The small wooden tower jutted out from the great wooden platform, its shadow looming over the dreams of the approaching mob of goblins below. Their torches shone orange and red in the dark of the night. The colors contrasted with the irreidescent silver, blue, and cobalt light from the trio of moons in the sky.

Cries and protests rose with the heat, but at the top of the tower, only a small glint of light emanated to the wooden pillar.

“And then when David returned home, to his horror, he saw what the Waldenhochholzgastschneewissenpferdstrassmeister had said was true … His gnome hat—it was gone!”

Both of the brothers shrieked in fear at the horrifying conclusion to their tale, wrapping themselves in their red blankets and coughing as they gathered their bearings around the small campfire.

“That story is always so scary, regardless of how many times we have told it,” Ini said between coughs.

’It's a classic for a reason. You don’t think it really happened, right?” Ono asked. His eyes streamed with tears from the smoke in the closed off room of the tower.

“No, no. It’s too horrific. No way’it's real.” Ini continued coughing, and the smoke turned his eyes so red that they matched their color to that of his hat and blanket.

“Hey, shouldn't we maybe open a window, Ono?”

“What and ruin the—-” Ono coughed violently. “Ruin the camping atmosphere? No way. I’d rather lose my hat.”

“Don't say that Ono! Or the Waldenhochholzgastsschneewissenpferdstrassmeister will get us.”

Ini cowered within his blanket, breathing in a fresh pocket of air as his brother moved to dull the campfire. Ono stopped when he heard a cry from outdoors.

He moved outside, opening the door and moving a box toward the edge of the wooden wall railing. There, he saw the mass of goblins below.

“What is it, Ono? Is it the Waldenhochholzgastschneewissenpferdstrassmeister?” Ini followed his brother outside.

“No. It's much worse than any mythical campfire horror monster. It’s angry workers.”

#

The brothers gathered along the railing as the righteous mob of varying hues of green violently banged their tools and stamped their feet against the ground. It was a true cacophony, an indiscernible thunderous noise of insults, pleas, calls, and shouting.

The percussion of tools sped up. Within the crowd, the great gomrade Lemin pushed Figwit into the ground. He stood on Figwit’s back, raising his fist and shouting, “Quiet!”

The workers’s orchestra ceased and an eerie silence befell the would-be park. Under the cold blue glow of the moons, nothing was heard except for the crackling of the torches, the buzz of the swamp flies and the rumbling of hungry bellies.

Ono nodded his head. With a confused tone and a raised eyebrow, he shouted, “Out for a night stroll, eh? I get it, I get cranky too if I don't get my chocky milk before bed.”

“Your chocky milk? You mean our chocky milk,” Ini quickly rebutted.

Below them, the sound of the collective grumbling mass of goblins almost harmonized itself. With each of mention of the chocky milk the mumble got louder until it turned into a deep, collective growl.

“Enough with the chocky milk!” Lemin yelled in a fit of rage.

Below him, the wizard returned to his senses.

“What? Where am?” He mumbled before he was abruptly stopped by Lemin’s foot pushing his head back into the ground.

“Not now, magic man,” Lemin pleaded in a low voice before his attention was taken by the Princess behind him.

“Figwit!” she cried, trying fruitlessly to break through the group of goblins that surrounded her.

Axel raised his hand, calling out in a stoic tone, “Stand down, Your Majesty. You had your chance.”

In the tower, Ini and Ono felt as if the tension was making the air hotter and hotter.

“What's the meaning of this?” Ini said.

Next to him, his brother tried to support him physically and morally. “Yeah, why are you doing this … Goblin worker seventy-six, right?”

He turned his head to Ini, waiting for a confirmation.

“No, no. I think he's thirty-one. He's got that distinct lemon color.”

Lemin frowned. His breathing intensified in a calm and collected rage. “My name is Lemin.”

“Yeah, that's what we said. Lemon.” Ini said.

“Ah, right! Who could forget Lemon? You been doing great progress on your sector. Good job, buddy,” the brothers replied with a cheerful smile. They even raised their hands to give the union leader a thumbs up.

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“Alright, let's torch them,” Axel sighed. He swayed forwards, only to be stopped as Lemin raised his arm. It violently shook with rage and primal anger. His breathing was intense and his eye twitched so quickly one could not even discern it was twitching at all.

“No ...” Lemin struggled to breathe through his gnashing teeth. “Not yet, Axel.”

“Hey, what are you doing with Figwit?”

“And Ivy. It's a little early for end of work celebration, isn't it?” the gnomes called out from atop their tower.

The goblins answered them with a disdainful silence and hostile leering.

Ono continued. “I mean, you should all probably get some rest. Especially for tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah, tomorrow we are gonna be draining and plugging the swamp gas! Oh, draining the swamp ... talk about back breaking, hard labor. Phew,” Ini said as he gave a slight laugh and mimicked the shoveling and hammering of the goblins. “If you thought building the platform so far was hard, you haven't seen anything yet.”

Lemin violently shook in place, his intense fidgeting traveling across his body and even passing to Figwit on the ground. Figwit sighed, knowing exactly what it meant and what it felt like.

“We are gonna be draining the swamp?” He yelled out. “We? We! We, that's right. All of us green guard are gonna be doing your back breaking work while you two pointy hats stay up there in your ivory tower!”

“Hum, actually,” Ono said as he smugly raised his finger and corrected Lemin, “This is a wooden tower, not ivory.”

“Yeah. You can tell by the fact it’s wood and not ivory.” Ini completed his brother’s statement and the goblins below them groaned. Many of them, the princess included, sighed and facepalmed at their lack of tact.

Lemin's rage was gone. It had evolved from primal anger into an emotionless shocked and stunned daze, achieving a rare state of being in his soul that scholars could only describe as raging nirvana or anger enlightenment.

His body possessed such an incredible level of raw disdain that he could not even perceive the object of his hatred. Unfortunately, he could still perceive their hats.

“Lemin?” Axel called out.

He nudged his blank gomrade who answered faintly, “I'm here.”

#

The wizard looked up. He sensed the intensity of his captor had diminished. As he struggled to look back to face the enlightened goblin, he spoke in a slow and careful tone. “Look, Lemin. I know what you are going through. I deal with those two every day.”

Lemin looked down. His expression finally broke through the daze and a hostile aura emanated from him. His gaze pierced through the wizard's soul and threatened to calmly tear it asunder.

The goblin towered over the wizard, eclipsing his view of the sky. The wizard persisted, even as he quickly became a fading star in an overcast sky. He held on to one last bit of hope: that he could reason with Lemin.

“I know what you are thinking. Of all the ways you could wring those two, scream sense into them ... maybe even just tear their hats apart. But listen to me,” The wizard pleaded. The entire platform silently listened to this last chance for diplomacy.

“Violence won't solve anything. Not here, at least. Not with those two. If you want to get what you want, what you need … you need to play their game.

Sure, they are a little silly. A little immature; a bit irresponsible even. But they aren't bad people. If you can have just a tiny bit of patience, you can make them understand what you need by talking with them.”

The goblins all patiently listened to the words from the magic man. In their midst, the princess prayed and hoped it would sway them. Still, Lemin remained motionless. He glared at the gnomes atop their wooden—not ivory—tower. Even the brothers seemed to become somewhat teary eyed at their guardian's words.

The wizard continued through the silence of the mob. “Then it'll click. You'll realize it's like a language. They speak the same as you and me, it's just, their accent is so different that what they actually mean and what they say might seem incomprehensible, even infuriating to you. Yet once you get used to it, you understand it. You realize that, in their odd way, they are just trying to be friends.”

Silence once more befell the platform. In the back, the princess looked powerlessly at the gnomes, the wizard, and the goblins. She could see something in the tower that she hadn't ever imagined: the gnome brothers frowning and their eyes red from crying at Figwit’s speech.

Even from below, she knew. From the way their bodies twisted and coiled; the way they held on to each other.

They wanted to scream, to yell out, to jump down and hug their friend. But they could not. They would not risk their friend’s life, and so against all of their nature, against all of their very essence, they remained in place, silently screaming at the goblin towering above the wizard.

Lemin nodded. He looked around at the mob of goblins behind him. Everyone stood at attention, waiting to see what he would do and say. The air was heavy and his presence remained as strong and as tall as it had always been.

He looked upwards at the cowering gnome brothers, his gaze boring through them like a drill.

He looked down, sighed, and finally answered the bright beacon of hope under him. “I get that. I really do. But I'm not as patient as you are, wizard. I, and everyone else here, do not have the privilege of being patient.”

Figwit's heart sank and from the back of the crowd, he heard a faint “No ...” escape the princess.

He continued in a stern and authoritative tone. “I'm sure we could all one day be good friends. There is no reason why we still can't. But we need our needs met. We cannot work on empty stomachs and sore backs. And we will not wait until those two realize what we are suffering through to fix things!”

The goblins behind him cheered and banged their tools against the ground as their determined leader once more asserted their will.

“Now listen to me, wizard.” Lemin brought his face down to Figwit’s and quietly whispered to him. “I don't want to hurt anybody. I really don't. You say I need time to understand gnomes? To be patient and play their games? Well, listen good. Goblins also have their own ways of doing things. They play in a different way. The difference here is that when you don't play the way they want, people get hurt.”

Figwit felt Lemin’s weight crush him against the wooden floor. His words chilled him to the core, and he recalled the stories of wild goblin raids and rampages.

Lemin continued to push his weight against Figwit’s head. He resumed his warning. “I have an entire guard here that needs feeding and housing and if they don't get what they want ... I don't know how long I can keep them from leaving and finding food and shelter on their own. You think your new girlfriend can keep them in line? We are a long way from home, wizard. Old loyalty will only get you so far when you can't provide for them.”

Figwit’s expression changed as anger began to overtake him. He furrowed his brow and as his hands curled into fists. “Don't you dare hurt her,” he said.

“Oh, I won't,” Lemin answered back as he pulled on the wizard's shirt and stood him up on his knees. “I will be long gone with Axel if things don't work out tonight. I'm not staying around in future goblin warring territory. Too dangerous. So if you want us to be good friends and to have a nice happy ending for all of us, you will be quiet, not try any magic, and let me fix this!”

Lemin's grip on the wizard loosened. He let go of him and threw him back on the floor. The wizard groaned while the goblin leader looked upwards at the cowering gnomes, wondering what their move would be.