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
Warning: Minor Violence and Adult content
Harelip leapt through the tunnel hole leading from the surface to the mountain tunnels beneath the rock. There was an extra leap in his step as he walked back to his little cave, readjusting the hood on his head but careful not to smother the package in his left hand.
Harelip stared at the roses bundled up carefully in his hands, their stems intertwining and dripping with water.
While Harelip had been mulling around buying a new set of charcoal sticks, he saw the roses for the second time during the sun people's day and wasted no time to buy them.
It had been a fanciful thought, to think Nuna would appreciate the silly flower when it was so different from the beauty standards set by Goblins. But she had enjoyed the drawing he had made of them and decided not to let the chance, to show her the real thing, slip.
With each passing moment he seemed to become surer that she would like them.
By the time he had arrive at his little cave situated right by the King and Queen's chamber Harelip had worked himself up into such delight that he tossed the rock guarding the door aside and leapt in.
"Nuna," Harelip called, usually he was very quite and subdued in his entrance but far too elated then to hold back his excitement.
"Nuna?" Harelip called out again when she did not respond. There were no flames lit in the cave room which was strange but he imagined she could have been sleeping as the goblin day had just begun.
But when he tiptoed in the dark to the side of her bed, he felt an empty bear skin where her body should have been. In confusion he almost called out her name again but realized how temperamental her stay had been.
She had never promised to stay, nor would he make her, what right did the ugliest goblin in all the city have to keep the most beautiful one as a prisoner.
For that was what she was wasn't it? It's not as if she enjoyed his company, she pitied him and his lonely world. But pity did not validate love, he was a fool to think anything more would come from their arrangement, a fool to believe anything hopeful at all.
Harelip fell upon the bed, his face buried in his hands but all he could see was Nuna.
Harelip opened his eyes and braced his hands behind him.
It was upon hearing a crumple of paper that he reached back his right arm and stared at the spot where it had been.
Behind him there was a small piece of his sketching paper, with charcoal writing on it.
Though Harelip had taught Nuna only a little of the human scroll writings, she had understood it faster than he ever could.
He looked down at the note, holding the flame to its surface.
In jagged, long hand writing, was scribbled one word, probably written down quickly and as a second thought as it was almost illegible.
'Help'
Harelip's blood nearly froze under his uskin, the crumpled piece of paper still in his hand, shaking.
Compelled by fear to light all the candles in the room, Harelip searched frantically and blindly on the desks. Spending all his time above ground had inhibited his ability to see in the dark for the most part so it was by candle light that he saw best.
In a sudden spark of light, five candles were lit in the room, casting a faint glow on the walls around.
Turning around slowly, Harelip set his eyes on the room, all that remained of the horrible events.
Stone chairs had been thrown against the walls, the blanket from the bed had been torn almost right in half, almost all of his sun-people treasures had been destroyed.
Nuna was nowhere to be found, but there was blood, only a small amount smeared against the bolder.
The bolder which blocked the door had a long crack down the centre and looked as if it had been forcefully broken by a very strong goblin or many of them.
She had been here alone when they took her, defenceless and alone and they had spilt her blood on these stones.
In the very room he promised to protect her.
Anger seethed through the young goblin's veins and the roses, which had been in his hands, were crushed underneath his grasp.
~Time~
Nuna struggled on the ground, her tiny claws scraping against the stones as she was forcefully dragged down the tunnels, her captors own nails biting into the skin of her legs.
Going over a sharp rock and cutting her neck slightly, Nuna gave out a painful yelp as she continued to squirm.
"Serves you right," Munph growled over his shoulder as he nursed his own bleeding wound. "I 'ought to beat you twice as badly for what you did to my hand."
She kicked out fruitlessly and cried out as another rock scathed her front.
"But I suppose I did have it coming when I tried to grab you gently."
Munph suddenly let her legs drop to the floor, pinning her back down with a foot before the goblin woman could run away.
"I won't make that mistake twice," Munph purred in his own deep, terrifying voice that sent chills down Nuna's back.
"Please," Nuna begged pitifully, her heart racing at the thought of what her brother in law had planned.
He had been absolutely furious when he saw her, she made a valiant dash to the caves where her saviour would be.
But she arrived too early and he wasn't there. And then Munph began to break the boulder entrance.
She only had time enough to grab a charcoal stick and the flat leaf.
When Munph finally broke through the door she was scribbling 'help' in the sun people's funny characters.
When Munph grabbed her he took the note and threw it away after examining the incoherent scribbles.
But when he threw it, Nuna did not see where it landed before he came after her, for all she knew it landed under the rock bed, where he would never see it.
It was not Munph's horrible plan for her, it was not the pain that drove her to tears, but the idea that they would never meet again, never laugh again, that was what made Nuna cry.
Before she could let out another whimper Munph viciously beat her across the head, knocking her unconscious on the ground.
Looking upon her body in that bent twisted shape Munph smiled devilishly, musing to himself.
"First I'll satisfy myself with you... then I'll dispose of your body in here where no one will find you. Of coarse it would need to look like an accident."
Munph chuckled to himself.
If only she had been awake, Nuna would be crying and begging him not to kill her, to let her live her pathetic life for another day.
Her cries were intoxicating.
Though every once in awhile when Nuna tried to fight back he'd consider ending it, he couldn't very well let Kman find out what he had been doing behind her back.
The little one though, that- that Fyzsal.
Munph uncharacteristically shivered at the very thought of the little goblin girl. She was indescribable when it came to words, but he felt like she was always watching, when he kissed Kman he could feel her eyes upon him, even when he was beating Nuna.
Even now.
Munph spastically twisted his neck around to look over his shoulder, his heart throbbing in his chest even at the very notion of being watched.
It was this little thing he had with his sister in law that allowed him to vent his urges. If he was exposed he wouldn't know how to tell Kman. He wouldn't know what he'd do if she left him. Sometimes it was so difficult he thought to quit the habit all together.
But then the urges would begin to pile up until they became a terrible incessant scream in his head.
The scream always won out in the end.
It was better not to fight it and save himself the pain.
Munph turned from the inner conflict within him to look down upon the sacrificial lamb.
'And she was such a pretty sacrifice,' he thought, his heart leaping in excitement.
Munph leaned in, hovering over his small victim and taking in the pleasurable sent of rock dust and candle wax, letting his tongue slick out between his lips and run down the pretty flesh of her cheek.
But Nuna, who had regained a bit of consciousness, was startled by Munph's sudden closeness and threw her arm up to block him.
Accidentally, she knocked his nose, sending a gush of blood spurting out while she scuttled backwards.
Munph howled out, more surprised and angry than hurt by her sudden blow, his eyes darting around until they fell upon her.
"Why you stubborn, squirming viper!" Munph rose onto his feat, screaming and bellowing at Nuna who was so terrified she failed to move, trembling on the ground.
It was just when Munph was about to launch himself on top of her again, that he noticed someone behind Nuna and walking closer.
Immediately to protect his intentions, Munph backed away and instead grabbed his nose shouting, "loathsome cow attacked me for money," he shouted backing away from Nuna and the stranger who had yet to show himself or speak at all.
He stopped behind Nuna, where he was visible enough. Strong, tall, about a foot taller than himself, Munph stiffened a bit when he saw a cloak hanging over any part of his face that might have been visible.
Nuna, realizing that Munph's strange switch in emotions was due to the presence of another goblin, turned around and let out a gasp.
"Loathsome cow?" the deep and suddenly terrifying voice came from the hooded goblin, startling Munph, "you are the only loathsome beast here. How dare you pretend you did not hit her. How dare you pretend you are innocent."
The stranger side-stepped the goblin woman who still shivered on the ground.
"How dare you even touch her you useless, disgusting wretch!" The stranger shouted angrily, looking as if he held himself back from taking on the other goblin.
'So this is the one whose been hiding the trollop,' Munph though to himself, a blood curdling smile splitting his fat yellow lips as he came to the realization.
It would be a good fight, but not here or now, he would take care of Nuna later, after he'd dealt with her protector. Then there wouldn't be anything to sidetrack him.
"I see, little Nunny, you have a guardian angel on your side," he put up his hands and began to back away, "well, I know when to leave, I wouldn't want to ruin this brief reunion."
"No," the goblin growled dangerously, his shoulders tensing up and giving him the look of an angry bear with the heavy brown cloak on his shoulders, "You're not leaving, not so you can come back and do this again, this ends here, coward."
Stunned by the strangers keen ability to see right through him, Munph was outed into the ground.
It was a challenge, a challenge between goblin men. If he left now it would mark him as a coward, if he stayed this could end badly without the factor of surprise on his side, he was already tired from dragging the stupid trollop up the mountain cave.
He could just as well leave, the goblin wouldn't follow when he would have to take care of Nuna's wounds. It would give him plenty of time to escape.
But Munph had never backed down from a fight before, in all his matches he had bested his opponent and never lost a fight.
He took so much joy in tearing his enemy apart with carnal growls and hisses. It's part of the reason why he had tried to win Kman's hand in marriage. She had so many suitors as Berzker's daughter, the strongest of goblin men would want to marry her for the title alone. Though normally the women would fight amongst themselves for a mate, but there were just that many goblins after her. In secret Munph had gotten rid of them one by one and when it was over he had been the only one to vie for her hand.
He'd have that constant reminder that this pathetic wretch had stopped him from taking what was his.
What he deserved.
Munph snarled and whipped his head around to face the goblin stranger and Nuna.
"You'll regret that," Munph hissed softly, letting his claws tense on each finger.
Munph turned to stare at Nuna who was still huddled on the ground with her legs pressed up against her chest before he smirked and she seemed to shrink further into the ground.
Good.
He wanted her to be terrified.
He wanted her to watch as he snapped his neck right across, he wanted her to watch as he disembowelled the sun scum and then tore into his soft flesh. When he was done with the body Munph would rub her saviour's blood in her face before having his way with her.
No one else could have Nuna.
She was his for the rest of her life.
No one could change that.
The stranger just hovered there waiting for an attack while Nuna sat silently, her eyes wide with fear.
Munph was dangerous when he was mad, her saviour would be in danger if he let his guard down even for a second.
She wished he'd just let Munph be done with her.
She had no honour left.
He'd done it so many times before.
However it was now Harelip standing between Munph and what he wanted and the goblin man wasn't going to back down.
He had never fought a goblin before, constantly the advocate for a less violent goblin society, Harelip knew he was very much out of his depth with this one.
But he couldn't let the monster continue to hurt Nuna. Not when she was all alone. He felt like he had to protect her now, from this Munph, from a world that wanted them both in pain.
Suddenly Munph launched himself first, throwing out his fist and hitting the goblin's cheek.
Harelip brought his head back, hardly bent by the punch that Munph threw at him and returned the hit by upper cutting his enemy in the chest.
Unfortunately for Harelip his strength was only a third of a regular goblin as he was born with human traits.
Munph knocked him aside with some resistance, but still easily.
Harelip landed with a thump on the rock wall, gasping out as his chest was forced to cave.
Nuna gasped in shock and fear for her protector, clutching at the rock wall before launching herself at Munph and meeting him with a few sharp hits that she dealt wildly and furiously, her eyes wide with fear as if to question her very actions.
Munph breathed out a chuckle before he threw out a fist and caught her on the chin, sending her straight to the ground where she gasped out in pain.
Munph again turned on his original enemy who was panting heavily, but his fists still raised.
"What pathetic whelp would stick his weak neck out for this trollop?" Grunted Munph, which passed for a laugh as he pulled up the sleeves of his tunic.
Harelip gave a weak roar and charged at his adversary, throwing out a fist which Munph blocked and punched Harelip with the other, right in the jaw and throwing back the hood to expose his face.
And suddenly for Munph, the fight was over.
The goblin man gave out a cry of fright as Harelip glared at him. The half-goblin turned back to face him dead on, but Munph was too shocked to even move.
Harelip, who had recovered from the hit, took advantage of his enemy's weakness and grabbed the goblin man, tossing him to the side where Munph hit the ground and rolled to a stop.
He did not move for a few seconds before shakily trying to push himself up onto his feet.
"You- yer- a demon!" Munph choked out, blood sputtering from his lips as he struggled to his feet and ran away quite quickly down the tunnel.
Harelip snorted breathlessly as he took a step back, huffing and sweeping his cape around his body, the heroic victor, before turning to Nuna who still lay on the ground.
She was struggling up onto her feet after the hit she had received from Munph. She would have run to tend to him but upon seeing Harelip's face she brought a hand to her mouth to block a scream.
"Oh no-" she gasped out instead.
Harelip staggered back, his hands immediately jumping to his face in panic.
"No-" his hands left his face as quickly as they had come to it and pulled the hood to hide in once more. It was already too late though, she had seen his face.
Harelip flung himself at the wall in pathetic desperation and anguish. He would have escaped back to his little home but was to weak to even move.
"Wait! Wait- you-you're bleeding..." Nuna whispered softly, her eyes struggling to look away from his face but this only broke Harelip's heart further.
"No, leave me, please- please leave me," he moaned in a terrible pain, struggling to run away but his legs failing to work, in all his times of escaping he couldn't force himself then when the one goblin woman he loved was so frightened by his face she couldn't even look at him.
At the sound of hurt in his voice, Nuna mustered as much courage as she could, for the one who had saved her from both a horrible fate and death.
He was her protector and she wanted to bandage his wounds this time.
It was not his fault he was hideous.
"No," she spoke in as strong a voice as Harelip had ever heard and caused him to look up in surprise.
Nuna quickly rushed from one side of the tunnel to the other, her heart racing as she stopped slowly and gracefully bent onto her knees beside Harelip who hadn't taken his eyes off her.
"You- you could be injured."
Nuna acted quickly and tore off a piece of her clothes to use as a rag.
Harelip's eyes softened as he allowed her to lift his arm, her chin wobbling and her fingers trembling against his skin.
Suddenly aware of how selfish he had been, Harelip grabbed her wrist gently before she had a chance to dab at his arm with the rag.
"Stop," he spoke, Nuna's eyes becoming wide as she stared down at him slowly turning her wrist over in his hands. "You're terrified of me," he whispered softly, pressing a thumb gently into the soft flesh of wrist, the pulse rapidly throbbing underneath.
Nuna looked up into his eyes, her own becoming very wide. He was horrifying, but being very kind as if he had seen that terror in her many times before in other goblins.
She was so repulsed though, Nuna could not help it when she flinched as if she were in actual pain at seeing him and looked away, screwing her eyes shut.
It wasn't fair that cruel goblins like Munph and Froglip were handsome and her saviour was forced to be ugly.
She bit her lip and shook her head, still unable to even look at him, "you do not frighten me, you saved me, I should be grateful."
"You need be nothing to please me, you owe that goblin nothing, you owe me nothing," Harelip whispered to keep his voice from startling her, he even had to keeps his finger nails clutched into his palms for fear of wanting to comfort the goblin woman.
"No- no, I'm sorry this is all my fault, this is my fault," Nuna gave out a shiver that went down her body while convulsive sobs jolted her.
"No. No it isn't, you can leave, I'm not going to force you stay here," Harelip murmured gently his voice as soft as the cotton goblins stole from the sun people. "I'll make sure Munph never harms you again."
Nuna choked out a sob which doubled as a tender laugh, "oh- why did you have to be so wonderful?" Nuna whispered tenderly before letting her head fall into his chest to hear his heart beat.
Harelip's face felt hot as her soft lilac hair fell down his chest and stunned him into silence with only words.
She had to hear his heart racing with her body so close to his, his damned emotions giving away how badly he wanted to hold her, but so disgusted by himself that the thought of her being with him was unthinkable.
Nuna pulled away at last when Harelip thought his heart would burst.
"My name is Harelip," he spoke at last, unable to take her silence though the name surprised her, she had heard it before.
He nodded his head, the name was familiar to almost everyone in the goblin Kingdom.
"Froglip's brother," Nuna whispered in shock.
"You're Harelip the demo-" Nuna bit her lip again, "never mind, I've heard- but- you're nothing like that..."
Nuna finally realized she had been there to take care of his wounds and dabbed at his arm, probably ripped open by Munph's claws in the fight.
"You seem so sure," despite himself, Harelip leaned against the rock, almost relaxed by her gentleness, despite what had occurred.
"I am," Nuna didn't meet his eyes, but it was the first smile he had seen on her face that night.
Harelip, out of surprise and genuine happiness returned the smile, though he covered up his face with a hand.
It was their first real meeting even when they couldn't even talk about anything, it was quiet but unassuming.
At last Nuna could no longer use the rag and shook her head.
It would never do, and the wounds could become infected and scar.
There had to be some ointment...
Then that's when Nuna remembered the balm he had been using for her wounds.
She got to her feet quickly, Harelip didn't even flinch at the reaction though.
"I can't carry you," she spoke gently her eyes travelling over his body, stopping before she reached his eyes, "but I can get the bandages and ointment from the room."
"I'm better, really, it won't matter," Harelip began, trying to calm her but the longer Nuna waited, the more she seemed sure in the matter. Before he could so much as say another word, Nuna leaned down and pressed her temple to his.
"I'll be back," she whispered with her eyes closed, but her forehead still against his.
And again, before Harelip could speak, her she was off, running down the tunnel.
But the feeling still lingered there on his face long after her presence had left the tunnel.
Despite what sun people thought of goblins, they were extremely loving and caring with one another and shared this by physical expressions.
In goblin customs a kiss meant lust and intentions of marriage.
An embrace between family meant kinship and trust. Between lovers it meant equality, to believe your mate was your equal.
When two goblins touched their temples together it was usually between a goblin woman and man and it meant only one thing.
Love.
~Time~
In excitement and terror, Nuna leapt easily over the boulder blocking her way to the room.
Once inside she made a frantic search for the ointment Harelip had used on her. It had to be somewhere.
Somewhere obvious she would be able to find when she would need it.
In a moment she jumped to the rock beside her bed and reached behind it. On the other side it was hallowed out and inside was where Nuna found the balm.
Harelip had called it a shelf, something he had learned from the sun people.
She could hardly breathe, drawing the ointment back to her before exhaling.
She was really doing this. She was really in love, she had to be, didn't she?
He saved her life, she was madly in love with him for that... Wasn't she?
Nuna shook her head of the thought but was distracted when she heard other sounds coming from the opposite entrance.
Nuna never knew what was on the other side of the door, she would have left it alone completely but the noises coming from the other side became louder.
Intrigued by the sound and not entirely sure what to do, Nuna stepped closer, her eyes trained on the centre of the room where three figures had gathered.
At first she could not recognize it, but as she had been there many times before slowly she realized she was looking in on the royal chambers, directly connected to those of Harelip.
"Of course," she whispered to herself, "he was part of the Royal family, whether they acknowledged it or not, and was situated close to the family chambers.
But this was not all, for as Nuna looked in on the room she identified the three individuals inside who seemed to be getting into a heated argument.
The King, the Queen and Prince Froglip himself.
Nuna had to act quickly to stifle the gasp, but could not look or move way from the door as she listened.
"What?!" The prince roared aggressively, beating his fist into the wall before coming up to his parents in a fierce storm. "I am rightful heir! The son of the king, I am prince of the goblins, father- I am your son."
Froglip roared his loudest before jMefeero quickly tried to hush him.
"You are the prince of goblins, the rightful ruler- but-" the King of goblins, Gazlowe, hesitated.
"But you are the son of Korumn," Mefeero smiled gently, reaching up to her son's face affectionately.
Froglip staggered back, his hand on his chest, the words seeming to cause him physical pain.
"I-I am the bastard child of a dead king!" The prince whined and growled, spinning on his heel to pace the floor.
"He was the first king!" Mefeero faltered to stop herself from shouting louder than the prince.
Froglip, however, was still surprised to no end that the queen had raised her voice against her darling son at all.
"He was killed by those- those sun creatures." Mefeero's harshness exposing that deep seeded anger that had consumed her since the day her Korumn had been taken, "he died so that you might live..."
But for all the queen's gentle words, Prince Froglip snorted in disgust, and pulled away, "- so that I may live to be his bastard son? So that I may live out my life as a peasant!" Froglip then barked out with a horrible throaty laugh that made Nuna, who was still hidden behind the boulder, jump in fear.
"Why- my deformed brother ha'th more right to the throne than me!" The prince lisped in his anger as he had when he was a child.
"Harelip cannot take the throne, he is sun born-" Mefeero corrected Froglip who waved about his hands aggressively before pounding them into the wall once more, shaking even the ground.
Froglip let out another barking laugh, before turning angrily back on the king and queen, "and yet he is the son of the king and I am a bastard. How dare you! How dare any of you tell me this before I am to be crowned king! How dare you tell me at all," the prince's brutal anger turning into a painful whine, "did you even love me at all?"
He seemed so wretched and heartbroken that Nuna felt her heart ache the slightest bit for the monster who had used her so easily.
"Of coarse we do," Gazlowe comforted, seeming to be in just as much pain as the prince if not more. "should you be my son and not my brother's, it would not change in any way my love for you."
The prince seemed silenced by that, if only for a moment while the queen watched in pain.
Froglip suddenly began to snicker in a dark, treacherous way, "and this is why you told me I needed to be married, so that my claim to the throne may be strengthened? That is what this is really all about, isn't it, mother?"
The queen froze in surprise, the prince's hateful eyes dead set on the both of them.
"Of coarse it is, it's why you've told me, isn't it? So that I will comply easily," Froglip snorted sarcastically, his voice becoming a dangerously low hiss.
"Fyzsal will be a perfect bride for you," the queen replied gently to keep from angering her temperamental son further.
At this new information, Nuna gasped out suddenly and unfortunately for her, drawing the attention of Queen Mefeero who had been closest the boulder where Nuna was hiding.
Before she was caught in the terrible moment, Nuna pushed herself from the boulder and cowered behind the bed.
Nuna heard the queen's footsteps as Mefeero had clearly entered the room, but prayed that she would not see her.
The sound of feet crushing down on a piece of glass alerted Nuna to the queen's close presence, only a few arms length from her own body.
"Ugh! What a disgusting mess left by that sun-wretch," Mefeero growled out in contempt, however for the moment, retreating back to the other room in which the king and crown prince waited.
Nuna, still silently weeping at how close she had come to being found, bressed her mouth painfully into her harm to block any sounds, only hearing the last few words from the King.
"No one will have to know- It'll be as if nothing has changed..."
However, before any words more were whispered in that deathly silent room, Nuna scrambled to her feet and fled through the door without so much as making a sound, her eyes darting around frantically.
Froglip.
Nuna struggled to bring the broken pieces closer together. To make some sense of the nightmare she had witnissed.
Froglip...
Froglip was not the Crown Prince, he was- he was considered illigetimate because- because he was Mefeero's son, but not Gazlowe's.
Nuna's heart began to throb so tightly in her small, narrow chest that she fell against the wall, too far away to be heard by the Queen now.
Her eyes went wide with sudden fear.
If the Queen ever found out she knew, even after Froglip was crowned, she could- Nuna blinked back tears of fear and shock, her hands tightening and beating against the sides of her head in terror and frustration.
Queen Mefeero was the most terrifying and ruthless goblin in the entire kingdom, she could have her tracked down, trotured so much worse than anything Munph could do. She could bring her down to the darkest tunnel, in the smallest dungeon and leave her there to rot.
Or Mefeero could be truly mailicious and drag her to the sun world and let the sun beat upon her sensitive green skin and then let the horrible sun people rip her apart with there iron daggers.
All because she had seen and heard too much- all because she had witnessed this- this lie.
Over come by terror and pain, Nuna began to tremble from head to toe, her hands shaking and writhing like snakes in a fire.
There was no way out-
No escape-
She only stopped dashing around manically when she realized that one of her hands was biting into the palm of her skin, but the other gripped onto something solid and round.
She looked down in confusion to see what she was holding so tightly when she gasped out slightly.
The balm for Harelip's wounds. He was still there in the caves, waiting for her. Who knows how long she had been already.
Nuna cried out and fell against the rock wall, tears falling from her eyes, as she pushed both palms deep into her temples, her face twisting in horrible pain.
Suddenly, she dropped the balm in her hands, and ran down the tunnel, hardly aware of where her feet were leading her, but knowing any place was better than what lay behind her.
She did not go back up the tunnel.
Instead she ran to the only place she had ever felt safe before Harelip had rescued her.
In a blinding panic, Nuna shoved the door to her home aside, her eyes blinking away the tears, her hands clutched at her throat and mouth trying desperately to block the sounds of her pitiful sobs aching from her chest. The house was empty, all the fire stones they used for light were gone.
At least, she thought she had been alone.
"Nuna," a tiny, sweet voice called from beside her.
Overcome by fear and pain, Nuna flinched away from the voice, cowering away from it out of habit.
In front of her came the one face she did not expect to see, that of her little sister, looking up at her with round yellow eyes
"Fyzsal!" She cried out, her arms retracting from the little goblin girl to hide her crying face, "d-darling, why are you up?"
Fyzsal stared at her older sister for a long time in silence, it was without dount that she saw her sister was speckled in blood, whether it was some other goblin's or her own. Fyzsal's eyes seemed to glaze over as she stared blankly ahead at Nuna, "was it Munph again?"
The cold, emotionless whisper startled Nuna, her whole body refusing to stop trembling, her hands unable to reach out and hold her sister.
"N-no-" she moaned, not even able to get it all straight in her own mind as if it were something so terrible, it just couldn't be. Nuna blinked back tears, "I-I saw the king and queen a-and-"
Fyzsal's ear's perked up at the slight mention of the royal family, her eyes seeming to glow with interest, "what did they want?"
Nuna shook her head still crying while her sister offered her a hand to grab, watching Nuna intently, "they didn't speak to me- t-they were talking..." Nuna's eyes suddenly went wide, her fingers touched her lips, "they said- they said Froglip wasn't the Crown Prince, he's not Gazlowe's son, he- he's Korumn's."
At this information Fyzsal staggered back as well, but recovered quickly, better than the Prince had in fact. Already her eyes began to flash back and forth, as if analyzing everything that had been presented to her.
There would only be a short time for her to act, the Prince's cornoaton and their enevitable marriage would be soon. It was enough to make Fyzsal shudder, but right then she had to make sure Nuna didn't reveal anything before its time.
"Listen to me Nuna," Fyzsal whispered sternly, her bright eyes glinting in the darkness, "you have to stay in here for tonight, Munph won't be home... you arent safe going back out there."
Fyzsal may have been the youngest, but she was also very clever and in her own way, was able to lead her older sisters to do what she wanted without revealing her true intentions.
Nuna froze, her heart aching painfully as she remembered her promise, her saviour still waiting for her return.
He would be expecting her.
"I-I can't, Harelip- Harelip is hurt-" she began to cry, her hands twitching at her sides as Fyzsal calmly pulled her away from the door before the goblin woman could go anywhere.
Fyzsal had known for a long time that her sister had been seeing a goblin, one whom she assumed Nuna loved. Of course she recognized the name immiediately but never expected him to be the one her sister was falling for. Harelip, the demon goblin, the half-formed monster- she heard the stories like all the other children.
She was surprised that Nuna would go back to him, when her sister was so sensitive and weak for a goblin woman. To imagine Nuna facing anything more terrifying that a goblin cat was unimaginable.
"I know, I know," Fyzsal spoke calmly, cooing to her sister in a soft sad voice, "but you can't leave Nuna, if the queen ever found out-" Fyzsal knew she didn't have to tell Nuna what would happen, it was doubtless that the thoughts had already crossed her mind.
Nuna whimered sadly, her eyes screwing tight as tears flooded her eyes and ran down her bony cheeks in streams.
Fyzsal then grabbed her arm and lead her to their room, two beds situated in the rock cave where they both use to sleep. "H-harelip-" she murmurred before curling up into a ball on her bed, falling asleep almost imiediately from shere exhaustion and terror.
Fyzsal exhailed slowly. Nuna wouldn't be moving now, not with the fear subduing her.
She felt terribly for controlling her sister, it was her family alone that she cared for more than anything, but Nuna running around and telling other goblins or interfering with her plan would only help the royal family.
As Fyzsal exited the home she promised Nuna that they would be happy again.
She would get Munph for this.
Fyzsal knew all about his twisted obsession for Nuna, how he fought to keep it a secret from the family and succeeded with all except her.
Never being able to prove it or find a way to have the family understand, all Fyzsal could do was remain powerless to help her older sister. That is until the hinges in her brain began to twist as they so often did when she came up with a truly lovely scheme.
She would see that sadistic, sorry excuse for a goblin burn in the sun by the time she was finished, but now was not the time for Munph.
She smirked to herself, almost pitying the Prince for what was to come his way.
There were much bigger rats to skewer at the moment.
~Time~
In the tallest cave, closest to the surface world, Harelip sat up against the rock wall, clutching his arm and awaiting the return of the goblin woman.
The blood seeping from his wound had slowed and crusted over with a dry layer of red, but the intense stinging pain was still fresh in the creases of his skin.
It was cold there in the cave tunnels, but he would be able to survive the sun people's night when everything became colder.
But the longer he waited and the more cold it became, the worse he felt.
He touched his good hand to the spot where she had rested her head against his heart, and then his fingers drifted up to his temple where she had placed her own forehead. That she, the most beautiful goblin could be so close with him- the demon- the demon goblin- was unthinkable. She couldn't possibly find anything in him.
No one ever did.
Harelip fought against the thought, hissing out in both pain and hatred of his cruel thoughts.
Even with all that dount and frustration, there was still one undeniable truth.
He loved her.
He loved her more than he had that first night, more than he had ever loved anyone before other than his father. But this love was so much deeper, so much more meanigful to him now. That she should see his face and still manage to smile, that she should press her head to his.
Nuna was kind, she was the most caring goblin he had ever met. She even managed to touch him, to feel something for him other than fear and hate.
She would return.
She would.
Argh this took soooooooooooo long blah :P
Also shout out to dancingwaterlily on deviant art who inspired me to finish this chapter.
Munph is basically my idea of a sadist, he does find Nuna sexually appealing but his main and most disturbing enjoyment is seeing her in pain. Basically he takes enjoyment seeing anyone in pain but he hurts Nuna because she's too afraid to tell anyone.
Harelip think's he knows Nuna but he doesn't or refuses to see her weaknesses and faults and therefor doesn't really see that Nuna, as kind and as good of a goblin as Nuna is, would (in a moment of fear and weakness) do the 'wrong' thing. Nuna is a weak character in that she doesn't stand up for herself and is usually leaning on others for support or confidence.
So even though the chapter isn't very angry or anything like that I feel it had a connection to the music, the fighting, the little betrayal's here and there and the fear. Diary of Jane by Breaking Benjamin:
If I had to
I would put myself right beside you
so let me ask
would you like that
would you like that
And I don't mind
if you say this love is the last time
so now I'll ask
do you like that
do you like that
No
Something's getting in the way
Something's just about to break
I will try to find my place in the diary of Jane
so tell me how it should break