Free Goblins on the Prowl by Bruce Coville

close together. But the toad’s buttprints were twenty or thirty feet apart. So for each new hop we had to scan an arc between twenty and thirty feet away to find where it had landed. Fortunately, a hop had to go in a straight line. Since the toad couldn’t hop through a tree, the number of directions it might have gone was somewhat limited.
    Even so, it was slow work.
    Herky was best at finding the spots where the toad had landed. There were three reasons for this. First, he moved more quickly than the rest of us. Second, being so small, he was closer to the ground. Third, his huge goblin eyes were made to see in the dark, so he didn’t need a torch the way we humans did. (I’m counting Igor as human, though no one is entirely sure about that.)
    To my surprise, even Werdolphus turned out to be helpful. Two or three times he managed to spot the next buttprint by floating high enough that he could scan a wide stretch of ground.
    â€œYou see,” he sniffed, “there are times when it pays to be dead!”
    Once, when I was a little way from the others, I saw a terrified rabbit cowering under a bush. When I knelt and quietly asked the little guy if he had seen a giant toad, he nodded and pointed me in the right direction.
    I also got advice from an owl and two hedgehogs.
    In each case I did this quietly so I wouldn’t have to explain to the others why I could talk to animals.
    We had been at it for hours, and the moon was low in the sky, when I heard a suspicious noise behind us.
    It was answered by a spooky laugh from ahead.
    â€œFauna!” cried Herky. “Trouble coming!”
    He was wrong. Trouble wasn’t coming.
    It had arrived.

It is my observation just before young ones become adults they go through a stage that is . . . difficult. This seems to be true for all species. Certainly it is true for the scamps of Nilbog.
    â€”Stanklo the Scribbler
    CHAPTER NINE
    BWOONHIWDA EXPWAINS
    Chanting “Blackstone! Blackstone! Blackstone!” a goblin twice as tall as Herky barreled out of the darkness and leaped at me.
    I ducked just in time. The goblin sailed over my head. He landed hard, but that didn’t slow him down. Goblins are fairly bouncy. With a wild laugh he rushed back at me. I swung my torch at him. As I did, I saw that he wore a red headband like the goblins who had searched my cottage. Then another goblin jumped me from behind.
    I fell, dropping my torch.
    From all around I heard more cries of “Blackstone! Blackstone! Blackstone!”
    It was clear my friends had fights of their own. I couldn’t see Igor, but I heard him roar, “Bop! Bop! Boppity bop bop! Bop them goblins on their top!”
    I also heard goblin yowls and saw two go flying through the air.
    Bwoonhiwda yodeled, “Hoya hoya ho!” which seemed part song, part battle cry.
    I rolled across the ground, wrestling with the goblin who had tackled me. He had orange skin, blazing green eyes, and pointed ears the size of my hands. He had pinned my arms, so I wasn’t able to get at my knife. Finally we slammed up hard against a tree, me on my back. From that position I saw a squirrel staring down at us.
    â€œYou woke me up!” he complained.
    â€œCould you help, please?” I shouted, counting on Solomon’s Collar to make my need clear.
    The squirrel raced up the tree, away from the fight. I cursed him for a coward as I continued to squirm in the goblin’s grip. I had just given my attacker a solid head-butt when a rain of furry bodies made me realize I had been unfair to the squirrel. The little guy had returned with a couple dozen relatives! The squirrels swarmed over my goblin foe, scratching and biting. Yelping in astonishment, the goblin released me andran into the night, squirrels still clinging to his head and shoulders.
    I scrambled to my feet and looked around. I saw Igor send another goblin flying with a mighty bear-bop, but two more clung to his legs.