Grog couldn't understand one thing: Nikola was up and about, but there was no new meat being brought to them.
Not even a pork sausage made it to their tribe's ground!
Instead, as the rumor had it, Nikola had decided to become an adventurer for real.
Grog looked at Goglina, who was stirring her trusty stew pot.
"Did you really have to threaten to eat him?" The goblin chief asked, as his better half began to look at him so as if she didn't understand the question.
"What do you mean, did I have to?" She asked, almost insulted. If he didn't have such lovely abs, she would have thrown him in the stew pot.
Their marriage was built on 6-packs and D-cups.
Both knew that.
But sometimes, Goglina wished for someone who thought like her. Who not only remembered the anniversary, for if they could not remember it, they were going to be beaten up but also remembered to bring her flowers with the breakfast in bed every morning.
Or at least to have enough good sense to cook the meat they were offering her beforehand.
Her Grog was not her best pick.
But when one thought about how the other goblins were, then he really was the only pick.
"And I am just saying, that…"
"Niki is coming!" A scouting goblin yelled, happy that there would soon be sausages on offer. "With a shopping bag!"
"Good," Goglina said, as she nodded her approval. "Because I would have used him for a hair mask, if he had come without a shopping bag!"
"Goglina!" Grog was aghast. Didn't Goglina think anything good about the man who had saved them from starvation? "Don't you have a heart? He nearly died, and yet, he is still thinking about us!"
"Oh, please," the goblin told him, as she continued to stir her stewpot. "He used our money to get himself the time room treatment at the guild! For us, yesterday was just a very sunny and long day. For him, probably 40 whole years! Time which he can use again and again!"
Grog nodded. He didn't know that one.
"So, do you think that he can finally fight?" Grog asked, for if that was the case, then he could make Nikola hunt them bigger and stronger game. "You know, I bet that a giant's bone marrow will hydrate your hair better than a human's!"
Goglina giggled.
Peace was restored.
****
The first impression Grog had of Nikola was that he was now more muscled. The goblin noticed with more than a bit of disappointment that the man had no fat left on him. Just pure muscle and clothing fit for someone, who could weave in and out of a creature's range.
Poking it full of holes and then pretending that it was nothing.
"The last time we saw each other, I was in bandages, and you all were threatening to eat me," Nikola began, as he took out an entire dragon from his shopping bag.
Some goblins cheered, and some looked at their feet in shame.
"But now, I have given you the bounty I could not eat for the past 50 years!"
Goglina gasped. Nikola had enough money to afford himself not a 40-year long time room, but a 50-year one?
She narrowed her eyes, vowing to get to the bottom of this. There was no way that some dragon scales could lead to something like that!
"I hope you have a freezing rune!" The brunette told them, as he began to tug a giant out by its toe. "Because if you don't, I can sell you one!"
Goglina narrowed her eyes. Grog tugged at her sleeve and pointed at the giant's toe.
"I know you are a Firebird, my love," Grog said, as he looked at the giant hole in the giant's nail. "But do consider where the meat is coming from, and who is bringing it."
"He is a part of the family!" Goglina yelled, clearly not wanting to accept that Nikola could noш fight his way out of a shopping bag.
And probably the bad temper of the average giant, by the looks of it.
"Which does not mean, dear Auntie Goglina," Nikola said with a charming smile, his brown eyes full of warmth. "That you get to exploit me. I want all the scales of at least one of the dragons carved, for personal use. You can keep all the meat and everything else. The gold and the other loot I have already placed in the bank. You can't do anything about it!"
Nikola let his mana into the air. The goblins thought that a giant eagle was flying over their tribe.
Some hid, others fled, even one knelt.
"Auntie Goglina, Uncle Grog!" Nikola was not about to unhorse the goblin pair. He knew that the goblins would never accept someone who was not a goblin to lead their tribe.
Not even if that someone was as strong as him.
"I have come home and bring meat! Now, where are the drums?"
Grog let out the breath he was holding.
Goglina just sighed.
"You adopt him, you don't eat him, and he keeps the gold for himself. Kids these days," Goglina muttered, before going back to her stew pot.
Dragon meat would be tastier than Bogard meat, she was sure. But she had already started to cook the stew.
It was an insult to the Goglina of just a month ago to throw it away.
"I get the hearts!" Grog yelled, as he began to help Nikola take all the carcasses out.
"And I would never suggest anything but, dear Uncle!" The world traveler said with a kind smile.
The meat was being placed inside the freezing rune, and scales were being carved so goblins could reach Zen.
Nikola was being allowed by Goglina to roast Grog's hearts.
Grog was eating his fill, knowing that he could not leave even a single heart eaten by anyone but him.
Not just because it was a matter of pride and honor, but because it meant that he could not do his sacred duty as a goblin chief to absorb the power of the beast who had been sausagefied.