Chapter Three Part 3: Please, For the Love of All Things Good and Peaceful Don't Let it Be Goblins
With as much as I like to indulge myself in introspection and contemplation of what my future could possibly hold, sometimes I lose track of... myself. As of late, it's become often. More often than not I have to remind myself of who I am instead of who I'm not, and as more time passes the more lines blur.
Everyone is guilty of putting on a mask for certain people in the name of keeping the peace, appealing to someone's interests, or some other selfish motive. But few people make it a lifestyle to never wear a face of their own. Maybe because of the hell it makes for your mind, or the hurricane of confusion it creates for your identity. Maybe because even if they do so, they wholly intend for it to be temporary, or that, in truth, they are pretending to be who they desire to become. So that eventually it actually will be who they are, and not just who they want to be. So that eventually, they will become the lie.
But as for me... I am a liar in the most elaborate of ways. My only justification being that I am not lying to myself.
Or at least... I sincerely hope I'm not.
--
It was peaceful as the sun was setting. The soft hum of crickets could be heard as the edge of the golden sun lit up the sky with a gradient of orange and pink hues, before it would hide itself behind the face of the earth. Clandestine and Matt had both made themselves comfortable in the two rocking chairs looking out at the farm on the porch, while Laura and Kaleb were already making their way to bed.
Clandestine took in a deep breath and sighed as she leaned back into the chair, and started rocking it back and forth with the steady movement of her feet. She was caught up in the pretty view when Matt spoke up.
"It'll be a good idea to keep an eye on the cattle," he said quietly, looking out at the little silhouettes of cows out in the field. "They sense stuff a lot sooner than we do."
Clandestine nodded her head as she took note of the cowboy's advice. "Well if they start to scatter of something, we can check it out. Or maybe I can check it out. I mean, if it's goblins or worms, either really sucks. You've gotta be seriously unlucky to have both simultaneously running around and destroying your farm."
Matt hummed in agreement.
"I mean, with worms it's like, there's just the regular sized ones," Clandetine added, making a motion in the air as to how big they were. She drew a circle that made it look like they'd be as big as a person. "But then there's the queen worms, and those are the really big ones. They could probably like, easily carve out a small pond in the ground just by nomming in a circle for a second, haha."
She laughed, imagining a giant worm chasing its tail. But her laugh wavered when she saw that Matt didn't look so amused. It was probably because he had a much scarier image in mind.
"But uh, I mean, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!" she said with what she tried to make as a reassuring smile, but probably just looked awkward. She gave a weak laugh. There was a pause. A long pause that hung in the air between her and Matt that seemed to make her more and more nervous with each passing second, despite Matt looking completely normal as he looked out at the field with a blank expression.
She cleared her throat. "S-so! Uh! Goblins though, they can get pretty intense. You ever had any trouble with goblins out here in the desert? I know it ain't really by their land, so they don't have much reason to mess with humans when they don't want to but uh, I mean... if they're out here now. Maybe I'm wrong."
Her eyes flickered from looking out at the farm to over at Matt, who somehow looked worlds more relaxed than she felt, despite being the one with the bitten-up arm. She had to admit though that she wasn't as worried about what was living beneath the farm as she was about sitting through the rest of the night in silence. She knew that as soon as the sun went down, they'd have to keep quiet so that they didn't alert the monsters to their presence, but it was a lot different doing that just by herself verses with another person.
There was a part of her that desperately wanted to... connect. And she was aware of it. But she couldn't seem to reign it in.
Matt looked thoughtful for a moment as he waited an agonizingly long few seconds before answering.
"Honestly, I haven't run into goblins much, since they mostly live out in the forests, and you know," he gestures out in front of them with a wave of his arm. "They stick to their land. But there was one time when me and some folk were moving cattle and ended up passing through some of their territory. We were lucky that we only ran into a few scouts it looked like, but they took out three of our steers, and they sure spooked all the cattle. We wouldn't have had so much trouble getting away - since they goblins weren't ridin' nothin' and we were on horseback - if we hadn't have a whole herd 'uh cattle with us."
Clandestine listened intently, nodding as he told the short story.
"Oh wow, so you really haven't seem 'em much at all, have you?"
Matt smirked a little. "You sound disappointed."
Clandestine blinked rapidly for a second and shook her head. "Pff- what? No! I'm not disappointed, I'm surprised! Only one encounter throughout your whole life? What, did you just like, never leave the towns or adventure or anything?"
Matt smiled and sighed, looking over at her briefly. "I can count the number of times I've seen 'em on one hand. Not everyone lives an as exciting life as you do, you know."
Clandestine stuttered, blowing a little raspberry through her lips as she pushed herself up in her chair defensively only to plop back down, flustered. "I know that!" she said, then looking down, and muttering again. "I know that." She gripped the arms of the rocking chair and looked back out at the fields. The sun was starting to disappear on the horizon. "I'm just glad that... well, you sound like you understand why I don't like messing with goblins is all. They’ve always been at odds with humans with the turf wars and all that mess, so they’re really not the sort you want to make... personal enemies with. That's why I'm just really hoping they're not here," she said, voice tapering off into a quiet mumble at her last sentence.
Matt didn't reply with anything but a hum again. Clandestine sighed.
"But if they are," she continued, looking back at him. "We should really shut up," she laughed a little. "We don't uh, want them to hear us and all."
"Alright," Matt said, nodding in agreement before he looked over to her expectantly. It took her a second to realize that he was waiting for her to say something - probably like, make a decision on what to do next. Clandestine blinked.
"We uh, let's just like, sleep in shifts again," she suggested. "This time we can just wake the other person up if something happens. Otherwise uh," she smiled slightly, itching the back of her neck, under her ponytail. "I'll probably talk the whole night away. You've probably figured out by now that I like to exchange stories."
Matt grinned a little bit as he nodded, and although she knew it made most sense to do a stake-out in quiet, a little bit of her heart sank when he didn't seem to fight it, or even say that he liked telling stories too.
"Sounds good to me," he said. And Clandestine just smiled. A sad, desperately lonely smile.
--
Clandestine poked at one of the holes in the ground with a pouted frown. Nothing. There was no signs of anything. And the night prior had, sadly, been entirely uneventful. She called out over to Matt, who was looking at a hole a little ways down from the barn.
"Find anything?" she yelled.
Matt lifted up his good hand, giving her a thumbs down.
"Ugh," Clandestine groaned to herself. "Come on over then! Let's check inside the barn."
Matt nodded and jogged over, meeting her at the door as she slid it open. They heard a little thump as soon as they looked inside, and to both of their surprise, there was a little goblin, crouching as it stood atop a pile of crates.
Both they and the goblin froze for a solid second as the goblin's yellow eyes met Clandestine's. Even though it was a goblin, it... didn't look very intimidating. It was small, and wiry, and its leathery green skin looked dull in the shade of the barn. Its long, floppy ears almost could've looked cute, if they weren't paired with a large jaw and an underbite that showed off all it's bottom pointy teeth.
Yet, the second that the goblin met Clandestine's eyes, it looked away, and hopped down behind the crates with a quick and swift leap. Clandestine hurried forward, speeding through the barn and jumping around to look behind the crates where only a small, slimy hole remained.
The goblin was gone.
She let out a frustrated grumble of a noise and lunged at the hole, looking down into it with frustration before she stood back up. She looked over to Matt, who was right behind her. She let out a long sigh as she half rolled her eyes.
"Well... now we know for sure there's goblins."
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