Ferrik's travels to work were better than they'd been for the past week. Winter was coming, causing the skies to go clouded with cold rain showers.
As a vampire, he didn't feel the cold wetness as he headed down the dirt road of his village full of metal accented stone and wood huts.
When he joined his other male goblin peers on the clan carriage to reach the northern mines, he was fully awake and ready for another grueling day of work.
That was hours ago.
And there was truth missing from his previous personal assessments.
"I wasn't ready! I hate this filthy ass job!" Ferrik snarled into the dark stone rubble he'd been swinging his pickaxe into for the last six hours.
"Stop your whining, Fairy!" A goblin said from the tunnel he'd mined beside him. "You're distracting me from my precious hunt for silver ore! You know? The metal you can't touch! Haha! A goblin who can't touch silver— our source of power. What a joke!"
"It's because I'm meant to be more than just a goblin—"
"Right, right. You're a vampire too?"
"Indeed!" Ferrik slammed his pickaxe into the stone tunnel. Sparks bloomed and metal veins in the split stone reflected the light.
"And I'm a werewolf."
"Then we're enemies, friend….. I mean enemy." Ferrik clutched his axe as if it was a sword nervously.
"I was jesting, you greasy fool!"
"Who jokes like that!?" Ferrik said, now directly facing the stone tunnel wall in an awkward crouch. He was too tall.
"Me!"
Ferrik's pointed ears twitched, "Who are you?"
"Ferrik. I'm your brother." The voice of the goblin was annoyed.
"Which one?"
"Fuck off." The silver veins in the stone glowed then, "Or I'll burn ya."
"WHO IN THE BLOODY HELLS IS SILVERMANCING IN THE MINES!? YOU WANNA KILL US ALL?" One of the older goblin's yelled from behind them, back in the cave.
"Yea, cut it out!" Ferrik said to his brother in the dark.
"Sorry, wouldn't wanna melt ya, sick boy. You damn curse-sponge."
"I'm not sick." Ferrik gripped his pickaxe, hissing as the hole in his boot caused his bare foot to touch silver. It felt like fire.
"You're right. You're just addicted to the mine-dust. You snort it. It's driving you mad— that's why your eyes are purple. Everyone knows it. You're a druggy maniac."
"I'm not a maniac— IM A VAMPIRE!" Ferrik raged and swung his pickaxe.
The weapon broke in half and Ferrik stumbled forward and hit his head.
He hissed in pain. His blood boiled. Literally. It burned like he was laced with fire.
"Oh right. That's like saying you're not a dog, you're just a four-legged fleabag with a thing for branch-rats!"
His words fell on deaf ears as Ferrik hyperventilated in the cave. The heating of his blood reached its boiling point— now joined by a chaotic ringing pulse in his ears.
"I hate this place. I hate the mines. I hate the gob-damned stiffs inside it. You think I asked to be a vampire? You think I wanted that woman to give me this curse? I mean…. yea— but that's not the point! I shouldn't be treated like a slave when I could be the king!"
Ferrik punched the stone rubble in front of him.
As if his skin had become as tough as iron, the stones shattered and turned to dust, clearing the way to a new path in the mined cave.
"The hell was that?!" An elder goblin asked in the distance.
"I think Khobalsh shit his shorts, L." One of the goblins replied to their elder.
A couple goblins laughed. The sound echoed through the cave tunnels, hitting Ferrik's sensitive ears like a demonic enticing chant, calling to his inner greed.
He looked at the new pathway in his mined hall. It was short, straight down, pure darkness fractured by the gleam of a gem on the ground.
Ferrik dropped down with little to no hesitation.
The gem radiated heat. Pulsing, like it was alive. It's color shifted and danced across the known spectrum. Warm colors generated heat. Cold colors left the stone ground icy.
"Weird…. But cool. Mine." Ferrik picked up the stone.
As soon as he touched it, he broke out in goosebumps.
When he was done shaking them out, he looked down at the ground and found another gem in its place.
It was different from the other gem.
Flatter and much much larger. He could fit his entire body in it. Shaped like an almond. Glossy blue with gummy pink edges that reminded him of tear ducts.
The gem was centered by a black sliver.
It blipped out of existence then returned.
No.
It blinked.
Ferrik suddenly came to an all too grave realization.
"I'm not standing on a gem….."
The cave shook as something titanous growled.
"I'm standing on the eye of a dragon...OHHHHHHHHH SHIT !"