Lady Katheryn was being co-operative… at least for now… and the boy seemed to be focussed on watching the flanks, as I had asked. He won’t be much use as he can’t see in the dark like goblins can… but it will hopefully keep him from freaking out.

  There were only two major areas that were going to be a problem when sneaking out. The first was going the be the food store room where I had found the leg. That room always has goblins passing through… and the various corpses are likely to cause at least one of these two to panic. Regardless, we need to pass through it. The other is a guard post, the first room in the tunnel, if we can make it through those, we should be fine.

  Before we left, I covered both of them in the blood of the dead goblins to mask their scents. Which neither of them were particularly happy about… but needs must. Hiding in the shadows would do them no good if their scents were still prominent. Then we made our move. We slowly moved through the narrow passageways, hiding in shadowy crevasses to avoid any passing goblins.

  Then we got to the food store. Katheryn nearly threw up at the sight of it. Fortunately, the boy didn’t seem to realise that most of the body parts were human. He was so focussed on watching the flanks that he didn’t factor in much else… ordinarily I would say that’s a bad thing… you always need to be aware of your surroundings… but I think if he realised what we were passing through… he would not have handled it well.

  We moved from one bloody pile to the next… using them as cover. I could see Katheryn was struggling to keep it together… tears were falling down her face and she kept having to swallow her vomit. We made it through that room safely… then it was just the guard post.

  That room had four goblins posted in it when I came in. Not much of an obstacle for a party… but even if just one were able to sound the alarm, then Katheryn would have been killed or used as a human shield. Phoenix was right when she said sending me in to get her out first was her best chance.

  A party could easily take these four goblins. But I would hardly call this a party. The boy is at best a distraction with that rock… and lady Katheryn… well… she seems too terrified to be of any combat use… and even if she wasn’t terrified then I doubt she has any training… women of her standing rarely do.

  This room lacks any kind of cover for us to hide behind, which complicates matters. I opted to distract the guards, while Katheryn and Tadwick quietly passed through. I had collected some food from the food store as we passed it, so I was at least somewhat prepared.

  I stepped out of the shadows and into the torchlight of the goblins.

  Goblin 1: “Why you pass?”

  Dwynfel: “Scout ahead.”

  Goblin 2: “Too much food for scout.”

  Dwynfel: “Me hungry.”

  Goblin 1: Drop food.”

  This is simply them trying to get extra food for themselves… nothing more. Fortunately, it has very much drawn their attention towards me… the smell of food should also override the smell of those two.

  Disembodied Voice: “Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh”

  Oh shit… it knows of the escape. The whole cave is shaking as it screeches… it’s ear splitting… I feel like my ears are bleeding. Katheryn dropped her spear, crouched on the floor, and covered her ears. The goblins noticed the spear drop… shit.

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  Goblin 3: Woman… escape!”

  The goblins began to advance towards her… I was able to slice two of their throats open, but the third goblin noticed and jumped me… the fourth goblin advanced towards Katheryn.

  Shit… I can’t protect her and defend myself right now. The goblin advancing towards me has a short sword… difficult for a goblin to wield in one hand… he will likely use two… right… remember… just concentrate on not getting hit and getting as many cuts in as possible… blood loss will slow him down and I can concentrate on the other one.

  He was quicker with the sword than I anticipated… he must have had some practice with it. It wasn’t difficult to dodge him but I couldn’t break combat to stop the other one. It got closer and closer to Katheryn. When suddenly a rock smashed off its head.

  Tadwick: “Leave her alone!”

  Goblin 4: “Child out too… master be not happy… back to cage!”

  The goblin began to ignore Katheryn and headed after the boy. The boy was scrabbling around on the floor, looking around for another rock to throw. I had managed to cut the other goblin six times… twice on the left hip, once on the thigh, once on the cheek and once on each arm. He still showed no signs of slowing down. This goblin was determined.

  Dwynfel: “Katheryn… the boy! He needs you! Snap out of it!”

  Katheryn was still covering her ears and crying. The goblin picked the boy up by his hair and he screamed almost as loud as that horrific creature had a few moments earlier. This is bad… before they just knew about the escape… now they definitely know where we are. They will be coming soon.

  Fortunately, his scream seemed to bring Katheryn back to reality… she picked the spear up of the floor and smashed the goblin over the head with it… not strictly speaking the ideal use of a spear… but it caused him to drop the boy. She kept beating the goblin in the head with the spear as if it were a club… screaming and crying the entire time. As if all of the anger she had built up since being captured was finally being let out.

  By the time the goblin I was fighting had slowed down enough for me to finish him off, she had smashed its skull into oblivion. She was covered in blood and pieces of brain… like, way more than I had used to cover her scent.

  Dwynfel: “My lady… we need to leave!”

  She continued smashing the spear off the ground… where the goblin’s head ceased to be.

  Katheryn: “They need to die!”

  Dwynfel: “And they will… but the three of us can’t do it… we need to leave… now!”

  The boy had picked up his rock and grabbed her by the leg… she freaked out and went to hit him but stopped herself at the last second. Her breathing was heavy and laboured, the blood dripped from the spear… and from her. It is a good thing I was not the one who grabbed her… I doubt she would have stopped herself upon seeing my face. She dropped the spear to the floor once again and almost collapsed… as if that outburst of rage had drained everything she had left.

  I could hear the other goblins advancing through the cave towards us, so I rushed over, pulled her arm around my shoulder, and began running out of there as quickly as possible. As we made it out of the cave, Agaroth instantly threw a blanket over her and took her over to one side and Phoenix unleashed a terrifyingly large fire spell down the cave entrance… anything following us would have been obliterated by it.

  I grabbed the boy and carried him over to Kiyui.

  Kiyui: “You said all the children would be dead.”

  Dwynfel: “Teleport yourself and him away from here, right now!”

  Kiyui: “What? Where to?”

  Dwynfel: “Anywhere that isn’t here… just do it now!”

  Kiyui: “Ok, ok. But it’ll take time.”

  Dwynfel: “We’ll cover you. Phoenix… where’s my armour?”

  Phoenix gestured to the pile of my belongings that was lying on the ground. I don’t think I have ever put my armour on so fast in my life.

  Phoenix: “What’s going on, Dwynfel?”

  Asmodeus: “Yes… What is going on? Goblin!”