The Gnomish Captain Longbeard asked, “What does your Magick sword tell you, Rhiann?”
Rhiann said, “We are too far away, Captain Longbeard. I sense nothing nearby.”
Donovan urged, “We might as well get on with it. There is no way around. Necessity forced the road through this little gap and now forces us through it.”
Longbeard replied, “Proceed. Stay alert! Weapons at ready! Dibbit, keep an arrow ready.”
The column moved forward into a small open area the gap. About sixty feet separated the tree lines with grassy areas about twenty feet wide on both sides of the road. The first riders entered the thirty-foot-wide gap between the stone buttes. The rock on the south or right was twenty feet height whilst the left was about fifteen feet high. Donovan’s wagon neared the opening of the stone gap. The merchant from Dry Creek followed on the second wagon.
Exeter sent a message to Rhiann, “I feared this would happen! Too many to count! Defend!”
Rhiann shouted, “Enemies surround us.”
Shouts erupted. Kobolds charged from the woods onto the road behind and in front of the caravan and ran onto the stone buttes. Five men stood on the larger and less elevated rise. The Gnomes dismounted and gathered around the wagons. The well-trained halvsies clustered between the two wagons.
Longbeard said, “Odds are against us, but we’ll let them know they were in a fight!”
Bailiwick, the Man in Black, Waymore, the Red-headed Stranger, and Straight Arrow glared menacingly at the cluster of Rhiann, Iyaca, the merchants, and twenty-one Gnomes. The Fearsome Foursome remained strategically behind kobolds and avoided the direct gaze of the Gnomes. The Man in Black typically warned his colleagues to try to remain from view.
Bailiwick shouted, “Mayard Klarje, long have I awaited this day! Know you are going to die, but know also that you fail your comrades.”
Rhiann shouted, “Mayard Klarje does not travel with us.”
The Man in Black said, “Nice try, Klarje. Even in disguise you can’t hide your red mark. We know you travel in the visage of your nephew.”
benjamintowe 