Chapter 14: The Queen's path

In a dark cave, not far from the river, Erka woke from her sleep.

A day had passed since Zeno had gifted her the spear. Yesterday, she had tested the power of the spear. What she discovered had shocked her greatly. Erka had seen many spears and made many herself. But she was awed at the one in front of her. Unlike the ones she had seen, the spear was not made of stone or wood. It was even tougher than stone itself. At this point in time, stones are considered the most strongest material in out there.

If there was one material Erka could think of that was stronger than stone, it would be...

"BlueStone."

BlueStone was a rare material that appear randomly around the world. It's a magical material that one could only see but never use. This was because the material was too tough to be shaped to spear tips. Not only was it too tough, but if you don't take the material, it'll disappear. No one knows where BlueStone comes from or where it goes when it disappears, but to this day it is still the strongest. This material had made many queens envious. They wished very much to use this powerful material, but were not strong enough to change it.

Erka remembered when the spear was made. Blue tentacles appeared from the ground and formed the spear. Although the tentacles were not like stone, they reminded Erka of BlueStone.

"Were those blue things made of Bluestone?"

When Erka thought of it, she remembered how those 'Blue things' or tentacles had made the spear. If the tentacles were actually made of BlueStone, and the tentacles made the spear, doesn't that mean the spear was made of BlueStone?

Erka suddenly felt that the weight of the spear in her hands got heavier. If this spear was made of BlueStone...

"Doesn't this mean that this spear is the most powerful weapon in the world?"

The sun turned brighter and shone its morning luster. The birds chirped and the magicarp uselessly splashed water around.

With the spear in hand, Erka came out of the cave. She looked at the back at the river. The direction she turned to was where the BlackEvil horde was situated. She looked coldly in that direction and told herself in her head, 'i will return.'

She thus left.

Her destination was not too far from where she was. She was going to a small horde.

In the goblins society, the lives of the princesses were complicated. It was sweet yet bitter at the same time.

From the moment they are born, they were meant to live their life as mothers. They were required to give birth many times in order to grow the horde. Even Erka herself who was treated differently by her mother was the same. In her younger days, Erka had given birth to tens of children. Among these children, one of them was even a princess.

From the moment they are born, they destiny was set. They are to give birth. Although it sounds cruel to give birth every three months, it was actually not that bad. Unlike humans, the goblins were not as weak. Giving birth to five children every three months was not too hard for them. Their bodies had already been forged by evolution to perform this job of theirs to perfection. And its not like every part of giving birth was bad. After all, there is a first step to everything. And the first step was pleasurable even to the princesses.

Plus, as mothers, they aren't required to do any form of manual labour other than giving birth. The male goblins would follow every one of their orders as long as it does not go against the queen's. They are brought food and all kinds of drinks.

Other than having to constantly make children, their live really are no different from human princesses. In fact, one could even say their live are very much enjoyable.

Why?

Because in the goblin society, there was another gender that had it worse. On average, there is a 98% chance giving birth to a male goblin. That means that for every one hundred goblin children, 98 are male and 2 are female.

The BlackEvil horde had 12 female goblins and one queen. Since there are 12 female goblins, then theoretically there should be more the 600 male goblins. But actually, there is less than 200 male goblins in the horde.

Every three months, the princesses give birth to at least 5 baby goblins. That means there are at least 60 newborn male goblins, if there are no females born, every three months.

The BlackEvil horde had been alive for many years. So why was the number of male goblins still so low?

Simply because male goblins die every day.

The life expectancy of a male goblin is only equal to 10 months. And that is only if it was lucky. Goblin deaths can be contributed to beast attacks, enemy confrontation or food poisoning. The world was still new and ever changing, what is edible and what was not edible was still not yet fully established. And even if it was previously tested, five years later, it might suddenly evolve. What was edible today may not be tomorrow.

But although female goblins are not workers in the horde, their strength are far above the male goblins. From birth, they are many times stronger than male goblins.

And when war between hordes happen, the male goblins are the ones who suffer the most. They are the ones in the front lines of battle. It was rare for a queen to deploy her princesses in battle. But when they are, as long as the princess had not been doing nothing other than making babies their entire lives, they are no different from killing machines.

And in wars male goblins are killed without even batting an eye. After all, they are merely cannon fodder. Their lives are replaceable and not really considered to have much importance.

The princesses on the other hand, it is the opposite. When a queen meets a princess of another horde in the battlefield, they might attempt to recruit them into their camp instead. If that doesn't work, then they simply break their legs and take them home.

After all, although the probability of giving birth to a male was 2 in a hundred, one may give birth to 100 children but without a single female goblins.

So in wars, female goblins are less likely to be killed. And this was an advantage they have over male goblins. In wars, when things get too tough, they can always just surrender and be taken willingly. If they lose, they would just be serving a different a queen, but their lives would not be much affected.

The biggest proof of females living better was their lifespans and life expectancy. Male goblins generally have a lifespan of 10 years. Of which they will only live out up to five months. So they only live up to 5% of their life span.

The female goblins have a lifespan of 30 years old. Of which, most live up to 20. So they live at most 70% of their lifespan.

The disparency is so hight that one would feel sad for the male goblins. It was almost as if god was punishing them for a sin they did in their past lives.

So if one looks at the statistics, you could very well see that female goblins are living great lives compared to male goblins.

But, goblins are mortals.

Like humans they have the seven sins.

Their greed is like the universe. Infinity growing without ever stopping.

The princesses would at some point feel that their lives are not enough. After all, they are technically not living the best life out there. There was one person that live better than them.

The queen.

Within their hearts envy breeds.

Sprouting slowly, just like a seed.

Till one day it grows to become greed.

They wish for more, and more they do not need.

Their greed turns to gluttony, a sin they constantly feed.

But in this world and the next, when have mortals ever been satisfied? So they wished for more and planned to take more. From the one place they know there is more. There is only one way for them get what their hearts desire, and that is by taking over the position of the queen.

For the princesses, there is only two ways it can go down.

Coup d'etat or escape.

The first method could be considered to be more easier. That is of course if the princess has more strength compared to the queen or the queen is a total bitch. In most cases, the queens always show good will towards their princesses. This is In order to ensure that the princesses are unable to band together against her. Of course, dominance must always be practiced or the will consider the queen weak. But sometime the queens use fear as a method to deter the princesses' ever growing greed. This make the princesses fear them such that they would never even think of revolting. This may of course back fire as the princesses may be even more agitated to abdicate her.

Erka had tried this method. She rallied her sister and tried to get them on her side. With all their strength, taking over the queen would only be a matter of time. But she had not anticipated that she would be betrayed. Raal, who she had a bit of a rivalry with, had always been jealous of her treatment from the queen. She had always wanted to be the queen's right hand 'man' like Erka. Erka did not think that she would give up the possibility of freedom just to get favoured by the queen.

As such, she failed. Her sisters were suppressed and she herself had almost been killed.

The second method was a lot harder. This as because the queen normally keeps her princesses close. They do not leave unless told to. And because they are constantly pregnant, their chances of running are even lower. The chances only increase when a war happens.

In war, it is rare for princesses to be deployed for battle. But when they do, the chances of slipping away during battle very high. This was also why princesses are rarely used in wars.

Erka though did not have this problem. The queen trusted her fully. She patrols the queen's borders for her without any supervision. If she wanted, she could have run away many times.

But Erka did not want to leave. The BlackEvil horde we one of the three biggest hordes in the world. As her ambitions were high, she wanted the to swallow it all up.

Because her plan was foiled, she was now forced to the second method against her will.

And she now has to face the most hardest part of the second method.

Surviving alone.

...

The Arthur muses~

Hello readers!

anyway I wanted to asked about something which I hope some of you may have some insight on. Do mind that this may effect some part of the story.

1) say if I was to somehow condense oxygen in a single space or place, then light up a spark on said place, what would happen? Would there be a combustion? Would it burn up somehow or would the spark disappear like on normal air?

2) say i somehow managed to increase the size of a fertiliser egg cell. I would was able to make it bigger, would the child born be bigger as well or would there be genetic problem hindering the life of the child?