The Stone Goblins of Norden

There was once a great mountain, one of the tallest mountains in the world. Not only was the mountain very tall, but it was also very wide, and very deep. So tall and so wide was the mountain that it stretched from one kingdom in the north, down through two others, and finished in a fourth kingdom in the south. The kingdoms that surrounded it were Norden, Sur, Est, and Ouest. These four kingdoms often found it difficult to get along. For example, the people of Norden called the mountain, Derberg, those from Sur called it La Montana, The Estenites called it La Montaga and the people of Ouest called the mountain La Montagne. In the past there had been great wars fought between them all. For the time being, however, things between the kingdoms were peaceful, and time wandered along quietly. The people went on with their lives. This story is about one of those people, and his name is Wilhelm.

Wilhelm lived with his mama and papa, right at the base of Derberg, in Norden. His papa was a coal miner, and every day he would get up early with the sun, eat a big breakfast, and then climb up the mountain to the mine. Because Derberg was so very tall, and their village was so very close to it, the sun only shone in the sky until just after the middle of the day. After that, the sun would slowly dip below the very top peak of the mountain, and the day would get darker and darker. This meant that the nights were long and cold. Wilhelm’s papa was always careful to be home before the sun was completely behind the mountain before the shadows took over the country. Everyone who lived close to the mountain knew that they had to be home before it was dark. There was an old legend, about the Steinkobold, the stone goblins, creatures who lived in the mountain. They were made of rock, and covered in moss, and if they found you on the mountain after dark...well let’s just say you were in for some trouble. Because of the stone goblins, each mine had a Sonnenspotter, a man whose job it was to sit outside the mine and watch for the moment the sun touched the very tip of the tallest peak of Derberg. As soon as he saw this happen, he was to blow his horn into the mine, which was the signal for the men to put down their tools and begin their journey down the mountain to their homes.

“Wilhelm,” his papa said to him one morning before kissing him goodbye and making his way up the mountain, “the king is coming to inspect the mine today. If you come up and sit in the forest by the road just before the morning break, you’ll be able to see him and all of his knights ride by.” Wilhelm smiled. He loved seeing the kings knights. When he grew up, he wanted to be a knight. His mama told him that he would have to work very hard and be very lucky for that to happen, as the king only took the bravest and kindest of his men to be knights. But Wilhelm was determined, one day he would be a knight. But as he still had several years of growing to go, for today he would be happy just to see the knights.

Wilhelm spent the morning doing chores around the house, watching the sun slowly make its way across the sky. When it was just about in the right spot for the morning break, Mama shooed him out of the door.

“You can take this freshly baked loaf and some cheese up to Papa. With the king coming to inspect the mine they will need extra food to share around.” Wilhelm kissed his mama goodbye and then turned and ran as fast as he could up the mountain. He didn't often go up into the mountains by himself, but he didn't often get a chance to see the king and his knights either.

As he ran, he thought he could hear something moving in the shadows under the trees. He decided it was probably just the noise of the miners echoing out of the mountain.

As he got further up the mountain the noise got a little louder and he thought it sounded more like feet than pickaxes. He decided it was probably just the noise of the king and his knights coming up the mountain.

He was nearly at the perfect spot by the road to see the knights riding by when he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. Deciding it was probably just the sun casting shadows, he sat down on an old dead tree stump to wait.

“Ah here they come now, I can hear the horses' hooves trotting up the road,” Wilhelm thought to himself. He glanced down the mountain, trying to spot the knights, but so far he could only hear them. He glanced back up the road wondering if he had missed them ride by, and almost fell off his stump in surprise. There was a rock sitting in the middle of the road! He was sure that it hadn't been there a moment ago. It wasn't a very big rock, and it didn't look like it had fallen or rolled into the road as it had bright green moss all over the top of it.

Wilhelm glanced back down the road, and then looked at the rock again. This time, the rock was looking at him! And even more extraordinary, it started to speak!

“Please sir,” he heard a tiny, gravely voice call out, “please will you help me? I got lost on my way home and now I have sprained my ankle and can't move. I can hear horses coming, and I am sure they will ride right over the top of me. Please, will you help me get out of the road?” Wilhelm gapped at the creature. It must be a Steinkobold, one of the stone goblins that everyone was so afraid of. He was about to turn and run down the mountain, but then he remembered what his mama had said about the knights, that they were the bravest and the kindest men.

“Leaving this little creature to be trampled by horses is not brave or kind,” Wilhelm said to himself. He could hear the horses just around the bend, feel the vibrations in the ground from their hooves. Wilhelm made up his mind, jumped off the stump and ran to the little stone goblin. He picked it up and quickly ran back to the stump just as the first horse came into view. Tucking the creature under his coat, Wilhelm watched as the knights rode past his stump on their brilliant horses. His eyes shone and he smiled so hard his face started to hurt. He whispered to himself,

“One day I WILL be a knight.”

When the king and his knights had passed by Wilhelm felt the little stone goblin wriggling under his coat. He quickly put it down and stepped backward.

“Thank you,” said the goblin.

“You're welcome,” Wilhelm replied. “Are you a stone goblin?” he asked.

“Well, that's one of the things people call us,” the little creature said. “We're called Steinkobold, stone goblins, rock monsters. Although really I'd be happy if you just called me Scrat.”

“Scrat? Is that what you are?” Wilhelm asked. The little rock monster gave a strange little laugh.

“Scrat is my name,” he said. Wilhelm smiled.

“Well, it's a fine name. Can I ask though, forgive me if this sounds rude, but I thought that stone goblins were...nasty and that they didn't like people?”

“That is true, most Steinkobold are nasty and they really do not like people at all. However, there are a few of us who get on well with humans and enjoy being friends with them. We don't live with the others, we have our own little village. We prefer to live in the sun, not under the mountain. I…” Suddenly another voice interrupted Scrat.

“WHAT is THAT?!?”

Wilhelm turned to find a girl, about his age, sitting on a dappled pony just behind him. She had dark brown hair, and her brown eyes were looking down her long, pointy nose at Wilhelm and Scrat. Her mouth was set in a thin line, and Wilhelm got the impression that she didn't smile very often.

“His name is Scrat,” Wilhelm answered. The girl scowled at him.

“How dare you address me in such a disrespectful manner. Did your parents never teach you how to speak to royalty?” she growled.

“Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't realise,” Wilhelm replied.

“Didn't realise you were speaking to the princess? Well, I suppose I can't expect a little miner boy like you to be educated,” the princess scoffed. Scrat let out a little laugh.

“I suppose we can't expect a princess like you to have manners either,” he said in his gravelly little voice. Wilhelm tried not to laugh as the princess’s face went bright red. Wilhelm spoke before she could reply.

“Your Highness, may I ask what you are doing on the mountain by yourself?”

This seemed to distract her from Scrat for the moment.

“My father never lets me go with him when he travels through the kingdom. So this time I decided I would just follow him without him knowing. If I am going to be in charge one day then I need to know what is happening in my kingdom,” the princess replied. “And if my kingdom is full of ugly little creatures like him then it looks like I have a lot of work to do. If you are still here when I come back down the mountain I will have you both thrown in the dungeon.” With that, she urged her pony on and disappeared up the mountain.

Wilhelm and Scrat looked at each other and they both burst out laughing.

“Here I was thinking MY people were the nasty ones!” Scrat laughed. Wilhelm giggled, but then they heard a noise that silenced them both. A scream cut through the late morning air. Wilhelm and Scrat looked up the mountain road, and several moments later they saw the dappled pony coming towards them. The pony raced past them, and Wilhelm realised that the saddle was empty.

“Something has happened to the princess!” Wilhelm said. Scrat sighed.

“I suppose we'd better go and see if we can help her. Pick me up if you don't mind and let's go and see.” Wilhelm picked Scrat up and ran up the mountain. At first, Wilhelm didn’t think they would find her, but then he spotted a flash of blue in the brush on the side of the road. There was the princess, laying as if asleep in the middle of the brush, her face looking pale. Wilhelm reached out touched her cheek, which was ice cold.

“Oh no,” Scrat whispered.

“What’s wrong with her?” Wilhelm asked. Scrat looked worried.

“Remember how I told you that some of my people are nasty and don’t like humans? Well, this is their doing. They have cast a spell on the princess and put her into a deep sleep.”

“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Scrat shook his mossy head slowly.

Wilhelm told Scrat to stay with the princess while he went and caught the pony. When he managed to calm it down, he led it to the princess and carefully laid her across it’s back. He lifted Scrat up onto the pony to help keep the princess in the saddle, and then slowly walked the pony up the mountain. He wanted to get the princess to her father at the mine. The sun was almost touching the tip of the mountain by the time they arrived in front of the mine. The men on the road ahead of them looked up as the clip-clop of the pony’s hooves echoed off the mine. Wilhelm saw his papa standing with them.

“Wilhelm”, his papa said, sounding confused, “what are you doing here?” Wilhelm was about to answer when he heard a shout from the back of the group. The king and his knights had seen the pony and realised who it was. Suddenly all the knights were shouting and running toward Wilhelm, the king leading the way.

“What happened to my daughter?” the king asked Wilhelm gruffly. Wilhelm told the king that he was coming up the mountain, heard a scream, and had found the princess laying beside the path.

“It must have been the stone goblins!” cried one of the knights. The king was trying to wake his daughter, but she would not wake up. Just at that moment, the sonnenspotter blew on his horn, signaling it was time to close the mine and start making their way down the mountain. As everyone began moving along the path down the mountain, Wilhelm looked around for Scrat. He realised that he hadn’t seen him since they had come into view of the mine. He couldn’t see him anyway. Wilhelm sighed and followed his papa down the mountain to their home. This day had not turned out the way he thought that it would.

That evening as Wilhelm was cleaning up after dinner, he heard a soft scratching on the back door of their house. He looked up quickly to see if his mama and papa had heard anything. His mama was knitting a sweater and his papa was darning socks and they were talking and smiling at each other. Wilhelm heard the soft scratch, scratch, scratch noise again and quietly said, “Who’s there?”

“It’s me, Scrat” came the tiny, gravelly voice of his new friend. Wilhelm glanced once more at his parents, and then quietly slipped out of the back door.

“What are you doing here?” Wilhelm asked the stone goblin. Scrat smiled.

“I found a way to wake up the princess,” he said. “Even though, considering how rude she is, we’re all probably better off if she just stays asleep” he chuckled his strange little laugh again. Scrat went on to tell Wilhelm that as soon as he had seen the king and his knights at the cave, he has quickly darted off into a nearby bush. He didn’t think the king would appreciate seeing a Steinkobold around when his daughter was under their spell. He had quickly traveled back to his village and gone straight to ask his chief what they might be able to do to help. His chief told him of a flower that grew on one of the peaks of Derburg. This flower could be made into a tea that would revive anyone who had been put under a sleeping spell.

“So we could get this flower and save the princess,” Wilhelm said excitedly.

“In theory yes,” answer Scrat, “however there are two problems. The first is that the flower only blooms at night, the second is that it cannot be touched by goblin hands. The moment we touch it, the flower dies.” Wilhelm frowned. That meant that a human had to go up the mountain at night to pick the flower. The king would never send his knights up the mountain in the dark on the word of a goblin.

“I will go,” Wilhelm said in a quiet voice. Scrat looked at him in disbelief.

“But the princess was horrible to you!” he said. Wilhelm smiled.

“I want to be a knight one day and to be a knight you have to prove yourself to be one of the bravest and kindest people in the entire land. What better way to prove that than going up the mountain in the dark to rescue someone who was nasty to me?”

So Wilhelm quietly slipped back inside his house and put on his walking boots and his thick jacket. He grabbed some bread, cheese, and water and returned to Scrat’s side. They began walking towards the mountain. They walked as quietly as they could, making sure to stay right in the middle of the path. The moon was high in the sky, lighting their way with sheets of silver. Thanks to the moon, they were able to move quickly up the mountain and were almost three-quarters of the way to the peak when they first started hearing noises in the forest around them. Scrat and Wilhelm glanced at each other, then Scart quickly scampered up Wilhelm’s jacket and onto his shoulder. They moved quicker now as Wilhelm didn’t need to worry about Scrat not being able to keep up. They rounded a corner and Scrat suddenly pointed and whispered, “there!” right in Wilhelm's ear. Up ahead of them was a large rocky outcrop, sitting right on the top of the path. On top of the highest rock was a beautiful blue flower.

“That’s the flower!” Scrat whispered again. Wilhelm smiled and took a step towards the rock, but as he did there was a shout from the nearby forest and six shadows leaped from the trees onto the path in front of him. Wilhelm gave a startled cry. More Steinkobold! These stone goblins, however, were not smiling at him politely, nor were they covered in bright green moss. The moss that covered their backs was darker colours, dark browns, deep reds, and navy blues. Some of them looked like they had horns growing out of the tops of their heads. Scrat held tightly to Wilhelm’s hair as the goblins sneered at him.

“What do I do Scrat?” Wilhelm asked. Scrat didn't answer. One of the goblins smiled at him menacingly and, picking up a rock from the ground by his feet, opened his mouth wide. He turned to look at Wilhelm, shoved the rock into his mouth, and swallowed it whole.

“They're trying to scare you, show you how tough they are,” Scrat whispered.

Wilhelm understood what the little rock monster was trying to do, but right as it had popped the rock in its mouth, he had been reminded of something peculiar. A few months ago a traveling circus had come through their village. They had brought with them some animals and acrobats and a girl who ate fire. There was a strong man and a magician who had cut one of the acrobats in half. They had also brought with them some things they had called carnival games. Wilhelm had spent most of the money he had been given for his birthday playing those games. There was a fishing game and a target game, but his favourite game had been the one with the clowns. There had been six clown heads all in a row, their faces painted with the usual clown makeup. The tops of their heads had been painted brown and red and blue. Their heads moved from left to right like they were shaking their heads “no” and the aim of the game was to put a round stone into their open mouth. The stone would fall down into different little compartments and you got to choose a prize depending on where it landed. Wilhelm had ended up with a new comb and a new pair of shoelaces, as well as a little woolen hat.

Wilhelm looked at the little rock monster about to swallow his second rock and realised that they reminded him of the clowns! Wilhelm giggled as the goblin bent down to pick up another rock. The goblin stopped and glanced at the other goblins. Wilhelm caught sight of the confused look on its face and let out one loud “HA!” The goblins all jumped backward, one of them falling from his perch on top of the rock. Wilhelm laughed and laughed. He laughed so hard that tears started to roll down his cheeks. Scrat, although unsure of why Wilhelm was having a laughing fit, couldn't help but join in. He was laughing so much that he gave himself the hiccups, and then he hiccuped so hard that he fell of Wilhelm’s shoulder to roll around laughing on the floor. Wilhelm picked up a stone and looked at the stone goblins through his watery eyes.

“Ok, which one of you do I need to throw this at to win my prize?” he said and chuckled. The stone goblins turned to one another, looks of fear on their faces. Wilhelm suddenly realised how small they were.

“You know what? I'm not afraid of you anymore” he said with a smile. The little rock monsters let out a shriek and fled back into the forest. Wilhelm stood and listened to the sounds of them running through the forest up the mountain until he couldn't hear them anymore.

Scrat stood to his feet, hiccuping once more before he finally stopped. He asked Wilhelm what on earth had made him laugh, and Wilhelm had told him all about the painted clown carnival game. Scrat shook his head in disbelief.

“Well my brave young knight, go and pick your prize and we will hurry down to rescue your princess!” Wilhelm carefully picked the flower and carried it in his hands the whole way down the mountain. When he arrived at his home, he called out to his mama and papa. They burst through the front door, asking Wilhelm where he had been. Wilhelm smiled and told them to follow him to the castle and he would explain everything.

“But Wilhelm, it's at least another hour until sunrise!” his mama said. Wilhelm smiled at her.

“Don't worry Mama, I have a feeling the stone goblins will leave us alone.” It was that moment when Scrat popped up onto Wilhelm's shoulder and waved at his parents. His mama gave a shrill little scream, but when she realised that Scrat was smiling and waving at her she cautiously waved back. Wilhelm’s papa took her by the hand and they followed their son down the road towards the castle. Other villagers heard and saw them walking past in the dark and, curious as to what was going on, came out of their houses and followed behind. By the time Wilhelm arrived at the castle, almost the entire village was following along behind him. He banged on the gate to the castle as the first rays of the morning sun began to peek over the horizon. Seeing the crowd at the gates, the knights quickly alerted the king. He soon stood in the barbican of the castle, looking down on Wilhelm.

“What is the meaning of this?” the king demanded. “Why have I been dragged from my daughter's side? Aren't you the boy who was with her today?”

“Your majesty, I have in my hands the cure for your daughter. Once she drinks a tea made from this flower she will wake,” Wilhelm called up to the king. The king wasn't sure he believed Wilhelm, but as everyone else in his household had already tried and failed to wake her he was desperate.

The king ordered the flower to be steeped in hot water and for the tea to be delivered to the princess’s chamber. Wilhelm and the rest of the villagers waited in the bailey, inside the walls of the castle. Suddenly, there was a cry from the princess’s chamber and soon a servant was rushing into the yard and dragging Wilhelm up. As he entered the chamber, he saw the king and the princess sitting on the bed hugging. She was awake! The king called Wilhelm over and hugged him too. He insisted that Wilhelm tell him the whole story of how he had found the flower. At the end of the story, the king sat stunned. He ordered that the story be passed on to everyone so that everyone would know that Wilhelm had saved his daughter, but also so that everyone would know how to protect themselves from the stone goblins.

“Wilhelm,” announced the king, “you have proven yourself to be one of the bravest and kindest people in my kingdom. If you will accept, I wish to offer you a place with among my knights.” Wilhelm beamed. Walking home with his mama and papa later that morning, leading a horse with saddlebags filled to the brim with other rewards from the king, Wilhelm felt tired but happy. He would go home and have a well-deserved sleep and when he woke up he would begin his training as a knight. To say that they all lived happily ever after would be an understatement. More they all spent their days laughing and no longer being afraid thanks to Wilhelm, and his little rock monster friend.