Ghost of a Forgotten Past

Chapter 17- Now You See Me Now You Don't

Nathaniel's party was busy gathering everything they needed for the attack. That they didn't notice the Dibbles nicking off with bits of their food for a while. One minute there was the pattering of tiny feet the next silence and a roll of bread was gone, and again the pattering would start followed by small quiet giggles and another food article would have disappeared. The third time they noticed this happening, they caught a glimpse of green skin the swish of fern fronds and the mysterious disappearance of the food. "What is happening?" spat Beau who was Marseth's ungrateful brother, who had returned to despising him and reverted back to his cruel ways in spite of the lashing he had received from Lanora for raising a hand to his baby brother. "I think we have some little thieves in our camp" answered Dain spotting the little frog like foot prints "and my guess is it's a pack of hunter Dibble's" he continued standing and dusting the snow off his knees.

"Great that's all we need" complained Felix grabbing his supply bag and making sure it was good and tight at the tie. But this didn't stop them, once they had their backs turned the dibbles struck again dropping from the tree branches and cutting the chord to the bag, one kept watch while another buried his head in the bag searching for something deliciously edible to steal. Falcon turned just enough to see them and nudged Jim in the ribs, he circled around while dibble one was watching falcon he didn't even hear Jim creeping stealthily around the thick trunked tree, but he was spotted by dibble number three in the tree, "look out one's behind you" called a squeaky voice full of cheek from somewhere high up in the leafy canopy. "Oh great there's more of them" said a very angry Felix lunging at the bag and trapping the dibble who had his head buried in the contents, still rummaging around. As Felix lifted the bag up the dibble squealed and drew his little sword and cut a big slice in the side of the bag and all the contents spilled out all over the ground along with the very annoyed dibble who had been stuck in the bag, he growled but Felix just dropped the bag back on his head, "you were the one who was stealing so I'm the one who should be growling" he blurted out screwing his face into a scowl.

The dibble stuck out his tongue and then disappeared taunting "can't catch me, can't catch me slow slugs!" he popped up on one branch yelled "slugs" then vanished to appear on another, it was just like what Lanora did to King Kane's men through the Slate Plains. One minute they saw one dibble the next they saw nothing, "this is ridiculous, Take what you already have and then leave we can't afford to lose anything else or lose men to injury or death" negotiated Nathaniel to the laughing taunting creatures. "Why my I ask, can you not afford it Mister?" inquired the leader of the party curious for none of them really knew why these people were in their forest because they hadn't been to this part of the forest for at least seven months because it was too close to where king Kane was spotted coming and going from the forest. "Because we are on our way to meet Kane's force on the battle field, I thought everyone knew about this up rising to over throw the throne" explained Nathaniel. The dibble turned to its five companions and they huddled into a tight group, all that Nathaniel and the rest herd were a few squeaky words here and there, like "truth, cost, why, ok, yes, history", the small group broke apart and the one wearing the crest on his arm spoke "we will accompany you on your quest, we will return to our village and bring our forces along to this quarrel".

"Thank you, your blades and skill will be much appreciated and the reward will be great if we achieve victory" announced Nathaniel accepting the Dibbles proposal and as soon as he said this, the dibbles whizzed away so fast that the humans didn't even know which direction they had gone. "Dam they took most of our bread, but on the plus side they will fight and with their speed we are sure to have some sort of advantage" said Jim examining what was left of their scarce supplies. "Let's just get moving" said Nathaniel, and at that point Ivory came trotting through the trees with Phantom, "I forgot to tell you that Shadow will be leading the attack on his dragon, and miss Lanora will not be coming for she was injured on her way to the council" he explained to the surprised men, "but didn't Shadow go missing?" asked Bane confused, "yes he did go missing, but he turned up a day before Lanora's arrival at the great cave hall, it was quite interesting really" said Ivory as if he was recalling something that may have happened in the near past.