Blackness surrounded me. The wind whistled in my ears. In the distance I could hear voices, but they didn’t sound human.

“Aaaaaaaah!” I cried at the top of my lungs. I looked down at the blackness below. It seemed to go on forever. I swung around my hands, trying to find any hold. My head was clouded with fear, but the tiniest bit of relief appeared when I caught a root sticking out of the wall of dirt surrounding me. It was holding me, but I could feel it slowly getting thinner and thinner holding my weight. It can hold me, it can, it can. . . I hoped. And it did, until I looked up and saw how thin and weak it was. It can’t hold me. . . And then it snapped. I screamed again, and cuddled the root to my chest like a teddy bear as I continued to fall deeper into the pit.

I hit the ground, but felt nothing. No pain, just fear. I looked at my surroundings and gasped. 

It looked like an enormous ant colony. I was in a humongus open space, with holes dotting all over the walls. Each one led to a different pathway. Under each hole was a small platform. I was sitting on a platform right below the dirt ceiling. Above me was the hole I’d fallen through. From here I had a perfect view of the entire colony. There were ladders made of roots leading to every hole. Each hole was smaller than an average sized person. What would be about thirty floors down, was the base of the colony. 

Thousands of little. . . people went from hole to hole, ladder to ladder. One emerged from a hole beside me. I stared at it in awe and terror.

It was about as tall as a fived year old, and had rough white skin covered with dirt. It had a wide head, and tiny, sunken eyes. It had large, flat ears, one much larger than the other. Its lips were fat and seemed to have bubbles in them. Warts and scars were spread throughout its horrendous body. Its arms were long, thick, and muscled. Its legs were short and stubby. Its toes and fingers sprouted sharp black claws at the tips.

It was exactly how I pictured aGoblin. But no, how could it be? Goblins didn’t exist, especially not exactly how I pictured them! 

And then the ugly creature noticed me.

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“Intruder!” the Goblin yelled in a voice that resembled someone scraping two rocks together. It sounded like it had to cough.

All the other Goblins looked up from what they were doing. I could see the excitement on their disgusting faces. I couldn’t blame them. What fun things could happen in this pit?

Every Goblin began to limp their way towards me. Most carried weapons; sticks, rotting bones, bats, and anything else you would find in a deep hole.

Eventually I was surrounded. A few Goblins circled me on the platform I had landed on, but most of them on the neighboring platforms. 

I slowly slid to the wall in fear. If the Goblins were so excited, what did they have planned for me? I shuddered as a few ideas came to mind.

I could hear in the background as Goblins  whispered amongst themselves. Soon enough, one Goblins pushed its way towards the front of the crowd. It wasn’t wearing pants made of dried up leaves like all the otherGoblins. I guessed to them what it was wearing was considered elegant.

It wore a dress made of long dead leaves stuck together by mushy roots. It was barefoot, like all the otherGoblins, but its feet seemed. . .nicer. Better kept, not that rough, skinnier, cleaner. 

I eyed it from toe to head. When I got to its ugly head, I was surprised to see a moldy twig crown.

This was the Goblin Queen.

She caught me staring at her and smiled an ugly, crooked yellow toothed smile. The colony was silent for a moment, when one fat Goblin suddenly piped up in a raspy voice.

“My Lady, my Mistress, my Amazingly Beautiful Mardaug Queen, what will we do with this intruder?” Mardaug? Is that what they were called?

There was a pause, and then the queen answered in a dismissive voice that sounded like leaves rustling. “Intruders are turned into Goblins. Nothing new.” and then she raised her voice. “Like all the past prisoners, our prisoner will be chased around our colony, and when it is caught, it will be turned into one of us!” Why did she call herself a Goblin?

The crowd cheered.

Terrified of what was going on around me, I sank into my thoughts. The first word that popped into my head was: escape. That was the solution and the problem. Although it was so simple, it was so risky.

Two large Goblins/Mardaugs held me down. They seemed a bit more well-kept than the others. They seemed better fed, and smelled the tiniest bit better. They were probably the Goblin Queen’s guards.

I wanted to fight them off. I wanted to defeat these Goblins. But when I tried to move my arms, they didn’t respond. I was so tired, hungry, thirsty, and sick. I wasn’t able to fight off guards, or anything. I was weak.