Me is only one from da hundreds of Hobgoblins who live in this big village, all of da greenies who are in this village were scared from da big boss in da steppes: Hobgobla Kahn, so we searched for someone who could protect us from his madness. When me was searching for safe place, me saw tis big village wiv strong walls and me thought: ah, me will be safe in there, so me went to da great door in the wall and told me story. Da yellow-skins first didn’t believe me, but when there  suddenly came wolfriders which shot arrers on me, they believed me an’ let me in their village under da motto: the enemies of our enemies are our friends. Me don’t get what they wanted to say, but me was happy to be in their village.

Now me was in this big city an’ me was surprised of the big stone huts they had built and when me was walking through the streets me saw many merchants, one sold silk, the other sold carpets, another one sold porcelain, and many many more. It was really difficult to find a way through the mass of multicultural (me boss learned my this word) people, there were strong big man wiv beards, really tall men wiv funny eyes, men wiv a funny accent, short, fat men wiv long beards who are allways mad at me and many many more.  When me finally was through all these people me asked to someone whether there was a war going on in that street, but he laughed and said that it was called a marketplace and he told me that me could work for him. Me didn’t want to first because me had to work a lot for da big boss from the steppes, but this men gives me money if me works hard and wiv tis money me can buy nice stuff, so me said ok, me wannna work for you and he led me through da narrow streets wiv merchants to his house. The first thing me had to do from me new master was to learn the map from da city, so me won’t get lost. This took me three weeks to learn all the little streeets, but now me is da fastest in da town. Me job is to bring da lettres me master writes as fast as possible to the adressed, me master is very proudof me, cuz me is da fastest and da best messenger in town. Me sleeps in a very big room wiv many other guys who work for me master, one of them is a hobgoblin too and he may deliver da messages from da master to other cities in Cathooi, he knows every map from every big village in tis country. Oh, but me master wanted me to write a tale about da city of Shoon-Young. Well, it is a very rich village, me master even says it is the richest village from da whole country an’ me has no problem to believe tis, cuz all da people in tis village are dressed in very beautifull robes, made from a reaaly fine wool, da people ‘ere call it ‘silk’. It is also da place to be for trade an’ fashion, people from allover da world come to tis city to buy an’ sell their products an’ people from all over Cathooi come to ‘ere to buy the newest robes an’ uver stuff.

Extract from the book “About shang-Yang” by Grishna, a Hobgoblin who fled from the tyranny of Hobgobla Kahn