The goblin traveled through the forest, hoisting the little human girl onto his shoulder. Light enough to carry, by a long stretch. She kept crying and kicking but soon exhausted herself, simply shedding tears. Soon, they'd reach a road with enough frequent travellers to hitch a ride on a cart. Easier than dragging her stupid brother along too. That was one silver lining. Even the girl's cries for help had subsided.
"Don't feel bad. Your brother's a treacherous idiot but he's right on something. You'll go to a better place than going on living with him around. And don't feel bad. His diamonds will turn into dead leaves by next morning."
The halt in the kid's snivelling indicated that she naturally found this a little solace.
"He must be mean to you, asm I right?" thew goblin prompted her.
"Yes," she answered in a small voice.
She then told him how this moron stole or broke her toys, insulted her, beat her and even stuffed her forcibly into a sleeping bag and threw her down the stairs of the house, all thew while she screamed for help. As per usual, her parents ignored her and did absolutely nothing. They bought into the physical charm of their only son to gloss over his misdeeds and other acts of vandalism and blatant lying. Also, they were probably too plain lazy, considering they more than probably wanted to avoid confrontation. It was just easier to pretend the problem and their daughter's miseries just did not exist. The goblin was no expert in parenting, let alone human parenting but he could tell that this kid would end up a delinquent and a drug addict in a few years' time. He had had no qualms selling his own kin for paltry profits after all. The goblin smirked to himself. And creatures of his world though his kind was amongst the worst! Why, he could even consider he'd done a good deed, taking away that poor child from such a horrid home. He should get handsomely rewarded with shiny sweet coins!
"Are you going to eat me?" she asked in fright.
"Of course not! The idea!" he guffawed. "No. I'll sell you. A lot of creatures want humans to start a family. You're much too young to marry so you'll get adpted. Kids are rarer to get so you'll bring more pennies. You should be happy. By this time tomorrow, you'll be with a new family on your way to a new home."
"But... I'm not like you," she stammered.
"Goblins rarely buy humans. Too expensive. Too much trouble. We tend to reproduce fine upon our own. More than the others, at any rate. Nah, don't worry about that. They'll give you a potion to change into the species that purchases you."
The girl tried again saying she was afraid to change. The goblin reassured her.
"You'll remain similar to what you are. Mostly, at any rate. Sometimes, the customers are rich enough to afford a potion to give you the characteristics they desire. But I don't think they'll do it with you. I'm no expert un humans but you're a lot cuter than you might think or than your brother give you credit for. You just need a little grooming is all," he said, turning his head over his shoulder so she could see him wink good-naturedly.
He didn't tell her that in mind, some captives changed completely, others not at all. It was extremely variable and impossible to predict. But she was scared enough. No need to make it worse. The assimilation was undoubtedly easier for the kids anyway.
"What creatures are there?" she asked curiously yet fearfully.
"Oh, lots! Goblins, like me, but also dragons, vampires, elves, centaurs, pegasi, satyrs, fauns, orks, unicorns,... The list goes on and on."
"I'd like unicorns..." she said dreamily. "Or elves..."
The goblin snorted.
"Don't count too much on that. Unicorns almost never buy at the market. Can't recall anyone who's last seen one in living memory."
She still cried. Well, the goblin had to admit that the unknown she'd face would be enough to do that to a kid. Luckily, he reached the paved road soon afterwards and paid a bronze penny to an ogre delivering cabbages to town to hitch a ride on his rickety cart.
Once there, he wasted no time in jumping off the cart and headed straight to the market section which catered to selling human slaves. The auctions and sales would occur the next morning so he could start in advance and not hurry. The girl in the net stared at her new environment. From the food produce area they moved on to the leather goods and to the human area, right next to the animal section. The human areas was just less extensive with bigger cages. The large ork managing the area before the start of the sales came to him fast and the goblin paid for the girl to be left for the night in a cage, a blanket to keep her warm, a bowl of food for dinner and breakfast and a wash, with an extra bronze coin to have the latter done well. In all, the goblin was happy to settle on three bronze coins. His own night at the inn would cost much more. The night was not going to be fresh anyhow. The goblin left, happy to go to an inn and settle at a table with hearty food soaked in a sauce of mutton grease and beer galore.
The girl was thus thrown into the cage forcefully. The net finally removed from her. There was a pitcher of water and chamberpot in each corner. Later, a sheepskin blanket, heavy but clean, was thrown into it, along with a bowl of cabbage soup, not even with a spoon. It was bad though, nice and warm and salty. Orchid, as her name was, still cried, in silence. She knew that loud sobs would only anger the monster in charge. And no one had bothered to ask for her name. No one cared, and though she thought she'd have been used to it, it felt awful. Her parents would never find her. They might be happy, even. Her brother Maximus would certainly be, even when the fake diamonds vanished. He would use her disappearance to be even lazier at school, explaining that the stress caused by her vanishing stopped him from working properly, even though he felt no sadness. No, he would feel no concern or regret for her whatsoever and her parents would gobble up his lies as usual when he said he had no idea where she was. He'd probably steal money from their mother's purse and blame it on her, saying she'd done the stealing before fleeing. Even though Orchid misjudged her parents' worry and could not imagine their calls for help, grief and sadness, her assumptions regarding her brother were quite accurate, in fact. Yet the future was what terrified her to the bottom of her heart. She had loved fairy tales, always but... But not like this... She just hoped she'd get nice new parents... Kinder than her real ones. She also prayed she wouldn't get mean new brothers or sisters like she'd had. Surely it was not asking for too much, was it? She saw in the distance other human beings from various ethnicities attached in enclosures or in cages too but she was too shy to call out to them. And it was getting too dark. She fell asleep, unaware of the sleeping potion the ogre had slipped in her soup to keep her from sobbing or bawling.
Orchid woke to voices, shouts and a rising sun. The captive market was set to open soon and the ogre was banging on the bars of her cage with the handle of a whip.
"Up. Eat. Now. Fast. Groomer come afterwards."
He set unceremoniously in front of her a bowl of warm milk in which brown bread was soaking and an apple. Still with no spoon but the ogre was busy, barking orders and not in a good mood. So Orchid swallowed everything quickly. There were more human attached to poles and closer to her three toddlers in an enclosure, as well as more children in cages, like her. A few babies were in wicker baskets on a table. Those captives were not about to run away. Most ethnicities present seemed of African or Indian descent., with a few Asians and Europeans. The ogre returned in a huff and passed the empty bowl to a smaller ogre and pointed her to a human-like creature whom possessed nonetheless fox ears, a fox's tail and tufts of orange, black and white fur. He was holding a basin of hot water, a brush, a sponge and a bag of bottles. He asked her kindly to step out of the cage and that he would just make her presentable. He nevertheless added that fleeing was futile. That was easy to believe as creatures were already swarming the market place. A human would stick out extraordinarily easily. The fox creature thus scrubbed the child with soap, brushed her hair and added a bit of perfume. No make-up but a bit of lip balm to keep her lips safe. He added a bow to her hair, made of pink satin. He explained that her hair would grow out and that he'd seen a lot worse. Sensing her fright, he attempted to reassure her by telling her that all kids were amongst the first to go and that she'd find her new family in no time. He then locked her back into her cage.
She saw the goblin return soon after. He had spent a much better night than Orchid had, obviously, and he stayed near her cage, waiting for the human slave market to open for good. He told her to behave or the ogre would whip her and he'd beat her too.
The human captive market saw all sorts of creatures come examine the fresh human for sale destined to replenish their ranks. All had been cleaned and made attractive. It seemed to Orchid that all customers had a pretty god idea of what they wanted already as they stayed ner the men, women and children exclusively or nearly so. Several creatures asked her to show her teeth turn around on herself or merely looked at her appreciatively or pondering. There was a a bird creature, a couple of orks who sniffed scornfully at her short size and puny muscles, a satyr, a goblin working for the merfolk, a lizard woman and others. Each time the goblin showered compliments on her, and lauded her appearances and many qualities, praising her future affection and gratefulness at getting out of this cage and how much of a perfect daughter she could easily become with a little training. Look at how docile she already was! And humans were so easily malleable! At the tables with the wicker baskets, a vampire couple, dressed as members of the 17th century aristocracy, were cooing at a black baby, the wife gushing and asking the babe to give her his hand and a smile, becoming elated as the infant complied. Looked like this one was going to get a new family indeed, and easily so. Orchid did notice that the new proprietors went to a wizard's tent before leaving. No human came out of it. Or rather, no one looking human. This struck anguish and terror into the depth of her very soul and it made her anxious and jumpy. Time seemed to tick very slowly and incredibly fast. Who would decide to adopt her? Who would find her cute or interesting enough?
Then another creature came up to her cage so as to observe her.