I've had someone else look over this for me, so this is a revised version you're looking at. I'm mostly looking for feedback on whether or not you feel compelled to continue the story more than anything else.
Oh, and this part is about 2.5k words. I always find it helpful to know how long something is before I start reading it, so I figured I'd do some folks out there a favor. :]
---
A goblin's hovel was not quite like any structure Taverus had ventured into before. Resembling a mere hole in the ground--albeit a large one, the width as accommodating as a large cupboard--apparently goblins lived quite comfortably some feet underground. The one he stood before was located underneath the arching roots of a tree.
He stared at it, troubled for a moment about how he should lower himself into the structure without injuring himself. Then, perhaps impatient at his hesitance, the goblin whose name was apparently Ghore dropped down, an echo answering his landing.
Taverus heard a tired sigh from behind him. "We haven't got all day to stare at it, you know." Knox brushed passed him and dropped down as well. Taverus felt himself go red in the face, but none the less stepped up to the hole to follow.
He stood at the mouth of it. It was pitch black in the hole, the sun's light not reaching the bottom of it. Judging both by this and by how Taverus could not even see Knox's head--and the latter man was much taller than an average goblin, to say the least--he judged the hole to be quite deep.
"Are you going to just stand there with your mouth hanging open?" Knox's voice echoed.
Taverus gritted his teeth before speaking, "Your words are so encouraging. Forgive me for being prudent."
"Prudent my worty ass," Knox ascended from shadows into view; he only had to jump and grab a root from the wall of the hole to be seen in the light. He hung loosely, "It's scarcely taller than me, you see."
Taverus huffed, "Fine." He crouched down to sit, edging his legs over to dangle in the hole. As he edged further and further, Knox promptly scoffed. Taverus scowled at him.
"You're so very dainty." Knox dropped down into the darkness.
His red face returning, Taverus ebbed his way down, "And you're so very rude."
Once he was only supported by his arms, his legs balancing in the air, Taverus turned himself around and shakily lowered himself. Not feeling the ground underneath his feet quite yet, he took one hand off the edge of the hole to feel around for a root on the wall. He could not quite hold himself up. He scraped the ground with his fingers to try and stay hovered, but eventually plopped to the ground, landing smartly on his bum.
Though his behind ached, he quickly shot back onto his feet, ungracefully, as it was dark and he could not find the wall in front of him. Oddly it was more insulting to hear Knox's wary sigh than it was to hear the usual howls of laughter that would accompany such an event.
"Is Ghore with us?" Taverus asked, willing his eyes to adjust to the darkness.
Knox huffed, "Long gone."
"I see." Taverus, having felt all walls to the side and behind him, plunged forward with confidence. He ran into Knox's back. As Knox scarcely reacted, Taverus sputtered, "And you talk of me being slow! Move already!"
“Simply waiting on account of your own slowness,” Knox said, "Please, go right ahead." Taverus heard the rustle of Knox's cloak and the tap of his boots on the ground bellow, indicating that he had moved aside. Taverus plunged forward correctly this time.
The hovel, after it's abrupt dip as the entrance, cut itself into a tunnel. Taverus was fascinated to hear stone ground underneath his feet. He was fairly certain that the tunnel would only continue in the forward direction, but did not at all anticipate that it would diminish in height. When a stray root embedded in the tunnel's ceiling caught one of Taverus' abundant curls, he jumped, yet more surprised to find that solid dirt met his head only an inch away. Continuing further, he was forced to bend his knees, making the walk much more awkward.
Behind him came Knox's irritated grunt. "How very kind of them to accommodate our height."
"Do we continue further?" As Taverus asked it, he had begun to bend down further as he walked, though it now resembled more of a shuffle.
"We scarcely have a choice in the matter."
As the tunnel continued they crouched down on their knees into an awkward crawl. Taverus felt very much like a blind mole rat, seeing only blackness as he crawled in the dirt, even if his hands were on a stone floor. He felt a great surge of fear when he felt in front of him and his hands met a dirt wall. He stopped, sitting back. "Knox..." He jolted a bit when Knox's head bumped into his lower back.
"Don't stop! Keep going."
"There's a wall in the way," Taverus said irritably, "I don't suppose you expect me to dig my way through."
"Shit," Knox hissed.
Taverus's eye caught a glow to the side. The flickering orange glow cast light on his surroundings dimly. It was now clear that the tunnel took a sharp turn to the left. He now turned and Knox followed, the light becoming brighter as they crawled. Steps emanated towards them.
"You bastard goblins can only hope to have badgers as house guests at this rate," Knox yelled.
Taverus stopped as a figure approached. It was Ghore, carrying a torch. He walked confidently through, stopping when he reached Taverus. His heavy wrinkles were set in a frown as he stared down at the two of them, small eyes barely seen past his large nose.
"We're in the middle of accommodating the colossally challenged," Ghore growled. "It's coming by slowly." He turned on his heels to face the other side. He began to guide them through, although gained some distance away from them, seeing as how he was at a regular walk while the two of them were still the pace of a snail at their crawl.
Just as Taverus' wrists and knees began to ache, the tunnel ended. Ghore put the torch on its handle on the wall and stepped into a much larger and, thankfully, much taller room. Taverus and Knox followed. Taverus immediately stretched out his back as he stood in the room, although was careful, for the roof was still quite low. When Knox stepped into the room, he still had to hunch over.
The room was, Taverus guessed, a kitchen or dining room of sorts. There were other tunnels which led out of the room, presumably leading to a secondary entrance or other rooms inside the hovel. Roots dangled from the ceiling, which were promptly used as hooks to hold lanterns. A long table sat in the middle of the room, low to the ground, surrounded by upturned clay pots, some milking-stools, and one human-sized wooden chair at the end of the table. Knox cut past Taverus to sit on this chair, which forced Taverus to sit down on one of the clay pots. Utensils dangled above them, and Taverus narrowly avoided one of them on his way to his seat. His knees hit the table as he sat and he struggled to keep balanced on the ill-fitted, make-shift chair. Ghore was already seated across from Taverus. Behind the table to one end of the room was a large cauldron, still dirty from the morning's breakfast no doubt, as there was unknown substance crusted onto it, though from the smell of it Taverus guessed it to be gruel.
After an uncomfortable moment of silence, Ghore spoke. "It is unfortunate what happened to Crillik. He served your family for very long, Lord Knox, and well, up until the end. He was loyal. I suppose that was his doing in."
Taverus could see Knox's incredulous face, blinking rapidly and smiling crookedly, “Are you suggesting it wasn’t my. fault that he met an untimely death?"
Ghore scoffed, "We're well aware you were caught in a technicality of your contract. This is why the King was so flexible as to allow you certain... privileges." Ghore nodded none-too-subtly at Taverus, who shifted uncomfortably in his seat and promptly had to catch himself at the table to avoid falling off the clay pot.
"Oh yes, I'm so glad that was decided after I was beaten and strung up against a post like a scarecrow." Knox's crooked smile widened as Taverus winced.
"Ah, um," Taverus said, tensing as Ghore turned to look at him, "Well, I was wondering what... exactly my, er, contract... uh, entailed." He played with the hem of his cloak, feeling his neck prickle with sweat.
Ghore grunted, "We shall cover that in a moment. More important now; Lord Knox is in need of new servants." Taverus look fell as he was promptly brushed off. He decided to sit quietly and wait, unsure of where he stood with such an abrasive creature.
Knox snorted, "Is that what they call it these days?"
The comment was promptly ignored by Ghore, "I'm thinking you will need several given your recent loss."
Another snort from Knox, "If I've earned a reputation as a goblin-killer that fast, I'm guessing you don't have a long list of willing participants for me."
Ghore's face turned to stone, "On the contrary," he dug into a leather nap-sack and pulled out a scroll and an enormous monocle. He squinted into the monocle and unrolled the parchment, looking across it for a moment with a frown, "You have quite a lot of offers. Most female," the last portion was said with a heavy tone of iciness.
Knox raised an eyebrow, looking down at the list. Taverus glanced at it for a moment before realizing it was all chicken-scratch to him. He didn't know before that goblins had their own writing on top of their own language, but it didn't surprise him that both were utterly indiscernible. Knox looked up at Ghore and said something in the goblin's own clicking, growl-like language, an utterly lewd expression on his face.
Ghore's face remained stoney as he answered Knox in a human tongue Taverus recognized, "I don't spend my spare time looking at bosoms, so I'm sure I couldn't tell you," as Taverus checked to make sure Ghore said what he thought he had said, Ghore continued on, "I'm only here to recommend their names based on their skills."
Knox leaned back in his chair, shrugging, "Go ahead and start then."
Ghore glanced back down at the scroll, clearing his throat, although his voice remained quite gravelly, "I understand Crillik had quite a few duties on your grounds as well as when you were traveling," he pointed a long-nailed, stubby finger at one line on the scroll, "Hagop is experienced. His master recently passed--he was a groundskeeper."
"Fine," Knox said, seeming to be resisting a yawn, chin digging into his neck. "I'll take him."
"However, he is not as adept in cooking as Crillik was," Ghore's large lips twitched, "For that I suggest Opar and Bruma. I only suggest the two of them for their sake; they do hate to be separated. They can also work as aids to Hagop."
"Whatever," Knox finished after a moment, "is fine."
"I understand Crillik also took care of your stables; for that I suggest Kraug. He's young and hot-tempered but works hard," he raised a wiry eyebrow up for a moment, "and frankly I don't trust you with the two females when you're traveling."
Knox barked a laugh, "Ah, yes, just as I like my women; scabby and short. I suppose the latter feature would allow for better access--"
Ghore spoke over him, "Well, it does run in your blood."
Knox's mouth shut, straightening into a thin line. "Hm," he smirked, "touché."
Ghore rose from his seat, removing his monocle and rolling up the parchment. "I'll see to it that they're told. If you'll wait outside I'll bring them to you."
As he turned to leave, Taverus' eyes widened. He spoke, "About my contract..."
Ghore stopped, then stiffly sat back down, his sigh distinctly sounding akin to a bird squawk. "What about it?"
Taverus looked at Knox, who appeared to find a root above him far too interesting and could not be bothered to spare a reassuring glance to Taverus. Taverus mouth went dry, "Well... from what I understand, I'm serving under..." he pointed to Knox hesitantly.
Ghore raised his eyebrows, the wrinkles on his forehead forming vast canyons. "Your point?"
"Well, am I... done? Now that he has new servants? Can I go home? Please?"
Ghore snorted, a laugh gurgling out and revealing his large teeth. "I should hardly think so. Just because you serve Lord Knox doesn't mean he is the only factor to your contract--in fact, him having no servant was hardly the issue at hand," he began to rise again, "No, you are still owned by the King until further notice."
Taverus paled. "But... when will I be released?"
Ghore growled, "Look in the records for that! I can scarcely be bothered to keep track of you humans under contract." With that, he left down one tunnel in the room.
Knox looked sharply over at Taverus once Ghore had left, "You didn't read your contract?"
Taverus, still very much shaken, shook his head harshly, "I really wasn't given much time to! It... was a matter between life or death, after all," when he looked up at Knox, the other man looked away, and so Taverus instead look down at his hands as he gripped his cloak.
Knox sighed after a moment, "We'll go down to the record room," he said as he rose.
Both left the hovel from the way they came in, Taverus refusing help from Knox when he struggled to get out of the large hole. Once under the forest-colored light again, Taverus looked down at his clothes--they were covered in dirt. He grimaced slightly and began patting himself down. Even Knox's usual black garb was noticeably dusted with dirt. Knox shook dirt clods out of his black, limp curls.
"They live like rats, I tell you," Knox began roughly wiping his cloak of dirt, walking as he did so, "Or maybe like ugly badgers or... something else nasty that live in little holes," he tipped his head as he seemed to think, nodding after a moment, "Dung beetles, maybe."
Taverus hesitated with a question that bubbled up into him, but curiosity got the better of him, "I've been wondering... you're very tall."
Knox blinked, raising an eyebrow as he looked back at Taverus, "And?"
Taverus sighed, forcing the words out, "Well, but you're... part goblin," he said in a small voice.
"Oh," Knox whipped his head back to face the front, "Yes, but may the gods forbid that I have any of these burrowing rats running through my veins. I've suspected for a long time now that part of me is of a southern variety; they're quite taller than me, lanky, pale colored--although they still have the huge noses. I believe they dwell in jungles and beaches rather than in the bloody earth."
As Taverus caught up to Knox's pace, he resisted any more questions that came to his mind.
Good job!
