[Participant in the June 2024 Royal Road Community Magazine Contest] Klik is a goblin, and he hates it Klik spends more time with Elder Zelena than he does with his own tribe. Unlike them, she cares for him, talks to him as an equal, treats him with kindness. In her little home, he feels safe, not in constant fear of his siblings pouncing on him at any moment. There’s only one problem though: She doesn’t know he’s a goblin. Every time he visits Zelena, he wears a wooden mask and a cloak that covers up his head and body. If she knew he was a goblin, everything would be over. Without his mask and cloak, the town would see him for what he truly is: a monster. Klik wants to be normal. And normal means ‘human’, doesn’t it? To Jelnar Lariel, none of that matters though, because he’s set on an indiscriminate goblin hunt. Prophecies foretell of a powerful magic relic, hidden in the depths of the Velhana jungle, possessed by a tribe of goblins. What Jelnar wants is not normalcy, but supremacy. And the Eye of Zokurath is his path to power, even if he has to massacre goblins in his wake. As Klik watches humans kill the goblins of his tribe, he wonder what it means to be a monster. Is a monster born, or created?