The Copper Rose

by David Lingard

  “Don’t ruin. It take Ushuk long time to catch.” He said as he hesitated in giving me his fish.

  “I’ll be careful,” I protested and took the fish from his half-outstretched hand.

  Within a few minutes, I’d skewered the fish and cooked it rotisserie-style over the fire. I watched Ushuk take a small bite of the half I’d given him and scowl.

  “Something wrong?” I asked as I took my own small bite. I needn’t have asked, as I realised the fish was completely burnt and tasted of charcoal.

  “You ruin Ushuk fish. You need find cook.” He said under his breath. It was clear that I’d insulted him.

  “I’m sorry buddy, I didn’t mean to ruin it.” I noticed that with my second bite my hunger had subsided somewhat, and by the time it was all gone it had completely disappeared. “At least it did the job.” I said with a smile.

  “Not giving you Ushuk fish again.” He said, still muttering under his breath.

  “Look, why don’t you have the tent and I’ll sleep outside tonight, you know, to make up for it?” I tried to barter with him to get him to cheer up.

  It seemed to work, as when he visibly compared the tent to the bench that we were sat on, he couldn’t help but smile.

  “You take hard tree. Me get tent?” He asked with wide eyes. “Me never sleep inside before.”

  I hadn’t thought about that before. As a goblin adolescent, he must have been right at the bottom of the pecking order of his clan.

  “Ushuk, when you’re with the Crocodile’s Teeth clan, you get everything you couldn’t have before. You’re just as important as anyone else who joins.” I said honestly, which made his smile broaden even more. It made me feel as though I’d done the right thing in letting him come along with me. It wasn’t something I’d planned on doing before but now that we were here it seemed to make perfect sense, if I was to have a clan – albeit with only two members for now – it stood to reason that everyone needed to be equal and appreciated.

  The next morning, I made it a point to learn how Freedom worked in terms of getting the clan to be a respectable member of the world. From what I’d seen of the Sawblades, they had a thriving community, cook, females and children, but that didn’t tell me anything about how the clan actually worked as a unit.

  “Ushuk?” I called into the tent to wake the little goblin adolescent, but he didn’t respond. I gave it a minute before letting myself in, but he was nowhere to be seen. My heart started to race as I wondered what could have happened to him in the night without my watchful oversight.

  With delight, I suddenly heard a loud splashing coming from the lake and when I turned to look, I saw that he was already out fishing for breakfast.

  As I approached the edge of the lake, he saw me and waded over with a fish in his hand.

  “Want breakfast.” He announced triumphantly. I didn’t know how long he’d been up for, but if the fishing talents he’d displayed yesterday was anything to go by, it was probably quite a while.

  “Okay,” I replied slowly. “You want to cook it this time?”

  He shook his head. “Don’t know how. You cook. Try not burn.” He said his last words with a little understanding in his voice. Perhaps he would forgive me if I burnt his fish again, which I absolutely did.

  “So, can you tell me how your old clan worked? What the members did and how it was kept running?” I asked through a mouthful of charcoal.

  “Ushuk hunter. I get food. Bring to cook.” He explained as best he could, but I didn’t know how much of this particular lesson I could stand. “Cook make food to feed clan,” he continued.

  I held up a hand to stop him. “But where do all your clan members come from?” I asked.

  “Clan…” he searched for the right word “mat…ri…arch,” he formed each syllable of the long word slowly.

  “Snafu?” I asked as I recalled the name of the female I’d saved.

  “Not Snafu. Snafu just female.” He said thinking hard.

  “Mat…ri…arch you not see. She stay inside most time.” He explained.

  ‘Ah I see, so I need a den of some kind’ I thought. Not a totally alien concept to me.

  “How do I make a den?” I asked as I lead him to the answers that I required.

  “I answer,” a female goblin voice joined in our conversation from behind me, making me nearly fall off my log. I turned to see Snafu stood right behind me.

  “Snafu!” I exclaimed loudly. I liked her ever since she’d tried to save my life.

  “How you find us?” Ushuk asked with a scowl. “This Ushuk secret place. Where Crocodile Teeth clan live. Not for you.”

  “That so?” Snafu said with as a smile as she looked to me. “You want female for clan though.”

  All these social platitudes and sideways glances were making me feel uncomfortable, ‘was she offering to be my mate or the clan’s matriarch?’ I thought to myself.

  “Clan need female to grow,” She continued. “Maybe I make clan grow. You make sure I fed.”

  ‘Ah I get it.’

  “You want to join the clan?” I asked in understanding and she nodded. “Aren’t you…with Grish?” I asked.

  Snafu shook her head violently. “I no like Grish.” She scowled, “Too handsy.”

  Her words brought a smile to my face and I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. The thought of Grish courting Snafu and her rejecting him just sounded so funny to me.

  A new member would like to join your clan

  The goblin Snafu would like to join your clan, do you want to accept?

  Accept Snafu into your clan? Yes/No

  I clicked the ‘yes’ button as I wondered in passing if there would ever be a time I’d press ‘no’ on one of these messages. My clan was growing all by itself and I hadn’t yet had to really do anything.

  “Does this make you the matriarch?” I asked Snafu as I watched her smile at my acceptance.

  “Not want be matriarch,” She said with a shake of her head. “Just want in clan, I help though,” She added thoughtfully.

  “OK, how can you help?” I asked, aware that perhaps I should have asked for this information before inviting her into my clan.

  “I help make breeding hut,” She said.

  “Right...what exactly does that mean?” I asked.

  “Clan need breeding hut to grow, without hut no new members. Need female to make hut,” she explained.

  I couldn’t help but notice that she was a little more articulate than the little adolescent Ushuk.

  “So how does that work exactly?” Asking goblins to explain things wasn’t the easiest thing in the world but I had little choice.

  “You build hut, Snafu make it go,” She said with waves of her hand that I didn’t quite understand but presumed it was some kind of goblin magic. I decided not to ask her any more questions on the subject as I didn’t think that she’d be able to give me any more detail than she had already.

  A thought did occur to me though, Ushuk had gained a new level after he’d killed the crocodile that had attacked us and I hadn’t yet asked him any questions about it.

  “Ushuk, you know when you levelled up to level two…did you spend your attribute point yet?” I asked.

  “att…reee…bute…point?” He replied with frustrated confusion on his face. Perhaps I was asking for too much from the little goblin, but before I could rescind my question, understanding flashed in his eyes. “You mean strong button?” he asked.

  I thought about what he’d said for a moment and could see how he and other goblins could see an attribute point as a ‘strong button’, especially if goblins would traditionally only worry about their strength to the detriment of everything else. I analysed Ushuk again to make sure nothing had changed.

  Name: Ushuk [Crocodile’s Teeth Clan]

  Level: 2[1 Attribute point available]

  Race: Goblin Adolescent/Male

  Attributes:HP: 6/6MP: 0/0

  Strength:1

  Wisdom:0

 
; Social:0

  Skills: None

  Equipment:Small Knife

  Crocodile’s Tooth Necklace

  To my surprise, I could now see his skills and equipment – which I presumed was due to the fact that he was now a member of my clan. I also noted that he did indeed have a single unspent attribute point.

  “Do you trust me Ushuk?” I asked as I waved away his information sheet.

  He thought for a short moment before replying. “Ushuk owe life to Tandy.”

  His sentiment could have brought a tear to my eye, I was happy that the little guy liked me.

  “I need you to do something for me,” I continued, “I need you to put that attribute point…the uh…strong button…into your wisdom stat.”

  Ushuk’s mouth curled as though he’d just put something disgusting in his mouth. “WISDOM?” he cried in shock. “Goblin need strength. Wisdom not for us!”

  I kind of anticipated this reply and had already prepared a counter-argument. “If you trust me and put this one point into your wisdom, I’ll make you the clan deputy,” I said in a smooth tone. I didn’t know if this would be an official post, if the game would give me a yes no question at the offer but it sounded good to me.

  “No!” he snapped. “Don’t want ‘deputy’.” The word was foreign to him. “Me want be clan hunt leader.” He countered.

  It seemed to me that what he was asking for was actually a lesser role than I’d offered him, but I decided to play along. Perhaps this role had a real mechanic.

  “Are you sure? It’s a big responsibility,” I said in a drawn-out tone shaking my head slowly. I’d always known that the best way to make someone do something was to make it seem like it was their idea.

  “Yes yes yes!” he hopped up and down as he spoke.

  “OK then, Ushuk, if you put that point of yours into wisdom, you’ll officially be the Crocodile’s Teeth Clan’s Hunt Leader,” as I spoke I puffed my chest out authoritatively, and I could see that my little game had worked. As I watched Ushuk’s attention wander for a second, I saw a subtle blue flash of new understanding in his eyes before he refocussed on me.

  “I done it. Now I hunt leader, yes?” He asked. I couldn’t have been sure from this simple sentence, but his tone sounded slightly less stunted and juvenile, and a little more…well, wise.

  To test my theory and to see if all of this had been worthwhile, I asked what I had been digging for all along. “So tell me how the breed hut works, Ushuk?”

  “Breeding hut,” he corrected me. That was a shocking development and it turned my cheeks red.

  “Right,” I said.

  “Breeding hut get built by leader. Need female to make go.” He said. His words and sentences were definitely longer and slightly better structured than before.

  “and what does ‘make go’ mean?” I asked. It was the same words that Snafu had used and Ushuk hadn’t shed any new light on the situation.

  Ushuk scrunched his eyes and scratched his chin, I could see that this new wisdom of his was a little painful to access as his mind wasn’t used to it. “Make go…” he said. “Start making work.”

  I got it. It needed some kind of activation that only a female could provide. ‘So Snafu had offered to activate the breeding hut’, I thought. ‘Cool’.

  All I needed to do now was figure out exactly how to build one of those godforsaken ‘breeding huts’.

  I eyed the wooden tent I’d made previously, the branches and leaves covering it constituting the shelter that it provided for anyone inside. It was too small for more than one person at a time.

  I was loathed to ask any more questions of the two goblins, but I needed more information.

  “How…exactly do I go about building a breeding hut?” I asked.

  “Breeding hut is any building,” Ushuk spoke before Snafu had the chance. “Just need walls, roof and door,” He explained.

  ‘Right’, I thought. ‘So it doesn’t need to be a ‘building’ building’.

  I looked at the tent again, it probably would’ve been sufficient according to Ushuk’s description, but I didn’t want to lose the only shelter we had. I pondered the easiest way to erect a small building that’d fit the bill.

  “Can it be as small as I want?” I asked, hoping Ushuk would continue to be the font of all knowledge.

  “Must be bigger than a goblin. Wont fit through the door if not.”

  That made sense.

  The thought that I had in my mind was to dig a square in the soft earth nearer the lake, then front it with a kind of mineshaft entrance. It was partly due to my obsessive need to make things look ‘nice’ and partly because I really wanted to see little goblins coming out of the ground, seemingly from beneath the lake. It was silly and I knew that, but it’d give me a good laugh.

  I told Ushuk and Snafu about my idea, who both seemed to acknowledge that it’d work, even if they’d shared an awkward glance when I’d said ‘dig’.

  After an area of about two square metres was dug down to a depth of about an inch, I could see why they had been so apprehensive. Not only were goblins fantastically bad at digging, but without any tools, all we had to work with were our hands. We eventually got into a rhythm of Ushuk and Snafu stabbing at the dirt with their knives to break it up, and me scooping it away with both hands. It kind of reminded me of moving sand around on the beach – oh what I wouldn’t have given for a bucket and space.

  Once the square hole was about a foot deep, I told the goblins to stop, which was apparently music to their ears. They both immediately bounded away from me and cannonballed onto the blue river.

  ‘Huh, goblins don’t like being dirty?’ I mused as I watched them wash the dirt from their green skin ‘Who’d have thought?’

  It occurred to me that I didn’t really know a huge amount about the cultural aspects of Goblin lives, and it made me feel a bit embarrassed.

  I built the rest of the breeding hut myself. Having already built two tents now I was practically an expert at picking the longest, straightest branches from the surrounding woodland and lashing them together. I still had more vines than I could (quite literally) shake a stick at, so the collection process went by very quickly.

  I lashed the branches together in thick faggots so that light didn’t pass through them when they’d been formed into two triangular flat walls and a rectangular roof and tied them to each other inside the hole to form the shape of the building, less the door. It looked great to me, slanting up and away from the lake, my little mineshaft entrance looked like the most solid construction I’d made yet.

  The door was another rectangular mass of branches which I lashed to the left wall, which gave it a moveable hinge. I had to lift the door off of the ground to move it, the vines not quite holding its weight on their own, but it was a door nonetheless.

  Once construction had been completed, I mounded some of the dirt we’d removed from the hole to haunch against the wooden walls. That would serve as additional support should the building ever be inclined to fall over – not that I didn’t trust my handiwork, it was just always prudent to have a backup plan.

  Ushuk and Snafu had finished ‘bathing’ long before I’d finished my work, but when they approached I was very pleased to see that they each carried a single fish in one hand, which would shortly be turned into a very nice piece of charcoal.

  “We get fish. I cook.” Snafu said before I could commend them and take the fish to their fiery doom.

  “You know how to cook?” I asked in wonder. I could see Ushuk smiling and nodding his head at me. This was very good news.

  “Well what are you waiting for?” I chuckled, “Let’s eat!”

  I was so hungry that even the burnt fish that I was used to would have been like a delicacy to me, but when Snafu handed me a whole fish and shared the other one with Ushuk, I could see that it was cooked to perfection.

  “Don’t give me any special treatment,” I said as I pulled what looked like a third of my fish apart and gave each o
f the goblins half of it. “We all share everything here.”

  Ushuk smiled broadly and bit into his fish but Snafu’s eyes widened in surprise. “You give food? That…not normal,” She announced.

  It sounded like a bit of an insult, but I knew what she’d meant. “Well I don’t think we should be doing everything in the ‘normal’ way around here, do you?” I asked with a smile.

  The female goblin didn’t answer me but ate her fish quickly and thoughtfully.

  I was much happier once I had a full stomach, but the sun had already set by the time we’d eaten and it was time to get some rest in before starting a whole new day of wonder in Freedom Online. I let Ushuk sleep in the tent again much to his surprise, and gave Snafu the future Breeding Hut to use for the night. Much like how Ushuk had been surprised that I’d put his housing needs before my own, Snafu tried vehemently to give me her space in the new building but I’d convinced her in the end. I’d take the log next to the fire again, after all I was enjoying sleeping under the stars and I had to admit, it was very comfortable.

  Chapter Five, Perseverance

  W

  hen morning came, Ushuk had roped Snafu into his morning fishing trip. I’d hoped he planned on doing just that, as with the three of us I didn’t think that one fish wouldn’t have been enough to go around any more.

  It was obvious that Snafu had cooked the fish again, as it had a pleasant fishy taste rather than the standard burnt charcoal one. Once breakfast was over, it was finally time for the breeding hut to get activated.

  Knowing her task, Snafu approached my little wooden building and raised her hands high above her head before tracing a complete circle with them.

  Ushuk whispered up to me, “She not have to do that. It all show,” which made me laugh as I realised that Snafu was putting this show on just for me.

  “It done,” she announced just moments later. Nothing had changed though as far as I could see.

  “What do I do with it?” I asked the pair who were watching me waiting for me to do whatever it was that I was supposed to do.