Friends in a Foreign Land

They started running and, as they got closer, they saw that Ewan was kneeling over another child trying to protect her from the goblins. Next to him lied an injured man who wasn't moving. Seven goblins were harrying Arlo and Twix while three more were attacking Ewan and the girl he was kneed over.

Seeing her son being attacked set Hazel off. She let out a scream that sounded close to a roar and charged ahead of the others with her staff held high. As soon as she was in range, Hazel swung her staff at one of the goblins attacking her son. The goblin flew into another goblin, causing them both to fall. Hazel stepped forward and thrust out her staff as if it was a spear, crushing the windpipe of one of the goblins before putting the staff tip through the eye of the other she’d knocked down. The final goblin turned to flee, but a flash of steel swung out from Nolan, who appeared in front of it. The goblin's head toppled from its body.

By this point, Arlo had caught and killed one of the goblins attacking him and was working on another. Twix was still being attacked by two because she was busy eating the goblin she had killed rather than fighting. Willow ran in and killed the last one on Arlo with her staff before she and Arlo took out the two attacking Twix. While the rest were killing goblins, Arden knelt next to the children and made sure they were okay.

“Shit, this is Allissa!” Arden said.

“That makes this Benjamin then,” Nolan said while rolling the man over. “Yep, it’s him,” he said as he started using [Healing Touch] on the unconscious man.

As the magic took hold, the stab wound in the man’s side and the cut on the side of his face stopped bleeding and closed up. A few moments later he opened his eyes and glanced around before jerking upright, looking for his daughter. Allissa hugged her dad while Hazel pulled Ewan away and started fussing at him.

“Why did you run off like that? You could have been hurt!” Hazel hissed

Ewan just looked at his mom, confused, before saying in the limited vocabulary of a four year old, “I not hurt. Magic. I keep Lissa safe.”

"I know you can't get hurt, but still," Hazel said as she struggled with her emotions in the face of the four year old's logic.

“What does he mean he can’t be hurt,” Allissa’s father asked. “He’s too young to know magic.”

Everyone looked at one another before Arden replied, “Ewan has a magic ward cast over him. Nothing can hurt him. Knowing this, the smart little shit used his body as a shield to protect Allissa from the goblin’s swords.

The man just looked at them all as if they were crazy. Finally, Willow walked over and said “Watch” and used her staff to whack Ewan on the head. The staff made a solid thunk sound but was stopped just a hair above the child’s head. Ewan looked over at the man. “Magic, I no hurt.”

Hazel walked up to the man and extended her hand, “I’m Ewan’s mom, Hazel. Ewan and my father have told me about you and Allissa. It’s good to finally meet and you, and I’m glad you’re both okay.”

Shaking himself, the man looked at Hazel, “Yes! Yes, thanks to you all, we’re both fine. My name is Benjamin, but you can call me Ben.”

“Ben, let’s get you and Allissa somewhere safe before we finish hunting the goblins,” Nolan suggested.

Ben nodded and waved the group forward as he picked up his daughter and walked hurriedly to their house, which was only a couple of houses down from where they had been attacked. Once the party confirmed that no goblins were hiding inside Ben’s house, they helped him secure all the windows and doors before heading back out in search of goblins.

After leaving Ben’s house the party wandered up and down streets for another twenty minutes not finding any more goblins.

“There has to be a better way to do this,” complained Nolan.

“Girls, I need a volunteer to climb on top of a building to look around and let us know what you find,” Arden said.

Ten minutes later they had located a three story building and were helping Hazel get onto the roof as quietly as they could. Once she was up there, Hazel quickly scanned the skyline looking any signs of goblins. As she looked across the roofs of the village she saw dozens of goblins moving about. She quickly relayed this to the rest of the group.

“If there’s so many of them, why can’t we find them?” Arden questioned.

“Because they’re avoiding us,” Nolan said coldly. “They’re ambush hunters. They’ve run or tried to run from us each time we’ve seen them tonight. The goblins want easy prey, something they can quickly overwhelm and move on.”

“Then we need to trick them,” Willow said with a grin.

“Got a plan, Willow?” Arden asked

“What if you all hide and let me walk down the street by myself? When they jump me, you all attack.”

“That’s a good idea, but I think we can improve on it,” Arden said while looking at his grandson.

“You’re not using my son as bait!” Hazel hissed as she climbed down from the roof.

“Why not? He’s proved that he can’t be hurt. How about you pick him up and run down the street, acting terrified? I bet that would pull quite a few of them.” Arden said

“Yeah, he can keep you safe until we get there,” Nolan added with a grin.

After another few minutes of discussion and the party had a plan.

Hazel, Willow, and Ewan walked hurriedly down the street. Nolan, Arden, Twix and Arlo followed behind them, hoping they were far enough back not to be noticed but close enough to be able to help in time.

By the time the girls made it a couple streets over, they were no longer pretending to be scared. Every noise had them jerking to look around. The goblins seemed to be picking up on their fear as a larger-than-expected group stalked them from the rooftops. Big enough that Arden and Nolan noticed them from the ground.

As they neared a main cross street with a fountain in the middle, Arden cast [Message] to Willow and told her to pretend to trip as she neared the fountain. When she did, the goblins swarmed out of the alleys and off the rooftops. Immediately Willow cast [Entangle] on the street to the north, causing vines to sprout from the ground and start grabbing the goblins. Hazel cast sleep on the group coming at her from the west. Arlo, Nolan and Arden charged in from the south, Arden's shield and momentum acting like a snow plow tossing goblins to the sides as Arlo, Twix, and Nolan finished them off. In moments the goblin force lost a dozen fighters with another couple dozen either tangled up or put to sleep. Some of the remaining goblins turned to run but a voice called out from a nearby rooftop in goblin, ordering them to stay and fight.

Soon more goblins begin to enter the area and the goblins Hazel had put to sleep started to wake. Willow and Hazel stood nearly back to back with Ewan between them, both throwing out all the magic they could. Arden, Nolan, Arlo, and Twix fought their way to the girls and helped keep the goblins back from them.

“I think this plan worked too well,” Willow said.

“I never expected them to commit this many at one time,” Nolan yelled

“Block me for a moment,” Arden called out as he stepped behind Arden. A golden glow surrounded his hand, and then everyone in the group one by one, providing some healing to everyone.

“Thanks dad," yelled Willow.

"You’re welcome. Someone put Ewan on Twix," Arden ordered. "Willow, tell Arlo that he and Twix are to take Ewan to Malusi’s home. Let’s get him out of here." Looking to Hazel, “I’m sorry. We should have dropped him off when we first returned to town.”

Hazel glanced back at her father and simply nodded before throwing another fire bolt at a goblin.

Willow grabbed her nephew and did what her father said. Arlo understood that Ewan was to be protected, but he did not want to leave Willow. He wanted her to come, too. At Willow's urging, though, he did as asked and led Twix to Malusi’s.

“Create an opening,” yelled Nolan.

Hazel turned and cast, putting a row of goblins to sleep and the wolves ran over them on their way out.

“Guys, I’m running out of magic,” called out Hazel.

“That’s why we’ve been training with weapons. Use that staff like a spear!” hollered back Nolan.

Everyone was getting tired. With each passing second they were killing half a dozen. Dead goblins were piling up around the party but more were still rushing them. The tide looked never ending.

The fighting continued for what felt like hours but was probably only fifteen minutes. The party was taking more and more hits as they slowed down. Hopelessness was starting to fill them.

Arden wasn’t even attacking any more but simply trying to block for his daughters and repeatedly casting heal spells as fast as his mana could recover. Then the sound of a horn pierced the night, and a dozen village guards came charging into the area from the west with Christi leading the group, sword in hand. An answering horn sounded from the east as another dozen guards, headed up by Training Sergeant Cliff moved forward.

The appearance of the guards seemed to give everyone a second wind. Arden let out a laugh and yelled, “Now y’all are really screwed!” as he surged forward and knocked several goblins down with his shield, giving his team some room to work.

The next few minutes were filled with goblin screams as they tried to retreat but were cut down to the last. Once they were sure all the gobs were dead, Nolan and Arden started healing the party and guards alike.

Christi approached the two with a frown. Before she can say anything, Arden spoke up, “Thank you, Captain, for your timely intervention. We could not have killed them all without taking some losses.”

Christi just nods before saying, “I’ve never seen goblins hold a line like that unless something was forcing them to. Have you found any hobgoblins with them?”

“No, ma’am. But they did have a leader,” Nolan responded. “He was on one of the buildings. We heard him shouting at them.”

Christi turned to her guards, "The goblin leader is still here somewhere. Spread out and find him!"

Arden held up a hand, “Captain, can we take him alive? We need to know where their tunnel is.”

"Nodding at Arden's request, the Guard Captain added, "Do not kill it. We need it alive to interrogate!"