Taste of Tooth Goblins

By Ash Toroid

A sample (first 30%) of the fantasy adventure novel, 'Tooth Goblins'.

When Ellie's older brother is turning thirteen, she want's to see the 'transformation' into a teenager for herself. Ellie hides in a cupboard and waits. She is shocked to witness her brother kidnapped by goblins and replaced with a clone. A passing Tooth-Fairy is drawn by the use of magic and gets caught up in the commotion, to discover that Ellie is descended from the legendary Merlin. Together they embark upon an adventure for Ellie to rescue her brother and, in doing so, help the fairies in their fateful struggle against the Tooth-Goblins.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ash Toroid
• Release date: Jan 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781310136320

Book preview

Taste of

Tooth Goblins

(Free Sample)

by

Ash Toroid

Chapter One

Ellie was beginning to ache. She kept thinking she should go back to her bed and get some sleep, but something kept her waiting and watching. She was hidden in her older brother’s wardrobe, watching him sleep. It was Duncan’s thirteenth birthday tomorrow and her parents had told her that he would become a teenager tonight, transforming into a moody, lazy and increasingly smelly young man. Duncan could be a bit annoying at times, but he was generally a happy, sporty and helpful brother. Ellie couldn’t believe that he could transform into something horrible overnight and she wanted to witness it herself. So after everyone else had gone to bed, she had sneaked into Duncan’s bedroom and hidden in the wardrobe, keeping it open just a crack so that she could peek out.

Standing in the wardrobe, for what felt like hours, was very boring and Ellie was beginning to doubt that she would see anything. Maybe her parents were wrong. Maybe there was no transformation. Or maybe it just couldn’t be seen. Whatever the case, Ellie’s legs were tired and her eyes were getting heavy and she decided that the best place for her was her own bed. She lifted her hand to carefully begin pushing the wardrobe open, but before it even began to move, the bedroom took on a strange green glow. Ellie’s hand flinched back in surprise, maybe even fear. What could cause that? She wondered, trying to give a rational explanation for it before her imagination went wild. Could it be a faulty streetlight? A passing ambulance? A defective toy?

Ellie’s imagination didn’t have time to come up with stranger possibilities as her own eyes began to do it for her. She thought she could see small men, no taller than her knee, scampering across the room. She gave her tired eyes a quick rub and waited for them to refocus. There was definitely an eerie green glow in the room, and there were indeed two tiny men clambering up onto Duncan’s bed. Ellie didn’t know what to do. She thought maybe she should scream, to wake Duncan up. But then one of the small men stood up on the bed and threw some dust into Duncan’s face. The dust began to glow that same unnatural shade of green that seemed to infuse the room as it settled on her brother’s skin. Ellie suddenly felt sure that something terrible was happening, and she didn’t want it to happen to her so she stifled the scream that was brewing in her stomach.

The green glow in the room flashed brighter and Ellie strained to see the other end of the room. She heard a heavier footstep and prayed that it was her father, coming to help. But what she saw was even more confusing. It was a young man stepping into the room, through what could only be described as a green glowing magic portal – it made her eyes hurt and was almost impossible to focus on, as if it wasn’t quite there. The young man that has stepped out of it was hauntingly familiar. It was Duncan. Ellie couldn’t comprehend what was going on. There was two of Duncan in the room, as well as the two small men who Ellie couldn’t really see in the dull glow of the otherwise dark room. New-Duncan lurched across the room in a sluggish, manner. Then he pulled Sleeping-Duncan’s bed sheet off roughly, making the two small men dance out of the way to avoid being flung off of the bed. Ellie was sure her brother would wake at that, as it made one of his arms flop into his own face, but her sleeping brother didn’t stir. Then one of the two freakishly small figures spoke, Well, don’t just stand there, help us get him back through to the Ivory Realm. It’s the last thing you’ll have to do for us, then you can have an easy life here, in his place. He spoke in a squeaky yet slightly croaky way. It was a voice that Ellie was sure could not be trusted.

With that, New-Duncan grabbed the arms of the sleeping version of himself, and with a little help from the suspicious figures giving the instructions, they took her sleeping brother, half-dragging him across the room and pushed him through the glow of the portal. The croaky, horrible voice spoke once more to New-Duncan, Enjoy your new life. Then both of them leapt through the portal and it winked out of existence. Ellie was in the dark again, with her new older brother. But he was unaware of her. He seemed unaware of much at all. He simply lurched over to the bed, lay down and pulled the bed sheet over himself. He seemed to be snoring almost instantly.

Ellie didn’t move for a long time. She wasn’t even aware how long it had been since she had last remembered to take a breath. She drew one in slowly, carefully, fearful of waking New-Duncan, whom she felt sure she couldn’t trust. Was this the transformation that her parents had told her about? She couldn’t believe her parents had known this would happen – it was horrible.

Ellie suddenly felt trapped in the wardrobe and desperately wanted to get out as it began to feel like it was closing in on her. But she was also scared of waking New-Duncan, that he might throw her through the portal with the horrible little men. Ellie began feeling around in the wardrobe, hoping to find something to protect herself. She thought maybe one of Duncan’s swords might be in there – toy swords, admittedly, but better than nothing – but the best she found was a small stick, a toy wand that Duncan hadn’t played with in years. Ellie decided that it would have to do. She clutched the stick and pushed the wardrobe door open. It creaked painfully loudly and Ellie’s eyes darted to New-Duncan, but he didn’t stir, the rhythm of his snoring not faltering. The brother she knew had never snored.

With the wardrobe open just enough for a skinny nine-year-old girl to slither through, Ellie began to make her way across the room, holding the stick out between her and New-Duncan like a spear. When she got to the bedroom door and slipped out, she felt a massive relief, like she had just escaped a pit of snakes. She took a deep, refreshing breath, then moved across the hall, ready to burst into her parent’s room to tell them everything. Suddenly a tiny man appeared in front of her eyes, smaller even than the ones that had taken Duncan just minutes earlier. However, this one had wings, allowing him to hover in front of her face, like a fairy!

The night was just getting weirder, and Ellie decided it was definitely time to scream. But the fairy,