Chapter 18 Goblin Slave Etiquette

We stuck close to Kaka, our trembling guide and gentle caretaker, he led us toward the makeshift gates - if they could even be called that.

These gates were nothing more than a chaotic pile of gnarled wood logs and spiky branches bound together with twisted vines, looking more like a haphazard barricade than any proper gate.

At this barrier stood two goblin guards, dressed in scraps of leather and metal, holding long, jagged sticks that somewhat resembled spears. Kaka, with his goblin humility, timidly approached them, a pitiful display of slavery.

 He beseeched one of the guards, "Mighty Master goblin, please, grant us passage. These little gobbers need to learn the ways of the outside world. Please, grant us passage."

Kaka then flopped to the ground, his tongue extending to lick the guard's filthy feet, an act of desperation that made our stomachs churn. The goblin guard, towering over Kaka, gazed down with a mix of annoyance and pleasure, then delivered a swift kick to Kaka's face while he was busy with his foot feast. He snarled, "Begone, filthy slave! And take your wretched gobs with you! No passage for disgusting shit like you!"

He gurgled and spat on Kaka to humiliate him even further. Kaka tumbled, clutching his battered face, and continued to plead ignoring the vile spit sliding down his face, "Please, kind master goblin. They need to learn, become good goblins, find food, and be useful. Please, let them learn. They will be useful that way, bringing precious morsels or useful pebbles back to camp! Please, let us through! Please, oh, good master!"

The other goblin guard, a particularly nasty-looking fellow with teeth like thorns, sneered and chimed in with a cackle, "Ghegheghe! Wait, you idiot! Relax! Let them venture forth, if they want so much!"

 They shared a sinister glance and both burst into cackles. The first guard said, "To learn, eh?! How about teaching them to kiss feet first?! Show gratitude toward their Master! The proper ways of asking the master for favors!"

Kaka fell on all four and begged for forgiveness, "Oh! Master! Please, forgiveness! Mercy! They will kiss and lick! They will! They will!" 

Kaka turned to us and said with a quiet and soothing tone, "Listen up my little gobs. You have to kiss and lick your master's feet to show your submission and gratitude to them. If not, punishment will come, and it will be brutal. Now go, one by one kiss and lick his feet."

One by one, we timidly approached the guard goblin, our tiny, hesitant steps betraying our fear of experiencing the same kick that had met poor Kaka's face. Yet, to our surprise, the guard wore a twisted grin that seemed to grow even wider as he drank in the power he held over us, the most powerless of all creatures - goblin hatchlings.

With a sense of heartwarming innocence and adorably cute reluctance, we approached his feet, unsure of what to expect. One by one, we leaned in and planted little kisses, followed by hesitant licks, on the guard's dirty, stinking feet. The stench of his feet burned our sniffers and the vile taste of his filthy feet made us gag mercilessly, stinking our tiny mouth breaths for a long time.

 It came to my turn, I approached his dirty feet. My tiny innocent lips quivered with disgust and fear. I forced myself to plant a kiss and a lick but the guard spoke, "Ghehheege! Wreched slave hatchling! While you at it, nibble off my wart of my tootsy toe!"

The grotesque task was horrifying, and fear coursed through my tiny goblin body. I didn't want to be squashed or punished, so I reluctantly obeyed the guard's revolting command. With trembling hands and a sense of dread that made my tiny body shiver, I turned my gaze to the wart. My eyes fixed on a repugnant and hideous growth on the guard's tootsy toe. It was a sight that made my stomach twist.

I nibbled, licked, and tugged at the wart with all the strength my tiny mouth could muster. My efforts were accompanied by grunts, groans, and moans of exertion, and I could taste the vile bitterness of the wart in my mouth, intensifying with each passing moment. I spat and coughed because of the filthy taste and repugnant smell but I tried once more. 

 I opened my small mouth and clamped my tiny milk teeth onto the wart once more. I tried to bite it off, but the wart proved tougher than I had anticipated. Instead, I resorted to nibbling and licking, tugging and gnawing at the stubborn growth. My efforts were met with resistance. I grunted, groaned, and moaned in my minuscule struggle, my tiny teeth grinding against the vile, stubborn wart, the repulsive taste lingering in my mouth and intensifying with every passing moment.

As I continued my disgusting task, the guard chuckled with twisted delight. The other guard joined in, their laughter echoing through the air. To them, it was nothing more than a cruel game, a way to humiliate and degrade us, slaves, further.

I felt my stomach swirl with disgust, but the fear of punishment drove me to persist. With each nibble and lick, I could feel the wart gradually giving way. The taste was repulsive, the texture unpleasant, and the guard's mocking laughter filled the air, but I persisted.

 I gnawed on the grotesque growth, tears welling up in my tiny goblin eyes. Finally, with one last effort, I managed to tear the wart from the guard's tootsie toe. It came free with a sickening pop. I fell to the ground, gasping for breath and trembling with a mixture of revulsion and relief.

With the wart finally torn free, I couldn't help but feel a sense of overwhelming revulsion. I spat it out onto the ground, the small, gruesome growth now lying in a dirty, saliva-slicked puddle. Gasping for breath, I looked up at the guard with wide, desperate eyes, my tiny body slouching and hunched up, hoping that my ordeal was finally over.

But to my horror, the nasty goblin guard wasn't done with his sadistic demands. He sneered down at me with a wicked grin, his sharp, yellowed teeth gleaming in the dim light.

"Now! Eat the wart! You good for nothing shit!" he commanded, his voice dripping with cruel amusement.

I whimpered a whiny cry in protest, "Nuh-uh... please, nuh-uhh..." 

The guard growled, angrily, at me as I protested, "If not, then I will crush you!"

 The thought of consuming the disgusting growth filled me with dread. But I knew better than to defy him. With trembling hands and a quivering lip, I leaned down and gingerly picked up the wart with my tiny fingers.

I looked up at the guard, aghast at his cruel demand. Eating the wart was a level of degradation and humiliation I had not expected. I trembled with fear but knew that refusing his command would only lead to my peril and others' punishment. 

I hesitated for a moment, staring at the repulsive lump of flesh in my tiny goblin hand. It was slimy and covered in dirt, a grotesque reminder of the ordeal I had just endured. Swallowing hard, I closed my eyes and forced myself to bite into the wart, the taste even more sickening than before.

The guards watched with sadistic satisfaction as I chewed and swallowed the repugnant growth. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I fought back the urge to retch. When it was finally gone, I looked up at them, my face a mix of disgust and resignation.

The guard laughed and said, "Disgusting wretched slave gob! I have seen pathetic shits but this one is a special kind of pathetic!" Then, with disgust, he spat on my face, "Pfeew!"

The guard's laughter grew louder and more derisive with each retch and gag that escaped my trembling lips. My vision blurred as tears mixed with the stinking vile spit. Vomit shot from my sniffer, creating a nauseating concoction that clung to my face. I gagged the mangled wart back onto the ground, unable to bear the taste any longer.

But the guard, driven by sadistic glee, showed no mercy. He pointed a bony, crooked finger at the disgorged wart, his voice dripping with malice as he urged me to continue.

 "Eat it, you little goblin whelp! Don't you dare waste the precious morsel I allowed you to eat! Lick the ground clean, you pathetic shit! If not! I will gut you and your fellow shit gobs and cook you all on the fire for my dinner!"

The guard's mocking laughter intensified as I struggled to yield to his gruesome demands. With trembling hands, I picked up the mangled wart from the ground, its slimy surface now coated with dirt and vomit. My stomach swirled, threatening to expel its contents again.

As I shoved the revolting lump back into my mouth, I couldn't hold back any longer. My stomach rebelled, and I vomited, the foul mixture of half-digested wart and bile filling my mouth. The guard's cruel voice pierced through my misery, urging me to continue, and I knew there was no escape from this torment.

With tears pouring down my face, and vomit streaming through my sniffer, I clenched my teeth and forced myself to chew the wretched wart once more. Each bite felt like a punishment, and I gagged repeatedly. I could not refuse the unbearable urge to vomit again. I swallowed the repulsive mass, feeling it slide down my throat like a lump of despair pushing down my vomit.

Exhausted and humiliated, I collapsed to the ground, my body wracked with sobs of revulsion and shame. The guard's laughter echoed in the air, a cruel reminder of the price I had paid for my survival.

As I lay on the ground, my tiny body still trembling, I could hear the whispers and murmurs of my fellow hatchlings. They huddled around me, their puffy cheeks streaked with tears, and tried to offer words of comfort.

"Poor Hermit... eat gross wart. Bad wart, bad guards," Squabble mumbled, attempting to console me with his limited vocabulary.

"Tastes like... like mushy mushrooms," Goober chimed in, trying to provide some perspective, though his words only brought a chorus of sympathetic groans from the group.

Tears rolled down Snipper's cheeks as he clung to Scratcher, his voice quivering, "It was icky and yucky. Snipper wishes Hermit didn't have to do it."

We pulled away from the guard's now clean feet, our tiny goblin faces bearing the remnants of the filth we had worked so diligently to remove. The once-filthy appendages were transformed, gleaming polished by our tongues. Our tiny, innocent mouths, once clean, now tainted by the stench, were smeared with muck and had become vessels of cleansing, wiping away the grime that had clung to his dirty feet.

The guard, his once-dirty feet now remarkably clean, regarded us with delight. He wiggled his toes, testing the newfound cleanliness, and then burst into hearty laughter.

 "Ghegheghe! That a good little slave! Now off you go, into the dangerous forest, and don't expect any help from us when you encounter the monsters!"

"Ghegheghe! Alright, you pathetic lot, off you go!" said the nasty-looking guard, "But remember to return by nightfall if you want to see the camp again."

We nodded vigorously, our tiny heads bobbing like ripe mushrooms. He then motioned for us to continue, and we scuttled past them, our bodies coated with dirt, saliva, and the lingering taste of the foul wart. As we passed through, I overheard the guards' conversation.

"Ghehehe! Good idea! A game, good bet! I wager only half of those hatchlings return. I bet my diners on it!" one said gleefully.

The other, the nasty one with sharp teeth, giggled maliciously, "Ghegeh! I bet my dinner that Kaka won't return, and the hatchlings will become monsters' snacks, gheghe!"

The first guard angrily hurled his spear to the ground and bellowed, "Blasted dung-headed slaves! Why did I not think of monsters? You are right! Rascal! You tricked me! You lusted for my dinner, you knew of these wretched monsters."

The nasty one gleefully jeered, "You simpleton! You well knew that the forest teems with creatures most foul and... and adventurers, too!"

Kaka, with his battered face still throbbing from the kick, wiped away the snot and dirt from his nose, then turned to us, his goblin hatchlings, and spoke, "Alright, little gobbies, we go to the forest now. You learn to find nummy things and be sneaky. Follow me, but stay quiet like mice. Mice find the best things, you see."