//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Married To The Moblin // Story: The Shadow Of A Broken Heart // by WanderingPony //------------------------------// Normally, King Sombra (as he had styled himself once again) appreciated the fine results of heads, piled neatly before his throne with expressions of terror and horror on them. These were not neat, nor pleasing, although they did certainly look like they'd been terrified before being mashed into a rough ball along with the rest of the goblin mining crew in question. His mining crew. Which Seeker had rolled into his throne room like some kind of creepy game. A few random pieces of debris unstuck themselves from the oozing sphere to the floor. "Seeker, explain why you've just deposited ten very dead gobins before the throne. I have told you before. No gore in the throne room!" "Issss sooory Soooombra. Waaaahss noooote. Hasss misssed meaaal. Reeeaaaaaad.", the ahriman replied and pinned the note on Shining Armor's crystalline horn. The black unicorn studied the slightly bloodied parchment, written in a measured, even hand. Moblin tunnel. Trespassers will be mashed. No exceptions. Megomek Please deliver this to whoever was stupid enough to send these goblins into a moblin tunnel. Sombra's face developed an almost imperceptable twitch. "What....is....a moblin." Seeker, in it's impeccable sense of impending doom had left the immediate area with it's goblin goosh ball. A distant crunching sound could tell the observant it was both getting dinner and disposal done at the same time. One of the less observant goblin cronies that remained answered. "Dey's really WEIRD goblins, boss! Ya never see em, they live deeper than deep an' nobody bothers em. Cause they got giant monsters and contraptiony-thingies." "And none of you saw fit to tell me this." Twitch. Twitch. "I told ya, NOBODY bothers the moblins!" The goblin suffered a sudden case of "I've had the life drained from my body"-itis as Sombra thoughtlessly tore the soul out of the unfortunate speaker. The withered mannikin that used to be said goblin fell to the floor, bits of now-loose armor spilling in all directions. "These "moblins" vex me. And nothing in these caverns will do so and go unpunished. Who will tell me more about this "Megomak" and his monsters before I am vexed further?" One goblin was foolish enough to run out the nearest exit instead. They found themselves unceremoniously hurled back into the throne room by the Kindred doorwarden, skidding to a halt before the royal dais. "Ahh. We have a volunteer." The goblin, flailing in her padded jack found itself floating face to face with the monarch. "And who is my soothsaying young lady-goblin today, hmm?" "B-b-b-rassilox!" "Excellent. You look like a brave creature." The king politely waited for Brassilox's teeth to shop chattering in abject terror. "You will make an excellent envoy, Brassilox." A brass-tipped pen dipped it's nib into a floating inkwell, then scratched out a message on a piece of fine moogle-skin vellum. "Extend an invitation to this Megomek to visit my kingdom, by which I mean you will not return until he does so.". Sombra glowered at the shivering she-gob as the scroll rolled itself up neatly, was sealed, and deposited in her bag. "I trust you will return in one piece. Seeker already has clear instructions on what to do if you don't." The ahriman burped out a rivet that might have belonged to a goblin's helm before it was mashed between a pair of rather vicelike, fanged jaws as it flew back into the room, somewhat rounder than when it departed. "Seeker, take my envoy to the Moblins to the tunnel where you found dinner. DO make sure she gets down there quickly." Brassilox managed to squeak out only an incoherent noise behind her mask before Seeker had snatched her in it's claws and flew downwards, into the lowest boundaries of the kingdom's tunnels. Rocks and walls became blurry shadows as Seeker half-flew, half-dove into the descent, dropping into vertical shafts and twisting through stinking holes that Brassilox would have sworn were fit only for bat warrens. A long trek for a goblin fluttered by in a matter of minutes, and her ride lowered her with precision to a sticky patch of rock. Digging out a torch, she lit the landing site with a dim (by non-goblin standards), smoky light. Seeker had dropped her squarely in a rather large patch of mostly-dry gore, a trail of which could be seen heading upwards. "Seeeeeekerrr fooounnnd dinnnnners heeeeeeere. Caaaaahhhhn smellll thiiiiings doooowwwwn tunnnelll. Gooooooblin smellllsss, ooooother thiiiings. Ooooillly. Willlll waaaaait for gooooblin. Maaaaaahybe snaaaack. Maaaaahybe suuuuccceesss. Fuuuuuulll nowww. Hoooope succcesss, noooooot bellllyaaaache fooooor Seeeeker." "Ummmm...thank ya. I think.", Brassilox replied, and checked over her bag and gear. A gobbie girl did -not- go out without her bag, after all. Some other gobbie would just take whatever happened not to be nailed down and sell it back for twice the price! A decent sized blade, good for letting some air out of a pain in the rear or trimming a bat for dinner both. A holder for her lens caps, which she popped off the front of her mask to reveal the almost clear layer of glass below. That stupid demon always kept his room too bright...snacks, tools (like she'd let THOSE out of her sight, either), and the inevitable jumble of found bits, scavenged bits, and how-did-that-end-up-in-here things that every goblin accumulated, much like the pockets of children of any intelligent species you care to meet. She looked around the floor for good measure. It had been picked clean, and at least in one place -licked- clean to pry something stuck off the floor. Definitely goblins. "So, if I scream ya ain't gonna come get me, right?" "Seeeeeker seeeervvves. Noooooott sssstuuuupid." "Atta-beastie. Thinkin' like a gobbie. I'd bribe ya like one, but I like bein' not-dinner more." And with that, she took exactly one step into the tunnel and bellowed. "HEEEEEEEEEEY! THERE'S A GORGEOUS GOB UP HERE AND I'M LOOKIN FOR SOME MOBLIN LOVE MACHINES! YA GOT ANY DOWN THERE?" The response was the rapid pounding of VERY large feet as they rushed up towards the call. From the darkness of a tunnel, a single massive hand reached out to slap Brassilox into the floor. Almost casually, she stepped back out. The bugbear froze in mid-swipe and ceased it's assault, relaxing and beginning to turn back down the tunnel. Puffing and huffing, a smaller figure caught up to the bugbear he'd been chasing. "Aw, for crying out loud! Ain't you a little old to play "bait the bugbear"...um...lady?" Brassilox adjusted her mask in a fetching manner, a hint of what was either hair or wire escaping from under the neck join. "We-lllll...I had this little problem..." as she jerked a thumb back at the flapping maw of Seeker, now staring in confusion. The moblin didn't even think twice, sweeping his staff up to point at the ahriman. "BUGGALUMP! SQUASH!" The bugbear turned, roared and lumbered forward with the clear intention of turning Seeker into a pasty smear on the wall. Unprepared for the sudden assault, the demon flapped for dear life for the nearest ceiling hole, narrowly avoiding being snagged in one massive first. Frustrated, Buggalump tore a chunk of rock from the tunnel wall and hurled it into the hole, plugging it with the resulting avalanche of debris. An ominous rumble marked he'd managed to probably ruin the integrity of the roof as well, punctuated with pointed bits of stones beginning to rain down. "So much for THAT freak, miss. How'd something that nasty sneak all the way down here, miss...?", the moblin said. "Brassilox, you heroic he-hunk. I think he wanted to use me as bait, that horrible, horrible thing!", Brassilox answered. Serves it right if there's a few rocks stuck in it's rear for wanting me to walk into a moblin tunnel alone, too. A pumpkin-sized boulder bounced off Buggalump's head. The mutant whined at the impact and began to dance in place. "Well, lady...yer in good hands. I'm Brikabraq, that's Buggalump and you're...", was that her SOCK I just saw her pulling up? In PUBLIC? "um..." The she-gob cut to the chase as the love-dazed white-knight of a moblin tried to make small talk. "About to be between a rock and a hard bugbear place. Can we find someplace a little more tunnely and a little less "crush me like an empty can? Maybe talk for a while? I mean, I'm all alone here and you look like you've been alone here for a while, cutie." I can smell the acne from here, ugh... "The only place to go is your tunnel, but it's a moblin one, and all this BLOOD..." A loose gear in Brikabraq's head suddenly engaged. "Ooooooooooh! Buggalump!" He pointed the stick at Brassilox. "Goblin! Good goblin! Friend! Recognize!" The bugbear's four eyes turned to focus on Brassilox's form, staring. "Return! Guard!" The giant creature squeezed back into the tunnel, returning to it's post at the bottom. Hand in hand, Brikabraq and Brassilox followed, chatting as the cavern gradually collapsed behind them into an impenetrable jumble of stone...