It had been a few weeks but the bandaged up Goblin and Nugget finally get their stitches out and were stretching their legs. The scars on over Goblin’s face healed up nicely even his eyelid had no visible split save for the scar tissue and since agreeing to help Earl hunt ferals and monsters his training began right away. While recovering Earl had begun teaching Goblin to read with children’s books and sesame street reruns, that resulted in a broken laptop screen. When one of the cast introduced themselves as a monster he attacked the screen and had to watch a behind the scenes special to keep him from doing it again. They were all just toys and it was all just pretend, Nugget was there as well which may have provoked an even more aggressive response when it happened. But today was a homecoming day as the two fluffs were rolled into Earl’s workshop in a rolling carrier, the pair groggy and sporting matching cones of shame and fresh stitches in the back of their heads. Just as he unlatched the front of the cage there was a knock at his workshop door, gun in hand from justified paranoia he checked the peephole he relaxed and opened the door.
“Rodney you scrawny little freak, get yer ass in here! How ya been? You’re a week early aaaand you brought Riley. Is something up?”
A skinny young man in a even skinnier jeans and hair styled over one eye with a ball-cap oversized jacket stepped in. Behind him trotted in a massive brown pegasus mare missing one wing and sporting very sharp looking teeth and a pseudo-penis of all things.
“Speak for yourself you crazy bastard ha ha, and um, yeah, I kinda need that money you promised for the sparring match with Riley. My rents over due an I might loose my place so I was hopin…”
“Oooh no can do. Goblin just had surgery, he wont be up for that till next week. Keep that thing on a short leash, she better not start humping my stuff. The hell ya doin in Glennville anyway? Fightin’ circuit coming through?”
“Yeah and they cancelled last minute, all the fighters got tainted kibble and near shit themselves to death. I really need that cash man, is there anything you could pay me for?”
“All but got Riley got sick?”
“She don’t touch kibble, its fluffy meat or nothin.”
Earl leaned over the carrier to take a long look at Riley, the demented little fluff was sniffing around the carrier getting close to the front.
-Smeww dummeh Cawk Gobwin an mawe. Gonna fight Cawk Gobwin gain?- Looking up at Earl.
“Cock Goblin’s dead, Riley. This is Goblin, his… son. And nobodies fighting today.” Earl stated plainly.
-Boss knew Gobwin’s daddeh?- Goblin asked groggily stepping out of the carrier.
Riley curiously sniffed at Goblin as he stretched out yawning then stood at his full height, the top of her head coming up to the bottom of his chin.
-EEEHHEEHEEHEEHEEHEEHAAAAAA!! Dummeh Gobwin in dummeh cone!- The sinister mare cackled.
“I swear that things part hyena. You know what? I’ll give ya a five hundred bucks for a blood sample from Riley here. How does that sound?”
“Sold. she might put up a fight though.”
Well it turned out it was easier than Rodney had thought after bribing her with two chirpies in exchange for a vial of blood, she did it for three. This was very upsetting to Nugget who was waking up as Riley was chewing on her second live foal, and Goblin was upset it was upsetting her. Earl had to lie and say they were feral foals and their herd was caught trying to break into someones home, they seemed to buy it and Earl reminded him that he’d have to kill feral foals as well if told to. He seemed to hold his resolve for the job for the moment, but insisted he would not eat them ever. Rodney collected his cash and ushered his little murder machine out the door parting with a ‘see you next week’. The whole experience left Nugget shaken and almost visibly paler than before, Goblin was curious to know about his daddeh and was starting to pester Earl about it.
“Alright! Fine! You wanna know about your dad? Your daddy was called Cock Goblin and he looked just like you. But he was a bad fluffy who never listened to me then ran away to be a feral, leaving you with your bad mother. When I caught him he was stealing good fluffies from their homes and forcing them to be ferals like him and I killed him. He became one of the monsters I hunt. I didn’t want to tell you about him cause I didn’t want to upset you.” All pre-thought out lies and half truths.
-Daddeh was bad fwuffy? fewew?.. Gobwin hate daddeh. Nu wan be wike bad daddeh, wuv Boss. Boss gives housie an nummies an fix owwies. Why daddeh wun away?-
“He was stubborn an wanted to do whatever he wanted and apparently he’d rather be a monster than a good dad. Now enough about him, let’s get nugget back to the pen and me and you have a little training session. I have something I want you to try.”
Leaving Nugget in the corral with some toys and a tablet playing cartoons, Earl had set up in the back of his workshop a large target board with an unconscious red earthy stallion strapped up by the legs. Ten feet from the target was one of the shops counters with a leather rolled up satchel sitting on it and Earl patted the top of it.
“See if you can’t hop up here, Goblin.” Pulling his phone out and starting to record.
Goblin jumped as high as he could getting his front legs on the counter he flapped his huge wings hard while pulling himself up getting his whole body up after a slight struggle. He stretched his newly healed wing, sore from the effort and sat in front of the satchel.
“Alright take one for today’s training montage, take one and here we go. Alright Goblin time for a little target practice and we’re gonna play a little game.” Unrolling the satchel. “Darts.”
the satchel contained six sets of darts and six throwing knives and the stallion had a target painted on his belly and more over his face, balls, and limbs.
-Dawts? How pway dawts?-
“Like this.” Grabbing a dart and flinging it at the stallion. “We take turns, three darts at a time, who ever hits the middle target the most wins, hit him in the balls and you win automatically.”
The dart had struck the the stallion in the right shoulder and he woke up screaming and looking around frantically.
-Why mistew give Smawty owwies?-
Smarty. Goblin had been well acquainted with that word through both personal experience and training and now he was glaring at the smarty. After a quick demo from Earl on how to position a dart when using it and now had one levitating at eye level and gave it a good shove. It sailed through the air and struck the board into the fluff of the smarty’s tail.
-Stupeh poopie munstah! Wet Smawty go now!-
“Try again.” Holding up another dart. “Think of something fast like a bird when you throw it and put a little anger behind it.”
This time the dart shot forward like an arrow burying itself half way up the shaft in the smarty’s liver, his shrieks echoed throughout the workshop.
“Nice job. One more.” Holding up the next dart.
The dart flew from his hand and took its position aiming for the target’s center, it flew straight and true striking just below the bullseye. Earl cursed under his breath when he realized he forgot to put down some plastic sheeting for the spray of blood and shit but otherwise impressed he was catching on so fast. Earl’s first dart hit his target mid scream through the tongue and into his chin, the second hit him in the back of his throat and he gagged and coughed just barely able to breathe.
“Silence at last.” Throwing the last dart. Bullseye. “Your turn. You know I caught him and his herd trying to break into your pen.”
Taking his next set Goblin took aim and now he aimed just a little lower before he sent it sailing, buried half way in again just above his junk. The smarty thrashed his head side to side trying to scream, only managing to cough and gag some more.
“Don’t be so eager to win right away, enjoy yourself a little.”
-Oh, Gobwin am.-
The next dart hit right next to the last as did the third in crooked row and the last one made the smarty gag so hard he finally coughed up the dart.
-Pweathe… Oo owe…hgck! (Cough!)… owwieth. Th…thmawty th-th-thowwy…huuu…- The other dart still stuck in place.
No such luck for the smarty as his left eye popped like a grape on the dart’s impact and when he finally stopped thrashing his head around another dart hit the other. Earl’s last dart this round was another bullseye. Goblin noticed this and started getting a little more serious this turn and now aimed center mass, launching all three quickly, the first two dug in just off center the last just barely counted as a bullseye.
-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! Ooo owe owwieths! Thhee thaythes oo uwk anee owe! aahm ood thuhthee! hu hu huuu…Hhhwwwyyyyyyy?-
“Listen to what he’s saying Goblin, these are all lies they tell to trick you. Given the chance he’d kill you and enjoy it.”
Three more darts lifted into the air rotating around each other in a targeting position he furrowed his brow and fired off each one at a time. These three clustered near the bullseye again with only one hitting its mark but buried down to the feathers.
“Those three foals I gave to Riley. They were his.” Pointing to the target. “They were his three bestest babies. He had a brown foal too. He used her as a enfie toy.”
Before Earl could take his turn three more darts shot out of the satchel clacked together and launched as one dart hitting both of the smarty’s balls with a loud wooden PAK! There was a moments pause before the smarty screamed with such intensity he broke his own vocal cords and his scream ended with a hoarse wheeze.
“How did that feel?”
–Feews good, Boss.- Turning to look at Earl with a satisfied smile.
“I thought as much. That was my turn by the way.”
-Sowwy. Gobwin fowgot.- Now looking ashamed for not playing fair.
“Don’t worry about it.”
Grabbing one of the throwing knives from the satchel Earl gave it a quick flip and whipped it straight into the smarty’s heart.
“Let’s call it a draw. Wanna play again?”
-Yes!- Sounding excited for another game.
“Alright I’m gonna go get the smarty’s tuffy. See if you can’t pull those darts out while I do that.”
Before heading out the door he grabbed his phone and turned it towards his face.
“Training montage b-roll film take two in five minutes.” He stated before pausing the recording.
Special shout out to @FederalChemical1728 's characters Rodney and Riley. check out their stuff.
