[v2] Chapter Twenty-Nine – In which Ark does some drugs in order to try and clear his head and Diana makes a very human decision.

[v2] Chapter Twenty-Nine – In which Ark does some drugs in order to try and clear his head and Diana makes a very human decision.

~~** Interlude | Button **~~

I don’t think I’ve ever run as fast in my life as I had just now. Tricky Husband had left Goblinhome and went to relax in our special place. I had found him easily enough, but I could tell something was truly wrong with him. Of course, I already know the reason as to why. Husband was attacked by Berry as she entered her Blood Fury and injured badly.

It wasn’t the first time he’d been in that situation; Prima, Jewel, and Doll all entered their Blood Furies when near to Husband, but Glace had always been nearby, sensing it, and stepping in to protect Husband with her magic.

Glace thought she had things under control. But she was wrong. Berry, perhaps for the sake of seeing her new strong-one into the world safely had maintained her vessel up until the moment they came out. Once that happened, Berry’s vessel shattered and in that very moment where nothing contained her desires anymore before it could begin to reform... she went straight for Husband.

Even though I was there... I didn’t sense the danger fast enough to react in time to help him.

Were it not for Truffle being there with some of her most potent color-spin-think powder... Husband may have suffered far worse than just having his arm broken from her bite.

Lumi, able to use the magic of the goddess she believes in, was able to heal Husband’s arm... to an extent. Whatever magic she used caused Husband’s left arm from below the elbow to become like that of a goblin.

But Husband...

We all know that Husband has... special feelings for her. Maybe it’s because she is the maker of the first of his strong-ones, Diana Artemis. Husband has never said anything outright... never wanting to make any of us feel like any of us are better than another.

But we’re not stupid.

If it’s a human issue, we’re all too quick to throw him over to Stella so that she can handle the human side of him that we... cannot. A simple meal of fire-meat every so often with Lily and her strong-ones is enough to put a smile on his face for a day or two. When one goblin isn’t enough to satisfy him, he is quick to visit Ivory and Truffle and... well... the sounds coming from their cave-hole can be heard all through Goblinhome.

Whatever is weighing heavily on his mind is nothing that can be fixed by Berry who must be kept from him until her Blood Fury ends and her vessel is strengthened. Stella said directly that Ark refused her visitation. He’s also turned away from Vera.

I had come to our special place earlier to think of something I could do for him, only to find him already here, lying down and staring up at the clouds. Husband didn’t turn me away when I approached. Instead, he said he wanted to forget all of his thoughts for a while. He asked me if I could bring him some of Truffle’s color-spin-think powder and to keep an eye on him for a while.

How could I not do this much for him?

So, I ran as fast as I could to Truffle and explained what was going on. Truffle handed over to me a pouch of it and told me to only let him have a small pinch of it at a time. That it would do exactly what he wanted it to do.

“I have it, Husband.”

Tricky Husband Ark sat up and reached for me, pulling me onto his lap. With a smile, he reached up and patted my head, stroked my cheek, and then wrapped his fully human arm around me, giving me a long, tight, hug.

All the while his goblinized hand hung limply at his side.

When he loosened his hug, I reached for it and pulled it to my chest, placing it on my milkies. I know Husband doesn’t want to make strong-ones with me just yet, but I wanted him to know that I still loved him no matter what.

To my surprise, he leaned forward and pinned me on my back. Without a word, he began to kiss me all over. His tongue brushed against one of my milkies and his human hand grasped my other, squeezing it softly, making my whole body go limp as he did.

“H-husband? Are... you going to make me... an adult goblin?”

Husband kissed his way down to my belly where he stopped and lifted his head to look me in the eyes.

“How can I make you what you already are?”

“...?”

“Button... I’ve been selfish. I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.”

“Why is Husband sorry?”

“Because I haven’t been treating you like a goblin.”

“???”

Husband reached down with his hand and rubbed the inner part of my leg.

“You are older than four moons, you can hunt better than most of your sisters, and you have your own cave hole. To the Bloodmaw, that already makes you mostly an adult goblin, doesn’t it?”

He wasn’t wrong.

“Just because I haven’t... done with you what I have with some of your sisters doesn’t mean in the slightest that you aren’t already an adult goblin. It’s my own selfishness in wanting to keep believing that you were still my cute and innocent Button... Wanting to believe that you wouldn’t grow up so fast, and still needed me as a daddy rather than as a Husband...”

“Husband... still wants to think of me as a strong-one?”

Husband pressed his face into my belly for a moment before laughing.

“Button... can you remember the day you wandered Goblinhome for the first time?”

“That was the day I found you in the cave-hole used by Diana Artemis, Orchid, and Lilac.”

“That’s right. You were barely a few days old, and curious about why I had a mushroom sticking out of my body. You were still too young to know what a seed-stick was, only that because you were an adorable mushroom goblin just like Truffle, you could definitely trust someone who was part mushroom.”

“...”

“That’s what you are to me. Even if you’ve grown up taller and stronger and smarter... to me, I can’t help but still see you as the cute little mushroom princess you were at the time. You... not Diana, nor any of the others are... who I truly believe to have received the best part of me.”

“Button is the one you think is the best?”

Husband smiled and nodded. Of course he would! Husband is as much of as Mushroom goblin as Button is... as Truffle is!

“Husband... Button understands you don’t want to make strong-ones with her yet. But can we still do other things?”

“Other things?”

“Adult goblin things. Button knows about it... fun things like when you rub and lick... Button... also wants to... learn...”

“Alright. If it’s that much, I won’t refuse. But there’s one thing I want you to do for me first.”

“What is it?”

“Just once, without calling me Tricky, or Husband, or... Ark. Can... you call me daddy?”

“Swirly-whirly daddy.”

“...hmm. Good enough!”

I grinned and reached for the nearby pouch of color-spin-powder, reaching into it and pinching a good amount with my fingers. I sprinkled it from my milkies all the way down to my fuckhole.

“Button is ready to learn.”

Husband looked at me for a long while... raised an eyebrow, then nodded his head.

“Then get ready, Button. This lesson will be very different from all the things I’ve taught you up until now...”

~~** Interlude | Diana Artemis **~~

Husband has talked about human families before. How the makers of strong-ones are called Mothers and Fathers. Husband, who would have the role of a Father would also have the duty of hunting and protecting his wife—the mother and maker of his children. The mother, in this case, my maker Berry, would have the job of caring for the children and making their cave-hole warm and welcoming. Both parents would be happy making strong-ones only with each other, and help their children grow up well before those same children found a different human to make strong-ones with and join that family, live in their own cave-holes and repeat the cycle.

The Parents—the Makers on both sides would visit and bring things to help their strong-ones, and the strong-ones of their strong-ones, repeating this cycle endlessly. When the parents became old and weak, unable to hunt reliably on their own, the strong-ones who also became adults and had their own strong-ones would often return the favor of being raised to adulthood by helping their makers until they eventually died from old age.

But this wasn’t at all how things worked in goblin society.

There is an instinct for a Maker to protect their strong-ones... even their weak-ones, should they be made that way and manage to come into the world safely enough. That instinct is short-lived. When a strong-one becomes old enough to hunt on their own and desires their own cave-hole... that is when the instinct to protect fades. The Maker who made once more desires to make more strong-ones, and the strong-one who has grown and left the cave-holes of their maker also develop the instinct to make strong-ones of their own.

Even if their body isn’t ready to make them, the instinct is still there.

I have talked with enough of the adult goblins who have made strong-ones and confirmed the truth of the former. And being an adult goblin now, I feel the instinct to have strong-ones of my own... have tried to make strong-ones of my own with Husband... without much luck so far.

Yet, to Berry who should be nothing more than simply my Maker...

She is more than that.

I don’t know if I can say that she is my Mother in the way Husband has described a human family, but there is without a doubt an unreasonable importance I place on her. She is endlessly proud of me as the strong-one she made, even if she contributed little to it beyond being a vessel to hold Husband’s unparalleled seed for the briefest moment inside of her.

Husband has never forced me to think of her or see her as a Mother the way humans view their female makers. Yet, to this weak goblin who made me, I’ve brought her food she might never have the capacity or ability to hunt for on her own and taste. Though I’m an adult goblin, I’ve come to her many times to seek advice about how to capture Husband’s love, since she managed to do so quite easily. Though I have my own cave-hole which I share with two goblins who I’ve helped develop into strong Bloodmaw hunters, I still occasionally spent the night in my old cave-hole within hers, talking about unimportant things, simply wishing to be close to her for reasons that make little sense outside of being clan.

Husband has even gone as far as to teach me the many subtle variations of the human concept of Love, which goes beyond simply being a word that already made little sense to us goblins.

I have been staying in Berry’s cave-hole since the attack on Husband happened.

Berry has never seemed weaker to me as a goblin than in the short time since she came back to her senses after harming Husband. But I know this is not her. The Berry I know, the one I lived with for many moons has never indulged in so much blue water to the point she passed out. She looks at her new strong-one, my newest sister of the same pure blood that Husband gave two names to, as he had me, and cries.

I am at a loss on how to help her.

I bring food, but Berry will not eat it, saying it tastes foul in her mouth. I do my best to teach Selene Hecate what it is to be a goblin, playing strike with her as I once did with Berry, occasionally lessening my pride and letting her win... barely... one in ten or so games.

I even have let Selene Hecate try to drink from my milkies, knowing full well that there is nothing within them yet, because even though I’ve undergone a Blood Fury, my body has not matured enough to allow me to have a proper Blood Awakening.

Were I able, I would care for Selene Hecate on my own and give Berry time to go through her Blood Fury in privacy... But I somehow know that would be wrong.

Berry fears that Husband will no longer see her as a place of safety, something she feels was the reason that Husband came to her over others in the first place.

I know Husband doesn’t feel that way. Husband understands what the Blood Fury is, what it does to a goblin, and that in the moment it happened, Berry truly had no control over it. Prima, Jewel, and Doll also had no control over themselves when they underwent it.

The only reason I never did the same to Husband was because my desires at the time are the same as my desires now. What I want is Husband’s big-seed. I already have his love, as a Father and as a Husband. The only thing I need is to make strong-ones with him.

Glace understood this and helped me at that time. Receiving Husband’s big-seed caused the turmoil I felt during the Blood Fury to clear up almost immediately. I have never felt as certain of my place as a goblin within this tribe as I did afterward. I felt every part of me become stronger, and that was also when I began to truly grow strong enough to rival Prima as a Guardian.

But battling Prima seems like a game of strike compared to the battle I’m facing now.

The battle between the goblin way which is obviously the correct way, and the human way which, while making little sense, somehow at times overpowers rational thought.

What use do weak goblins have even if they share the same true blood?

Weak goblins exist to die for strong goblins so that they may continue to live and make stronger goblins. This is the goblin way. We all understand it.

I stared down at Berry, lying naked on the ground in the middle of her own cave-hole, no sign of life in her eyes. Selene Hecate laying aside her, sleeping, mouth attached to Berry’s milkies, occasionally suckling that sweet, sweet, milk...

“Mother.”

Berry’s dead eyes barely shifted enough to look at me who had just called her such a foreign word. Her hand lifted slightly, not reaching for me but to cover the body of my sister, protectively.

I could only shake my head at the mess down on the floor, knowing there was only going to be one way through this for us both.

I knelt down behind her, lying down on my side to hug her body from behind.

“All you need to do is take care of Selene Hecate and endure your Blood Fury.” I said softly into her ear. “I will take care of everything else from now on... as the head of our Moon Clan.”

Then I bit her ear.

And the strong flowed.

Diana scratched her head for a moment.

“She’s afraid of seeing you right now. She wants to, more than anything, see you. But she attacked you and thinks...”

I held up a hand to stop Diana from talking, it was clear she was having trouble articulating what she wanted to say, but I already understood.

“She’s worried that her attacking me has changed my feelings for her?”

Diana nodded emphatically.

I took a deep breath and sighed, holding up my goblinized arm.

“Even this won’t lessen my feelings for her, Diana. Surely, you understand this.”

Diana nodded.

“Berry needs to hear that from you, not me.”

“Diana... isn’t it dangerous for me to be close to her right now?”

“Probably. It was different with me, because my desire has always been to make strong-ones with you. There was never a question of anything else, whether you loved me or that you weren’t already mine.”

Why did that sound kind of... dangerous?

“As your... daughter... you would trust me with your life?”

“Diana. The words you are using are...”

“Human? I’m aware. I think in this moment... I need to use them. So, will you trust me with what I think needs to be done?”

I nodded.

“I trust you.”

“Good. Just... don’t move excessively.”

Diana left me sitting against the wall and shook Berry awake. At first Berry didn’t stir much, but then she sniffed the air and panicked, moving across the room quickly to her own inner bedroom.

“Husband! Why are you here... you... can’t be here!”

“Mother. Calm down. Husband is here because I brought him here.”

“Why? He’ll only get hurt... unless... I’m going to be... punished... I don’t want to lose control again and hurt him!”

“You won’t! And even if you try, I’ll be here to stop it from happening.”

“...”

“Husband wants to see you. He’s not angry with you. Mother...”

“Mother?”

“Yes. Do you think I would bother this much if you were only my maker? Mother... it’s something Husband has taught me... I didn’t think it was all that important because it’s a human thing... but Husband’s right. I’m... part human. I’m more goblin, but some part of me is human. We... are family. We are Clan! Trust me... okay? Trust the me you are proud of.”

Berry remained with a frightened look on her face but wound up taking the hand Diana offered to her anyway. With slow steps, not many at all, Berry, being pulled carefully by Diana, came in front of me.

“Husband...”

“Hello, Berry.” I said, lifting my goblinized hand up. “I’m okay, see.”

Berry’s eyes widened.

“Wh...at happened? Was... that what I did?”

I smiled.

“It doesn’t matter. Are you okay?”

Berry shook her head.

“I... wanted to devour you. I... still want to devour you.”

“Am I that tasty?”

Berry shifted nervously.

“Don’t provoke her!” Diana scolded.

“Sorry. Just trying to make things less tense.”

Diana scowled at me just a little.

“Mother...”

Diana pulled her forward so that Berry was no longer standing behind her but remained holding on to her shoulders firmly before pushing her down so that Berry then came to be sitting on my lap.

As far it went, she didn’t look like she was considering biting my throat again. But I won’t be so presumptuous to say that with too much certainty. Only enough knowing Diana was probably pressuring her in some way to not give in to a baser instinct right now. Diana is the greater predator between them, after all, so long as the bedroom is taken out of the equation.

Berry was having trouble looking me in the eyes. My eyes, however, could see her chest clearly right now. Her scar, both terrible and beautiful in its own way, had begun to heal. It was already far less pronounced than it originally was.

I reached out with my human hand and traced a finger down the length of it.

“Berry... my mother would have loved you.”

“Your... mother?”

“Mm. She always hoped I’d find a good woman and give her grandchildren. You were the first one to do that. For me and for her. Even if she’s not here... I’m sure she would have loved you. Diana and Selene, too.”

“...But I’m a goblin. Aside from you, and that strange one who came to visit with the Kobolds... humans hate us like we hate them. We don’t even think much of killing and eating them.”

“And yet, there’s you and me... isn’t there? I don’t hate you... and the part of you I like to eat is right here.”

I gently placed my hand over her breast, sticky from dried milk.

“Do you hate me... Berry?”

Berry leaned her head into my chest and began to wail. Looking past her, Diana was half-staring daggers at me, but I signaled to her that I did have something in mind.

I reached up with my goblinized hand and using my sharp finger, cut into my shoulder horizontally. I then focused on making that scent which disturbed my younger children and sent Button into a frenzy earlier.

Diana reacted to it instantly... predatorily.

“You can devour me if you wish, Berry. I’ve never once stopped you from doing so, have I? You were the first to do so, weren’t you? But do consider that if you don’t devour me completely, I’ll be around long enough to give you plenty more strong-ones. After all, if Diana’s gone as far as to call you mother... then I can go as far as to call you Wife. There’s nothing more important between a family than having trust for each other. And I trust you.”

I nodded at Diana, hoping she’d catch my drift and loosen her hold on Berry’s shoulders.

Berry’s head slowly wormed its way to my shoulder and her mouth opened, her viscous tongue sliding along the wound I made, practically digging in with her tongue to lap up the blood. Her body lost tension and aside from a muffled breath of air, a remnant of her turbulent emotions, she continued to lick until her body slackened entirely.

I tilted my chin up at Diana who knelt down and inspected Berry.

Diana, with little effort, picked her mother up, carried her to her nearby bedroom, and placed her gently down on the straw bed before returning to me. With a heated look in her eyes, I was prepared for what was coming. Diana sat down on my lap and quietly raped me.

After blowing my load inside of her, she began... to leak. No, not from below, but from above. Diana Artemis was leaking breast milk. I was damn sure she wasn’t pregnant... but I sure as hell wasn’t prepared for her be doing that!

No sooner than she had, though, did a small goblin come out of nowhere and walk over to us.

“Deena... miggees?”

Diana helped her climb up between us and without a moment’s hesitation, the little goblin latched on to Diana’s breast and began sucking.

Yes, there’s a lot to unpack here. I mean, I’m dick-deep inside of Diana, and my newest daughter is kind of on her lap and sucking tiddy. I absolutely won’t say that Diana looks motherly right now. But she does, completely, look like a gentle older sister in her middle to late teens... who happens to be breastfeeding her baby sister who at best is a toddler.

Is it fucked up?

Of course it is!

But then again, I did do a full body shot of color-spin-think powder off of Button only a few hours earlier. Fucked up clearly is the name of the game right now.

Giving a tap to the back of Selene’s head with a finger from my human hand, I asked her one of the most important questions I ever would:

“Hello Selene. I’m daddy. Can you say daddy?”

Selene paused suckling for a moment only to turn her head and look at me curiously.

“Haban!”

FUCK.

I sighed deeply and let my head fall forward on Diana’s unoccupied breast.

Diana couldn’t withhold a throaty laugh in response.

I give.

Lifting my face a little, I latched on to her free breast and helped myself to a little sip.

Hmm... it’s... a bit meaty... in taste.

Selene seems to be okay with it...?

No. I don’t think I’ll be giving up berry-flavored milk anytime soon.

After Selene got her fill and Diana and I were able to separate discreetly, I sat on the floor and played strike together with Diana and Selene.

Diana and I talked for a while, with her telling me that she wanted to move back in with Berry, and that she wanted me to renovate their cave-hole. After all, it wouldn’t be long before Berry was ready to have another strong-one. Diana as well was only waiting for nature to take its course so that she could have a strong-one as well.

“Moon Clan... you say?”

I could already see the bite on Selene’s ear. Diana had taken it upon herself to establish herself as the matron of her own clan. While it might be a bit weird for that to be the case and to still call Berry mother, I can’t find any fault with this being how a bit of the human way I believed to be present within Diana took shape in the end.

There was never going to be a moment where I didn’t agree with her request. I just needed to sort out what was possible through the renovations. I believe some of Dara’s residence on the lower floor intersects with Berry’s cave-hole, but I think there’s some room to be had on the second floor. The orc war-brides rooms all begin on the other side of the shit-pit. And the room that Diana, Orchid, and Lilac shared is still pretty deep... well past the room I made for Cobi and the Kobolds.

I guess I have some work cut out for me. But having been bitten numerous times today, what I need now, desperately, is some iron to help replenish my blood. Promising to visit Selene again and play, Diana saw me off at the entrance to Berry’s cave-hole. My destination was Melon’s kitchen to see if I could get a double or triple patty hamburger...

I even had a guest to dine with.

My good friend, Bitey.