The Tale of the Goblin on the Fairy Lawn
Once upon a time there was a goblin, an earth spirit - and like any earth spirit he was singularly ugly for human eyes, and even more so for the Fairies. Mind you, it's natural for a goblin to look like a goblin, and this one was not the ugliest nor the prettiest goblin.
All would be fine if not for one tiny annoyance: an ingoblin sense of beauty.
His mates appeared to be rude and dirty (and, let's put it straight, it wasn't just him) - and they never talked about anything more gorgeous than baked guts.
The Fairies were altogether different. The Goblin often lurked to the Fairy Lawn and hid on a tree or behind a stone - or sometimes he would turn himself into a toad - and watched over those unearthly beings in whose comely heads would never appear a whiff of a thought about guts.
But soon it became insufficient. It wasn't enough for the Goblin; he needed something more profound than just peeking from a distance. And so he made up his mind and did what a goblin has never done or even thought of doing before.
First of all he stretched his body and became taller and thinner - didn't make him quite as slender as a fairy, but at least he didn't look like a proper goblin, too.
Then he stole a dress in a nearby village. It didn't fit him. Some parts of it were strained, and some were baggy for his body.
He did his very best to grow himself a pair of wings but failed, and instead he tore off dragonfly's ones, magnified them and hitty-missy implanted - nearly broke his neck!
He polished his grungy face with a brick to make it a bit more rosy and put on a veil anyway.
Surely he did it while the others weren't looking!
And then he went to the Fairies, just like this! The Fairies were trifling away an idle hour and danced - and stumbled on half-figure. They crowded around the Goblin.
“Who are you? Who are you?”, they all were asking.
“I'm a Fairy”, the Goblin said.
“A Fairy!”
“Yep, a Fairy. Can't you see?”
“Well - no, we can't. Are you?”
“Of course I am. The Goblins captured me and tortured me, if you're interested”, the Goblin concocted, and they believed.
In fact, the Fairies disliked and snubbed the Goblins, so they were ready to believe in anything that would make the Goblins more miserable and disgusting.
“Not much to look at, poor thing”, the Fairies whispered each other. “What nasty, gawky creatures these Goblins are!”.
And in that way they accepted him.
The Goblin didn't dance -he hadn't much practice, and besides, he had to be focused all the time and watch the clothes not to fall apart - watch the wings to stay on their place - and simply concentrate on keeping the shape. He didn't talk much, neither. He soon found out that he wasn't taught to talk about anything better than raw brains, and he wasn't going to talk about any brains, raw or baked.
He simply admired the Fairies- his eyes feasted on them - and was glad he could be among them. The Fairies, in their turn, were pleased to have someone who would serve as a foil to their beauty.
A few months passed; the Goblin still lived with the Fairies and kept a grip on himself, never letting himself go, not for a jiffy - a heroic deed unheard-of in the Goblin History!
And then May Day came.
It's just as natural for a spirit to celebrate May Day, to dance and to enjoy itself as it's natural for a human to jerk back hand from a hot pan. The Goblin contained himself and summoned all his strength of will - tried to slip away and dance alone but the Fairies didn't let him - and in the same way a human can't hold hand on a hot pan for long, the Goblin couldn't hold back from dancing.
What a dance it was! Finally, all suppressed tension came out; the small tornados of yesteryear leaves twirled around him; the Fairies have already changed a few circles, but the Goblin was just getting into it and danced more and more and more furiously and fiercely.
He didn't notice how his wings chipped and sailed up into the sky - how his veil floated in an extended curl - without noticing, he snatched off the uncomfortable clothes - and with every figure, every step became more and more his old self - a fairy-like body was still alien for him.
The Fairies weren't so much into the dance and did notice all that.
The circle froze. At last, even the musicians sensed that something was wrong and ceased to play. The Goblin danced a little more in the lonely silence, and then...
Ending A:
..and then the Fairies told him what a shame it was to trick them, and how ugly and disgusting he is. He couldn't argue - every their word was true. But he believed in the Fairies wholeheartly and didn't expect such a dismal response. He felt like there's a piece of cold wet cloth in his chest. Ashamed, he left the Fairy Lawn. He couldn't come back to the Goblins - not when he lived with the wonderful Fairies! - and the single thingy which kept him going was Magic which unites all magical beings.
Ending B:
..and then the Fairies kindly asked himto goaway and never ever return please, so he came back all broken-hearted to his Goblin mates, and - hey-ho! - they cheered him and welcomed back and gave him some tasty baked guts, and he realized that he's always been a Goblin, and the Fairies and the
Goblins are two worlds apart, and there's no need for him to try to reach another world when he can have his friendly one. And the Fairies don't know beans about raw brains, poor things.
Ending C:
..and then, when the Goblin prepared to be thrown away, the Fairies applauded and said they've never seen such an impossible dance - so the Goblin can stay and dance for them if he would feel like it - and he shouldn't wear that idiotic disguise - what a wacky idea, why didn't he just ask? - and why on earth are they still talking - let's dance, it's May Day!
Ending D:
..and then the Goblin's nature took over and he ate all the Fairies.
Ending E:
..and then one of the Fairies admitted falling in love with the Goblin - now when she knows he's not a fairy it stands to reason. The Goblin said he likes fairies in general, so they married and this way the two different worlds became one, and the Goblin called all his mates; the Fairies taught them good manners (at least, the theoretical part), and the Goblins showed them ow to cook brains.
Ending F:
..and then a very intelligent scientist came and proved that fairies, goblins, elves et cetera don't exist, so they tickled him until he thought of a reasonable logical explanation of why logic can't work.
Ending J:
[left as an exercise for the reader]