"I've honestly never heard of a goblin. It's nice to meet you, though!" His knee-jerk reaction to hearing this person grew up among humans is sympathy, but he's smart enough to know that's probably not the right thing to express, and he holds his tongue. At least until he learns more about the situation.

"I'm...kind of an elf," he says. "But more like an alien, to you, I guess. I'm from a planet called Arraka'ar. Humans, um, visited our world thousands of years ago, and we resembled their folklore about elves, so they started calling us that, and it stuck. If you know any Earth-elves, I'm not the same thing as them. As far as we know on my world, they're just a legend, but I guess legends have more weight in a place like this."