The kingdom of Argante was damp with the remnants of a heavy rain, likely the last one of the season. Irenie and Curdie were headed up the cliffs of the mountain beyond where her castle sat. Their path was a steeply sloping wall of rock that was very treachorous to climb even with an attendant.

Both the princess and the knight were seventeen and hardly could have been expected to climb a mountain on their own, but it would not be the first time they had made this trip. Curdie still wanted to bring a whole brigade to escort them, but besides no horse being able to carry a knight this high, Irenie had insisted on going alone.

The real reason she refused to take anyone was that no one besides Curdie wished to help. The princess was sternly warned by everyone who ever held authority over her -mostly her maids, her father, and the incompetent guards who watched her about the castle- that she should not try to make contact with the revolting, contemptuous goblins.

It was only by the skin of his teeth that Curdie had managed to wiggle his way out of guard duty that day and journey with the princess. Although he wasn't any more in favour of the idea than the next man.

"I don't like that we're going to them," he said for what felt like the hundredth time to Irenie. He huffed, arms crossed over his chest as he stomped out of the very last bit of forest.

From then on out it would be slanted rock faces and long winding tunnels.

"Seems like the perfectly reasonable thing would be for them to meet us. What with all the evil scheming, no good–"

"Curdie." Irenie stopped her march and glared at him when her dress got caught on the branch of a passing tree. She spent several seconds tugging it off the prickly thing before getting free.

"There better not be any of that talk when we meet with the ambassador."

Finally fed up with the whole thing, Curdie threw his arms up into the air and in exasperation, crying out: "Goblin, Irenie, call it a goblin. It's not like we're meeting with a duke or king. They live off our land, your land, they're rotten thieves and they make the miners' jobs just that much harder."

The young man crossed his arms tightly over his chest and looked away from the princess as she came to stand beside him.

"Curdie. We both know they're incredibly strong, but I can't think of one person who suffered an injury from their attack on the castle."

Curdie's face bunched up and went a brighter shade of pink. "Let me remind you that their Queen locked me up and her son threatened to do 'nasty' things to me."

He went green for a moment and wavered. To this day he still didn't know what torture had been planned for him, nor did he want to find out.

Irenie kept her tone level and nodded in recognition. "You did break into the royal bed chamber, Curdie. If you'd have done that to father, we'd have had you locked up too." She smiled at him cleverly.

"And aren't we the ones digging into their homes?" Irenie pressed again just as she had Curdie on the ropes. "I bet you'd be quite unhappy if a goblin ever made a pit in your room," the princess said a-matter-of-factly.

"Well that doesn't excuse them of being nuisances," he grumbled and offered to act as a footing for the princess' slipper.

She had wished to make a good impression on the goblins, but the dress Irenie wore was certainly weighing her down.

"And you should be more skeptical of them than anyone, I was locked up, you would have been forced into marriage with one of them."

Irenie held her tongue, and instead breathed out a light fluttery laugh, waving her hand at her friend. "That was nine years ago, Curdie, longer than half my life." The princess watched as he scrambled up the same rock face he had helped her up, his face going red from the effort.

"And I think I can take care of myself now, don't you?" She asked and waited until that moment.

Curdie shot up like a cork from a bottle and landed foot first beside Irenie. The yelp he had released was cut short and he stared at the princess who had a smug grin on her face.

Immediately, Curdie's mouth twisted up into a scowl and he glared at his friend. "I really wish you wouldn't use your magic on me... but I'm glad at the very least if we come across any goblins who mean us harm," –of which Irenie was sure Curdie meant every goblin they came across– "you can shoot them off the mountain."

Irenie's grin turned sour and she dusted herself off before continuing up the rock path.

"I will not be 'shooting' a goblin off the mountain," she said unhappily and stopped at the mouth of an enormous cave, her eyes squinting into the darkness. "Besides, we'll be going inside the mountain, I doubt I'll be able to do much in there."

Irenie picked a map out from the bodice of her dress and stared at it, running a hand over her brow to shield it from the glare of the bright sun.

She heard a very loud groan rumble from his chest and moan from between his lips. "We aren't going inside the mountain, Irenie? Please tell me you didn't agree to that, it's like a maze in there."

Irenie flicked her gaze from the paper in her hands to the dark tunnel before them. The darkness itself seemed like a void, perfectly shielded from the sun.

She sighed despondently and shrugged her lace covered shoulders as if to be rid of any misgivings rising up in her mind. At least they would be sheltered in there, Irenie couldn't take much more of sweating it out in the sunlight.

The goblin ambassador she had been corresponding with had sent her a drawn map to guide her to the meeting place and it was she who had asked that they meet mid day. As a sort of compromise.

Curdie leaned over her shoulder, putting just enough weight on her side that she noticed his presence. His nostril curled and the miner knight sniffed at the paper in her hands distastefully.

"Looks like it was drawn by a child. Is this all we have to follow?"

Instead of speaking, she braved the darkness and took her first step into the cave, convinced that this was the entrance on the map. Curdie stumbled after her, flanking tightly on her right.

"Can't see a darn thing," Irenie grumbled and flicked her eyes to the paper in her hands which was becoming increasingly illegible.

"Might we use a bit of Grandmother's magic?" Curdie asked in a genial way so she might not hear how nervous he was.

It sounded like a brighter idea than stumbling around in the darkness. The princess snapped her thumb and forefinger together and a small flame no bigger than what could fit on a candle appeared inside her palm.

"Better," she said with a laugh, but was careful to keep the map in her hands safe from the flame.

The flame flickered and she turned her eyes onto it, giving it all her concentration as she shoved the map into Curdie's hands.

"Hold that, I don't think I can do both until I get it burning for a while," Irenie said as her friend took the map unhappily.

They walked for a few moments in silence, Irenie's eyes on the dark tunnel opening up before them.

"And this ambassador, can they even read? Do they even know what this is for?" Curdie asked snidely.

"Stop it Curdie," Irenie answered sharply.

The sound bounced off the walls and the princess winced.

"If you don't want to be down here, then you may wait outside the tunnel, I'll be alright on my own."

Irenie didn't have to see the sneer on his face to know Curdie had one.

"And give the slippery creatures the chance to swarm you? Not a chance." Her friend's indignant bark echoed in the caves, a few pebbles coming loose from the walls and rolling down the sides.

One skittered past her toe. At least she hoped it was a pebble. She didn't want to accidentally step on anything sentient.

Irenie nodded her head firmly. She knew he had saved her on more than one occasion, but he couldn't be allowed to ruin this first meeting.

"If you can't trust them, then trust me," Irenie whispered so that the sound didn't carry very far and that Curdie heard it clearly.

There was one thing Curdie had refused to ever do again and that was doubt her. Ever since the day she had proved her magical grandmother really did exist, Curdie had sworn to believe her, whatever she told him.

And she never lied to her friend.

"Alright," Curdie whispered after a long pause. "I'll be respectful, but I swear– if they hurt you I'll break every treaty in their bodies."

Irenie's skin had cooled, and now it was frightfully damp in the cold heart of the mountain.

"Thank you," she whispered back and smiled.

It would be a task indeed to find a friend as loyal as Curdie.