Forever Green

~ 27 ~ Things Unaccounted For

Theiden realized his mistake that very first night.

He'd woken up to a muffled thump from somewhere in the far corner of his bedroom, only to then witness the door open by itself and hear a disembodied scrabbling of nails against the hardwood floor. At first, he thought it had been some kind of dream, but when a crash had sounded from downstairs, he had rolled out of bed to investigate.

A hairy red creature was crouching in an open cabinet in the kitchen, rifling through the pots and pans.

It took him a stunned moment to make the connection to the goblin face reflected in the teacup, and then to realize how it had gotten there. He had left it in his pocket. Of course.

"You," Theiden called out. The little creature froze at the sound of his voice and looked up, fixing its large gold-rimmed irises on him. "Gil, isn't it? I remember Kivirra told me about you. The snarl-y one."

Sure enough, the little goblin bared its teeth and growled in reply.

Theiden continued, a bit annoyed and emboldened by sleep-deprivation. "Well, you might not be expected to behave at the witch's house, but you're in my home now, and it's rude to go rifling through someone's belongings, especially in the middle of the night. Get out of the cupboard—you're getting all the pots dirty with your grimy paws."

The goblin made a sound like that of a cat that had stopped to yawn mid-yowl. It rather seemed to Theiden like a protest.

"Quiet down, would you?" he hissed. "You'll wake the whole neighborhood."

Theiden held out his hand, and took a slow step towards the goblin.

"If you'll just come with me," he continued in a more coaxing tone, "we can just go back upstairs and I'll figure how to return you as soon as possible."

Gil's bright round eyes darted down to Theiden's hand, then back up, considering the request. Then it gave a dismissive flick of its tail and turned back to the skillet it had been inspecting.

Theiden let out a breath.

"Right, that's it. Come here—" He lunged for the creature, determined to capture it and contain it in his room for the time being, at least.

It didn't go well.

Glasses shattered and pans banged against the floor as the goblin leapt across the shelves, out of Theiden's reach. When the goblin jumped down to the counter, Theiden took the opportunity to grab a large pasta pot and slam it upside-down over the creature, effectively trapping it.

"A-ha!" he exclaimed, momentarily forgetting the late hour in his exhilaration. He bent over the pot, leaning his weight against it to keep it still while scratching and hissing sounded from within. "I've got you now, you little bugger."

"Theiden! What is all of this mess?"

Theiden froze at the voice, and for a moment, the goblin inside the pot grew still as well. Then, the creature gave an experimental bang that shifted the pot over, and Theiden pressed down more firmly on the metal.

Once he was sure the goblin's temporary prison was secure, Theiden turned to see his mother standing at the foot of the stairs, peering into the kitchen with a candle raised to survey the damage.

"Uh—a rat got in, Mother," he said. "A very large one."

The goblin made some sort of gurgling protestation that echoed eerily from within the pot, sounding very much not like a rat.