General Graten was able to stop the confrontation with the Goblins that afternoon. But a confrontation with the Goblins was bound to come sooner or later, and it eventually came two days later.
This time, it wasn’t Henry who started it. It was Jason. The Goblins were harassing Eric, his five year old son, pushing him to the ground, and laughing at him as he tried to walk. Jason pulled out his sword and charged at the goblins. He swung wildly. Several of them were cut, a few deeply.
This was the confrontation that the Goblins had been trying to provoke all along, and they’d be waiting for this for days. Now they pulled out their knives and their swords and began calling to each other. Goblins came running from other rooms and from other hallways. Jason pushed his son Eric behind him, to try to shield the boy behind him, and started walking backwards to try to avoid the goblin hordes. He swung his sword to try to fend them off.
Henry heard the commotion and came running into the fray, swinging his sword as well. Again, the Goblins immediately scattered. Henry, having run all the way over, was too excited at this point to simply stop when he saw the Goblins retreating, and he ran after them swinging his sword wildly. He dealt several of them deep cuts across their buttocks and backs, and the Goblins howled in pain and anger. However, as soon as they were out of range of Henry’s sword, they began to regroup again. Grace was now beside Henry, and she began firing her arrows at the Goblins. She wounded several of them, and pinned others to the walls.
It was at this point that General Graten arrived on the scene. He ran over and yelled at Henry and Grace to stop fighting. The Goblins saw Graten insert himself into the middle of the fight and they knew they were forbidden to harm him by Catherine. But at this point, it was too late. Everyone was too far worked up at this point for the fight to be stopped. Many of the Goblins had been wounded by sword cuts or arrows, and they were too incensed to stop. In frustration, General Graten did what he always did, and gave a couple of well-placed kicks. His boots were tough, as always, and they sent a few of the goblins flying backwards. And then, when the Goblins howled their revenge, General Graten drew his sword, and joined Grace, Henry and Jason.
The noise of the battle grew bigger and bigger, and began attracting more and more people. Robert, when he saw that Grace was in trouble, ran over to help her. And then Thomas also came running. Pretty soon Charles and George and Rufus had joined in the fight.
The humans gave a good show for themselves. They swung their swords, they used their shields, and Grace kept shooting her arrows. The Goblins kept retreating, but then re-forming and advancing again. The problem was there were just too many Goblins to fight. No matter how many of them got knocked down, more just kept appearing.
King Grinthal himself, who had been absent when the fight broke out (he had been in the cellars gorging himself on food), soon arrived and started shouting orders to his men. The humans slowly retreated down the hall.
The women of the castle, aside from Grace, tried to keep out of the fight, but once they emerged from their rooms to see what was going on, the Goblins attacked them as well. The Goblins were so worked up at this point that they regarded all humans as enemies.
In the Royal Family, it had long been regarded as a male role to fight in battles, but because of tradition, all the women of the family had received the same combat training that the males had. (The tradition dated back to the time when monsters roamed the forest, and the royal family had to fight them.) So when the Goblins did start attacking, they were able to grab weapons and fight back. Most of them had weapons in their rooms that they were able to grab easily. Amanda grabbed a shield and a mace off the wall of her room, and with her shield she blocked the Goblin attacks, and with her mace she swung back and forth, hitting Goblins and sending them through the air. Alicia grabbed a wooden staff, which she had often trained with, and swung it from side to side, sending Goblins sprawling. She also, as she had been trained to do, occasionally stuck the staff in the ground and used it to balance herself against as she kicked her legs up to strike at the Goblins.
And similarly many other members of the royal family joined in the same way, while they tried to shield the younger children.
“Try to get the King,” Henry shouted. “Just like King Carlyle did before.”
Grace shot an arrow at Grinthal, but missed. General Graten tried to fight his way through the Goblins to grab Grinthal, but they swarmed at him from all angles, and he had to retreat back to the group--although not before he had kicked several of the Goblins.
Slowly, they were forced back against the wall. The Goblin knives were sharp, and several of them got knicks and cuts, although nobody was seriously injured.
Vivian arrived on the scene just at the moment that the Goblins were threatening to overwhelm them. She saw their knives come out, and her son Robert got stabbed in the back of the leg by one of the Goblins.
Vivian yelled out in fear and anger at seeing the Goblins attacking her son. Suddenly, the light in the hallway seemed to dim. It was the afternoon, and the hallway had been brightly lit by the sun. But when Vivian yelled, the light suddenly dimmed. Or more precisely, the light moved. A bright ball of light was concentrated now right over Vivian’s head, while the rest of the hallway was dim. Everyone stopped fighting to see what was happening. Then, Vivian yelled again, and the light went out. This huge burst of energy came out from her, and knocked everyone in the hallway down--human as well as Goblin. Vivian screamed again, and once more the light in the hallway dimmed, and a ball formed over her head. Then, when she let out one more scream of anger, it came out twice as forcefully. It hit everyone, but because the Goblins were smaller and lighter, it sent them flying through the air. The humans only stood there as if hit by a strong gust of wind.
“Well done my dear,” came a voice, and Catherine appeared out of nowhere. She had been invisible the whole time during the fight, but now that Vivian had revealed her powers, she made herself appear again “Well done. I’ve never seen such control in someone who was untrained. It feels better to let it all out, doesn’t it?”
Vivian didn’t answer, but collapsed into a chair. She was breathing hard, and glaring at Catherine.
“You didn’t expect any of that to happen, did you? You just screamed in anger, and the magic took place by itself. Now, imagine what you could do if you actually learned some incantations so you could control and direct your power.”
“I don’t want your help,” Vivian said.
“But it’s too late to pretend that you don’t have the power,” said Catherine. “They’ve all seen it now. They know. you can’t keep it a secret any longer.”
“No,” said Vivian. “I can’t. So I will leave this castle, and never come back.”
“But why? Because you’re ashamed of your magic? But it’s nothing to be ashamed of. You saw what you did. And you feel better, now, don’t you? You feel like there’s been a great release--like you’ve been holding in all that power for too long. This is what you could be feeling all the time, if you only learned to use the magic.”
But Vivian was already walking out the castle door.
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