Underground

V

What were you to do now?

The door had opened up into a large plain area, and just in front of you stood the entrance to the Goblin City. The door had vanished behind you the moment you entered through, meaning that there was no turning back and no backtracking.

You had approached the guard and found him fast asleep, snoring loudly at the gate he was supposed to be watching. The gate was simply too heavy for you to move by yourself. You tried pushing; you tried pulling. To no avail it wouldn't budge.

You resisted the urge to scream in frustration. You resisted the urge to stomp your foot like a child having a tantrum. You'd come so far, only to be defeated by a gate. It was incredibly pathetic; you didn't know whether you should laugh or cry at the very idea.

How would that conversation even go between the Goblin King and Harry? "Sorry, your ex couldn't figure out how to open a simple gate. I'm going to turn you into a goblin now, forever." You imagined that the Goblin King was watching you somewhere, cackling in joy that you had failed in such a pathetic way.

"Stupid gate," you huffed loudly, not caring if your ranting would wake the guard up. If anything, you wanted him to be awake so he could let you in. But, actually, would he let you in? Seeing as he was one of the guards, shouldn't that mean he was supposed to deliberately keep you out? You sighed, tipping your head forwards. What use would that even be? You couldn't open the damn thing!

Then, the guard began to stir from his sleep. You glanced nervously at him, wondering what the reaction would be. Would it go in your favour, or would be chase you away with that incredibly pointy stick of his? You'd rather not be poked and prodded with it; it looked like it would hurt quite a bit.

"Ah! Human!" The goblin shouted, snatching his stick that rested next to him. He then held it up, pointing the sharp end directly at you. You flinched back and held your hands up nervously, as if to surrender yourself, or to show that you weren't a threat to his position. "'Ts me job to keep ya out! Get back! Our King won't be 'appy if i's fail!"

You gasped as the goblin took a swing at you. The tip of his spear glided across your jumper, fearing a hole down the front. Luckily, you were wearing another shirt underneath, or else this would have been insanely embarrassing on your behalf. You dropped your hands to your sides, your hand brushing against your pocket.

Your pocket.

Something was in your pocket!

The crystal ball from earlier. You eagerly reached in and pulled it out, not being able to resist smirking at the unsuspecting goblin that was still yelling at you to leave. Then, you pulled your arm back and aimed the crystal ball at the goblin, planning on hitting him in the face with it, or maybe the chest, just to get him to let go of the spear so you could snatch it and threaten him with it. Reverse the tables, turn your favours back to you.

The crystal ball flew through the air. The goblins eyes flashed in recognition. He opened his mouth to shriek in surprise, or maybe for help, but he suddenly went very quiet as the ball collided with his body. You watched, startled, as a bright light consumed his body, and he vanished in an instant. You bolted over, picking up the abandoned spear and the crystal ball that dropped on the floor after hitting its target.

Inside, squirming around and continuing to yell, was the goblin.

Well, that worked out better than you had intended. You smiled apologetically at the goblin, "when I find the Goblin King, I'll ask him to let you out." You then placed the crystal ball into your pocket, muffling the goblins angry shouts.

If you could get to the Goblin King. You still had to figure out how to open the gate. You'd planned on threatening the goblin with his own spear to have him open the gate for you, but now he was trapped inside the crystal ball and you didn't have a clue how to get him out again. You thought that maybe you could throw it, like you had done originally, but what would happen if it then shattered?