Chapter 17: The fight
10 January, 2008 – 9:16 am
Toadflax cautiously watched the dragon disappear, then unsheathed his sword, weighing it in his left hand and signaled to the clan to ready themselves. His sword hand had hung painful and useless by his side and his temper had not abated since the meeting with the old man and his dog.
As the humans passed by, he crept out of the shadows and took up a position behind them, in the middle of the path, blocking their way back to the dragon.
‘Ahem.’ he said, clearing his throat.
Hillary and Tobias quickly turned around.
‘Toadflax!’ growled Hillary, ushering everyone behind him.
‘So, we meet again,’ spat Toadflax. ‘You cost me my sword arm old man, and now I intend to take yours as payment in kind.’
Hillary snorted.
‘Oh, is that right?’ he said.
‘What do the humans say?’ said Toadflax. ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth?’
The irony wasn’t lost on Hillary.
‘A tooth, eh?’
Toadflax nodded and took a pinch of the tooth powder from his black bag and sprinkled it over his head. It sparkled brightly for a moment as it fell on him.
‘What concern is it of yours old man?’ he said.
Wendle started to growl.
‘Tell your dog to shut up,’ he said, pointing to the dog with his sword.
The blade glinted in the mid-day sunshine.
‘Just to let you know, I can use my other hand just as well.’
Hillary smiled.
‘What will you do when that one stops working too?’ he said.
‘I wouldn’t let that bother you, old man, I have a large family that would look after me.’ said Toadflax, gesturing to the wood.
One by one, from the trees, a leering goblin appeared, each carrying a short sword. The weapons looked like they’d seen a lot of action, with ugly notches interrupting the curved line of their dark blades.
The goblins nodded, giggling moronically, while brandishing their swords. They looked agitated and impatient, obviously waiting for the order to attack. A few sprinkled more powder on themselves, whilst the others just stood there, making grotesque slobbering sounds.
Hillary had a horrible feeling that something was about to happen.
‘Use your rings and hide in the trees until this is over’, he hissed, looking up to the branches above. ‘This could turn very ugly.’
Scarlet and Thomas both nodded.
Suddenly, Toadflax raised his sword, and charged them, screaming.
‘Die!’ he wailed.
To the horrible sound of guttural grunts, the goblins attacked, whirling their ugly weapons about in the air apparently with scant regard for their own safety, or for that matter, their comrade’s.
Hillary and Eliza scattered quickly in opposite directions, whilst Scarlet and Thomas shot up into the branches of the nearest tree. Wendle bounded off for the cover of trees. Tobias looked left and right, before deciding to make a random run for it screaming.
A goblin ran and caught up with him, whirling its sword about its head like a dervish. Tobias grabbed his umbrella and used it to parry a couple of sword blows. He waved it in front of himself in a vaguely defensive manner. Surprising himself, he managed to perfectly counter the goblin’s attack. On the third blow though, Tobias was knocked pathetically to the floor. Thankfully, the umbrella unfurled, catching the goblin by surprise, knocking him over. Wasting no time, Tobias grabbed the umbrella and - due to luck more than anything else - stabbed the goblin straight in the eye with it. Black ichor, shot from the wound onto Tobias’ cheek. The goblin fell back, screaming and clutching its face.
Tobias held his hand over his mouth as he fought to keep down his breakfast.
‘Urgh! Vile creature!’ he screamed, picking up the goblin’s sword and delivering a fatal blow to its head with his eyes shut. ‘Die abomination!’
Immediately, the body crumpled, turning into a thick shell of black dust, which collapsed.
When Tobias opened his eyes, there was nothing there but a pile of ash.
Meanwhile, Eliza was being cornered by two particularly evil-looking goblins.
Thomas, high up in the branches of the tree above, had brought his catapult with him. He carefully loaded it with some smooth pebbles that he kept in his pocket, took aim and released. The shot hit one of the goblins square in the back of the head, making it stumble forward and hit the tree trunk head first.
‘Yes!’ he cried triumphantly, reloading.
Eliza turned and punched the other goblin in the nose before it had a chance to deliver its blow. It staggered backwards, dazed and confused, dropping its sword to the ground. With a reaction belying her old age, Eliza quickly picked it up and beheaded the goblin that had run into the tree trunk, with one swift motion. The blade embedded itself in the tree, whilst the headless body fell, lifeless, to the floor. Instantly it disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving nothing but a trail of black blood oozing down the trunk.
Thomas watched silently in awe.
The remaining goblin ran off into the trees, wailing and holding its broken nose.
‘Good work Thomas,’ shouted Eliza from below, wrenching the sword from the tree. ‘Bloody evil creatures.’
Scarlet clung to the tree next to Thomas, scared that she would fall. Below, a rather foul looking goblin had started to climb the trunk, and Thomas fumbled reloading his catapult. It looked up at her, licking it’s slobbering lips. She screamed, and tried to scrambled further up the tree but couldn’t. In the end, she resorted to lashing out with a few kicks.
‘Calm down!’ Thomas pleaded, from the adjacent tree. ‘I’ll try to knock him off with a shot.’
He fired the stone. It hit the goblin, but just rebounded back. Instead the goblin turned to look up and laughed, revealing its needle-like teeth.
‘I’m going to eat you little girl.’ it hissed, grabbing another branch to haul itself up.
Scarlet screamed, desperately trying to kick at the creature whilst clinging to the tree for dear life.
‘No… you… are… not!’ she snarled, through gritted teeth. As she said each word, she followed it through with a determined kick.
Eventually the branch creaked under the weight of the goblin.
The goblin looked up and snarled.
And then the branch broke.
The creature flailed about, trying desperately to grab another branch, but couldn’t quite manage it. Instead it fell, snapping branches all the way down, until it hit a rock below with a sickening crack.
Thomas looked down, just in time to see it burst into flames as it died.
Eliza ran to the tree. ‘If you’re both ok, stay there, ‘ she said, looking around for Hillary.
Further along the path, she could just make out Hillary, fighting off two goblins.
* * * *
‘Who are you working for?’ Hillary asked, blocking a sword blow from Toadflax with his trusty staff.
Toadflax laughed, and instead took another pinch of tooth dust and sprinkled it over himself.
‘As if I’d tell you old man,’ he said, signalling for the other goblin to attack.
The goblin obeyed and lifted its sword to strike, but in a flash, Wendle appeared as if from nowhere, jumping up and ripping its throat out in one swift movement.
Toadflax looked on in horror as the lifeless goblin fell to the ground. Wendle landed, black goblin blood matting his fur.
‘Euch.’
The goblin king looked on in horror at the body of his dead champion. It decayed in a matter of seconds to nothing. Toadflax lifted his scimitar and furiously brought it down upon Wendle. The dog sprang out of the way, but not quick enough. The sword managed to chop his tail off.
Wendle gave a deafening yelp and ran into the wood.
‘Curse you Hillary Bellock.’ Toadflax spat.
Tears and sweat ran down his face.
‘When we meet again, it will not be in such favourable conditions.’ he screamed.
And with that, he made his escape, as the rest of his goblin clan turned tail and fled into the cover of the deep wood.
Hillary breathed a sigh of relief, and fell to his knees on the ground.
Looking down lay the dismembered tail.
‘Wendle?’ he shouted.
‘Is everyone ok?’
