The Summer I Met The Goblin King (ONC 2023)

Chapter Thirteen: Stuck Together

The group splitting up was a bad idea. But what was a worse idea, was ending up with him. Mr.CowardWhinyMcNuggetFingers, otherwise known as Jack. Meme let out a long sigh as he led the way deeper into the woods. Jack followed so close behind that Meme had to constantly swish his tail to avoid it being stepped on by the giant, smelly feet of the trembling teenager.

"D—did the trees just move?" Jack cried as a loud creaking noise surrounded them and the pathway disappeared.

"No, they were always there where the path was, what are you talking about?" Meme asked in a flat, monotone voice. He shook his head. "Stupid questions get stupid answers. Of course the trees moved! The woods are haunted and scary."

Jack whimpered and got closer to the dragon, as if he were trying to hide behind him. Meme looked up, unamused. "Don't make me bite you."

The boy took a few steps back and grabbed his hand in recollection of the last time that happened. "You wouldn't."

Meme jumped forward and bared his teeth.

Jack screamed and ran behind a tree. "Why does everything in this world hate me?"

"Because you suck, nugget fingers," Meme spat. "Now, if you don't mind, I was finding us a way out of this maze we shouldn't have walked into."

A shadowy figure passed by on the left. Meme leapt behind a rock and peeked up from behind it. It wasn't until heavy breath fanned on him that he realized Jack had moved to be beside him, very unhidden, and quite noticeable.

Meme growl-whispered. "Jack you little—"

A hand flew over his mouth as his body was hoisted into the air. Jack squirmed, grabbed by a hooded figure on the other side. This was not happening. Meme refused to go down with the weakest member of the group, he did the only thing he could do. He chomped their hand. The attacker screamed and passed out.

Jack flung his arms around uselessly and ended up hitting the figure behind him square in the forehead, hard enough that he fell backwards. He slammed his head into a tree trunk and passed out.

"Let's get out of here!" Jack cried, starting to bolt elsewhere.

Meme picked up a stick and tripped him. Spitting it out, he clambered on Jack's back and walked up to his ear. "If you do anything that could get us hurt one more time, I will not only bite you, but I will abandon you in this scary forest forever. Got it?"

Nodding feverently, Jack waited to get up until Meme moved. "What do you think those guys wanted?"

Instead of pondering, Meme went up to one of the still figures and pulled out a note. Sprawled out in very poor handwriting was one instruction. "Don't let this group make it out of the forest." Underneath it were stick figures of Sir Godly, Casey, Jack, and Meme. Meme used his paw to flip it over. "Signed, the Goblin King."

There wasn't a toy maker, was there? Meme had had this suspicion since the map first started flickering out weirdly, but for Casey's sake, he had followed through. "Jack, you should read this and put it in your pocket. We have something important we need to tell the group when we find them."

Jack bent down and picked up the note. "Casey isn't going to believe us, even with this hard evidence." He put the note carefully in his pocket. "What are we going to do?"

"The only thing we can do, prove it," Meme said, grabbing one of the fallen figures and dragging them a few feet. "Can you carry them?"

"You—" Jack paled. "Are you suggesting we take a hostage? Isn't that kidnapping? Isn't that illegal?"

"They tried to kidnap us first, I think that cancels out the bad on our side, fair is fair, we're just better at this than they are," Meme said, tapping the face of the hooded man. "Now, carry him, manservant."