The Goblin Bride (Beneath Sands Book 1) by Emma Hamm (good short books TXT) 📕

with him now. Jane had once again lost all the fight in her. The children had been beautiful little things, but she was so tired. She wanted to curl up and sleep. Homesickness weighed heavily upon her shoulders.

“Ruric, I would like to sleep.”

She didn’t know goblin expressions well, but if she had she would have realized he looked at her worriedly. He hadn’t heard that tone of voice from her before. He was as confused by her expressions as she was about reading his moods. He lead her to the bedroom and settled her down onto the hammock.

Jane rolled away from the sight of the beast at her back, falling quickly into a deep dreamless sleep that carried her away from this place. He stayed behind her, watching over her. The slow rise and fall of her ribs was reassuring to the creature that didn’t understand humans in the slightest.

Another week passed, and a pattern emerged between the odd pair. There was the usual schedule that they followed. He would bring her to the caves to wash, then return with her to his home cave. Jane would be fed fish and unsightly greens. Afterwards he would give her something to entertain herself with. There was, however, a new addition to their schedule. She was brought to meet other goblins.

Never before had she been subjected to such awkward meetings. The goblins would stare at her. Their eyes too wide, their voices soft as they murmured together. It was clear they were commenting about her, though Ruric never told her what it was that they said.

The schedule would continue unaltered as her third week Below passing by with a sluggish crawl. She would have no way of knowing how many days had passed her by. Jane could only guess without the harsh light of the sun.

On this day, she awoke to the soft sound of singing. There was more light than normal in the cave, but it was still dim compared to the brightness of dawn.

A soft clacking from beside her head had her turning. It was the sight of the claws reaching for her hair that had her flinching backwards.

Jane would never get used to sleeping in hammocks. She swung up and over the edge, landing hard against the stone ground. At least it was a little softer since there was a silk braided rug underneath it. Small comfort since she was in a dank underground hole.

Groaning, she rolled herself to her side and looked up at the goblin that had startled her. It was one she had not seen before. She would have remembered the elaborate tattooing that decorated one half of his face.

Ruric was no where to be found.

Her lips compressed tightly together as she slowly pushed herself up, eyes dancing behind him and trying to figure out a safe escape. She was slowly beginning to trust these creatures, but there was always a chance that one would want to harm her. The rumors of goblins eating humans were hard to forget.

“Peace.” The stuttered word made her pause, eyes wide as she looked back at the creature.

It had held its hands up, palms facing her and long claws glinting in the light of the globes.

“Cere-” It paused, shaking its head firmly. “Mony.”

The goblin was trying to talk to her.

Wide eyed, she swallowed hard as she realized that the creature was trying to tell her that it was here to take her to the ceremony. She had thought her opinion had been made clear on that subject. It seemed Micah was right after all. She didn’t have any choice on this matter.

Slowly she stood up, realizing that the goblin was giving her space so that she wouldn’t startle as she had before. He seemed just as wary of her.

She nodded at him, holding up her hands as well so he could see she was agreeing to peace. Quickly, his hands were at the ties of her clothing.

“Hey!” She shouted, grabbing at the ties as he flinched back and clapped his hands over his ears.

“What do you think you’re doing goblin?”

He was already scrambling away from her. Hands still pressed to his ears, quickly moving out of the cave. Jane was confused. Somehow, she had scared him enough to run. It seemed likely that her guess of their sensitivity to sound was correct.

She was pressing the silk he had unwound to her chest when she saw the flap to the cave open once more. At least this time it revealed a familiar goblin face.

Ruric stood in the opening, his arms crossed firmly over his chest.

If she didn’t know any better, she would say that he had an amused expression on his face. But she refused to believe that Ruric had any emotions at all, not when she was still half asleep and terribly grumpy.

“Bad luck.”

“Excuse me?”

“Bad luck before ceremony.”

“If you’re trying to tell me it’s bad luck for you to see me before the ceremony, I’m going to throw something at you.” She stomped to the back of the cave where there was a small alcove with running water that was used as the bathroom. This was something she did not have even at home. Somehow the thought that goblins had better technology than her own people made her even more grumpy.

“I need to go home, Ruric!”

“No.” He called back to her, his voice having a decided tone of amusement.

“I’m not doing this ceremony, I already told you how I feel about it.”

“You will. Goblins will help.”

“Right. Goblins will help.” She rolled her eyes as she finished up, holding the cloths to her chest still. “Goblins have done so much for me already.”

In reality, they had. There was no reason for them to be as kind to her as they had been, in fact they had every right to be much worse. The other humans had likely not gotten the same treatment as she had. That didn’t mean she had to be happy about it.

“You need to change.” Ruric said.

She rounded