Irenie took Froglip and the other volunteers to the mountain village where they would be helping the miners. It wasn't something he enjoyed but the way the princess had been smiling as she talked excitedly, Froglip could only watch in enjoyment.

A pointy elbow jabbed into his side broke the spell. "Are we sposed' to knock em over, my prince, or build em up?" One of Froglip's goblins asked.

"Build," he growled under his breath while Irenie continued to chatter her plans to the group in excitement, a smile as plain as the sunlight on her face. It didn't take a goblin of vast intellect to see that the princess felt strongly towards this plan. Froglip didn't want any of his minions messing things up for him if he was to demonstrate to the Princess Irenie that he was capable of 'kindness'.

Often times, sun people thought the goblins were unkind because of small things, but physical displays of strength and name calling were goblin tradition. Still, in order to give the right impression, Froglip had to keep his goblins under his thumb.

It had been a long walk to one of the sun-villages on the east side of the mountain where Irenie had intended for the goblins to learn something about commerce as well as community service. His ears sagged as Irenie and the sun people continued to talk about things he did not understand, avoiding the nasty glares from the miners and the sun. At least the trees were thick on this side of the mountain so he wouldn't literally die by the light. Too much of any sunlight and a mountain goblin would fade away in hours.

"Now, does that sound doable?" Irenie asked in a cheery voice as the sun flared unpleasantly over head as the goblins shifted uncomfortably.

When they looked at the Prince for confirmation -because they certainly hadn't been listening to the princess' speech either- Froglip nodded graciously.

"As the thun printh'eth commandth," the prince said, pushing his men off to the side where they looked at each other blankly.

"Alright-" Froglip loomed over his stout goblin men with wide glaring eyes almost as brilliant as the sun currently baking them alive. "I want no name-calling, no fighting, no animal-th'tealing, no cha'thing miners for thport, or elthe I'll be th'tamping your feet tho hard-"

"The princess already told us we 'ought to be on our best behaviour, Prince Froglip," one goblin piped up after raising his hand as all the other goblins nodded in unison.

"We don' want princess Oi-renie to think badly of us." Again they all nodded with grins and the Prince was left to stand there while the other goblins quickly scattered and set off to work.

The miners and their families weren't particularly thrilled to be working with the creatures that caused them so much trouble. However, when they grudgingly allowed the goblins in to work, they were met by a strangely compliant group that was great with heavy tools. It took a couple of small mess-ups and they began to get along.

Meanwhile, Princess Irenie had been watching the goblins off-and-on as she helped Curdie sand down the floor boards for the houses. The rocky terrain was difficult for most people to work on but the miners had always managed and the goblins were experts.

"I'm actually growing to like their antics," Irenie whispered to Curdie as she pushed the sanding paper over the rougher edges of the board.

Curdie kept his eyes on the board he was holding and refrained from rolling his eyes too hard. "Well at least they're building the houses instead of knocking 'em down."

His glaring eyes narrowed in on the prince of the goblins who was wandering out without really knowing what to do. "If only their leader were half as useful."

Irenie followed his gaze and spotted Froglip just as the prince had grabbed a tree and began tugging on it without digging up the roots first.

"I know it must sound strange," Irenie said gently as she watched the prince, "but he's not as terrible as I remember."

Just then, the Prince ripped the tree out of the ground and swung it onto his shoulders, looking for a place to drop it. Froglip quickly spotted the Irenie and Curdie and swaggered towards them as if he had nothing but a sack of potatoes on his back.

"I have brought you more tree," the prince said with a jagged-toothed smile, presenting it without much thought as to what he was supposed to do with it.

He took two long strides towards them, nearly swinging the trunk of the tree into Curdie's body.

"Drop it there, Froglip," the young man said pointedly, although he did manage to call the prince by his name this time.

The goblin, however, was still not amused and tossed the up-rooted tree to the ground and it landed with a ground shaking thud.

"Thun boy-" the prince hissed back before rolling his shoulders and attempting to be useful with the other goblins.

"Still not so terrible?" Curdie asked Irenie without really meaning to.

The princess continued to sit there, still working, but with a pensive look on her face.