The Bad Fairy (girlxgirlxgirl)

5. The Goblin Prince

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"Honoured fairy"

Chepi gives the guards in front of her a cheeky smile, her eyes glimmering in their direction. She watches their eyes widen once they finally lift their heads from their respectful bows, and notice the blue rings around her irises. "Good morning boys" Chepi chuckles under her breath and hurries past them all, with a small greeting on her tongue. The guards turn their spears to the side and let her pass, their stunned faces glancing at each other.

Chepi looks up at the large, incredibly tall tree in front of her. It's the biggest tree she's ever seen in her life, and whenever she returns to it, the size of it surprises her every time. Even the leaves of it are large, one leaf falling down from the tree like a blanket of green. It's only here that Chepi truly feels like a small fairy, like those in the fairytales. As small as a leaf. But the tree is not her final destination.

She walks through a large opening in the root of the tree, greeted by yet another set of six guards on each side. They pull their spears to the side and smile at her in awe once they spot the colour in their eyes. Chepi smirks back and skips into the large, hollow tree, her wings fluttering behind her.

Inside the tree there is nothing more than a large pathway, starting from the floor and spiralling down, down and even further down into the ground. Guards are crawling around the opening to the downwards spiral, watching every goblin and occasional nymph that enters the city with their goods or families. Chepi can already hear the bustling sound of the city down below, the music, the steam and the energy. The goblin capital is like a beating heart, warm and exciting and full of life. Chepi loves being on missions, but coming back to the capital is always her favourite part.

Before she can move down the pathway along with the rest of the crowd, one of the guards reaches out to stop her. Chepi turns around. While goblin guards usually wear yellow armour with purple details, this man has purple armour with small golden details here and there. He's a royal guard, one of the highest. A captain.

"Honoured fairy. You have returned"

Chepi looks up at the rather tall, goblin guard, and smiles at his respectful bow. She lets him look into her eyes once he lifts his head. His hair is as brown as his sun kissed skin, and his eyes shine in a goblins purple once he spots the blue marks in her own eyes. Before she can answer him, he's already talking, voice calm and deep. "I am to escort you to his highness the crown prince, honoured fairy" Chepi nods, a little surprised, but overall overjoyed. "Of course. Lead the way"

The guard leads her away from the main pathway that spirals down to the city, and leads her to another part of the hollow tree instead. Chepi follows him with a skip to her steps.

About the 'honoured fairy' thing, it's all really just a title. Fairies are enemies of goblins, of course. They aren't allowed in the goblin capital. Only certain exceptions are made by the king himself, or in this case, the crown prince. Chepi knew from the beginning that if she wanted to live in the goblin kingdom, she would have to prove herself worthy to crown prince Dieq. His father, the king, is in many ways already dead, sleeping in his bed day and night. Dieq is the real ruler. And he gave her the title of honoured fairy after she gave him the crystal crown from the fairy royal house, as a gift of loyalty.

She stole it from her father, of course, when she left. He still claims he's going to kill her for that. But Dieq has only given her promotions ever since, so Chepi sees it as a win-win situation.

Her father hates her, and Dieq appreciates her. Win-Win.

And this is going to become her absolutely biggest and most magnificent promotion, for sure. Chepi smiles wildly as the guard opens the king's entrance with a key that he carries around his neck, and an opening to a smaller spiral down to the city appears by the wall of the tree. This is an entrance only used by the most honoured and respected guests of the royal house, as well as the royals themselves. Chepi can feel the promotion clinging in her head. This is the best day of her life.