrapped around his head. He even attempted to cover himself with a small piece of moss, believing he had achieved invisibility.

"Oh, they'll never see me now," he yelped in his high-pitched voice, sounding as confident as ever.

 But the giant goblin nabbed him off the ground and as the giant examined our poor goblin friend, Munchkinsnout's tiny voice quivered, "Please, please don't step on me. I'm just a little goblin. Don't crush me I am but a fragile gobbie!"

The giant goblin, with a malevolent cackle, opened his cavernous mouth wide and said mockingly, "A little goblin, huh? Well, I suppose you'll make a little snack then! Ghegheghe!"

As the giant goblin's drooling maw approached, Munchkinsnout's eyes widened with terror and he squeaked, his voice trembling as he uttered, "EEK! Eek! Wait, wait! I'm just a rock! A really convincing rock! Ouwies! Ouchies! Unhand me! You crushing me! WREEE!"

His hysteric screams inside the giant goblin's mouth were swapped into the sound of his soft bones being crunched.