All characters are owned by George Macdonald except whatever OC's that I manage to come up with, purely fan made and inspired after reading all the great PatG fanfics
"I don't wish to go." An angry Harelip crossed his arms over bare, tanned chest and walked away from his father who was dressing in front of a reflective slab of mica.
"Come now," Gazlowe murmured with a gentle persuasiveness, letting his hand touch the top of Harelip's bony shoulder.
Harelip shuddered away from his father's touch and clutched a hand over the spot where his father had touched him and turned away so he wouldn't have to see his father's open eyes.
A silence rung in both their ears and Harelip gazed hatefully at his reflection in the mica.
Now Harelip wasn't ugly human for a human, in fact, he just passed for human and honestly, he also just passed for a goblin, just on the bridge between both worlds.
But that did not stop the spread of rumours against him, claiming that he was the most ugly of all goblins, that he could turn you to stone with just one look; Nevertheless, Hairlip, despite the rumours, was just plain ugly for a goblin, not quite hideous, but all the same ugly.
Harelip, did not in fact, have a hare-lip and his eyes were not quite human and slightly rounder, like a goblin's, his mouth was slightly wider, like a goblin's and his nose was slightly pointier but all the same passable for human. There were some characteristics that were more goblin, like his feet and head; however, there were human features from his mother like his skin, practically void of the typical green that most goblins seemed to be dyed in and his mousy blond hair.
Harelip had simply become his name from a famous goblin also named Harelip, but there failed to be a cleft in his lip so most often Harelip was simply referred to as Hare, a pet name that his father often called him.
"Hare, I know this is difficult for you—but this is for the best." Harelip only turned further away from his father, a toddler's grimace caused slight wrinkles to dent his head as his brow furrowed.
"This isn't the best, you won't have time for me anymore and you'll only care about her and that creature." Harelip clutched his shoulders and glared at the wall in front of him."
Gazlowe sighed, almost in relief to hear that Harelip's only reason for his resentment towards the union of him and Mefeero was that Harelip worried he would be left out of the picture, which Gazlowe would never let happen.
"I would never let that happen. This new goblin is going to be a part of our family, Mefeero is a part of our family now, or—she's going to be very soon and that means that there will have to be some adjustment—but none of that would ever stop me from caring about you."
Harelip looked up at his father with teary eyes and winced. "Bu—but that baby is going to ruin everything—they both will."
"No, No Hare, this will only help our family grow, and this baby, if we didn't go through with this, that baby would be cast out, without a home and loved ones. You wouldn't want that now would you, Hare?" Harelip just avoided his father's eyes and continued to sulk in front of the reflective mica. "Besides you'll learn to like Mefeero, once she and the baby are here for good it'll be like a real family." Gazlowe tried on a reassuring smile on but this only seemed to send Harelip into a more desperate state than he had been in before.
"But I don't—I don't want a step-mother," said the toddler, who was well versed in the knowledge in the world despite being younger than his instructors, "Why can't you marry my mother, my real mother."
Gazlowe flinched back; he didn't make it too obvious and closed his eyes, "she can't—the sun people—people like you mother—do not belong in our world, they only put all our people in jeopardy any time they come in contact with us." he whispered, and choked a bit. 'Now look at me, I almost sound like my father,' he managed to bitterly tell himself.
Three years had already passed and the very notion of her could still hit him where it hurts.
Harelip frowned deeply, held his chin to his chest and huffed.
Gazlowe backed away for a moment, retiring to the room opposite to his and at first Harelip had fancied his father disappointed in him and began to weep but Gazlowe returned before a single tear could be shed.
He was not by himself.
In his arms Gazlowe held a sort of package, about three hands in length, two hands wide and one hand thick, as if it were a perfect rectangular slab of rock.
Yet it was not.
Much lighter and far more precious than a mere stone jewel, it was laid into Harelip's arms; it hardly weighed more goblin cat.
"The day I found you, this was with you. I had a feeling that—your mother always wanted you to have it." Harelip opened up the delicate thing and flipped the individual slices of fabric between. They weren't coloured but each slim sheet was stained a crisp gold. "I always thought she wanted you to have it—here" Gazlowe reached out and was about to turn it to the very first page where there was a drawing, one he thought Harelip might enjoy but the young Goblin-Sun boy briskly pulled back, along with the book.
Gazlowe did not proceed to bother his son, but allowed the poor infant to hold tight to his chest this slight comfort, this last significant connection to a mother that he would never know.
"If you don't mind, I would like to look at it father—before the ceremony." Gazlowe nodded and began to exit the room before he turned back to Harelip, smiling at the thought of this little victory.
"Don't forget to wear your best clothing, Hare."
All Gazlowe got from his son was a toothy grin and a wave goodbye as he spread the beaded strings hanging down from the top of the door.
Gazlowe shook his head, and smiled as he headed down the hall to his own chambers where he was to finish the preparations on his own outfit for the wedding.
Back inside the room, Harelip flipped the blank pages of the new artefact his father had just handed him. It had once been his mother's, it was something she once touched, something she held close to her.
Mefeero would never replace that feeling, Harelip saw right past her tricks, she may have been beautiful, everyone knew it, she had to be the most beautiful Goblin in the entire underground city, but that beauty was deadly. Nothing told Harelip that Mefeero was dangerous more than her beauty.
Harelip smiled, not particularly cruelly but defiantly at the very least.
That damnable temptress, Dreadstalker, would marry his father and she would use him for all he had—then that illegitimate spawn of Satan would be born and take all of his father's attention.
But Harelip now had this, this book and it had been given to him by his mother, a mother that probably still thought about him.
And one day, he would take his father away from the clutches of Mefeero and her reprobate child that had roped his poor father into this plot and back to the arms of the woman Gazlowe truly loved, back to Harelip's mother and they would finally be able to live at peace and become the family Harelip had always wanted.
But Harelip and his father never did get out of the Goblin city to find Harelip's mother, a couple of years went by, Mefeero's child was born and the kingdom was fully in the hands of Gazlowe and as Harelip had predicted, the new goblin, the new Goblin Prince in fact, took most of Gazlowe's attention.
This, more than anything, fuelled the cold disdain that Harelip now harboured for the younger Goblin Prince. Not only this, but due to the fact that Harelip would never be able to inherit the throne himself because of his birth mother aggravated the situation.
But Harelip would never do the younger Goblin Prince harm, for it would inevitably hurt his father. No, Harelip would never do harm to his younger sibling, but a cold heart began to form within Harelip.
But the Queen was the happiest she had ever been since the death of Korumn.
Now the only thing that rivalled Mefeero's hatred of the sun people was the love she had for her son and it was indeed a happy day when the Prince was born because not only did they have an official heir, but it was the most handsome and royal looking.
Deep within Mefeero the anger still burned, everything she wanted to do all the suffering she yearned to cause the sun people and their kingdom. Often there were nights she stayed awake, lying in bed and thought upon revenge, never did she doubt she would have it but deliberated as to when the right time would come for such action.
Mefeero saw it and in more than one occasion she saw her son, the leader of such a plot and briefly envisioned and relished in the sweet agony of the Sun People's downfall at the hands of her child.
Mefeero thought of how cruel he would be, how malicious, the way every Goblin Prince ought to be.
His name was Froglip and he was the sole heir to the Goblin Kingdom.
Well there's a little insight into Harelip character on the day of Gazlowe's marriage to Mefeero, Harelip's really just an angsty two year old that doesn't want to share his father with anyone else at this point.
I also thought I should mention... Harelip is the name of the Goblin Prince in the book and Froglip is the name of the Goblin Prince in the movie, so I decided to use both names, but for two entirely different characters who both happen to be Goblin Princes, so just to clarify Harelip is the son of Gazlowe and the sun woman and Froglip is the son of Mefeero and Korumn.
There was no music to go along with this chapter, there won't always be, but I can promise for a fact that in the future a lot of the chapters will be named after songs that inspired me to write them.