Here we are again, back at the training grounds. Mama said she wanted to clear her head, so she blind folded herself and had the sprites attack her at different angles. She was doing really well, until grandpa hurried in shouting, "Marianne!"
"I'm kind of busy," Mama informed him trying to blow him off.
"Marianne, the Elf Spring Festival is tonight, and I want you to be there," grandpa informed her huffing all the while. He always makes me nervous when he gets so out of breath from flying. Maybe I should ask chef to start preparing healthier options for grandpa…
I decided that what they were talking about wasn't all that interesting and returned to my book. It was about a princess befriending a dragon and going on adventures together.
The dragon had just batted the chauvinistic knight into another kingdom with the flick of her tail, when grandpa pulled me back into the conversation.
"And I'm sure Imogen would love to attend the festival and play with the other elf children her age!"
"Wai-what's going on?" I asked blinking from the page in my book.
Grandpa gave me an exasperated look while mama laughed at my aloofness.
"Alright, fine, we'll go to the festival tonight," mama told him in frustration.
"That's my girl!" Grandpa exclaimed while pulling mama into an impromptu hug. She resisted at first, but I caught a smile on her face in the end.
"Okay, okay, enough of that…Gen? You okay with going to a festival tonight?" Mama asked trying to get some feedback on what I thought about it. Well, I would prefer just staying home…where no one can stare at me, but the elves are nicer than the fairy court so it won't be too bad. Plus, a festival with rides, games, and dancing does sound like fun.
"I'm in," I told mama decisively with a nod of my head.
"Sweet, lets get you ready!" She cheered before putting her sword away and pulling me into the air. I laughed at her enthusiasm as she twirled me in the air. I can honestly say that I don't mind mama dressing me up. She always puts me in pretty colors, and I do adore colors, plus she makes sure that I'm comfortable in everything I wear. Mama is so keen on comfort that she never puts my hair into a hairstyle that is too tight or too eccentric.
Really, I don't think the woman could ever do wrong in my eyes.
"Aaaaannnddd…done!" Mama happily cried out as she finished weaving small daisies into the messy bun on top of my head. I smiled at the cute daisies but was really impressed at the mini vine earrings that looked like they were crawling up my ear; that was a neat finishing touch.
Mama had placed me in a faded yellow dress with a deep emerald green belt to cinch the waist. My feet were adorned with matching green ballet flats that I was more than happy to twirl in and show off the look to mama.
"So cute!" She cried out as she hugged me. "Truth be told you're probably the only thing that is going to keep me sane and get me through this evening," with that last admission, she started packing up her hair brushes and ties.
"Uhm…we don't have to go if you don't want to go, mama," I nervously told her while shuffling my feet. I don't want to force mama into something she doesn't want to do.
"Oh, no, wait—ah, me and my big—sweetie, it's not that I don't want to take you to the festival. It's just well…sometimes mama doesn't like all the attention and stares she gets and…it gets to her. It has nothing to do with you—I'm so excited to take you to your first festival, okay?" She hurriedly reassured me while searching my face to make sure I understood.
I smiled at her in understanding, "I get it mama, you just want to blend in or go to a place where not everyone knows who you are."
"Exactly, baby girl. But it will all be okay, you know why?" She asked me while lifting my chin up.
"Why?"
"Because I'll have the coolest, sweetest, funniest daughter in all the land by my side."
"Really?" I asked her excitedly, before cheekily adding on, "I can't wait to meet her!"
"Wha-why you little…" mama barked out in laughter before scooping me up and letting the 'tickle bug' take over until we were both a laughing heap on the floor.
Once we settled down, mama helped smooth out my outfit before taking my hand and flying us to the front of the elf village. Grandpa was ecstatic to see us and complimented my cute outfit. Aunt Dawn agreed that I was 'absolutely adorable,' but quickly went back to moping when grandpa told her she was staying beside him the entire night. He then told me to greet the elder chief of the elves who would introduce me to some kids my age. Mama wanted to come with me, but grandpa told her that it would be better for me to go alone and make friends my age.
She reluctantly agreed.
So, I was sent off towards the other end of the stage. Uncle Sunny climbed the stage at that point; I guess he was the entertainment for the evening. I wasn't paying too much attention to him though because I couldn't see the elder chief anywhere…
Maybe he went backstage to check on the entertainment?
I decided that just a quick look wouldn't hurt anybody and pulled back the curtain that separated the audience from the entertainment.
What I expected to see were elves scrambling to set up lights, instruments, special effects, etc. What I was not expecting was a huge, scaly goblin type creature and a smaller beak- mouthed goblin person tying up the stagehands. Before I could scream for help, long sinewy fingers with sharp, cracked nails, clamped over my mouth; stifling all hope for a rescue.
"What the hell? What's a kid…? Ah, never mind," the man picked me up with one arm, his other still clamped over my mouth, "You. Hold this, you can let her go once we're done here."
With that order he dropped me in the meaty arms of the larger goblin who immediately placed his hand…er…paw?... over my mouth.
"Shouldn't we tie her up?" The shorter one questioned his leader.
"It's a kid—surely you lot can handle a kid until I make my demands," the boss goblin deadpanned to his subordinates; not at all impressed with them.
"Oh, of course, boss…" they immediately acquiesced before shuffling to the stage to replace the band on stage.
"Stay here with the kid and don't move until after we capture the princess," he ordered the larger goblin before making his grand entrance.
My mind reeled, and I began putting up a huge fight.
They are going to hurt my family!
"Hey, stop squirming kid. Hey, I said stop tha—ow!"
I bit down on his meaty hand with all my might and got the oaf to drop me. I made sure to bend my knees when I landed to help absorb the shock from the fall. I didn't even give the big guy a second glance as I darted to the stage.
Mama was tackled to the ground, grandpa was being restrained as well as Uncle Sunny, and Aunt Dawn…where was…is she in that bag?
Oh, no, some goblins were lifting it up with dragonflies and…
"…I'll have your head on a stick!"
My head snapped towards mama's direction just as she sucker-punched the boss goblin. Internally I was cheering until I saw him lift his scepter to strike—no, no, no!
"MAMA, NO!" My mouth yelled before I could stop it, and I was racing towards them. "IMOGEN! NO! STAY BACK!" I heard mama yell, but it was too late.
Those long, sinewy fingers from before had a tight grip on the back of my dress. My feet dangled towards the ground as I squirmed and tried to hold back the tears.
"Well, well, what do we have here, tough girl," the goblin mocked as he dangled me in front of mama.
"Let her go! She's just a child and has nothing to do with this," mama pleaded as she saw the tears streak from my eyes.
I tried to wipe them away, but it only made it worst.
"Oh, but she has everything to do with this mommy dearest. Take this as retribution for that little stunt you pulled earlier," he growled out before pulling away and tossing me to one of the goblins on a dragonfly, "Here, hold onto the second hostage."
"This way we can make sure you, fairies, have ample motivation to bring back that potion," he sneered out towards mama.
"Take me instead!" Uncle Sunny cried out, catching the boss goblin's attention, "I'm the one who took your love potion."
"Then give it back," he growled out, menacingly leering over Uncle Sunny.
"I, uh, don't have it right now," Uncle Sunny pitifully admitted while looking away.
The boss goblin just growled out in more annoyance.
"You've heard my terms! You have until moon-down or you all WILL BE NEXT!" He threatened the citizens with a mighty roar before flying off with the goblins holding his hostages.
The heart-wrenching look of hopelessness on my mama's face is going to haunt my dreams for nights to come.
I tried squirming, biting, clawing, and even head butting my way to freedom, but it only got me into more trouble. Now I was currently hooked under the boss goblin's arm as he flew us back to…wherever the hell we were going.
My tears had, for the most part, dried up, I was only left with a few sniffles here and there, but my anger at this stupid situation did not fade.
I want to go home, and I want my mama.
I don't care how childish or babyish that sounds.
I WANT MY MAMA!
With my newfound determination, I decided to make one last ditch effort for freedom and tried elbowing the jerk in the stomach…unfortunately his stomach is plated, and I ended up hurting myself.
"Son-of-a-!"
"Watch your mouth!" he scolded me.
I went to yell at him that he wasn't my dad when we came upon a rotting tree stump with a giant animal skull as the entryway.
Just great…
We're all gonna die.
As soon as we made it into the entryway, the boss goblin dropped me on my behind, and walked towards his throne made out of…oh stars is that animal vertebrae?
Yep, totally done with all of this, I'm going home. No sooner did I get up to walk out the front door did a group of goblins approach me and circled around me.
"Bring me…the prisoner," the goblin king ordered.
Aunt Dawn.
I saw the large goblin bring the bag in front of the king before dropping it towards the floor. Aunt Dawn made an indignant squeak while I rushed towards the jerk goblin, swatting him away.
Whilst I was preoccupied with the fairy dropping offender, I heard one of the goblins snarl out, "I can't wait to tear off its wings."
"You are NOT touching my Aunt Dawn's wings!" I cried out turning on my heel to fend off whoever dared to hurt my family.
"Ha, looks like this one's already had her wings torn off," a gruff voice spoke up behind me.
"Yeah, along with her ears—have you ever seen a fairy with funny ears like that?" a nasally voice answered
"Nope, can't say I have…maybe she's not a fairy, but is an elf?"
"An elf? No way, she has too many fingers and is too tall to be an elf."
"Hey it's just a sugg—"
"WILL YOU IDIOTS STOP TALKING LIKE I'M NOT HERE!" I erupted my voice shrilling with all the rage from past judgements and assumptions. The goblins took a step back from my outburst. "I AM IMOGEN! IM-O-GEN! I'm not a fairy and I'm not an elf; I AM IMOGEN! And my mama said that if anybody had a problem with that then they will be beheaded! So, do any of you have a problem with what I am?"
The goblins proceeded to take another step back from my outburst, but I didn't care. These stupid tears just started falling again and no matter how much I rubbed at my eyes, they wouldn't go away.
Man, I hated being weak.
As soon as I find my way back to mama, I'm going to train so hard along side her that nobody will dare try to kidnap me or my family again.
I felt a large hand pat my head.
"Alright, that's enough of that, mini-tough girl. You showed them who's boss so dry your eyes and let's move on," the goblin king told me with another pat on my head.
I don't know why it worked, but it helped me calm down and stop the rest of my tears.
"You heard her you lot!" He barked out, getting his underlings' attention. "This is an Imogen and there will be no snacking on her or the fairy, understood?"
All of the goblins let out a groan of disappointment while backing further away from the bag. All except one large, meaty goblin that had his tongue sticking out.
"Brutus…" the goblin king warned, calling out the larger goblin and stopping him from continuing. Brutus let out a sigh of disappointment before joining his other cohorts. The goblin king then nodded at two of the smaller goblins to untie the bag.
Aunt Dawn was curled up in the fetal position with her wings wrapped protectively around her body. Before I could make a move towards her, the king's hand grabbed my shoulder, effectively stopping my movements and warning me to stay put.
"So, what do we have here…" I heard him growl out towards my Aunt Dawn. She was still rubbing her eyes with her hands when his voice got her attention.
When her vision cleared, and she spotted the goblin king, her eyes lit up with excitement and she did the one thing I never expected her to do.
She began singing.
"Sugar-pie, honey bunch!~"
"What?"
"A-aunt Dawn?"
"You know that I love you~"
Oh stars, why?
The goblin king tried scaring her away with growling and singing how he was evil, but Aunt Dawn was NOT being deterred. She started flying around and chasing the king around the throne room. Some of the goblins were saying how they should have taken 'the feisty one' or just grabbed me. I was so embarrassed by her behavior that I just face palmed and waited for the song and dance to end.
"Take her! Lock this crazy creature in the dungeon," the king yelled out while directing Aunt Dawn towards the ground before handing her off to some large goblins.
"Grab the child too! Throw her in the same cell as this lunatic; maybe she can talk sense into her," he mumbled out the last part while he shooed me towards Aunt Dawn who was still trying to grab hold of the king. I sighed before trying to help the goblins calm her down.
I may be a prisoner, but I'm not sadistic; nobody deserves dealing with my Aunt Dawn's love-sick clinginess.
Once we closed the doors, Aunt Dawn calmed down enough to walk down the stairs by herself. However, she did continue on her hopeful, lovelorn sighing until we reached the bottom.
"Alright into the cell," one of the goblins told us while holding the door open to a small, barred room with a single toadstool as a bed.
"Th-there aren't any windows," I told him whilst taking a step back from the cell; already feeling panic from the walls getting smaller and smaller.
"No…it's a dungeon—not a hotel room," the goblin informed me.
"Au-aunt Dawn?" I called out in a panic, putting my arms around her, pleading for her to fix this.
"Shhh…don't worry, Imogen. My sugar-pie, honey-bunch, won't put you in the small room, okay?"
Before I could ask what she meant by that, she was already laying into the goblins to take me back upstairs to the king and settle me in the throne room.
"But, but the king said—"
"The king didn't know that my adorable niece is claustrophobic and would never let such a cutie suffer from a major panic attack!" With that final piece of information shouted out, she stormed into her cell, shut the bars and shooed us with her hands to go back up the stairs.
The goblins looked at each other with confusion before closing the door to the room and leading me back up the stairs.
They seemed hesitant to let me in the throne room, but the goblin king's voice echoed off the walls in irritation.
"What is the kid doing out of her cell?" He growled out.
"Well, you see, sire, uh…she's claustrophobic and…"
"You have got to be kidding me," the goblin king said with exasperation before rubbing his temples, "I don't care if she is scared of small spaces or the dark! Put her in—"
He cut himself off when he saw me sniffling and tears welling up in my eyes.
"Ugh, fine! But don't you try to escape or so help me…"
I nodded my head in vigorous agreement, "I'll be good—promise!"
"Fine…you, bring a moss mat and a blanket, and set it up next to the throne. I want to keep my eye on you," he said the last part towards me before motioning for me to wait on the steps for the goblin to return.
"Uhm…what's your name," I hesitantly asked. I might as well know who kidnapped me.
"I am the Bog King."
"So…Bog or King Bog…or?"
"Bog King."
"…Mr. Bog King?"
"…Sure…" He conceded before rubbing his temples again.
The goblin returned shortly after and placed a large moss looking pillow next to the throne before giving me a large, gray, wool blanket. At least I think it's made of wool…
"Thank you," I called out to the goblin before I curled up on the mat with the blanket. Getting kidnapped was extremely tiring for a young girl. It didn't take long for my eyes to shut and my mind to go fuzzy with dreams.
I hope mama comes for me soon.
"I can't live! If living is without you!~"
"Huh, Aunt Dawn?" I tiredly asked before sitting up to rub the sleep out of my eyes. What's going o—oh yeah, I remember now. Aunt Dawn and I were kidnapped and she is in love with Mr. Bog King.
…Great…
Speaking of which, everyone seemed to be huddled around a stick with a cobweb bulb at the end. Curiosity getting the better of me, I stealthily made my way to the group to see what they were looking at. There seemed to be a tiny, blue fairy trapped inside and she was sassing the goblin king.
I like her.
"Sugar Plum, antidote, NOW!" Bog screamed at the fairy who was just singing with Aunt Dawn while everybody held their ears. Seriously, they were getting worked up over singing—they would not last a day in the fairy kingdom.
Feeling slightly bad for everybody, I decided to let them in on a little secret.
I tugged at Bog's elbow to get his attention.
He turned towards me with a glare before realizing it was me and softening the look.
"What are you doing up?"
"I heard Aunt Dawn singing."
"Does she do this often?"
"All the time."
"…Just fan-bloody-tastic…"
"But it's easy to get her to stop."
"What?! How?!"
"You need to do what mama does—trick her into falling asleep."
"And how do I do that?"
"I dunno, I can sleep through a whole band of fairies singing. You're the one in pain right now, you figure it out," I told him with nonchalance. Just because I feel a little bad for their predicament doesn't mean that I'm still not mad at them for kidnapping me.
"Ugh! Fine! I'll handle this myself!" He screamed out before flying off towards the dungeon.
I was about to walk back to my mat and go back to sleep when an old, wrinkled hand grabbed onto me.
"Awww, where did you come from cutie-pie?" A short goblin lady with auburn hair and a crown made of stringed rocks asked me.
"Ummm…the Bog King kidnapped me," I told her with confusion in my voice.
"Huh? I thought my son kidnapped fairy princesses?" She asked me in curiosity.
"Uh—yeah, he did…my Aunt Dawn is the princess in the cell and I am Princess Imogen, daughter of future Queen Marianne," I informed her with just a hint of pride in my title.
"Oh, aren't you just adorable!" She suddenly cried out before hugging me. "How old are you sweetie? Eight, nine years old?"
Before I could answer, the blue fairy spoke up saying, "She's seven years old, Griselda."
"Nobody asked you!" Griselda shouted back at the fairy.
"Wa-wait, do you know who I am" I quickly asked while trying to politely break out of Griselda's hug to get closer to the fairy.
"What do you mean who you are? You just told me your name and everything," Griselda impatiently reminded me, still a bit sore about me breaking out of her hug.
"She means before she was adopted and became a princess, Griselda," the fairy informed her in a bored manner before turning back to me with a smile on her face, "Yes, I know exactly who you are, little one, and it's about time you showed up!"
I heard Griselda excitedly squeal out about me being adopted and something about 'poor girl,' but my attention was on the Sugar Plum fairy.
"So, I'm seven years old then, wait I was six when I landed in the fairy kingdom? But…I feel like I'm—"
"Older?" She asked me while I nodded my head, "Look sweetie, sometimes life…well it ages kids faster than it should, but trust me when I say you're seven years old and to leave it at that."
"What do you—"
"What I mean is that you know how you had that gut feeling that nobody was looking for you? How it was better off that you don't remember anything from before?"
I could only numbly nod my head as everything she was stating was completely accurate.
"There is a reason for gut feelings and yours is on the money. Just keep doing what you've been doing and enjoy your new life with your family…oh, and one more thing…" Sugar Plum motioned for me to come closer to her cobweb prison; I obliged and leaned closer. "GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
"Alright that's enough of that," Griselda stated before pulling me away from Sugar Plum, "Come on, sweetie, let's see if we can't find you some crayons and paper to draw with."
With that being said; she perched me back on the moss mat and sent some goblins out to find some craft supplies. Griselda played 20 questions with me while we waited for the goblins to arrive with the materials. She's really nice in a goofy grandma kind of way…just wish her son would take some lessons from her.
Once Bog returned he looked more haggard than usual and slumped into his throne.
"Look, honey! I drew you the perfect bride!" Griselda happily chirped out as she held up a picture of a lady goblin cooking his favorite meal. "Show him your picture, Imogen!"
I smiled cheekily as I held up my picture.
"What, uh, sweetie, what is that?" Griselda asked me, trying to be mindful of my feelings.
"My mamma punching Mr. Bog King."
The Bog King didn't get mad like I thought he would. In fact, he seemed to like my drawing more than his mother's and gave a little laugh at the memory. Griselda didn't seem too pleased and had us drawing something else—anything else.
I drew more pictures of mama and me playing in the kingdom after that, and ended up falling asleep with one of my pictures clutched to my chest. I heard Griselda coo at me before feeling someone tuck my blanket around my small body, and make a shushing noises when someone got too loud.
My mind could be playing tricks on me, but I'm pretty sure that person was Bog…