Astrid and Nessa

Tents had been erected, and a campfire was in the center burning brightly. A spit had been constructed over the fire, and a pot was hanging from it, and something inside it was bubbling. Firewood was placed near it, close at hand if needed to fuel the fire some more. A large fallen log was near the middle of the campsite, a plush cushion on it to act as a comfy seat. Lanterns hung off pikes that had been dug into the ground, giving off a cozy lighting that helped with a relaxing atmosphere.

Garz heard a commotion, as one of the tent flaps opened suddenly, and a woman came bolting out of the tent. She was a beautiful specimen, sporting a curvy figure in a short skirt, a white shirt with long frilly sleeves, and black leather bodice over it. The bodice did its best to shield her breasts, but they threatened to spill out as she ran. She had jet black hair that reached to her shoulders, and her fringe was cut with a perfect horizontal lining.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" She whispered harshly as she quickly ran to the bubbling pot. Once she got there she took the pot off the spit and placed it in the ground next to the fire. She looked at the contents and her eyes widened in what looked like fear.

"Fuck!" She whined.

Just then, another tent opened, and another curvy women exited it. This one seemed to be just slightly taller than the black haired one, and had an easily pretty face. Her hair was longer and coloured like golden straw and styled in a braid. She wore an emerald green dress, with long skirts and a low plunging neckline that showed off her bountiful cleavage. The dress was sleeveless, and a slit flanked up the side of the skirts that revealed her thick thighs as she ran to her companion.

Both women were very attractive in Garz's eyes, and he felt a stirring in his loins as his pants became tighter. Truth be told, when his dreams of having a harem mused in his head, he secretly fantasised at having humans apart of it instead of goblins. He wasn't entirely sure, but his understanding at why he wanted a human harem, was so he could have a power shift in a goblin's favour. Humans had been the more dominant race, and Garz felt if he had a bevy of human women in a harem, he would be able to stick it to them, and be the dominant one instead.

"What happened?" Asked the golden haired woman, she had a honeyed voice that Garz enjoyed hearing.

"The stew is ruined." The black haired one said, her voice seemed a little more high pitched, sounding graceful.

"Oh no!" The golden haired gasped. "He'll be back soon."

"I was only cleaning my clothes. What am I going to do! He'll hit me again!" The black haired one said desperately.

"I won't let him!" She assured her.

"He'll hit you too, I can't have that happen to you." The black haired one said.

As if on cue, a burly man clad in iron armour matched into camp through the trees. Garz kept low to see what would happen. The man carried a dead deer over his shoulder, and a bow in one of his hands. He had a shaved head with some scarring on one of his cheeks, with a rough stubble on his chin.

He came up to the two women, an angry glare etched in his face. He dropped the dead animal near one of the tents, and dropped the bow next to it.

"Prepare the meat for tomorrow." He barked at the women. They both recoiled from his order. "What are you two up to?"

He made his way to them, and saw the ruined stew in the pot. If it were possible, he looked even more angry.

"It's not her fault!" The golden haired one said defended the black haired one, stretching her arms out and standing between them, her green eyes flashing with defiance.

"Move, woman! Or I'll smack you too. The useless bitch ruined my supper!" He snarled, spit flying from his gob.

The black haired woman shrank away, tears starting to form in her ice blue eyes. The man grabbed the golden hair by the throat and threw her to the side, the black haired woman tried to run, but he caught her. He backhanded her on the cheek with enough force to knock her to the ground.

She brought a hand to her burning cheek, her eyes wide with terror.

"I should have left you two in that dungeon. When I recruited you both, you swore you'd be useful. But you can't cook properly, or maintain my gear, and I take on all the brunt in a fight!" He ranted. "You're both useless, and I should sell you to slavers. Or kill you now and save me the trouble

Garz couldn't take this, to see the pretty women being threatened, he had to make sure they would be unharmed to be apart of his harem. The man was well armoured, but seemed slow in his movements. If he engaged him in a fight, Garz's speed would be to his advantage.

He jumped out of the brushes and made his presence known. Everyone became startled at a four foot goblin bursting into the camp.

"Is that a goblin?" Said the golden haired woman, a look of confusion now on her face.

"The fuck! A goblin!?" The man spat.

"Hey! Bald bastard!" Garz shouted. "Why don't you hit me instead!

Garz thought he was being brave and witty at his cutting remark. The man pulled a sword from a sheath at his hip as he stared him down.

"I'll do more than that!" The man shouted. "I'll cut you in half, you goblin shit!" He briefly looked at the women. "And when I kill this vermin, you stupid bitches are next!"

Timing was of the essence here, a misplaced dodge or attack could mean a lethal end for Garz.

The man charged at the goblin as the women stood by and watched at the strange scene unfold. Garz grabbed his hatchet form his belt, and threw it directly at the man, he saw it coming and used his sword to swipe it off course. The hatchet was knocked out of the way and skewed to the ground. Garz then unsheathed his dirk and prepared for close combat.

The man took an almighty swing at the goblin, but he dropped out of hitting distance, and spun to the side. Garz slashed at the man's wrist, making a deep enough cut to make him recoil in pain. Blood splattered beneath them, and the man became enraged, Garz laughed at the wound he made.

"Fucker!" The man yelled.

He swung again, the rattling of the armour made it clear of his next movements. Garz was quick, and jumped out of the way again, and stabbed at an exposed chink at the back of the man's knee. The attack made him stumble and loose his balance, causing him to drop his guard, and fall to his knees. The man was now at the same height as the goblin, and Gatz took advantage and went for the spot at his armpit.

The dirk pierced through the gap, and into his flesh, making the man yelp in pain and drop his sword, clattering to the floor.

Garz took this moment to shove the tip of his dirk at the man's throat. He was at his mercy now, and Garz thought back at how well Sharp-swipe had trained him. If he were still alive out there, he would thank him somehow.

"No!" The man choked, his eyes were now wide with terror. He couldn't believe a goblin had bested him in combat, even with his armour and sword.

"Wait!" The golden haired woman shouted, her hands outstretched. "Sir goblin, there is no need to kill him!"

"Why?" Garz questioned. "He's a scumbag!"

"Yes, he is." She said. "But don't stoop to his level, you can be better."

It was in a goblin's nature to complexity eradicate their enemies, and it took a lot for Garz not to make the killing blow. He grunted in disapproval and pulled the dirk away from the man's throat.

Garz picked up the sword and pointed it at the armoured man, everyone gasped, waiting for things to escalate.

"Come near these women again, and I will kill you, for definite." Garz growled.

The man nodded in deafest, hanging his head low, but his look of rage was still on his face.

"Now get the fuck out of here!" Garz ordered.

The man tried to stand tall, but was unable to due to the wound at his knee, he winced in pain and fell down again. Instead, he limped away, with nothing but the armour on his persons. He was lucky that Garz let him leave with just that, had he not been in the heat of the moment, and thought about it, Garz would have had him scamper off naked.

After the man had scurried away out of sight, Garz turned to the women. They looked nervous that a four foot goblin had saved them from being assaulted.

"Erm...thank you, sir goblin." Said the golden haired woman.

The black haired one had held her companion by the arm for comfort, her eyes staring at Garz for any sign of distrust.

"Call me Garz." He spoke proudly. "And you are welcome."

"Ok...Garz. My name is Astrid." The golden haired woman said, her voice still trembling slightly as she clutched her torn sleeve. Her companion, the black-haired woman, tightened her grip on Astrid's arm but finally spoke in a hushed tone.

"And I'm Nessa," she muttered, her blue eyes flicking between Garz and the bloodied dirt where the armoured man had knelt moments before. She swallowed hard, as if forcing down fear.

"How can we thank you?" Asked Astrid.

Garz's belly then tumbled with hunger again, louder this time. There was also another hunger he wanted sated, but he didn't want to scare them off. He had to earn their trust first.

"You must be hungry, come-sit by the fire and I'll cook up some meat." Astrid proposed.

"Well." He said. "I could eat."

Astrid went to the discarded deer, and stripped off some meat, she prepared it to cook on a spit, the flames licking up at it as the meat began to cook. The smell of its savoury scent wafted into Garz's nose, and he took a deep whiff of it.

Nessa sat opposite Garz across the fire, holding his hands toward it to warm himself as Astrid tended to the food. Nessa still looked at Garz with an uneasy stare, still in disbelief that a goblin had come to their aid and won.

"So...Garz. Why did you help us?" Asked Astrid.

"I couldn't watch that bastard hit either of you pretty young women again." He told them, stretching the truth slightly. Both of them visibly blushed at being called pretty. "An asshole like that needed to be put in his place. If I had my way though, he'd be dead."

"We thank you for not killing him, doing that would have brought even greater trouble for us." Said Astrid.

"Who was he, and why didn't you want me to kill him?" Asked Garz.

"His name is Harrick." Astrid said with disdain. "He's the son of a noble who fancied the adventurers life. I suspect we'll have to move camp tomorrow."

"Think he'll come back?" Said Garz.

"Maybe." Said Astrid. "But the nearest town is a few miles away, and with his injuries, he won't get there fast. We should be fine until the morning. Then we'll have to pack up and move on."

"Why were you with him anyway?" Garz asked, the meat was looking tasty, almost ready.

"We didn't have much of a choice. Nessa and I went into a dungeon about a week ago, and we just managed to survive an encounter with a troll. That's when we came across Harrick and some of his men in there. They fought the troll we escaped from, and all but Harrick survived. He agreed to take us on if we tended to his domestic needs, and we agreed."

"But the bastard started beating us when we did anything wrong that wasn't to his standards." Nessa suddenly exploded, letting her feelings out.

"That's true." Astrid confirmed with a small nod. "We've been terrified since, he made us think we couldn’t survive without him. Then you came along and saved us!"

"Thank you." Nessa muttered, unable to look Garz in the eye.

The food was ready, and Garz finally had meat again, they all ate together quietly as the two women watched the goblin with intrigue.

"Ah! That was some good meat, I thank you dearly." Said Garz.

"You're welcome, Garz." Said Astrid. "I must say, you fight well, and you speak so eloquently. Where did you learn it from? I thought all goblins could do was squawk and grunt." She gave a nervous laugh.

"I learnt to fight from my mentor, a great warrior. And my tribe is more sophisticated than you think." Garz chuckled. "Or at least, it was."

"Was?" Astrid quizzed.

Garz then explained his sob story, of how his tribe was attacked by adventurers, for the purpose that they may have become a threat to them. He told them how his nest was burnt to the ground, and how he had to flee for his life. The adventurers must have seen him and his tribe as monsters.

"Oh my." Said Astrid. "That's such an awful tale. If it's any consolation, you don't seem monstrous to us, isn't that right, Nessa?"

"Yes. I suppose not." She said timidly.

"Don't worry about Nessa. We've been through a lot with Harrick, I'm sure she'll warm up to you." Said Astrid. "What are your plans now?"

"I'm not sure yet, haven't fully decided." Spoke Garz. But he had an idea of what he wanted to do next.

"Erm...maybe you could..." Astrid started, shuffling on the log. "Maybe you could join us. With your combat skills, we needn't worry about a fight."

Garz was taken aback at the proposal to join them, he hadn't expected this. The most he expected was a warm meal and along he would go. He thought he would have had to work harder to gain their trust.

"I'm serious. We may not be capable fighters, but we have other skills. Skills that Harrick didn't know of." Attested Astrid.

"I don't know." Garz said.

"Please!" Pleaded Nessa. "With your fighting skills in our party, we would be safe. And if Harrick came back, I'd feel safer with you with us."

"Ok." He agreed. "I'll join you."

With that, Garz the goblin joined a party of human adventurers, and at the time, it was unknown to him what all sorts of hijinks and sexy situations he was going to find himself in.