My planet is infested with Goblins

Grik remained crouched beside the riverbank, staring at the footprints pressed into the wet mud. The marks were unmistakable. Five narrow toes spread around a familiar heel, and several prints overlapped one another as though a group had passed through recently. Some belonged to full-grown goblins, while others were so small that Grik could only imagine children making them. Kobb knelt beside him and ran one finger along the edge of a smaller track before looking toward the forest.

"Those footsteps did not come from us."

Grik nodded slowly and pointed toward a second trail partly softened by rain.

"No. There are too many, and some are old. People uses this river often."

Kobb immediately glanced back toward the direction of the beach.

"Then we should return to the ship before they returns."

Grik understood the caution. Their vessel was barely seaworthy, one member of the expedition had been lost during the storm, several others remained injured, and they possessed no idea how many goblins lived on the continent. Reaching unknown land had been dangerous enough. Starting a fight with the first inhabitants they encountered would be stupidity.

"We go back first. We tell the others, then we return with hunters."

Kobb gave the footprints one last suspicious look before following him toward the coast.

The expedition reacted exactly as Grik expected. Some crew members were excited by the possibility of meeting another tribe, while others immediately assumed the inhabitants would attack them. Rudd stared at Grik across the damaged deck while several other goblins listened nearby.

"You wanted to see the otherside. Here we are we found the land. Now you want to walk into a forest full of strangers while our only way home is broken."

"They might know where to find food, timber, and materials we need to repair the ship."

Seka was wrapping a fresh bandage around a sailor’s arm when she joined the conversation.

"Or they might decide we look easier to eat than whatever they normally hunt."

Kobb snorted.

"These are from goblins, not river lizards."

Seka tightened the bandage enough to make the wounded sailor hiss.

"You have met goblins before, yes?"

Grik chose only four companions for the search. Kobb insisted on coming, and Grik selected two experienced hunters along with Rudd, whose years on the coast made him useful for recognizing fishing signs and settlement patterns. The rest of the expedition remained near the ship, where they continued removing damaged planks and searching the surrounding beach for suitable timber.

Before leaving, Grik addressed the scouting party.

"Weapons stay ready, but nobody attacks unless I give the order or someone is already trying to kill you."

One of the hunters frowned.

"If they point spears at us?"

"Then we point nothing back until we know whether they mean to use them."

The hunter clearly disliked the instruction but accepted it.

They returned to the river and followed the tracks inland. The first signs of habitation appeared within minutes. Branches had been cut cleanly from several trees, and a narrow trail ran parallel to the water. Farther ahead, Grik found a woven fish trap secured between two rocks. Its shape was unlike anything used in his settlement. Instead of a single funnel opening, the trap had several narrow entrances arranged around a central chamber.

Rudd lifted it from the water and examined the weave.

"Not ours. Better for shallow current."

Grik studied the knots before returning the trap exactly where they had found it. Whoever lived here understood the river well.

The evidence multiplied as they traveled. They passed a small enclosure containing signs that animals had recently been kept inside. Symbols had been carved into tree trunks at several intersections along the path, although Grik could not understand them. One of the hunters found a discarded stone blade and handed it to Grik. The tool was familiar in purpose but unfamiliar in design, with a shorter handle and a curved cutting edge.

Kobb turned it over in his hands.

"Could goblins from our side have crossed before us?"

Grik looked at the worn surface.

"If they did, they came long enough ago to forget how we make tools."

Kobb glanced toward the trail.

"Or they learned better ways."

Grik smiled faintly.

"Then I want to see them even more."

The smell of smoke reached them before the settlement did. Grik immediately slowed and raised one hand. The scouts moved away from the main trail and climbed a forested slope beside the river. At the top, they crawled toward a gap between thick roots and looked down.

A settlement occupied the riverbank below.

Grik forgot to breathe for a moment.

Dozens of wooden houses stood on raised foundations above the damp ground. Narrow walkways connected some of the structures, and several crude docks extended into the river. Long boats rested along the shore, their hulls narrower than the vessels used back home but clearly designed for river travel. Goblins carried baskets of fish between drying racks. Others repaired nets, cleaned animals, chopped wood, or shouted at children running between houses.

There were far more than Grik expected.

Kobb whispered beside him.

"How long have they been here?"

Grik could not answer.

The inhabitants were unquestionably goblins, yet generations of separation had changed them. Many wore clothing woven from pale plant fibers rather than hides. Shells and polished bones decorated their necklaces. Some had darker green skin than Grik’s people, while others carried markings painted across their faces and arms. Their weapons were familiar in general form, but spearheads, bows, and knives all followed styles Grik had never seen.

Their language disturbed him even more.

Voices drifted upward from the settlement. Grik occasionally heard a sound resembling a familiar word, but most of their speech seemed completely foreign. He could recognize the rhythm as goblin, yet understanding it was another matter entirely.

Rudd leaned closer.

"We should leave before they see us."

Grik continued studying the settlement.

"If we leave now, we still need timber, food, and knowledge of this place. We cannot hide beside the beach forever."

One of the hunters answered quietly.

"We can return with everyone."

Grik was about to agree when a branch cracked behind them.

The two hunters spun around.

Six goblins stood between the trees.

More appeared to the left, and several stepped onto the path behind them. Spears pointed toward Grik’s group from every direction.

Kobb reached for his knife, and one of Grik’s hunters raised his spear. The nearest local goblin barked something neither of them understood and lowered his weapon toward the hunter’s chest.

"Put them down."

The hunter stared at Grik.

"They surrounded us."

"And there are more of them than us."

Rudd slowly placed his knife on the ground. Kobb cursed quietly but followed. The hunters hesitated until Grik removed his own weapon and laid it beside his feet.

The isolated goblins did not relax immediately.

Their leader stepped forward. He was older than most of the others, with white shells woven into his hair and a long spear tipped with dark stone. His eyes moved from Grik’s clothing to Kobb’s belt and then toward the unfamiliar design of their equipment. He spoke several words.

Grik understood none of them.

He pointed toward his own chest.

"Grik."

The local goblin frowned.

Grik repeated it more slowly.

"Grik."

The leader looked toward his companions before pointing toward himself.

"Sarak."

The pronunciation was strange, but the meaning required no translation.

Grik nodded and touched his chest again.

"Grik."

He then pointed toward the leader.

"Sarak."

Several of the local goblins murmured.

Kobb leaned closer.

"At least they have names."

Grik nearly laughed despite the spears surrounding them.

He crouched carefully and extended one finger toward the soil. Sarak immediately lowered his spear, but Grik raised his empty hand to show that he meant no threat. He drew a rough coastline in the dirt and then added a large shape representing the sea.

The locals watched.

Grik drew a small boat near one side of the water and moved his finger across the dirt toward the other. He pointed toward himself and his companions, then toward the east.

"From the Sea. Boat. East."

The words meant nothing to Sarak, but the gestures certianly did.

One younger local goblin laughed and pointed toward the river, apparently assuming Grik meant they had traveled from another village downstream.

Grik shook his head violently. He spread his arms wide and pointed in the direction of the ocean. Then he drew the boat again, followed by an enormous distance of water before reaching the coastline.

Sarak’s expression changed.

He pointed toward Grik, then east, before making a wide motion with both hands as though indicating the sea.

Grik nodded enthusiastically.

"Yes."

The local goblins began speaking over one another. Several looked at Grik’s group with disbelief. One walked closer and examined Kobb’s clothing as though expecting to discover some obvious explanation. Another lifted Grik’s discarded spear and inspected its construction.

Sarak raised his voice, silencing them.

He gestured toward the settlement below.

Rudd leaned toward Grik.

"I do not think that is an invitation."

"It is better than a spear through the chest."

The local hunters collected their weapons before allowing the scouts to walk. Two remained behind them, while others moved ahead. Grik did not resist. Every step toward the settlement revealed more details he wanted to understand.

The first goblin children spotted them before they reached the riverbank.

They stopped playing and stared.

One shouted, and within moments goblins emerged from houses, workshops, and docks. Fishermen abandoned nets. Women carrying baskets stopped in the paths. Several older goblins pushed through the gathering crowd for a better look.

Grik suddenly understood what they must appear like to the locals.

Their clothing was unfamiliar. Their weapons were different. Their accents were incomprehensible. Even their bodies had been shaped by generations spent in another environment. To the settlement, Grik and his companions were as strange as the locals appeared to them.

A child pointed at Grik and said something that caused several nearby goblins to laugh.

Kobb frowned.

"I hope that was respectful."

Grik glanced at him.

"You have been laughed at in every settlement we visited. Why should another continent be different?"

"That just because I traveled with you."

The crowd thickened as Sarak led them toward the largest structure near the center of the settlement. It stood on heavy wooden supports and possessed a broad entrance decorated with strings of shells, animal teeth, and carved pieces of wood.

Grik noticed several symbols repeated across the doorway. Some resembled markings they had seen along the forest path.

This was not simply a collection of fishermen living beside a river. The settlement had traditions, authority, trade, and ways of marking territory that had developed entirely without contact with Grik’s people.

The realization struck him harder than the discovery of the continent itself.

He had spent most of his life trying to prove that land existed beyond the western horizon. He had imagined forests, strange animals, unknown plants, and resources no goblin from his homeland had ever seen.

He had never imagined goblins.

Sarak stopped before the entrance and spoke to two older locals waiting inside. One carried a decorated staff, while the other wore a necklace made from polished white stones. Their attention settled on Grik immediately.

Kobb moved closer.

"What do we tell them?"

Grik looked at the unfamiliar elders, the settlement surrounding them, and the hundreds of goblins staring at the strangers who had arrived from beyond their known world.

"We start with where we came from. Then we find out how they got here."

Sarak gestured for them to enter. Grik crossed the threshold knowing that his voyage had become far more important than he had ever intended. He had not simply discovered another continent. He had discovered an entire branch of goblinkind that had been separated from his people for so long that neither side even remembered the other existed.

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