Izzy's Ponygirl Journey

Izzy ran excitedly along the dusty forest path and waved to her father again before she was out of sight behind the trees. She had been looking forward to the first day of school holidays for weeks, and at last it was here; the weather was wonderful and the next few days were already well planned. She ran on dreamily and only a loud scream brought her out of her daydreams.

"Watch out, girl!" shouted the coachman, a goblin, and pulled hard on the reins of his two horses, which were pushing against the heavy cart with all their might and, to Izzy's shock, only stopped just in front of her. "Oh, it's you, Isabel. Please be more careful. Let me take a look at you. You've grown up; Calling you a girl doesn't really fit anymore."

Izzy grinned. "It's fine. It was my birthday last month. They say I'm an adult now, but when do you start feeling like one? If my father didn't demand that I finish the school year, I'd probably have to look for work."

The horses looked angrily into her eyes. That wasn't difficult either, they were about the same size, and only a little older. Without the ponygirl harness, you could have mistaken them for friends. The two young women wore a tight bridle around their heads and a horse's bit in their mouths, which was connected to the driver's reins. Their bodies were tightly attached to the bars of the cart so that they could pull it, while their arms were tied behind their bodies like it was common with ponygirls. The left horse stamped furiously with its sturdy hoof boots; the hooves made a metallic sound. Izzy looked down at the horse, her gaze following the leather straps that barely covered her privacy, and saw in disgust the brand on its buttock, which fit well with the registration number tattooed on her breast. All in all, it was a familiar sight in this part of the world, but Izzy shivered every time she saw a ponygirl. These poor girls, she thought, and took a step back. It must be terrible to be tied up like this all day.

Izzy loved to run freely across the fields and go wherever she wanted. How could you lead a life in which someone controls you every second of the day?

But it was not easy to avoid the ponygirls, as they were the only large transport animals in this part of world. Arkynia, the huge but very long island on which she lived, was split like a cake into two equal parts: the empires of the humans in the west, and realms of the goblins -- to which the driver of these poor girls belonged -- in the east. Her village was right on the border, it was divided between the two worlds, so there were numerous ponygirls here because of the goblins. This was no coincidence, as most animals did not tolerate the proximity of the goblins. No horse came closer than 10 meters, and none entered a place where they had stayed longer. Therefore, the people in the village had no horses, cows, dogs or other animals, too - but at least also no ponygirls, so they had no choice but to rely on the goblins for any form of delivery and longer journeys.

"Now don't stand around like that, the goods have to be delivered. Don't you have a school today?" the driver asked.

Izzy shook her head. " It's school holidays after all!"

"Oh yes... Good, then enjoy the nice weather. But you'd better be more careful in the future."

She looked after him for a moment: the goblins weren't bad, but most people still didn't like them, but as is so often the case, people were afraid of everything that was different. The usual goblin was barely six feet tall, had rough green skin, long fingers with short claws, and sharp teeth. Their eyes were large and black, the ears stood up, and long hair grew at the ends, which were almost the only hairs on their entire bodies. But they weren't monsters, they didn't smell bad and most of them even took care of their claws so that they weren't dirty or dangerous. And a goblin also knew how to behave, after all, they also went to their own school, which Izzy only knew from descriptions so far. That was also the reason why Izzy had been looking forward to this day so much. Not only was she on school holidays, so was her best friend, Grall -- a goblin! -- had his first day of school holidays today and was probably already waiting for her.

She ran on and reached a small clearing that was their secret hiding place. It was one of the few paths she really knew well and where she had never gotten lost, as it often happened to her. Grall sat on a stone and carved a branch with a blunt blade.

"You're late, Buttercup," he murmured and continued to concentrate on his work, but Izzy noticed the big grin on his face as well.

"Don't call me that, I don't like it!" she snapped. Even though they were best friends, she didn't like it when he called her by a ponygirl name. It was one of those stupid little goblin jokes that she hadn't gotten used to even after years. "You'd better be careful, or you'll almost cut off a finger again. Besides, I'm not late, you're way too early!"

"The knife is too blunt for that." He grunted and threw the almost untouched branch back into the forest. "My father wanted me to clean a few stables, so I run away. Are you ready for our excursion? I have already planned the path exactly. One of the stable boys gave me a good tip. The ruins are only two hours away to the west, we can easily do that today."

"With your short legs, we can be happy if we made it out of the village by noon."

Grall stuck his tongue out at her - he was a few days older than her, but still often behaved terribly childishly - and collected his things. They ran from the clearing and used the wide dirt road for the first few kilometres. The birds chirped high in the trees and the warm summer sun broke through the dense canopy of leaves again and again, warming their bodies and the forest. It was a wonderful day, at least until they ran into a not at all pleasant sight behind the next intersection. Grunhilda and her friends were on the way; the girl grinned with her terribly crooked teeth when she saw the two friends. Izzy had never understood why such a mean girl was more popular than she was. Was it just because she was so much bigger? Or was it because of her broad shoulders and strong legs?

"Look, Grall is walking his ponygirl," Grunhilda sneered, and Izzy rolled her eyes. It was the old story when someone saw her with Grall. In this world, friendship between goblins and humans was rare, apart from herself and Grall, she could only think of her father and Oozol -- Grall's father. "Shouldn't she be tethered for this according to Goblin law?"

"Shut up, you stupid cow!" Izzy shouted angrily. Grunhilda knew pretty well how to make Izzy mad. Her fuse was short when it came to this ghastly girl. "Otherwise, I'll kick you!"

"You certainly can. All horses can do that well. But your owner won't like that." Grunhilda grinned even wider as Grall pulled Izzy aside.

"Don't get angry!" he warned her and held her hand tightly. "We're not going to bother with this garbage today, okay?" Izzy nodded and they bypassed the group, but the girls still shouted mean things after her. "How do you actually ride bareback? Will he take you to the stable?" Izzy clenched her fists, but as always, Grall was the more level-headed of the two and just pulled them on. Of course, she followed rather than he could pull her -- she was at least three times as strong as he was, and could have thrown him through the woods with ease. But she allowed it anyway, otherwise the meeting would certainly not have ended so quickly and painlessly.

She ran slowly after him, while his legs had to work overtime to make any progress at all. It looked almost funny how these short butts swept across the solid sand, and Izzy understood why the goblins liked to ride ponygirls so much - without the horses, the world would be far too big and hostile for such small creatures. Nevertheless, it was different with Grall, as she knew very well that he had never rode a ponygirl. This was unusual for a goblin in general, but almost unthinkable in his case: not only had he grown rather unspectacularly even for a goblin -- and didn't even reach Izzy's waist -- he was also the son of the largest ponygirl breeder and dealer in the entire region. No one had more ponygirls in his stables than Oozol, there must have to be over 100 animals at least. That was also the reason why Izzy avoided the farm -- even though the old goblin was always very friendly to her. Grall's unwillingness to ride a ponygirl had not only brought him the ridicule of many other goblins, but it was also often a heated topic of argument with his father. Although he liked and respected Izzy, a ponygirl was simply something completely different to him. Grall, however, had made it clear time and again that he couldn't be friends with Izzy and ride a ponygirl at the same time.

The path led them to a popular swimming lake and Izzy looked through the branches. Her gaze followed the noise, and she saw something that made her heart beat faster: Dressed only in swimming trunks, Bastian ran through the grass by the water, took a run-up and jumped into the clear water with an athletic dive that was so typical of him. She had a crush on him for a while, but unfortunately it has not been reciprocated so far. Before Izzy could watch some more, Grall tugged at her dress.

"You'll have time for daydreams later, Izzy," he snapped. "Or you can go and talk to him. But standing around and starring at him is stupid."

The way to the ruins was further than Grall had suspected, and so it was already afternoon when they broke through the undergrowth and an old castle ruin appeared among the trees. It was burned to the ground, but you could still see the shape of the castle.

"The fights must have been terrible," said Grall, running his claws over the stone. "It's good that humans and goblins now live in peace. So many have died..."

The remains of a bridle sparkled in the sun, and Izzy picked it up carefully. She looked at the leather remnants for a long time. "It must be terrible to be driven into a fight against your own species with a rider on your back."

Grall looked at her thoughtfully. "For a goblin, a ponygirl is not a person, but... well... a ponygirl." He shrugged his shoulders. "But you're right, I don't want to be forced into a fight either. That's not right. Come on, let's keep looking around."

The old ruins of the past fascinated the two more than the others in the village. Most humans and goblins were not interested in history, and war was a taboo subject. The peace was too precious to endanger it with the past. But it was precisely this forbidden nature that particularly appealed to Izzy and Grall. It was a forgotten time full of secrets, and yet the truth was often within reach.

"There's something else up there," Grall said and clumsily climbed up a wall. This was unnecessary, Izzy was almost tall enough to just reach there, but Grall, as always, was too proud to ask her. "I'll have it in a moment, only... Ah!" One of the stones was loose and Grall fell unchecked. The soft forest floor caught him gently, but his right leg hit a branch. He moaned loudly and whimpered.

"Did you break something?" Izzy asked anxiously. She helped him up, but his face was contorted in pain as he put weight on his leg.

"Maybe. It hurts like hell. I can't run like that. You have to go back to the village and get help."

"I won't leave you behind. There could be wolves in this part of the forest. You know full well that they don't fear goblins as much as the tame animals."

Grall nodded slowly as he sat down on a stone and rested. "What now?" He looked at her helplessly with his large black eyes.

"I will support you." She grabbed him under the arm and pulled him to his feet. It was a pitiful sight, but they tried. The way out of the ruins was uneven and difficult. "We have to move to the right here."

"Nonsense, we came from the left. You'll get lost in your own room," he sneered, panting and tried to grin despite the pain. "It's a good thing that you don't run back alone. You'd run right into a river, and I'd starve to death here."

Izzy poked him in the side with her finger. "But that would take a few days." She winked, but that was the only funny thing about the situation. They barely got 20 meters when they had to stop. The path was too rough to walk with a broken leg, and Izzy was just too big to support Grall. It was a misery for both of them. "If you describe the way to me exactly, I'm sure I'll find it."

Grall shook his head. "You mean well, and I'm really grateful to you, but we both know that you won't find your way back. We need another solution. Let's go a little further, we just have to go over this root there." Izzy nodded, got down on her knees and, to his surprise, lifted Grall up lightly like a small child. She trudged over the tree trunk with long strides and just kept running. "You can let me down!"

"I could, but you're actually not heavy, I can carry you at least part of the way."

"And if I don't want that?" asked Grall, grimacing his wrinkled green face. His ears twitched and the hair at the ends tickled Izzy.

"Swallow your pride." She looked down at him as he lay there like a swaddling baby with his head on her bosom. He was visibly uncomfortable, but since he was silent, he probably didn't have a better solution. They made good progress with this method, even though his weight still pulled Izzy's arms down over time. He clasped her neck to help at least a little, but it didn't make it much easier. Soon her arms were burning, but they weren't far from Oozol's farm, and so Izzy fought her way through the pain. She reached the farm with the last of her strength. Two riders on ponygirls came riding up, one of them was Oozol. For a moment, there were three young women wearing goblins, and Izzy didn't feel comfortable about that at all. She hurriedly laid Grall on the floor.

"What happened?" asked Oozol, jumping off his horse and examining his son's leg. "That's probably a smooth break."

Izzy and Grall looked at each other sadly. "I guess the holidays are ruined," he said.

For the next two days, Izzy walked alone through the countryside. The weather was still beautiful, the sun was shining, and the birds were singing their beautiful songs, but without Grall something was missing. Not only was his company important to her; without him, she had once again gotten into a heated argument with Grunhilda, from which both of them emerged with black eyes. Without Grall, she also couldn't investigate the ruins any further--though she hated to admit it, he was right about her sense of direction. She still remembered a trip a few years ago when she got lost alone in the forest; she had wandered around for two days until a merchant found her in a clearing. She did not like to think back to it, and it had been a warning to her.

On the third day, she was finally allowed to go back to Grall. The way from her father's hut was not far, and she met only a few old women who were gathering wood with racks on their backs. She stopped at the entrance gate to Oozol farm and took a deep breath. "You can do it, girl. It's just a yard full of ponygirls. Nothing bad, you see them everywhere. The poor bound girls, with bridles and riders with whips. Everything is perfectly normal..." It was not her first visit to the farm, but it had grown a lot over the years. Grall had often told her what was happening there, when he wasn't complaining about his little sister. The little goblin girl had to be a real devil according to his stories, but he was probably just exaggerating a bit. Whenever Izzy saw her, she seemed quite nice, if a bit stubborn -- but she shared that with her brother. Oozol, her father, was famous throughout the country for his ponygirls. He bred them, bought them and sold them, but he also trained them. This was also necessary, because not every ponygirl was born as such; some were spoils of war, some had simply been kidnapped in distant lands, others had been made ponygirls as punishment, and some were even claimed to be voluntary--but Izzy didn't believe that for a second. There was only one unwritten rule that everyone adhered to: No girl was used as a ponygirl in the same region where she had previously lived, unless she agreed. It was just too strange for many to see a friend's daughter as an animal; whenever this was done, there were quarrels between humans and goblins. Therefore, Izzy knew that she was relatively safe, after all, her father and Oozol were good friends, and even in the worst case, neither of them would send her far away as a ponygirl.

She took the first step and immediately heard Oozol calling. "Finally, I thought you had a stroke. Come to the window, then you can talk to my son." As expected, he did not invite her in. She hadn't assumed that either, the houses of the goblins were tiny. Unlike humans, they didn't like high ceilings, so their rooms were just high enough for an adult human to lie down. However, the rooms were rarely long enough for this to work - goblins loved the confinement, which was simply oppressive for humans. Izzy sat down in front of the window and looked into Grall's room, where there was hardly space for a bed or a closet. "How are you? Does it still hurt?"

"At least my leg doesn't hurt anymore. We goblins heal quickly, but it's still going to take the whole holidays." He fall back into his bed, which consisted of a box with the best topsoil, the goblins liked to be connected to nature at night. "My pride has been hit worse. But you have developed well in the past two years..." He looked at her breasts, which he now knew firsthand how comfortable they were. Both turned a little red, which was not easy for a goblin with their thick green skin. He stared at the ceiling. "It's terribly boring here. That's not how I imagined my holidays. But we still have so many ruins to find."

"Then we'll do it anyway."

Grall looked at her in surprise. "That's not possible, you almost didn't make it back last time." He swallowed. "I also felt like a child. I won't do that again. If anyone sees us like that, I'm the laughingstock of all goblins."

"But I thought you liked to be carried by girls," she teased him.

"What are you talking about?" asked a squeaky little voice from the door. It was Saxea, Grall's little sister. She looked curiously into the room, but Grall only threw a pillow at her and slammed the door.

He sighed. "Goblins like to ride ponygirls, but this was humiliating."

Izzy thought about it. Apart from his pride, it had also been decidedly uncomfortable. The weight was poorly distributed, and her arms were not as strong as her legs. She'd heard a lot of scorn from the other girls for her strong thighs, but there was no doubt about it -- she was born to run, but certainly not to carry. She looked around as her eyes fell on a few fallen branches at the edge of the courtyard. "I have an idea," she said and ran off before Grall could ask about it. He leaned out of the window and looked after her. After a few minutes she came back and held a wooden frame in front of Grall's window. "This should work."

"Do you want to go collect wood?"

"No, you fool, I'll take you with me. You sit in it and we'll go."

Grall looked at her with his mouth open. A fly flew in, and he coughed. "You want me to ride you?"

"No way," Izzy declined firmly. "You sit in it, and I run."

"That's called riding."

"No, that's not true. I choose the path, and you're just my guest. No reins, no whip. Understood! You are something like an annoying talking backpack. Now shut up, otherwise I'll change my mind."

Grall bit his tongue and preferred not to say anything more. He slowly lifted himself up and hobbled along the narrow path between the bed and the closet and disappeared into the hallway. Izzy shouldered the rack and waited for Grall to come out. His father followed him, and they spoke to each other in the goblin language that Izzy didn't understand. Goblins spoke most of the time in the common language that goblins and humans shared, only very private things were discussed differently. Izzy watched the scene nervously; she didn't really like Oozol seeing her like that, but now it was too late.