“So.” Temate said, staring at the tiny creature in front of him. “You have goblin sves?” He turned back towards Honey and the other, rger brown bear who had joined them, Milis she'd introduced herself as. Temate looked between them, and the little goblin pcing three small teacups and a kettle on the table they were sitting at. Well, small for him and the bears, they were probably just normal sized teacups considering how they fit in the goblins hands.

  Both the Goblin and Milis had introduced themselves in rather shocking ways. In Milis’ case she was just very… touchy. Temate shivered at the memory of the massive over 8 foot tall bear running up on hind legs.

  “OOOOH LOOK AT THE COOT HUMAAAAAN” preceded the woman wrapping her fuzzy, cwed, terrifyingly strong arms around him, and lifting him off the ground! He was strong, and bigger than your average human, but she was a big bear. The biggest he’d seen in fact. Her voice was low and rumbly, but had a soft lilt to it.

  “Yes, I apawlogize again Mate.” Milis slumped over, ashamed. She’d apologized again seeing him shiver as he looked.

  Honey answered his question, “Oh furs no! The goblins here are those we have offered protection to and freed from the terrors of the woods! They serve us, certainly, and aid in maintaining Bearbhaile, especially during Hibearnatory. They are not sves though, isn’t that right little goblin!” The goblin just bowed and walked off.

  The goblin shocked him not by its behavior, though that was strange, but moreso it’s appearance. It was dressed in a green tailcoat, unbuttoned, with no undershirt. A simir color of pants are held up by a soft bck leather belt of some kind. Its skin was yellowish gray, not green, and its eyes were a full honey yellow.

  “Hmmm, I guess it’s hard to say what it is when you don’t use currency of any kind.” Temate thought out loud, unconvinced but not ready to start a fight with bears over goblins.

  “Yes! We take good care of the wee things, they have their own homes and food and clothing and all sorts! There’s no danger here, much better than outside!” Milis added helpfully, perking up as she took a sip of the tea they’d been served.

  Temate took a sip as well, surprised by the weird way in which the tea tasted both bitter and sweet. He made no comment, thinking over what he’d seen while Honey and Milis chatted. The goblin who served them wasn’t the first one he’d seen, it was just the strangest dressed. Others had been carrying things to and fro, or overseeing the digging teams.

  The digging teams, composed primarily of rge beetle like creatures, is a bit of a misnomer. They were digging the first time Temate had seen them in one of the upper tunnels, certainly, but that wasn’t all, or even primarily what, they did. From what Honey and Milis had said the digger beetles, a type of Daog as they called themselves, performed many tasks in Bearbhaile.

  First, as their title would suggest, was to dig out new caverns and tunnels, or colpsed sections of existing spaces. The second was to reinforce the dirt spaces with stone dug from deeper below, smoothing it and preventing the aforementioned colpses. The third was instaltion of fixtures and furnishings in spaces. In other words they would be responsible for shaping, furnishing, and general construction bor around the entire city.

  And it is a city.

  Certainly, it was a beautiful, if not strange, vilge from above or from the first yer of spiraling ramps and ft spaces – such as the one they now took a rest on. However, spinning off of the dozen or so tunnels extending off of these ft spaces, were an extensive, complex, excavated, subterranean rooms.

  Long tunnels extended around them for miles, each wide enough for half a dozen bears to stride side by side; and tall enough for 3 bigger bears to stand on each other's shoulders and not reach the top. Off of those tunnels were vast caverns with stone structures carved into the sides or standing freely.

  It was remarkable, certainly in popution it didn’t match with a city as Temate imagined it, pces like Chicago or Detroit which he visited regurly. There were maybe a thousand bears here beyond the initial hundred he had seen. That’s still a thousand bears living in one space. Supplied by what were essentially hydroponics bays, fueled by the bears natural magics, and sustained by the third species in Bearbhaile.

  The bees, or Seillean as they called themselves. Much like the Daog they were halfway humanoid creatures, and halfway the creature they appeared to be reted to. They were small, just a bit smaller than Temate’s hand. Still much bigger than the normal bee’s, which were also very present in the various ‘fields’ the bears are supplied from.

  The Seillean served as the city's farmers, handling the production of most agricultural goods, including the bear's favored thing, honey. Unsurprisingly. That was probably what gave this tea the weirdly enjoyable sweetness to it.

  So, a city of bears, with beetles, bees and goblins all running around doing… everything for the bears. No, not everything, the bears hunted, cooked, did artisanal things. Basically the bears just did what they wanted to, whatever fancy caught their mind at the time, because everything was taken care of for them.

  Almost utopia, almost. Temate had a weird discomfort with the situation. They could just stay here, it seemed safe and happy, comfortable. Things just seemed a bit too perfect to him. He got fshbacks of short horror stories where a traveling family would find themselves stranded in a backwoods vilge who try to sacrifice them to a harvest god.

  That might just be his paranoia though. Everyone seemed happy. He was only briefly introduced to a Daog by Honey, who spoke with a low, buzzing, voice. That was the Daog who had told him about their species name.

  Temate learned about the Seilleans name in the same way, being introduced to one after asking about them. They had a softer, almost breathy voice. Both had refused to give a name, simply referring to themselves by their species. Which was weird, sure. Temate wished he’d asked the goblin for a name before it left.

  “So what do you think Master Mate?” Honey asked Temate, pulling him out of his thoughts.

  “Huh? Sorry I was in my own head, think about what?” Temate asked.

  “Would you and your friends be willing to help around here while you’re here?” Milis asked, “It would be a great help, every hand is important as we get closer to Hibearnatory!”

  Temate frowned as he thought. He took a slow sip of the tea and looked between the two bears. He wanted to just agree with whatever, they were taking care of them after all, weren’t they? He shook his head however, and spoke.

  “I can’t just agree for the whole group, I’m not their boss or owner. However I can talk to them, what kind of help?”

  “Quite understandable! It wouldn’t be hard things, some heavy lifting, maybe helping with hunting, dealing with dangerous goblin tribes or spider nests.” Honey began listing off things that needed dealing with.

  “Oh gods yes, some help with the wild goblins or spiders would be great, we bears can handle it of course but it is unpleasant work.” Milis agreed. Temate frowned deeper.

  “What do you mean by that? Wild goblins and spiders?”

  Honey looked over to Temate and answered, “Simple really, though I wouldn’t call them ‘wild’ goblins.” Honey gave Milis a look which made her shrink and smile apologetically. “There are more hostile goblin tribes out there who hunt us for our hides or meat. For the most part we can handle them, but it’s easier to attack preemptively than to wait, especially this time of year.

  “As for the spiders, some of the deeper tunnels and hives have recently developed a spider infestation. Large spiders too, many the size of a goblin or, rarely, a Daog.”

  That made Temate shiver, the Daog weren’t incredibly big, but they were bigger than goblins. They varied a bit in size between each other but were mostly around 4 and a half feet in height.

  “That’s big, and you want us to help deal with that?” Temate asked.

  “Among other things, it would help reduce our burdens greatly. Especially the spiders which are very dangerous to us.” Honey said.

  “How so?” Temate asked.

  Milis perked up to reply, “Oh the webs! We’re strong certainly, but especially as you get deeper in their nests the webs get thicker and stronger. Fire only burns so long and the spiders have learned how to put it out.”

  “So you want smaller, weaker creatures to go into the area’s where even you can’t get out of the webs?” Temate pointed out.

  Milis opened her maw, paused, then got thoughtful.

  “Not so, we bears cannot wield tools well. Much like Pipuck, your spiras friend, we do not enjoy forged metals and tools. Your team have weapons, equipment that can protect them, and we can provide our support in the form of temporary wards and protections. The combination would–”

  A distant thud rang up from below, loud shouts could be heard. Temate’s hand was on his machete as he got up.

  “Master Mate wait, I’m sure it will be fine, it’s probably just a colpse.” Honey said.

  “What if its not?” Temate asked, and Honey just shrugged calmly, Milis looked nervous.

  “I dunno Honey, what if its the spiders?”

  “It is not the spiders, the thudding was almost certainly a co–”

  Another shout. Temate stopped listening and took off, why? This wasn’t his city, his responsibility was to Toni and Pipuck. That was why, if this was a danger to the city, it was a danger to them. He ran past bears and even a couple goblins, who had all stopped paying attention and continued to their work.

  Maybe that was just an excuse though. Maybe he was just hoping for a fight, he agreed with Toni to a degree, you shouldn’t fight just to fight but… He wasn’t fighting just for that, he was fighting to get stronger. To protect them.

  He hadn't agreed to the idea verbally but he would have no problem fighting goblins or even spiders. Even if they weren’t directly a threat to Bearbhaile. He hadn’t done it for himself though, he knew Toni wouldn’t want to. He also knew she’d be in danger if they did, let alone Pipuck who had no fighting ability.

  What about Surrender? Would she fight goblins? She didn’t seem to like them much, but she also hid during their first fight. He thought she would if she could. She didn’t exactly have modern sensibilities.

  Temate hit the lowest level, the gde. Stopping and listening. They hadn’t reached this on his tour, what was he doing, his heart was pounding, his blood roaring through his body, even if he appeared externally calm. He heard noises, thudding and grunting mostly, off in one direction. He took off down the corridor.

  Before he could return to questioning himself, he turned a corner and saw them. Or rather he saw their silhouettes, in the dark of the hallway. Down here the long corridors were lined on one side with hives covered by worker bees, and occasional sunmps – the glowing orbs of light used almost exclusively to light Bearbhaile, natural sunlight captured and held – along the other side.

  Normally there was a short stretch of darkness in between each sunmp by design. Here however a long stretch of darkness separated two sunmps, where one mp had been destroyed and the vague outline of a tunnel could be seen. There in the dark was a small dark lump and three taller figures.

  The small figure was being attacked by the taller figures, a daog being attacked by… Well Temate didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to let it continue, he’d help fight off the invaders. Fighting in the dark though, that was a dangerous proposition. Temate had a fshback to watching Toni heave a backpack and an idea struck him.

  [Magic Eye] allowed him to see magic in everything. It required focus, especially to get deeper into the details, but if he just needed to follow the motion? He let his focus train on the figures in the dark as he advanced on the fight. Slowly the three attackers and the daog became almost highlighted in the dark. As if suddenly backlit like a screen.

  It didn’t let him see detail but it did make this fight more viable. He barreled in silently and went to attack, taking a moment to examine what he could of the creatures. They were pallid, thin humanoids, each carried a thick rough stone club. They almost gave him an image of Smeagol, but standing only slightly slouched as they battered on the daog.

  The daog that Temate noticed wasn’t fighting back. It stood simply covering its head, cowering and taking the beating, and it hadn’t been the only one. Temate couldn’t count them but there were other lumps on the ground in here. He grimaced and took his final step into the fight, bringing his bde down.

  [Vicious Swing]. The creatures were ignoring him, he should take one out quick if he could. His machete swung true, straight toward the creature's neck and struck. The creature grunted, and then snarled as it twisted its head, its two companions turned and snarled as well. They weren’t ignoring him now.

  Temate pulled his machete back, it had been a good cut he could see, but not fatally deep. He grunted and swung his machete again as the three began to swarm toward him, they ducked. Temate looked over to the cowering daog and growled to it.

  “What are you doing?! FIGHT BACK!”

  “N-n-no, Violence iz ztrictly forbidden!” the daog whispered in response, running a bit down the hall and cowering under the sunmp.

  “What th-” Temate looked briefly at the fleeing daog, catching one of the creatures running behind him out of the corner of his eye, as well as a club across his shoulder in response. He grunted, sidestepping a second clubstrike coming from another of the lithe creatures as it leapfrogged over its friend. Using the momentum of the sidestep, Temate twirled around awkwardly deflecting the third clubstrike from behind.

  Temate stumbled slightly, thrown off by the amazing strength of the creatures. He attempted to step around the creature in front of him to reach the wounded one. Pushing for another [Vicious Strike] he felt slightly dizzy allowing the creature to catch the bde with it’s club.

  The club chipped but did not break, deflecting Temate’s bde and causing him to stumble in close. The creature brought the club up on a backswing smming it into the side of Temate’s head. He spun, catching himself and lunging for a jab, attempting to slide around the creature to use it to block its friends.

  The bde caught the creature in its side as it attempted to step out of the way, leaving a deep gash. Temate grimaced, he’d fought multiple opponents often when he was younger. Even stronger opponents, but he’d never fought anything which could take cuts like this. He’d done it though, forcing his opponents into his forward vision and blocking each other's path.

  The daog was behind him now, if it was going to fight it needed to be now.

  “Fight back! Now! Or we may both die!”

  The daog looked up, and simply backpedaled, repeating the phrase. “Violence iz ztrictly forbidden, violence iz ztrictly forbidden, Violence iz ztrictly–”

  The front creature crouched low and Temate fshed back to their first series of attacks. He brought one hand up, and only now realized he’d left his makeshift shield back in Toni’s room. He cursed internally as both of the other creatures leapt over their friend, crowding the air. Temate tried to dodge, but couldn’t.

  His arm took the greater impact of the blow but it carried through to his face.

  Darkness fell as Temate colpsed, the st thing he heard was the vicious roar of a bear.

  “Mate! Assault in the hives! All cws assau–”

  Then he was unconscious.

  Force2reckon