The little boy was curled up under his covers in fear. He could hear his father’s shouting and cursing as he beat his mother. Tears began to flow down his cheeks. He wished it would stop, wished it would end, but he was too weak to protect his mother.

Suddenly, he felt a slight tug on his left sock. He wriggled around and turned on the light to find a very confused green creature holding hood sock between its thumb and forefinger. With eyes shining with tears, the boy whispered, “Friend?” The little green creature dropped the sock and dove back under the bed. “Wait!” the boy whispered fiercely as he followed the creature under the bed.

The wood flooring vanished and was replaced with fresh dirt. Like a tunnel, the walls closed him in on either side. The little boy crawled and crawled for a long time before he finally saw light coming from up ahead.

When he emerged from the tunnel, he noticed that his green friend was standing over to the right, talking rapidly in another language to another green creature just like him. _Goblins. _His mind whispered the word as he stood in awe. He had heard of goblins before, but he thought they were only made up. With a smile, he ran forward and threw his arms around the goblin who had visited him crying, “Friend!”

The goblins both froze before looking at each other and nodding. They each took one of the little boy’s hands and guided him to bed.

~

The little boy was allowed to stay in the goblin world, especially since he had seen them. They couldn’t let the other humans know of their existence. The little boy responded positively to the love and attention his adoptive goblin parents gave him. They taught him how to speak their language and about how to grow food underground. Though he longed to go on expeditions as his father did, his parents forbade him, saying that it was for his own good. Over time, the boy grew into a man, completely forgetting the life in the human world that he had left behind.