continuing now
As i tried to decide which way to go, i heard some singing approaching from one direction and the sound of wheels from that direction. the song went like this: "you take straw, and i'll take hay, this cheese is for the king's birthday. you take that, and i'll take this, i'm sure the king will love my cheese." Deciding that the song implied that the capital city was in the other direction, i walked that way. while i walked, i was overtaken by a singing goblin wheeling a handcart with a huge wheel of cheese in it. we talked, and soon i agreed to walk with him to the capital.
on the road, we met a mouse. the conversation went as follows:
mouse: what do you have in that cart?
farmer: This is a great, fine, cheese.
mouse: may i eat the cheese?
farmer: NO! it's for the king.
mouse: may i eat some of the cheese?
farmer: NO!
mouse: may i... smell the cheese?
farmer: well, i don't suppose there's any harm in that.
i didn't either, since we could just pick up the mouse if it started to eat the cheese. it sniffed the cheese, and sqeeked. and a horde of mice ran out of the forest and ate some of the cheese before we drove them off.
The farmer was distraught, but soon decided there was nothing to be done, and the king would just have a little less cheese. later, we met a cat, and the same conversation was repeated, but then there was some arguing before i was persuaded to let him smell the cheese. and a horde of cats came out of the forest and ate some of the cheese.
The farmer was distraught, but continued on. later a dog came out of the forest and i managed to persude the farmer not to let him smell the cheese. some dogs came out of the forest, but i held them off and we walked away.
Then a bear came out of the forest. the mouse conversation was repeated, and i decided i didn't feel like fighting a horde of bears, so i let the bear smell the cheese. some bears came out of the forest, beat up the farmer, and ate the cheese.
well, the farmer decided he'd go to the party anyways, so on we went, and arrived at a highway, which we followed to the capital. the capital turned out to have a triagnular layout, and we joined a huge line of goblins going to deliver gifts to the king. when we got there, the farmer explained what had happened, and the king said, "that's alright, i'll have another birthday"
i gave the king my claw-hammer, and he asked me where i came from before saying we could talk about it later, and i went off to the party, where i learned that the goblins had a lot of beer and peanuts. That and the fact that the farmer didn't know much about international politics. later, a guard showed up to bring me to the king.