The Goblin's Crown

Chapter Seventy Five: I am the End

"Welcome."

The creature greeted me in a hissing breath. Smoke seeped from its jaws as it continued to gnaw upon The Hollow's roots, shifting its jaws in a grinding motion.

My body ceased its fall. I hovered there just above the creature's great head, floating in a pitch black sky. A light radiated out of my skin, making me glow like the moon in a starless sky.

The creature below me was impossible to describe. I found myself completely unable to look directly at it for more than a second. It looked like a dragon in ways, a wolf, and a serpent in others. Its head was that of a dragon, its long snout filled with numerous teeth. Its body was long like a snake. It was wound through the roots, entangled in them. Its legs were doglike and covering its entire body was thick black hair or fur. Even while I looked at it, its appearance seemed to shift and change as if it were nothing but a cloud of the smoke that slipped from its toothy grin. It seemed to grow longer, constricting its long body around the roots. It pried its teeth from the root it had been biting and licked its chops.

The eyeless face lifted and in the hollows where eyes should have been, twin flickering flames sparked. "Do you know who I am?" It asked.

"I know who you are, though not what," I answered, my voice small, breathless. "Bran." I would recognize that cold aura anywhere.

The creature that I had only glimpsed peeking out of Bran's skin chuckled to himself. His lips peeled back much too far, showing more and more teeth. "I am the end."

That was the only title he claimed. It was all he needed. So simple and short, yet terrifying in its weight.

"Where am I?" I asked, trying to ignore the tangible fear in my guts. It was like I was back on the gallows, that noose growing ever taunt.

The creature, Bran, dragged himself forward with his doglike front claws. It lunged towards me and wound his long, endless body around me. "A place kept hidden from mortal eyes." He said. Eight more flames blinked into existence in the darkness of his face. Now nine fiery eyes watched me out of their corners. Black fur brushed against my skin, slipped through my fingers at my sides. "Not hell. Not heaven. Somewhere. Nowhere."

"Am I dead?"

Another laugh. I cringed at the sound. That laugh alone would be enough to stop a heart with fear. "Not at all, though you soon will be if you continue to allow your brother to keep his hands around your throat." The tone in these words suggested that they meant more than they seemed. "I've called you here to discuss payment for our arrangement."

My brow arched. "Arrangement? What arrangement?"

"The one between The Hollow and I. It wishes to bring its precious goblin back from the dead. A goal I'm sure you two share. However, it has left you with the bill." It purred. It grew smaller, restricting itself until its head was the size of a horse's. It rested its dragon's maw on my shoulder. Many flames focused on my cheek.

I felt my heart seize. "You...have that kind of power?" I shifted my gaze to that grinning mouth, refusing to meet his eyes, fearing what would happen if I did. "You can give Knut back to me?"

"You say that as if I'm keeping him in my pocket. Alas, I very rarely get to keep souls. I...take your breath, rend your souls away from your mortal flesh and send them upon their way to the next life, the next plain of existence, whatever may be waiting for them. Goblin souls, however, their souls...linger, transform. Goblin Kings are very special creatures. They live two lives. One short, one long. In the first, they die as mortals, but in the second they are born as gods. They fight for the right to this power, this true immortality." Bran snickered to himself. "As if such a thing exists."