Chapter 40: Chaotic Defence, Desperate Attack

“Stop the cart if you can, Etienne!” called Alcar. Etienne was already moving towards the driver’s seat, and on his second attempt, he managed to grab hold of the reins.

Still clinging to the side of the bucking vehicle, Alcar turned and stooped to fling first his staff and then Olynka’s bow and quiver of arrows off the back of the cart, and then he leaped off after, stumbling as he hit the ground, tripping, falling, and then rolling on the hillside. “Oww!”

He then heard an inquiring ”Woof?” Brutus was beside him, having landed in an ungainly-looking way, but unlike Alcar, the dog was still on his feet.

Alcar picked himself, up, his heart pounding, and looked over towards Kora and Olynka, some fifty yards away from him now. They were both now standing back to back, with eight goblins around them. Leppie stood around ten feet away from the scene, crouched with knife in hand, but powerless to intervene.

Just then Alcar heard a crash from behind him. He turned to see that the wagon, having careered forward for another few dozen yards, had struck a boulder just below the cliffs. Planks flew in all directions as the front, two wheels and one entire side of the vehicle were rapidly reduced to a useless pile of firewood.

The remnants of the wagon then ground to a halt, but the surviving pony broke free from its harness and ran onwards... with Etienne still holding the reins. “Shit!” cried Alcar, as he saw the halfling bouncing away across the rough ground on his front, clinging desperately on to the narrow strip of leather.

But there were more pressing matters. Alcar gathered up his staff as well as Olynka’s bow and arrows, and then began to run towards their goblin attackers. There was nothing else for it, Alcar thought, although he knew that he would be almost as useless with the staff as he would be with the bow. And with Olynka surrounded by goblins, it would be far from easy to get her bow to her.

As he ran on towards the scene, panting hard, Alcar saw that fighting had been broken out once again. Olynka punched one goblin and knocked it to the ground, and Kora parried a knife blow from another and then riposted, thrusting her sword through its stomach. But before Alcar could reach them, the two young women were overwhelmed. Two goblins grabbed Olynka’s legs, upending her. Soon enough, four of the vile creatures were holding her up in the air, one clutching at each limb. A goblin then grabbed Kora’s arms from behind while another struck her firmly in the head with a spiked club. She slumped to the ground, dropping the sword, which was rapidly scooped up by another of the attackers.

“Ayaaahh!” yelled Alcar, breaking into a sprint. He now dropped the bow to the grass and raised his staff in both hands, ready to strike.

Kora was now being dragged away towards the road, but Olynka, still conscious, was struggling to good effect. As Alcar approached, she pulled one of her feet free and then rammed her heel into the face of the goblin that had been holding it. As the creature stumbled backwards, Leppie charged in and stabbed her knife into the goblin’s back. It slumped down, a shocked look upon its face.

And then Alcar was there. He brought his staff down onto the outstretched arms of one of the remaining three goblins that were holding Olynka, and heard a satisfying ’crack’ as the the sturdy weapon struck down and broke at least one bone. The goblin stumbled back, screaming, and then fled after its comrades who had dragged Kora to the road.

The remaining two goblins that were holding Olynka – now finding themselves outnumbered – let her go and pulled out short swords. A standoff began to emerge, as the two creatures backed slowly away after their comrades on the road, while Alcar and Leppie advanced warily towards them.

“Olynka – your bow!” called Alcar. “It’s back there on the grass. I had to drop it. If you shoot them, we can turn this around.”

“Okay, man.”

As his friend ran back, Alcar glanced around to check that she was going in the direction, only to see the unexpected sight of Etienne, astride the remaining pony. Somehow the halfling had clung on, and what’s more, had got himself up on top of the pony. He was now riding it bareback. “I’ll get them!” shrieked the halfling, wild-eyed as he rode hard towards the pair of goblins.

The goblins saw Etienne and the pony just in time. Both of them turned to run; one towards the road and the other along the grass. Alcar was unsure how much control the halfling actually had over the beast that he was riding, but whether by accident or design, the second goblin was trampled down as the pony continued along the grass in more or less a straight line. It proceeded to trample over the wounded warg, too, before Etienne finally leaped from the saddle again, and pulled hard at the remains of the pony’s harness to finally bring the creature to a halt.

And just like that, it was all over. Olynka returned to the scene in time to nock an arrow and send one, two, three shots at the nearest of the retreating goblins, the last of which caught the vile creature in the small of the back. Etienne pulled the reluctant pony over to their gathering to join them.

But the group that had been holding the unconscious Kora were now almost out of sight, racing back up the road the same way the companions had come.

Towards the borderlands.