TRIAL AND ERROR | short stories + snippets

Gnak had a knack for building boats. Her ships faced the most treacherous of waters, filled with monsters dedicated to pulling them under and weeds that tangled around their hulls. The ships needed to withstand ferocious storms without being cast off course. There were those that didn't survive, but the majority of her fleets always crossed the limestone pillars in one piece.

She ran along the stream, cheering on the boats she had crafted out tree bark seed pods with leaves as sails. Her rainhat nearly fell off her head as she leapt over a fallen tree, the lunchbox and water bottle rattling in her backpack.

Gnak made her bark boats race every time it rained and she knew the stream's path down the mountain to the marsh as well as she knew the spelling of her name. She was able to dodge the boulders and puddles instinctively while her eyes barely left the stream.

That time, however, she ran right into something.

Her speed was so high that she and the thing she had collided with both fell and rolled down the mountainside for several spins before they came to a halt.

A pained groan sounded under her and Gnak clambered off the thing, which turned out not to be a thing but rather a being—an elf, to be exact.

The elf sat up.

They stared at Gnak with black eyes and Gnak stared back with her hazel ones.

Her mother had told her that it was impolite to stare but elves did not often come to the Troll Woods and Gnak couldn't stomp down her curiosity.

Gnak herself was green and had recently lost two of her front teeth, leaving wide gaps in her smile. Her pointed ears grew sideways away from her face, and she had adorably large nose which positively reminder her of a potato (her favourite vegetable). The elf's skin was brown and their long brunette hair somehow settled flawlessly into place like they hadn't just rolled down a muddy mountain. They had round cheeks. The elf was too young to have grown fangs yet.

Pulling her rain hat back in place, Gnak stood up. "I'm so-s-sorry. Are you hurt? I didn't mean to do that. I sh-should've looked. There's usually no one else here."

She held out a hand to help the elf stand and when they did, they towered a whole head above her.

"I'm okay," they said.

They climbed back up to collect the water canister they had been filling from the stream. Screwing the cap shut, they deposited it in their satchel.

Gnak was about to ask what the elf was doing in the Troll Woods when movement caught her attention. One of her bark boats that had been caught behind a rock almost immediately had been pushed loose and was now rushing down the stream.

"Come!" she shouted at the elf when she had already resumed her run down the mountain. "Come look!"

She made it to the mouth of the stream where the current was lost into the marsh just in time to cheer for the boat as it crossed the stacks of limestone she had erected to mark the goal years ago.

"It made it!"

She glanced back at the elf who was uncertainly descending the hill, slipping in the wet moss and mud in their sandals. Gnak didn't bother with shoes for that very reason. Hiking up her trousers, Gnak stepped into the marsh.

As a goblin, Gnak's body was able to adjust to many temperatures without discomfort. Still, her mother always made her wear a jumper when she went outside.

Wading through the water, she began to collect her fleet and glanced at the elf again. They stood on the marsh bank, face pinched with uncertainty.

"I'm Gnak. What's your name?"