Chapter 18 One Last Chance

Erwin noticed Prince Gustaw kissing a beautiful lady in the courtyard. He approached the couple and stood for a moment curiously looking at them.

‘Excuse me, Prince’, he asked shyly ‘I would like to ask you about the battle, why is it so clean around here? Where is everybody?’

‘We’re waiting for the battle, don’t you know? Half an hour ago you told me off and said I wasn’t even able to help with making this magical soup you were so busy with and asked me to get lost, as everybody here does. So I’m taking Marv… Avram for a walk around the castle.’

‘What day is today?’ the wizard ignored Gustaw’s complaining, ‘Is it Friday?’, he tried recalling when the last time he spoke to Gustaw.

‘Yes, it’s Friday! Do you feel fine? Have you got too much of this soup?’

‘We have a day! Prince, I need to ask you a favor. You were the only one there. I need you to take me to Prince Vandarok! It’s a matter of life and death!’

‘Old man! I have been captured there! Blinded! You ask me for the impossible!’

‘I can bring you to Prince Vandarok, wizard’, the woman said suddenly.

Erwin looked at her.

‘You’re Marva, right? Prince Vandarok’s sister?’

‘How do you know?’ Gustaw was surprised.

‘I’m an old wizard, boy. I can see beyond any new magic. Especially, done by mermaids.’

‘Fine, but I want you to give us a wedding!’ Gustaw started his bargain.

‘Can I give you a wedding?’

‘Of course. All Royal Wizards can conduct weddings, funerals, and christenings, can’t they?’

‘Christenings? Wizards?! Boy, stop with this blasphemy! We pray to different gods. But we can fetch a Christian priest on our way. I don’t have time for discussion. Fifteen minutes for the wedding and then to Vandarok!’

The priest was almost nude before his hut as it was early in the morning and he thought no one could see him. He was washing his underwear and hanging long pants on a thread on his own since his house lady rushed to the castle to prepare for the battle.

‘Priest! Dress quickly and come with us! We need your services!’ Erwin shouted to the startled religious officer.

Gustaw and Marva waved to him and smiled in a welcoming way.

In the same miner’s chapel in which Karina and David had their secret wedding, now Gustaw and Marva with blissful happiness exchanged their vows with their only witness being Erwin the Royal Wizard, sitting on the bench and smiling at the young couple. It was fascinating to take part in this misalliance between two races and the old man hasn’t lost the idealism of his young years yet. The priest looked terrified, whether it was for the presence of the prince or the wizard, but he fulfilled his tasks beautifully.

Prince Vadarok was by himself in his chamber, sitting at a desk, carefully watching battle plans. The war wasn’t his idea, it was his destiny. It was the dream of his father and his grandfather who still remembered how mistreated were Goblins in the world of humans. It was the result of years spent underground and his dignity built, each and every day of his childhood, by constant comparisons and conclusions that humans weren’t as great as chronicles portrayed them to be. Vandarok took his grandfather’s and father’s resources to create the most powerful army the world at that time was about to welcome. He created the arms of death for anyone to oppose it.

The day that he chose for the battle was the day of his grandfather’s death. It was the last breath of a ruler who passed on with a sense of being defeated by the sun and earth. In Goblins’ eyes, it was once the death of deprivation and unfulfillment. And now it was about to change.

Vandarok knew that the human citizens of the kingdom were expecting him, forming a front to fight him, but he thought their efforts futile. He was aware that Marva was missing but what his silly sister knew about the seriousness of his affair? His family was built on hatred for the human race and it was the only family he grew up in, the only point of reference he had ever had.

The air stood still. The Prince broke the silence only with a silent bang of a golden coin, struck repeatedly against the table, which with every second brought him closer and closer to his final orders.

‘Prince, there are people who would like to see you’ the knight interrupted this silence, knocking at the door, ‘They say that they come in peace.’

Vandarok impatiently rolled his eyes but he knew the rules of war and any peace correspondent had to be heard.

“Yes?’

The old man entered the chamber along with two younger individuals.

“You!’ Vandarok recognized Gustaw, ‘I didn’t think that you would return. You didn’t like it here, I was sure.’

‘Now I came back with my wife and things look a bit different. This can be my second… home.’

Vandarok didn’t understand. He looked at the red-headed woman but he didn’t recognize anyone familiar.

‘I want to show you something, Prince,’ the wizard approached Vandarok’s desk ‘Do you, perhaps, have a bowl of water?’

Erwin was given a golden bowl of water and poured there something extremely stinky, which made Vandarok, Gustaw, and Marva cover their mouths.

‘My God, what is this stench???’

‘I want to show you the future.’

Erwin placed the bowl in front of Vandarok.

Prince Vandarok, still covering his nose and mouth, looked at the images which appeared in the water.

‘So… I’m going to be killed… by a woman?’

‘Yes, Prince. Beheaded as a matter of fact.’

‘And that is how I will be remembered?’

‘I’m not sure yet what will be done to your head, maybe it will be impaled and placed as a warning for centuries. But yes.’

‘And what will happen to us, Goblins?’

‘Centuries of hatred and discrimination, I suppose. How many wars have you waged between Goblins?’

‘None. This is the first one. We focus on craft.’

‘Yes, and you’re good at it.’

‘I want to show you something else. Something which will make you understand humans a bit more. Look!’

Vandarok looked into the bowl. And now images turned into countless other battles, with changing weapons and uniforms, and millions dying in different periods of time.

‘The problem with humans is that not only do they hate Goblins, Prince Vandarok. They also hate themselves. They don’t understand different cultures, they fight over religions. It takes years for them to accept something and they run around in circles. You’re here for a limited time. But you love your people. I’m not sure that this obsession with the human race is worth it. It wasted your father’s and your grandfather’s lives. And soon it will waste yours.’

‘What about all these preparations? All futile? All to waste?’

‘You can expand your empire, Prince. You’re an ambitious Goblin. Keep the peace with mankind and turn your efforts elsewhere. Expand these cities underground. They are masterpieces!’

‘But how can I keep the peace? Everybody hates humans here.’

‘Everybody hates what you hate, Prince. If you change your attitude, others will follow. And how better to keep the peace than by an act of true love and marriage?’

Erwin invited Gustaw and Marva to come closer.

‘Yes, brother,’ Avram said in her Marva’s natural voice ‘How about some love?’

Vandarok looked at this beautiful red-headed woman and gasped in astonishment. It was his own sister.

As the battle was canceled, all war efforts were turned elsewhere. The Turks were smashed by the Giants, the Dragon, fierce armed women, and sleeping soldiers led by Gwidon. Han became the Giants’ king and was, as promised, given land to rule over (just by chance located nearby another hostile border). The second and third prize were given accordingly to San and Tan. The Dragon was awarded the egg and soon there were legends of two dragons flying around the caste, one big and one small. And from then on there was peace.

When the king sat at the dinner table with two young couples, his son and a Goblin, and his daughter and a peasant boy with no money, no connections, and no blue blood, he wondered what he did wrong as a father. But while his wife had affairs, leaving him every night to his unhappiness and sense of failure, these were two happy marriages which were to last lifetimes. Marva and Gustaw were perfect royals for peace as they invested gold in art, music, and architecture, making the kingdom beautiful and admirable by other nations. And David and Karina brought the Royals closer to the common folk, making them liked and popular for decades.

Meanwhile, Edwin returned to his wizard’s retirement hut and enjoyed evenings with his brother, playing card games, exchanging memories, and drinking home-made liquor (and other magical spirits). The battle and the time travel brought two brothers together, making Erwin (due to seeing his brother’s death) a bit less royalty and work-obsessed. And Edwin, who retirement and rest had managed to perfection, found that there were some interesting things at the court to investigate and visit all the young that he was lucky to meet over the past days.

Because Karina was married there was no army for Gwidon to inherit. There were also no wars to wage so he chose a different profession. He got a job in Vandarok’s expansion project and every day he came back to his own little army of half witches and half wizards, whom Lilet was bringing up in her little witch’s hut. With sentiment, she looked at the river and smiled to herself. The Golden Fish seemed to make all her wishes come true.

THE END

Chapter 17 The Battle

 Have you ever seen battles? Apart from the movies, I mean. They were usually long and excruciating. There was no pop music accompanying the bloodshed, no triumphant sounds of the symphonic orchestra in the background noise of the metal bangs of swords and screams of pain. Soldiers were waiting in the mud and dealing with hunger. There were loneliness and deprivation due to time spent far away from home and a sense of comradeship between strangers thanks to months in camps and days on the battlefield. There were orders to follow and rules to obey. 

But this was to be a different battle. All kingdoms’ soldiers were abroad dealing with the Turks. In the castle, were only those who didn’t have anything to do with war. This battle was to be a battle between a masterfully prepared army designed and trained to defeat the greatest soldiers and the strongest weapons, and a crowd of completely unprepared individuals who weren’t able to cooperate. Their secret weapons were the purpose, hatred, honor, magic, and madness, all of which the Goblin army wasn’t prepared to witness. 

It was before dawn when the sound of a horn announced the arrival of Goblins. Prince Vandarok dressed in his best armor engraved with golden symbols and wearing a golden helmet opened the flood of marching creatures covering their hideousness behind beautifully crafted swords, shields, and helmets. There were hundreds of thousands of them. Like ants they surrounded the castle’s fields, making it impossible to divide their forces. 

Princess Karina stood by the window of the observation tower. She checked the progress of Erwin the Royal Wizard distributing the magical cauliflower soup to the women crowded behind each wall built by these enormous creatures brought by the Great Wizard, Edwin. With fear, she assessed the number of Goblins so much bigger than she was expecting as if the civilization kept underground was bigger than the whole of humankind. 

‘This one is mine,’, she whispered carefully looking at Vandarok and his golden helmet. 

She was also wearing armor and a helmet taken from the royal armory, but silver in color, ornamented with a white tulip. This made her look like a petite knight. Having covered her long blond hair, she drank far too much of this cauliflower soup but she had no choice and the health consequences were far too insignificant to take them into account. 

Meanwhile, from another tower, Edwin was sending waking up messages to other participants of the battle. 

‘Dear Giants, the contest has begun! The one who kills the highest number of Goblins will be crowned a king and will be given the land to rule over other Giants. Although we seem to have the contest leaders (he pointed at Nan and Fan), nothing is yet lost and all of you have a chance. Remember about the second and the third prize! You can use your crafted weapons and hide behind your walls. Good luck!’

Edwin looked at the faces of Giants and saw the spark of competition. The endless sea of Goblins was just a sea of potential winning points. 

‘This is going to be fun’, said he to himself.

He also climbed on the roof and placed the egg there.

‘IF YOU MAKE UP YOUR MIND,’ he yelled,’ IT’S WAITING FOR YOU!!!’

He sensed that the Dragon was hiding in the castle’s forest out of curiosity, still uncertain about the human plan, but his presence Edwin took as a good omen. 

Lilet placed the bowl with the Golden Fish on the ground.

‘River or lake?’, she asked ‘If I’m going to set you free, I need to know which one would suit you.’

‘But I haven’t made your wish come true yet, are you sure?’

‘I trust you will.’

‘The river, then. It will allow me to travel and finally go back to the sea’

Lilet poured the water with the fish into the river.

‘Goodbye!’

‘Goodbye young witch!’, the fish waved her tail, ‘But if you change the rules and show me kindness, I might show this kindness to you in return!’, the Golden fish whispered to herself and happy with her freedom swam away. 

Goblins approached the first wall and laughed to themselves.

‘This is going to be a piece of cake!’

But the smile of San appearing over the wall made them reconsider. 

Goblins didn’t even know what had hit them. It was ridiculous! Behind each wall that they were trying to cross there was a crowd of mad human women: all dressed in their usual garments with helmets made from pots and carrying any cooking tools they could as weapons. And these women, the women that Goblins were trying to rape in their war songs and poems of motivation, these women were attacking them instead. Attacking was too small a word. They were mauling Goblin knights with all their rage and slaughter knives, and those who managed to survive the first attack were facing another and another behind yet another and another wall. To make matters worse, behind each wall there was a Giant who smiled madly at the sight of approaching Goblins, stomping on them, smashing them, and counting aloud among their screams.

‘Two thousand and thirty-eight!’ howled Tan triumphantly.

‘Three thousand and sixty-nine!’, Han laughed to his face and with his machete sent another bunch far into the air ‘Three thousand and ONE HUNDRED!’

All of which was making it impossible for the Goblin crowd to get to the castle. 

Prince Vandarok was clever enough to ignore women and move in a circular motion around Giants' feet. With his best knights, he moved forward cunning as a fox and unstoppable. 

‘There are not enough of them. A few Giants and some angry women won’t put a stop to our unified forces. They will all get tired eventually. Goblins! Create units to disable Giants. Kill or tie them to grounds!’

Orders were passed and soon the tactics changed and bows were turned at Giants.

‘SHIT!’, swore Fan feeling the stab of an arrow in his ear with a rope attached. Another set of arrows was soon to follow. 

Meanwhile, Lilet was walking around the castle’s forest and whispering words of encouragement for bushes and trees to awake, for mice and rodents to unite, and insects to rise. Goblins might not see this but by the forces of nature, they were divided into smaller units. Roots rose from under the ground and like mean shoelaces kept them from walking forwards. Bushes appeared in front of them, bringing them together and squeezing them like canned sardines. And then bees, flies, mosquitos, and ants started to bite them and fly under their helmets into their eyes and nostrils. All of a sudden, small rodents which were sent into the crowd turned into armed knights. When attacked, they turned back into animals and hid between the enemies, but when striking, turned again into the knights, causing confusion among Goblins. These knights were those men whom Lilet had turned into forest animals and now used to her enthusiasm to fight Goblins. 

‘Well well well, who do we see?’ The Army General (the actual one) crossed Lilet’s path, having observed the witch's actions from behind the bushes, ‘A young bitch!’

Lilet opened her mouth and stretched her arms to whisper a spell, but the Army General wasn’t stupid and threw a rope with metal hooks at the ends, which tied her arms and legs and threw her to the ground. 

‘So much for your magic, witch!’

With the help of his fellows, he hung Lilet upside down on a tree. 

‘What should we do with her, boys? See, it’s such a young beauty. Such firm breasts!’ he cut open the white dress given Lilet by the Golden Duck, exposing her breasts, ‘Such warm bosom!’ He made another cut this time even wider exposing the witch’s legs and buttocks ‘I will be the first to pleasure her’ he licked his lips and brought his face to smell her between the thighs to the applause of his comrades ‘And you, my friends, can follow!’

What Lilet saw, hanging from the tree, were Goblins’ eyes hungry from desire and nasty smiles filled with blackish teeth and tongues smeared with dark blue saliva. They had never had a human woman but all they could dream about was possessing one. Lilet looked around to find a possibility to escape. 

All of a sudden, they all heard a roar coming up from the sky.

‘What is that noise?’ Goblin knights turned their heads up.

‘I’m afraid it’s a dragon!’ one Goblin knight shouted terrified.

Another swift murmur made them turn around again.

‘Where is that bitch?! She was hanging here a second ago.’

Lilet was nowhere to be seen. But the tree on which she was hanging started to behave in a strange way. Its wigs and branches elongated and grabbed the Army General and his team, tying their legs and hanging them all upside down. The tree opened its trunk and Lilet came from the inside all dressed and as fresh as a daisy. 

‘Do as you please’, she said to the tree and walked away continuing her magic.

‘What does this bitch mean?’ knights looked at the startled Army General.

The tree seemed to gasp for a second, as if in a moment of thought. Its twigs grabbed the Goblins’ pants and took them off, exposing their buttock. Then the tree started turning its branches from one side to another, like during a hurricane, smashing Goblins to the ground to the left, and then to the right, making sure that their buttocks hit the spikes of forest thorns and nettle growing just below it. Loud thuds, screams, and sounds of vomiting filled the air. 

At the same time, from the sky, Goblins were burned like grilled sausages by the fires of the Dragon, which was getting closer and closer to the egg placed on the roof of the observation tower. His eyes sparkled at the possibility of raising his own child, something unthinkable in the world of dragons. Something unprecedented. And the more he thought about it the more deadly the fire was getting from his lungs, roasting Goblins in their golden armors like meat casserole in the oven.

But there were hundreds of thousands of Goblins, numbers not even decimated by the power of one dragon. Tan, San, and Han were already put to the ground. Two walls were smashed by the Goblin’s colubrine. All storage of cauliflower soup was already used and women were losing their strength.

Edwin was standing in front of the castle protecting it with all the spells he knew, throwing rocks at Goblins, raising floods of mud, blowing them with the wind, drowning them in quicksand, and gassing them with stenches. Erwin was back at his chamber trying to make more of the magic potion. 

The king was whispering to himself in panic.

‘Where are they? They should be here by now…’

‘Who?’ asked Edwin, trying to send a rain of tar on Goblins’ faces.

‘My friends, my neighbors’ armies! Where is Gwidon?’

‘This is actually a good question! Where the hell is this boy?!’

And just as they were mentioning it, another flood of knights appeared from the distance. Gwidon in charge of thousands of sleeping mountain knights was approaching, making Goblins turn back and focus their attack on the behind. Now it was a spectacle of war at its best. All of them were trained in the art of Warcraft, all beautifully dressed, with the best skills and years of experience. To die in such a battle was an honor and soon Goblins noticed one thing. They were the only ones dying as the sleeping soldiers seemed to be already dead.

While Gwidon with his army and Lilet with her magic and the power of nature were covering the back, Prince Vandarok managed to cross all walls set up by Giants and run to the courtyard. Edwin grew tired and his spells were not as effective as before, causing leaks and allowing Goblins to enter the castle and fight its dwellers.

The king started lamenting.

‘I promised them my daughter’s hand!’

‘Don’t cry, my King’, Vandarok jumped from the wall onto the courtyard and approached the king ‘Soon there will be no space for your tears as I will cut them along with your eyes!’

‘Maybe you should attack someone your rank, not an old and helpless man’, a silver soldier with a tulip ornament appeared in front of Vandarok, ‘And by the way, father,’ he whispered to the king, ‘I’m already married!’

Vandarok was about to laugh at the size of the soldier but then he heard a scream, felt a smell reminding him of… no he wasn’t quite sure… of cauliflower soup? And felt the power of this tiny body that smashed him again and again to the ground. 

The battle was full-on. The king’s friends actually sent their small armies, which surrounded Goblins from the outside. From the inside, women and Giants were protecting the castle but with diminishing success. The wounded Dragon and Giants hurt and tied to the ground madly tried to set themselves free. The sea of Goblins moved in endless waves to and back flooding the castle. The day was coming to a close, the sun began to set. 

Erwin came from his chamber carrying a big pot with cauliflower soup to a terrible sight. His brother Edwin was lying in the courtyard, unconscious surrounded by Goblins. The king was running towards the observation tower to seek hideout. Thousands of wounded and dead lied on the castle’s grounds. The Dragon was howling from pain trying to secure his egg. Five Giants were killed. Gwidon was running to wounded Lilet who fell on the ground holding the arrow which hit her stomach as if she wanted to hide it. Then other arrows followed because she was defenseless. And then, there was the last scream of Princess Karina who with the final hiss of her sword chopped off Prince Vandarok’s head and fell powerless on her knees. 

‘We won!!!’ she took her helmet off, exposing her blond hair, took Vandarok’s head, and raised it for Goblins to see ‘This is your Prince! This is your fate if you don’t start to retreat’. The blood was dripping from her mouth, she felt deep wounds in her chest from Vandarok’s hits. Her beloved David lied on the courtyard’s floor with his arms chopped off. 

Cries of Gwidon announced the death of a young witch dressed in the white dress, now red from blood from the dozens of arrows that stabbed her body in merciless sequence and to Goblin’s satisfaction. 

‘Not her!’ the knight held her body, crying from desperation. 

Erwin watched the whitening face of his brother, whom life seemed to abandon, and sensed that this victory was false and they had lost too much. He dropped the pot with the cauliflower soup and returned to his chamber.

He was looking for it for a while. The black stone hidden on the shelves among mummified lizards and cut fingers. 

‘There you are!’

Erwin grabbed it and threw it into the fire. 

‘If all else fails…’ whispered he to himself. 

Nothing happened. Not a bang, not even a tiny explosion. But when again Erwin came back to the courtyard, he was to witness a completely different sight. 

Chapter 16 Silence before the Storm

 Prince Vadarok was by himself in his chamber, sitting at a desk, carefully watching battle plans. The war wasn’t his idea, it was his destiny. It was the dream of his father and his grandfather who still remembered how mistreated were Goblins in the world of humans. It was the result of years spent underground and his dignity built, each and every day of his childhood, by constant comparisons and conclusions that humans weren’t as great as chronicles portrayed them to be. Vandarok took his grandfather’s and father’s resources to create the most powerful army the world at that time was about to welcome. He created the arms of death for anyone to oppose it. 

The day that he chose for the battle was the day of his grandfather’s death. It was the last breath of a ruler who passed on with a sense of being defeated by the sun and earth. In Goblins’ eyes, it was once the death of deprivation and unfulfillment. And now it was about to change. 

Vandarok knew that the human citizens of the kingdom were expecting him, forming a front to fight him, but he thought their efforts futile. He was aware that Marva was missing but what his silly sister knew about the seriousness of his affair? His family was built on hatred for the human race and it was the only family he grew up in, the only point of reference he had ever had. 

The air stood still. The Prince broke the silence only with a silent bang of a golden coin, struck repeatedly against the table, which with every second brought him closer and closer to his final orders. 

Meanwhile, in the castle, there were two couples, who spent their days in a surprisingly similar way but a completely different state of mind. David and Karina were lying on the bed one last time making love, married, devoted to each other, but scared and expecting the worst. They were the ones who visited the Goblin’s city and it seemed that they were the only ones aware of the seriousness of it all. Now the fact that their love was against every rule of the court and the king’s wishes didn’t matter at all. They had each other and this was on the verge of getting lost.

The second couple was living in their own separate world. During the day, they were lovers, physically entangled, and ecstatic about their newly discovered devotion. At night, they were a pair of two Goblins, playful like little children, naughty, and in hiding. They were a pair of royal children from two opposing kingdoms, both unfit for their nation’s values, both with a background of unappreciation. The last thing they thought about was war. It was a destruction of everything they loved and admired. It was a waste. But it didn’t play any role at their time of happiness and they were happy in each other’s arms and company. Gustaw turned into a Goblin and Marva; Gustaw the Prince and Avram, a Goblin turned into a human.

The king was walking from one side of the chamber to another, waiting for help. And he wished for this help to arrive. He counted battles in which he supported his neighbors or sent his troops to those surrounded and in need. The king was anxious, doubted in himself, aware of his decimated forces, and felt alone with the burden of ruling the country. His wife was spending her nights with his tax collector and in times like this, he regretted getting married at all. It was a waste of time to feel betrayed by her but he was disappointed by the lack of support. At that moment, the king realized that all he had in his life was himself, this overwhelming silence and the fear.

Lilet was standing in the middle of the forest, barefoot, in the same white dress given to her by the Golden Duck, with her arms spread, whispering the spells her grandmother taught her all her life. She was calling for old magic, but only this magic was powerful enough to defeat the evil. She summoned the earth, water, air, and fire to be her friends and to fill her with power. She once turned men into animals, she now wanted to turn the forest into her own weapon.

Erwin, the Royal Wizard, was fulfilling Princess Karina’s orders and filling little bottles with cauliflower soup which were given to women slowly crowding the castle’s gates. They came from all over the kingdom, of all ages and statuses, ready to fight and defend their land in their men’s absence. Each of them was given a sword and a bottle of elixir giving them the power of eight men. Each of them was given the power of trust.

At that time, Edwin came back from Shirah’s hut and presented his brother with a stone. 

‘If all else fails, I want you to heat it’, he said, breathing deeply from the effort of climbing the stairs ‘Have you looked into the future, brother?’

Edwin looked into his brother’s white eyes. He had to admit that while his own affairs kept him younger for longer, Erwin’s stay at the court was physically exhausting. 

‘I have.’

‘And, is there a chance for us in this war?’

Erwin didn’t say a word but was still filling the bottles with the liquid. Edwin knew his brother enough to feel a burden of sadness forming around his head but didn’t dare to ask any more questions. 

‘You have been dear to me, brother, I want you to remember it.’ Edwin placed the stone in front of him. 

Erwin took the stone and hid it.

‘If all else fails…’ he whispered.  

The night was slowly coming to a close.

Chapter 15 The Switch

Let us just say that preparing for the war wasn’t the most favorite time in Gustaw’s life. He spent his days idle. No army officer that somehow was still present in the castle wanted to have Gustaw around, no one wanted to have him at the stables, at the armory, even nearby the king’s chambers. They still remembered that he had been captured and was this close to revealing the kingdom’s most securely kept secrets. This close was actually very far away but nobody knew that Gustaw had no idea what was going on around him. From a very young age, he was neither interested in sport nor in politics. He wasted his days attending parties, excelled at ball dances, music, arts, and coffee meetings. He was laughed at by the knights, mistreated and ignored by his own father. His mother’s adoration for him finished when he reached adolescence and his sister’s interest in him ended irreversibly when she started hanging out with this peasant boy David. 

Now he was standing in the center of the castle’s courtyard, holding one of Karina’s letters to the kingdom's women and came to the conclusion that she had more charisma than he had ever had under his handsome cover. And that cover was actually a cover for his intense shyness and sense of isolation. Oh, he wished that he was someone like Gwidon, whom his father adored. Oh, he wished he had some respect among the citizens of the kingdom. But the only thing he had were his looks. 

And then, feeling quite worthless in his own eyes, paralyzed at the coming war, he saw this beautiful red-headed woman, who approached him with a broad smile.

‘Not again,’ thought he to himself; he had far too many beautiful women in his life, all of them interested in him from a very young age, driven by his popularity and royal descent. But then, after playing with him for some time, they all abandoned him for some more manly knight or lord. Being married to a prince was a challenge in itself and not everybody was willing to bear the burden of such a duty. To make matters worse, all his dates expected that there was something more in Gustaw than there actually was, so he made every single one of them disappointed. 

‘You must be Prince Gustaw!’, exclaimed the woman, exposing her straight white teeth as if just the day before she had them fixed by some talented craftsman, ‘Avram’, she introduced herself, shaking his hand, which he didn’t even extend to greet her, ‘I’m glad that I found you, I thought that it would be difficult, but there you are, I managed to find the castle and you stand there in the center. It's as easy as taking candy from a baby!’

Gustaw was surprised at her strange confidence. 

‘Were you looking for me?’

‘Yeah,’ she rolled her eyes and smiled even wider, ‘I was told that you would show me around. I have never been here before. I was told that you would tell me something about this kingdom.’

‘You were told by whom?’

‘Well,’ Avram rolled her eyes again, ‘First, the peasants, then the soldiers, then the horsemen, then the women. Everybody said that they were extremely busy and the only person that had nothing to do was the prince. YOU are the prince, aren’t you? You must be Prince Gustaw.’

Gustaw was just about to tell her that he had many important matters to take care of but as a matter of fact, he wasn’t able to recall even one which would be a good excuse. 

‘You want ME to show you around?’

‘Sure. I always wanted to get a tour around the castle, to get to know the royals better. To get to know you.’

‘Since when?’

‘What since when?’

‘Since when have you wanted to get to know me?’

‘Since I first met you.’

‘Have we met? I wouldn’t forget such a woman, you’re really beautiful, believe me.’

‘Am I?’, Avram smiled in such a way as if she had just won a contest, ‘Oh, I wasn’t as pretty when we first met. I was just… plain. It took me some time to mature.’

‘It must have been one of the balls,’ Gustaw decided, ‘You must have been one of these young princesses. Have you seen me dance?’

‘No. Will you show me?’, Avram seemed to be really excited. 

‘Not here. People are preparing for something serious. There’s war approaching and we shouldn’t be seen entertaining while others are preparing to kill.’

‘Tell me something about it!’ Avram rolled her eyes, ‘My whole life I was surrounded by men interested only in war. I’ve had it up to here!’

Her up to here was really high as she raised her hand and almost reached the sky.

‘Fine, I will take you around the castle.’

Gustaw told Avram stories about the kingdom, and surprisingly even to him, he knew quite a lot about it, recalled his own childhood, showed her family’s portraits hanging in the castle, and proudly presented to her his own paintings from his childhood and formative years. Avram was really enthusiastic and Gustaw suddenly felt very relaxed in her presence even though she was exceptionally beautiful. She behaved in such an unassuming way that the stress of his previous days disappeared and he was able to watch her look at herself from time to time in the palace's mirrors, constantly amazed at her own beauty. All of a sudden, she sneezed, being subjected to the castle’s draft, and covered her own face in her snots. She didn’t wipe it or do anything about it, so Gustaw took his handkerchief and wiped her face.

‘It looks unhygienic.’, he explained seeing her worried face.

‘So you wipe it?’, she was genuinely surprised, ‘You wipe your fluids? You wipe your asses when you shit, your snots when you have a runny nose, vomit when you throw up?’

‘What do you mean we? Don’t you?’

‘We… don’t.’ Avram answered honestly.

‘You don’t? Where are you from?’

‘From…’ Avram was looking for the answer in the drawers of her brain, then, desperate, she looked around and caught sight of one of the vases, a gift from a king, and read the sign under it, ‘Germany.’

‘Oh,’ Gustaw shrugged his shoulders, ‘That explains a lot.’

‘I really liked this tour,’ she said when they reached the courtyard, ‘You are a very interesting guide, I must say. Even though the castle is moderately furnished, you tell about it in such a way that it instantly looks prettier!’ Avram was excited and Gustaw didn’t know what kind of castles were in Germany, but he felt poor. 

‘Well, it’s getting dark, maybe in the broad daylight it would seem a bit better,’ he laughed, knowing from his painting classes that light had an immense influence on perception.

‘It’s getting dark!’ Avram went red in the face, ‘I…I must go!’, with no other explanation, she ran from the courtyard.

‘Why don’t you stay for supper?’, Gustaw was woken up by her sudden departure. 

‘I can’t!’, she shouted and disappeared behind the castle’s wall, ‘I’ll be here tomorrow!’

Gustaw gasped, but seeing that she had left her scarf, decided to run after her (and hand it to her back). Above all, he had nothing else to do, so he came to the conclusion that he might be of use.

But there was no sight of Avram, and having looked for her for a while, he decided that the forest surrounding the castle wasn’t the best place to stay in the dark. And yes, Gustaw didn’t feel comfortable in the darkness and there was no knight to protect him. He was once abducted, it might happen again.

Suddenly, just before him, he saw someone familiar who was about to jump from the path and hide into the bushes.

‘Marva?! For havens’ sake, what are you doing here?’

Marva stopped, looked at Gustaw, and smiled in her nasty way.

‘You know how dangerous it is?’ Gustaw was seriously worried, ‘Your brother is going to attack the kingdom, everybody is aware of it now. Do you know what people would do to a lonely Goblin wandering in the dark? Are you aware that by being here you are risking your life?’

Marva was overwhelmed by Gustaw’s care and she didn’t know what to say. She mumbled something under her nose. 

‘I will just go home, then. I only wanted to see how the world looks outside. I don’t want to stay with my brother and look at him preparing for this war. He thinks that it is me that let you run away. I will be punished. He will make me marry some nasty Goblin.’

Gustaw got serious. He remembered how kind Marva was to him, the only person who talked to him while he was kept hostage. He recalled her interest in him and support. He also remembered witnessing a Goblin wedding ceremony and Marva’s genuine sadness at the jokes about the couple’s wedding night. 

‘You must stay here then, I will prepare some hideout for you in the castle, but you must be cautious. You mustn’t walk like this in the light of the day. Otherwise, you will be killed.’

Marva patiently followed Gustaw back into the castle, this time having hidden under Gustaw’s cloak.

‘Who is this my Prince?’ the guard standing at the gate got interested in the presence of Gustaw’s guest.

‘It’s an old witch,’ Gustaw explained, ‘Erwin asked me to fetch her. He said that if I had nothing else to do I could at least bring her here.’

The guard looked under the hood and in the dark, he took Marva’s smile for a genuine smile of a nasty old woman, so he didn’t ask further questions. Gustaw placed Marva in his chamber because he didn’t have any other idea where it would be the safest. He ordered the dinner for both of them and placed her in his own bed. 

‘I can sleep on the floor.’ Marva suggested shyly, ashamed of her own looks.

‘Don’t be silly, I can sleep on the floor.’

After a five-minute argument over who was the one sleeping on the floor, they decided that they could both sleep on the bed, without a threat of offending anyone’s dignity, being both royals in their own right. 

‘I do feel awkward,’ Marva admitted, seeing Gustaw in his nightshirt, young and handsome.

‘Why is that so, Marva?’

‘You are way prettier.’

Gustaw laughed and handed her one of Karina’s nightgowns.

‘Well, you will have a prettier dress then.’

In the morning, when Gustaw woke up, there was no trait of Marva in his chamber. But beautiful Avram was strolling around the courtyard, singing songs, and playing with the children. 

‘You look worried, my Prince,’ she put her hand on his cheek, ‘Has anything happened?’

‘My friend is missing’, Gustaw was overwhelmed by black thoughts that clouded over his head: If Marva had been captured by anyone in the kingdom, she would have been instantly imprisoned and decapitated. Taking into account circumstances, she might as well have been sent to Vandarok in pieces as a warning.

‘If he’s missing, you have to announce that to the castle’s guards. They will surely help you with your search.’

‘I can’t. It’s a special friend. A friend that isn’t supposed to be here. I hope she didn’t go far…’

‘So it’s a she!’, exclaimed Avram happy at her own discovery, ‘Is it your girlfriend?’

‘No. She’s a friend. She’s a dear friend.’

‘But not a girlfriend?’

Gustaw blushed.

‘I’m not sure my parents would approve.’

‘Oh…’, Avram saddened and looked away. 

Gustaw also felt awkward but didn’t say a word. How could a woman like Avram understand the bond that he had with Marva? How could anyone understand such friendship? Gustaw trusted Marva, he cared for her, despite her race and her family. She was a genuinely good person. Honest, trustworthy, and kind. She was also real, not silly and superficial as these princesses he used to meet at kingdom’s balls. 

‘I can help you find her if you want,’ Avram sensed that no matter how beautiful she was, it wouldn’t make Gustaw care for his missing friend any less. ‘Tell me something about her, then.’

Gustaw carefully observed the castle's courtyard.

‘Well… She’s really smart and really good to people. She’s not prejudiced. And she’s really talented. She can make beautiful things. She’s thoughtful and you honestly want everything good for her. And the family she grew up in… I thought that it was hard for me, but it seems that it was even harder for her. This brother of hers, my God, he’s a monster…’

‘You seem to care about her a lot. Do you love her?’

‘Do I love her? As a friend, for sure. She has done so much for me. She kept me alive. I’ve never been more grateful to anyone in my life.’

‘But you don’t love her as a woman?’

‘She’s not really a woman, you see. She’s of a different kind.’

‘So you wouldn’t be able to fall in love with her?’

‘In love?!’ Gustaw was overwhelmed again, ‘Why do you ask me such questions?’

‘You see, my Prince, I’m just checking if there’s any woman apart from me that could win your heart. I suppose that you can only fall in love with someone as beautiful as me. Someone who would give you this…’

Avram unbuttoned her dress and showed Gustaw her naked breast with a perfect protruding pink nipple, below there was a lovely stomach with a perfect round navel and the Prince’s eyes couldn’t help but to look down to the spot her left hip forming a curved path to her bosom.

‘No!’, Gustaw made Avram button up her dress, ‘I’m not in the mood.’

Gustaw looked at Avram and felt her disappointment. She looked as if she was offended by the rejection of her gift but, fortunately for him, didn’t try to undress again. 

They didn’t talk much, just walked, Gustaw was all the time looking for Marva and imaging another possible dark scenario. Avram disappeared at dusk, this time Gustaw even didn’t try to make her stay. Instead, he went back to his chamber and was happy beyond measure to find Marva in his armchair devouring a bowl of apples.

‘So hungry!’, she explained with her mouth full.

‘Haven’t I told you that you are in extreme danger? No one can see you here, you might be killed!’

‘I was here all the time, why are you shouting at me? In the morning, I heard someone talking behind the door and I hid under the bed. The next thing I saw was you in the courtyard with this woman! So you have a girlfriend now?’

‘She’s not my girlfriend. She’s some German princess who is getting to know the country.’

‘Maybe she’s a German spy!’ Marva laughed, spitting pieces of apples on the carpet.

‘Even if she was a spy, she wouldn’t get the information she needed to conquer us. Your brother wasn’t able to.’

‘Maybe she is here to steal your heart!’

‘Maybe she is here to steal yours!’ Gustaw threw a plum at Marva and they both laughed. Marva enjoyed Gustaw laughing, she looked at him with a mix of admiration and care.

‘Marva, what do you think about our kingdom?’

‘In general? It’s fine.’

‘But it’s not as rich and beautiful as your kingdom?’

‘In general, not.’

‘And it’s also not as beautiful as Germany, I was told. Why would someone like you, a Princess owning the richest, the most beautiful palaces, decide to abandon it all for a far poorer abode?’

‘People leave various things for various reasons.’

‘Even their most valued possessions?’

‘I suppose even those.’, Marva saddened and went pale in the face. 

Gustaw observed her for a while eating plums himself. She finished her apples and sat motionlessly deep in her thoughts. Gustaw was in the meantime adding pieces to the puzzle. Yes, Gustaw wasn’t stupid. And there was something about Marva’s sad expression which looked weirdly familiar. 

‘Marva?’ Gustaw asked out of the blue when they were both lying on his royal bed. ‘What if someone wanted to switch into something else? For instance, for one part of the day he wanted to be one thing and for the night another?’

‘Then he’ll have to contact the witch. I know one witch that can do exactly the thing. I… someone I knew wanted to change into something else but it wasn’t possible for the whole time only part-time, but still, it worked…’

‘Ah, really? Do you know how I can get in contact with this witch?’

‘Sure, why?’ Marva was really sleepy.

‘I also have such a friend.’

Gustaw stormed into the witch’s hut early in the morning, having left Marva sleeping in his bed. But he was able to see how the first rays of sunlight made her skin lighter and from her head spread red curls of hair.

The witch was an old witch and she looked at Gustaw from the pot of boiling onion soup.

‘It is you who turned Marva into a woman, isn’t it?’

‘You mean, the Goblin princess? Yes, a silly girl. She fell in love with some handsome prince and sacrificed herself for him. She will come back to me heart-broken.’

‘I am this prince,’ Gustaw smiled shyly, ‘I want to ask you for a favor, witch.’

‘Yes, my Prince?’ the witch tasted a spoonful of her soup but didn’t manage to swallow.

 ‘I want you to turn me into a Goblin.’