The Secondary Saga

[Thaal Sinestro]

Grobdum sneered, his fangy teeth protruding from under his curling lips as he rattled and slapped his staff. “Where’d all me WAAAGH! go?!” he moaned, lamenting bitterly, knocking the tip of the conduit on the stone floor.

The rest of the group was finally forced to pay attention to the diminutive magician, the robot’s eyebrow quirking lazily as he tapped on his temple to adjust some aspect of his feed. The tiny Pegasus fluttered its wings and clopped in his direction. Her equine face was stern as she asked, “So who are you, huh?”

Grobdum’s shoulders hunched as the goblin curled into himself, the piercing eyes of judgment sinking into him like spears. “’Oo, me?” he asked, recoiling against the stone wall. “I-I-I I ain’t done noffin’!”

Just as the goblin completed his sentence, the residual brightness from the teleportation slowly began to fade, darkness slowly consuming the group. Soon, blackness was all their eyes saw, and the gentle, hollow sound of the temple air the only sound beyond their breath.

“One sec,” Topman said quickly, repeatedly tapping his temple, “My flashlight isn’t working for some reason. Might have been fried from that teleport.”

The small marionette planted its wooden fists on its hips with a clonk muttering, “Well this is just great.” His nose grew a few inches before he snapped off the tip. There was the sound of ripping cloth and several moments passed of little more than shuffling noises. The flash of a match lit up the area as he set the makeshift torch aflame.

“Heh, nice,” the robo-blogger said approvingly.

The room was filled with the light of the flickering flame, the deep shadows of it casting eerie, exaggerated shadows over every surface. Slowly, each member made an account of each other. The realization washed over them simultaneously but the lean girl in the corner spoke first, “Where’d that goblin go?”

As the raggedy team looked over to the somewhat ignored girl, the Raw Onion rolled her eyes. “I think we found him.”

After a moment, Topman pointed a finger behind the girl, and she quickly turned around. Her eyes fell upon the tiny snickering creature with his hand deep in one of her pockets, a silly grin on his face. “Haha! Oi, wot’s you all lookin’ at? I wuz jus’ givin’ ‘er back her, uh,” he fumbled around with some object he had found in her pocket, confused as to it’s purpose or function,”‘er… ah… thing? I uz jus’ givin’ ‘er back ‘er thing!”

The young girl snatched the object back. “Hey! Listen,” she shouted, “you don’t get to just steal stuff!”

Sheepishly he shook his head, the baubles he wore on his hood rattling about. “Oh no! No no! I wasn’ stealin’ noffin’.”

Shaking her head, the girl walked behind the rest of the group. “I’m Lyra,” she informed them, “now let’s get out of here.”

The goblin patted his chest after a moment, “I am Grobdum, a’ da Noseflayahs!” The rest of the group collectively chose to ignore his introduction and continued on.

Pinocchio brought is torch to the walls, and gently smoothed his hand over them. Ancient carvings covered almost every surface; stories and perhaps omens littered even the floor. A seam split one of the walls from top to bottom, a ghoulish face with an extended tongue bisected by the crack. “This sorta looks like an exit,” the wooden boy said hopefully, “Maybe we just gotta figure out how to open it!”