"Doooonnn!" Noddy wailed, clinging to his pant leg. "Doonnnnn!!" She wailed again, shaking his leg so that he swayed slightly. "Donn, I don't want to be looked after by that human! She scares me!"

"What do you want me to do about it, Noddy?" Donn asked with a mixture of weariness and resignedness in his voice.

"You're the prince, so you can do something about it, can't you?!" Noddy gave in to a fit of childish distress and began to sob. "C-can't you get y-your papa to change his m-mind?!"

Donn knelt and looked the goblin child straight in the eyes; he was not smiling, although she was not the reason for this. "Noddy, if I could, don't you think I would? But you know as well as I that the Goblin King's final word is exactly that: final. I'm sorry, but I think we're just going to have to make the best of it. And besides," he added, a hint of his old grin quirking the side of his mouth, "It won't be so bad, will it? You still have me."

Still hiccuping slightly, Noddy nodded in agreement.

"Good girl." Donn ruffled her straw-like (in both color and texture) hair affectionately before rising to stand once more, gazing at the human girl as she cursed and paced. His face now gave nothing away about what he was thinking.

"Are you quite finished?" He asked in a monotone voice. "If you are, I think I know where we're going to be staying. If not, then tough luck. I'm going there right now to alert the Missus, and you can either follow me or stay here and curse until nightfall. Either way, it's up to you."

Shrugging, Donn turned on his heel and made to walk away down a narrow side-street, a goblin child holding on to each of his hands and the rest following behind.