“Button! Button!” A mother goblin raced after the tiny sprite, weaving more carefully through the foot traffic.
Little Button’s tears were already welling in her big, lavender eyes as I left our party to kneel in front of her. “Hey, Button, is it?”
The little girl nodded, bottom lip trembling with a pitiful warning. Tears were imminent unless I pulled out some magic.
I spied a weed growing a little to our left, a sturdy thing despite the goblins trampling the area quite thoroughly. It was white and scrawny, but it was the only idea I had.
“Do you want to see a trick? It’s really cool. I think you’d like it.” I tried to sound aloof, not like I cared too much.
It worked; she was intrigued. Cautiously, she nodded.
“Watch this plant very closely now.” I winked at her, then pressed my fingers into the earth around its base, closing my eyes to concentrate on the green tendrils of plant life I could faintly feel.
There. It only took a moment. I found the little weed and sent it warm thoughts of growth, of blooming. I fueled it with my own energy, visualizing a trickle of power from my fingertips directly into the roots.
A delighted gasp made me pull back and open my eyes.
“You grewed it so fast!” Her voice was little and squeaky and positively precious. She clapped her hands excitedly, scooching up onto her knees to coo at the flower as she looked closer.
Flowers, I should say. The plant had grown to half her height and was positively bursting with new blooms. To my surprise, they were in a rainbow of colors, not just white.
The little goblin’s mother finally made her way through the crowd, scooped her up, and gave her what sounded like a solid scolding in Goble.
When she turned my way, she bowed as if I were some kind of royalty. “Thank you for seeing to my Button. She is a very busy little girl. Always getting her pretty dresses dirty.”
The edge of scorn in her voice saddened me. I’d been a little girl once who was always getting dirty in my garden. I couldn’t imagine how different things would have been for me if my father had berated me for following my interests.
Focusing on Button, I leaned forward, whispering, “Me too, Button. Don’t feel bad. Sometimes you have to get a little dirty to have a grand adventure. But stay with your mama, okay?”
Button giggled, all traces of tears gone as her mother carted her off, clutching a lavender bloom in her little green fist and thankfully no longer being scolded.
A strong, masculine hand appeared to help me up, and I took it, glancing up gratefully at Lucien as I dusted off my own knees. My pants were smudged, but they were dark, so hopefully no one would notice.
“You’re very kind, you know that?”
“I try to be. I think the world could use a lot more kindness than it has right now.” I shrugged, feeling the urge to blush even though it was a very safe compliment.
“Yeah, but other people talk about being kind. You’re the real deal.” He paused, stopping us both amid the stream of goblins. “It’s a gift.” He stroked his thumb over my cheek, looked like he was about to say something more, when I was bumped from behind and nearly knocked off my feet.
Harried squeaks in Goble were all I got by way of apology, making Lucien growl lightly as the offending goblin rushed out of reach.
“Come on, I’ve got to get you out of here, or they’re going to carry you away like ants with a lollipop.”
He wrapped his arm around me, letting out just enough of his alpha dominance that he thought I wouldn’t notice.
But I definitely noticed the wide berth we received from our hosts for the rest of the walk, and the far-too-pleased smirk Lucien wore.
It was way sexier than it should have been.
Lucien
Alarge clearing had been set with dozens of long trestle tables covered with patchwork tablecloths in preparation for our arrival. The far end of the clearing held a pair of firepits, each with a large hog spinning on a spit.
At least, I hoped it was a hog. After the infernabist fiasco with the centaurs, I’d be checking before I took my first bite.
It smelled like pork, anyway.
Before we made it through the teeming horde of goblins to find a seat at a table, Batten waved us over to the side.
“The feast will not be ready for a while yet. All visitors to our little haven must first meet with our wise elder. Come, she is waiting.”
The winding side path was blessedly short-I’d had enough human hiking in the last two weeks to last me a lifetime-ending abruptly at a surprisingly large-well, tall-home.
It was as cobbled together as the rest, but the roof was high enough that a normal human could easily walk inside. A six-plus-foot alpha male? A little less easily.
“Wait here. I will let her know you’ve arrived.” She gestured to nearby Adirondack-style chairs, these crafted out of what appeared to be bent bicycle frames. The metal gleamed, though, and nothing stabbed me in the spleen as I sat.
It was surprisingly excellent craftsmanship, I noted as I studied the chair I sat in, looking slapdash only because of the choice of building materials.
I wasn’t sure precisely what I’d expected from a goblin elder, but the small, sturdy crone before us wasn’t it.
She had flowing lavender hair, with eyes that looked identical to the tiny Button, who Olivia had helped earlier. But the resemblance ended there. She had hunched shoulders, but a strong, wiry frame as if she’d done hard labor for much of her life, and time’s stoop was her only allowance for her age.
She barely even had wrinkles, but her eyes… They held the wisdom of the ages.
For a long while, she merely stared at us, taking our measure, each one in turn. I knew without a doubt that she missed nothing as she slowly worked her way down the line, not bothering to introduce herself.
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