In a strange world as a Doppelganger

Chapter 24 - It all comes down to choices

Someone is crying, I can hear it. My eyes won't open at all. I am so tired but someone is crying so loudly. I try to force my eyes open and for a moment I can see the sad person crying to themselves. As my eyes focus, the image vanishes and instead there is a furry creature staring at me. It's the rat, I remember you. It nudges my face gently. The fur is so soft against my skin. Just as my consciousness fades out again I can just about make out a few small shapes coming close.

When I come too this time, there is a roof above me. It looks like a stretched out hide of some animal I haven't seen yet. I am feeling considerably sore in my body but as usual, rest has done its job. 
"Stay down for a bit, you've been out cold with a fever for two days; it just settled during the night", a small and wrinkly goblin with pale wiry hair is mixing something with a pestle and mortar. "You might also find that something is a bit different, we were all a bit startled when you started changing."

Not really lucid enough to process what she's saying, I sit up and is instantly wracked with pain in my ribs and become very dizzy. The I realize, that my line of sight is lower to the ground than I am used to. As I bring my hands up to my head they look greenish brown. I stare at them for a moment and try to figure out what's going on. Sitting there, dumbfounded, the old goblin comes over and hands me a piece of metal. It looks like a plate or something. As I hold it up, my mouth falls open. There's the reflection of a goblin. 

"As I said, we were all surprised", she walks back and continues to work. "Your wounds look fine but I bet you're severely sore. You have bruising all over you. What were you doing?" she gives me a look over her shoulder.

"I was-", my voice is different too. It's a little easier to speak, the mouth feels almost more comfortable than what I had before. "I was hunting... bugs... to the south", I can't help but move my mouth around and articulate in an exaggerated manner. She gives me a raise eyebrow.
"To the south of the clearing where I live, there is a part of the forest where insects grow larger than me. What I used to look like", in an attempt to show height I end up flinching from the pain in my chest. 

"Is that from one of them?" she waves a hand at the corner of the room, where my make-shift breastplate is leaning against a wooden post. 
"Yeah. From a small one. What did this though", I gesture to my chest, "was a lot bigger." I move the metal plate around to get a good look at myself. Sure, I am a goblin, but it's a very generic goblin. Even though they look similar, I still think that I could tell the ones that I have seen apart from each other. Looking at myself, I just look like a featureless goblin. I lie back down and stare at the ceiling of this hut. This must bee the effect of [Shapeshift] that the boggard elder mentioned. What triggered it though? How do I turn back? Can I turn back? "How long did it take for my body to change into this?" I tap my chest with my fingertips. 
"A whole night. You started changing as soon as the scouts got you here and by morning you looked like that", she doesn't even look over to me, just gestures in the air as she works. 

In too much pain to leave the straw cot, I spend the day observing the old goblin. A few times through out the day, a goblin comes in and picks up whatever it is that she's mixing over there. They throw me some glances, mostly confused or they do their best to avoid looking at me. This is so weird. I did learn that the old goblin lady is at level three. She's very different from the level two that I fought, why is that? 
"Can I ask you some questions", I throw her a quick glance and the keep looking at the hide in the ceiling. 
"What?" she slows her working pace a little but doesn't look over.
"Why do you seem weaker than the goblin I fought, when you are at a higher level?" the sounds of her grinding herbs stop for a moment and then resume.
"Choices. It's all about choices", someone walks in and talks to her for a bit. Everyone who's come inside the hut has made sure to whisper when talking to her. After the goblin leaves she continues, "I saw your level. Don't worry, I didn't pry at your skills, I know decency. It's rare for an intelligent creature to not begin at level one", she takes a long breath, "We goblins tend to stick together and use our numbers to get what we need and therefore very few ever reach a level above four; even if they reach old age."
"Then what about the one I mentioned and yourself?"
"Gnark, the one you bested in combat, got his level increased on a fluke. He lured a whole bunch of beasts into a trap that he'd made. It got to his head and look where he ended up. When it comes to myself," she sighs and chuckles to herself, "I discovered a flower near here that has a paralytic effect if you boil a bunch of them. So I dipped my sticks, knives and arrows in it and slowly gained experience." 
"What about choices then, what do you mean by that? That Gnark chose to let his ego blow up and you chose to be careful?" I turn my head to look over, maybe she'll give something away with body language. 
"No no, nothing such. Well, that too. When you gain a level you get to make choices and depending on what you choose, your life can change in all sorts of ways."
"Huh", I look back upward, "Interesting." I have to level up!