Prince Gyllen Ch. 14

"No problem, but do ME a favour too and drop the 'Madam' Min stuff, will ya? It's drivin' me spare..."

"As you wish...Min." Elizabeth reiterated the emerald woman's name on her ruby lips before gliding back down the hallway and soon vanishing around the nearest corner.

Doing as she was requested, Min returned to the library to drag her blond associate away from his engrossment amongst the novels and manuscripts for the next half-hour while they dined. When they arrived at the dining hall, their meal had already been laid out before them, with the Countess alone waiting patiently in the same seat she had been sitting in the previous evening. Gyllen and the goblin took their places and began their repast. The prince was far more talkative with the Countess tonight than he was the last since he now had some conversation topics regarding his discoveries throughout the day, though Mircalla was far less communicative and responded only with simple replies, consisting mainly of single-word 'yes's and 'no's.

Min was not paying heed to the finer details of the discussion as she was too preoccupied stuffing her face full with spoonfuls of succulent, sautéed mushrooms. She was, however, able to catch infrequent glimpses of the Countess leering in her direction far more times than she was comfortable with, though each time the goblin became aware of such, Elizabeth would snap her head in an opposing direction with jarring, automaton-esque motions like she was pretending to not have even been looking at the lime-skinned female at all. Even still, Min was normally unfazed when it came to trivial, but welcome, ogles...so why were the noblewoman's shifty stares causing such perturbation in her?

Partway through the meal, the Countess excused herself from the table and left the room, leaving the prince and the redhead alone together in wordless tranquillity.

"You're uncharacteristically quiet this evening, Min." Gyllen finally spoke up.

"Got nothin' t' talk about." The goblin replied after slurping up a shellfish from its chitin. "What's on yer mind?"

"Well, it's probably nothing, but did you see Countess Mircalla take even a single bite from anything here?" He asked. "I just found it a little odd. I hope she's eating well enough, between this supper and the last."

"Jus' yer imagination, I'd wager." The goblin answered, not wanting to reveal her worries over Elizabeth perhaps being impoverished to the extent that she could not afford to keep herself fed whilst she had company present. Still, maybe it was a little peculiar if that was the case, as a vast quantity of the remaining feast was about to end up as table scraps without a third, or even fourth, party to have their share.

Once dinner was finished, Min expressed her desire to turn in early for the night, as all that scrutinizing between two floors throughout most the day on top of a stressful slumber really sapped all the vitality straight out of her. Meanwhile, Gyllen return to the library to spend his last hours awake, having become obsessed with his quest to expand his personal reading material repository. Upon returning to her assigned bedchamber, the goblin found the candles relit and the sheets professionally straightened. Perhaps there were a some hidden housekeepers going about their duties after all. She felt more at peace in than she did in that very morning in this room, but just as a precaution, she locked the door behind her to prevent any unwanted callers.

Min had been racking her brains all day to figure out what could have possibly induced such a vivid nightmare, and the most logical conclusion she could come up with was her lack of a nightly orgasm that she had grown so accustomed to before sleeping must have thrown her mind through a loop, and thus spawned the bizarre vision from deep out of her subconscious without the endorphins to repress it. Hey, it made sound sense to her, and she planned to have that rectified immediately. Without further delay, she hurriedly stripped down during her walk towards the bed until her piercings were the only things preventing her from being classified as completely naked, leaving her clothes wherever her feet were while in motion without care. She pulled her bare self up onto the mattress upon reaching its side before leaning her body backwards as she kept her head propped with the cushions, spreading her stubby legs just enough for her lime paw to reach the waiting gash which glistered between them.

She started the session off simple: merely massaging her olive clitoris sensually as she closed her eyes and envisioned an old recollection to assist her in getting off. She reminisced of the time she talked a well-hung halfling paladin into repeatedly sheathing his mighty meat-blade inside her fleshy-scabbard twice as they snogged by the lakeside one sultry summer afternoon back during her freebooter days with Captain Bonny. He stood out in her memory for being rather tall (by halfling standards that is), having hair as pink as petunias and possessing eyes of mismatched colours. She could not remember his name for the life of her, but with the level of swordplay skills he demonstrated, that was less than an afterthought for the goblin~

As she relived the episode towards its crescendo, Min had eased her two longest digits inside her incited orifice, vigorously pushing them in and out while her index finger continued to flick her sensitive bean. She found her muscles stiffening before long in anticipation for her ecstatic apex as she arched her pelvis upwards from the bed using her feet and lumbar in time to spritz her juices across the her host's olden sheets without any regard, her whole diminutive being shuddering and her voice softly whimpering while she came.

Satisfied with this outcome, Min then proceeded to tuck herself beneath the bed's heavy covers in order to sleep the rest of the night away, swathing herself in an insulated cloth cocoon as the pattering of the rain outside on the veranda and window engulfed her in an atmosphere of unparalleled comfort. With a pleased smile gracing her lips, the goblin closed her eyes once more for what she hoped would be the last time until morning. That desire was short lived however, when she was prematurely awakened after an uncertain time by the sound of something repeatedly thumping against glass. Her bleary eyes looked in the general direction from where the sound was originating: the balcony door. On the other side, she could make out the hazy outline of a creature in the night-time rain flapping inky, leather wings upon the window, almost as if it were trying to force its way inside. As the goblin's eyes quickly readjusted, the blurry contours would quickly come into clearer focus to reveal the beast to be, of all things, a hideous bat as big as a buzzard!

Min would have shooed the flying rodent away, but refused to betray the comfort of her wrappings and decided to instead close her eyes over once again, enduring the creature's irksome actions until it grew bored and flew away on its own accord. Mercifully, the pounding ceased before long, and the goblin looked over once more just to confirm it had truly taken flight, but what she saw in its place would haunt the goblinoid till her dying days. Standing out on the terrace and glaring inwards on her, clad in dark vestments behind the screen of rainfall, was none other than the ghastly white mien of Countess Mircalla! Min was in absolute disbelief to what she was seeing even as her stunned gaze locked with the image of Elizabeth's apathetic stare, shuddering still as a chill ran down her spine and then some.

"Okay, this HAS gotta be a dream!" The goblin mentally convinced herself notwithstanding feeling as sober as she had been all day, shutting her eyelids yet again and expecting the room to be flooded with the morning's light for when she opened them next. This was not the case however, as the only change present when she reopened her irises was that the figure of Mircalla had now suddenly materialised on the other side of the glass, as though it had melted straight through that transparent barrier within the second Min's eyesight was subdued, and was now stationed mere metres from where the goblin lazed. A nearby bolt of lightning cracked from the heavens in that moment and bathed the Countess' alabaster guise in a brilliant, pale light, making Min able to plainly notice that the figure was bone dry, not having a single droplet of water speckle her skin or frock in defiance of the raging downpour it had just came out from.

Despite the strange circumstances she found herself within, the redhead did not give in to fear as she did not wish to repeated the previous night's comparable incident and associated panic attack. It helped she could at least put a face to her would-be assailant this time, but there was something else which inexplicitly made her feel more at ease in this situation than she had ever been these past few days, even before ever arriving in Dacia. It was as if witnessing Elizabeth's pacific, mournful demeanour soothed her spirit like an exact antithesis of the vile energy the phantom had resonated during the initial confrontation. As was the case the previous night, Min had found her body immobile before the visitation, yet it felt less like she had lost the ability to move this time but rather that she simply had no inclination to do so.

After some seconds of solid staring, Min blinked as one would naturally do, but during the brief instant her eyes were closed, the shape of the Countess appeared to have shifted a few small, yet detectable, steps closer towards the four-poster bed, standing perfectly still in place when the crimson eyes were lain upon her once again. From then on, Mircalla's form would transport ever nearer towards the inactive goblinoid in an unseen manner whenever Min had to blink, making it appear she was walking without ever actually walking. Within a drawn-out minute, the lofty noblewoman was adjacent to and impending over the mattress, her chalky aspect suspended directly overhead Min's vibrantly viridescent own, surveying down upon her in the same way a peckish serpent would contemplate a cornered mouse directly before it struck.

The nefarious aura had returned. Min attempted her absolute utmost to combat the agitation which was now rapidly expanding within her mind in anticipation of the Countess' next untold action. What Mircalla would do next, however, was amongst the last in the list of things the goblin could have predicted. With what Min could only perceive as swift flashes of motion, Mircalla leaned her upper body over and firmly placed the palms of both hands onto the empty space next to the green female before cautiously crawling atop the mattress with the deliberate grace of a stealthy feline, not once wavering her eyes away from the vulnerable goblinoid for a moment. Min watched, able to do little else being rooted on the spot, while Elizabeth's face gradually came closer and closer still to hers, disappearing from the redhead's view when it sank into the divide between her chin and collar, the goblin then felt a pair of clammy lips pressing directly up against the surface of her unguarded throat and then...

The morning sun had vanquished the horrible night.

The next thing Min knew, she was gazing upwards towards the underside of the bed's awning as daylight shone in through the windowpane. "What the Hel was in those shrooms...?" was the first thought she had upon awaking, sitting upright in her bundle of blankets as she rubbed a hand to her aching temples, trying shaking some sense into her head. At the same time, she was also feeling an acute pain throb on her neck, in roughly the same place where that ghostly illusion had seemingly kissed her upon in her hallucination. The goblin toiled to unfetter herself from the cosy shackles that was the bedspread, stumbling slightly as her tiny, bare feet contacted with the carpet.

With a yawn, she made her way over to the mirror so she could see what may have been causing the sting on her gullet...only to recall halfway through the journey that the room did not hold such a thing. She shrugged at the revelation and disregarded the ailment, assuming the twining was brought about by dozing on her neck in a funny fashion. She instead walk towards the terrace's door, looking at precisely where her nocturnal delirium had taken form. The storm had ceased at some point while she slept, the wet stones of the balcony still shimmering with miniature puddles, though had appeared to have been replaced by a white mist rolling across the courtyard so opaque, the entirety of Şolomanţă's first floor looked as though it had been rubbed away from the existence, like an eraser to a pencil drawing.

Min then left the room, almost forgetting to redress herself on the way out though she questioned the purpose of doing such, seeing as she had yet to meet another living soul in this structure during the daylight hours aside from her princely fuck-buddy. Still, in the interest of keeping at least SOME things tasteful about her, the goblin threw her brown rags back onto her person and headed down to the dining hall for the fourth time during their stay. Unlike before, this time she was able to catch Gyllen still in mid-snack upon reaching the room, helping himself to a serving of fried eggs.

"Ah, good morning, Min!" The blond chirpingly greeted her before quickly wiping his face of yolk with a napkin. "You're up rather early. Awful weather we've been having lately, don't you think?"

"Gyl! Who brought out this food?" Min interrogated the prince instead of returning the pleasantries.

"I have no idea. It was already out by the time I came down." Gyllen responded, a little irritated by Min's rude mode of enquiring. "I took a quick peek into the kitchen a few minutes ago, and yesterday morning too, just so I could give thanks to whoever may have made it, but it was completely deserted."

"Hm, yeah, dunno what kinda answer I was expectin' really..." Min murmured. "By the by, Gyl, me neck's been pangin' since I woke up. Can ya take a quick gander t' see what's causin' it?"

"Of course. I'm no physician but I'll do my best to give a diagnosis." Gyllen said, leaving the table to assist his goblin friend, gently tilting her head to one side with his soft hands as so he could take a clearer view of her nape. "Oh...that's strange..."

"Why? What is it!?" Min demanded to know as she remained still aside from the frantic darting of her eyes, not liking the sudden grim turn the teenager's tone of voice had taken.

"It's like...two duplicate pin-pricks on your skin...no, slightly larger than that. With red centres and white rims." The blond described what he saw. "How on Midgard did you manage to do something like that, Min?" The goblin did not reply to the query, instead breaking from the prince's hold and marching with conviction directly to the door. "M-Min...!? What's the matter? Where are you going?"

"There's clearly somethin' suspicious goin' on in this castle! And I'm not gonna be sittin' around for another day and a night doin' nothin' about it!" Min twirled around before proceeding to bombard Gyllen with a retelling of her exploits in attempting to nap these last two nights, right down to the last agonizing detail.

"C-Countess Mircalla was in your room last night?" Gyllen echoed what he had just heard in stupefied dubiety. "Min, pardon my language, but that's absolute poppycock! It had to have just been a dream or something."

"And I'm tellin' ya it wasn' a dream! I felt her mouth on me gorge, and now yer tellin' me I got a pair a' punctures there? I'm sorry, but that ain't how any ol' nightmare works if yer askin' me."

"Min, please, listen to what you're saying! Granted, I admit the Countess' behaviour has been a little odd, but she hardly seems like the type to go about snooping about other people's bedsides after dusk. There has to be some kind of rational explanation to all this."

"Yeah. And I intend t' get t' the bottom a' it meself!" Without even waiting to hear Gyllen's next counterargument, Min burst through the dining hall's doors and immediately set out towards the second floor where she had previously discovered the nursery. Once she got there, she found the door to the crèche had been relocked, as she expected, far more securely this time too in order to make forced entry an inviable recourse.

Thankfully, Min always came prepared for situations such as these and, though she was loathed to do so against a fellow destitute like Elizabeth, saw no other option available if she wanted to gain the insight she pursued. The goblin reached behind herself to a pocket on the seat of her shorts and produced from it a sheet of sepia cloth that had been folded twice over and bound with string. She unwrapped the textile and unveiled its contents: a series of pencil-thin tines of varying contortions, each one suitable for use by goblin hands and carefully systematised into a pouch of its own.

These were Min's lucky lock-picks which she had kept on her person at virtually all-times since adolescence. They had certainly helped her get out of a jam or ten over the years. The redhead took two such picks from their holsters and set to work prodding about the tumblers inside the door's keyhole. After some minutes, she succeeded in jimmying open the entrance, creaking the door open slowly as she looked over her shoulders to ensure she was not being watched. Min slunk inside the nursery, treading lightly upon the dirty rug as she began to investigate the items about the room for any clues that may have pertained to the Countess' true character, but her survey amongst the building blocks and rag dolls came to absolute zilch. Disappointed but not disheartened, Min left the chamber and utilised her picks a second time to lock the door back up with professional precision, making certain that anybody who checked it would be none the wiser to her self-made ingress.

Min went on to explore all three floors of the complex, lockbumping her way past any door which intuition and chance guided her towards. She found a neglected study here, happened upon a spare guest room there and came across a rustic washroom at one point, though each one failed to produce any evidence, incriminating or otherwise, regarding Mircalla. After the umpteenth empty anteroom explored, the goblin slumped against a cold, stone wall out in the corridor, discouraged as she could feel the fatiguing effects of skipping breakfast beginning to take toll on her diminutive body. She soon picked herself back up with a sigh, taking a passing glance out a nearby window as she did, looking down into the condensed fog, which had only seemed to have intensified during the past hour or so. She caught a quick glance of a brief ebb in the mist, which led to her sighting, just for a second, an undiscovered entryway located by the rotund base of one of the castle's exterior spires.

With newfound determination, the goblinoid scampered downstairs and through the castle's main entrance, half-expecting it to have been locked as well to prevent any attempted escape. As she stood outside in her shorts and cropped top, she was reminded of how unusually bitter cold the outdoor air felt against her exposed skin as it broke out into a series of green goosebumps while she shivered slightly. Still, she did not let that deter her goal in the least, though the fog was making her think twice as she could scarcely see two feet before her. Traipsing with extra care lest she trip over an unseeable snag and find herself tumbling off the side of the cliff, Min hugged and circled around the castle's outer walls, feeling her way around until she had reached what she was sure to be the very same door she had spotted from above. The gnarled wood of it had turned grey with age and its iron rigging had become deep orange and coarse with corrosion. Like the majority of the rest, this door too had been firmly sealed, but it was not something that Min's expertise could not fix in a jiffy.