Shadow (Paused and Undergoing MAJOR Editing)

Chapter Nine

"Yes. Yes, that's true!" His face lights up. "We can get him back!" Wittnor opens his mouth to say something, but shuts it abruptly, jerking

his head towards empty air. I'm about to ask him what he's doing, but then I see a flash of colour.

I freeze, and then cautiously yell, "Wittnor! Spray the air with water!" He obeys, and a group of goblins materialize in front of us, one carrying a can of some sort of spray, probably what they used to hide themselves. Athen Hisses at them, probably sensing danger. Stefan yelps. One of the creatures glares at me with its brown, ovalish eyes. I glare back, then notice that he and the other goblins all have vines wrapped around them, for some reason.

Vapor brandishes a sharp stick, and readies himself to use his abilities. I grip my daggers, ready to attack. A goblin wearing a crown of metals and crystals on his wrinkly, bald and yellow-brown-green head steps to the front of the group. This goblin must be their chief. He wears a crown of metal and crystals on his wrinkly, bald and yellow-brown and green head. Another opens its mouth, revealing yellow teeth. I think it's female. The leader begins to speak, and I smirk at his terrible english.

"Yous geeve us yur weh-pens. Den us spaaare yous. We will no fight." There is something nagging at the back of my head. Something about goblins... "Boot. If us spaare yous, yous will geeve us deh-mon, too." Stefan looks horrified.

"You wouldn't dare! I'll... Attack you!" he shrieks - which might have been threatening, if not for the fact that he is huddled behind Dracoponian.

Wittnor cocks his head, looking far too casual for the situation. "Riiiiight. Why would we trust you? Knowing your species, you'll just feed us a lie." He says, shrugging as if he means nothing by it. Then it clicks. Goblins never tell the truth in situations like these. Or very often, if I was being honest. "Anyways, we'd never give Stefan to the likes of you!" I snort. "You don't know anything about friends, do you?"

A goblin raises its fist, showing brown nails, and yells, "AIPRALAE!", with an oily accent, which just causes us to glance at each other in confusion. The goblin looks disappointed, as if he was looking for more of a reaction. After a few seconds of silence, a goblin with twitchy ears slaps the original goblin and declares, "Ideeit. DEY CAN NO UNDASTAND!" The original goblin looks back with a blank expression, scratching behind his ears with his noticeably brown nails. Twitchy Ears sighs, murmuring something unintelligible under his breath before he hisses, "He meen... ATTACK!"

The goblin horde stampedes us. Stefan scratches one with his demon claws. Dracoponian freezes one goblin with a blast of icy breath. Athena and Vapor duel with separate goblins back-to-back, each taking on two goblins. Pustyn bites the strongest goblin, other than the leader, on the neck, and it cries out in agony, it's beady eyes watering. Durpner slams two goblin's heads together, knocking them unconscious. I knock them out one at a time with my daggers, quickly going through them. The Chief bellows something, and instead of trying to hurt us, they trap us with vines that also wrap around them. They whip them around with alarming speed, and then tie the group up, except for Stefan, Durpner, and I.

"So... I have no idea who you are, but... any chance you can leave us alone?" Stupid Stefan asks, still dodging the vines. He's certainly an idiot. Crown Head looks slightly confused as he shakes his head, an expression that seems to be both amused and determined sliding onto his face. With a sudden burst of strength, about ten goblins who were previously lying on the floor and presumed to be unconscious jump up and step into battle formation.

Rage bubbles up deep inside me. It couldn't end like this, trapped and then killed... Or whatever they plan to do with us. The rage grows, trickling into a sort of dull admission - and yet there's a part of me that wants to keep fighting. A part of me that turns to a feeling, a feeling which spreads across my core, prickling every inch of my skin. Exposing a raw nerve. My thoughts are cut off as a flame suddenly sparks on the leaf-covered ground.