Hosting the townsfolk

As Helga had instructed him, Kazex took on the role of manservant and glorified butler whenever one of the villagers from the nearby towns visited Helga's tower for a potion or charm, serving them refreshers and drinks to tide them over while they waited for Helga to receive them.

Kazex made sure to address them in the most refined way he knew (which, thanks to his considerable intelligence, he'd wager was better than the villagers') to offset the initial impression of him being a goblin. Mariska hadn't recognized him as such by sight, but most of the men that came up high here were another matter entirely. Though he tried to put them at ease as much as possible, he really doubted their wariness would ever fade.

Not only that, there was one human of indeterminate age and flinty eyes called Marius that gave him the chills for some reason whenever he saw him, even though he was soft-spoken and the very image of politeness whenever he came to check out Helga's library out of selfless interest. The redhead, amused by what she thought to be an ignorant peasant full of himself, had no problem in allowing it.

Regardless, Kazex was more interested in the women who decided to come themselves, since it gave him a chance to inspect future potential broodmothers for his tribe. Mariska was an option, though he wouldn't act immediately since he knew there were plenty of other women nearby. He just had to be patient and wait to see who else would come.

In any case, Mariska had finally received her fertility potion; in return, the woman had given Helga several bottles of perfume that she had purchased from the nearest city. According to the blonde woman, her desire and need for a child was greater than her interest in perfumes. True to his suspicions, Helga had deliberately delayed completing the potion in a petty act of silent protest against the woman that visited her tower constantly in order to see whether her order was finished or not. However, she had eventually wised up to the situation and finished the potion to get her out of her hair and the redhead seemed pleased enough with the perfumes.

As for himself, Kazex had decided not to mess with Mariska's potion in the end. He had to be careful with the type of girls he snagged from the villages and he still hadn't come up with a way to hide the birth of goblin brood from them, so he refrained from acting up and let the woman carry home an unsabotaged potion. He'd let her have her child; he could easily get her at some other point either way.

As if the gods were rewarding his cautiousness, one of the women that visited Helga after that proved to be a prime option for a broodmother.

The knocking on the door that distracted Kazex from his work was hesitant, as if whomever was behind the door was unsure of what they were doing it. With a sigh, Kazex hopped down from his stool to open the door and greet them.

'Remember, smile and be deferential. Put them at ease.'

"Good day! Please, come inside!" he announced as he opened the door, only to find a young girl with brown hair fidgeting nervously in front of him. What was stranger, however, was how her eyes widened in surprise at seeing him.

"Ah... what are you?" she questioned in confusion.

"My, that is quite rude of you, you know," he replied with a frown and the girl winced.

"Am terribly sorry, sir! It's just... it's my first time here and well..." she mumbled, panicked and Kazex sighed. He truly was a bleeding heart sometimes.

"Don't worry, I forgive you. As for what am I... well, I'm a goblin. My name's Kazex and I serve the Mistress of this place as her manservant."

"A goblin?! I- I see..." she muttered deep in thought before speaking again. "My mum - she sent me to give a request to the lady, she did. A charm of luck for a good harvest," she explained.

Kazex nodded, keeping his slight derision for such ignorant request to himself. The girl wasn't to blame for the world she'd been born in after all. "Of course, come in, come in! Make yourself at home while I fetch the Mistress. Do you fancy some refreshments?" he asked with an amicable grin, growing bemused when the girl stared at him as if entranced.

"Ah... ah no, thank ye, ser," she replied, slightly flushed.

"I'm no ser, girl, I'm just Kazex. Still, you have me at a disadvantage here. Might I know the name of such lovely woman?" he mused and he was rewarded with a flustered giggle for his efforts.

"My name is Zaria... Kazex."

"Beautiful name, indeed. Now, if you allow me, I'll go and bring down the Mistress..." he started to say, only to be cut off when Zaria suddenly interrupted him.

"I thought... I thought all goblins were brutes who only had fighting and breeding women over and over in their minds," she blurted out.

Kazex would have been offended by that if he hadn't noticed a strange hitch in the girl's voice. Frowning, he turned around to get a good look at her.

Zaria was fair to look at, but she wasn't exactly a beauty that would leave kings breathless. Her shoulder-length brown hair, which framed her face, made her dark sea-green eyes stand out and she wore tasteful clothes, if not really expensive. In short, the girl was what one would expect from a pretty lass born in a small village.

Which is why Kazex was quite confused when he noticed the deep flush of her cheeks after she made her observation and the slightest of shallow breaths.

'Is she... turned on by that thought?' he considered with disbelief. Had the girl been staring at his chest instead of his face before? He didn't know, he hadn't been paying that much attention.

Thinking quickly, he adopted a grave look as he nodded. "Your preconceptions are unfortunately true for the most part. I am a special case in the fact that I'm quite a bit more intelligent than most of my brethren, which is why we're able to hold a civilized conversation... but I fear that not even I can escape such urges sometimes," he lamented with faux sadness.

That should do the trick. If his assumption of the girl was correct, that would plant the seed of a thought in her mind, an idea that, with luck and a bit of careful handling, would blossom into something truly spectacular. The funniest thing was that he might not even need to use his potions on Zaria if he played his cards right with her.

"Kazex, did someone arrive? Why didn't you warn me?" Helga scolded as she walked down from the stairs that lead to the second floor to greet their guest.

With Zaria excusing his delay explaining that he was just answering some questions, Kazex retired to let them talk business, his mind already working at full speed on his machinations for Zaria.

Notes: Credit to Dropdeadcoheed in DeviantArt for creating the picture. Also, I'm not going to bother trying to write a villager accent (like what you'd find in the Witcher videogames, for example) because I'm not confident I'd manage to pull it off.