Topic: los fanfiction

[thernz]

Goblins in the Wind

   Gabriel the Goblin lived in his hut all alone. He woke up every morning to stare at his fat face in distress. His face had itching black hair with freckles of gray and cliff-like hollow cheeks. Gabriel felt like a leaf in the wind. He lived day by day, hunting spiders and trolls in the forest behind his hut. He dragged them home in large burlap bags. The return home was usually just as strenuous as the actual hunting, and he would complain to himself about his terrible back pains all hundred miles through. There was no use in complaining in his lack of a left arm.
   With his dull cleaver, he’d chop them and fill them with cheap spices. Since he ate some himself, they were not particularly spicy as he did not like the flavor. He put them on his spider mount in the morning and went into the village marketplace to sell all afternoon. Gabriel would hang these crudely pieced foodstuffs on all sorts of ropes and baskets. He would get least three of them sold, five pennies an ounce. It was hardly enough to buy the spices he needed, but he persevered. Villagers often remarked at how much Gabriel would say, “We are all but leafs in the wind they call fate.”
   Besides the marketplace, Gabriel was completely alone. The town guards would not allow him to enter the village otherwise. Goblins were seen as simply unfashionable and boorish. Gabriel’s business did little to convince them otherwise. On the outskirts of town, Gabriel was only in the proximity of an old nagging woman and a cult of Satanists.
But one day at the marketplace, Gabriel was met by a sparkling woman. She was dressed in silks and hid her peach face under an umbrella, decorated with frills. It was completely unsuitable for any type of weather but clear sunshine. Gabriel knew that he couldn’t have her, but he could at least try. The lady pointed at a spider leg and asked what it was.
   “Spider leg,” Gabriel grunted.
   In a lithe voice, the woman replied, “I’ve never had that before. How does it taste?”
   Gabriel laughed, “Hard to say really. Spider is spider.”
   “You are very pretty,” Gabriel admitted. The woman thanked him.
   This ordinary exchange did not go much further. The woman would leave with the spider leg and a handful of herbs, and Gabriel stood there motionless. He had done nothing. A rich man had noticed, though. Dressed in fanciful aquamarine blazer, he was chiseled like Adonis and stood at thrice Gabriel’s height despite lacking half his musculature. He tipped his hat toward Gabriel and offered assistance, “Name’s Pan of the House of Diaghilev. I can help you give any woman you desire.”
   “How would it help you?” Gabriel grunted.
   “Call me a philanthropist. I have much money, but to tell you the truth, I have nothing to do with it,” the rich man said, twirling his cane.
   “How do you get the money?” Gabriel continued.
   “My family distills vodka. They send me the profits,” the rich man said, “They are far too generous, really. I do some small business on the side, though, of course.”
   “Then help me,” Gabriel merely grunted, “If you can.”   
   “Yes, of course,” Pan tipped his hat, “First…”
   Pan promised to help Gabriel if Gabriel would abandon his spider and troll chopping business. Gabriel reluctantly agreed. Pan brought the goblin to his estate. It was decorated in baroque fashion and it was wonderful. In one week’s time, Gabriel would be groomed and primed as the “Glamorous Goblin-Prince of the Diaghilev Family.” However, Gabriel would often sneak into the kitchen to look at the set of knives. Absorbed in senseless nostalgia, he was easy to spot, and Pan would often scold him for not only sneaking off but for his incessant idling.
   But every night, Gabriel would stare longingly at the window in his bedroom. Off to the distance was his old hut. He knew he had to endure. Pan would caress Gabriel’s shoulders and whisper how the silk girl would be at the debutante ball where not only Pan’s own sons would attend, but Gabriel too. He was getting prettier and prettier. He noticed some weight gain but considering the exquisite foods, perhaps it was normal.
   At the day of the debutante ball, Pan brought out Gabriel to a crowd, all fabulously dressed in a suit. Gabriel quickly got the attention of the woman. Somehow, she had remembered him and went up and said all sorts of sweet nothings to him. Despite Gabriel’s continued awkwardness, the two had a good night.
   However, later that night, Gabriel crawled up to this woman and admitted, “You look so much like my dead wife…” With that, Gabriel gestured her to follow as he made his wobbly gait outside the estate.
   The woman, startled, nonetheless followed Gabriel back into the countryside. He took the woman to his wife’s grave and solemnly pointed. A single tear dripped down his hollow cheek.
   “This may seem unbelievable, but I am the reason,” Gabriel simply said.
   He stumbled back to her, “For that, I am sorry. You can just go now. All I can say is that we are all but leafs in the wind they call fate, but at least this leaf has finally taken responsibility.”
   The next day, Gabriel was back in the forest, hunting spiders and trolls. However, something had changed. He held a new dignified nature to himself. He would shave and employ all the beautiful techniques, Pan’s beauticians shown him. He would be a glamorous goblin.
Meanwhile, Pan would weep for his lost goblin. But when his servants tried to console him, he would often mistake Gabriel for a dead pet in his bursts of grief. However, by the next month, Pan would scout out for another goblin to make his pet.

The End

[Nagumo]

So this is how you spend your birthdays?

[crisis]

LOL

best fanfic i've read in years