Free Wings by E. D. Baker

blinking away the tears that only a goblin with some human ancestry could shed.
    Jak knew that he wouldn’t be going home for a very long time. The island was far enough from any goblin holdings that unexpected explosions or spontaneous screaming wouldn’t disturb anyone’s sleep and isolated enough that water-fearing monsters like the snake women couldn’t eat the children. Drowned Goblin Lake was as big as a small sea, and Jak was staying on the only inhabited island.
    Over the years since that day, Jak had explored the island whenever he had the chance, sometimes with friends, but often by himself. On the days that a strong wind scoured the surface, he explored the underground caves that riddled the island’s core. By the time he was fourteen he could find his way around the system of caves with his eyes shut, although even a halfling of the cat goblin clan needed only a small amount of light to see. Having decided that he wanted to map the ravines and caves, he became interested in maps in general. Learning how to read had been the next natural step, even though the other goblins made fun of him for learning something they considered useless.
    When the weather was good, most classes, like Raising Battering Rams for Fun and Profit; Throwing Your Voice to Intimidate Your Enemy from a Distance;and We Aim to Puncture—Spear Throwing, beginners through advanced, were taught out in the open. Even the more academic subjects such as Jak’s newest class, Transmogrification, were taught in the shadow of the outcroppings.
    On the first day of Transmogrification lessons, Jak hurried to the clearing where the students were to meet with the elder. Most of the other goblins were already seated in front of the tree stump where the elder would stand, and Jak was glad to see that his friends were there as well.
    Bella, a member of the bear clan, was a halfling like Jak, and they had become friends their first day on the island. Tobi, a goblin of the raccoon clan, had befriended them during a game of capture the skull when they included him and no one else would. Small and nervous, he preferred the company of the halflings over that of the more violent goblin children.
    Both Bella and Tobi looked up as Jak picked his way between the other seated goblins. “How was your holiday?” Bella asked, patting the rock beside her with a blunt-fingered hand.
    “Not too bad,” said Jak. He was taller than both of them, and although he had the slender build common to members of the cat goblin clan, he was already more muscular than his full-blooded relatives. “I cleaned the bone chute. Nihlo leaves me alone when I’m working so he doesn’t have to help me.”
    Unlike Bella, whose cousins Bruno and Barth were intent on protecting her from the goblins who hated halfhumans, Jak had learned at an early age that the best way to get along with his goblin cousin was to avoid him.
    “I can’t believe yer family made ya clean that chute,” said Tobi, crinkling his little masked nose in disgust. “They shoulda paid a scavenger goblin like most families.”
    Jak shrugged. “I don’t mind. It keeps …”
    “Shh,” said Bella. “Here’s Elder Squinch. Don’t make him mad. I heard he pecks you if you do.”
    Jak turned around when he heard a soft chirruping. He could see black feathers bobbing down the path that divided the clearing; the taller students hid the rest. Whatever the elder looked like, he had to be awfully short.
    There was a thunk as if someone had dropped something heavy, the scrape of claws on stone, and Elder Squinch hopped onto the rock behind the tree stump. He was a member of the bird clan, which meant he had a face like a man, but a large yellow beak instead of a nose or mouth. “Good morning, goblins!” he crowed, then cocked his head to the side as if waiting for a response.
    “Good morning, Elder Squinch!” replied a few tentative voices.
    “What’s that?” squawked the goblin. “I couldn’t hear