The first time Jak stepped on to the island he thought they’d gone to the wrong one. Unlike some of the islands they’d passed, there were no beaches or sloping shorelines, and the footing was treacherous, especially for a six-year-old boy, even one who was half goblin. It wasn’t until his uncle, Targin, had helped him climb the jumbled rocks that Jak knew it was the island that his nasty cousin, Nihlo, had talked about every time he came home for a visit. There were the squat, stone buildings where the elders who taught the children lived. There were the trees so bent and twisted that their branches looked like writhing tentacles frozen as they reached for young goblins. There were the stone ridges that formed the maze where goblin children practised lurking, hiding and ambushing. And there were the jagged outcroppings that Nihlo swore were actually monsters that came alive at night.
When his uncle tried to leave Jak in front of one of the ugly buildings that made up the main part of the school, the little boy clung to him so tightly that the cat goblin had to pry his nephew’s fingers from his hand. Then Targin turned to make his way back down to the water’s edge and the boat that awaited him, leaving Jak clutching his sack of belongings and blinking away the tears that only a goblin with some human ancestry could shed.
Jak knew that he wouldn’t be going home for a very long time. The island was far enough from any goblin holdings that unexpected explosions or spontaneous screaming wouldn’t disturb anyone’s sleep and isolated enough that water-fearing monsters like the snake women couldn’t eat the children. Drowned Goblin Lake was as big as a small sea, and Jak was staying on the only inhabited island.
Over the years since that day, Jak had explored the island whenever he had the chance, sometimes with friends, but often by himself. On the days that a strong wind scoured the surface, he explored the underground caves that riddled the island’s core. After a few windy months he could find his way around the system of caves with his eyes shut, although even a halfling of the cat goblin clan needed only a small amount of light to see. Having decided that he wanted to map the ravines and caves, he became interested in maps in general. Learning how to read had been the next natural step, even though the other goblins made fun of him for learning something they considered useless.
When the weather was good, most classes, like Raising Battering Rams for Fun and Profit; Throwing Your Voice to Intimidate Your Enemy from a Distance; and We Aim to Puncture – Spear Throwing, beginners through advanced, were taught out in the open. Even the more academic subjects such as Jak’s newest class, Transmogrification, were taught in the shadow of the outcroppings.
On the first day of Transmogrification lessons, Jak hurried to the clearing where the students were to meet with the elder. Most of the other goblins were already seated in front of the tree stump where the elder would stand, and Jak was glad to see that his friends were there as well.
Bella, a member of the bear clan, was a halfling like Jak, and they had become friends their first day on the island. Tobi, a goblin of the raccoon clan, had befriended them during a game of capture the skull when they included him and no one else would. Small and nervous, he preferred the company of the halflings over that of the more violent goblin children.
Both Bella and Tobi looked up as Jak picked his way between the other seated goblins. “How was your holiday?” Bella asked, patting the rock beside her with a blunt-fingered hand.
“Not too bad,” said Jak. He was taller than both of them, and although he had the slender build common to members of the cat goblin clan, he was already more muscular than his full-blooded relatives. “I cleaned the bone chute. Nihlo leaves me alone when I’m working so he doesn’t have to help me.”
Unlike Bella, whose cousins Bruno and Barth were intent on protecting her from the goblins who hated half humans, Jak had learned at an early age that the best way to get along with his goblin cousin was to avoid him.
“I can’t believe yer family made ya clean that chute,” said Tobi, crinkling his little masked nose in disgust. “They shoulda paid a scavenger goblin like most families.”
Jak shrugged. “I don’t mind. It keeps . . .”
“Shh,” said Bella. “Here’s Elder Squinch. Don’t make him angry. I heard he pecks you if you do.”
Jak turned around when he heard a soft chirruping. He could see black feathers bobbing down the path that divided the clearing; the taller students hid the rest. Whatever the elder looked like, he had to be awfully short.
There was a thunk as if someone had dropped something heavy, the scrape of claws on stone, and Elder Squinch hopped on to the rock behind the tree stump. He was a member of the bird clan, which meant he had a face like a man, but a large yellow beak instead of a nose or mouth. “Good morning, goblins!” he crowed, then cocked his head to the side as if waiting for a response.
“Good morning, Elder Squinch!” replied a few tentative voices.
“What’s that?” squawked the goblin. “I couldn’t hear you!”
“Good morning, Elder Squinch!” called a few more voices.
“Much better!” he replied. “Welcome to the first day of Transmogrification, the class that will change your life! Now, who can tell me what transmogrification is?”
A weasel goblin raised his hand. “It’s changing one thing into another.”
“Close enough . . . What’s your name, boy?”
“Sneal,” the goblin told him.
Elder Squinch abruptly turned to two goblin girls sitting in the front row. Both members of the rabbit clan, they had long ears that peeked out of their hair and wiggled as they whispered to each other. The girls didn’t notice when the goblin hopped on to the stump and leaned down to peck them sharply on the tops of their heads.
“Ow!” the girls exclaimed.
“Listen, you two,” said the old goblin, “or you won’t know what’s going on.” His movements were quick and jerky when he hopped back on to his rock. “You there! Boy from the dog clan! We do not sniff our fellow students in class! And no lifting of legs either. That would get you an automatic detention in the Pit. Now where was I? Ah, yes . . . By the time this term is over, I expect most of you to be adept at the art of transmogrification. However, today will be a different story. Now, to begin . . .”
Jak craned his neck to see over the students in front of him while the old goblin disappeared behind the stump. When he came back up, he was holding a lump of something dull and grey. “First, you must be in contact with the object at all times. If you break contact, you’ll have to start all over again. Now, while touching the object, think about what you want it to become. Picture the new object . . . Believe in it . . . You’ll feel pressure building up in your mind. That’s the original shape asserting itself. When it reaches its peak – and you’ll recognise this because it makes the back of your head tingle – you want to push back – hard! Gather around for the demonstration, class.”
“What do ya think he’s gonna make?” Tobi asked, quivering with excitement as they squeezed between other students to a place where they could see.
“As long as it isn’t birdseed!” sniggered Plite, a porcupine goblin. Jak, Tobi and Bella found room to stand far from his quills on his other side.
“This,” said Elder Squinch, patting the grey lump, “is lead. I want to turn it into gold, so I close my eyes to cut down on outside distractions, and think about the gold I want it to become. That’s it, nice and shiny. Lovely colour. It’s in my mind . . . I’m feeling the pressure . . . and now!”
“Ahh!” breathed all the students at the shiny lump of gold he held in his claws.
Elder Squinch looked pleased with their reaction. “Yes, indeed. Works every time once you know what you’re doing. Sneal, come up here beside me.” Sneal scurried up to the old goblin, his eyes bright with interest. “Here’s another piece of lead. Set your hand on it, yes, that’s it. Now close your eyes and do what I told you. Imagine the gold . . . Can you feel it resisting? Wait for the tingle . . . Now push as hard as you can!”
With a mighty shove, Sneal pushed the lump of lead so that it shot off the stump, ruffled the fur on the top of a dog goblin’s head, flew between Plite and Bella and smacked into the boulder behind them.
“No, you idiot!” squawked Elder Squinch. “With your mind, not your hand! You didn’t listen! Now, who else wants to try? You, raccoon clan, let’s see what you can do.”
Tobi gave Jak a worried glance as he went to take Sneal’s place. His wrinkled forehead betrayed his intense concentration as he followed the elder’s directions. When the lead actually did turn into a pallid lump of some unidentifiable kind of metal that was definitely not lead, he beamed as if he’d performed the most wonderful feat in the world.
“Not bad, but you need to focus more on what you want. You, porcupine clan, it’s your turn . . .”
As Tobi returned to where he’d been standing between Jak and Bella, his excitement was obvious. “Did ya see what I just did?” he whispered. “’Tweren’t perfect, but I ne’er thought I could do that much!”
“Good job, Tobi!” said Bella. “I hope I can do as well.”
The old goblin chirped and said, “That’s better, Plite. You’re getting closer. Any questions before the next goblin tries?”
“What if I want to turn the gold back into lead?” asked one of the rabbit goblins.
“That’s a very good question. Sometimes lead is exactly what you need. If you ever want to turn anything back, just do the same thing in reverse.”
“Can you turn it into anything else?” asked Plite.
“As long as you are working with natural objects you can turn anything into just about anything, as long as it is also natural. For instance, you can turn flax into gold, or a carrot into a turnip or –”
“Can I turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse?” Sneal asked. “My mother asked me to try,” he said when his friends laughed.
“No, you can’t. A silk purse is a manufactured object, like my sack here.” Elder Squinch held up a woven grass bag. He set it on the stump with a thunk and a lump of lead rolled out. “You see the cut ends? This grass didn’t grow into the shape of a bag; someone manufactured it. The process of manufacturing takes it out of the magical loop. Goblins can change a natural object into a natural object, but not a manufactured one. You, boy with the floppy ears, it’s your turn.”
While the other goblins tried to change the lump of lead, Bella and Jak waited patiently. No matter what class they were in, they were always called on last. When it was Bella’s turn, she told Jak and Tobi, “Watch this!” and hurried to the stump. She was still standing there a few minutes later, having tried repeatedly while students sniggered at each failed attempt.
Bella looked so dejected when she came back to join him that Jak patted her on the back. “Don’t worry,” he said. “You’ll get it tomorrow.”
When Jak reached the stump, he took his time, touching the metal to get the feel of it, and comparing it to the lump of gold that sat in front of the elder. When he was sure he had an image of the gold firmly in his mind, he closed his eyes, did exactly what the elder had told them to, and . . . nothing happened. Jak tried again. He could feel the tingling, just like the elder had said, although it wasn’t in the back of his mind, it was everywhere inside his head. When he felt it, he pushed as hard as he could. Again, nothing happened.
“Very good, halfling. That will do for today,” said the elder.
“But I didn’t do anything!” Jak said.
“Which is precisely what I wanted the others to see! I said this was easy for goblins, but there are many things that halflings are incapable of doing. Now, goblins, you’re to take one of these pieces of lead and practise with it this evening. I want you to be able to turn your lead into gold and back again by tomorrow.”
When Jak and Bella finally reached the stump to get their lead, the elder looked at them in surprise. “I don’t know why you’re here. You’ll never be able to do it. As far as I’m concerned, they shouldn’t even allow your kind on the island.” Turning so abruptly that his head feathers snapped back and forth, Elder Squinch stalked from the clearing.
Bella turned to her friends with her mouth hanging open. “I can’t believe he just said that! I know a lot of goblins feel that way, but for an elder to say it . . .”
“At least he’s honest,” said Jak, shrugging. “We can’t let it bother us, Bella. We’ve both heard worse and lived through it.” Even after spending years on the island, they still heard comments about how only insane goblins would breed with humans.
“Even so,” Bella said through gritted teeth. “It wasn’t right!”
“And one day we’ll be able to do something about it, only that day isn’t now. Listen, why don’t you and Tobi go on,” Jak suggested. “There’s something I want to do while there are no other goblins around.”
When he was finally alone, Jak studied the lump of lead, thinking about what the elder had said. He moved over to the stump and held the lead just as he had before. Once again he felt the tingling in his mind, but once again nothing happened. He was setting the lump down when his hand brushed the woven grass bag. On a whim, he picked it up, remembering what Elder Squinch had said about a silk purse. This time the tingling came unbidden. Not believing that anything would happen, Jak pushed, and when he opened his eyes, a ladies’ evening bag lay draped across his fingers.
Jak laughed in disbelief. Using both hands, he felt the bag to make sure it was real, holding it up to the light and turning it inside out. It was perfect in every detail, just as if it had been made by a skilled craftsman, and was even better than he had pictured.
Closing his eyes again, Jak thought about the grass bag. A push, then there it was in his hands, just as if it had never been changed.
Jak was excited when he left the clearing. Who cared if he couldn’t do everything a full goblin could do? He could do something that was impossible for them, something they’d never believe.