NOVEL SIMPLE [Vol-2] Ch.9 A New Name
I'm lucky that there are some thin vine plants growing on some of the trees nearby. I'm cautious, recalling that a handful of vine plants on earth secrete irritants, so I rub some of their leaves and the vine itself against some of my skin. I should know in a few hours if it's dangerous or not. If not, they should be able to be braided into rope. I'll probably need to teach the goblins a grapevine knot to make longer cordage with, in case any vines snap or are too short to work.
Given I'm now waiting for any negative reaction from the vines, I probably can actually get started on cutting the eventual pillars out of the basement to stand them up. I also need to plan for the fact I want the goblins to cook under the roof, I should put a central vent so smoke doesn't build up under the roof. The pavilion isn't going to have walls though, so I don't have to worry too much about it being perfect.
As the day drags on, I've gotten a few of the main pillars cut, and ready to rise once we've got rope to leverage them into an upright position. Given that I have yet to notice any irritation or damage from the vines, I think they'll be relatively safe to work with. I stop working on the basement again, and start gathering vines.
At dinner that evening, with the help of my goblin friend, I explain to the goblins the basics of turning these vines into rope, and how I'll be trading rope for more furniture. I show them how they need to remove all the leaves carefully, how to tie a grapevine knot, and how to braid strands together to make a larger strand. Hopefully in a day or two the goblins will have some rope available for me.
I've also started to notice an awkward problem that I've been avoiding start to really become an issue. Namely, well, names. I... don't have a name, and as a consequence, I have avoided trying to ask anyone their names. Until recently, it would have been somewhat futile anyway, but with my goblin friend learning more and more English, I think I should name myself, and learn its name, and probably some of the other goblin's names as well, like the leader goblin. I'll sleep on it tonight, and hopefully I'll have a name picked out by tomorrow.
Well, I didn't come up with any names that sounded quite right. I think, honestly, it might be worth just asking about their names first. Honestly, it'd be awkward if my name sounded too different from the goblin's names to begin with. As I make my way over in the morning to begin work on the basement, I'm joined shortly by my goblin friend. The overnight rain has caused there to be quite a lot of water in the worksite, so we're both bucketing water into the stream when I build up the courage to ask the goblin its name.
What I hoped would be an easy question however, ends up taking a while to actually explain. I ended up having to wait until another goblin was visible to explain that I actually meant its individual name.
Gokura-Zeb, that's his name. I mean, I suppose I would expect it's named in the language the goblins all speak. It obviously wanted to know my name right after, but I need some more info before I can try to come up with a name. Plus it'll buy me more time to come up with a name. The info I want from it are other goblin's names. Starting with the chief.
Gokura-Zaka...
I start to see a pattern here, all of the goblins have Gokura as the first part of their name, then some individual short name. As it would turn out, the leader seems to name each of them shortly after they were collected from the cave. Something the leader seems to have neglected doing for me. In fact, why don't I just push this troublesome task onto it.
I explain to Zeb that Zaka hasn't named me yet, so I'm nameless. Zeb's eyes go wide. I'm a little worried because Zeb stops working and looks at me for a while.
Eventually Zeb says, "Why Zaka need to name? You from far, yes?"
I have no idea what Zeb even means by 'from far'. I'm from the cave. Just like the goblins here, or so I assumed.
"No, I'm from the cave." I say. Zeb jumps up and down, seemingly excited and darts out of the basement. A short time later, Zeb arrives with Zaka, and starts acting as a translator.
"You not from far?" Zeb translates Zaka's question.
"I'm from the cave. I was an imp not that long ago." I say, and have to draw some pictures on stone to explain some of the words to Zeb.
What ends up ensuing is a much longer conversation that I expected, and Zeb ends up with a lot of new tablets from Zaka that explain a lot of new concepts. What info I gain from all this is that Zaka actually is the only goblin not from here. He's from somewhere a long ways away across the 'big water'. He assumed I was some kind of minor noble from his homeland, but was beginning to suspect from my helpfulness and friendliness that I wasn't an active noble at the least. He had all the goblins avoid using their names because of what I can assume is banishment, so he didn't want all the other goblins to be punished due to the Gokura part of their name. He also didn't go into any extra detail as to why he was banished, and he also seemed quite surprised that I used to be an imp not that long ago. He's also troubled as to what to name me. He decided he'd have a name for me tonight at the group meal, which at least gets me off the hook for coming up with a name.
The rest of the day, other goblins seem more friendly than before. I suspect that maybe they were told to not offend me before because I was a noble, so a few were still afraid of me. Throughout the day I see a few goblins making rope, and decide to help them. I'm glad I did, because as it would turn out, it's not easy to memorize a knot from only seeing it once, so I help them practice the knot until they get it right.
That evening, at the meal, Zaka goes into a long speech in the goblin language, so I don't understand most of it, but I do catch the name that is passed on to me.
Gokura-Zakarus
After everyone cheers and starts eating, I ask Zeb to fill me in on the details of the speech. From what he's capable of explaining, it was basically a congratulatory speech and a talk of good fortune. As much as I'm happy to have a name, I'm probably just going to refer to myself as Zack. Zakarus is long, and I don't really care to use the full name each time, plus it seems like it's got some implied meaning behind it since it's so similar to Zaka. The goblins don't seem to mind so far anyway. I mean, in their language it seems like they don't use the names all that often to begin with, but they use the full thing when they do. I tell Zeb that in English we generally just refer to each other with part of our names, since the Gokura part seems to be similar to a family name anyway.
After the meal, Zaka approaches and has some questions about my history. When he assumed I was a noble, he assumed I was from far away in his homeland, since I spoke a different language and had all kinds of knowledge. Now however, he wants to know where I got that knowledge, and why I know a language as full as I do. The whole conversation takes a while as pictures are drawn for certain concepts and Zeb tries his best to learn what new words are being used by both sides.
I'm caught a little of guard. I didn't take Zaka for a fool, but I didn't expect him to be quite so quick as to my background not adding up. I'm not intending to hide anything though, so I tell him that I have memories of a past life from another world. I don't remember everything, but what I do remember has come in handy for everything going on so far. I purposefully leave out that I wasn't a demon though, since I wouldn't want to alarm him. Besides, I'm in this body now anyway, what difference does that make?
After I have Zeb translate everything, Zaka nods along, seemingly believing me. However, he says something before leaving that sounds vaguely familiar, and I look to Zeb to translate.
"Three no goblins, mountain." Zeb says.
Oh, yeah, I suppose he probably is going to re-evaluate deals like when he can return to the mountain if he doesn't think I'm a noble anymore, isn't he.
