Breden's ears perked up for a moment when he heard the loud gobliness shout at Griz. A few months ago, this would have startled him. Now, he took one look at the gobliness and felt pity for her. She was a self-styled warrior and he didn't doubt that she had some skill with the stone knives she had on a belt around her waist. Her loud manner and average looks told him that her "brave warrior" routine was a way of getting attention from the stronger males, who would normally pass over a plain-looking gobliness in favor of the more attractive females. The poor lady had probably gone a while without a mate, and even if her looks didn't turn off her desired mates, her eccentric behavior certainly would. As it was, females were too important as mothers to send off to a battle, and the tribe would have to be very desperate indeed to risk them in combat. One male and several females would work just as well as an equal number of each after taking serious losses in a war, but the reverse wouldn't do anything to help replace losses as fast.

The younger hunter and newly-minted warrior cut off a part of the owlbear and delivered it to the granary, as he had promised. He took his share of the meat in a sack the granary guard had been nice enough to give him. It was no wonder why the guard had been kind; she was the only female on duty protecting the granary. It was a volunteer position and a rather boring one at that, assigned only to goblins trusted by the chief. Older goblins and females who wanted to take up arms often had that role, and Breden suspected that the ladies assigned to the easiest job in the tribe were the same who the chief took a fancy to. Were Breden a human, he might have thought that it was a rather questionable thing to do, handing out tasks based on favors in bed. Goblins didn't see it that way, though. It wasn't a favor for the chief, nor was it a favor for the females; it was just something they did when they were relaxed, well-fed, and safe. Only hunger, age, or illness would dull that flame in an adult of their species, mostly.  

That said, there were exceptions, Breden had heard tales of goblins taking up the lives of a druid, living in the wilderness apart from a tribe and operating on a different set of norms, as if they were an entire tribe of shamans. Before anyone could consider any of that, they had one more issue to resolve.

"Griz, you don't think there's a connection between the Blue Foot... Blue Feet...? Th-the tribe who's causing us trouble and the owlbear we just killed, do you? And- excuse me, I don't need any of that salve, please. How about we meet tomorrow? I've got to deal with this for now. I-I don't mean to sound rude, but it [i]is[/i] important." The shaman's daughter backed off from Breden, giving him a naughty look. She hadn't been laying hands on him to help his wounds.  

"So, Griz. Blue Feet tribe. You think they're gonna cause trouble this winter?" Winters in this land tended to be mild, but there were exceptions, and this season was shaping up to be one of them. There might even be snow this time around, something the goblins of the Forest Tribe hadn't prepared for.