by Eric Vall
“Speaking of which, I’m starting to get nervous with you up here,” I told the fairy. “I need you to fly back to the gnome camp now.”
“I could just kill them now instead,” Aleia suggested as she tugged at the bow on her shoulder. “I could probably get away with it.”
“Not yet,” I replied. “I think it’s best if we don’t do anything further until Nicola and Penelope are here. If you shoot the goblins, it’s going to start a commotion, and that’s the last thing we want right now. If the baby is here, we need things to stay as calm as possible.”
“That makes sense, my lord,” the fairy sighed. Her face had started to sag with exhaustion, and I was sorry she still had a long night to go.
“Do me a favor before you leave,” I said to the strawberry-blonde. “Can you look around the whole forest with me? Scan everything with your eyes, and then I want you to fly back to your sisters as quickly as possible.”
“Yes, Jack,” Aleia said with a faint smile. The fairy turned around in a circle as she surveyed the landscape below, and then she started to fly away from the goblin camp. “Bye, my lord.”
“Hold on, I’m not going anywhere,” I chuckled. “I was going to accompany you back to the camp.”
“Oh, you were?” the strawberry-blonde asked with a smile on her face. “It’s nice when you’re here with me.”
“There’s only one problem,” I responded in a sad voice. “I wish more than anything I could be down there to fight with you.”
“I do too, master, but--”
Suddenly, I heard a familiar name being spoken from far away, and I quickly shushed the little fairy.
“Be very quiet for a moment, Aleia,” I murmured in her ear, and she nodded diligently as she puckered her lips tightly shut.
“So, did you hear about Orm and Robert’s latest scheme?” Deep asked, and the back of my virtual neck prickled.
“Aleia, you go ahead and fly back,” I told the fairy. “Assure the gnomes we’ve found the goblin cave, and wait for my instructions at their camp. I need to listen to what they’re saying.”
“Okay, master,” the strawberry-blonde whispered, and the small woman was off in a flash of lavender wings.
Then I focused back in on the goblins’ voices.
“What is it this time?” Squeaky chuckled. “They never get away with anything.”
“They’re so useless!” his companion said as he rolled his eyes. “What good is a goblin who gets caught all the time? In and out with no mess, that should be our game.”
“So, what did they do?” Squeaky pressed the larger goblin. “Tell me what happened.”
“This is actually pretty crazy, even for Orm and Robert,” Deep said in a dramatic tone. “They’ve kidnapped a baby for ransom.”
“What?” the squeaky goblin asked. “What kind of baby?”
“A gnome baby,” the larger creature replied. “They stole it from its camp, and they left a note asking for money.”
“Well, at least it’s just gnomes,” Squeaky scoffed. “They won’t be able to defeat us goblins easily, so maybe those two will actually get away with it this time.”
“Rumor has it these gnomes fought off some trolls in the southern forest recently.” Deep leaned his back against the wall, crossed his arms, and stared at the other guard. “Just because they’re small doesn’t mean they aren’t vicious.”
Wait, rumor had it? How could these goblins have possibly found out about that fight when there were no surviving trolls? That was strange, but the thought of any more goblins sneaking around our part of the woods didn’t sit well with me.
“So, is there an army of gnomes coming to get us?” Squeaky snickered. “Are they going to march in here on their tiny legs, wearing their tiny boots, and waving their tiny swords in the air?”
“All I’m saying is not to underestimate them,” the larger goblin replied.
“Maybe we should take the baby for ourselves,” Squeaky mused in his falsetto. “I’d like to get some money.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Deep chortled. “After all the trouble those two cause our clan, Orm and Robert don’t deserve squat. We could do it after we’re done with our shift, and those idiots probably wouldn’t even notice. I know we can do it without getting the soldiers involved.”
“Where’s the baby now?” the other creature asked in a scheming tone.
“Down in the cave with Robert and Orm,” Deep sneered.
“Where could they possibly hide a baby down there where the soldiers wouldn’t find out about it?” Squeaky snorted as he scrunched up the place eyebrows would have been if he’d had any hair.
“Back behind the stables,” the larger goblin explained. “It’s just a tiny gnome baby, and no one would hear it with all them horses around. Orm told me they’re hiding there until morning. Came over bragging about it right before shift started. I was tempted to tell the generals about it just so he gets his ass skinned over this one.”
“Nah, I want to get that baby,” Squeaky said in response. “If we split the gold, we could make out alright over all this.”
I wondered where the stables were exactly, because even though their steeds had been small, I didn’t think Orm and Robert’s horses could fit through this entrance to the cave.
Which meant there had to be another entrance into this goblin cave.
I looked and listened more at ground level until I heard whinnying, and I realized there was another opening in the mountainside further up the path. The large arch was enclosed by a wrought iron gate, and it looked like it was locked tight.
The women might be able to sneak in, but we obviously didn’t have a key, and breaking in would be noisy. It might be possible to retrieve a key from a guard’s body, but we’d have to disable him first.
“The question is, should we actually hand off the baby after we get the money?” Deep asked.
“I don’t know,” the other guard replied. “I don’t want to cause any trouble for the clan.”
“I hope they asked for a lot, but knowing how stupid Robert and Orm are…” the large guard sneered.
“It would be typical,” Squeaky agreed. “But I’m definitely going to cancel my date and get that baby.”
“Right, your date.” Deep rolled his eyes. “It’s easy to cancel one you don't really have.”
The guards began to joke around about other things, and I was just about to go talk to the priestesses when another goblin walked out of the cave entrance.
There was something about the gleam of the red creature’s gold tooth, the hunch of his shoulders, and the evil glint in his black eyes that made the creature immediately recognizable to me.
Holy shit, it was Robert.
Chapter 18
“Robert!” Deep guffawed. “We were just talking about you.”
“About what?” Robert shifted his eyes from side to side.
“Give it up,” Squeaky snorted. “All your bragging’s bound to get around. How many other goblins did you tell about that baby?”
“None!” Robert scoffed, but then he shifted his weight. “Well, a few I s’pose.”
“The clan’s gonna be on your ass about this one,” Deep chortled. “What are you gonna do if the gnomes don’t come pick it up? Be its mommy?”
“That fucking baby,” Robert swore and rubbed his bald head with his palm. “The damn thing keeps crying.”
“Did you bring it any food?” Deep snorted. “Babies need to eat.”
“No, I didn’t bring it any fucking food,” Robert said as he stamped his little foot on the ground. “I’m not its mommy. I’ve been trying to keep it quiet for over an hour, but Orm says I’m doing it wrong. Like he knows shit about gnome babies. All that crying’s got me nervous the soldiers might hear her. I’m just taking a walk around to make sure no one’s heard and told the leaders about it.”
“If you’ve been bragging to anyone like you bragged to me, they’ll find out soon enough,” Deep chuckled. “You can try t
o hide, but they’re going to catch up with you eventually.”
“Not if the gnomes come get the baby before anyone finds out,” Robert hissed as he glared at the other two goblins. “Don’t tell anyone you saw me. I’m heading back in through the stables.”
“No, you’re not.” Deep stared at Robert. “You know very well the stables are locked at this hour.”
“Wellll… I might have gotten a key off a different soldier the other day,” Robert confessed.
“Did you seriously just tell us you stole a key from a guard?” Deep asked as he rolled his eyes at the goblin kidnapper.
“Give me the key, Robert,” Squeaky said as he put a hand on his sword.
“Aw, come on,” Robert whined. “Please don’t. I just want something to go right for once.”
“Then don’t steal a damn baby!” Deep growled, and he gave the goblin a stern look and held out his hand. “Now.”
“Shit,” Robert swore as he dropped the key into the guard’s palm. “This wasn’t supposed to happen. How am I going to get the baby out of the stables now?”
“Figure it out,” the deep-voiced goblin snickered. “You got yourself into this mess.”
“Fucking pricks,” Robert muttered as he hung his head and walked back through the cave’s main entrance.
Once I couldn’t see Robert anymore, I decided it was a good time to go back and see what the women were doing, so I focused back in on the gnome camp. I wanted to share my information about dumbass Robert and his stupid escapade, and I now knew we could get a key to the stables. The only problem was it’d be buried in Deep’s pockets somewhere, so I was going to have to work out a plan for that with the women.
The gnomes and the priestesses were sitting around the fire, and Nissa had her arm around a sobbing Morrick. Everyone else had solemn expressions on their faces as Elowise passed around mugs of tea.
“Hey,” I said to the priestesses, and Penelope startled a little.
“My lord!” the naiad giggled nervously. “You hadn’t spoken with us for so long that you surprised me.”
“We’ve been sitting here waiting for you,” Nicola said with a slightly aggrieved expression on her face.
“Sorry,” I responded. “I’ve gotten a lot of good information, though.”
“What’s going on?” Balabar asked as he leaned forward onto his small knees with a frown. “Does Jack know something?”
“Yes, but he hasn’t told us what it is yet,” Aleia explained.
“So, Jack, what’s going on?” Nicola drummed the fingers of one hand on her knees as she sipped tea.
“That’s not the relaxing tea, is it?” I asked.
“No, my lord, of course not,” the brunette said with a slight smile on her face. “We wouldn’t do that.”
“I didn’t think so,” I chuckled.
“What are you smiling about?” Elowise asked Nicola with sharp eyes.
“Jack was just making sure this wasn’t the relaxing tea,” Nicola explained. “I smiled at the thought of being relaxed on such a stressful occasion.”
“No, this is the energizing tea,” Elowise explained. “None of us will be able to sleep tonight, anyway, so we might as well get our hearts beating a little faster.”
“We also need to go stand in the stream before we leave,” Penelope chimed in. “It seemed to recharge us all before we marched out to confront the trolls. But what’s going on, Jack?”
“Aleia already knows some of this, but there’s a cave in the mountains that’s the entrance to the goblin’s realm,” I told the priestesses. “The cave is guarded by two goblins at a time, and they change shifts in about four hours, or about three hours by now. I saw Robert--”
“You saw Robert?” the fairy gasped. “Did he say anything?”
“He said enough,” I explained. “Here’s what I learned. There’s a stable a little ways away from what I assume is the main entrance, they’re keeping Roza somewhere behind it, and the guard definitely has a key. Robert and Orm are apparently trying to keep this whole thing hidden from the goblin generals, and I think this might make it a little easier to get them to give Roza back. If they don’t want to cause a scene, they may just give up on the whole plan if we apply enough pressure.”
“So, we need to get there within the next three hours…” Nicola mused. “If there’s a changing of the guard at that time, there could potentially be four guards outside instead of just two. We don’t want to get caught up in that.”
“Well, should we just go?” Penelope’s pale blue eyes were scared, but there was a determined set to her jaw.
“One second, because I have more thoughts,” I told the naiad. “I think the easiest thing to do would be for Aleia to disable the guards from the air and take the stable key, and then you can go find Orm and Robert.
“Do we have to leave them alive?” Penelope asked. “If they had anything to do with Roza…”
“I know how you feel,” I chuckled. “And it’s true they’re not the best guys, either. They’re planning to try and steal Roza from Orm and Robert so they can get the ransom money themselves. Nonetheless, we set ourselves up for a whole world of trouble if you actually kill them. Right now this is just Orm and Robert for themselves, and a couple of knocked out guards are kind of a big deal, but dead ones would really get the goblins mad, and we aren’t strong enough to defend against a small army of them.”
“Oh, no, this is all so bad.” Penelope looked around with wide eyes. “We need to get our little baby so badly.”
“We do,” Nicola sighed as she started to refill her pouch with rocks. “If knocking them out is my job, it’s what I’ll have to do.”
“I want to get this over with,” Penelope said as she jumped up off the log and started hopping up and down. “Come on, come on!”
“How much tea did you have, Penelope?” Nicola wondered. “You seem very energized.”
“I had two cups,” the naiad responded. “What’s the problem? Don’t I need to stay awake?”
“I suppose energy is a good thing,” Nicola responded with a doubtful expression on her face.
“I wish you luck on your journey,” Elowise said. “Please bring our beloved Roza back home to us.”
“I need my baby!” Nissa wailed.
“I’m so sorry I lost her, Mother,” Morrick sobbed, and the young boy leaned up against Nissa, who squeezed him by the shoulders.
“It’s not your fault,” the blonde gnome murmured as she kissed him on the forehead. “And they’re going to get your sister back. Look how fierce they are!”
“Speaking of that, could we possibly ask you a favor?” Aleia asked. “Could Penelope and I borrow swords from you?”
“Of course,” Wilfrim said with a subdued nod. “Come into the tent with me and pick out what you like. Consider them yours.”
The two women and the old man walked into the leather tent, and the priestesses emerged after a couple minutes with beautiful swords in their hands. Penelope’s long, golden blade had rubies encrusted on its hilt, and Aleia’s sharp, silver sword was shorter and studded with smooth green emeralds.
“I love my sword,” Penelope said with misty eyes as she put her new weapon on her belt and patted it. “Sisters, let’s go dip our feet in the stream now for even more energy.”
The three women quickly walked down to the water behind the gnome camp and let it flow around their ankles, and then they came back to the main circle.
“Well, I suppose this is really it.” Elowise looked from priestess to priestess before she began to sob, and Wilfrim led her away with an arm around her small shoulders.
“Goodbye, all of you,” Aleia said with a nod, and she led Nicola and Penelope up toward the road at a jog.
“Why didn’t you want to fly off from the camp?” the brunette panted.
“There’s not enough room,” the strawberry-blonde explained as she slowed to a stop. “It’s a little harder to start flying if I’m carrying you.”
“Th
at makes sense,” Penelope said with a nod as she positioned herself next to Aleia.
“We need a better mode of transportation one day, though,” Nicola sighed as she stood on Aleia’s other side.
“We need to be grateful for what we have, sister,” the naiad scolded the brunette as the fairy grabbed each of the other two women’s bodies and lifted them into the air.
“Sorry,” the dark-haired woman grumbled. “ Being carted around like this just makes me feel a bit like--”
“Lumber?” Aleia laughed as she adjusted her grip on the other two women. “Stone? An animal we just killed?”
“Thanks, sister,” Nicola snorted. “I appreciate being compared to a carcass.”
“I thought you would,” the fairy snickered.
“It’s getting really cold,” Penelope yelled over the wind after a few minutes of flying.
“Y-Yes, it really is,” Nicola said as she shivered.
“We should be wrapped in blankets at this hour,” the naiad said loudly, but Aleia quickly shushed her so her hollering wouldn’t give away their position. Then Penelope lowered her voice to a loud whisper. “I don’t mind the cold, though! We can bundle up and rest after we get Roza back, and not a moment before!”
“Well…” I started, “you may not want to rest right away.”
“What do you mean, Jack?” Nicola asked.
“I mean I had plans for this evening,” I explained. “I thought I’d come down to visit you for a little longer this time.”
“Visit us?” Penelope narrowed her eyes. “You have been visiting us. Unless…”
“That’s right,” I responded. “In person, on the ground, during the daytime, or whatever time it is when you get done with this mess.”
“So… what you’re saying is…” Aleia trailed off over the whistling of the wind.
“We’ll all be together again,” Nicola said with a smirk on her face. “Truly together. Your body… and… ours.”
“Oh, my,” Penelope sighed, and a wide smile spread across the naiad’s lips. “That is exciting.”
“Yes, it does sound a little exciting,” Aleia mumbled, and when I looked at her face, I could tell she meant this.
