Cultivation by Oswald Elizabeth

Author:Oswald, Elizabeth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-10-16T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

KHOR

Nekthadt’s presence had become commonplace, and, in fact, Khor grudgingly had to admit that the goblin was more than a little helpful. When one of the long troughs that fed the irrigation system broke, falling down and snapping one of the wooden gears that allowed the mechanism to move smoothly from one field to another, Nekthadt was able to carve a new one and set it into place before the leaves of even the drought-sensitive potatoes could begin to droop.

Juniper loved her new uncle, and she followed him around like a puppy, peppering him with questions about his life and childhood. Since the unicorns followed Juniper almost as often as they followed Khor, and Khor always stayed within earshot of the unicorns, that meant Khor also learned quite a bit about the goblin’s early lives. Strangely, though Nekthadt was tight-lipped with everyone else, he could often be found lecturing Juniper or telling her stories that were more history than fantasy.

On this fine spring day, for instance, Khor was turning up rocks in yet another potential field, while Nekthadt carried the stones to various piles. Depending on their size, shape, and density, the stones might become paths, walls, or stone fill on which to build so a structure was less likely to settle or sink. Nekthadt was stripped to the waist so his lean muscles and plethora of scars were entirely visible, and Juniper asked questions.

“How’d you get that scar, Uncle Ned?” Sarave had put her foot down over the child calling her uncle ‘Nekfat’, and Nekthadt had mentioned that Rouge called him Ned. This was deemed an acceptable compromise, especially since Juniper adored Rouge.

Nekthadt turned his head to look down at a particularly long, deep mark that just missed his spine and dug through his flesh beneath his left ribs. The goblin picked up a large rock that Khor had just finished digging loose, and headed for the ‘wall’ pile. “That was during the war. One of the human generals had sent his troops into our territory after a unit of fleeing orcs. General Hullbitter, Lord Akuji’s orc leader, closed a pincer attack behind them, cutting them off. They had two mages with them, though, so Hullbitter told me and three other goblin justat to kill the mages so we could crush the rest of the soldiers.”

Khor kicked a rock free with unnecessary force, flinging it in the general direction of the goblin, who just smirked a little and continued with his story. “There was no reason to squander orcs and goblins, you see, in going up against the mages. We could have overcome them with sheer numbers, and many of our generals would have taken that path, but General Hullbitter was one of the good leaders. He knew which of his tools to use for which purpose, and while he never hesitated to send in as many troops as necessary, he also didn’t waste our lives.”

Khor remembered the orc general. He was a huge, hulking behemoth, at least

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