A quick glossary to help you understand who is who:

Lizard-tapir goblin: The small-sized ones with a short trunk
Aadvark goblin: The hairless ones with a round body and long limbs
Elf-bird goblin: The small-sized ones with a beak-like mouth and no lips
Dragon-toad goblin: The ones resembling toads with spikes (among which Bog's first love)

(no need to memorize them, I'll remind you and give hints about their appearance whenever they are mentioned to help you remember.)

Chapter 4 – No Evidence

Bog landed in front of the castle's skull entrance in a thunderous mood, panting slightly. The two trolls guarding the entrance with a leaf as an umbrella stepped aside as soon as they saw their monarch, not even daring to greet him.

"So? Have any fairies been captured?"

They shook their heads.

"He's back! Go tell him!" he heard Stuff's gruff voice say from inside the castle.

"Why me?"

"He'll be happy to see you."

"Really…!"

Thang jumped happily next to him in the throne room: "Welcome home, Sire! Two messages from the mushrooms."

Bog stopped and turned at the fish-toad goblin, a silent order to continue. They had found her already?

The small creature straightened his back proudly. "A turd ferry has entered the frost." The complete seriousness in which the small creature had delivered it made him roll his eyes. "Also, the two ferries are in Jupiter."

Bog palmed his face and groaned in a muffled voice while he went to sit on the throne.

"You know, sometimes we have boats, err, transporting… smelly things, and they have to enter the snow kingdom— wherever that is… Well, now, they have crossed the galaxy, and—"

"STUFF!"

The young troll appeared instantly, nudging their colleague aside.

"What's the message?"

"The two fairies are injured, your Majesty. And a third fairy has entered the Dark Forest."

He'd need a moment to catch both his breath and his thoughts.

She was injured? Maybe she had injured herself while fleeing, or while defending her peer from goblins? In that case, he was sure to hear from them soon… and it would probably make her an easier catch.

So, why the third fairy, then? A fairy looking after a fairy looking after a fairy?

They couldn't possibly be sending spies? No, they'd send a single one, not three.

If they were really after him, though, it was best to wait for them here, in the castle. He could make sure his mother was safe. Gathering his strength (while she certainly couldn't) also seemed like a great idea... He wasn't used to being awake in the middle of the day.

"Injured…" he murmured. "And another one that just came in. STUFF!"

The troll, who had been about to follow Thang out of the room, froze instantly and turned back towards him, eyes wide. Thang went to hide behind a door.

"No fairies have been found, yet?"

"No reports, your Majesty."

He grumbled some more, a hand on his chin.

"The border is being patrolled with dragonflies," Stuff added.

He clenched his fist in front of him and slammed it on his armrest: "Tell them they're not welcome until they bring me at least one of them!"

"Will do, Sire!"

At that, Stuff returned politely to their seat, down the stairs leading to the throne.

Thang went to sit next to them: "By the way… They said you fought very well, sire."

Bog went completely rigid. Stuff scolded him silently. They knew…?

It suddenly became clear to him how it all looked: he had just battled a female enemy… and hadn't mentioned it yet. Probably wouldn't have mentioned it at all otherwise. His mother'd think he was hiding something. He'd never hear the end of it.

"Who said that?" His voice sounded too quick and too high.

"The elf-birds, Sire," Thang continued. Stuff let out an exasperated sigh. "Through the Mushrooms."

"Well, perhaps they don't see well in the daytime. Because it wasn't me. They have no evidence."

Both his servants turned their heads completely to look at him. He returned their looks with a thick mask of anger to cover his bafflement: "'Something you want to say?"

"No, your Majesty." Stuff laughed nervously and they both returned their gaze to the front of the room.

Bog passed a broad hand over his face, as if smoothing out his skin would smoothen out his mind.

"Do not… ever mention that to my mother," he muttered between his fingers.

They looked at him again.

"Not a word," he continued, gritting his teeth. "You hear me? I didn't find any fairy. There was no fairy on my path."

They slowly nodded their heads. "Yes, Sire." "Okay." Neither of them said anything after that.

Well, all he had to do now was cross his fingers and hope that his mother never came across that little story.

Now, the third fairy… The only reason the woman might need reinforcement, he guessed, was if she was seriously wounded and in a state of dire vulnerability. How satisfying that would be, to tower above such a fierce creature, gazing into her fierce, fierce eyes, telling her that she had no choice but to surrender, to know that he had at last conquered something wild and hot-tempered. Only then would his honour be saved, since, after all, she had escaped him once already!

The nerve of that woman… No, that would not happen twice. Moreover, nobody had to know about it. He needed her in his grip now.

That convinced him that he had to go back out there himself to look for her.

And if he saw another fairy, he swore to himself he'd kill them on the spot. No more playing games.

As he was getting up from his throne with a grunt, his mother cheerfully entered the room.

"Oh, Bog, you're not going to believe it! I found you someone positively perfect to spend time with!" She gestured behind her and a tall ant woman went to pose next to her.

"Not now, Mother!" He hastened his pace.

"Meet Arin, a record-breaking rock plates—"

"No." She'd never leave him alone if he stayed. The ant woman left apparently crestfallen.

"What do I have to do to help you find company?" she nagged in response. "I don't know what to look for anymore, at least give me a hint!"

He sighed loudly and stormed out with his staff: "I am not having this conversation with you."

"Don't worry," he heard her call from behind him. "Imma keep trying for as long as it takes!"

He stepped back into the rain, hunching his shoulders to avoid water falling directly on his face. He gathered all the creatures he could find in the vicinity (except for the guards, which he tasked with the protection of his mother), and directed them to the general area where he had fought the fairy woman, along with the instruction to bring them back alive.

Right before he headed there himself, the shower doubled in intensity. He glared at the leaves covering the sky —and immediately regretted it because a drop went straight into his left eye.

Weren't fairies incredibly weak under the rain?

As much as he wanted to find somewhere dry to rest first, something told him he should keep looking, just in case she really was in a bad state.

A prisoner was more useful when it was healthy, obviously. There was no other reason he felt that way. Not him, nope.

"Okay, what was I going to do?" Griselda silently asked herself before heading back to the kitchen, behind the throne room. She caught the arrogant smile Stuff finally felt free to show.

"They didn't catch any fairies?" she asked the troll.

"No. But the king… he got caught."

Thang smirked with them: "That's what I thought too."

Griselda smelled potential gossip. There was no way she could resist asking nor stop the large smile that grew on her face. "What happened?"

"The elf-birds say they saw him fight a fairy… a female fairy," Stuff whispered the last part, a hand covering their mouth towards the older goblin.

"But he denies it," Thang finished, rolling his thumbs innocently.

Griselda slapped her hands together near her cheek in delight. "And he's hiding it from me? This is a sign!"

The troll walked to the skull entrance with that same smirk on their face. "You didn't hear it from me, Griselda."

"What? Wait, did he really order that specifically? That means you just disobeyed him?"

Stuff turned around, momentarily fearing they would be ratted out. In the end, they shrugged and kept going: "The elf-birds are going to talk about it anyway."

The mushroom planted closest to the castle was doing wide hand signs, Stuff noticed. They hurried to it, covering their face.

"Too bad, he just left," they told the fungi. "What is it?"

"The whole fairy army is sick," the mushroom whispered to their ear.

"Okay, I'll let him know."

Marianne walked painfully through the rugged terrain until she found the soldiers' hiding place. Her wings were soaked and she was freezing.

"Guys!" she called when she got closer, hugging herself with her arms and her wings. "Are you okay?"

They didn't reply right away. In fact, they weren't there anymore. Instead, there was a large puddle —which was probably the reason they had moved.

Now, how was she supposed to know where they had gone? She threw her head back and roared a loud curse at the trees (then stopped herself, remembering bad people were looking for her).

With the poor light, it was hard to tell which shapes in the mud were their footprints. They hadn't left anything behind them either, suggesting they hadn't been in a hurry.

It probably was her imagination, but she could have sworn there was a large and detailed drawing of a flower in the middle. She had thought fairies were obsessed with them but this just confirmed it...

Oh, but this was not good. Not good at all. She was soaked to the skin and terribly cold. If someone found her —if he found her, she wouldn't be much of a challenge anymore. And that, both her competitive spirit and her pride couldn't accept it. She had to improvise herself some kind of shelter so she could dry her wings, or at least until the rain cleared.

Maybe Roland had been right after all?

No, she refused to go down that road. Even the tiniest credit was credit she couldn't give him.

"Princess!" someone suddenly whisper-screamed, somewhere.

Relieved, she spun around frenetically, trying to find the source of the voice. She found the soldiers waving at her from inside a fallen tree trunk.

"Quick!" one pressed her as she was running to them. "There are lots of dragonflies around here…"

She climbed inside and decided to sit there, between them, in miserable silence. Her makeup was a mess for sure, so no point in trying to save face. Literally.

"How are your wings?" she asked, rubbing her arms.

"It's getting larger for me…" replied one timidly.

"Me too," said the other.

"We have to go home right now," she reminded them. "We're all wet anyway, so why waste time here and not try to go home?"

"But… the rain is the cause of the black spots, your Highness."

She turned towards the one who had said that.

"What do you mean?"

"Whenever water touches our wings, it gets bigger. And it burns, it's… really painful. Even now. It's kind of scary…"

The other one nodded. She hid her face in her hands.

"So we really have to wait for the rain to stop… But nobody saw you so far, right?"

"Nobody, your Highness."

"Good."

While she was still burying her eyes, the two soldiers shared a confused look.

"…and you, your Highness? Did you see anyone?"

She jumped ever so slightly, then uncovered her eyes with a nervous jerk.

"Err… No, no. I didn't. I was looking for something to act as bandages. But it's just too… everything is too wet, so I came back."

Why was she unable to tell them about him?

"Are you sure, your Highness? Because—"

The other soldier made a cut-throat gesture at him behind the princess's back.

"…err, because there are really lots of dragonflies in the area. It's a surprise you weren't found."

"Lucky for me, I didn't see any," she replied with the nervous laugh of someone unable to hide their own spontaneous lies. "I think we're safe here until it stops raining."

The soldiers shared another look, abashed, and shrugged silently, then continued staring at the falling rain.

A soldier once unfurled his wings a little bit, careful not to touch anyone, and softly brushed the scales that were not damaged. Marianne could tell they were trying not to show signs of pain. The black spots looked sticky.

After a short while, the rain doubled in intensity. They shared a long collective sigh of annoyance.

"Don't worry, Princess," said one in a reassuring tone. "Sir Roland must be on his way already. He'll help us out."

Marianne's very round eyes suddenly turned to him. "Are you… kidding? Roland?"

She jumped out of the trunk and started looking around in quick movements. "No way. There's no way that… that buffoon is going to be the hero of the day. We need no saving, I can guarantee you that. No, I'm finding you a leaf, and we're going home. Now."

They stared at her like she was crazy. "But– But the rain–"

"Now." Before walking away, she added: "It's an order."

Not one to wait for a comeback, she hurried to the first solid-looking plant she could find and tried to tear away a leaf. There was a feeling of urgency in the way she pulled on the branches.

It had just taken the mention of Roland's name to remind her that she was absolutely capable of handling a situation like this one.

A situation where she is unable to fly, in charge of two wounded soldiers who are also unable to fly, fleeing an unknown aggressor that had seemed to grow fond of her (for some reason) and that could probably lead his entire kingdom to trample her own if he heard what happened to these soldiers. In other words, a situation where a war could potentially break out between the two territories if she made a small mistake.

No big deal, right?

The leaf she was trying to tear finally came down, but the branch part was too short for them to hold above their heads. Holding back a furious desire to rip it apart and curse some more, she threw it behind her and kept searching.

The soldiers looked at her struggle from a distance.

"Why do you think she doesn't want to tell us about that creature from earlier?"

"I don't know. Maybe something happened after he tossed her sword?"

"Do you think… she killed him?"

They turned to each other.

"Maybe. That wouldn't be out of character for her."

"But… but she's just a princess. She doesn't really know how to fight, she just fakes it."

"No, I think she really knows."

They turned back to her.

"But… there wasn't any blood on her."

"Maybe that creature doesn't bleed?"

"Come on, that's impossible."

"Yeah… but what else could have happened?"

They held back a laugh when only the leaf snapped under her hands and she threw it away angrily behind her.

"Maybe she fell in love."

The other one turned to his companion, visibly scandalized.

"How can you tell?"

"Come on, you saw it too! She brought her face, like, super-close to his at least once. And she was doing cool poses for him the whole time. We don't have any evidence but it's pretty telling, isn't it?"

"Dude… That'd be awesome."