Donn walked out the castle gates and was at once besieged by a horde of young goblins.

"Donn, Donn!" They cried excitedly, holding various toys up for him to see. By his request and their ready acquiescence, they never called him by his title, Crown Prince. "Donn, are you coming to play with us? Look at my new doll, Donn! Let's play ball, Donn! Donn, Donn!"

He laughed and held up his hands in an effort to quiet the children down. "All right, all right, sorry I'm late. One at a time, now... Oh, what's this, Noddy?" He crouched down in front of a young goblin girl who was holding up a doll that, by human standards, might be considered atrociously ugly. For Donn and the goblins, however, it held a charm all its own and showed many signs of being loved by the girl who owned it. "A new doll, is it? Did your mother make that for you?"

The girl nodded eagerly. "Yeah, yeah! It was my birthday yesterday, you know." She laughed as Donn stood and hoisted her up to sit on his shoulders. As he began to walk through the City, she continued on happily, "I've named her Nora! Noddy and Nora. What do you think? I've heard it's a human name!"

The other goblin children oohed and aahed. "A human name! That's daring of you, Noddy. What does your mother think?"

Noddy grinned down at her friends smugly. "Mama doesn't care. She says I'll do better in the world if I grow up to be a free-thinking goblin."

With the goblin children following him and Noddy on his shoulders, Donn made his way to the playing field on the west side of the city. Setting Noddy down to stand on the ground, he clapped his hands together several times. "All right, who's up for a game of baseball?"

At once the children broke out into a fresh wave of talking. "Baseball? What's that? It sounds weird! It sounds fun! I want to try it! If Donn wants to play, let's play!"

"The King brought this game back from one of his trips to Aboveground." The children oohed. "He taught me, and now I am going to teach you." The children cheered.

"First of all, the basic premise--"

"Huh?"

Donn smiled and sighed. He kept forgetting that he had to use smaller words for the children. "The main point of the game. There are two teams..."