Key To A Goblin's Heart

Jake's POV

I haven't seen Mike in a really long time. I wonder what he was upto. How far along was he in his training? Last I heard he was furnishing his magical skills, but it's been like he disappeared from the face of earth or something. After I decided to find a cure for Maland's hand, I did some snooping around. Thanks to my friendly nature, it was not hard to talk to people. While I didn't get any significant lead, I did hear that in ancient literature of the Goblins, there might be something to undo it. 

Of course, there was no such thing in the library here, so it must be in the world of Goblins. After taking two days off of doing basically nothing, I decided to head off to Mike's room. How busy was he? I pondered. I tried knocking on the door thrice before I decided to check if it was unlocked or not. It wasn't, but luckily Victoria left me her spare key which Mike gave her for safekeeping.

Entering I saw an empty, but somewhat messy room that made me suspicious. As long as I have known Mike, he was never the untidy kind. In fact on numerous occasions he had scolded me to clean up. What's going on? Did a robber rage in his room? Suddenly a huge gust of wind hit my face, making me recoil, but I tried my best to look at the source only to see a giant bluish foggy circle… a portal(?) and Mike walked in the room through that.

I widened my eyes as soon as I saw him dusting himself off, and he mirrored my expression when he saw me. "Jake"?  He questioned, panic evident in his eyes.

"You can open portals now? Bro you are like Doctor Strange!" I exclaimed. "Except he became Doctor first, sorcerer later" I shrugged.

"How did you get in"? Mike asked me as he checked for any signs of violence on the door.

"Magic" I teased. "But, seriously, I never knew fairies were this cool" I chirped with excitement.

"I am not a fairy"! He huffed.

"Yeah, yeah… you are a human-fairy hybrid, I know" I shook my head simultaneously as he cut me off once more.

"I am a human-goblin hybrid." Mike blurted.

I blinked, "Say, what now?" Mike nodded affirming that I heard him right. I opened my mouth struggling to find the right words when he voiced. "While Practicing with Genia, I realised that my powers were quite different from Genia… and that some magic came easier to me than her."

"Okay…" I mumbled urging him to continue.

"In the library… I could access the section which was limited to Goblins. Only someone with Goblin blood can do that" Mike shrugged. 

"Wait, if there was this way… why didn't they try that earlier?" I asked.

"I dunno," He shrugged. "Maybe they didn't know. The librarian said only limited people are aware of this system." 

"Ahh.." I nodded. "But dude, isn't this cool. You are the living proof of the love between humans and a goblin. You have a better chance with Cassie, don't you think?"  I beamed.

"If only. She is gone… and there is no way she is coming back. How can I woo her, if I don't meet her?" Mike shrugged. 

"Well, if she can't come to you, you can always go to her,"  I offered.

"Haha, right"  he rolled his eyes.

"I am serious. You opened a portal to… well I dunno where to, but you just opened a portal right? Maybe you can do that to the Goblin world?!" I suggested.

"You don't think I tried" He snapped. He blinked as soon as he realised what he said followed by a suggestive smirk from me, "It's not that easy okay!"  He groaned.

"Maybe, you need a little more practice. Don't give up" I tried to persuade him.

"Well, I am trying," He mumbled. 

Recalling that I too wanted to go to the world of Goblins, I said, "Maybe I can accompany you"

"Humans aren't allowed there, are you serious"? He frowned.

Shooting him a quick glare I shrugged, "I don't think half-humans are allowed either." Mike shook his head at my argument, "Besides, you are going to an unknown place, with zero interaction skills. Don't you think having a friendly friend would be useful"? I asked.

After a moment of thought, he mumbled. "Look, I am not even sure I can manage it or not. If I can, you are welcome to tag along." 

"Yess"! I expressed my joy. Mike and I discussed a few things, most of which included the things about his powers. He told me how his power derived from the fire and demonstrated a few of the tricks he had learnt in the last few days. After our chat I bid him farewell, and decided to help him with his practice over the next couple of days.

I made sure I visited him every morning as he tried inter-realm portals. I was so glad I was nearby, cause one of the times, he almost fainted from dehydration. Turns out the more complicated the magic is, the harder it is on your body. A portal... that to an interdimensional one was one of the toughest things. Maybe it would have been a bit easier if he had been a full Goblin.

I tried to convince him to take rest, but he was being stubborn and therefore, I tricked him into drinking a sedative so that he would finally get some rest. After a week or so, he finally managed to open a portal to the world of fairies. The look on his face was precious as if he had just accomplished the biggest achievement of his life. I am sure I would have a similar look too if I turned around to look into the mirror.

The portal to the Goblin world was one step ahead, and both of us were rejoiced when he managed to open it the very next day. "Yess!" We both jumped and hugged in excitement before he closed that portal. "Okay, if we are gonna cross that boundary, we need a plan" 

"Like what"? I frowned. 

"First of all, we should pack some emergency stuff. Like water bottles, bandaids or something" He shrugged. "We don't know where we will end up, so we need to be really careful" I nodded at his suggestion.

The next day like always we ended up meeting up at his place. "Where is your stuff"? He asked me as he looked at me up and down. All I had on me was a brown T-shirt and a pair of casual jeans. Putting my hand in the pocket I pulled out a tiny pouch. "It's in here. I remembered the professor had it, and assumed it would be around. I found this enchanted bag in the market. Everything we need is right here, and… it's extremely light" I boasted.

"Good!"  He nodded, "That will make it inconspicuous." He handed me his own heavy backpack before he ordered. "Put it in." 

I scowled at him, but complied nonetheless. I wondered what the hell was he taking that made this so heavy. Once everything seemed okay, Jake breathed and opened the portal. "Let's go" He declared.

The moment we were about to step into it, we heard, "What the hell is going on here?" we halted and turned to realise that Maland was here. Staring at the portal he mumbled, "Is that… a way to the Goblin world" He looked horrified. "Why the hell are you going there?" he snarled at us.

"Because after everything we have been through, we deserve a chance at knowing what we fought for" Mike argued.

"By getting yourself killed" He raised his brows. "What makes you think you can survive by yourself in the land of Goblins. If you are caught, you'll be slaughtered like the lambs for dinner" He informed us.

"Then maybe you should come with us" I suggested.

"What"? Maland deadpanned.

"Yeah, what?" Mike scowled at me.

"Well, you clearly know the Goblin world better than us, and if you care about us so much, maybe you should help us navigate" I suggested.

"I will do no such thing" Maland huffed. "I never ever break the rules. The queen banished me to the land of mortals, and I plan to abide by it" He declared.

"Oh please, you know you want to go back. You miss that place every single day" I rolled my eyes.

"My personal emotions are irrelevant. I have an order and I plan to abide by it". He declared.

"Well, then Sofosys ordered you to protect me outside of this island."  I reminded him. As soon as I said those words I could tell he was troubled. "Besides, we are going anyway. You wanna join or not, that's up to you, but there is nothing you can do to stop us". I declared while nudging at Mike. We both walked in through the portal before Maland could react.

Once we stepped in, we turned around waiting for Maland. "I'll count to three, if he doesn't come I'll shut this portal" Mike informed me and I nodded affirming his statement " … one, two… three".