The Hole was an establishment in no way condoned by the law in the dwarfen city, officially. In a more realistic sense, it hurt nobody that hadn't signed on for just what they got and it served as a way to keep more respectable patrons away from the degenerates who would partake in the Hole's product. How popular it was defied reason, for some, when the brothels in the red light district had every sort of flesh available in this world from dwarf girls to demon-blooded ones, to even the couple of elfs who were eminently desirable and their half-elf daughters (and sons) who did what they could with their mothers' spillover of patronage. Even if one had the strange taste for green skin, there was still the pair, and only the two of them, of orc women who had surrendered during the most recent war against the demon-kin.
However, The Hole had goblins.
Almine, called Almond by some, was one of those competing half-elfs and was at this moment in the process of serving tea to a couple of women in her room that had asked for her by name and paid the extra fee for bothering her on her supposed day off. She'd barely had time in the morning to brush the head of bright, blonde hair above her cute, pointed ears and wrap herself up in an airy robe.
"You two are up early for it today," Almine said, placing the china down for her customers at her room's little table. "I'm sorry that you had to come here through all of the day's setup, but now that you are here, you are the only things left in my world. Would you like to start with some music, or perhaps a dance?"
The smaller of the two women, covered entirely under a hood and wrapped further with a scarf so only her eyes glinted out through the shadows of her clothing, was only about four feet tall, but too skinny for a dwarf that wasn't malnourished, said to her companion, "Aren't we going to fuck?" with a slightly hoarse voice.
The other, a rather normal human with cute, brown curls, obviously a mage judging by the bag she carried, responded, "Lappy, most high-end places also have the girls entertain beforehand. Sometimes sex doesn't even come into the equation."
"Misses?" Almine brought her slight form up and swished across the room to retrieve her strings, making sure her pert butt swayed in an eye-catching fashion with each step. "Of course we could 'get right to it' as they say, but don't you think you would fancy a tune beforehand? I happen to think myself quite proficient."
The mage extended her hand across the table and Almine shook it with a loose touch.
"Sorry, but this visit won't actually involve that. My name is Leigh and my friend here is Lappy. I happened to hear through the grapevine that you yourself might have some connections that I would like to make use of. It has to do with a business opportunity that I'd be willing to let you in on."
"Connections?" Almine said. "I don't know what you might have heard, but I rarely if ever leave this building anymore. And no, I can't give out details about my other customers; if you're someone's betrothed then I'm afraid you will have to leave here with your curiosity unsatisfied. That said, you have paid and I would be more than happy to play you a set regardless."
"I suppose it is somewhat illicit, after all," the mage said with a sigh. She reached to the side and pulled down the hood of her companion...
Almine was careful not to show her shock. "You have a goblin, do you? I don't do anything with them, but I would still allow the beast to watch if that is enough to satisfy you. Otherwise, I'm afraid I'll have to refund and send you on your way."
The creature had mild, green skin, its face bridged with poxmarks, but it wasn't as horribly ugly as the breed was supposed to be outside of captivity. Pug gobs were slightly better still, but this being was too thin under its heavy clothing even to be one of those; a female pug gob not only wouldn't have that scarring, but its huge tits would be more than visible tenting the cloak, and a male wouldn't be able to placidly sit and wait as its master did business. Then there was the shaggy, black hair, much thicker than was seen in the wild, and the saturated, yellow sclera. What it was, when Almine had been staring for a few seconds too many for comfort, was confusing.
The two of them were waiting for the elfin beauty to make a move, but Almine was capable of tossing them out all by her lonesome if need be, so sipped her tea assured of her safety. She did, however, finger a small knife hidden beneath the lip of her side of the tea table.
It was made clear to the mage that she wouldn't get anything more out of the elf for free. A single gold coin was slipped onto the middle of the table and disappeared into Almine's sleeve.
"Business, then, not entertainment?" Almine said.
The mage petted her goblin girl's hair with a smile. "Catching on, are we?"
Almine let out a breath and slouched back onto an arm, crossed her legs even though it exposed pretty much everything, just because it was more comfortable that way. "Could've told me before I went through the effort to get all dolled up. Do you even know how much this lip stain costs per bottle? It's more than you think, alright?"
"And there it is," the mage said. "The name is Leigh, again, I'm working on a project in the forest involving goblins like Lappy here. And you see, when I was investigating the man in town here who was selling the services of some pugs, there emerged a description of a certain someone who-"
"Who goes in down into a pit and lets the stud gobs go to town on her for a crowd of adoring patrons," Almine finished the woman's sentence. "So what? There are literally thirty other half-elfs in the city with shoulder-length, blonde hair and I'm related to the vast majority of them. Try telling people it's me, all you'll get is a shrug of disbelief. After all, 'Almond never leaves the district, she doesn't even do house calls for her best customers.' and Bal'er is well known to fuck anything you bring her with a pulse, or without one, so if anyone's fucking pugs, it's her."
"I don't think you understand what I'm here for."
"Yup," Almine said. "So you should start tellin' me before I throw the both of you out on your asses. And be grateful I didn't call in our boys to rough you up either for bringing that thing in here with you."
Reaching for her drink, Almine felt as her hand slowed in the air and came to a dead stop. She couldn't drag it back or let it fall even when she scrambled onto her knees to really pull. Across the table, the mage was staring daggers, and the sense of motionless progressed up Almine's arm, across her chest then down her legs; when she tried to scream for help, her breath caught in her throat and she was frozen there, unable to so much as turn her gaze away.
The mage slowly came up to her feet and stepped to the other side of the table, out of sight. Her breath tickled Almine's peaked ear. "You're starting to annoy me, but don't worry. I only have an hour of your time after all, so I won't leave you as a statue for the rest of eternity, and I'll make sure to wipe out the memory since I'm well aware how traumatic this sensation can be. You're going to listen to me now.
"I'm in the process of breeding a clan out there for higher intelligence, docility, all that good stuff. But you see, I'm a little stuck because as it turns out if you breed the same group into itself for a few centuries you end up with some pretty horrible results. I'm fairly sure this is what happened more or less with the ancient goblin clans but that's neither here nor there. Anyway, to avoid this bottlenecking, I want to purchase some studs and some sluts from the breeder.