Door to the Mist

Chapter 4

    The new day dawned with good news, the goblins had been driven from the gate after a long fight with the archers on the battlements.

    John accompanied Jay to the forge to have the dents in his armor repaired, before heading down to the market. They wandered aimlessly, examining everything, but buying nothing.

    Jay remained in thoughtful silence throughout their venture. Finally he spoke.  “I wonder how much action we’re going to be seeing now that the goblins are gathering.”

    “I don’t know,” John replied, “but I hope it’s soon. I’m going to save up for a custom spear I drew once back in grade school. It’s got a long broad tip with some short axe blades that curve inward instead of outward like most do.”

    “That sounds cool,” Jay began to show interest. “I’m thinking about having special blade attachments made for my bow. It would be expensive, since it needs to be flexible so it doesn’t inhibit my shooting, and still be hard enough to parry and cut.”

    “True, but then you could use your bow like a staff. Let me know if you do that, and I’ll show you some tactics.”

    “That sounds fun,” said a new voice behind them.

    Catrina stepped forward, carrying a deadly looking blade, “I had this made after breakfast,” she said. “You probably didn’t notice, but I was with the group that saved you from that miserable mob of goblins yesterday, Jay.”

    Her new sword was a single four foot blade with the handle set into the back of the blade instead of the bottom. It tapered down to a narrow point at the bottom tip where the hilt would be. This meant that parrying was a matter of deflecting the opponent’s weapon rather than catching it.

   “Impressive,” John looked amazed.  “Where did you come up with something like that?”

     Catrina smiled, “Oh, I got the idea a while ago.”

    “Yeah, from me!” Jay said indignantly. “That sword was from Episode Three of my Blob Wars comic I drew in middle school!”

    They stared at him.  Jay trailed of into a stream of mumbling.

    “Right,” said Catrina. “So what have you two been up to?”

    “Oh, you know, looking around, examining, perusing,” replied John.

    “John, get rid of the dictionary or I’ll get rid of it for you!” said Jay.

    “Perusing is not a difficult enough word to necessitate a dictionary, which by the way, I don’t have,” replied John indignantly.

    “Yeah, whatever,” Catrina intervened before the boys could get into a full blown argument. “Now, what are we having for lunch?”

    Lunch was some elven bread with cheese and a pale cider made from the leaves of a native plant. Afterward, they wandered up toward the castle, taking in the sights and sounds of the elven city. They arrived to find the castle in an uproar, elves rushed from place to place, buckling on armor and readying weapons. Jay saw Haeleroth, and began wading through the crowd toward him.

    “What’s going on?” Jay asked when they finally reached Haeleroth.

    “The goblins are preparing for an attack. They’re marching on the main gate even as we speak.”

    The three friends looked at each other with apprehension.

    “This is going to be a battle, isn’t it?” Catrina asked.