9 Buffet of opportunities

"What are goblins?" Irina asked.

"Them. They are goblins." Adam answered while pointing at the tiny creatures. Irulan turned to examine the beings. Adam noticed she entered a trance-like state for a few seconds. She was not even breathing.

"Uhmm, no. You are mistaken. These are called tengu. In one of the initial stages, but tengu none the less." She answered once the trance had passed.

Adam looked at the tiny humanoids once again. They were small, like an 8-year-old human. Big ears, nose, and eyes. Green-brown skin. 2 arms, 2 legs, the usual.

This is clearly what other games have called goblins. Maybe it is the same creatures, but this game was going to switch up all the names. Adam had played other games that tried this. Last year, he played a game where all the mythical creatures from Chinese folklore were viewed from a greek point of view.

"OK. Tengu it is. It seems they are prepared to fight. Can we negotiate with them?" Adam asked.

The big cat focused his eyes on the biggest of the creatures on the defensive line and started making guttural sounds. It sounded to Adam like the cat was choking and was trying to get something out of her throat.

When she finished, the creatures started fidgeting. The one Irulan had focused on answered with quick gasping sounds after a brief conversation with the second-biggest individual in the line.

"He says he will not surrender any of its young as sacrifices to me. They rather fight and die." Irulan translated.

"Noble of him, I think. Have you ever come and eat their babies?" he asked.

"Yes" she answered while keeping a straight face.

Adam did a double take from her answer. He also checked the weapons the creatures were holding to defend themselves. For him, it seemed they did not have a chance if the big cat decided to pounce on them.

"I think you can defeat all of them. Am I right?" he asked.

"Easy. I have done it to other villages before." The cat answered while looking as relaxed as a kitty could. You would not believe it could harm a fly.

Adam considered his options for a couple of minutes. While he was thinking, all the tengu were focusing on them, weapons ready. Their alien expressions conveyed nothing to Adam. He did notice they had not let go of their weapons, even though having them at the ready should be tiring for them.

After a couple of minutes, Adam took a decision. "I don't want you to kill them if we do not need to. Can you tell them we just want information?" Adam asked.

The cat went into another coughing fit, that must be tengu's language, because the lead creature answered with similar sounds. After a couple of minutes of back and forth, Irulan turned to him and translated.

"I managed to negotiate with the creatures" she said. "I told them I wanted to eat each one of them but that you had opposed me to the point of offering violence for their safety".

"OK, I suppose that is near to the truth" he said. "So, are they willing to provide information?"

"Yes. These tengus will do whatever you want, little human. They have named you their savior, and by right you may command them as you please" she said.

"WHAT?" he asked.

He could see the creatures shouting in the direction of the buildings and a couple dozen individuals walking to the outside. Among them were smaller ones, which while objectively ugly on human standards, could be considered cute if you were fans of an old space saga TV show.

Once all the creatures had assembled on the front of the village, they started chanting and kneeled in Adam's direction, clearly worshiping him.

"WHAT HAPPENED?"