"Hopeless wonder. Part 1.5."

Hey folks.

Welcome back to the gates of Enverdolmal.

I hope that this newest chapter part finds you all well.

I am sorry that I haven't written in a bit.

Been a bit sick, and busy with my two other ongoing writing projects.

If you read my O.J.M series of my S.B.D. poetry, then you know and understand lol.

ALSO, I want to thank you all kindly for 44K English views and an additional 35K Spanish version Views!

You all are my world, and I don't have enough words to express my appreciation. 

I won't keep you all, I know what you've come for lol.

See you soon, yeah?

I present to you:

"Hopeless Wonder. Part 1.5."

Enjoy.

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20 years ago.

Northern Naeri, Northeast of Kabouterval. 

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The dazed and weary Goblinoid twins known as Ahgo and Ahmay stepped tentatively from the large and looming mouth of the secluded mountain cave, their hands raised to shield against the light of the pale yellow moon.

A yellow moon that caused them to squint for the way it stung their hyper-sensitive eyes.

Eyes that had only beheld artificial light up until that very point in their lives.

Lives that now seem so hollow, so expendable, so without real meaning or purpose...

Their queen, Lady Slyceneat, had all but made an outcast of them both!

A disgrace!

So horrible and terrible was their fate!

How cruel and unjust!

"Banished" as they were to this large and hostile surface world known to them only as the "Big Bright", they had no real idea of what to do initially but to lament their lives aloud.

And so they did. 

They were alone together, and in the dark of night, the two Deeplurks let loose a wry and wrung-out wail. 

Their cries of anguish bounced and echoed from the cave walls, bathing them in a shower of self-generated angst and foreboding.

Lady Slyceneat had sent them away but a tenday ago, with an escort of just over two dozen Deeplurk soldiers.

Their task?

Map out a "quick and efficient" route to the Big Bright that could be utilized by the Deeplurk society to form a mercantile chain.

The pair had been told simply to never return unless and until this task had been completed.

Lady Slyceneat had pined for any and all foodstuffs that she could possibly -and quite impossibly- get her fat and often slimy, Goblinoid digits on.

And for this reason, she had sent away her best and brightest...

To the rather esteemed and proud pair of Deeplurks, It was a meaningless and merciless martyrdom...

A waste of not only their time and talents but their very lives. 

But what could they do but obey?

Stay here?

Where even something as distant and beautiful as that ball of light that hung high in the air high above them known as the "Moon" hated them?

No...

They could not.

They knew not of how this new world functioned.

Not yet anyway.

And they could not just go back empty-handed...

That was FAR from any other realistic option...

It would be the last thing that either of them ever did IF they could even somehow manage to make it back to Slycen Mound without the aid of at least a handful of Deeplurk soldiers to keep the worst of The Deep at bay...

Without having found some sort of food, or established a connection with which such things could be procured, the two would quickly and most assuredly be bound by the hands and feet, beaten badly, well-seasoned, charred over an open fire to near death, and then served to Lady Slyceneat and her closest Deeplurks in a coveted and feared ceremony known as the death by 1000 chews. 

This was a fate that the two had simultaneously concluded was far worse than what they currently had to contend with...

Oh, how very cruel and unjust it all truly was!

What was a pair of Goblinoid boys to do!?

They were content with having a bit more of a cry.

It wouldn't hurt, and it wasn't like their wayward yowls would find their way back home to the Slycen Mound.

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Novala stood in amused silence off to the far right side of the moist and musty cave.

She had been there for quite some time, yet the unsightly little pair of Goblin-like things had been so caught up in their despairing, that neither of them had yet to take notice of her.

That suited her just fine.

In all actuality, they had taken her by surprise at first, so ugly and pale were they to behold, and so caught up in her own deep and brewing musings was she. 

Yes, Novala had been briefed about the Deeplurks with which she was to barter and eventually rule over...

But she had yet to ever see one in the flesh, outside of a few crude sketches that her master had provided. 

These were no regular Mud-bugs.

No.

They were not like any surface-dwelling species of Goblinoid that she had yet to encounter in her handful of decades on Enverdolmal. 

They were hardly a meter in height, from their dirty little feet to the tips of their nearly translucent ears. 

Their limbs were gangly and thin, and she had no idea how their cane-thin necks could support such full-sized and exaggerated craniums. 

She could think of nothing of value that these diminutive, skittish things could offer the Queendom of Naeri.

Nothing that would warrant the presence of a S.T.A.R. Agent at least, regardless of her rookie status...

But alas, an order was an order, and hers was to befriend these two -and by extension, their ruler- for long enough to infiltrate and exploit their people and resources.

She would do what she must to see that her mission was brought to completion.

With a bemused inward sigh, Novala stepped from the shadows and let the shimmering moonlight illuminate her silhouette.

She had both had and heard enough of the creature's whimpers and snivels.

Her "sudden" appearance must have snapped the two to attention, as their bulbous heads snapped about, their green/grey eyes wide with fear and anxiety.

The two Goblinoids simultaneously began to hastily rummage through their little robes for whatever they could find to defend themselves with. 

Novala quickly took a step back, raising both of her hands before her, palms out, a universal motion that signaled that one was not seeking trouble. 

Novala spoke before things could get ugly.

For them, not her.

Her Goblin tongue was a bit rusty, but it would be more than sufficient given the tightness of the situation.

"Trust me, new friends, I come only to help." 

She said as she shifted a bit of her Aether into a quick and easy spell.

Behind her, a thin cloud-like veil of smog began to form, slowly but surely obscuring the light from the moon that assailed their sensitive eyes.

The two creatures looked back and forth between themselves and the strange and apparently friendly woman, wary of her seemingly unwarranted kind gesture.

One of them took a cautious step forward and spoke a handful of raspy Goblinoid words. 

"You help us...why?" 

It said, its words measured and slow-going.

Novala smiled a sly yet genuine smile before she bowed low, sweeping her arm low before returning to her full height with a flourish. 

"We will talk, yes? But first...let me slip into something a bit more comfortable..." 

With a snap of her fingers and a flick of her wrist, Novala's stark white clothing and combat accessories shifted in color, darkening rapidly and becoming looser and less form-fitting before her transformation was complete. 

Before the awed and thoroughly intimidated Deeplurks now stood not a S.T.A.R. Agent, but a cold and foreboding woman in deep black robes. 

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I hope that this is enough to hold you all over till I get a few other things done.

I have sooooooo many character dives to do that it is not funny lol

But I will get them and more done for you all just as soon as I can, you have my word.

Till next time folks, and as always:

Stay safe.

 Stay healthy.

 Stay vigilant.

-Redd.