Chapter Four
"Ravie!" Mimion cried out as Ravie finished telling her story of what had happened to her the day before.
"I can'ts believe you do that!" Copperpot exclaimed.
"And gots away with it!" Fifo grumbled.
"Jeez, you are all acting like I challenged the monster to a fight!"Ravie laughed as she grabbed an egg from the basket Copperpot had brought and popped it into her mouth.
"Uh, you kinda did!" Mimion exclaimed, "You being in Kingy's study is like yous get in fight with monster. It worse!"
"Actually, no. Monster is bader." Fifo interjected, "Monster could kills yous. Kingy just kick yous into stinky bog."
"No matters. Is still dangerous." She snapped, then turning her attentions to Ravie, Mimion snarled "And if yous get kick into stinky bog, do not thinks yous liv'in with me anymore."
"Not like it's much better than the bog." Ravie teased, earning herself a smack on the head.
"Serious Ravie! Me means it!"
"Alright, alright! Don't worry, Mimion! I'm planning on never going back to that room ever again. Those documents were so boring! If I had to do them again, I might voluntarily jump into the bog."
Fifo and Copperpot laughed at that and Mimion, trying to hide her smile, said sternly, "Well, at least you learn your lesson."
"And I've learned it well." Ravie added with a shiver at the memory of the documents.
"Hey!"
All four friends jump at the sound of the new voice. While Mimion, Fifo, and Copperpot confusedly began to count to see if they had overlooked anyone, Ravie turned her attentions downward and saw the grinning face of a tiny redish-brown goblin standing in the streets.
"Hey Jojen!" Ravie called back with a cheerful wave, "Do you want an egg to eat?"
"No." He said, his broken toothy smile still in place, "But we better start heading back Ravie. Marcus is not in a good mood."
"Is he ever?" Copperpot innocently asked.
"Of course, just not when Ravie's around." Jojen jested, making all of them laugh.
Saying a swift good-bye to her friends, Ravie then jumped off the roof of Fifo's house, landing as gracefully as a Goblin could next to Jojen. Then the two of them headed off, but not without Mimion's last words of "Ravie, don't be smarty!" following them as they rounded the curb.
Laughing out loud, Ravie shook her head and her laughter eventually quieted down to a huge grin.
She was thus caught completely unaware when Jojen suddenly asked, "So, what did King Jareth do to you?
Nearly tripping over her very own feet, Ravie caught herself just before hitting the pavement and, as she straighten herself out, demanded to know how he was aware of her meeting with the Goblin King.
Looking slightly perplexed, Jojen explained, "He came into the library with Marcus yesterday looking for you."
"Looking for me? Why were they looking for me?"
Alarmed by her confusion, Jojen asked in bewilderment, "Didn't he tell you when he found you?"
"No, he didn't say a word." Ravie said and then, by the look of Jojen's disbelieving eyes, further explained, "He just found me digging around his study for a book."
"Ravie!" Jojen groaned, "How could you have been so stupid? I thought everyone knew where his study was!"
"Oh, I do know." Ravie grinned wickedly, "he just didn't know that."
Not being able to help himself, Jojen smiled and said, "I don't know whether to think you're brave or you're stupid."
"Why not both?" Ravie laughed and he joined in.
Their laughter was cut rather short, however, as soon as they rounded the corner. For there they found themselves in the most uncomfortable situation of nearly running head first into Marcus.
Quickly regaining the balance of the books that he held in his arms, Marcus eyed the two littler goblins with a piercing glare as he snapped, "There you are! I need you at the library. Right now!"
Rapidly nodding their heads, the two of them started to hurriedly rush passed him but Ravie found herself being prevent to by the presence of Marcus' foot.
"Not you!" He snapped as Ravie peered up at him with confused eyes, "King Jareth wants to see you!"
He was about half way down the hall before Ravie could finally stammer out, "What-why?"
Marcus, turning the corner, rolled his eyes and simply snarled, "Just go and ask him!"
That did little to comfort the rapidly growing panic in Ravie's chest.
Seeing that Jojen was looking extremely worry, she gave him a little reassuring smile as she told him to go on. He wished her good luck. Then, hesitantly, Jojen turned around and scurried off to the library leaving Ravie all alone. She watched him with a anxious expression until he had completely disappeared from her view. It was then when she turned around, and with a deep steadying breath, began her slow assent into the Goblin King's lair.
Her footsteps rang loudly as Ravie walked down the hall. Her mind was attempting to focus on the sound instead of all the possible gruesome punishments that the Goblin King might have in store for her. Though the thought of the bog, an oubliette, or being a Fiery's chew toy sounded absolutely awful in her mind, what disturbed Ravie the most was, curiously enough, the fact that she had no idea what she had done to deserve this.
Hadn't I served my punishment for trespassing into his room by filling in the documents? Ravie thought as she twisted her ear agitatedly; Maybe he's punishing me for annoying Marcus? No, probably not. He mentioned it before and seemed much more amused than angry about it. And it can't be about not finishing the work- I finished those documents long before nightfall. Did I do something wrong? Forget something? Not completed them in 'Goblin King' standards? Or maybe he found out about me lying that I didn't know that the room was his study...
That notion absolutely terrified her.
If the Goblin King knew that she had been purposely digging through his things, and out of all things his magic books, Ravie didn't want to even consider any of the possible minor punishments she would receive. Only to make matters worse, Ravie was fairly certain that she wouldn't get a minor punishment because today was Thursday: the Goblin King was never in a good mood on Thursdays (or really day if one was to be honest).
A bogging suddenly didn't sound half that bad to Ravie's ears.
But what sounded extremely awful was reality slamming in her face for she now found herself standing in front of the looming door that lead to the Goblin King's Study.
Her time had just run out.
Taking a steadying breath and fighting the increase of strength that gravity had suddenly gained, Ravie pushed the door open. With a low creak, it opened just a smidge and, peeking her head inside, Ravie came across a scene that was not at all unfamiliar for the room. The Goblin King sat at his desk, his eyes scanning a document that laid in front of him and his right hand twirled his quill pen absentmindedly.
Taking one last breath before her awful fate, Ravie made herself step inside and the door fell shut once more. The Goblin King, however, did not seem to notice the tiny noises and so Ravie forced herself to walk over to him and when she felt that she was a good enough distance where his boot wouldn't hurt too much, Ravie finally squeaked:
"What is it that I can do for you , Your Highness?"
He seemed strangely surprised to see Ravie suddenly standing there- in the middle of his room- and for a short moment Ravie had hoped that this was just some horrid act of revenge from Marcus.
Sadly, that hope quickly flickered away as the Goblin King's face settled back into its usual state of boredom and finally said, "Good. You're here. Now do these documents for me."
Nearly falling over from the complete and utter horror, Ravie couldn't prevent herself from shouting out "What!"
"You heard me. Do these documents."
"Why?"
That seemed to have hit a nerve.
"Because I am your king and I command it." He growled, his eyes narrowing and his mouth twisted into a snarl.
"But may I at least know what I did wrong?" Ravie stammered, her courage faltering at the sight of the angered King.
"Wrong?"
"Yes wrong. Why am I being punished?"
It was as if someone had just then flipped a switch for the Goblin King, who not just one second ago had been glaring at the little goblin, was now chuckling uncontrollably.
Ravie stood frozen in absolute terror. As far as she had known, the Goblin King wasn't capable of laughter, so this only could mean one thing: she was in deep trouble.
When the Goblin King's laughter finally subsided, he said, "Punished? It does seem a bit like a punishment, I suppose. But no. I am just far too reluctant to do this work and since you had done such a marvelous job on the last pile, I do believe that you will be able to do any other one just as well.
"Well what's in it for me?"
That came flying out of her mouth before Ravie had even thought of it and she quickly clamped her mouth shut, watching with fright of what she had just done.
As quickly as his amusement had come, his anger had flared. The Goblin King looked down at the green-eyed goblin and sneered, "What's in it for you? Does the offer of me not tossing your worthless little hide into the Bog of Eternal Stench not sound pleasing to you?"
To Ravie's horror, her recklessness took over again and she found herself saying, "Well now, why do that? Sure, you can make me do all this work, but after a while I'll just grow unhappy and, well, who knows? Something might just be written incorrectly. But now, if there's something in it for me, well, there's much less of a chance of that happening. See my point?"
The Goblin King's face was impassive as he stared down at her for a long, long time until he finally growled, "Are you blackmailing me?"
"That's for you to decide, Your Highness." Ravie said, adding a curtsy with the knowing dread that she had just sealed her doom.
After a moment of angry silence, the Goblin King finally snarled, "Or I could just kick you into the Bog right now."
"Yes, but then, unless you want a very smelly goblin who's very unhappy with you to be doing your work, you'll probably be doing all this all by yourself again, and do you really want that? Of course not. That's why we're in this conversation to begin with."
So much for not being a smarty, Ravie thought, grimacing to herself as she remembered Mimion's warning of earlier today.
While Ravie stood anticipating the awful judgment of her fate, Jareth could only stare at the goblin in disbelief. Never, in his so many years of being Goblin King, had he ever had a conversation like this with another goblin. Not even Marcus dared to argue at him like this, much less blackmail him, and yet here was this little insignificant goblin saying all these things as if he had no control over her. He had half the mind to praise her, the other stronger half was to kick her against the wall, but the one single thought that he had to bring himself to agree upon was the fact that the damn goblin was right.
"Fine, what is it that you want." He snapped at her, causing her to jump in alarm.
The relief on her face was evident, and Ravie, after trying to breathe again, said the first thing that naturally came to mind.
"I want to read your books."
The Goblin King hesitated for a long moment before snapping, "Fine. You can read all except for the magic books."
Ravie bit her lip for a moment. It was, after all, the magic books that she had wanted to read the most, but Mimion's warning came back to her head and Ravie, after reasoning that this deal was a thousand times better than what she had been anticipating moments before, at last said:
"Fine! We have a deal!"
And what a deal it is, the Goblin King thought to himself as he eyed the green-eyed goblin with interest as she scurried over to begin her new job.