Shakil and Ariana scrambled back to the mouth of the cave and joined Milius and Sirius. In one swift movement, all four swords were drawn and pointed at the dark shape crumpled on the floor. It rose slowly, rubbing its head, then it slumped against the wall.

“What the hell is goin’ on?” the figure cried. It had a strangely high-pitched, warble-like voice.

“Who are you?” Sirius demanded.

“Who am I?” the figure repeated incredulously. “Who am I? Who are you? What are y’all doin’ in my —?” The voice stopped abruptly. There was silence for a few seconds, then the figure stood upright. It seemed to be a very short, immensely fat man with a bald head. It stepped forward, and almost instinctively, the Knights stepped back.

“I should’a known — Dragonknights!” it said in disgust. “Always Dragonknights!” It continued to walk — or waddle, Milius thought was more appropriate — forward, muttering darkly, as though it didn't even notice the four blades aimed at it. Then it ducked under their arms and stepped into the sunlight. Ariana gasped.

The figure had wrinkled, pale green skin, black, white-less eyes, a long nose like a snout, long pointed ears, and small, sharp fangs.

“A goblin,” Shakil said, looking both awed and frightened.

“Tha’s righ’, pretty boy!” it said proudly. “Name's Parluck. So, you'd be the new gen, eh?”

“Uh — I guess, yeah —”

“Not very good choices, eh?” Parluck said conversationally, stroking his leathery chin with a long green finger and regarding them with his pitch-black eyes. “This one, wit’ the screamin’,” he said, pointing at Shakil. “Any other Knight would’a chopped my head clean off! And uh,” it added, fixing its black eyes upon Milius, “this one need to take his formula before he goes off to fight?”

Milius lowered his sword, affronted; sunlight struck the jeweled hilt, casting a faint lilac glow, which Parluck noticed. “Palpatunde, eh? What's Calder thinkin’, eh, givin’ a sword like that to an infant?” Parluck shook his head.

But Milius no longer felt indignant. On the contrary, he was brimming with eagerness. “Wait, do you know what this thing does?” he said, raising the sword.

“Don’ tell me you don’ know!” Parluck cried, looking scandalized. Milius shook his head. “That Calder — how’s he expect you to protect the town when he don’ even tell you what your weapon does? And you don’ have no idea at all?” he added, looking suspicious.

Milius shook his head again. Parluck sighed and looked around, then, apparently finding what he was looking for, he gestured for Milius to step forward. All too eagerly he did, but Sirius roughly pushed him back.

“Are you serious? You're just going to trust this — this thing?” he asked. “You heard what Aaron said, monsters live in these woods.”

“Monsters, eh?” Parluck said coldly. “That old codger — never liked him…. Anyway, definitely got some monsters in these parts, but I'm not one of ‘em, see? Got no time to be terrorizing humans; prefer to spend my time sleepin’, see? Anyway, come on, all ‘a you. I'll tell you what your swords do, if you don’ know.”

Sirius opened his mouth to respond, but Milius hissed, “Didn't you want to find out what Vulcatrix does? This is your perfect opportunity!” and he closed it. Though he still looked reluctant, he followed them out of the cave and further into the woods. Parluck stopped in front of a tall, thick oak tree.

“Ah, a nice big ‘un!” he said happily. “You — the baby — stick your sword here.”

“W-what?” Milius said, bemused.

“Stab the tree, boy,” Parluck said impatiently.

Slowly, reluctantly, and feeling slightly stupid, he walked forward and plunged the sword — in a rather awkward movement — into the oak’s trunk. For a second nothing seemed to be happening. Milius was about to note this, when he looked back at the tree, and gasped.

All at once the tree's leaves started yellowing, then browning, and the trunk and its branches began to wither and blacken.

“What —?”

“The sword siphons life energy, boy,” Parluck said, smirking, “the very essence of existence. It runs through every livin’ thin’. That blade touches somethin’, and it starts pullin’ the life energy from it. It doesn' stop until —”

The tree, as though on cue, exploded into a cloud of black dust, which quickly faded.

“— poof!” Parluck finished, a satisfied look on his unsightly face. “I’s not really dyin’, no. This is worse. They fade, see, cease to exist.”

Sirius, Shakil, and Milius all gaped, open-mouthed, but Ariana was staring grimly at the empty space where the tree stood only seconds ago; she looked quite uncomfortable.

“Pick it up, boy,” Parluck said. The sword had fallen amid the cloud of black dust when the tree had disappeared. Still gaping, Milius complied. The sword was now vibrating so violently that he almost dropped it, and the shining surface of the blade was emitting a blinding light. “That's the energy thrummin’ around in it. Nasty thin’ that blade. You!” he added sharply, pointing at Shakil, who jumped. “Pretty boy. That sword, Oceannerva, if you stick the point in the ground, then —”

“NO!” all four Knights shrieked, causing a flock of birds in a nearby tree to fly off in alarm.

“I — I already know what it does,” Shakil said quickly, in response to Parluck’s puzzled look.

He shrugged. “Fine. Girly” — Ariana flinched as he pointed her out — “know what your sword does?”

“Well —”

“No?” Parluck said forcefully, fixing her with his steely, black gaze.

“No,” she said in a small voice.

“No shame in it, girl. For one thing, that blade increases the wielder’s speed, mobility, and reflexes significantly.”

Which would explain why Ariana’s movements had become so fast during her fight with Sirius, Milius thought.

“And also,” Parluck continued, “it makes the air around the wielder — heavier — more dense, creating a kind of shield. Not too powerful though — works on mostly low to moderate scale attacks…. We could try it out … might not work though, may end up killin’ you.” Ariana stiffened. “Bah! Anyway, you can also use the air around you as a sort of extension of your weapon — use it offensively, I mean.

“And Burly,” he said, turning finally to Sirius who, despite his earlier skepticism, was now looking excited and expectant. “Ah, Vulcatrix. My personal favourite, if you believe it. See that sword —”

But much to Sirius’s dismay, the rest of the goblin's words were drowned out by a series of roars that shook the very ground.

“What was that?” Milius said loudly.

“Monsters!” Parluck said brightly. “Sounds like a lot ‘a them, too.” He turned to Sirius. “Tell you what, Burly, I'll explain what Vulcatrix does if you survive this.”

“Wait!” Shakil cried. “You can help us, can't you? Give us a place to hide?”

“Ah but wha’s the fun in that?” Parluck said with an evil smile. He pointed a slick, green finger ahead of them. They looked to where he was pointing; the faint thundering of many heavy feet was growing louder with every second. When they looked back, they saw that Parluck was gone.

“I knew we shouldn't have trusted him!” Sirius said furiously. “Come on, we have to move! Now!”

No one even thought to protest. All four of them shot off in the opposite direction, the jewels in their sword hilts gleaming, tearing as fast as they could away from where the sound was coming from. They ran for several minutes, panting, clutching at stitches in their chests, but they didn't stop.

They reached the area where the Elders had left them, which had been destroyed by Oceannerva. As they carefully wove their way around the devastation, Sirius caught sight of something.

“What are you doing?” Milius hissed, as Sirius stopped beside a particularly large crack.

“There's something down here!” Sirius said, pointing into the crevice. Sure enough they saw it; something golden glinting down inside what looked like an underground chamber.

“What do you think it is?” Ariana asked.

“Who cares!” Shakil said. “We're running from monsters, we don't have time to —!”

Several beasts, some scaly, some furry, all large and staring at them with eyes full of hatred, emerged from the woods. One of them hissed, spraying the ground with a kind of acidic spit.

“Into the hole!” Milius shouted. And without even considering what would happen next, they plunged into the darkness.