If there was one thing she knew by now, it was that goblins and people had very different standards for beauty. The princess was stuck marvelling that one of the most beautiful things that had ever been said of her... had come from the goblin prince.

Froglip leaned back, rolled up his shoulders and held his hands out like two scales as if he was measuring how he should proceed. "Well, I don't per'thonally di'thlike thun-people. You have a thort of charm..."

The princess looked up into his round golden eyes that had an eerie way of cutting through the dark. In that moment she thought he was able to see her a lot better than she could him, which was probably true.

"Thoft-heads and thoft-hearts, that thort of thing," the goblin said at last, almost embarrassed of himself.

"I suppose so," Irenie replied with a smile as she rose first. "I'll escort you back now."

Froglip returned to his feet and was about to hand the other half of Irenie's gift back to her, but she held up her hands in protest.

"Keep that half," she said, smiling as they ascended the stairs. "I think it reminds me of you too."

When they reached the top of the stairwell, Froglip looked down at Irenie sceptically.

"I broke that thing in my fi'tht! I am much th'tronger than it." The goblin laughed and shook his head, clearly missing the point that Irenie meant to deliver.

Still, it was a nice gift.

Irenie laughed, eyes closed as they walked back down the hall to his room. When they arrived the goblin opened the door carefully so as not to rip it away like the other and he entered, turning to the princess who remained outside.

"Goodnight, printh'eth," Froglip bid her in the customary way sun-people seemed to do.

"Irenie," she corrected as he hesitated. "Please, call me Irenie. I can't bear titles and all that."

He nodded, a peculiar look on his long features as he replied, "Then you can call me Froglip."

He didn't very much like the sound of it without his title, but for Princess Irenie, he would make the exception.

"Goodnight Froglip," she said, awkwardly shuffling on her feet when it felt like she had spent far too much time standing outside the goblin prince's door.

Irenie waved and left in a flurry of pink skirts as she raced back down the hall and when he lost sight of her, Froglip closed the door.

He laid himself out on the ground, eyes still wide and on the ceiling, a grin on his mouth. Surely this night with the princess meant something important! He was now excited for what the morning brought.

"Oh dear, this will absolutely never do." A strange feminine voice whispered and Froglip snapped up from the ground.

"Oh my, oh my and look at those ghastly yellow eyes."

"Ex'thuse me," Froglip said, affronted. He swung his one-toed goblin feet under him, not the slightest bit daunted by the intruder in his room.

"Ah and that horrendous skin colour will never do for my granddaughter."

The voice then tsk'd at Froglip as he rose back to his feet, studying the walls with his sharp gaze. He spotted the strange figure who had somehow walked into the room without his noticing. He hadn't heard their footsteps, and by the looks of their feet they weren't even touching the grounds.

That couldn't be good, Froglip's thoughts pondered.

It looked like a sun-woman. She had long, glowing, silvery hair and it swam around her as she floated towards the goblin prince. She almost looked similar to the princess, but all sun-people had a tendency to look the same where goblins were concerned.

"What are you doing tre'thpa'thing in my room?" Froglip said, making himself look bigger by sticking out his chest and flexing his arms at either side of him.

The woman's eyes narrowed in on Froglip and she tsk'd again, not the least bit afraid. "Oh that nose will most definitely not do. What an ugly face. How ever did you manage that, Prince Froglip?"

He straightened up, sharp chin sticking out at the woman's eyes that were picking him apart in such a particular way that Froglip felt very un-princely.

"It ith a birth right," he said stiffly.

"Well, it must go." She shook her head disapprovingly. "You're much too tall, those ears are horrific, you must be a lighter colour and less green... And that lisp is atrocious, it's better left out with your ridiculous hair."

Froglip snapped away when the floating, silver-haired woman plucked a magenta strand from his head.

"Looks like I'll be starting from scratch. Do you prefer where I start?"

Froglip whipped around as the woman appeared on the other side of the room, his bright golden eyes burning through the darkness in anger.

"I am not the thoft thun-worms you're uthed to dealing with. I am Froglip, Printhe of Goblins."

The woman laughed lightly in an eyrie way that sort of frightened him.

"Not any more, you're not."