It wasn’t long before the castle was filled with goblins.
Goblins everywhere.
Grace and Henry and Robert could hardly walk down the hall without tripping over a goblin.
Even General Graten, who was still in negotiations with Catherine about his new role in her administration, hated the goblins that filled the halls of the castle. They were always under foot wherever he walked. And they were the rudest creatures imaginable. They were always making rude comments about his appearance, or laughing with their annoying high pitched laughs.
It wasn’t long before he lost patience with them entirely. Even though he was supposed to be allied with them, he started lashing out. He would angrily kick at one when he would find them underfoot.
Goblins, although they are small in stature, are not to be underestimated. They aren’t much of a threat individually, but they seldom fight individually. They usually swarm their opponent. And their knives and swords--although short--are not any less sharp because they are small. Not to mention their sharp teeth and claws--which they also use readily as weapons. So one human has little chance against a swarm of goblins armed with sharp knives and swords. This has been the death of many a brave knight who made the mistake of underestimating the goblins.
Initially, when General Graten started angrily kicking goblins, it looked as if he would be swarmed by him. But Catherine put it out that he was not to be harmed, and so the goblins were not allowed to fight back. So they were left with no recourse other than to whimper painfully when he kicked them, or (as was beginning to happen more and more) to just scatter when they saw him angrily trudging down the hallway.
Also more and more was that General Graten was hardly even seen without a goblet of wine in his hand. This was reminiscent of his old habits at King Richard’s court, where he used to constantly walk around the castle half-drunk. He had had a long period of enforced sobriety in the forest once the wine ran out, but now Catherine had begun supplying his wine.
(General Graten had by this point accepted Catherine as a potential ally, and had stopped worrying that she was going to poison his wine cup. And Catherine was happy to keep him supplied with wine.)
So it was that General Graten terrorized the Goblins. But if General Graten was able to successfully terrorize the Goblins, that did not mean that the rest of the castle inhabitants were able to get away with this. They had to put up with all the rude words and all the pranks that the goblins loved to enact. And when the Goblins were in a bad mood because of a kicking from General Graten, then they took it out on the rest of the members of the castle.
The Goblins were harassing young Susan one afternoon, pulling at her hair and scratching at her legs as she tried to walk down the hall. Susan got so scared and frightened that she started crying. Henry, Robert and Grace were all in the hall at that time and saw what was going on and pulled out his sword and ran to help Susan. The Goblins initially scattered when they saw Henry running toward them with his sword, but they quickly regrouped and began to unsheath their own weapons.
Grace ran up to stand by Henry and Susan. Like her brother, Grace had started walking around the castle halls armed, so she was carrying her bow and had her arrows on her back. She fitted the arrows to the bow while she stood next to Henry. Robert also ran up next to them.
But before the Goblins could try to swarm them, General Graten came down the hall, and the Goblins scattered.
“Haven’t I taught you anything,” General Graten angrily yelled at Henry. “Don’t start fights you know you can’t win.”
“I could have held them off,” said Henry. “I would have sliced through the whole group of them with my sword. Besides,what was I supposed to do?”he asked. “Just let them attack Susan?”
“The Goblins have to be endured for now,” said General Graten.
For once, Grace took Henry’s side. “Fine talk from the man who walks around kicking them everywhere.”
General Graten laughed derisively. “You think Prince Henry and I are alike? There’s a difference between Prince Henry and I, and it’s an important one. I pick fights because I like fighting. I’ve never had any illusions that I was being noble or saving anyone.”
“This castle is becoming intolerable,” said Grace. “I’d be happier sleeping outside in the forest. We can take our chances with the ghosts. I can’t get any peace with these goblins anywhere.”
“My father says to stay here,” said Robert. “It’s easier for him to communicate with us if we stay in the castle.”
“Your father can find us anywhere in the forest,” said Grace. “And I hate it here. Let’s go out and try to find somewhere else to stay.”
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