The Find of a Lifetime (Guglin)

"Toad, give me the lighter." Demanded the tallest children in an unkind tone. When the request was not meet, he stretched his closed hand to dispel any attempt of rebellion.
Upon hearing the order, the frog faced child leaped in his place. His wide eyes nervously looked at his cousin with respect and admiration but essentially fear. A primal fear, almost animal. He knew what would happen if he did not give him the lighter, so without hesitation he extended his hand to deliver the precious object. But before his cousin could take it, her clumsy finger dropped it. The bright object opened with a loud click while the friends of his cousin laughed in unison.

Among the laughter of the group he could almost heard the sound of his own heart trying to escape from his chest, quickly jumping like a frog. But above all, he could feel the gaze of his cousin, silently commanding him to lift the lighter. With a speed that he did not know he had, Toad soon picked up the lighter to deposit it in the big hands of his cousin, who smiled foolishly. Pleased with his obedience. His hands closed like jaws on the polished surface making it disappear.

As soon as he gave him the object, he took a couple of steps backwards to get away from the small group of supporters. And from there he could see how the lighter produced a small flame. It was about to lit the fuse when someone shouted. Everybody froze in their places, holding their breath. The silent dominated everything for several seconds until Jimmy began to run, then Luke, then Sam. Even Toad ran away from the statue they wanted to destroy, all but his cousin.

Lenny the Giant, better known as Toad's cousin, stared at the intruder with hatred. Throwing imaginary daggers to the person that dared to ruin his fun but when it was clear that the stranger hero was not going to disappear, Lenny lit the fuse and then began to run.
He did not need to look back to know the firecracker started to explode, one by one, the explosive objects unleashed their fury in agonizing howls.

The world that his five senses showed him, changed radically in just one second. His memories insisted in vain that there should be a garden, which should be illuminated by sunlight and bathed in its melting heat but nothing of that was there, Gug had no choice but to accept that he had somehow traveled through time and space. Maybe he inherited some of his mother´s power after all...
Just a moment ago he was in a garden, playing one of his favorite games. He was chasing a fat cat that could hardly stand, let alone run, so the animal could not escape his torture. He spent the last hour chasing and poking him until after a blink everything changed. He was now in a place illuminated by some source of artificial light even whiter than sunlight, the heat from the golden disc had become a strong winter breeze that although unnatural was extremely welcome.

His first reaction was to search for the cat. The second was to try to understand where he was, but his questions were soon reduced to nothing when the delicious smell of human food emanating from a bag hit his nose. With uncertain steps, he moved to find the source of that aroma, always trying not to fall. Once he located the food, Guglin shattered the bag with its nails exposing several containers of different sizes. He took the biggest one and began to chew the cardboard until after swallowing several pieces of the delicious box he found something even more wonderful. Steam rose from the rice to let him taste the dish, so even before seeing its contents he knew what it contained. Putting the box aside, he put his mouth in white grain that attempted to hide the meat. Soon all the meat and half the rice had disappeared.

Momentarily satisfied and with no more meat to chew, he left the boring rice to peek in the other containers. None seemed to have anything interesting so he finally left the bag and its contents alone.
With an agile leap, he descended to the ground where a comfortable carpet welcomed him. From there, he had a completely different perspective of the man made cave. What once had been small now had become a gigantic so most things were out of his reach. Everything except for the little creatures who watched him from behind a protective glass.
Guglin watched the little creatures in amazement and they watched him in return. Silently. Some of them were human, even taller than the other tiny creatures, so Guglin did not pay much attention to them. He also found dwarves with long beards and giant axes and even dragons, but what caught his attention were the green creatures without name. They were a lot like him...
He had been so close that his face was pressed against the glass in an attempt to get closer to the creatures. When he failed, he tried to get their attention by knocking in the glass with his knuckles but the silent still remained untouched so he asked aloud in an extremely sharp voice. "You hear me?"

Despite the noise penetrating from the outside through the glass wall, inside the cave was in a state of calm interrupted only by the occasional grunt of surprise and the constant rubbing of his feet against the carpet. Although he did not always agree with humans, who generally were noisy and annoying, Guglin could not help to enjoy the smoothness of the floor. It was a different feeling than the tickling grass, or the hard cement that is got hot with the sun, and although somewhat similar to fabric, it composition continued to be a mystery. A nice mystery. The goblin stared the synthetic carpet with curiosity, wondering how much time would take to get a sizable chunk to put in his lair but while he was doing the necessary calculations, his thoughts turned away from there to reposition themselves on the little people trapped in the glass box.

A distant voice, almost human, forced his focus away from his thoughts of vandalism to make him concentrate once more on the box where the creatures remained as immobile as before. Humans, dwarves and elves stared straight ahead ignoring his presence. Perhaps by choice, or perhaps they were under the influence of some spell. None seemed to have much interest in raising their tiny eyes and confirm the presence of the goblin that for them should look like a giant.
Very slowly so as not to scare the little monsters, Guglin moved his face toward the glass so his long ears were pressed on the transparent surface.
Almost when he was about to surrender, he heard another voice. Startled, he stared at the crystal cage in order to find the owner of that voice, but every one of those people seemed to be just as quiet as before.

He continued searching for that ghostly voice without so much hope, staring at everything with his big eyes. At least he was able to understand the message, so directing his voice toward the box, the goblin answered the greeting. "Hello." With his voice full of joy and security.
As he had learned with Dog, the words did not matter as much as the tone that seemed to carry more things than the words themselves, so he spoke very slowly, trying to project his concern to the multiple inhabitants of that little world. "Need help?"

The awe he felt for that miniature world soon became an extreme curiosity that filled his oval head with a thousand questions and his constant surveillance of that world did not give him any response, it just raised new questions. It was difficult to understand how they had managed to get into that box that seemed impenetrable, but more difficult to imagine how they could live in such confinement. A quick glance was enough for him to notice that there was no food down there, not even water. Without any support it did not seem possible for these people to live there but still, I had heard a voice coming from the other side of the glass so he ought to be wrong.

A not so far throaty sound put his ears on alert once again, causing them to move frantically in order to capture future sounds. It was then that he heard the strange chant. The first sound, wild and short that was almost like a growl soon gave way to new sounds, words in a language he had never heard before. Several disparate noises fused together to form what seemed words, separated by small silences. The speech was strange but clear.

While hearing those awful words his whole body tensed with anticipation, recalling the recent encounter with the magician in the big park. Guided by instinct, his hands descended to his waist, where his beloved sword rested. This time, his hands found nothing.
The player for Scora had been simple and pronounced in the tongue of humans. Instead, that new spell not only was indecipherable but also extremely long. Whatever would happen, Guglin did not want to be in the receiving end.

Feeling the power of the spell closing around him, the little goblin ran along the extension of the glass, up to one of the corners where he could avoid a direct impact. But even when he could see through the glass clearly, he did not find any traces of the devastating curse that these complicated words had called.
Relieved but still slightly confused by the non dramatic demonstration of magic, the little goblin turned on his heels looking for the voice. It was then, and only then that he discovered the man that was watching him.
The stranger looked extremely harmless but if that strange spell had come from him, Gug needed to deal with him quickly. Sadly, he could not just tear up his throat without really knowing if he was the sorceress... so again, he raised his voice, addressing the only person in the room. "You wizard?"

When the sorcerer spoke again, the language he used changed from the incoherent noises to mimic the same dialect the little goblin used.
Almost without realizing, Gug started to nod to the first affirmation of the human, quietly confirming his ability to communicate in the language of humans.
Then, demonstrating an odd lack of interest in the language they talked, the man changed the subject to start talking about an exotic food that could damage the throat as if it were a dangerous hedgehog. If that goblin tongue was so difficult to eat, it was certainly delicious so Guglin wrote a mental note to a catch goblin later, if he could find one.

Then the man challenged him with a threatening step forward that Guglin replied with standing in the same place, otherwise he would have asserted his power and greatness.
But where physical intimidation failed, his words caused an irrational fear that made the little goblin step back while repeating the name of his opponent. "Ackashey." Even when spoken by someone with no magical abilities, the power of that word melted over his tongue to make it awkwardly heavy. Maybe that was a simple curse to combat other wizards.

In his first encounter with a wizard, all ended well. Although the battle had begun with long tongues of fire devouring his skin, or at least trying, at the end they had managed to establish a long and peaceful conversation. Instead, on this occasion they had begun talking so the battle could begin at any time soon.
The man closed his eyes but before Guglin could decide if that was a threat, he opened them again while giving him a genuine smile that made the goblin forget his tension.

Now undecided about the benevolence or evilness of the magician, the green creature remained still in a state of semi alert. His ears prickled again when he heard the wizard speak of his power while explaining its qualities. Guglin observed the human trying to discover who was behind that smile, but before he could find what he wanted, two objects materialized out of nowhere, bursting into what once had been empty. His amber eyes opened with astonishment as he stared these wonderful objects that the man put out of his reach.

Despite all his senses craved for the words, Guglin was strong enough to ignore these impulses and face reality. He was probably the magician that locked up all these creatures, so when he recovered some of his lost courage, Guglin interrupted the human. "If you friend." Pause to look at the box of glass. "Free them."

Once he managed to direct his moral challenge to the wizard, his lips close tightly for the first time transforming his carefree smile into a thin line that lacked any expressivity but even when his expression was calm and quiet, his mind fought constantly with an ever growing nervousness. If the man´s reply was negative, it would be the end of the implicit truce and the beginning of a bloody battle.
In order to avoid giving him any him of his fears and concerns, he stayed as still as a statue. The only things in his body that were not made of stone were his long ears that were always in motion while waiting the man´s reply.

Even when his reply was exactly was he was expecting he could not manage to make his muscles respond to the "bite his legs" command that filled his brain. There was something in his voice... some sort of discomfort that made Guglin doubt again. Was he an enemy or a friend? He was still trying to find the answer to that question when the man spoke again in the same sad tone.

The following sentences uttered by the wizard shrink his heart with sadness yet it also gave him hope. Apparently there was nothing to do for those petrified creatures and that was very sad but at the same time, the magician's confession meant something more that Guglin could not ignore. The magician was not as powerful as he said, so if he really was an enemy, the goblin had a chance to win.

After the long explanation, the man moved to the glass box pausing there for a moment to produce a small key that made the surface slide aside for Guglin to take a closer look at the tiny persons.
Mesmerized by the priceless opportunity offered by the magician, Guglin took two steps toward the box, but before he could reach it, he stopped.
Even after his little speech about his great goodness and his desire to help these small creatures, Guglin still had doubts about the intentions of that man. Maybe if he walked close enough... that box would suck him without mercy into that tiny, static world. So the little monster stepped back away from the box and the magician. "You first." The goblin said, inviting the stranger to put his hand into the glass prison.

Although this time his request was much simpler and therefore much easier to execute, Guglin expected the young sorcerer to refuse as he did previously. But to his surprise the magician immediately accepted his challenge and put his hands inside the glass box. With that simple action his theory about a trap in the box collapsed, creating new doubts about the wizard´s morality that at the same time tilted the scales slightly towards goodness.

Driven by curiosity, the creature advanced a few steps toward the box to see more clearly the process. The world behind the glass looked almost the same without the glass in front of it, only now the creatures seemed to be more exposed to the dangers of a world many times larger than themselves. That concern for their sizes achieved to form a smile on his lips. If anyone knew that size did not matter, that was him. So these creatures sure knew how to defend themselves... if not for the paralyzing spell.

Even though his golden eyes did not want to miss a single moment of the process, Guglin forced them to concentrate on their surroundings. The first thing that their eyes looked for were the doors, they were not far from where he was standing, neither close... he could took advantage of that moment of inattention to reach the exit easily. But what will happen with the wizard and the creatures? The timing was perfect to escape, but still, Gug forced himself to remain there. The little creatures may need help from him so he stayed. Partly because of the immense curiosity he felt but also because the man was breaking the barrier of mistrust that he had created.

The pale of human hands soon removed one of his green brothers from the insides of the box, and carefully placed it on the surface where he had found the food. Forgetting the possible threat posed by the human, the little goblin moved with haste to the counter, where he stopped to stand on tiptoe to watch the petrified creature that looked a lot like him. "Her name?" Asked the goblin with a questioning glance directed at the magician. "My is Guglin." He said cheerfully to the mage and the statue, remembering too late that he should had presented himself much earlier. Sometimes he just forget certain social customs.

While waiting for the human to reply, Guglin extended his hand to touch the other creature. To his surprise his fingers encountered a very different surface that what he imagined that he could not fully identify. It felt quite strange. His mind imagined touching the warm skin of a living creature but his fingers retrieved completely different information. Unable to contain his curiosity about that strange material, the goblin asked again with its distinctive high-pitched voice. "Is stone?"