Seeing his prey nearly within his grasp, the goblin let out a howl of delight and let fly a javelin at the retreating back of the scribe. Fortunately, Penrod's irregular escape route caused the weapon to go wide of its mark, sticking into the ground some way from him, just at the far edge of the clearing. The goblin screeched his anger at having missed and pulled his sword, charging after the frightened scribe.

From his hiding place, Gebo watched as the goblins raced past, now in a rather scattered line as a result of the long chase through the woods. There were indeed six of the vile creatures and as the last one was approaching at a dead run, Gebo stuck the handle of his axe across its path. The goblin hit the obstacle and went down like a stone, for small as they appeared, they were heavy with muscle and thick of bone. Gebo was up in an instant and had buried his axe in the creature's skull before it could even begin to raise itself from the ground.

The goblin who had passed by just before his now deceased brother heard the crunching of bone behind him and quickly turned to see what had happened. It saw the dwarf standing over the body of his comrade and the goblin opened his mouth to scream a warning to the others, but the hilt of a large knife suddenly appeared between its jagged teeth and the creature fell over backwards, without a sound.

"Nice throw," Gebo said, quietly, as the Dragon Lord emerged from the bushes.

"Give praise when the rest of them be dead," he replied, drawing his long sword. "Ye want to be the bait?"

"Sure and why not?" Gebo said and smiled. "We had best hurry, though, or our scribe may end up skewered on yonder goblin's weapon."

"Aye. Off ye go, then," Gondar-Nor told him and ducked back into the brush.

Gebo planted his helmet more firmly on his head and trotted off into the clearing. The other four goblins were just about to the other side of the meadow, but the scribe was no where to be seen. The dwarf began yelling and set up a racket by banging his axe against his helmet. The goblins stopped their pursuit and turned warily toward him, a couple of them seeming to notice that their numbers had diminished, somewhat. One of the goblins began shouting orders and the four of them spread out across the clearing, closing in on the dwarf.