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
Mefeero and Gazlowe were married five days after he had caught her about to run away. Though Mefeero knew it was for the good of her child that would be inevitably deemed a bastard if she should have it without being married, Mefeero still felt she had betrayed Korumn when she was wedded to Gazlowe instead. Much of the goblin court preferred the idea that Mefeero marry Gazlowe rather than go through the complicated and time-consuming process that would have to occur in order to prepare the ceremonies for the new king to choose a mate.
However it seemed that Mefeero was the only one that did not seem to want the matrimony to occur though we have already disclosed the reasons for why she believed she had to go through it. It appeared Mefeero was the only one who had grievances toward the ceremony.
However this would be a false account.
There was another who did not wish to see the wedding ceremony occur.
In order to explain this being—this objector to the marriage of Gazlowe and Mefeero—we would first have to explain their story.
When Gazlowe had been very young he was a rebellious Goblin Prince due to his resentment towards his chronic injury and often sought ways to fight against the world that he believed had maimed him.
With that in mind, the Prince acted out and often did things to anger his parents and the goblin people. As a part of one of these stunts, Gazlowe went one night, out of the goblin city and out of the caves, into the forest. He journeyed long and hard and eventually stopped for a breath at the ravine sided beside a great willow tree that had been around for a grand forty years without a sign of beginning to whither.
This specific spot was only situated a kilometre away from the farm-castle and the town surrounding. This is also where he found a young woman collecting duckweed from a small bank in the river. At first it was so dark on the moonless night he could not see her. But unlike humans, goblins had fairly good eye-sight in the dark which was a useful trait that had developed from so many years submerged in the dark caverns with only pitiful lights to guide them.
Gazlowe did not hate sun people as most of the goblins did and when he had first seen her in the dark corner of the wood, hidden in the cat tails and moss covered rocks, he did not say anything.
It was actually the sun woman who had brought the courage forth to speak to the shadow she had watched with wary suspicion from the corner of her eye.
Gazlowe stuttered to collect himself and fell head first into the tree.
The loud thump startled the maiden still wading through the water, but as she heard a large groan erupt from the shadow she reasoned he had fallen.
Gazlowe had but his head had not bore the brunt of fall, for this would have left him perfectly fine. Instead he had tripped over his one-toed feet and stubbed both on his way down to the floor of the river bank.
To stop himself from screaming out in pain Gazlowe held his breathe to the point his beige-green skin turned blue.
The girl heard him gasp out and—with a light giggle—offered a hand to help him up.
This was their first meeting, the start of a series of months that would be the happiest in their young lives and would end in heart break.
From then they met under the willow by the stream and at first it was only on new moon nights when the silver lights of the moon beams did not reveal Gazlowe to the young maiden.
But these little acquaintances began to increase per month from once, to twice, to once a week, to twice a week and so on.
Gazlowe began to redirect his life so that he would arrive just ahead of the girl, and that his family had no idea where he went every night.
It wasn't so much that Gazlowe needed people to talk with in his goblin home, despite his deformity, the Goblin Prince never lacked friends because he was always kind and out going for a Goblin, especially when you expected a goblin that was born into royalty to be selfish and cruel.
Anyhow—Gazlowe wasn't looking for talk, but what the girl gave him was so much more, she was given the chance to be heard, something he wasn't accustom to being.
She always took him very seriously and always reacted to Gazlowe with the upmost sincerity and empathy.
And the girl, well—it was easy to see she liked Gazlowe as well.
In the land she lived in with her family there wasn't much for women to do, a woman never became anything but a wife and a good mother who bore children. They didn't save the day, they didn't show their courage, being a woman in their age and their world didn't yield much in the area of expectations.
Unless you were a part of the nobility, not much was expected of a woman.
This had never had a terrible effect on her because she believed that in life people were responsible for what they made out of it. All the same, when Gazlowe came into her life, he persuaded her to speak her mind and talked with her the way he would with any other gentleman.
The girl, too, enjoyed being heard.
Gazlowe brought her things, jewellery, and though the girl couldn't bare such gifts, but instead of refusing them, which she knew was very rude, she brought him things.
Since the girl was rather poor, she couldn't find anything remotely valuable like the jewellery made from emeralds and rubies and gold that Gazlowe gave her, but since the goblin's already had so much of the priceless stones, it really wasn't something Gazlowe cared about anyhow.
Instead, the girl brought paper, in the form of a book. The pages inside were stained a brownish yellow as if tea had recently been spilled on it. Though this was rather cheap where she came from, bellow in the caves of the mountain, the goblin people had no such things as paper. They chipped away at rock to make laws and such but there was really no joy one could have with writing or drawing in the Goblin Kingdom.
When Gazlowe had first seen the book which contained the blank pages of yellow-stained paper, he did not know what to think. The girl had also brought a piece of charcoal to write on the book or sketch in it.
Never before seeing anything so fragile as a sheet of paper, Gazlowe held it carefully in his hands.
He loved the book.
Being able to write and draw, Gazlowe had never seen anything so precious, and all he had given her was a few gems he had found in the goblin treasury.
He felt guilty for not giving her something as precious as a book and paper, but the girl truly seemed to like the small gift so he never thought otherwise until then.
Unbeknownst to Gazlowe, the 'useless stones' that he gave the girl were unbelievably expensive on the world above and each one he gave her—and he had given her eight—could support an entire family for a year.
But besides these little gift exchanges, the goblin and the girl truly loved the company that the other provided and though they knew little of the feud that had lodged itself between their people; they grew close to each other.
She would usually find him, sitting underneath the willow tree, waiting for her and they would talk, almost for hours until the sun scarcely began to bleed through the utter darkness of night. This is when Gazlowe would leave.
First they would exchange goodbyes.
Then he would be gone.
This night, five years after they had met, was different.
Gazlowe had gone through his nightly routine which consisted of splashing his face with a hand-full of cold water and bid his family good night before retreating to his own separate cave.
There was a tunnel Gazlowe had found earlier, just beside the entrance to his rooms, which lead to another cave, ending at a fork where the left would take the traveller to a lower level of the Goblin Stronghold and the right would swerve upwards toward the surface world.
This passage to the right did lead to the surface world eventually, and it came to an end at the side of the mountain farthest from the East.
Gazlowe had been travelling down the mountain pass towards the forest, the dead of night just settling over the valley.
"Where are you going?"
At the sound of a voice talking behind him, Gazlowe started and pulled out the blade he often took with him for protection.
"Who's there!" shouted a nervous Gazlowe.
"Korumn, your brother." Replied the voice ahead of him and Gazlowe felt his heart fall.
Gazlowe once again sheathed his blade in its holster but dropped the butt of the blade with shaky and calloused fingers. "I—I am going nowhere."
"It doesn't look that way to me," Replied the undaunted confidence in Korumn.
Gazlowe couldn't muster much to fight against Korumn, all these questions he was now being asked might have well been rhetorical since Korumn probably already knew what was going on.
"Wherever you are thinking of going, whatever you are doing just know that your actions reflect on the image of the Goblin people and all the ideals we have tried to hold true to ourselves... don't make the mistake of getting involved with the sun people."
Gazlowe stiffened up, and for a moment lost all fear he had been feeling at the sound of his brother's voice.
"You aren't my father, Korumn; you don't control me any more than you do yourself." Gazlowe grumbled and defensively stood back from his sibling.
Korumn flinched, he was tough as nails, but deep down, he felt the sting of cruel words the same as any person but chose to hide these feelings deep within himself.
He had not expected these words to come from Gazlowe which is why the king-to-be reacted the way he had.
"What do you think is going to come of this, Gazlowe? You are Goblin. They, those sun people aren't worth our time. Life as a royal should have at least taught you that.
"They're selfish, self-centred. All of them. Sun people don't deserve to be allied with the goblin people and you, a prince of Goblins definitely shouldn't lower your standards for one. Ever." Korumn laid a hand upon Gazlowe's shoulder and squeezed just enough to cause the slightest bit of pain, which forced Gazlowe to look up at an odd angle.
"You better stop this stupidness before you damage more than just your back."
Korumn growled the last word out and Gazlowe threw off his hand and sneered, without a reply to counter Korumn.
That had been the worst the Princes had been to one another. It was a slight better than most brothers but the words said that night did not fly without leaving their intended scars.
Gazlowe reached the little notch between the willow trees and the river by the end of the transition from twilight to complete darkness.
But something stopped him dead in his footsteps.
The girl was already there, all the times before, all the times they met in the last past five years, she had come after him.
But here she was. Sitting like a graceful dove on the pedestal of rock.
And to night was a full moon night. With the moon's full glow shining on both of them and no protection from the canopy the girl would surely see him.
And she would run.
Gazlowe backed away hurriedly but in his haste he had snapped the branch of a dry log clean off.
"Who's there?" the girl asked hesitantly but it soon left her voice. "My friend, is that you?"
Her features were so hopeful in the cold moon that it broke his heart not to answer.
Gazlowe stood there, quite and motionless. Like ice.
"I had hoped I would see you tonight. I waited for so long, I didn't know what had kept you-" her voice cracked a little but Gazlowe still didn't reply. What could he say? "Are you angry with me? Is that why you do not speak? Should I not have waited for you?"
"No I-" Gazlowe already felt the words leave his lips and cursed himself for being so foolish to answer. "I am not angry with you."
"Oh, I am so glad it was you!" the girl exclaimed. "I thought that I was talking to myself for a long time."
She tittered and waited for his reply. None came.
She got to her feet and walked out from under the willow-tree branches.
Gazlowe backed away and away from any traces of moonlight that may have come through the holes in the shelter above.
The girl followed after him hurriedly and was plunged into the utter darkness of night.
She tripped over the log that Gazlowe had stepped on and fell to her knees.
"Wait, why are you leaving, what's wrong?" she begged and held out a hand for him to grab. She had thrown herself into complete darkness for him.
She didn't even know him and she trusted him completely.
Gazlowe couldn't turn away and he reached out a hand for her to take, one that she gladly took after feeling around for it for a while.
Once she had his hand, the girl reached out with her fingers to touch his arm, but Gazlowe only pushed her away from him. Another layer of ice and snow covered his heart with each word that he uttered next.
"I was disfigured," he said slowly a crack forming in his voice but the girl still heard it "I fear I'm not quite what you want, I-I think—it would be better if I leave."
Gazlowe broke away and held a quivering knuckle between his teeth.
He nearly got away too... and if he had left it might have changed this entire story, possibly for better and possibly for worse.
But time will be the judge of that.
A hand fell upon Gazlowe's arm. The girl turned Gazlowe around, holding his shoulders steadily and let them travel to his face, from his chin, to his eyes, and ran through his hair, pulling him close to her.
"I am in love with you... not what you should be." She whispered softly and she lifted her hands so that they began to travel up Gazlowe's back.
The crooked bent of his spine seemed to melt away in that moment. The caress of her hand gently touching his neck pulled every insecurity from him, everything he hid deep bellow the snow.
The ice surrounding Gazlowe's cold heart melted away and became rain.
The girl kissed his face, and though it wasn't anything she had suspected, she felt it was right, something deep within her felt perfect and not once did she peek to see who it was she now gave her heart to.
Her love was as blind as the spindly, strangely angelic bats fluttering above in the night sky.
Now Goblins had their own qualifiers for beauty, just as the son people did, and both opinions varied greatly.
Sun people did not find Goblins attractive and Goblins certainly didn't find the Sun People attractive. But Gazlowe spent many a night watching the girl, just as he watched her now and something had changed within him.
Once Gazlowe had thought he had never held something as precious as the paper book that the girl had given him. He often went to bed without sleeping, writing in the book and reading it over and over again, until the moment when he would fall asleep with it in his arms.
He now knew something far more precious.
And it was her that he held that night underneath the impassive eyes of the stars.
Now two months passed before Gazlowe went back to the willow tree, he had told the girl that he would have to do this. He never said it was because his brother would most likely have him murdered if Gazlowe snuck out again so soon after he had disobeyed Korumn.
Within those two months, he made up with Korumn and attended to his princely duties with care and precision.
Two months after their affair under the night sky, Gazlowe went back to the surface world—
But she did not come—
He left their meeting spot that night confused and unhappy. For seven months, every night, he waited and watched for his white dove to return, for her soft voice to come flying back into his life but it never came.
The Prince fell to pieces.
One week after he had lost all hope the Goblin Prince returned to their place underneath the willow tree, hidden underneath a new moon night and waited.
He expected this night to end as the countless before, but as he parted the curtain of willow branches Gazlowe heard a faint whining from the bushes beside their tree.
Gazlowe was immediately drawn to the bush and with careful steps and curious heart; he parted the thin shrubbery to reveal a basket with a cloth wrapped gently around the package inside it.
The package, as fate would have it, turned out to be a small baby, much too young to be a month old and a book resting underneath the sleeping babe.
The young thing had mildly tan skin with the slightest pigment of green, mousy blond hair—uncommon for a Goblin child—long Goblin ears and bright orange eyes.
Gazlowe knew immediately, as soon as he held the poor shuddering creature in his arms, that the little infant was his.
Gazlowe, filled with love for the child and now harbouring a strong protectiveness for it, refused to let it go and nevermore returned to the spot beneath the willow tree that he had made his second home.
Gazlowe returned to the world bellow and with him, the child.
It could have been hidden; the truth of the child's heritage, but Gazlowe would have no other explanation for the small being. Instead, he revealed everything to Korumn, and though his brother was, at first, furious, he began to look upon the child with extreme fervour.
If anyone was going to mess with Korumn's blood family, especially his nephew, there would be some hell to pay.
So it was by Korumn's guiding hand and acceptance that the illegitimate child of the youngest Goblin Prince was named Harelip Madcurse.
Korumn's father, who had already been ill for several months prior to Gazlowe's return with Harelip, passed away one night. It was soon after that, that Harelip was introduced to the Goblin world, and all of Goblin society along with it.
At first no goblin knew where the child had come from, however, it wasn't long before Gazlowe revealed the truth to them.
No one accepted that a Goblin, one of their own, one of the princes, had lied down with a human.
But not even Korumn, who was now made king after his father's death, could stop Goblin law from banishing Harelip.
In order for Harelip not to be banished from the society, Gazlowe had to say that the mother was no longer alive.
It was Gazlowe's only choice if he wanted to keep Harelip safe from exile.
But nothing could hide the child from the cruelty that came with misunderstanding.
Harelip was often teased and picked on to such lengths by other goblin children that he often came home to Gazlowe after long hours of hiding in the caves, eyes red and puffed.
Gazlowe had been his only protector, the only one who stood by Harelip when he was singled out by other Goblin children. To Harelip, Gazlowe was the world and to Gazlowe Harelip was the world.
That was until Mefeero Dreadstalker reared her head and stole Harelip's precious Gazlowe from him.
And it was no one more that hated the union of Mefeero Dreadstalker and King Gazlowe Madcurse than Harelip.
So this part only pertains to Gazlowe and the girl and what they were feeling for one another. I hope my music choice doesn't bother anyone but if you don't like it, please don't listen, I just thought it would be interesting. This song is 'Animal' by Kesha and here's a taste of the lyrics:
I am in love
With what we are
Not what we should be
And I am—I am star struck
With every part
Of this whole story