The next morning Kea woke in a crumple of bodies to the wooping and hollering of several goblins. At first she panicked, after all waking up to wooping goblins usually meant something terrible. Then she remembered where she was.

  She sighed and melted into the two bodies wrapped around her. Toni to the left, Temate to the right. Two delectably sexy humans, and being human there was no implied superiority or inferiority. Just... ya know... Her calling him Shephard and him calling her his head...

  Normal things!

  Honestly though, it was nice to just exist with a group of people she shared interests and status with. Sure everyone at work were 'servants' to a- she looked down to check her ring and frowned slightly- still Lord but that wasn't where it ended.

  There were others at the manor who were like her, a lesser species. Yet those were general service staff, not part of her special css of servant. The personal servants and pythings of the lord. Of those all but her were superior species, and none of the general staff were as into... well sex as she was.

  So it was a pleasant space to wake up in. Just waking up and nothing else. No other expectations. No running to get water or massaging sore muscles, none of that. She sighed.

  "Feeling good?" Temate spoke softly to her and she smiled up at him.

  "Very. Well fucked, and prepared for the day!" She chirped happily.

  "Heh. Good, Daddy does a good job of that huh?" Toni leaned over and kissed her cheek, god that felt good!

  "Mmmm. Master full." Everyone ughed as Surrender woke with them.

  Fifteen minutes ter they were outside and a bunch of goblins were running around, excitedly chattering as they broke camp. Already they were basically done and Temate followed suit. Surrender found the broken csps of the the tent and brought them to Toni.

  "Can fix?" She asked. Toni examined the csps, snapped at the narrow point where the weight was focused. Thankfully few of the materials were gone, and they were entirely metal. So it would be an easy fix.

  "Yeah. Should be easy, maybe 30 minutes?" Toni said, sitting next to the freshly stoked fire where Fraar was busy preparing breakfast. They greeted each other and Fraar began talking animatedly about the morning.

  "Sioh pick Chiel, but that obvious. All want Chiel really but he say no! Only chief not need share!" Fraar expined, continuing on to talk about how he and Roikx were picked by Pebba and their sister Crak picked Gief. Which just left Trir who refused Chaft, not a huge surprise being siblings they don't fuck for mating.

  Though Toni bnched at the realization that goblin siblings fucked for fun. Something which Fraar found super amusing.

  "And of course not take Qinq, not catch anything!" Fraar shrugged, his reply to Toni asking about Qinq being cold in her opinion.

  "Yeah but he's still good right?" Toni asked.

  Fraar shook his head. "Not catch, not good. Try again next time." Fraar said simply. Toni sighed at that, looking over to Qinq. He was scratching the big lump on his head as he hefted a bag of tent parts. He didn't seem upset, but he also wasn't as chatty as the rest. That made Toni a bit sad.

  Then she saw someone coming out of the woods beyond the camp and hopped up. Immediately she darted towards the tall, moderately endowed egor who hopped into the cleared space.

  "Thares!" Toni shouted, tossing her arms around the woman who smiled and patted her head.

  "I'm happy to see you as well little Toni." Thares ughed.

  "Thares, I'm gd you're here, we were just getting ready to leave." Temate said as he stepped over, hefting his bag with the strange mushroom atop it.

  "Temate, pleasure to see you as well. I'm gd I caught you, I could have done so on the road but this is easier." In a gentle, careful motion Thares pulled something off of her back and held it out to Toni.

  In her hands was a small earthen pot with deep loamy soil. Sticking up out of it was a swaying, twined mess of green stems each with small thorns sprouting out of their sides. At the top was a strange overpping collection of red, rose like petals. Toni took the small pot, gently touching the petals which shifted away.

  Before Toni could finish frowning the petals shifted back in and wrapped around her fingers. Soft petals and stems gripping her finger gingerly. She smiled at that and retrieved her finger bringing the pot to hold tight against her stomach.

  "Thank you." She said softly.

  "It is a unique seed. It is like Leshy, but I do not believe it is Leshy. Nor do any of the others believe so, it's honestly quite exciting!" Thares said, half hopping up and down.

  "We'll take good care of them Thares." Temate said, coming up to put his arm around Toni's shoulder. She looked up and smiled, a few tears gleaming on her face.

  "Yeah, we will, and thank you, seriously!" Toni reached up to hug Thares again careful not to tip the pot as she did.

  They bid Thares farewell, and turned to get ready to set off. They joined up with the goblins. Gathered in the middle of the camp the goblins were around the remains of the ith. Their equipment was all packed as each of them were taking and carving chunks off of it.

  They had already harvested most of the valuable parts the night before and pced most on the sled from before. Stripped down to fit the materials instead of the whole mass, which would make it easier to drag through the woods. Now they were simply gathering extra meat and bone.

  "Abou' ready to leave?" Pipuck asked as the group approached.

  "Yeah, how are this lot doing?" Temate asked them.

  "Jus' gettin' wha' they can. I go' things to preserve i' with so they're gatherin' as much as they can carry." Pipuck looked up at them, nodding towards the pot. "Looks goo', will grow nicely."

  "Thanks. If anything happened to my little pnt I would kill everyone near it and then myself." Toni said, only half kidding Temate noticed.

  "That weird, just kill the baddies." Surrender said from atop Temate's back.

  "It's a saying from our home, it basically just means she's very protective of it." Temate expined as he reached up to scratch Surrender's ears.

  "Mmmm, weird saying." Surrender reaffirmed.

  The group ughed and watched the goblins work for a minute. Sioh, seeing them waiting, stopped her work and moved over. She stood proudly, wolf fur cloak parted to show the metal breastpte beneath. With a broad grin she spped Temate's thigh.

  "Good chief! We go soon?" She asked, looking back towards the gathered goblins. "Almost done here. Maybe one dance?" She added.

  "Dance?" Toni asked.

  "Wild goblin nguage, they measure time in ritual dances." Kea expined. "Bout an hour if I remember correctly? Unless they're talking about a fertility dance?" Kea directed that question at Sioh who shook her head smiling.

  "Like you, know goblin tradition! Not sex dance no, travel dance." Sioh replied and Kea nodded.

  "So yeah, bout an hour." She concluded.

  "Good, but Sioh I've noticed something." Temate was still mostly eyeing the gathered goblins as they carved up the ith.

  "Hmm?" Sioh grunted.

  "Where's Chiel?" Temate asked her. Toni jumped and looked up from the pot in her hands. Kea's eyes popped open as well. Both examined the goblins noting that yes, there was one still missing.

  "In pile." Sioh said, pointing towards the collected ith parts in the sled.

  "Not helping?" Toni asked, straining her neck to find the goblin. Sioh shook her head and grinned.

  "Hard help when evolving." Sioh hissed. A strange hissing tone that was less threatening or frightened, and more delighted excitement. It was a weird thing to hear and was just another reminder to both Temate and Toni that, in fact, they were in another world.

  "Oh, I guess that's the safest pce for him then." Kea hummed out thoughtfully.

  "Okay you guys have to be fucking with us. You know we're not from here, how's evolution work?" Toni groused, a little louder than was necessary. Both Kea and Sioh looked to the human woman. One looked up, one down at her.

  "Do you not have evolution in your world?" Kea asked, incredulous. "It's a basic standard of non-empowered intellige-"

  "We have humans and animals. No Powers. No other intelligent life." Temate cut in as he watched Toni's face grow annoyed. "It's best to assume that anything having to do with powers or non-humans we need expined. Better, we want it expined because we want to understand."

  "Oh." Kea mumbled.

  "Goblin evolve, go in egg like born, then become new." Sioh expined simply. She waved to them as she walked over to the sled. There she slipped up a few pieces of bundled meat and some of the ith's hide. Beneath it was an egg.

  A thick green viscous exterior wrapped around a lopsided sphere. Small spherical extrusions pressing it outward, each shifting slowly and independently as if breathing. An x of loose material hung from one narrow end, as if someone had pinched the excess material there.

  It was surprisingly small as well, smaller than any of the goblins. Big for an egg either human had seen on earth still. Temate remembered a small factoid that an ostrich egg, which was supposedly the rgest modern egg, was about 6 inches tall and 5 inches around.

  This egg had to be almost 2 ft tall and nearly as wide. In the end it reminded Temate of a xenomorph egg mixed with a zerg egg. Like the former had enveloped the tter, though without any of the glowing he expected.

  "Fascinating." Temate said first as he examined it, leaning closer than any of the others.

  "Yeah, gross but neat." Toni said pulling away with Pipuck who didn't seem impressed or bothered. Instead they just excused themselves to go help the goblins finish with the ith.

  "Huh, how long does evolution normally take for goblins... Sioh right?" Kea asked, the raised a cw to her chin, her tail flicking thoughtfully behind her.

  "Mmm." Sioh grunted, then after thinking a long while, she shrugged. "Not no, few evolve, always different. Last evolve was old chief, she take month. Chief before that took week, become hobgoblin." Sioh grunted again and nodded as if that expined it.

  "Variable evolution. Makes sense I guess, I remember Voel expining when we left that goblins have the most varied of evolutionary stages from any of the evolving species." Kea mumbled mostly to herself.

  "What other species evolve?" Temate asked, pulling himself away from the egg as Sioh covered it back up.

  "Kobolds, Lizalf, Merrin, Craw, Athamaru, huh actually I think most aquatic species other than Azerketi." Kea listed each as she tapped off a raised finger.

  "How many species are there?" Toni asked, eyes wide with a mixture of surprise and excitement.

  "Mmmm, overall we don't really know. Just on this continent there are at least 10 unique species native to the surface. Hard to say in the Darknds and Oceanics." Kea replied then her eyes widened. "Y-you only have humans." She said quietly.

  "Yes." Temate said raising an eyebrow. "Why?"

  "Y-you only have humans." She repeated.

  "Yes we've said that, come on wool for brains." Toni teased her. Kea's mouth just opened and closed over and over, eventually she just sat down.

  "Only. Humans. No one living in the oceans, no one in the undergrounds, no... No... HOW DO YOU GUYS LIVE?!" She jumped back up grabbing Toni who froze in her arms looking at Temate with her own shock. "Who- who figured out metalworking?! Who developed boats!? WHO D-"

  SMACK

  A loud cracking sound filled the air. A long silence followed as Kea's brain fritzed trying to process what happened. She released Toni and put a hand to her cheek, her face slowly growing embarrassed.

  "We did." Toni huffed as she lowered the hand she'd smacked Kea with. "We figured it out. Because you don't need special fucking powers to learn that shit."

  "Y-yeah that makes sense, sorry it's just..." Kea looked up to Toni who was gring at her. "...It's hard to imagine a world with only humans... Or only any race. We all supplement and support each other, working together to create our world."

  "So do we." Toni said, then grimaced. "Sort of." She muttered.

  "Y-yeah, of course." Kea mumbled back. After a brief pause there was a cp. The two girls turned to see Pipuck who cpped their hands together again as they rubbed them clean with dirt.

  "Welp. With my 'elp they're all goo' to go." Looking between each person's incredulous face Pipuck smiled. "Wha'? I didn't feel like waitin' aroun' for an 'our di' you?" They expounded.

  "How?!" Sioh was shocked, looking passed the spiras to the full packed cart not 5 feet away. They hadn't even seen the stuff being loaded!

  "I'm goo' with animals as much as pnts. Know a trick or two don't I." They grinned at Sioh, who looked back at the cart. "Oh! Tha'? I jus' use' my [Living Earth] power to shove i' all in a momen' ago." They expined.

  "Pip. How much earth can you move?" Temate asked.

  "And how fast?" Toni added.

  "Well, the more I move the slower i' is. Bu' I can shif' abou' twice my mass?" They answered, then held up a finger. "Slow as though, someone with a shovel coul' probably move jus' as much a shor' distance much quicker."

  "I'll keep that in mind." Toni replied and Temate smiled as he saw her mind going to work on the new numbers. He directed her and Pip away towards the goblins as they prepared to leave by tossing bags and tent materials onto the sled itself. Good idea, maybe the non-goblins should do that too.

  "Sorry about that." Temate said, coming up to Kea as he came out of his thoughts. Surrender took her tail off his arm to rub gently at Kea's face.

  "No. No I deserved that, needed it even I just was freaking out." She rubbed the spot gently and then looked at Temate. "But really only humans?" She asked.

  "Yes." Temate affirmed with a nod. "But we have myths, stories, tales and even games which detail other species. So maybe it wasn't always that way, maybe we had magic in our world at one point." Temate looked over toward Toni.

  "Before we became masters of machinery and the material world." He spoke wistfully.

  "Well at least you avoid all the wars that come from one group hating another." Kea joked to try and lighten the mood.

  "Mmm. Not so much." Temate frowned. "But that's not something I want to talk about, it's not really relevant to here which is where we are. Tell me, Voel called us 'servant species' what did he mean?"

  The two walked over to join the goblins. Quickly, Temate took the back of the sled to push it along, impressed by the smoothness it had in this rough nd. Following Laurel who returned to help them move as quick as could be.

  "I can guide you around the Grand Ceils forest sirrah, but I will have to remain here when you leave for my people you understand?" He expined, and they agreed.

  The goblins spreading out to make their usual protective circle as they moved. All except two who pulled the sled from the front, easing it's travel. Toni and Pipuck began talking about caring for the seed she now carried everywhere like a mother kangaroo with a joey in it's pouch. Temate smiled at that as he pushed the sled along and spoke with Kea.

  "So basically." He began to surmise. "Humans, like Ghana and a few other species, have less natural power accumution and paths of [Power] so they're considered a subordinate species?"

  That sounded familiar to him, something Voel had said? Usually his memory was pretty good about this kind of thing. Then again, this type of thing usually came up in movies and games.

  "Pretty much." Kea affirmed his summary of their long talk.

  "And evolutionary species, like goblins, have their own hierarchy but are generally considered lesser than empowered races?" He stated.

  "Yes again." She nodded along amicably.

  "By the empowered races." Temate pointed out and Kea ughed.

  "Yes, though quite a few evolutionary species will agree to it to. They're less variable overall or something." She smiled to him, completely oblivious to how what she said effected him.

  "Yeah. Variability isn't always superiority." Temate grunted as he pushed the sled over a particurly rough spot. A sled in a forest was not a great idea, even if the goblins had somehow built it to run fairly smoothly.

  "Mmm, maybe, I'm not big on that whole thing, dumb little ghanaan remember?" She crossed her eyes, stuck her tongue out, and bumped her head. The gesture made Temate ugh as it looked right out of an anime. "But there's been a lot of study on it. Plus if it's not the superior form, why are all Divines and Hero's empowered?"

  "What are Divine's and Hero's?" Temate asked and Kea shot him a gnce that said 'really?'

  "You don't have any gods or legendary warriors or what have you in your world? Even without [Power]s I'd have thought..." She made a few non-committal gestures to end the statement.

  "Not real ones." Temate grunted. "Well, depending on who you ask. But none that physically exist in the world and do stuff, which it sounds like you do?" Temate asked the ghanaan.

  "Yes? Gods, Divines, Deus, whatever you wanna call em. They're... well they're Gods. All powerful beings in their realms of influence. Most rule over cities or kingdoms devoted primarily to them." She began expining.

  "And Hero's?" Temate cut her off with a grunted question as she saw the look of a preacher in her eye. He really didn't want a lecture on the god's overall right now. Sounds to him like a bunch of super powerful people taking authority for themselves. Probably some good, but probably mostly not.

  "Mmm, lesser divinity. Divine's are born of other worlds and end up here usually, Hero's are born of this world but have great potential and often achieve great things. They're not natural, some pces it happens because of blessings on the nd, some rituals." She expined. "Divine's though, they're the-"

  "I really don't care Kea and I'm not in the mood to listen to something I don't care about." Temate pointed out, grunting as the sled caught on something.

  "R-right. Sorry, I'll go um... Talk with Toni and leave you alone?" She asked uncertainly. Temate thought about it, he had other questions, but he also really couldn't focus on that right now. So he just nodded and sent her on her way.