Not everyone was so unhurt, it seemed two of the warrior goblins, and one of each of the scouts and shaman goblins had died. Many more were injured.
Kurt had made a new batch of the health paste for injured goblins, he kept a tablespoon of the original batches as it still had shown no signs of wearing out, it had been almost three weeks, the shelf life seems very stable for now. But there was simply not enough, Kurt hadn't started trying to make big batches, and was working on making more. He had gotten help from the gnomes and goblins to gather the raw materials. Joe had recruited some other shamans, the empty hallway floors were made into a makeshift hospital. One of the floors was most likely to remain one in Kurt's mind.
The paste seemed to work very well, but some of the injuries were just too severe for the effect to entirely work but it would still help. There were now a few amputee goblins.
Things seemed to stabilize after a few hours, many goblins were let go after their injuries had seemed minor enough, and there were makeshift cots for the rest of them. He was assured that all he needed to do was make more of the healing paste, and get some rest. It seemed like most of the goblins that needed care, would live for now.
There was a loss but not a terrible one, the next brood would completely replenish everything he was told, and that they were about to be ready to leave the nest. Seemed heartless to Kurt, but there were burial ceremonies for the deceased that seemed to honor their death, cremation seemed to be the preferred method for goblins, and on the battlefield in victory as well. So there was a spectacle of fire for the funerals almost immediately, and it seemed much more joyous than Kurt would have expected, like their funeral pyres also signaled their victory to the world. It seemed death in a battle like this was how all goblins wanted to go. It had all happened before the war party left the battlefield.
Sara had taken a sudden interest in the defenses of Mary's well now, though Mary had a defensive system in itself. She was much more concerned with its security than before. And had gone off there to try and 'get things moving'.
The mess hall was in complete disarray when Kurt finally got hungry. The goblins were still in a victory celebration, they all had a wild exuberance. They were telling each other how their contribution very much ensured the victory. In seemingly boastful speeches. Others would taunt back with even more boastful speeches in disagreement. They were rowdy to say the least.
"Did you see the Warlord hanging off its face? What was he thinking?"
"What about my lightning bolt that took the first leg off? That was clearly the turning point."
"If we hadn't led them into the trap none of this would be happening!"
"See this," some goblin said, showing off a sword, "it delivered the final blow."
"No you didn't, it was clearly my spear."
"My fireball took out his eye, that's how it died, I got the brain too."
"I took out its eye," said Hank, who was apparently also in the mess hall.
"No, the other one's eye, the final strike of the battle. We all saw you get that blow."
"Damn right you all saw it," said Hank.
"If I had a Barbariape I would have gotten both eyes."
"Who said that? Say it again in front of me, I want to take a look at…," said Hank, unsheathing his blade, speaking a little slower "…both of your eyes." panning his head, giving everyone a big grin.
"Come on guys, can we all just share the glory?" said Kurt loudly.
A resounding, "No." was replied as a chorus from the mess hall, from every single goblin. Followed by a huge round of laughter.
"Well, can we at least just not start swinging swords around in the mess hall, there is a training ground downstairs, if you want to prove yourself to each other. Take it down there, you'll have no argument from me. Isn't the meal after a victory sacred, or something? I came here to eat, not die from you idiots fighting over who killed what. We won, isn't that enough?"
"Meals are best when in victory, this is a widely known fact," a goblin said. The rest of the mess hall seemed to agree with him, with some positive sounding grunts. And the hall started to calm down after with the scraping sounds of spoons and forks becoming louder.
Kurt didn't know what he was going to do with all of them. He just prayed he wasn't going to get a scolding from Susan in the morning about what the goblins have done to the mess hall. She seemed to enjoy cooking for everyone and she had a place for the baby to sit and watch her. But Kurt couldn't imagine she would be fine with that and with how the goblins were acting. And couldn't imagine it was going to be an early night for the goblins. She wasn't there but some of the shaman cooks were cooking in the back.
Kurt had suggested to Susan to drink some of the spring's water, but Susan refused because she was still breast feeding. And didn't know if that mattered or not and felt it was best not to risk it for the baby's sake, even if it probably wasn't harmful she wasn't going to be the one to test it. So she was a mundane human but said she would probably drink some after Robby stopped breast feeding, and thanked him for the offer. Kurt obviously knew nothing about the subject and respected the decision. But it still meant she was, by far, the weakest being there, after Robby of course.
She seems to have gathered enough respect from the goblin because of the upgraded quality of the meals, biting the hand that feeds you rarely turns out well for any species.
The goblins had seemed to calm down, in fact several had decided to go downstairs seemingly respecting Kurt's wishes to fight down there. He hoped he didn't just cause more injuries from it. All he wanted was a meal, the gruesome sight of the dead Lizard Ants, the wounded goblins, was still weighing on his mind. He hadn't expected to become a medic in this. But the effects of the paste was the best they had. It only doubled Kurt's conviction that he should continue research into the subject but also how to scale it quicker.
He knew it was basically a total victory, the injuries were mostly minor, other than the one that died in the battle, and the few amputees, which seem to take as a mark of pride somehow. Kurt was feeling good that they would all be back up soon. He didn't know how resilient goblins were but he didn't imagine they were easily killed and would mend with time. The vast majority of the war party came out with nothing more than scrapes and bruises. A few of the mounts had also died or ran off in the chaos.
Kurt ended up face to face with the best of it and the worst of it. He saw the victories from more angles than really anyone. Barely anyone saw High Shaman Simon's impressive display of magic, and not many people had a vantage point as good as Kurt's for the battle, at least the parts he saw, he even was there for the start. But he also saw the horror that resulted from it as well. After he'd gotten back he thought he would just give the paste he had to the healers or whatever and go, but after seeing some of them. Kurt felt compelled to stay and help. He had thought he would just celebrate with the goblins, but that had not happened. And while eating his meal, he didn't want to talk of glory, so remained mostly silent.