Trixxi the Goblin Follows Her Nose
A long time ago in a forest not far from here, a young goblin girl named Trixxi lived with her parents in a tiny goblin village. Like most Goblin children, Trixxi always seemed hungry, and was always grabbing bits of food from anyplace she encountered them. Her mother was constantly yelling at her, telling her to leave other people's things alone, but Trixxi would often just smile and take a bite out of whatever her latest acquisition was.
One day, Trixxi accompanied her father and mother to the village square on market day. As her parents discussed some barter with one of the farmers, Trixxi spied an old, blind goblin woman sitting next to a nearby stall. More accurately, she spied the bowl with several bright red apples sitting next to the woman. While her parents seemed to be occupied, Trixxi quietly wandered over and gingerly picked up an apple, but before she could bite into it, her mother's hand came out of nowhere, covering both her hand and the apple.
"Put that back, young lady! How many times do I have to tell you not to take food from others?"
Trixxi looked up at her mother, ashamed. Then the old woman turned her blind eyes toward Trixxi and said, "Give me your hands, child". Trixxi cautiously did so. The old woman remove the apple from Trixxi's fingers, then traced her fingers across Trixxi's palm a few times, then looked up at her and said simply, "Your heart will follow your nose, and both will lead you to renown". The old woman smiled, then, and handed Trixxi back the apple. Her mother said nothing, but led the girl away, telling her that some day, something terrible would happen if she didn't stop taking other people's things.
Not long afterward, a terrible thing happened. A large marauding band of gnolls poured into the village, slaying villagers and toppling or burning the simple homes of the goblinfolk. Trixxi's mom told her to run into the forest, and as she did so, she looked back to see a two huge gnolls strike her parents dead as they tried to block the path Trixxi had taken. Trixxi just kept running. She returned the next day - after the gnolls had long gone - to confirm what she already knew. Her parents were dead, and her village was completely destroyed. Sobbing, Trixxi wandered back into the forest.
She wandered for days. Goblins are good at finding food, so Trixxi didn't starve, but she wasn't happy. She thought, 'Was this the terrible thing that her mother warned her about?' She didn't even realize that she had left the forest and was now in a land of low-lying hills. She spied a village not far off, and suddenly, a heavenly aroma filled her sensitive nostrils. She wasn't sure what it was, but it smelled like heaven. It was meaty... it was salty... it had hints of an earthy peat-smoke scent. She had to see what this was. Creeping closer to the village, she reached its edge. While hiding behind a shrub, she watched as a middle-aged Dwarven woman walked out of a house carrying a large plate of something. She brought the plate to the open shed where her husband, a blacksmith, was working. After placing the plate down, the dwarven woman returned to the house.
Trixxi had by now realized that the enticing aroma she was smelling came from that plate. As quietly as she could, she snuck forward. The blacksmith seemed preoccupied with his work as she crept closer and closer to the plate. FInally, it was within reach, but as she reached up to grab a slice of whatever that wonderful stuff was, the hand of the old dwarven woman clamped down over it. She had returned from the house carrying a pitcher, and Trixxi hadn't noticed.
"What have we here?", the Dwarven woman asked. But before Trixxi could think of an answer, the woman continued, "Why you're just a child, aren't you. And from the look of you you're starving. I've seen scrawny goblins before, but never as unfed as you. Come with me child... we'll get you something to eat."
Trixxi had little choice but to follow along. She sat in a kitchen chair - one too big for her - while the Dwarven woman fried up more of that wonderful smelling stuff. Finally, the steaming plate appeared before her as the woman said, "Here. Have some bacon. Nothing better to fatten up an underfed child."
The bacon tasted even better than it smelled. Trixxi wolfed down the entire plate and looked up at the old woman, her eyse pleading for more.
"Have you no place to go, little one? Where are your parents? We don't have any goblin families in this village... where did you come from?"
Trixxi didn't speak, but she answered each question with a gesture: a headshake no, a sob along with a shrug of the shoulders, and another shrug of the shoulders.
"Then you'll stay here. This is your home now. I'll not turn out a child in need."
Trixxi just stared back, then dug into the second plate of bacon that the old woman placed before her.
The dwarven couple gave Trixxi a home and treated her as the daughter they were never able to have. As Trixxi got older, her curiosity brought her to her adopted father's forge, and he taught her the basics of working with metals. While Trixxi was too frail to wield a big forgehammer, she loved playing with the narrow scraps and wire that were all about, and she would fashion little toys and decorative bits out of these scraps. Her father told her that she had a head for working metal, even if she didn't have the arms for it.
A year passed, and one day Trixxi found herself walking through her new village when suddenly, the enticing aroma of dwarven bacon reached her nostrils once more. She could never resist this wonderful smell - her new mother had said many times that all she needed to do to get Trixxi home was to fry a strip of bacon in front of the kitchen window. But this time, the smell wasn't coming from her home - it emanated from the mill building by the stream. The mill was run by a old gnome who had built the mill himself. Trixxi wasn't hungry, but she followed the smell anyway and entered the mill. The old gnome was gnawing on a strip of bacon when he looked up and saw Trixxi. Trixxi's eyes, originally fixed on the bacon, had drifted though, to the strange, wonderful thins she saw in the mill. Large interlocked gear wheels were spinning, leather belts were whirring around, pendulums were swinging back and forth, and the grinding wheel was turning on its own as Trixxi looked on.
The gnome smiled knowingly. "The water moves the paddle wheel... the paddle wheel turns the axle... the axle turns the drive wheel...". The old gnome explained the entire path of the machine as Trixxi just stood staring.
"Ya got all that, girlie?"
Trixxi slowly shook her head, "No sir, but I'd like to. I've never seen anything like this, but it seems so... so right!"
Trixxi spent as much time as she could with the old gnome as he taught her about machines, and cogs, and gears, and ratchets, and springs, and other mechanical things. Trixxi went home and made tiny models of what she was learning about, shaping the thin metal scraps that she gathered from her father's shop. At first, she just made the parts, but then she started making toys. These were simple at first, but they got more intricate with each one Trixxi tried. Then, one day, she had a thought. She spent two weeks shaping little parts and carefully fitting them together. When she was done, she had made a thing that had a big round face about six inches across which was divided into eight regions by scratched markings. It had a narrow pointer fixed at the center which moved slowly around the face, making one complete turn each day. A tiny spring could be wound up to keep it running.
Excitedly, she showed it to her father, who just smiled and said "that's nice". Her mother wasn't any more enthusiastic, and neither was anyone else in the village that she showed her latest toy to.
And then, for the third time in her life, the unmistakeable aroma of dwarven bacon caught her nose and led her to the edge of town. There, a merchant wagon alongside the road and the merchant was cooking over an open fire. Trixxi realized she was hungry - she had been working to finish her toy and had forgotten to eat! And now, that bacon smelled so good! She approached and shyly asked the merchant if he could spare a slice or two. She'd even pay for it, she told the merchant, and held out her new timekeeping toy.
"You made this yourself?", the merchant asked, handing her a few slices of bacon.
"Yes", she replied, skipping off.
The merchant turned the device over in his hands a few times, and then quickly broke his camp, got into his wagon, and headed off down the road toward Irongate, the Dwarven City beyond the hills. Once there, he showed Trixxi's marvelous timekeeping toy to people he met. At first, most thought it was interesting, but didn't see much use for it. But when he showed it to a friend of his who happened to be a sergeant in the city guard, things changed. The sergeant stroked his beard and said, "Y'know? Me lads are forever confusin' themselves writin' reports about who came through the gates in what order, and th' cap'n hates ter get incorrect paperwork. If me lads had somethin' like this ter tell them better when they checked people through, it oughter remove the confusion. The sergeant took the small clock from the merchant in exchange for a few gold goins, and asked if five more of the devices could be obtained. The merchant beamed a smile.
Within a few days, he was back in Trixxi's village, and after tracking the girl down, he asked if she could make another dozen of the toys. Trixxi smiled and told him that she already had three more - she was working on making them even smaller. She agreed to make the additional clocks in exchange for some coin - and some bacon.
It wasn't long before every guard in the city watch had one of the devices and was using it to mark time when making reports. The sight of a watch member checking the time on the device became so common that folks started saying the things were new recruits of the watch, and the most dependable ones at that. Thus a new name for Trixxi's toy was coined: they became "watches".
As Trixxi's skill improved and practice continued, she got the things down to where they fit in the palm of a hand, and could easily slip into a pouch or pocket. She started embellishing them, too - finely etching the metal cases, and even doing some silver and gold inlay work. Soon, it was not only the city guard that wanted them - it was the upper crust folk of the city as well. Nobles and gulld masters wanted fancy ones to show off their wealth. The merchant had convinced Trixxi, who was reaching adulthood by goblin standards, to move to the city and set up a shop. He helped her to do so, and soon she was selling pocket clocks as quickly as she could make them. Nobles paid handsomely for custom models, and commoners paid for the simple ones.
Then, one day, the city elders came to Trixxi to discuss a special project. So many folks were now relying on her devices that they needed a way to help the folk ensure that they were all telling time in unison. They asked Trixxi if she could construct for them a giant version of the device - big enough so that if it was mounted in the city hall bell tower, it could be seen throughout the city. That way, everybody could ensure their watch was set to the same time of day. Trixxi thought about it, and agreed. She would need to make four face dials and run them off the same mechanism, but she was sure she could do this. The elders, in the meantime, would have a new level built into the tower above the bells to house this mechanism.
The day came when the tower clock was completed, and a dedication ceremony and city-wide celebration was planned. Trixxi's adopted parents even came into the city to celebrate with their goblin daughter. As Trixxi sat on the stage that had been erected in front of city hall, she smiled shyly as each of the city elders came forth and poured praise and accolades on her in lengthy speech after lengthy speech.
When they called her up to give her a formal award - the Order of the Crafter - she found herself thinking back to her childhood. A little girl had stolen an apple from a blind woman, and the blind woman had foretold her future. Three times over the years, her nose had indeed led her heart - the aroma of dwarven bacon had led her to learning metalcraft, then learning machinecraft, and then to the merchant who found an entire city of folk that wanted the thing her skills produced. She was important! She was accepted! She was appreciated! She had achieved what every young goblin dreams of someday achieving. As she stepped down from the stage and into her mother's embrace, she smiled up at her dwarven parents. And as they congratulated her and told her of their pride, all she could say in response was, "Thanks, but do you think we could go find some bacon now? I'm hungry!"
The end.
One day, Trixxi accompanied her father and mother to the village square on market day. As her parents discussed some barter with one of the farmers, Trixxi spied an old, blind goblin woman sitting next to a nearby stall. More accurately, she spied the bowl with several bright red apples sitting next to the woman. While her parents seemed to be occupied, Trixxi quietly wandered over and gingerly picked up an apple, but before she could bite into it, her mother's hand came out of nowhere, covering both her hand and the apple.
"Put that back, young lady! How many times do I have to tell you not to take food from others?"
Trixxi looked up at her mother, ashamed. Then the old woman turned her blind eyes toward Trixxi and said, "Give me your hands, child". Trixxi cautiously did so. The old woman remove the apple from Trixxi's fingers, then traced her fingers across Trixxi's palm a few times, then looked up at her and said simply, "Your heart will follow your nose, and both will lead you to renown". The old woman smiled, then, and handed Trixxi back the apple. Her mother said nothing, but led the girl away, telling her that some day, something terrible would happen if she didn't stop taking other people's things.
Not long afterward, a terrible thing happened. A large marauding band of gnolls poured into the village, slaying villagers and toppling or burning the simple homes of the goblinfolk. Trixxi's mom told her to run into the forest, and as she did so, she looked back to see a two huge gnolls strike her parents dead as they tried to block the path Trixxi had taken. Trixxi just kept running. She returned the next day - after the gnolls had long gone - to confirm what she already knew. Her parents were dead, and her village was completely destroyed. Sobbing, Trixxi wandered back into the forest.
She wandered for days. Goblins are good at finding food, so Trixxi didn't starve, but she wasn't happy. She thought, 'Was this the terrible thing that her mother warned her about?' She didn't even realize that she had left the forest and was now in a land of low-lying hills. She spied a village not far off, and suddenly, a heavenly aroma filled her sensitive nostrils. She wasn't sure what it was, but it smelled like heaven. It was meaty... it was salty... it had hints of an earthy peat-smoke scent. She had to see what this was. Creeping closer to the village, she reached its edge. While hiding behind a shrub, she watched as a middle-aged Dwarven woman walked out of a house carrying a large plate of something. She brought the plate to the open shed where her husband, a blacksmith, was working. After placing the plate down, the dwarven woman returned to the house.
Trixxi had by now realized that the enticing aroma she was smelling came from that plate. As quietly as she could, she snuck forward. The blacksmith seemed preoccupied with his work as she crept closer and closer to the plate. FInally, it was within reach, but as she reached up to grab a slice of whatever that wonderful stuff was, the hand of the old dwarven woman clamped down over it. She had returned from the house carrying a pitcher, and Trixxi hadn't noticed.
"What have we here?", the Dwarven woman asked. But before Trixxi could think of an answer, the woman continued, "Why you're just a child, aren't you. And from the look of you you're starving. I've seen scrawny goblins before, but never as unfed as you. Come with me child... we'll get you something to eat."
Trixxi had little choice but to follow along. She sat in a kitchen chair - one too big for her - while the Dwarven woman fried up more of that wonderful smelling stuff. Finally, the steaming plate appeared before her as the woman said, "Here. Have some bacon. Nothing better to fatten up an underfed child."
The bacon tasted even better than it smelled. Trixxi wolfed down the entire plate and looked up at the old woman, her eyse pleading for more.
"Have you no place to go, little one? Where are your parents? We don't have any goblin families in this village... where did you come from?"
Trixxi didn't speak, but she answered each question with a gesture: a headshake no, a sob along with a shrug of the shoulders, and another shrug of the shoulders.
"Then you'll stay here. This is your home now. I'll not turn out a child in need."
Trixxi just stared back, then dug into the second plate of bacon that the old woman placed before her.
The dwarven couple gave Trixxi a home and treated her as the daughter they were never able to have. As Trixxi got older, her curiosity brought her to her adopted father's forge, and he taught her the basics of working with metals. While Trixxi was too frail to wield a big forgehammer, she loved playing with the narrow scraps and wire that were all about, and she would fashion little toys and decorative bits out of these scraps. Her father told her that she had a head for working metal, even if she didn't have the arms for it.
A year passed, and one day Trixxi found herself walking through her new village when suddenly, the enticing aroma of dwarven bacon reached her nostrils once more. She could never resist this wonderful smell - her new mother had said many times that all she needed to do to get Trixxi home was to fry a strip of bacon in front of the kitchen window. But this time, the smell wasn't coming from her home - it emanated from the mill building by the stream. The mill was run by a old gnome who had built the mill himself. Trixxi wasn't hungry, but she followed the smell anyway and entered the mill. The old gnome was gnawing on a strip of bacon when he looked up and saw Trixxi. Trixxi's eyes, originally fixed on the bacon, had drifted though, to the strange, wonderful thins she saw in the mill. Large interlocked gear wheels were spinning, leather belts were whirring around, pendulums were swinging back and forth, and the grinding wheel was turning on its own as Trixxi looked on.
The gnome smiled knowingly. "The water moves the paddle wheel... the paddle wheel turns the axle... the axle turns the drive wheel...". The old gnome explained the entire path of the machine as Trixxi just stood staring.
"Ya got all that, girlie?"
Trixxi slowly shook her head, "No sir, but I'd like to. I've never seen anything like this, but it seems so... so right!"
Trixxi spent as much time as she could with the old gnome as he taught her about machines, and cogs, and gears, and ratchets, and springs, and other mechanical things. Trixxi went home and made tiny models of what she was learning about, shaping the thin metal scraps that she gathered from her father's shop. At first, she just made the parts, but then she started making toys. These were simple at first, but they got more intricate with each one Trixxi tried. Then, one day, she had a thought. She spent two weeks shaping little parts and carefully fitting them together. When she was done, she had made a thing that had a big round face about six inches across which was divided into eight regions by scratched markings. It had a narrow pointer fixed at the center which moved slowly around the face, making one complete turn each day. A tiny spring could be wound up to keep it running.
Excitedly, she showed it to her father, who just smiled and said "that's nice". Her mother wasn't any more enthusiastic, and neither was anyone else in the village that she showed her latest toy to.
And then, for the third time in her life, the unmistakeable aroma of dwarven bacon caught her nose and led her to the edge of town. There, a merchant wagon alongside the road and the merchant was cooking over an open fire. Trixxi realized she was hungry - she had been working to finish her toy and had forgotten to eat! And now, that bacon smelled so good! She approached and shyly asked the merchant if he could spare a slice or two. She'd even pay for it, she told the merchant, and held out her new timekeeping toy.
"You made this yourself?", the merchant asked, handing her a few slices of bacon.
"Yes", she replied, skipping off.
The merchant turned the device over in his hands a few times, and then quickly broke his camp, got into his wagon, and headed off down the road toward Irongate, the Dwarven City beyond the hills. Once there, he showed Trixxi's marvelous timekeeping toy to people he met. At first, most thought it was interesting, but didn't see much use for it. But when he showed it to a friend of his who happened to be a sergeant in the city guard, things changed. The sergeant stroked his beard and said, "Y'know? Me lads are forever confusin' themselves writin' reports about who came through the gates in what order, and th' cap'n hates ter get incorrect paperwork. If me lads had somethin' like this ter tell them better when they checked people through, it oughter remove the confusion. The sergeant took the small clock from the merchant in exchange for a few gold goins, and asked if five more of the devices could be obtained. The merchant beamed a smile.
Within a few days, he was back in Trixxi's village, and after tracking the girl down, he asked if she could make another dozen of the toys. Trixxi smiled and told him that she already had three more - she was working on making them even smaller. She agreed to make the additional clocks in exchange for some coin - and some bacon.
It wasn't long before every guard in the city watch had one of the devices and was using it to mark time when making reports. The sight of a watch member checking the time on the device became so common that folks started saying the things were new recruits of the watch, and the most dependable ones at that. Thus a new name for Trixxi's toy was coined: they became "watches".
As Trixxi's skill improved and practice continued, she got the things down to where they fit in the palm of a hand, and could easily slip into a pouch or pocket. She started embellishing them, too - finely etching the metal cases, and even doing some silver and gold inlay work. Soon, it was not only the city guard that wanted them - it was the upper crust folk of the city as well. Nobles and gulld masters wanted fancy ones to show off their wealth. The merchant had convinced Trixxi, who was reaching adulthood by goblin standards, to move to the city and set up a shop. He helped her to do so, and soon she was selling pocket clocks as quickly as she could make them. Nobles paid handsomely for custom models, and commoners paid for the simple ones.
Then, one day, the city elders came to Trixxi to discuss a special project. So many folks were now relying on her devices that they needed a way to help the folk ensure that they were all telling time in unison. They asked Trixxi if she could construct for them a giant version of the device - big enough so that if it was mounted in the city hall bell tower, it could be seen throughout the city. That way, everybody could ensure their watch was set to the same time of day. Trixxi thought about it, and agreed. She would need to make four face dials and run them off the same mechanism, but she was sure she could do this. The elders, in the meantime, would have a new level built into the tower above the bells to house this mechanism.
The day came when the tower clock was completed, and a dedication ceremony and city-wide celebration was planned. Trixxi's adopted parents even came into the city to celebrate with their goblin daughter. As Trixxi sat on the stage that had been erected in front of city hall, she smiled shyly as each of the city elders came forth and poured praise and accolades on her in lengthy speech after lengthy speech.
When they called her up to give her a formal award - the Order of the Crafter - she found herself thinking back to her childhood. A little girl had stolen an apple from a blind woman, and the blind woman had foretold her future. Three times over the years, her nose had indeed led her heart - the aroma of dwarven bacon had led her to learning metalcraft, then learning machinecraft, and then to the merchant who found an entire city of folk that wanted the thing her skills produced. She was important! She was accepted! She was appreciated! She had achieved what every young goblin dreams of someday achieving. As she stepped down from the stage and into her mother's embrace, she smiled up at her dwarven parents. And as they congratulated her and told her of their pride, all she could say in response was, "Thanks, but do you think we could go find some bacon now? I'm hungry!"
The end.
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