“Ugh. Put me down,” Ren said, swatting the trunk-like mass of their cousin’s forearm, left bare as always. “I have perfectly functional legs, you know.”
“I haven’t seen my favorite cousin in two whole days! Forgive me if I’m a little enthusiastic.”
“Over-enthusiastic, more like,” Ren replied with a roll of their eyes. Still, they couldn’t help but smile.
Although Thorn was what more polite individuals would call an “acquired taste”, known just as readily within the clan as the “weird one” as he was the “large one”, Ren had spent more time in his company than not. From the moment Ren had joined the clan – the one bright thread amid the otherwise miserable tapestry of their early childhood – the two of them had been practically joined at the hip. Wherever one went, the other had been all but guaranteed to follow.
At least, until now.
Ren’s heart squeezed around another swell of grief crashing against an otherwise quiet shore. They pulled Thorn into another hug the second he set them back down – a proper one this time, where everyone’s feet remained firmly planted on the ground.
“I missed you too,” Ren mumbled, their voice slightly muffled by the solid heft of Thorn’s chest. Alas, the time when Ren had been able to tuck their face into Thorn’s shoulder was long gone, buried beneath the most impressive growth spurt the clan had ever seen. “And don’t youdarepick me up again. You already got your allotment for the day.”
Thorn let out a scoff, his expression slackening into one of apparent innocence. “I wouldn’t evendreamof it.”
“Uh-huh,” Ren said, giving him a flat look.
Thorn shook his head, shoulders slumping as he threw up his hands. “Do you see how I’m being falsely accused?” he said, looking now towards the children, still clustered around them, his brown eyes creasing into an almost puppy-like plea.
“I dunno,” said Dandy, crossing his arms. “You do pick up Ren a lot. Like,a lota lot.”
“It’s ’cause he knows Ren doesn’t like it,” Robin explained. “Plus, Thorn’s too dumb to come up with any new tricks.”
“Hey! I have plenty of other tricks up my sleeve!” Thorn protested; not that it proved in any way convincing. Robin’s stare, previously only dubious, turned pitying. Because what was a goblin without a vast and varied capacity for chaos?
“I wanna be picked up too…” Ivy mumbled, scuffing the toe of her boot against the mossy floor, a display of uncharacteristic shyness for a girl who’d been bellowing battle cries not even five minutes ago.
It all made sense less than a moment later, when Thorn hoisted her up with an exaggerated grunt of effort and the other children exploded into an absolute furor. How could she be so disloyal? they demanded, fists swinging as they stamped their feet. They were supposed to bedefendingRen, not asking favors of the enemy! But by that point, Ivy was so lost in the delight of swooping through the air above Thorn’s head that she either didn’t hear them or, quite simply, didn’t care.
“Again! Again!” she cried when Thorn finally set her back down, now huffing and puffing with the first hint of real exhaustion.
“Maybe later,” he said, giving her hair a light ruffle. “But right now I’ve got to bring Ren down to the croplands. Nana’s orders. We’ve got someveryimportant business to take care of before they have to leave again.”
“What sort of business?” Robin asked, their eyes bright with interest. They, along with Holly and Dandy, had quieted immediately at Thorn’s statement. A new opportunity, perhaps, to be helpful to Ren – and, of course, to keep tagging along.Thatwas the important part.
Realizing this, Ren turned towards them and said, with the utmost seriousness, “Business that absolutely can’t wait. So, I need the four of you to help me out, okay? You see that wagonI brought with me? All the food inside needs to be unloaded, and since I can’t do it myself, some of the other adults are going to have to do it instead. Can you go find them and let them know?”
Dandy frowned. “Why can’t we just unload it ourselves? We’re plenty strong enough for that.”
“Because I need you all tosupervisethem,” Ren explained, seriously. “It’s the most important job of all, and I can only trust the four of you to do it. Understand?”
Dandy, Robin, Holly and Ivy all nodded vigorously, practically glowing at the prospect of being put in charge, not just of something, but ofadults.
Ren smiled. “I’m leaving this in your hands, then.”
The children took off in a flurry of hoots and hollers and a marginally concerning, “Let’s plant a stinkbomb in one of the crates!” Within seconds, they’d vanished from sight, ducking down one of the many branching tunnels, no doubt heading for the clan’s living quarters. There, they’d find the requisite adults, not just for the task they’d been given, but for their other schemes as well.
Huffing out a breath, Thorn shook his head, his expression far graver than Ren had ever seen. “A moment of silence for the poor souls you’ve just sicced that bunch on,” he said, pressing a hand over his heart in a common goblin expression of sympathy.
“Oh, come on,” Ren said with a haphazard wave. “They’re notthatbad. They’re cute!”
Another shake of Thorn’s head. “You only say that because they actually listen to you. I have to chase them away from my toads no less than three times a day now – and I meanactuallychase them. With a broom and everything!”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t keep those toads. Ever think of that?” Ren grinned.
Thorn sighed. “Now you’re sounding just like Nana.”
The two of them found Nana waiting at the croplands, in the furthest of the three caverns, just like Thorn had said. She stood over the withered remains of a dying plant, both hands clasped around the gnarled end of her walking stick. Although her back had started to bow years ago – as much a product of her advanced age as the clan’s ever-mounting burdens – it had somehow stooped lower in the days since Ren had last seen her. Now, she seemed to fold in on herself, crushed beneath a pall of exhaustion that lined the weathered map of her face in deep, inescapable shadow.
