The Last Goblin Today

But if you listen very closely—past the hum of your own blood and the whisper of the leaves—you will hear him humming a tune without any words.

Snikk sat there until the moon began to set. Then he did a thing no goblin had ever done. He picked up the broken bell, and with a gentleness that surprised even himself, he placed it on the step of the smithy. He did not take anything. He did not tie a knot. He did not curse. the last goblin

Not the sharp loneliness of a thief caught in a trap, but the deep, hollow loneliness of a song with no one left to hear it. But if you listen very closely—past the hum

Snikk picked it up. It did not ring. It was broken. He picked up the broken bell, and with