Fredrick's Journey: The Beginning

Book 1

By: Carlyn Stuart (Lord Carledo) Brooks

Ryeen was an odd goblin, for many reasons. He was one of the only

who could speak human in the tribe and he did not like to fight unlike the other goblins. He often felt he didn't belong with them. His father was a mediator who spoke many languages including human with fludity. His mother was a gatherer and ran away from another tribe and Ryeen not long after. His mother's name is Clorron and his father goes by the name Kreg. He could only lift 50 pounds which isn't much for a goblin of his age. He never did find his true calling until one fateful

day...

Ryeen and his two closest friends were out protecting Froog mountain on a foggy spring day. Trau and Pinnagh were busy sharpening their arrows and knives while Ryeen was on top of the mountain keeping look-out. After several hours, the gang had become weary of waiting, not to mention hungry. So Ryeen took the "short straw", which in reality was just some grass they grabbed without looking, so he went out in search of food. It wasn't long before he ran up on a varg and a hrewn fighting. He would wait for them to fight to the death then scare the other away and take back the carcass. A hrewn was a curve-horned, huge, sparrow-like creature and a varg is basically an evil more muscular wolf. Naturally, the varg won and Ryeen ran from his hiding spot screaming a warcry and sure enough the varg fled. For a single varg is cowardly while a whole pack is a true danger to travelers. Ryeen was returning with his scavenge to Trau and Pinnagh when he heard human tongue. Being a farely young goblin he knew only about half of the human language.

"Give me thyo shuval, I'm tired ot digging this darl road! Besaids, we don'd get peid enoogh to dig this darl road." He only understood certain words but it was enough to understand,they were going to make a road over the goblins' sacred Froog mountain! He ran over to Trau and Pinnagh to tell them the news. They seemed disturbed by this news, yet thankful for their overhearing. When the workers came over the hill they ambushed them putting an arrow in one of the workers shoulders and a lopped off thief foot. Suddenly, a very badly pronunciated "Stop!" rang through the air. The weird thing was, it was in goblin. A man stood behind the three workers and two thieves. This man was dressed in ragged robes and his pockets were absolutely stuffed with books Ryeen had only only seen in his father's bookshelf. All different languages, all differently made. Ryeen questioned him in English,

"Do you know Goblin?" His accent was of course just as bad in human as was the man's in goblin. Surprised by Ryeen's intellegence he shot back at him in human.

"And you know human?" At this point Ryeen couldn't remember the human word for agreance so he merely nodded. "Listen," he spoke in goblin again, "Maybe I can make you deal...."

A huge conversation followed here after and lasted long into the night, Ryeen, his friends, and the humans were actually getting along aside from the exchange of punches Trau and Yoshi, a thief, that were given early on. Ryeen learned that the workers were hired by the

kingdom and were making a road to their newest trade city, Kilk. The robed man with all the books turned out to be a human mediator whose name was Jose but liked to be called Jo. The two thieves, Yoshi and Drake, were always with Jo and were dear friends and allies. The kingdomwas looking to improve relations with other races and would pay them dearly to fight with the humans. Ryeen was al for it, his mother had disappeared one day while gathering and his father

was off doing exactly the same thing as these humans wanted him to do. Trau and Pinnaugh's parents died in a battle against the SUA(Southern Undead Armada) and could care less. The quality of everything at the village was sinking anyway as many of the hunters and healershad retired. Being that the generation for work had a decrease, disease and hunger were striking the village leading to the tribe's demise. After being told this, the human said if they joined they would inform the king of this and have him send help. The kingdom was in a time of prosper and the royal treasury reached nearly 1.5 million gold! The treasury back at the tribe was at a mere 1500 gold!

Eventually, the goblins were convinced and helped the workers build a road AROUND Froog Mountain and travelled to the trade city of Kilk. Buildings and guilds covered every concrete covered corner, the city was simply amazing. People were a smiling few of which looked starved or diseased, all of which pointing at him, Trau, and Pinnaugh. They were just as fasinated of seeing goblins in the city as the goblins were of the city. The huts and simple block buildings of the tribe were nothing compared to these large straw, adobe, and concrete buildings of Kilk.

"We'ty here!" Said Yoshi as he stopped in front of a hansom brick building with a flag of a coat of arms on it swaying in the wind. As they stepped inside, Jo confronted Ryeen.

"Listen we're here to hire a knight to join and while we're here in Kilk, we might as well register you with a human-like name as Goblin tongue names may be hard for humans to pronounce. So ask your......... comrades about getting a human name. No insult meant."

"Yes, I will, thank you...." Stuttered Ryeen back in human. Ryeen went over and told Trau and Pinnaugh of these ideas. Both which objected to the idea, they figured it would be polite to their deceased parents if they keep their names even in a human town. Ryeen agreed to their ideas and said that he would only be human named around humans but he would be forever Ryeen. Ryeen went back and told Jo and Jo did not look surprised and then he read off a list of names still available and one inparticular caught his ear. "Wait," He said in goblin, "I want that name, in the human world, I am Fredrick..."