Chapter 193 A Shattered Mind

His voice quivered with fear as he slowly pushed himself up, his legs wobbling beneath him. Tears welled up in his large, watery eyes, and he began to sob, his frail body wracked with misery. He clutched his arms around himself as if trying to shield his frail naked body from an invisible tormentor. He started to rock back and forth, his long, pointed ears twitching nervously.

He mumbled to himself, still dazed and confused, "It's so dark... so... so cold... Brrrrr! No more, goddess, please. I'll be good. A good boy... I promise... Make it stop. Make it all stop." His voice trembled with a mixture of fear and confusion as he clutched his head with both bony hands, dirty nails digging into his wrinkled scalp. With a pained cry, he shouted one more time, "Make it stop!"

His elbow grazed a cold, wet surface, and he recoiled with a high-pitched yelp, "Eeeek! Who? Who's there? P-p-please, don't hurt me! I didn't do anything, I swear!" He stammered, his voice cracking with raw fear, "W-what's this? What's going on? Why am I alone? I need an adult!"

Tears welled up in his bulbous, fearful eyes as he clutched his chest, as though trying to hold his panicked heart in place.

 "I want to go home! Forest safe... town scary... Mumma Kaka, where are you? Hermit miss Mumma Kaka." His voice trailed off into heart-wrenching sobs, his tiny frame shaking with each convulsive cry, "Mumma Kaka... died... I remember... a long time ago. He is with forest spirits now..."

His limbs wobbled as if they were made of jelly. His eyes darted frantically in front of him around the alley, but the surroundings offered no comfort, just eerie shadows and distant echoes of unknown sounds. Suzuka and David stood behind him in silence observing the confused goblin. 

His voice quivered as he huddled against the grimy wall, clutching his knees to his chest as if seeking solace in his own embrace. Snot dripped from his bulbous sniffer, and he let out a pitiful, high-pitched whimper as he tried to remember the events leading to this terrifying moment. His words tumbled out in a disjointed and trembling manner as if he were piecing together a shattered puzzle of memories.

"It was... dark. Hands... grabbing... hurting... slapping... kicking. I didn't want this... I just wanted... to be left alone. Who are they? Why did they... hurt me? I didn't... do anything... Was it a dream? No, it can't be... too real... too painful. Please, someone... help me. Hermit doesn't want to be here anymore."

He continued to mutter and sob in the eerie solitude of the alley, his goblin heart heavy with confusion, fear, and the ache of unanswered questions.

Suzuka covered her mouth in an attempt to stay silent, suppressing the urge to burst into laughter looking at Hermit's confused state. David was waiting for Suzuka to make the first move; he did not want the goblin to burst into panic and scuttle away.

Suzuka whispered to David, "Poor thing, look at him. He's completely lost it. He's so hilarious."

David whispered back, "Yeah, I doubt about that. Look, we need to be careful. He might bolt if we startle him. He looks confused and missing a few marbles."

Hermit continued to mutter and whimper, his voice growing more desperate, "I... I don't remember... anything! Who did this to me? Please... someone... help me!" His broken and shattered to-pieces mind could only remember fragments of his memories. 

Hermit's wide, terrified eyes darted toward David and Suzuka as they cautiously stepped closer. His maw opened wide, and he began to shout in a panicked, terrified frenzy.

"No, no! What are you?! Please, no more! No more pain!" Hermit's voice quivered, his goblin speech laced with fear, "I'm just a tiny old goblin, I promise. I promise! I'm a good boy! I will be a good boy! Wreee! Please! No more harm!"

Suzuka said, her voice soothing, "What's the matter, old chap!? It's us, your friends!"

Hermit's eyes darted wildly, and he clutched his head, his voice growing more frantic.

He muttered to himself, "Friends?" then shouted, "Friends!? I don't remember... I don't remember anything! Who are you? What's happening? No! Not friends! Not friends! Bad people! Bad people! My friends are Gobbies! You will hurt Hermit! Stay away! Leave me be! Stay away, I say. I say! Wreeeeee!"

Hermit flailed his limbs, his movements jerky and erratic, and lost his balance, tumbling to the ground. He crawled backward, tossing all kinds of trash from the alley's floor at Suzuka to keep her away until he backed himself against the cold stone wall.

Hermit, seized by confusion-induced panic, looked around wildly, his trembling hands searching for something, anything to defend himself. His minuscule fingers closed around a jagged glass shard, gripping it with both of his tiny, scarred hands. The sharp glass bit into his palms as he shouted, his voice a high-pitched screech of desperation, "Stay away! Stay away, you beasts! Leave Hermit alone! I will use it, I will! I will cut if you come closer! Stay away from me! Reeeeeeeeeee!"

Suzuka and David exchanged worried glances, realizing the depth of Hermit's trauma. They needed to tread gently and carefully to help the goblin regain his sanity. Suzuka walked up to Hermit and delivered a swift slap across his face that even the glass shard fell out of his hands.

"Cut me? Well, the slap on your face should remind you not to threaten me! You little, sniveling goblin shit! Snap out of it already! Stop being such a baby all the time! Look what you did! You cut yourself."

Hermit's wide, fearful eyes met Suzuka's, and a flicker of recognition seemed to spark within them. He stuttered, "I'm s-s-sowy, Master. I... I remember now... Master Helen. Pretty... but cruel."

Suzuka's expression softened slightly. 

"Good, good," she encouraged, "keep spinning that nut-sized brain of yours. Try to remember everything that happened. And while you're at it, here, take the potion. Drink it. It will ease the pain in your miserable body."

Suzuka held out a vial containing a shimmering, soothing liquid; her blood. Hermit, still trembling, accepted it with hesitant hands, his goblin instincts kicking in as he sniffed the potion cautiously before taking a wary sip.

Hermit sat in the dimly lit alley, his frail form huddled against the cold, stone wall. He sipped the potion with delicate, almost cautious licks as if the memories he sought were trapped within its shimmering depths. His bony knees were pulled up to his chest, forming a protective barrier against the world's cruelties. With his knobbly arms, he wrapped around himself his meaty ears and nestled within his ear cocoon, seeking both physical warmth and emotional solace.

As Hermit continued to sip the potion, his trembling began to subside, and a faint glimmer of clarity entered his eyes. His breaths grew steadier, and he seemed to drift away into the recesses of his tortured mind.

Then, suddenly, a shudder passed through him, and he clutched his head, a low moan escaping his lips. Pain and confusion danced upon his features as fragmented memories, like shards of glass, began to pierce through the fog of his trauma.

"Master David," he mumbled, his voice trembling with a mix of fear and terror.

 "David... tormentor. He... he did things... horrible things... things I can't forget."

Hermit's mind was a maelstrom of torment, and as memories flooded back, they brought with them the horrors he had endured. He clutched his head with both hands, his jagged nails digging deep into his wrinkled, green skin. His eyes, wide with terror, gazed into the abyss of his past, and then he began to screech.

"Wreeee! Reeeee! The horrors! Reeeee! Eeeeeek! The suffering! Reeeeee! Eeeeeek! The tortures! Wreeeee!"

His voice pierced the stillness of the alley, a chilling din of pain and despair. Hermit's frail body seemed possessed, and he spiraled into a demented frenzy, running in wild, erratic circles like a rabid animal. In his bewildered and psychotic state, he pounded on his head with his minuscule fists and clawed at his face with tiny, gnarled fingers, all while screaming in agonizing distress.

"Reeeeeeeeeeeeee! Terrible memories! Wreeeeeeeeeeeee! Hermit doesn't want memories! Be gone! Be gone memories! Reeeeee!" He shouted while banging on his head.

His cries echoed off the cold walls, a haunting symphony of suffering. In his frenzied madness, he collided headfirst into the stone wall. The impact sent him sprawling to the ground, unconscious for a few harrowing moments.

When Hermit finally stirred, he clutched his battered head, tears mingling with the sweat on his wrinkled, green face. His voice, now reduced to pitiful moans, wailed in anguish.

"Ouchies, owies! Hurt so much, why does Hermit get hurt so much!"

Suzuka approached Hermit with a warm, reassuring smile, crouching down beside him. She adopted a playful tone, trying to ease his pain.

"Ahh! Little baby got a boo-boo?" she teased, her fingers playfully poking at his closed eye. 

"Cheer up, old choom. I've got good news, so turn that frown upside down and smile for once."

Hermit's glistening eyes blinked in surprise, his attention momentarily diverted from his tormenting memories.

"Remember Larry? He got a deal with the town ruler to rescue your fellow slave hatchlings and house them in temporary homes in the town. All you need to do is show the way to all the breeding farms you know, and we rescue the hatchlings. It's your big day! Time to step up, old chap!"

Hermit's trembling subsided as he processed Suzuka's words. The prospect of helping his fellow hatchlings, of breaking free from the breeding farms, began to dawn on him. He stared at Suzuka, his expression a mixture of hope, disbelief, and the faintest glimmer of a long-forgotten emotion - happiness.

Hermit lost in the labyrinth of his tortured memories, suddenly recalled the horrifying events that had unfolded in this very alleyway. His goblin features contorted into a grotesque grimace of horror, and he recoiled, curling up even tighter into a shivering ball of anguish. His meaty ears enveloped him like a grotesque cocoon, providing the only semblance of safety he had ever known.

His thumb found its way to his mouth, and he sucked on it with desperate fervor, as if trying to draw comfort from the only source he could trust. Between wet slurps and sobs, he muttered incoherently, "No... no... no! Hermit... will not tell! Hermit... will not... tell! Town is scary! Town is horror! Townfolks cruel... hate goblins! Forest perilous... but safer than town! Hermit will... not tell! Town too cruel for hatchlings! No! I will not! Goblins... not wanted... in town. Hatchlings... will be stolen. Masters... cruel. Hermit... not wanted. Goblins... not wanted!"

He rocked back and forth, his meaty ears muffled his cries as he clung to the only comfort he knew – the rhythmic sucking of his thumb. It was a pitiful sight, this goblin in distress, lost in the haunting memories of a world that had shown him nothing but cruelty.

Suzuka reached out to pick him up and cradle him, hoping to offer some solace. But as her hands closed around his frail form, Hermit's reaction was like that of a wild, cornered kitten. He thrashed about violently, his screams of panic piercing the air.

"Unhand me! Unhand me! Unhand me!" he shrieked, his goblin voice shrill and panicked, "Let go! Let go! I won't go back there! I won't! Don't touch Hermit! No, no, no! No more pain, no more pain! Hermit just wants to go back to the forest. Forest safe! Town bad! Bad, bad town!"

"Unhand me!" his shriek continued, his voice cracking in terror. He tugged at his own meaty ears, his thumbs still wedged firmly in his mouth, "Meanies! Nasty town meanies! Hermit will not go back! No more, no more! Town, no! Forest, yes! Hermit must hide, Hermit must run! Yes! Run back to the forest!"

His tiny hands clawed at Suzuka's arms, and his legs kicked wildly as he fought against the touch that triggered memories of unspeakable horrors. His wide, terrified eyes darted around the alley, seeing threats in every shadow, reliving the nightmare that had scarred his very soul.

David reached out a hand, but Hermit recoiled as if struck, his eyes wide with fear, "Don't touch, don't touch!" he cried, "Hatchlings! Must protect hatchlings! Meanies want hatchlings! To exploit! To eat! Oh! The horrors! Meanies want to eat goblin hatchlings! I will not talk! Will not!"

Hermit's eyes darted wildly around the alley, seeing shadows from his past lurking in every corner.

 "Evil goblins... bad! People... worse! Hermit... Hermit no want! No want..." Hermit's mind was in turmoil, and his babbling continued, "Caves... caves better. Caves not hurt. Caves... caves home. Gobbies... friends. People... not friends. Run... run!"