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
Irenie would spend the next week mourning her very little time with Curdie and the approaching arrival of the other royal's and her dreaded cousin but trying her best to enjoy what she had left before the dreaded party.
For the Goblin Prince, however, things seemed to be going quite according to plan, besides the women who lived for nothing but him and his presence being even more powerful than the King's, he would be crowned King of the Goblins in a fortnight and then nothing would stop his reign.
As for Nuna, things seemed to go from awful to ghastly, her affiliation with Froglip soothed the violence she felt from her torturers, like a cool hand on a burn, but even that was temporary. Like she feared and predicted, Nuna was cast aside after Froglip satisfied himself with her company and moved on as quickly as the summer weather to the next goblin woman of his choice.
And Nuna was left shattered, worse than he had ever left her before.
After she no longer held the Prince's favour, the violence from her brother in law, which had abated for the two weeks she was protected, came back ten fold. Not only had Nuna been terrorized by her own relatives, but her suitors turned violent as well, jealous and envious, they tortured her constantly if only to break what remained of her spirit.
Then, once she was finally broken, one of them could wed her.
Nuna was so afraid of her captors now, once the most beautiful and sought after Goblin women in the entire village, now forced to hide her lovely face away from their world; her only release seemed to be escaping into the highest tunnels, far away from civilization and any help.
The tunnels were long, and they were colder than her earthy home in the mountain, but she could not go back, she was already to weak from the beating she had gotten from Munph and the other goblin men; besides, she would never be able to go back there, unless she wanted to die a painful death.
Collapsing onto the cold rocky ground from exhaustion, Nuna finally shed her tears within the confines of her dark prison; all the hurt, tragedy and unrequited love bleeding from her very soul in the tears she now shed.
What had she ever done to receive such cold treatment? All she had ever been was quite and kind.
But perhaps that was her truest fault; goblins were strong beings of the earth and mountain, they were always hard and stern and at times, vicious.
It didn't matter now though, her father could not mind her when he was much too involved with the council of goblins and without his aid, she would undoubtedly be ravaged by her sister's husband if she ever dared return home.
Freezing to death upon the cold open mountain seemed as good an idea as the other, at least this way cold was kinder with it's victims than Munph, it would hold it's captors until they fell into the eternal sleep and then she would never feel pain again.
'Much better than being beaten and raped to death,' Nuna decided, her thoughts turning bitter.
As she slumped too her shoulder and slowly curled up into a ball, Nuna cried into the ground, rubbing her lovely violet hair in the dirt and cursing the souls who had brought her to this point.
Perhaps if all had gone as she had predicted she would have died alone that night and either be found by her goblin kin and buried, or left there, until nothing to remember remained of her.
Fortunately, as destiny would have it, this is not where her story ends, for watching nearby was a lonely being, hidden amongst the boulders. He had been passing through the tunnels himself when she had crossed his path, quick though to hide himself behind a few of the larger rocks, as he watched her small body struggle to walk.
He fist noticed the bruises she was covered in, great purple marks that stretched all the way from her toes to her chest; then he noticed the tears that fell from her beautiful face, and this mysterious creature began to wondered why so fair a goblin as she would be so distressed and so brutalized.
She clearly fled some sort of abuse, the bruises were enough evidence of that, but why come all the way up here?
Already it was cold in the tunnels and it would only grow more so the longer she continued to stay here, he knew neither of them would last long once the sun above the mountain set. But the creature had been so moved that he could not possibly leave her here and emerged from his hiding place.
At first he approached slowly, though he took great pains to hide his face as he moved around the rubble and when he was near enough, bent down low on one knee and touched her shoulder gently.
Nuna had gone completely numb to her senses, she could not hear anything past the sound of her own heart beat, felt nothing but the coldness of the rocks and saw nothing but darkness.
Until she felt something warm brush her shoulder.
Nuna looked up, at first frightened that Munph had somehow followed her, or one of her suitors perhaps; but as soon as she looked up there was a dark shape, it was blurry, and she rubbed her raw eyes to clear them.
"Who-who are you?" Nuna yelled as she tried to back away from the shadowed figure, her weak body unable to respond well.
"I-" the shadow hesitated, and pulled the hood hiding his face further down. "I am someone to help you."
Nuna stopped moving and reached out a hand, as if to see whether the figure before her was real or an illusion she had conjured up in her desperation. "That's not very clear," she murmured,
shuffling around her legs so she could sit up almost, propped up on her arm, "but I suppose I should thank you."
Though Nuna seemed to be in a daze, the mysterious creature before her was quite aware of how much time they would have left and swiftly approached her, reaching out a hand to grab her arm.
Nuna flinched quickly, her nerves recovering, "What are you doing?"
"Can you walk?" he asked bluntly, gesturing to her bruised legs.
"Of course I can," Nuna hissed in return, grasping at her wounds as if to tear them away from her body, suddenly a wave of humiliation and sorrow over came her and Nuna, choked out, "I-I was going to get up... just leave me, please." She turned away from the hooded figure and clasped at her legs, choking out her muffled sobs. "Please, please leave me alone."
The figure studied her carefully, she would never be able to walk to the caves, it was a miracle that she had come so far in such terrible shape, but his mind had been made up and he wasn't going to leave her here.
"May I touch you?" the figure asked, and though she could not see it, a blush rose on his cheek as he leaned backwards.
"What?" Nuna gasped, her body stiffening and her legs recoiling slightly as if the stranger would force himself on her at any moment. "You think I shall just let you-"
"You can't go home, correct?" spoke the figure, his bright eyes glowing from beneath the dark of his hood.
Nuna stayed there, paralyzed with shame until she turned away and shook her head.
"And you cannot return home?" Again she shook her head, biting her lip with her sharp front teeth.
"It seems to me you don't have much of a choice then;" the mysterious creature spoke again, but softened his deep voice and backed away from her, "I give you my word, you have nothing to fear of me, but I will not leave you here." The figure shook his head and backed away, "I can give you shelter for the night but you must follow me quickly, if you can."
rNuna shook her head quickly as he stood up and appeared to leave, "No I-… please, I- I don't think I can walk." she gasped out at last, her neck bent away and face twisted with disgrace.
The strange goblin in the cloak stared at her in confusion, it's not as if it was her fault she had been so abused.
"It is nothing to be ashamed of," he spoke gruffly and bent down on one knee.
Nuna could only stare at him in stunned silence.
As he wrapped his arms carefully underneath her body, she noticed how strong they looked, the peculiar tint to his skin and the scars that scattered his arms like stars in the sky.
Hers were pin pricks in comparison.
As she watched them, her mysterious rescuer suddenly pulled down the cloak around his shoulders and arms and spoke in rough voice, startling her, "I must ask that you not try to see me."
Nuna gaped for a moment before responding, "I won't." Nuna hurriedly shook her head up and down as he stood up and quickly moved through the passages.
They were travelling so quickly she could hardly tell when he geared right and then suddenly left, it was a grand passage but she had never seen it before, and as they traveled further down she she felt the warmth begin to come into her limbs until they arrived at a large rock door.
With the shove of his shoulder, her rescuer knocked the bolder aside and led her in, immediately coming in to a large and open room, with an almost equally as large bed in the middle of the room surrounded by such odd little trinkets scattered here and there over the rock counters.
Laying her on the bed which was covered with a large bear fur, he pulled down the hood over his face once more and backed away, "You shall sleep here tonight, I will be in a different room though you must not look for me and keep your door shut, all you need should be in this room."
Nuna nodded once more but spoke up quickly, her voice never failing her, "Thank you, for- for everything- I can never repay you for this kindness when I needed it so much-" she could not seem to finish but gestured to the red mark on her lower arm.
"I understand," the stranger bowed and concealed his arms once more in the cloak, "I will come back and tend to your wounds."
Nuna nodded, her cheeks still red and her hands buried in the warm bear fur. "Thank you."
The stranger nodded once more and with that he rolled the bolder aside, and looked at him
She didn't have much to suspect about him, he was blunt she could clearly see and those scars- he could be a soldier with that many scars.
And he always kept his face covered, she could barely even see his eyes, glowing from beneath his hood.
He seemed so mysterious, and yet kind, probably the most kind goblin she had ever met.
That was a bit pathetic.
And yet- what could she possibly be thinking? Kind? Did she want to be burned so badly? She'd better be careful, she had been hurt too many times to fall victim to another ploy even if he did save her life.
Shaking her head, Nuna rested on her elbows, glancing around her. There were so many peculiar things, a lamp, rusted and not in use, it looked as if it belonged to the surface dwelling sun people.
She shrugged her shoulders, Nuna never felt one way or another when it came to sun-people, they were simply there, they dug into the tunnels every once in a while, she would hear horrible stories about their singing and chants; her father use to complain about them like nothing else but she never cared much either way.
This mystery saviour could have stolen the artifacts from the sun people, then again he could have bartered for them, either way it didn't really say much about this creature.
Or perhaps she was too tired to take in the details of the room.
She did not have much time to survey her surroundings though, for as soon as she had thought of him, the mysterious stranger had reappeared through the rock entrance with bandages and a sharp rock for cutting.
"The worse scar looks to be on your arm… it may fade, but the others shoulddisappear completely, given a month or so."
As he drew near, Nuna quickly lifted up her shoulder to behold a large tear, and blinked in surprise before turning her head away. "It looks awful!" She exclaimed and clamped a hand over her mouth and stifled any scream she might have let loose.
What would they say of her now?
Maybe this would make her undesirable to her suitors enough to repel them?
But she had never wanted to be repellent, she only wanted to be free of their horrid abuse, their tortures, their monstrous cruelty.
What would her father say, what would the family say?
Surely she would no longer be desired by anyone- she would never be wanted again now- she would never know another's love. Who would love her now that she was so mutilated?
"It looks fine," the large cloaked goblin spoke darkly as he lowered to a kneeling position, taking cutting off a section of the bandage and lightly dabbing it in water collected from the streams running through the mountain caves, "this may sting a little."
Nuna nodded and braced herself but the 'sting' she had prepared for was so overwhelming she took in a sharp breath and let out a scream she might have very well been heard through all the caves in the rock fortress.
There was a hush of silence as the goblin seemed to be frozen in his movement, "that- was unexpected," he noted and began to draw the bandage nearer to her skin once more.
This time as he pressed the freezing cloth to her skin, Nuna suppressed a gasp by biting her lip and turned away from the goblin as he rubbed the wound clean of any infections that might have enter the tear.
In the stolid silence the hood goblin spoke once more, "you may stay here for as long as you wish, or you can leave out the way you came, I can give you instructions to lead you back to the village."
"Oh," Nuna hunched her shoulders and blushed slightly.
The stranger looked up, his eyes scanning her for a moment and then returned to his work, diligently dabbing at the wounds and then bandaging them.
"I do not mean to cause offence, It is not that I want you hidden, but… but it is safer- you do not know where you are," he struggled with the words, not quite sure how to place them.
Nuna nodded as he adjusted his position once more on the ground; she caught herself staring at her saviour, this mystery goblin, as he cleaned her wound, "what's you name?"
The goblin did not make any movements besides pulling his hood lower over his face and speaking darkly, "well… it is better you not know that."
Nuna was at first surprised, though her curiosity had been struck she had guessed his response would be something of that kind, after all she hadn't even seen his face, why would he give his name to a goblin he knew nothing about.
It seemed she was better off the less she knew which made sense in a strange way, it was just unnerving.
There was an eerie silence as he worked and she just sat there, biting back her pain until finally he spoke up.
"You are doing very well," the goblin whispered at last as Nuna shook under his warm hands and the chilled, damp bandage.
Nuna glanced over her shoulder, careful not to look under the hood of her saviour and relaxed slightly as the pain seemed to dull with each rub of her skin.
"Thank you." The words broke through her at last as she eased into the bear fur, her eyes unfocusing as she stared out blankly ahead of her.
"Your welcome, the medicine might make you a bit dizzy to begin with but you will feel much more clearer in the morning." Nuna nodded her response, but swayed and began to lean backwards. Before she slumped onto a vertical long thin rock that acted as a bed, post the goblin tending to her wounds quickly brought another bear skin rug to cushion her fall, letting her sprawl out on the covers as he lowered her head to the bed.
"Thank you," she murmured once more before falling into a deep sleep.
He smirked in a sympathetic way and brought the bear skin over her body, sighing heavily and backing away to the entrance blocked by only a bolder.
She was asleep, he knew that much, and probably would not awake until the sun above the ground rose for a second time.
It was strange, watching her calm motionless form sleeping on the bear skins as if she had not just been beaten to within an inch of her life.
He had seen her so many times before, in passing, he always managed to hide himself well without being noticed. It might have seemed cold and unfeeling but he couldn't bare to be seen by anyone, much less the most beautiful goblin in the entire kingdom. He knew the nightmarish stories circling him, but he hardly believed she even knew him by name.
He was not ashamed of who he was, he was proud, defiant even, but there was no use for him to try to be something he was not, someone she would- well there wasn't any need for it.
The reclusive goblin shook his head of any ideas that might have suggested him to reveal himself, he couldn't risk anything but as he rolled the bolder from the exit, he smiled and whispered.
"My name is Harelip."
If only to say he had said it at all.
So another chapter and in less than a month!? Any way.. yah because the next one is going to take awhile I've decided to post as second time, but with Nuna because I really want to show her character off and her situation a bit better and our mystery goblin ;D
So for goblins, what makes an ugly goblin, is basically hairlip, he has short ears, 'human' down turned nose rather than upturned, mouth much more human, no missing teeth no sharp teeth. Basically Hairlip is the 'ugliest' goblin who ever lived, by goblin standards. Anywho… I'm going to be doing more chapters with these guys in the next few upcoming chapters, because their story is going to play a big part in the beginning and possibly the end. This chapter is based on I See You by Mika because I feel like it speaks a bit of what Nuna is feeling but mostly what how Harelip is Here are the middle lyrics:
Lyrics
Conversations not me at all
I'm hesitating only to fall
And I'm waiting, I'm hating everyone
Could it be you fell for me?
And any possible similarity
If it's all, how would I know?
You never knew me at all but I see you
But I see you
But I see you
But I see you
But I see you