The hobgoblin couldn't understand the way the others were looking at it.
It was rare for it to receive any gaze from them that wasn't filled with contempt or mockery.
And now? They looked at it with something the hobgoblin had never expected to receive from its own kind.
Gratitude.
The feeling only left it more confused.
It hadn't saved those children because it wanted the tribe to survive.
When the other goblins abandoned the children, its body simply moved before it had the chance to think.
There was no way of knowing that acting to save them would lead to the Oni using that action to let the others live.
Long before the Oni ever appeared, it had always found itself looking after the young whenever the opportunity arose.
Someone had to.
The adults were too busy fighting one another, hunting, or proving who was stronger.
No one cared whether the children were actually prepared to survive once they were forced to "prove" their worth outside in the forest.
It did.
