"Hey! If you don't like them, you don't have to eat them. Guess who gets to eat only bread the next time I make chicken!" Shelly calls over from the next room.
The Johnson kids are out of luck to help any with this situation. They are closely watched the whole afternoon and once it gets dark all go in and the doors and windows are closed and secured against any intruders. All have to sleep in the same room with the parents. Gertrud has a no nonsense attitude about that.
At the Branston's house, it is similar. But not only the children are locked in, but also the chicken. There is a cellar room digged under the house. It's not totally safe, but it is harder to get into than the chicken pen. And in the chicken pen there is one of the guard dogs from Dwayne that usually protects the sawmill. Two of the lumberjacks are also sleeping in the Branston living room.
But the night is completely silent and uneventful. Not a single bark from the dog. The next morning everything is as it was left the evening before.
After a hurried breakfast, most of the adults of the village meet to organize a search through the wood. Gertrud, knowing the woods best suggests some places that could be hideouts for a goblin tribe. And so the Lumberjacks are lead by Gertrud, together with the dogs for a goblin hunt.
For the time being, the Johnson kids are together with their dad visiting the Branstons. At day the adults are a bit more relaxed as according to Gertrud, they prefer the night for their attacks. This day there is no work for the kids. They are allowed to play inside the barn.
Jewel is discouraged with the parents severe, enforced restrictions, but at least enjoys having the Johnsons over. She focuses her Feral Speech hex on Brina and asks if she wants her belly rubbed, then switches to speaking quietly with the others.
"I hope they find the gobbers soon or I'm going to go stir crazy here. I can't even enjoy the break from chores if we can't play!"
She sits dejected for a moment, then focuses on Tobar, "Tobar, can Brina follow a scent? I mean, she's not a dog but don't cats hunt too? Have you tried to train her for that?"
"Weasel can." Clara replies before Tobar even has a chance to open his mouth.
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Tarjun doesn't seem to be pleased with the situation, seeing that he's sitting grumpily with his arms crossed, his crutch propped up against the wall at his side. Yet when the girls start talking about chasing the goblins he almost jumps to his feet:
"Now hold on a sec! We ain't gonna hunt down some gobboes. These buggers have knives and teeth sharp as a dog's -Jewel, you wanna lose a limb? Look, I know you're thinkin' "Surely I can take down one gobbo, they're small and they're dumb as a brick", well, we don't know how many of 'em are dwellin'. Whatcha gonna do if yer ambushed by five gobboes?" He relaxes a little. "Come on, they've got dogs and all, I'm sure it's only for a couple'o'days. Ye wanna play Dragon and Knights?"
"We can have daggers too. I get a big one at the butchery." Clara replies sulkily. "And weasel would notice a stinky gobbo from 500 feet away!"
But she doesn't plan to proive that and for now she is complacent to try reading in the book her dad gave her.
While Jewel did want to track down the goober and get payback for her chicken friends, she has to admit that she doesn't want the nasty thing biting her arm off. That would probably really hurt!
"OK, but if that gobber comes back we should all make lots of noise and throw things at it. That should let it know we mean business!"[b]
Noticing that Clara has a book distracts her from Tarjun's suggestion, [b]"Clara! What book have you got? There's never enough books around here!"
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"I don't know. It's about a guy called Ismael and it has a sketch of a huge whale. But all those letters make no useful words and I only got three lines in so far." Clara answers. "Can you read?"
Clara holds the book for Jewel to look into it too.
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago- never mind how long precisely- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
Meanwhile in the woods
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Kwataxle has finally found what he sought for. Reading those longshanks scribblings is not his thing. But this has to be it. Looking around he collects a few branches and with some rusty nails, twine and chicken sinews he builds a shovel. It's an easy task that takes only half an hour. All goblins are really good in creating stuff from garbage. And with that shovel he starts digging.
"Let the gobby's come! I have a dagger, a sling. AND Brina!"
He speaks bravely, too young to realize what he is wishing for
"yes, if mom would let us Brina could track him back to his lair. She is MUCH better than any silly dog. Or weasel! Cats rool"
Not sure how Weasel would fare in comparison to Brina Clara tells "Wookie is for sure better than Brina."
Gertrud's large bloodhound for sure was a force. And goblins feared dogs like her for good reason.
Jewel starts reading, fascinated at first, but then encountering words that she doesn't know.... "What's a spleen?" and "What's a pistol and ball, and why would anyone throw themselves on a sword? This is a strange story!"
She struggles with the story a little longer, but then gets distracted by Tobar. "Yeah, I think if we all worked together we could beat it. But our parents won't let us and there might be more than one."
"There's still something I don't understand. Why did the gobber kill the chicken, take a bite and leave the body there? If it was hungry why didn't it eat it all, or take it with it?"
"Yeah. It would be a waste of half a good chicken. But now it's good for the cats. Or Mrs. Branston cooks it for the kids. Gobbo gnawed on chicken for Jewel to eat!"
"Ew yuck! Momma would never feed us gobbo chewed chicken! That bird got cut up for the cats."
"Do you think your dad might know why the gobber didn't take the whole chicken when it killed it?"
"If mum told him. I think he knows only stuff that grws out of the earth. But we can ask him. Maybe Mr. Branston knows?" Having something different to do from 'reading' that book she jumps up and hurries to the room the adults are. "Daaad, daaad, daaad, ..." she calls and as soon as he comes into sight she asks "why did that gobbo leave half a dead chicken?"
"I don't know." Randolf replies.
And Shelly adds "It took two other chickens. Maybe it couldn't carry three?"
"Or it was disturbed and fled, leaving the half chicken?" Randolf speculates.
"Brina COULD take Wookie!! She is small and fast, Wookie is big and dumb and slow. Brina is MUCH smarter than he is. And has sharp claws too!!!!"
"I'll tell mum what you said!" Clara replies.
When she comes back from the adults she says "Dad and Mr. Branston know nothing." There is some disappointment in her voice. But if they are only making guesses about that, maybe they don't know for sure how dangerouns gobbos are.
Instead of sitting down again, she turns without saying a word and goes through the backdoor into the barn. The barn is locked too, but it has a place where the boards don't reach the ground. Another board is put before it, and the sacks had blocked it, but now it is only a board that has to be pushed away. With a little digging it get big enough for Clara to stick her head through and the rest of her body follows. Hidden from view by the barn, Clara runs for the forest.
First she runs boldly and with excitement. But on her way through the trees when she doesn't need to care for being held back, a bad feeling starts creeping up to her. She carefully looks around and makes sure she doesn't step on sticks that would break and give her away.
The stealthy part doesn't work too well. But as it's in the woods at bright day, there are other things making noise too. And as far as she can tell, no one is around to notice her. Clara is going to find out what it is, that is written on this stupid stone. And no chicken stealing gobber is going to keep her away.
If Tobar OR Brina notice, we'd definitely run out after Clara. No way she is going to be allowed out alone
If Tobar notices, he'd tell the other children as he rushed after Clara
Seeing Clara sneaking out Jewel moves to follow. Before leaving the area of the barn she glances around for anything that might be usable as a weapon. She knows that she has no soldier training, but a club or sharp stick will work much better than her little fists....
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Tarjun remains oblivious to the fact that Clara had planned on living. But eventually he does find out that something is amiss.
When he finally understands what has happened, he swears under his breath, and gets ready to follow, grabbing a club on his way as soon as he can.
He doesn't consider himself a coward -but he's not stupid. If the goblin finds them first, they're in for some real trouble.
And being the oldest, sometimes he has to be the occasional killjoy to keep the younger kids safe.
Shelly and Randolf are conveniently unaware that the kids not only left for the barn, but for good. After Tobar tells all, one after another follow Clara into the woods. Which isn't that hard. She got a headstart, but she is not that stealthy.
As Clara finally reaches the ruins and moves around them it looks totally different from yesterday. The stone is toppled over and a deep hole is dug where it was. From inside the hole someone mutters curses under its breath in a strange language. And this voice echoes underground.
Clara stands there like a pillar of salt. The grave is opened. And no matter what it is that mutters inside - it is horrible. On the inside she is screaming and wants to flee. But her body doesn't move and not even a peep comes out of her open mouth.
It can't be seen from where Clara stands, but this is no ordinary grave. As this shrine to Erastil was still tended to by Tohrid Dawnbreeze there was a flight of stairs leading to the crypt beneath the shrine. There lie the remains of the former keepers of the shrine. But there was no one who would follow after Tohrid, and as he died, the crypt was closed and the stone placed in remembrance of the last keeper over the entrance.
Now that Kwataxle has dug it up there is a earthen slide into the crypt. The goblin doesn't need stairs, he only needs some way in. As the kids all arrive one after another the muttering suddenly stops.
Once everyone is out and moving into the woods, Jewel suggests that they all gather a couple of rocks to throw. "Just in case, you know, if we find the gobber. If we all hit him with rocks it may scare him, or hurt him bad enough.... If we knock him down we can rush up and pound him unconscious!"
As they get close to the hole she stops, kneels down and calls Chirp to her. She whispers to the bird, "Fly up on that branch over the hole and stay there. If you see something coming out don't make a sound. Just fly away. If nothing is coming out just stay there until I call you."
The thrush sits and stares into the hole.
Tobar and Brina sneak up to Clara. Tobar clutches his sling in one arm and his club in another. He peers down the hole
He then looks and listens
It is dark down in the crypt. With the leaf canopy above it isn't really bright where Tobar sits, but beyond the entrance there is not much to see down there.
That is not true for the other way around "A little longshank." a pleasantly surprised voice tells. Kwataxle's mouth is watering at that delicious sight. But he braces himself.
"What does little longshank want here? Longshank want treasure too?"
With the other kids around Clara thaws a little. Speaking a word four stars appear in front of her and then quickly fly past Tobar down the hole.
Weasel climbs down Clara's leg and hustles to the hole too taking a look in.
The crypt is about 15 by 15 feet large with a ceiling height of five feet. To the left stand four stone boxes - sarcophagi - and the goblin looking out behind one of them. There are broken sticks lying on the floor and a rpe over the stone box.
"There always be treassure with dead longshanks. You not here for treasure? Silly longshanks always put treasure in grave and go digging up again 100 yeas later. But Kwataxle cleverer. Coming after 99 years. Little longshanks also clever. We share treasure?"
"You!! It was YOU who killed the chickens!! You're nothing but a thief!!!"
In a slightly quieter and less hysterical voice, he "whispers" to the others.
"Should we kill it? Try and take it captive? We can't ally with a Gobby. That would be EVIL and WRONG. Besides, then we wouldn't have to share the treasure"
"Kwataxle has to eat too! And with the treasure you can buy many chicken." the goblin argues. "You can get bigger part of treasure?"
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Jewel stands back, disgusted at the words of the nasty creature. Graves shouldn't ever be dug up, even if there was anything of value in them. But who buried anyone with a hundred gold? "You're just a disgusting little killer! Those chickens were my friends. I talked with them every day!"
Jewel holds her club tight, but focuses her mind on the goblin, sending arcane energy at it. "You need to leave here and never come back!"
"Sorry. If Kwataxle knew chicken were friends he'd eaten other chickens." the goblin tells. But he seems unaffected by the charming attempt.
"The chickens were your friends? Should we kill him then? I know if somebody killed Brina I'd want to kill them!!"
"Surely we can take ONE Gobbo? How tough could it be? But somebody might get hurt!! Brina might get hurt! I really hope somebody else makes the decision"
Sneaking up behind Tobar, Clara takes a look down into the crypt and at the goblin. She shudders at the thought how this ugly creature would sink its teeth into her bare flesh. She grabs something from her pocket and starts speaking unintelligible words and waving her hand in a repeating pattern. Glowing runes form around her hand.
"Look little longshank. You clever, or you dumb? You cans have treasure, or you can be no friend of Kwataxle and become like chicken! Dead and eaten."
Kwataxle picks up something from the floor, but it can't be seen what.
Silas ended up falling asleep as the others snuck out. He mutters something about being left behind and follows them outside, running to the ruins and finding the staircase down. He quickly runs down them before stopping when he sees the gobbo. As he sees it reaching for something he yells, ”Hey! Leave ‘em alone you stinky gobbo!”
As Silas comes down into the crypt, the goblin shoots an arrow at him, drawing first blood.
Jewel sees the goblin shoot Silas and raises her club to attack. "He shot Silas. Crush his ugly head!"
"Kill him!!!!"
Assuming there is somewhere that he can get a good shot, Tobar will fling a sling stone at the goblin
for
"Brina, go defend Silas! But be careful yourself"
Just as hell breaks loose Clara is done with her incantation. A dog appears right next to the goblin, opposite to Jewel and bites the green ugly.
As Jewel heroically rushed in to protect them all from the gobbo, Clara looks at Jewel, wishing her luck and starts laughing maniacally.
Jewel pushes past Silas to get to the goblin that is way smaller than her. But beating the goblin with a stick is easier said than done. Throwing stones is also hard if two of your friends are in the way and you don't want to hit them. But the dog catches the goblin by surprise. Kwataxle looks at the dog with a mix of fear and hate.
Tarjun also goes directly for the fight and hits Kwataxle hard. The goblin stares at the boy as his legs give in and the lights go out for him. He drops to the floor, his head hitting hard on the stone. The blood drips out of the bite wound at his leg and the large gash above his brow.
Everything is silent but the heavy breathing of the riled up kids.