Crown Quest: A Beatles Adventure

Chapter Seven

    Smoke was all he could smell and it burned his lungs when he breathed. Ringo started coughing, squinting against the black smoke that hung heavy in the air.

    "If anyone's in there, they're beyond help," John said, snagging his arm. "Come on. Let's . . . Let's just pretend we didn't see this."

    "No," George said firmly. "Someone might need help."

    Paul eyed the university's towers that were in flames. "That's a lot of money going up."

    "That's what you're thinking of right now?" George scolded. "How much that place costed to build?"

    "How did it happen?" Cynthia asked.

    "Maybe some moron tried to burn his homework and it got out of control," John said with a shrug.

    "No," Ringo said quietly. "That's what caused it." He pointed to the goblins that were lighting random objects on fire and hurling it at the university, cackling like seeing a college burn down was a comedy.

    Olivia raised her fists. "They're going down."

    "Downtown," Linda added with a smirk.

    Stu nodded.

    "Listen," Paul said. "We need to think about this rationally. We need a thorough, tactful plan that makes perfect sense."

    "Or we could just charge," John pointed out.

    "Works for me," Ringo said, and tore out for the goblins. He grabbed a nearby log that was on fire and swung it at the nearest goblin. The goblin shrieked and fell to the ground, clutching its flaming hair. Apparently it didn't know the stop-drop-and-roll technique, because it just screamed on the ground with its black hair charring away.

    The other goblins stopped what they were doing and slowly turned to him, green eyes blazing. They screamed and charged at him. Ringo attempted to transform but found that he didn't have enough room because of the nearby trees. He threw the still flaming log at one of them before turning and running.

    He could hear the distant yells of the others as they dealt with the other goblins, too consumed in their own fighting to think about what Ringo was doing. He almost collided with a tree and veered out of the way just in time for it to only clip his shoulder. Pain flared through his arm and he sucked in a sharp breath.

    One of the goblins clawed at his back with the talons it had for fingernails. Ringo dodged it, not even wanting to know what kind of diseases that thing had. He shuddered at the thought of catching one.

    "Hey!" shouted a voice. Ringo and the goblins both halted immediately, looking to the right where the voice had come from. A girl with dark long hair was standing with a rose in hand, dark eyes blazing. She took a step toward the goblins and they scurried backward, eyeing the rose with wariness.

    "Back!" she said, lunging forward suddenly.

    The goblins cried out and bolted away.

    Ringo looked at the girl and felt his face heat up. "Thanks."

    "Don't mention it," she said, handing him the rose.

    "How did it work?" he asked, looking down at it in his hands. "Why didn't they like this rose?"

    "Goblins don't like flowers," she said. "I'm Maureen."

    "Ringo."

    "Nice to meet you."

    "Did you study at the, uh . . . " He gestured to the flaming building behind him.   

    "Yes. I was a scholar. I study creatures," she explained, looking mournfully at the college.