Goblin's Gold
In a land of Myth and a time of magic,
The destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of two young people,
Their names,
Merlin and Mira-Liana
It had been a few weeks since the Battle of Camelot and all was quiet in the city. Agravain had not made any new attempts to take over the throne, but he was still being watched.
At that moment, Mordred was in the library for Gaius.
He got the librarian, Geoffry's, attention.
"Yes, Mordred, what can I do for you?" he asked.
"Gaius asked me to fetch a book for him," he said. "The Vestry of Cambria."
"The Vestry?" repeated Geoffry. He smiled and chuckled. "I haven't seen that for many years. It'll be somewhere in the East Wing. I've no idea where."
Mordred silently groaned at the thought of searching endlessly for the book, but didn't complain aloud as he went into the East Wing of the library and began searching. He looked upon many shelves of books until he finally spotted the book, on the very top of the highest bookshelf.
"Right," he murmured. "It would be up there."
He was still quite short and reaching the book would be difficult. He was tempted to use magic, but decided it wasn't worth the risk and began climbing the bookshelf instead.
He reached up as far as he could and put his foot on a lower section, only to have that section move and the bookshelf to turn around and reveal a hidden room.
What is this place? He wondered.
It was full of even more bookshelves and there was plenty of dusty, cobwebby junk to go around. He began looking around the room until a large book on a shelf caught his eye. He looked through the pages to see it was a book of magic.
This must be where Uther placed magical items after the Great Purge. Wanted to keep an eye them, no doubt, he realized. He put the book down and decided to leave, only to accidentally kick an octagon-shaped box that let out a growl and started thumping.
"Oi!" said a voice.
Mordred looked down and saw that the box was moving. With great difficulty, as the box was quite heavy, he made the box stand up.
While Mordred had grown up in several ways, he was still a child and didn't know everything about magic. And children are always too curious for their own good. It was because of that curiosity that Mordred ignored his common sense and opened the box.
Seconds later, he recoiled as a two-foot tall, green-gold creature with a tiny black ponytail, pointed ears with gold hoop earrings, tiny tattoos on its body, and gold eyes, dressed only in brown pants jumped out of the box.
"Boo!" it said.
When Mordred didn't reply, the creature said, "Are you going to say something or shall I?"
"You-you can speak?" said Mordred.
"You're a sharp one," it said, patronizingly. It stretched its arms and legs. "I can't tell you how it good it feels to be out of there."
"Shh!" said Mordred, quickly making sure no one had heard the creature.
But the creature wouldn't be quiet. "I have been squished inside that box for more than fifty years! So, I'm to have some fun!"
It started leaping onto shelves and throwing stuff while yelling its head off, despite Mordred's pleads for the creature to be quiet. When it broke a large black vase, that was the last straw.
"Okay, that's it!" said Mordred, frustrated. "You're going back in that back in that box while I work out what to do with you!"
The creature looked sad. "Oh, all right," it said. "If I really must."
Mordred nodded.
The creature got down and pretended he was going back into the box, only to put a mischievous glint on its face and leapt away and hide.
Mordred let out a frustrated growl as he started looking for the creature. He found it rummaging through a box and throwing the contents out. Quietly, Mordred grabbed a blanket and managed to sneak up on the creature and catch it in the blanket.
Moments later, the creature escaped and turned itself into a glowing ball of light which vanished through a crack in the wall.
Oh no! I'm in trouble.
He ran out of the room and found the creature throwing book at him from upon a top shelf before it ran off. One of the books it threw was the book Mordred had been looking for. Mordred grabbed the book and followed the creature's trail of mess.
XXX
Much to Mordred's horror, it was messing up Mira-Liana and Arthur's room.
He could hear it yelling about looking for something, and he peered under the bed when a boot was flung out from underneath.
"Mordred!" said a voice, startling him.
He looked up to see Arthur and Mira-Liana behind him, with their arms folded looking displeased.
"I really hope you have a good explanation for this," said Arthur.
"Mordred, for heaven's sake, what're you doing? Did you make this mess?" asked Mira-Liana.
"I do have a good explanation," said Mordred. "I didn't make this mess, but I know what did."
"And what did?" asked Arthur.
Mordred told them what had happened in the library and when he finished, they didn't look any happier than he was about the situation.
"Oh, that's not good," said Mira-Liana.
"Okay, well, I'll get someone to clean this up and notify Frik and Merlin, while you two go see if you can find this creature and get Gaius," said Arthur.
Just then, the door opened and closed.
"Oh, no," said Mordred.
Mira-Liana and Mordred ran down the halls, following the creature's messy trail to Morgana and Frik's chambers, where it was going through Morgana's jewelry.
"Get your hands off my mother's bracelets!" snarled Mordred.
The creature growled and took off again through the window and disappeared. Mira-Liana shut and locked the window and then they went down to Gaius's chambers where the others were waiting for them.
"Did you find the creature?" asked Merlin.
"We found, but we didn't capture it. It escaped through the window," said Mira-Liana.
"Not good," said Frik.
"Well, we'd better see if we can identify it," said Gaius. He started flipping through a book of magical creatures until Mordred found the right page.
"It seems you've unleashed a goblin," said Gaius. "Goblins are the most mischievous of creatures. Mischievous and dangerous."
"It didn't seem dangerous," said Mordred.
"Believe him, Mordred, goblins are terrible little pests. They will stop at nothing to get their hands on the one thing they value most—gold," said Frik.
Just then Arthur came in.
"You're needed, Gaius. On a matter of great urgency," he said.
"What is it?" asked Gaius.
"It's my father," said Arthur.
He took them to the door of Uther's bed chambers.
"One warning, though," he said. "Do not, under any circumstances, laugh at him."
That doesn't sound good, said Mira-Liana.
Indeed not, said Merlin.
They went inside and were shocked to find that behind the screen was Uther, looking very disgruntled and he was complete and utterly bald.
XXX
A few moments later, they left Uther's chambers.
"Only an enchantment could cause Uther to lose his hair like that," said Gaius.
"No doubt the goblin's to blame," said Frik.
"It was a goblin?" said Arthur. He'd heard plenty of tales of goblin mischief growing up. "Oh, good grief."
"I'm sorry!" said Mordred, looking ashamed. "It's my fault."
"Don't fret, dear," said Morgana. "No one's blaming you."
"We just need to catch the little pest before it does any real damage," said Gwen.
"And in order to do that, we need to set a trap," said Mira-Liana. "We're going to need gold—lots of it."
They gathered all the gold they could find and by nightfall, they were ready.
XXX
That night, they set their trap.
They rolled a gold coin into a hall and as predicted, the goblin came at it like a cat to string. It began following the trail of gold coins that were left on the hall floor and went right into the room where a small chest of gold coins was waiting.
It moaned in delight at the sight of all that lovely gold and lunged for it, only to be caught in blanket thanks to Merlin as Mira-Liana slammed the door shut and locked it.
The goblin then turned into a ball of light and tried to escape and evaded their efforts to trap it in a jar, and then it went right into Gaius's ear. No one saw this.
"Gaius?" asked Frik. "Did you see where it went?"
Gaius looked annoyed. "You let it escape, you stupid fools! Now you're all just standing there like sacks of potatoes. Go after it, shoo!"
"Gaius, are you alright?" asked Mira-Liana.
"I'm perfectly fine," he said, shortly. "Now, go."
Reluctantly, they obeyed him, not realizing that the goblin had just possessed Gaius and he was now practically drooling over the gold in the chest.
XXX
Mordred returned to Gaius's chambers a few hours later.
"We've searched the entire castle. There's no sign of—what happened here?" said Mordred, startled by the state of the chambers.
They were a complete and utter mess.
"It's that pesky goblin, you let it escape and now it has ransacked my premises!" said Gaius. "Now, you've got some cleaning up to do. Clean!"
"Where're you going?" demanded Mordred.
"To the tavern," said Gaius.
"But in all the time I've been here, you've never gone to the tavern!" he protested.
"Then I shall see what I've been missing!"
Gaius left the chambers, leaving Mordred alone.
Feeling quite worried, Mordred made a call.
Mother, Emrys, Emrysa, said Mordred.
Yes, Mordred, what is it? asked Mira-Liana.
Has Gaius ever gone to the tavern before?
The tavern? Good heavens, no. Why? asked Merlin.
Because he's just left for the tavern.
He's done WHAT? said Morgana. What happened?
I just came back to find his chambers a complete mess. He says the goblin ransacked them and told me to clean them and then he said he was going to the tavern to find out what he's missed, said Mordred.
Oh, this isn't going to end well, said Mira-Liana.
XXX
Mira-Liana was right as the following morning, Gaius had a massive hangover.
Mordred came down from his room and was concerned at Gaius's state. "You look terrible. How much did you drink last night?"
"Don't look so good yourself," he snapped. "What's your excuse?"
Mordred looked surprised. "What?"
"Shh!" said Gaius. "Too much talking. I have the head like the inside of a drum and a mouth like a badger's armpit."
Mordred nodded. "Want me to make you a hangover cure?" he asked.
"Yes, and when you're done with that, make yourself useful and go to the market and fetch my breakfast."
"Okay," said Mordred.
Mordred quickly whipped up the hangover cure and poured some into a bottle. He gave it to Gaius and then left for the market.
XXX
Trouble soon followed as Gaius suddenly started being rude to everyone and patronizing, he fooled around and was completely useless when he provided medical aid, slapped Uther's head in a fake effort to reverse the baldness and to everyone's shock, he started charging gold for his services and medicines.
Finally, Gwen reported this to others.
"Let me get this straight, Gaius chargedyou for medicine?" said Mira-Liana.
It didn't make any sense. Gaius always offered his services freely and he especially didn't charge family members for medical assistance.
Gwen nodded. "He didn't seem at all like himself."
"That's not all he's done," said Arthur. "He's slapped my father around the head, he's been giving out fake antidotes to people, and he's being rude and completely useless."
"What on earth's gotten into him?" asked Morgana.
"If I had to wager a guess, I'd say it's got something to do with that goblin," said Merlin. "Mir, Mordred, come on. We're going to investigate this."
They went down to Gaius's chambers and found him licking some of the gold that had gone missing from their goblin trap and then he hid the very chest itself.
Oh, we're so stupid, how could we not have noticed? said Mira-Liana.
I have no idea, said Merlin.
Mordred burst into the room and shouted, "You're the goblin!"
Gaius just stared. "Have you lost your mind, Mordred?"
"No, but at least you have or at least been taken over!" said Merlin.
"Don't be ridiculous," said Gaius.
"We know Gaius as well as we know ourselves and you're not him!" said Mira-Liana.
Gaius threw back his head in mock shock. "Ah, you've got me. How do you like my new body? It's old and creaky, but it's ever such much fun!"
"It's not your body, it's Gaius!" said Mordred. "What've you done with him?"
"He's still in here, somewhere," said Gaius.
"Gaius has done you no harm," said Merlin.
"Leave him," said Mira-Liana.
"All right," said Gaius. "You've convinced me. On second thoughts, I think I'll stay where I am. I like it in here. The freedom, the gold, and the beer. Did I mention the gold?"
"If you hurt Gaius, I swear I'll kill you," said Mordred, angrily.
In all his time in Camelot, he'd come to cherish his mentor deeply. Gaius was like a grandfather to him and he would die first before seeing any harm come to the elderly physician.
"You'd be killing him," said Gaius. "You see the problem? I'm in him, he's me. We're all jumbled up in here."
He patted the boy's cheek and left the room.
XXX
Later that day, there was the usual meeting.
Well, almost usual.
Uther was hiding his bald head underneath a silly-looking hat. There was only trouble to report. The goblin had been vandalizing Camelot and stealing gold, but they couldn't tell Uther just yet it was a goblin. Instead they only reported that the culprit had yet to be caught and their efforts would be doubled.
Gaius found all this quite amusing and went back to his chambers laughing, only to find Mordred standing in there with his arms folded across his chest looking stern.
"Tell me you didn't find that silly meeting funny," said Gaius.
Mordred just glared.
"Not even a little bit?" said Gaius. "Just a teeny-weeny bit?"
"If you carry on like this, you're going to get Gaius killed," said Mordred.
"Mordred, you underestimate me. I have cured Uther of his baldness," said Gaius. "Yes, he tells me he's forever in my debt. I'm a genius."
"This has to stop!" he barked.
"I see no reason why," said Gaius. "Now, if you're quite finished, I'm going to the tavern."
He tried to leave, but Mordred used a spell to slam the door shut.
Gaius turned around looking quite intrigued. "Well, well, well," he said. "So you have a secret of your own, Mordred."
"Leave his body," growled Mordred. "Or you will regret it."
"Your magic may be powerful, but I have an advantage," said Gaius.
"And what might that be?" he demanded.
"I can hurt you," said Gaius, as he made a knife fly over to Mordred.
Mordred made it stop and made it come within two inches of Gaius's face.
"Alas, you cannot hurt me without hurting Gaius," he said.
Mordred realized the goblin was right and dropped the blade. "I won't rest," he swore. "Until I've found a way to force you out of Gaius's body."
And with that, he stormed out of the room in a fury.
XXX
The goblin now had a problem he planned to rectify.
He snuck back into the hidden room and took the magic book that Mordred had been looking at earlier. Once he had the book, he used it to incriminate Mordred, saying that the boy had magic and was behind all of Camelot's troubles, including Uther's baldness.
Arthur then tried to tell Uther that Gaius was possessed by a goblin, but as always, once Uther believed someone had magic, he was blind and deaf to the truth. A warrant was sent out for Mordred's arrest, but Lancelot was able to mislead the guards on Mordred's location, giving Arthur time to go off to warn Mordred.
Arthur ran into Gaius's chambers where Mordred, Frik and Morgana were researching.
"Arthur, what's the matter?" asked Frik, noticing his worried look.
"We've got a problem. That stupid goblin told my father Mordred is behind all this magical trouble and he's put out a warrant for Mordred's arrest," said Arthur. "I told him it was a lie, that it was a goblin behind it all, but as Gaius had a magic book for proof, he wouldn't listen to me. You need to hide, Mordred, quickly."
"Oh, no," said Morgana.
She grabbed Mordred's hand and they ran for it, accompanied by Frik, and hid themselves under the bed in Gwen and Merlin's house where no one would look.
More trouble followed as the goblin continued to be mischievous. He arm-wrestled the nights, drank the night away in the tavern, was rude and pulled pranks and it was just a complete disaster.
XXX
The following morning, the guards continued their search for Mordred, unaware the boy was hidden in plain sight. Lancelot was doing an excellent job of misleading them, trying to give Mordred and the other times to rectify their little problem.
"I never thought I'd be a fugitive again," said Mordred, as he skimmed through a magic book.
"We'll make this right, don't worry," said Merlin. "We've been through worse."
"Indeed," said Mira-Liana. "We need to get the goblin out of Gaius."
"And how do we do that?" asked Gwen.
"No idea," said Morgana.
"This book doesn't have the right information. I grabbed the wrong one by mistake," said Mordred.
"Frik, you can shape-shift. Go and sneak into Gaius's chambers, see if you can find it," said Merlin.
"At once, Master Merlin," said Frik.
He changed his appearance and left.
"I'm going to head up to the castle too," said Mira-Liana. "Arthur was supposed to be here half an hour ago. He's late and he's never late. I'm going to check on him. I'll be right back."
She walked back up to the castle and stood outside the door of their chambers.
"Arthur, love, it's me. Are you alright?" said Mira-Liana, as she knocked on the door.
She heard a strange sound in response to her call.
"I'm coming in."
There was the same sound again, making her frown in concern.
"Arthur?" said Mira-Liana, as she walked in the room.
She gasped and her hands flew to her mouth as she saw that sitting crouched behind the bed looking quite grumpy, was Arthur with the ears of a donkey.
"What's happened to you?" she asked.
Her only reply was Arthur pointing to his donkey ears as he brayed like a donkey and made several gestures with his hands.
"You confronted Gaius, didn't you?" she guessed.
Arthur nodded. In an effort to try and prove Gaius was possessed, he'd had a private drink with the old man, and had pretended to be glad that Gaius had "caught" Mordred and when Gaius had said he was looking forward to seeing the boy hanged, Arthur thought he'd had the proof he needed as Gaius would never do such a thing as he cared for the boy, Arthur confronted him and then the goblin had knocked him out and put an enchantment on Arthur so he wouldn't be able to speak of what he knew.
"Oh, dear. Arthur, he's possessed by the goblin. He can still access his magic; I thought you knew that."
Arthur gave her a look and made a few more gestures. He seemed to say, "Yes, I can see that."
Mira-Liana decided not to scold him for his foolishness as he'd already been punished enough. She knelt beside him and started scratching one of his ears.
"You poor thing," she said, soothingly.
Arthur closed his eyes in contentment as she smiled, before he brayed again reminding her they had more pressing issues at hand.
"Right, sorry," she said, as she stood up. "We're working on a plan. We'll figure out what to do, just stay here."
Arthur just nodded as she went back to Gwen and Merlin's house.
XXX
When she told the others of Arthur's predicament, she got a lot of stares and they looked as if they were trying not to laugh.
"Arthur's a donkey?" said Merlin.
"He has the ears of a donkey," she corrected.
"And the voice as well, I take it?" said Frik, looking amused.
She nodded. "He's braying like a donkey."
"Oh, so he's braying?" said Morgana, grinning.
"Yes," said Mira-Liana.
At that point, no one could restrain themselves any further and they all burst out laughing.
"We shouldn't laugh. It's not funny," said Gwen, as she ceased, laughing.
"No, no of course not," said Mordred, smiling. "Arthur is a donkey. There's nothing funny about that."
Everyone laughed again as Mira-Liana shook her head.
"He just looked so pitiful. I've never seen Arthur look like that," said Mira-Liana. "Have you found anything?"
"Yes, we did," said Merlin. "According to this book, if this host body dies, the goblin dies with it. So if Gaius is dying, the goblin will be forced to leave him."
"We have to kill Gaius?" said Mira-Liana.
"Just briefly," said Frik.
Mira-Liana sighed. She didn't like this, but what choice did they have?
"Okay, so once the goblin is out, what do we do then?" asked Gwen.
"We need to trap it in a box lined with lead, that's the only thing it can't escape from," said Mordred. He held up the box from the secret room. "Father brought this down. We need to trap it in this."
XXX
They set to work in Gaius's chambers.
While Merlin kept watch, Frik whipped up an antidote for some poison while Mira-Liana and Mordred poisoned the gold in the chest, knowing the goblin would lick it.
"Hurry, he'll be here any moment. Is that antidote ready?" asked Merlin.
"It's ready," said Frik.
"Good. As soon as the goblin's out of Gaius, we need to give him the antidote," said Mordred. "We'll only have a few seconds."
"He's coming, hide!" said Merlin.
They quickly put the chest back where it'd been hidden and then hid themselves as Gaius came in.
They watched as Gaius took out the chest and opened it. He then took out a handful of gold and started licking it. Just a few seconds later, Gaius turned pale and looked as if he had a bad taste in his mouth before he staggered backwards.
At that point, they emerged from their hiding place. Merlin had the lead-lined box under his arm and Mordred looked quite smug.
"You've poisoned me," he said. "You've poisoned Gaius!"
"You were warned and now you must pay the consequences," said Mira-Liana.
"Leave his body while you still can!" said Merlin.
The goblin did as he was told. A little light came out of Gaius's ear and started flying around Merlin.
Mir, Frik, give Gaius the antidote! Merlin shouted.
While Mira-Liana quickly held up Gaius's head and forced his mouth open as Frik poured the antidote down Gaius's throat, Merlin and Mordred were having trouble capturing the goblin.
It resumed its normal form and landed on Gaius's table and tried to escape from them by hiding, and then it made the foolish mistake of turning back into a ball of light and going into Mordred's mouth.
Mordred kept his mouth closed and then spat out the goblin into the box as Merlin quickly magically locked the box and sealed it shut.
They both ignored the goblin's pleads to be let out as they turned their attention to Gaius, who wasn't waking up.
"Why isn't he waking up?" asked Merlin.
"I don't know," said Frik, looking worried. "We gave him the antidote."
Mordred shook Gaius as tears came to his eyes. "Gaius, please, wake up! Wake up!"
"Gaius, come on, wake up!" said Merlin.
"So help me, Gaius, if you die on us, you stubborn old goat, we'll kill you!" said Mira-Liana.
At that point Gaius stirred. "Who're you calling a stubborn old goat?" he moaned.
Everyone laughed in relief as Gaius was held tightly in a group hug.
XXX
Later that day, they stood before Uther and told him of what had really happened. All the goblin's enchantments had been reversed and all his wrongs made right, thank heavens.
"You mean to tell me it was you, Gaius, who was responsible for the baldness and all the other troubles in Camelot?" said Uther, in disbelief.
"I fear I was, milord," said Gaius. "Or at least the goblin was, while I was possessed by it."
Uther nodded. "Magic has the power to corrupt even the most honorable of men."
"Indeed," said Gaius. "Though I must assure you, milord, that Mordred, was entirely innocent."
Uther looked relieved as he nodded again. "Then he is pardoned." He looked regretful. "Morgana, Frik, I was wrong to believe your son was guilty. I want to extend my deepest apologies to you. You're family and I should've given you the benefit of the doubt. If there's anything I can do to make amends, just say so."
Morgana and Frik just nodded, as did Mordred.
"I'm just glad that Gaius is no longer possessed," said Mordred.
The goblin then struggled to break out of the box, but could not break out as Frik, Mordred, Morgana, Mira-Liana and Merlin had combined their powers and added another powerful spell to prevent the little beast from escaping ever again.
"May I suggest that this box is kept where no one will ever open it?" said Gaius, noticing the uneasy look on Uther's face.
"Make sure it's placed in the vaults and then seal up the area," said Uther, to a servant. He turned to Gaius. "Gaius, do you know who was responsible for releasing the goblin in the first place?"
"I'm afraid I have no idea, milord," he lied.
XXX
That night, Gaius came into his chambers to find everything completely spic and span. There was a delicious chicken dinner was sitting on the table as Mordred poured them some apple cider.
"Mordred, what's all this?" asked Gaius.
"Can't I do something nice for you without a reason?" he asked, putting on an innocent look.
"Mordred," said Gaius.
Mordred sighed. "I'm just…I'm really, really sorry about what happened with the goblin, Gaius," he said. "I should've been more careful. I didn't know he'd possess you when I let him out and I'm really sorry."
Gaius smiled and squeezed his shoulder. "It's all right, Mordred. Everyone makes mistakes. The important thing is that we learn from them and move on. Besides," he added, with a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I could tell you a few rather interesting stories about Merlin, Mira-Liana and Frik."
Mordred looked curious as they sat down and started eating and talking as though nothing had even gone wrong.
