Editor's note: this story contains scenes of non-consensual or reluctant sex.
*****
The door to the tavern opened, bringing in a cold draft that made the lights in the common room flicker. A figure stood in the doorway. It was a naked girl. She looked to be no more than 20 winters old. The light from the fire turned her skin golden. There was no hair upon her sex. The small lips between her luscious thighs were completely bare. Few of the common folk had seen such grooming.
But it wasn't the girl's nakedness that frightened the tavern guests the most. A creature sat astride the girl's shoulders. Its face was hidden underneath a hood, but in the flickering lights, they could see its sharp teeth glimmer.
The girl had a harness around her head and a large bit between her teeth. Her arms were bound behind her back. Rings pierced both her nipples. Her large breasts were bound at the base, making them bulge outwards. It was an obscene display.
"Puck greets the humans," the creature said, as the naked girl carried him into the room. Other girls carrying similar creatures on their shoulders brought up the rear. "The goblins have traveled far and wish to spend the night at this fine ... establishment."
The tavern keep coldly observed the entourage from behind the bar. "What is the meaning of this?" he asked them. "Who are you creatures? Why have you bound these girls this way?"
"The fillies that carry the goblins are their trusted beasts," the head goblin said. "The goblins have won them in honorable conquest. Puck be great hero. He has collected many mares for goblin-kind." He sniffed his long nose. "Puck smells many mares in this room. Worry not, kind human. Goblins come only to rest this night."
A young woman stood up. "I know of goblins," she said, as she was a bard and well versed in the lore of far away places. "They have no women of their own, so they travel the world gathering human women to use as beasts of burden and mothers for their goblin-spawn." She looked at the tavern keep. "You better watch your daughter. And keep you valuables hidden. These little pests are like magpies."
"I locked up my valuables the day you arrived," the tavern keep mumbled. He did not trust the bard, as she was a woman of ill repute, due to her chosen profession and her acid tongue.
The head goblin held up his hand. "Worry not, kind human," it said. "Goblins come not to take from humans. They have traveled far." He took out a pouch of gold and threw it to the tavern keep. "Please, bring the the goblins' mares to your stables, as they are tired from carrying Puck and his goblin band across the mountains."
"I'd advice you to either take the money or call upon the warden," the bard said. "These creatures may be small of stature, but they are said to be viscous."
The tavern keep took a coin from the pouch and bit down upon it, denting it with his teeth. "You can stay," he said to the goblins. "With the King's tax, I can't afford to refuse guests that pay this well."
The head goblin bowed its ugly head. "Puck thanks you," it said. "But before he gives his steed away, he extend a warning to the good folk here. These mares we ride belong to goblin-folk. Any man who interfere with them will incur the goblins' wrath."
The tavern keep beckoned his daughter. "Emily," he said. "Bring these ... fillies to the stables and see that they are taken care of"
The daughter looked at the goblins and the girls who carried them. "They are girls," she said. "Father, they are young girls, just like me. How can ... we should call upon the warden!"
The goblins sniggered among themselves. Curved knives hung from their belts. Some carried bows. A few had spears attached to their steeds. They were tiny as toddlers, but their malicious smiles gave the villagers pause.
The head goblin rode his steed towards the tavern keep's daughter. "Puck understands that the young filly has not seen a tame mare before," he said. "The wild filly should not worry. Mares are very happy in goblin tribe. Much happier than they would be in barbarous human cities, where humans are huddled together in slums, living in filth and sharing disease. Goblin-mares run proudly across the open planes and through the deep forests."
The goblin then dropped down from the shoulders of his steed, vanishing from the sight of most of the patrons, before reemerged as he climbed atop a chair. The other goblins also dismounted and joined their leader at his table. The tavern keep's daughter was left to herd the ridden girls out of the tavern and into the stable.
Once they reached the stables, the keep's daughter unbridled the girls and removed the bits from their mouths. She also tried to unbind their arms, but the knots where unlike any she had ever seen before, and she couldn't figure out how to untie them.
"Don't bother," one of the girls said. "The Goblins learned to tie rope from the Gordians. You won't get that open without a really sharp knife, and our masters wouldn't like it if you ruined their rope."
"I could free you," the young tavern wench, whose name was Emily, offered. "I could cut your ropes and help you escape."
"Where to?" a girl with a strange accent said. "My people are far away. I would never make it back on my own."
"And the goblins would burn down your tavern, enslave every girl in the village and track us all down within hours," another girl said. "Unless there is a small army here to deal with them, I wouldn't take my chances."
"How can they be so dangerous?" Emily asked. "They are all so little. I bet I could fight them. I would only need a long stick to hit them with."
The girls rolled their eyes. "I guess that is why they win so often," one of them said. "People underestimate them. But the goblins are cunning and they are ferocious like rats. We've carried them into battle. Many times I've been sure we would lose, but the goblins always pull through."
"Our enemies see us as victims, I guess," another said, "so they make sure not to hurt us. That makes it easy for the goblins, because they are so small and difficult to hit when they sit atop our shoulders."
"Aren't you victims?" Emily asked. "Don't you hope the goblins will lose one day, so that you can be set free."
"I've stopped hoping for that," the girl said. "And if we were ever set free, what would become of us? We would never escape the stigma of being former goblin-whores. The world isn't easy for a young woman with no family and a ruined reputation."
"I knew a girl who had taken part in a skirmish against the Amazonian warrior women," another girl said. "She said that the goblins found the Amazons easy to break, because they knew the tribe would not take them back after they had allowed themselves to be captured." She sighed. "I guess it isn't quite as bad for us."
"But bad enough," the first one said. "I dread to think how the people of my village would look at me if I came back." A tear rolled down her cheek. "...or my parents."