Chapter 13
"Rav-Sarah, this coo-coo!"
"Yup yups!"
"You gonna deads!"
"Wow, thanks for the support."
This argument had been going on now for the past twenty-three minutes.
It had begun when the four of them had just finished eating a pleasant breakfast up upon their rooftop. Copperpot had popped one last boiled egg in his mouth, Fifo had snuck one last lick of Mimion's raspberry jam, and she and Sarah had been cheering on Kano, the peg armed goblin, who at that moment had been chasing after a stray chicken.
Suddenly the little clock tower by South Center Square bellowed out a nasty quack, proclaiming it to be two in the afternoon (Though truth be told, the clock was five hours and thirteen minute too fast). Doing the quick math in her head, Sarah stood up and told them that she was off to work.
And so twenty-three minutes and now forty-four seconds later, here they were, Mimion, Fifo, and Copperpot trailing behind Sarah, who was briskly walking up the cobblestone path to the castle.
"Rav-Sarah!" Mimion cried, finally getting in front of her friend, "You very dumb! You gonna be kicked!"
"Badder!" Fifo huffed, "Unthinkable bad thing gonna happen if he knows!"
"Please Ravie-Sarah!" Copperpot moaned, collapsing in a heap behind her, "Please!"
Sarah briskly slid past them and let out an immense exasperated sigh, yet a little radiant smile tugged on her lips.
Yesterday, it had been only her to be scared and worried of these sort of things. It had been only her problem of hiding the truth. It had been her all alone. But today she had her three friends beside her, practically jumping onto her to weigh her down in order to keep her from danger. They were sharing her problem, not abandoning her. With them on her side, why Sarah didn't even feel the least bit scared of what might happen next.
Well, alright, maybe she was a little scared.
"Guys," she huffed, as they had reached the gates and Copperpot decided to lunged at her feet, nearly making her topple over, "I have to go! I have no choice!"
"Yes yous have!" Mimion cried, close to tears.
"Yous can just no go?" Fifo offered
"Sure, because that wouldn't be a huge give away," Sarah sighed, rubbing her cheek, "I have to go, guys. There is no other way. Besides, there's a decent possibility that he may not even have known it was me. After all, he hasn't come calling yet."
Suddenly, the door behind them creaked open, sending Sarah and Copperpot flying into Mimion. Whipping around, the four of them stared at a tiny surprised Gippy who, looking at Sarah, burst into a grin and said:
"Ah, goody! You just made my job easy! The King's in his study waiting for you! He says it's urgent and you must arrive immediately or…" His face scrunched up as he pondered, "Oh dear, I don't quite remember the rest…"
"Eh, just say insert threat here…" Sarah replied, her ears flatting and her stomach lurching.
Gippy howled with laughter at that. Mimion, Fifo, and Copperpot, on the other hand, just stared at Sarah, their eyes nearly popping out of their skulls.
His job done, Gippy had quickly left them, his dog-whistle-like chuckles still bouncing off the stone walls. Turning tensely toward her three friends, Sarah tentatively waved good-bye and then slipped away, slowly disappearing into the castle's darkness. The three goblins stood there, watching her fade away as if this were the last time they would ever see her. They felt absolutely powerless.
In no time at all, Sarah arrived at the study's door. She stared up at it. She was so completely absorbed by its impending threat that she barely registering just how badly she shook.
She took a deep breath to ease her trembling, then another for courage, but she held in the last and swung open the door.
There he sat, like so many times before: at his desk, twirling his pen, tapping his foot. His eyes suddenly slid off the page and his and her gaze locked instantly; it was then that Sarah was painful forced to recall how his miss-matched eyes had looked yesterday: blazing with fury.
Her mouth suddenly felt extremely dry.
"Good, you're here." He drawled, snatching her attention, "We have a busy day ahead of us. It's time that we do the annual analysis of kingdom outcomes."
"Uh, wh-what?" She stammered, completely taken aback.
The Goblin King gave a long annoyed sigh. "We're looking at the annual records," He explained snappish "so as to compare last year with this year: what was better, what was worse."
"Oh… but it's August."
"And?"
"Aren't those usually done at the end of the year?"
"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were an expert."
"Coming! Coming!" She exclaimed, each syllable lightening the load on her heart.
Sarah quickly jumped up onto the desk, settling herself in her normal spot and finally felt herself breath liberally again.
I guess he didn't know after all.
She grinned and enthusiastically stretched out her hand, reaching for her black quill pen.
That's when it happened, the strangest of things. She had wrapped her claws around the quill when suddenly another one was right in front of her nose.
"Here," The Goblin King huffed, "use this one."
It was a very nice pen, one with a golden white feather, but Sarah was a stubborn creature of habit. She liked her old one, and there was nothing wrong with it, so she politely refused.
"Are you sure?" He said, inclining the pen closer.
Sarah eyed it skeptically again and firmly said: "Yes. I'm fine."
The Goblin King then pulled a strange face and took the pen away. Sarah, with an incredulous shrug, went onto compiling the documents.
An hour crawled by, and Sarah tossed aside her newly finished document along with her pen.
These documents are totally done at the end of the year, she thought grudgingly, stretching out her back. Why would resources ever get documented before January? After all, half of our stuff always gets destroyed when Matchbox has too much to drink during the December Celebration and goes on his torching rampage... I wonder why no one has ever put a ban on him drinking…
Pondering upon this point, Sarah went to grab a new document and to reach for her pen. An inch away from grabbing it, however, her brain caught up to her eyes and sharpened with alarm. Something was different. Her black pen wasn't there.
No, it laid two inches to the left and where it had laid before, now a golden white one laid in its stead.
What the? Sarah thought, casting an are-you-kidding-me glance at the Goblin King, who seemed to be wholly captivated by his work. Does it really matter which pen I'm using? Honestly you'd think- wait. Sarah casted another quick glance at him.
Calculating, she picked up her black pen and quickly glanced back at him just in time to see a flash of frustration strike across his face. Suddenly his gaze fell into hers. They both rapidly looked away, pretending nothing had happened. But undeniable something had: the message had been sent.
He knew and she wasn't going to back down.
In a frantic flurry, Sarah whipped through the documents. It was probably the fastest she had ever worked in her entire life. Heck, she thought, it was probably the fastest she would ever work in her entire life. She went so fast that well before noon, she had scribbled to a finish on the last document.
Sarah grinned, feeling that smug high flying happiness. She turned and was about to jump off the table and scurry away from the ominous presence beside her when, bam!
The force made her jump, and whipping her head, Sarah saw that, as if from thin air, a giant box overfilled with papers appeared between her and the Goblin King.
"What the heck is this?" She exclaimed, standing up and observing it with wide eyes.
"Some old files that need to be ordered." The Goblin King explained, his hand still raised, his fingers still position from the snap.
She simply stared at him in distressed disbelief.
"Well," He smirked, "Chop, chop."
Sarah clenched her fists and then kicked the box down onto the floor. The Goblin King raised his eyebrows, but Sarah paid little attention as she hopped down to join the box and began to work. But
the fire that had lit the furnace had totally gone cold. Sarah could only trudge, dragging the files behind her. She now worked so slowly that when she looked at the clock and it read two, she had barely made a scratch at the project.
She casted a quick glance at the Goblin King, who at that moment was leaning over a long, long list.
Sarah had worked with him for quite some time now, long enough for her to know that the Goblin King left everyday at two. No exception.
He'll be going any moment now, She thought happily, swinging a file onto a pile. Hmmm, maybe today I'll go over to Copperpot in the Kitchens. Yeah, maybe swipe some food. Didn't he say that there were ham sandwiches today? Maybe some chips on the side? Oh! Maybe even an apple?
Her stomach rumbled.
Sarah's ears suddenly perked up. Some sort of commotion was going on in his corner; Sarah looked up expectantly.
Her face fell.
There he was, his foot tapping rhythmically, his right hand holding the list up to his face, and there, sitting comfortably in his left hand, was a bitten sandwich. The Goblin King then took another generous bite out of it and caught Sarah's expressions.
He took his time swallowing and then slickly said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Would you like some?"
He then moved his wrist in a circle and a crystal suddenly appeared in his hand. He rolled it down to her and before Sarah's eyes, a plate of sandwiches appeared.
Ham sandwiches.
Her mouth watered and her tummy rumbled longingly, but like hell she was going to eat something he was freely giving her.
She turned herself away, trying to focus on the papers.
"Are you positive that you're not hungry?"
"I'll eat some later." She said, hoping her voice masked the grumble her stomach just gave.
"It'll give you energy to work faster."
Oh no he didn't.
Turning her head, Sarah gave him a challenging glare.
"Oh, I'll be done shortly. After all, this is a piece of cake."
The Goblin King's expression froze over and he coldly glanced upon all her work before falling back into his chair, taking a smug bite from his sandwich. Sarah pointedly pushed the offered plate away, giving him a fiery looked, and she swiftly returned to her work.
The next three hours went by as if someone shot them, then tied them to a horse, and dragged them through an extremely rocky mountain range. However slow and painful it was, five o'clock still arrived like it always did, and so, as Sarah assumed, did the end of the shift.
She proudly and neatly shoved the last of the papers back into her file system, smiling to herself. Then Sarah heard the Goblin King suddenly swiftly stand and he began to crack his knuckles. Not wanting to take any chances, she started bolting towards the door.
"Not so fast."
She screeched, quite literally screeched, to a halt and nearly fell over.
Not having the will to turn and face him, she asked through gritted teeth: "What is it, Your Highness?"
"We need to log the books in the library."
"But it's five Sir. It's the end of the day."
The Goblin King stood in a moment's anger before roughly growling, "Am I the Goblin king?"
"Yes sir." Sarah answered stiffly.
"Are you not a goblin?"
"Yes, sir."
"Then when I tell you to log the books in the library, You. Don't. Question. It."
"Yes. Sir."
Not wanting to hear another word from his stupid mouth, Sarah then barged out of the room, reluctantly trudging to the library. She knew that she would be an absolute idiot to try to directly disobey, but that didn't mean she couldn't take a long ass time walking there.
When she finally arrived, she came across a harassed looking Marcus.
Marcus looked sharply at her. His eyes had that insane nervous look that they had begun, as of late, to wear in Sarah's presence and Sarah, believing him to be about to tell her off, opened her mouth before he could.
"Don't worry" She exasperatedly snapped, "I promise I'm not-"
Marcus did a strange tugging motion with his head, causing her to notice something shiny hiding behind the bottom of a bookcase.
"-not here to cause chaos." She finished abruptly, and Marcus visibly relaxed.
"Yeah, I know." He growled, though his tone was much lighter than usual, "You're here to do work, well get on with it!"
Sarah shuffled off to the west end of the library, the part farthest away from him and the part where Sarah knew Jojen hid snacks.
Hopping up upon the side table that leaned against the grimy window, she opened the rickety drawer and pulled out a crumbly cookie. Her mouth watered and she went in for the bite when suddenly the drawer slam shut. Looking down in alarm, she suddenly felt a crash next to her and the weight of the cookie leaving her hands.
"Hey!"
She yelp out reflexively, looking up to see the Goblin King leaning on a stack of books, crushing the pastry in his hands.
"No time for that." He said with a smug smile. "Here's the cataloged," he pointed to a battered book. "Get going."
With that he walked away, and Sarah watched the crumbs trail behind him and quietly whimpered to herself:
"Why?"
She jumped when his voice harshly answered "Because I can."
Marcus then came around the corner, throwing another stack of books on the table. She caught his reluctant eye and he gave her a sheepish shrug of the shoulders before quickly shuffling away again, leaving her alone in the ocean of books. Sarah let out a long deep moan and then began to work.
The three of them worked until the sun fell, the candles became lit, and shadows played their game of hide and seek among the library's many shelves. Outside, all the goblins had returned from the Aboveground, making the city louder, more impish.
Marcus and Sarah looked wistfully out the window, watching the city's finicky lights.
I bet Mimion home worrying, Sarah thought, her ears flatting guiltily.
Suddenly, the Goblin King's voice cut through the heavy silence "You can go, Marcus."
They both jolted with surprise and Marcus, with a grateful stutter of thanks, hurried away, only casting Sarah a quick concerned looked before leaving the room. Sarah gave a hopeless sigh, knowing it would be pointless to expect the Goblin King to let her go any time soon.
She picked up the next book, found it on the catalogue, and marked it off. She grabbed the next one, then felt the pressure of eyes. She looked: the Goblin King had his face resting on the palm of his hand, watching her. She looked at him, then shyly looked away, then looked at him away. She then realized he was studying her eyes.
Shifting uncomfortably, Sarah went to find in the catalogue the title of the next book. She couldn't find it. She searched again, she had simply missed it.
"Leave."
The dejected voice made Sarah jump. The Goblin King was rubbing his eyes with his thumb and forefinger, his face looking exhausted.
"There's-Just go. Go."
Sarah felt her nerves jolt to alarm, butterflies trampoline around her stomach, but a hope grew her in spirit.
It could be a trap… or I could now be wasting time….
She hastily jumped down, hurrying towards the door. When she stood right in front of it, she felt relief rush through her and tears prickled her eyes. She reached out her claw, brushing it against the wood.
Suddenly, like a sudden migraine, a harsh pain stabbed her mind.
Poof!
Her hand closes around the door knob, but as she did, she heard a very definite click.
She tried turning it any way. It rattled but didn't budge.
"Could you-"
"No."
Yeah, I know I'm evil ;) I'll try to get the next chapter up before the end of the year.