"HNG-AAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGHH!"
A crash broke over the ears of goblin men and women as they scurried past the door of the royal chambers. They didn't want to be the next goblins that the ex-prince Froglip caught in his clutches.
Inside the royal chambers a inconsolable Froglip was wreaking havoc on the stone furniture, lifting one marble desk far over his head with a grunt and then sending crashing to the ground.
A pile of rubble lay at Mefeero's feet as she watched her precious son enact his tantrum.
"There is a way to fix this Fro-"
"How in the world i'th that even po'thible now, Mother?" Froglip roared as he threw a nearby chair at the wall which also broke upon impact.
Froglip steadied his voice for the all embarrassing lisp began to return whenever he became too angry. "I'm doomed, I'm a bastard son and I'm doomed to become a peasant- no, an exile because of a couple of over glorified goblin councillors."
Mefeero began to tear up as she watched her son part from anger and succumb to hopelessness, "it's not impossible- you are the prince- you have royal blood in your veins. That's all I wanted for you-"
Froglip glared up at his mother with contempt, he would be lying if he said he didn't blame her at least a little for all this. If he hadn't been a bastard- if he hadn't been just a mistake- perhaps he would have been king and his life wouldn't have taken the southern route it had.
"Well, it was hardly worth it, was it mother?" Froglip bit back a cruel snarl as he turned away from the queen.
Mefeero glanced around in distraught. Everything she had worked so hard for was snatched by thieves. She would have hurt the councillors, threatened their families if she knew it would have let her son go, but they had been bitter for too long and this time they had drawn blood.
She was especially furious with King Gazlowe for he had not lifted a singly finger to help Froglip, he claimed that he couldn't, that not even the king could interrupt on matters as important as these but Mefeero would have none of it.
It had nearly been two days since she had even spoken to her husband and the last time they had met it had not been a very pleasant encounter.
She also couldn't help but feel that the half breed son of his was to blame as well, like in most things, that Harelip had played a part somehow.
How was she to be sure the loathsome second prince had not set her beloved son to take the fall, how did she know he did not have a part to play in it.
Of course she never thought much of Harelip, even she knew surely he would never be able to claim the throne even if there was no heir to take it. But she felt in her deepest of fears that the half goblin sun scum would do anything to ruin Froglip's reign.
Gazlowe disagreed on this and that only added to the rift growing between the king and queen goblin.
But that was not the issue at hand, for the moment she had to find a way of helping her son re-take the goblin throne and then there would be time to deal with Harelip.
Mefeero stroked the claw of her middle finger down the neck of a rock statue.
She would have to do something truly wicked and clever to accomplish the task the councillor's had given her son.
She knew without a doubt that they thought it was an impossible feet, it was such a ridiculous challenge no goblin would be able to complete it much less want to.
Yet it was her only chance, luckily her family was one of the oldest in the goblin kingdom along with the royal family.
And old families always had a tendency of keeping old secrets.
There was an old goblin story of her very first sires, the ancestors to all goblins and the abilities they possessed.
Of course most of theses were stories to lull the goblin children to sleep but Mefeero learned from her mother that miracles were possible. Her mother had been a witch of sorts and knew all about strange liquid potions that could turn a rock into a gem, or a twig in to a tree.
But such knowledge would be sealed away
It would be Froglip's only hope.
"Come-" Mefeero spoke sternly to her son, the ex-prince looking up from his hands with tired angry eyes.
"What is it now?" He growled but Mefeero shook her head and furrowed her eye brows.
"We are going to make you the king yet, my son."
Instead of whining as Froglip was tempted to do, he followed his mother as she left the room and took a sudden right and followed a tunnel that tumbled downwards into the centre of the mountain.
They travelled down for a very long time, only their sharp eyes able to guide them the darker the tunnel became until they finally happened upon a large bolder blocking the entrance to a cave.
"What is this…" Froglip muttered in annoyance and curiosity as they stood before it and Mefeero lifted her hand to the bolder before using the other as well to move it to the side with her strength.
"It's an old tunnel very few Goblins know of," she grunted as finally the bolder was dislodged from it's position and rolled to the side, "your father showed it to me…when I was first promised to him."
Mefeero whispered delicately in a way Froglip would not have thought possible of her but a bitter resentment boiled up under his heart at the mention of the father who had sired him and in turn taken the throne right out from under him. How could she even mention him when it was basically her fault for his current situation.
They would need a very powerful trick to accomplish the task the councillor's had laid out before him.
Froglip bit his tongue to stop himself from saying anything cruel or bitter to his mother before he found out just exactly what it was she she was planning.
Mefeero stepped forward into the dark hole, the room was so dark even Froglip had trouble seeing but Mefeero lit a torch and revealed their surroundings, low deep wind moaning through the room
"What is this…" Froglip whispered again but this time in shock and fear as the dim light cast a flickering ominous shadow on the wall.
Mefeero rose a hand to a carved illustration above her head, the light burning very closely to crumbling chiselled characters. "It's a part of goblin history, they were our ancestors."
Froglip backed away and crossed his arms over naked chest and sulked behind his mother, "and how will they help me? They're dead," he growled obnoxiously and Mefeero backed away as well as the two goblins stared at the large walls encircling them.
"It's an old magic," Mefeero murmured, her voice whispering and echoing in the room as she walked past Froglip with the torch, the light casting itself upon a twinkling object sitting atop a pyramid nearly in the centre of the room.
As Froglip came closer his eyes widened further and looked upon the glimmering gold bottle that pierced through the darkness even without much help from the torch.
"And what is that?" Froglip snarled out, his face twisting as he cast an arm in front of his eyes to spare himself the brilliant pain.
"Something similar to bottled sunlight," came Mefeero's voice from somewhere to Froglip's right, and soon enough the brilliant light was covered in a thick cloak so as to stop it from shining at the two goblins, "and it will be the key to your success."
"That stuff," Froglip veered back, his eyes aching as he rubbed at them with his fists, "it nearly blinded me! What could I possibly use it for?"
For the first time Mefeero felt short tempered with her son and shook her head, but she managed to smother it because she knew the prince had not been well educated on the magic of the goblin people. Even in fairytales the myths were present but new goblins didn't believe in such old traditions.
"No- this, this is how we will make you king again. It can change things, it can change goblins. Our history is old Froglip," Mefeero whispered as she approached Froglip holding the liquid gold so he could see it swimming underneath the cloak. "Because you are royalty, your blood has the most potential for this magic, but because we cannot go onto the surface world without going blind you need this."
Froglip took the wrapped bottle that Mefeero offered and judged the item once more in his own hands.
"How will it work," Froglip muttered, mesmerized by small bottle in his hands, "how will it change things so I can become king?"
Mefeero hesitated but her eyes never left Froglip as he handled the delicate glass bottle with surprisingly gentle hands. His own mother had never noticed him to be gentle with anything before.
"I don't know," Mefeero answered honestly despite the snarl curling up on Froglip's mouth. "But I do know that the magic is old and powerful and it will be able to accomplish what you cannot."
Froglip muted his snarl and took the glass bottle, a rarity in the goblin kingdom for glass was delicate and impossible to keep in good condition. Mefeero watched with anticipation as Froglip pressed the opening to his green lips and drank the shining liquid spilling down and down into his throat.
Then a groan came from the prince as he flinched backwards and doubled over in pain. The Queen watched with wide eyes, unable to tend to her child as he twisted in agony, but when finally the ex-prince became himself once more, nothing had changed.
Froglip blinked his eyes open sluggishly and looked around at the ground and then himself for anything that might have been different but to his great disappointment nothing had changed and they had just exhausted their last hope.
No words were exchanged between mother and son, but Froglip glared painfully at Mefeero, he glared at her for making him like this, for having him at all but most of all Froglip hated her for still loving him.
He threw his cape with pink lining over his shoulders and snarled at the half empty bottle of liquid light before kicking it to the side and storming out the entrance.
-Break-
Mefeero approached Froglip's chambers slowly her eyes trailing over the dark crouching body that was her sons as it pulled the bear skin blankets over his tight, bony shoulders.
"You may not be able to ascend the throne yet but I will tear any goblin apart who thinks they can tell me where you can sleep."
Froglip rolled his eyes in frustration and turned away from Mefeero, his clawed hands releasing in exhaustion and doubt.
"Thank you mother," Froglip growled in a chastising voice as if to tell her that he didn't plan on leaving anyway but the ex-prince no longer felt like belonged in that room, not in the room of Crown Prince.
"Good night, Froglip," Whispered the Queen softly as Froglip failed to answer her that time and then retreated to her own chambers where she would spend the night ignoring Gazlowe.
Meanwhile, in the crippling darkness of his chambers, Froglip wallowed in the self-pity and sour anger that frothed in the corners of his mind.
What had he ever done to the goblin people to have them hate him so?
He had acted like a prince, he might have become the Goblin King people could have been proud of! He was ruthless, handsome, brave and strong! Then why would they have been so eager to rid themselves of him?
Froglip tossed in his bed, pulling the bear skin tightly over his body and clawing at it.
Now he was nothing. No one was proud of him. He was a bastard child, the royal family tolerated him and his mother was optimistic but she only forced herself, the second it became real that Froglip would never take the throne, the Queen would cast him aside.
Froglip clenched his stomach painfully at the thought of his father, his real father that had been so renowned that even Gazlowe spoke of him in awe.
Korumn… what would he think of what his bastard child had become?
"Does it really matter?" Froglip whispered to himself softly as his eyes stared out into the darkness. "He's dead."
As Froglip crouched on the stone slab, his eyes ached and a painful throbbing started in his chest. If he had been paying attention he would have noticed the smallest tear falling from his eyes but he was groggy with sleep and blinked it away.
"What will become of me?" Froglip whispered to himself, eyes slowly closing as he fell into a worried, feverish dream.
Inside the nightmare Froglip sat before the council of goblins just as he had before except they were so much taller than he as the Goblin Prince was forced to stay in place and watch as their cruel eyes gazed down at him.
A twisted smile crossed councillor Berzker's lips as he pointed a bony grey finger down at the prince.
Froglip knew what was coming, the horror of that moment they had ended his life but he couldn't bare living through it again only to wake the night after and realize it had not just been a dream.
"You will be returned your title and your place on the throne, if-" The councillors all said in unison as Froglip crouched beneath their withering glare.
"Please- please don't" Froglip cried out, his claws raking against the stone beneath him, "I can't do it- no goblin can!"
But the Goblin council could not hear him or chose not to as they delivered his punishment.
"If you marry and bring down a royal from the sun-people!"
The goblin court room burst into laughter and pointed at Froglip. Still in his dream and tormented by the howling laughter Froglip bent over and roared to stop the noises but nothing could stop those painful laughs.
"I can't do it- I don't know how." He moaned to himself, wishing he could have been a commoner rather than an exile. Wishing he had been just a little under so he could have just become King. Wishing he was just a little smarter so he could have solved the challenge.
But how could he succeed now?
There was no sun-person on the surface above that would marry a goblin.
Froglip woke with a start, his lips parting to let a moan out from his lips. A horrible nauseous feeling was causing the room to spin and make him sick. The nightmare was fresh in his mind as well as the councillor's voices, but Froglip was close to collapsing and he wanted to relieve himself immediately and preferably not in his own bed.
Stumbling and struggling to the bolder, Froglip slumped against the bolder in an effort to try to move it but it didn't even budge.
Froglip groaned and was ready to smash a fist through the boulder but curbed his anger and instead put all of his effort in moving it from the entrance.
It nudged only a bit and the dizzy feeling was beginning to subside. The amount that he had moved it was just enough that he could wriggle his body through, which was strange because the gap was very small.
The bolder itself looked larger than Froglip remembered, even his bed looked larger than he remembered.
Froglip ignored these thoughts and made his way to a stream running through the mountain wall, and splashed his face with the clean run-off water.
It was a relief to feel the cold prickling feeling on his face but it was almost too cold, and his feet were abnormally tender from walking barefoot on the freezing cave floor.
Froglip cursed his body in his nauseous state and rubbed his tired, sore eyes as he got up and retreated to a large reflective piece of opal sitting in the room.
He couldn't see straight for a long while and as a result struggled to see his reflection clearly in the dark.
Now Froglip was beginning to feel concerned. Not only was his vision very poor, his feet were freezing abnormally when he would normally feel nothing and all his strength was barely enough to nudge the boulder to his room. With all the force he put into it he should have been able to lift it clear over his head with one hand.
Froglip rummaged around and struck a piece of flint against an oil stick, casting a small flame in the room of darkness.
He had never noticed how piercing the darkness was before.
"What in the hell is going on here-" Froglip growled as he held up the flame to the reflective opal.
Froglip might have been struck speechless from the strange sound of his voice which had changed too but as soon as he looked at his reflection all feeling left his body.
If he had been green, Froglip might have gone pale when he saw his reflection staring at him.
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" The ex-goblin prince screamed, his voice cracking with horror. The whole kingdom of the Goblins heard the terrifying howl, most went back to bed but Mefeero and Gazlowe left their chambers immediately for Froglip's room.
And they were shocked by what they found there.
Alright, no excuses, just busy with other things, but I hope you enjoy it, I have a bit of the next chapter worked out as I had to split this one in two, I hope you enjoy it and hopefully I'll have a new one sooner. Wonder if you guys can guess what's happened" ;)