Kyou Kara Maou : The Trouble With Trolls
Summary: Wolfram's attempt to bypass Maou Wedding Curse with a small family ceremony, backfires when an uninvited relative arrives - the Troll Mother.
Disclaimer: I have no rights to Kyou Kara Maou, of course.
Please review.
Chapter 7 : The Parting of the Ways
"Wolfram, I… oh, Shinou, I…"
Wolfram pulled his shellshocked younger brother Efram to his chest and held him, pulling them both down to ground level, and motioned Greta to get down as well. So far, the trolls who'd captured Brendan didn't seem to be looking their way. "Shh, fire pixie," he crooned, stroking Efram's hair. "This isn't your fault. Now's not the time to worry how we got into this, anyway. We need to pull together and focus on what to do now."
"But I, I trusted them and I made you trust them and…" Efram punched the ground. "How does Yuuri trust people like he does? When they betray you –"
"Shhh, trust is like that, sometimes," Wolfram said abstractedly. Yuuri… damn, I wish you were here now. What would you do? Wolfram didn't mean Yuuri going full blue Maou mode on him – no doubt if the situation reached crisis he'd toss a tornado on the troll party and the hostages would float down safe as feathers, and they'd all be having a friendly tea party with the wood nymphs in an hour. Maou mode wasn't relevant. But… Yuuri would manage the friendly tea party thing without Maou mode, damn him. He'd… trust them.
"They didn't answer to your flute now," Wolfram said. "They might later. Let's just..." Wolfram ground his teeth trying to bite it out, "trust Tariel for now." He didn't trust Tariel as far as he could spit. But he, she, won't hurt my baby, I pray, I believe, I have to believe….
A rustling drew up behind them as Adelbert and Günter, crouched low, rejoined Wolfram and the kids. Greta asked, "Chichiue Wolfram, who, or what, was Tariel?"
Adelbert put a hand on her shoulder, and said, "Much as I'd love to hear the answer to that, Greta, we've got more urgent concerns right now. Or is that relevant, Wolfram?" he added on a sour note of accusation.
"Trolls first," said Wolfram. "Tariel and Bertram… aren't here. And the trolls are. Efram, Günter, got any tricks for attacking the whole group without hurting our hostages?"
Efram shook his head vehemently. "I have some troll-specific offenses. But we can't use them near Brendan and Trenton and Dietrich and Frieda. My troll defenses are good, though. Cousin Adelbert? Do you know the goblin control trick Aldrich taught Brendan? I'll bet anything the normal-sized fighters are part-goblins."
Adelbert shook his head. Günter offered eagerly, "I could take up to five of that group by sword, and hold another five or so by magic. If Efram could hold another five, and Wolfram, you and Adelbert could take on the other…"
"Four against thirty, with hostages? No way, Günter," opined Adelbert. "One goblin puts a dagger to a child's throat, and we're dead meat." Possibly literally – the troll party might execute and eat them. "We need to split them up, divide and conquer."
"If we're lucky, they'll do that of themselves," said Wolfram thoughtfully. "Send the hostages on their way and come after us. Adelbert, can you yell loud enough for them to hear you?" The other man nodded, puzzled. "OK, yell that you've got Bertram. Then we meet them all on the far side of the woods. They'll leave the hostages behind. And, we take down whoever comes after us.
"Greta, you're in charge of counting. I want you to climb into this tree and keep careful count of everybody. Efram, give her your flute. Greta, you use this for only one message – hostages coming closer. If they bring up the hostages, the rest of us run to the next woods over that way. They can only threaten hostages if they can deliver the threat. Other than that, Greta, stay hidden and keep count of each group, and any strays. When you see us, you give us headcounts." He gave his beautiful teenage daughter a hug and then pushed her gently toward her tree. "See you on the other side, sweetie. Yuuri and I love you. Stay safe." The sixteen-year-old nodded bravely and got busy climbing.
"I know the right spot to wait for them," said Günter. He led Wolfram and Efram that way. Adelbert headed off a bit to the left to yell first, so the trolls wouldn't come straight at Greta's position.
Once they'd picked their positions, Efram headed back to get Greta's counts and play bait. Once he had them hooked, he ran back yelling, "Got twenty, female troll leader, ten goblins!" and leapt into the little hollow Wolfram had picked out for him.
Adelbert called softly, "Günter, the lady's worth the rest combined. You got her, or me?" Günter pointed back at him to decline the honor. He preferred to kill males.
Efram was too busy preparing a spell to bother calling dibs. They'd have to fight them a while before he was ready, anyway.
"Spare the goblins if you can," reminded Wolfram. Goblins wouldn't fight unless trolls told them to. Günter growled his continuing disagreement. Wolfram ignored him. Attend this worthy Mazoku, elementals who dwell in flame…
As the trolls crashed through the trees towards them, Wolfram hit them with a fireball, setting their clothes alight. The goblins rolled to douse the flames and used majutsu to throw earth at the trolls' flaming clothes while they kept advancing. Günter trapped five trolls by magic, holding them immobile temporarily in an inverted shield. Five part-trolls remained fighting. Wolfram took down a blond half troll by his first-ever attempt to kill by fire healing. Günter laid into the three remaining male trolls with his sword.
Adelbert went after the lead female, possibly a three quarter troll by the size of her. And… stopped and walked away. Because she told him to. Wolfram swallowed and took over that fight, not bothering to draw his sword. His scant five and a half footer's reach versus her nine footer's reach was a lost cause over steel. She rolled the earth under his feet and he rolled with it and hit her with another fireball. She created a boulder from fused earth to throw at him, but found herself suddenly immobilized by Efram's first spell. Wolfram tried another killing heal, but she deflected it with the burst of majutsu she used to break through Efram's snare.
Faster, Adelbert, move it, prayed Efram. He didn't dare yell at the big entrolled blond, for fear he'd stop to ask why… Günter, a swordsman of nearly Conrad's caliber, felled his first male, and hamstrung another. Efram snared the female again, just to buy a few more seconds…
She broke through it easily, and had another dirt-boulder in hand. But the soil was wet. Wolfram fire-balled the boulder instead of the opponent, and it exploded in steam. Which did her no harm, but at least kept the boulder off his head.
Far enough, Adelbert, thought Efram. He stood and slammed the lady troll with one of the overdrive spells Aldrich had not wanted taught to Günter. To his amazment, lightning arced between all ten trolls and laid them dead on the spot. Adelbert hadn't been out of range, after all – it arced to him, and he fell. Wolfram ran to tend him.
Efram stood shocked at the carnage. He'd intended to kill one troll, and not only were ten extinguished in a moment, but he caught Adelbert as well. I was right, Aldrich was telling me not to use those overdrives, just the spells he told me to teach Günter correctly, and none of the others from Igor's book…
Günter stood over the clutch of singed little goblins, who huddled together and sobbed at the devastating loss of their beloved master trolls, including a Daughter. Efram feared Günter would slaughter them as they sat, and he surely looked as though he'd love to, but it was just too obviously dishonorable. Barely four feet tall, with toddler-like physiques, mops of brown curls, assorted earth-colors of skin, and trusting big brown eyes dripping tears, they were adorable, and no danger to anyone at the moment.
Efram decided to try the Counting Magic he found so effective on small children. He puffed himself up menacingly, and said, "Goblins, I'm going to count to ten." The goblins blanched. "You walk that way," he pointed dramatically perpendicular to the axis from hostages to Adelbert and Wolfram, "until sunset. One! Two! Three! -" They fled.
Günter clasped his hands before him in delight. "Oh! Efram, that was brilliant! Where did you learn that spell?"
Efram screwed up his face into a pixie smile. "It's a secret of the masters of the Bielenfeld Horde." By which he meant the cousinly mob of the Bielenfeld-Gratz aristo-brats, but Günter was too enraptured to realize he was being made fun of. No doubt he'd been the kind of adult who earnestly explained things to Giesela when she was young.
Efram's triumph was short-lived. When Wolfram yelled for him, he recalled that he may have just murdered his cousin. As they ran toward Adelbert, the flute sounded from Greta, hostage-bearing trolls incoming.
As they approached, Wolfram said, "Adelbert's breathing again. Help me hide him in the trees. We'll have to leave him here resting."
"Can you use that spell again?" Günter asked as they settled Adelbert into his hiding place. Efram assumed he meant the one that killed ten trolls – eleven counting Adelbert – not the one that scared ten goblins.
"No. He can't," said Wolfram pointedly. "We make for the next stand of trees, as planned. There are only three trolls left." And they took off at a run.
oOo
Was that the spell that killed my father and all those others? asked Garena, a sighing of leaves in the trees above.
Yes, like that, but I think your grandson knew not what he did. It was a terrible mistake this time, as well, replied Tariel. You must go back to Bertram as a person. It is not enough to watch and protect. Babies are helpless and frightened alone.
What of the quarter-troll?
I will heal him a little more.
My grandson does not like me. Perhaps we should trade tasks.
You never had to take care of your own son. It's time you paid your dues.
Tariel, appearing again as a child of indeterminate sex, knelt beside Adelbert and healed him completely, but left him sleeping. The trolls and hostages crashed by unable to see them.
When the hostage party had passed, Tariel healed the burns to the trees as well. The maryoku of the wood nymphs was the element of life.
Tariel departed to confer with his allies. Greta felt the coast was clear, and came up carefully, to see whether the coast was clear enough to make for the next trees. She stopped, seeing that the hostage party was still in plain view. But she found Adelbert and woke him. They moved carefully to the far end of the woods, unknowingly in the direction that Efram had imperiously dispatched the goblins.
oOo
As the hostages passed the place of battle, Brendan saw something Adelbert had been too rushed to notice. Their father Adeldan von Gratz lay dead under those trees, with the other part trolls.
Adeldan had walked out on his domain and family nearly half Brendan's life ago, leaving only a note to say that he went to meet his destiny. It was true that Brendan was a quarter troll, just as Aldrich, and without nearly Aldrich's wood nymph defenses against entrollment. But it was also true that female pheromones entrolled by working on brain chemistry. Those feel-good effects were pleasant and subtle.
Brendan's rage was anything but subtle. The rage more than counter-acted the pheromones. He'd never been entrolled at all, and now with the female dead, neither were the other male part trolls, nor the children. Trenton looked terrified. Though too full of not-worry at the time to be concerned down by the canoes, the boy had recognized his grandfather from the portrait in his grandmother's room, and recognized him where he lay dead as well. Dietrich, like his father, was not especially entrolled in the first place. He enjoyed the high without really losing his own judgment – his judgment simply suggested he keep a low profile. Annissina and the other part-goblins of the party were still obeying whoever last sang to them.
Brendan let them reach the open Fens again, to maximize the chance of Wolfram seeing what was going on. He subvocally sang to the five demon-goblins, bringing them under his control. He supposed the six goblins were under his control as well, not that it mattered – goblins wouldn't harm anyone in this group, all part-troll or part-goblin. He moved closer to Annissina and told her to come back to her own control, remembering everything.
The three remaining half-troll captors had not been the ones who sang to the goblins before. They were clearly underlings. Brendan planted his feet, which made the boys and Annissina and other goblins stop in their tracks as well. The half-trolls per force stopped and looked back. "What, are you going to leave them there to rot?" Brendan demanded. "They deserve a death feast."
A dark red haired mountain of a man – Adeldan's size – looked uncomfortable. "They do. But we were supposed to take all of these captive," he waved vaguely toward the next slight rise of woods several hundred yards away. "Troll Mother said. Perhaps… we can come back for the death feast…"
The other two half-trolls looked likewise uneasy. Just push a little harder, thought Brendan. Maybe no one else has to die. "You can't be serious!" he cried. "You saw the power of those magicians! A Daughter and nine other trolls lay dead! And you don't know those people like I do. They thought we should make a stand to the death to avoid capture. They'll kill us all!" He rubbed Trenton's head with his free hand to make clear he didn't mean it. He hugged Frieda closer as though to protect her with his other arm. He didn't bother to reassure Dietrich – raised by Aldrich, the child was likely ten steps ahead of him.
Sure enough, Dietrich – the most charming, well-mannered boy you could hope to meet – planted his feet and crossed his arms in an uncanny imitation of his cousin Wolfram at his most spoilt and imperious, beautiful demonic green eyes flashing. "And just where are you taking us?" he demanded. "I insist I be brought to my father Lord Aldrich at Blood Pledge Castle, where he confers with the Troll Mother and the Maou, immediately. Clearly you cannot protect us. We must make all haste for Shin Makoku."
The half-trolls looked at each other uncomfortably. "We're bound for Trond Hall," the slate grey-haired one admitted. He wasn't old, simply born with grey hair, like Gwendal. "Trondheim's a lot closer than Shin Makoku."
Unfortunately, that was a very reasonable point.
So Annissina plonked herself down on the ground, yanked out a very large breast, nipple hugely erect, and plugged it into Grendel, who hadn't been quite hungry yet, but was close enough. He started slurping greedily.
Now trolls were far from stupid. But they were a strictly matriarchal society. The Lords of Trond Hall were for interfacing with demon society. And the true primary use of female troll pheromones was to maintain a pleasant, well-mannered, kind society. The third part-troll – smaller and blue-haired, possibly only a three-eighther like Ted – bent down timorously, and suggested, "Ah, madam? Perhaps this isn't the best time for that."
"Well, it's too late now," Annissina said crossly. To underscore her point, she yanked her even more erect nipple from Grendel's mouth. It spouted milk at the troll, and Grendel screamed, grabbing for it back. Annissina wouldn't let him have it, in order to elicit more screaming.
The troll hastily pulled back and said, "Ah, please, madam, then, by all means…" Grendel got his nipple back. The three trolls variously looked toward the direction the escapees had gone, the dead in the woods, and the uncooperative hostages, whom they really intended to treat courteously. Trolls were willing to kill people, but dead or alive, they wouldn't be rude to them.
The red haired troll bid the part-goblins, "You guys, please go back up there and get the hearts and livers, and the breasts of the Daughter. We can at least take part of them back for their death feast with family." The other trolls nodded – wise compromise, and the families of the fallen could feast them.
"And then we go to Shin Makoku," insisted Dietrich. "To my father. Lord Efram the magician," he pointed to the far woods where Günter and the von Bielenfelds had run, "my predecessor as master of the Bielenfeld Horde, is under orders to kill us if need be, to keep us from Trondheim."
Follow-up questions to this assertion were neatly prevented by Trenton yelling, "YOU?! I'm Efram's successor!" He tackled Dietrich to the ground.
Aw, Trent, thought Brendan fondly, He suckered you good. You'll never outsmart Diet for head of the horde this way. Brawn just won't cut it against those cunning little Bielenbrats. He would know – Brendan himself had ruled the Horde for decades.
"Maybe that's why Troll Mother breeds quarters back up-troll. These eighths aren't very… troll," the blue-haired troll said sadly. They all shook their heads in dismay.
Brendan stepped back into the conversation as the voice of reason. He shook his head and confided in the trolls, "His father Lord Aldrich is really the only one who can control him." Sorry to slander you, Diet. In fact, Dietrich had used the only taunt that would result in blows between the two best friends, still scuffling in the mud. Both boys were trollishly good-natured. "It's a pity take him all the way to Trond Hall, just to turn around and take him back to Shin Makoku. And I fear he's right about Lord Efram – a terrifying magician, and his henchman Günter is almost as bad. It really would be safest to head straight for Blood Pledge Castle."
The red-haired troll peered over his sunglasses and stared Brendan in the eye.
Brendan shrugged. "Look, we were supposed to hide. You found us. Next we're going to Blood Pledge Castle. You'll get stuck bringing us there. You want to go the hard way or the easy way?"
Dietrich, still dodging Trenton, chose to drive Brendan's point home by setting Frieda's hair on fire – just a little. "I want my father!" he shrieked.
The trolls all flinched. Such ghastly untrollishness … and no Daughter to make the children behave! Brendan patted out the fire in Frieda's hair and soothed the screaming toddler.
"Alright already!" the red-head yelled over the din. "Your parole – if we head for Blood Pledge Castle, you'll come along peaceably. And these children will behave? You so vow on your honor?"
Brendan bowed solemnly. "You have my parole. Dietrich, show's over." Dietrich started scrabbling backwards, grinning, to escape Trenton's still-maddened punches. "Trent… Trenton… Trenton von Gratz!" Brendan bellowed. "Behave!"
Anissina picked herself up – Grendel still suckling. "Let's walk around that way," she suggested, pointing to the end of the wood opposite Greta's end. "I refuse to go through… that." That being the butchering ground of the dead trolls.
"Ah, excuse me, actually, madam," the grey-haired troll said apologetically, "For Blood Pledge Castle, we'd head that way, to exit the Fens to the south." He pointed to the left of the heading she'd suggested, toward a woods-free expanse of Fens to the horizon. He dispatched some goblins to tell the butchering half-goblins they were heading out, and for them to head straight back to Trond Hall when they were done here. "Ah, Lord Gratz? I'm afraid it's rather a long walk. Perhaps… well…" The troll looked most dismayed, beholding the muddy boys in torn clothes, Trenton still practically steaming at the ears.
Brendan said, "Dietrich? This nice gentleman is offering you a piggy-back ride."
Dietrich smiled angelically and bowed. "Yes, please, kind sir." And he held up his arms to be picked up.
Brendan ruffled Trenton's muddy hair affectionately, and suggested mildly, "This one may need to walk off a little energy first, thanks. Say, what do you make those sunglasses out of?"
"Horn, with a little majutsu to improve the transparency. Wanna try 'em?"
Brendan tried them on. "Oh, that's really nice. Midday sun can give me kind of a headache. These are clever."
"Oh, please keep them as a gift," the troll replied, waving him off as Brendan tried to hand the sunglasses back. "Dobby, could you go fetch us all the sunglasses from the woods and catch up?" A goblin trotted off to the task.
"Oh, thank you very much," said Brendan.
And they set off, at an extraodinary walking pace. Powerful earth-majutsu users, the trolls and goblins rolled the earth underfoot. Rather than trudging through the mud carved by open water, it was like walking on a firm smooth rolling airport walkway. Of course, it was still a very long walk to Blood Pledge Castle, and once they left the Fens, they would only walk by night.
oOo
"What are they doing?" said Wolfram. "My eyes aren't good enough."
"Get down, Wolfram, Efram. I can see", offered Günter, pulling the two von Bielenfelds back under cover, from the edge of the second woods. "Ah! They appear to have stopped to argue amongst themselves, the villains! Brendan Lord Gratz is in a towering rage!"
Efram's face screwed up into a maximum pixie smile at Wolfram. Wolfram shook his head and buried his face in his hand. Brendan? A towering rage? That'd be the day…
"Oh, no! They've threatened Lord Dietrich with death! Oh, my word! Oh, no! Annissina! The brutes have cruelly shoved her to the ground! Her bodice is torn! They mean to ravish her in front of her child! But what's this? They've spotted Adelbert and Greta! The half-goblins are headed back to the woods at a run! They're in mortal danger! Hark! Now the goblins have set to fighting amongst themselves in the hostage party!"
"What happened to Annissina getting ravaged?" inquired Efram.
"'Ravished'," corrected Wolfram. "Yeah, Günter, what's up with that?" Wolfram cast a deeply dubious look upward at Günter.
"Shinou be praised! The scuffle amidst the goblins has distracted them from raping Annissina! She is saved!" There was a pause, followed by Günter crying, "Oh, no! Horror! They've set Lord Gratz and sweet Frieda ablaze! The MONSTERS!"
"Keep your voice down, Günter!" Wolfram hissed. Efram signed a 'D' for 'Dietrich'. Wolfram rolled his eyes and nodded, yeah obviously… Dietrich was the only other fire user on the fen.
"Ah! Thank heavens! Lord Brendan has doused the blaze, and calmed the fight amongst the evil blond goblins. Lord Brendan is so noble, so kind, so wise!"
"Well, when he's not in a towering rage, at least," commented Efram.
"Blond goblins," noted Wolfram.
"It was a righteous rage!" objected Günter. "A noble Lord defending his –"
"Yeah, so Günter, what's happening down there now?" interrupted Wolfram.
"Ah, a large red brute has grabbed sweet Lord Dietrich and thrown him upon his back. What's this? They're blind-folding and binding Lord Brendan, monsters most cruel! Another goblin has been dispatched to the assault on Greta and Adelbert! And… what's this? What's this?!?" Günter clapped his hands together in the way he reserved for flights of rapture. "I had never hoped to see it for myself! The flying of the trolls! They have risen the earth unto a wave and are surfing upon it!"
The von Bielenfeld brothers looked at each other, then stuck their heads up to see for themselves. Günter pointed off to the south, and they peered. Their eyes weren't really good enough to see anything but a streak of brown heading straight away from them. Well, could be earth surfing…
"Huh. So, Annissina didn't get ravished?" said Efram.
Wolfram clapped him on the back. "Maybe next time," he said, laughing.
"Lord Wolfram!" Günter cried, offended at his taking a break. "We must away to save Greta and Adelbert. We can easily kill the remaining goblins and half-goblins!"
"Oh, yeah," sighed Wolfram. But just then, a flute sounded in the opposite direction. "Greta!" he cried, standing. "Come on, Greta first!" And they ran away from the woods where the half-goblins worked, preparing what little they could of ten slain trolls, to bring home for their death feasts with their families.
Those bloody woods also still contained Greta and Adelbert. Tariel, who'd been watching them, was the one who blew the flute to draw them away. Enough senseless killing! Let those poor half-goblins attend to their dead in peace!
oOo
Night fell. Adelbert and Greta kept half an eye on the half-goblins at their grisly task, and saw them leave. But Wolfram and Efram and Günter had not returned. They walked to the far woods and found no one, and no tracks to follow.
"Chichiue Wolfram wouldn't have just left us," said Greta. Yet, they'd been gone nearly twelve hours.
"Let's wait back at the canoes, at least," said Adelbert. "Have some food."
As they trudged along, suddenly a party of goblins leapt up from the squishy herbs in the dark. "Oh, sir! Kind troll sir! Won't you help us? Oh, please sir?" A goblin attached itself to Adelbert's leg. Adelbert, eyebrows akimbo, stared down in disbelief. "We are lost! Oh, please, you are troll, sir! Please help us find our way home!" The goblin was in tears.
Greta, who'd initially jumped behind Adelbert to hide, holding his waist, peered around at the little beings. "Oh, Chichibert, they're cute! Are you goblins?"
Chichibert, naturally, was the name she and Efram selected for Frieda's father. Neither dared use the natural extension, Chichifred for Manfred, who was strictly Chichiue or Grand-chichiue. Chichifram or Wolchichiue were simply too hard to say. And Wimpue stuck like glue for Yuuri. So only Chichiue Adelbert suffered this contraction. He swatted Efram when he used the nickname, but suffered the other children to call him Chichibert.
"Yes, wise ma'am! We are goblins! My name is Jophin, and this is…" he reeled off the names for all nine of his companions. No doubt a better trained troll could have memorized them that fast, but Adelbert wasn't raised among the troll-kin. "Please, troll sir! You can't leave us here! The Kristfolk hate goblins. They'll kill us all!"
"Oh, I can't imagine anyone hating you," said Greta. "Right, Chichibert?"
"Ah…" said Adelbert reluctantly. "Actually… yeah. They're in danger."
Jophin and the others were crying openly. "Please troll sir. We just want to go home!"
"We'll protect you!" said Greta. "Come with us and have some supper."
"Really? On the boats? Oh, thank you, thank you! Oh, we'll run ahead and make a fire for you and cook your supper for you! You'll see! We're very good goblins!" And they all ran ahead to the boats.
Adelbert sighed. Defensively, Greta said, "Well, they trusted us, to protect them. And they're so cute, Chichibert! Do you think Chichiue Wolfram will let me take them home with me?"
"Greta… they're people, not pets," objected Adelbert helplessly. But Greta, with her winning ways, had already latched herself onto her Chichibert's arm and was dragging him along to supper with their new little friends. Where the goblins eagerly attended to every conceivable personal service they could render their troll and his delighted girl.
And this is why there are so many part-goblins in the world, thought Adelbert sadly. And nobody wants to admit it… In Trondheim, any sexual relation between a larger race man and a goblin woman was a crime of capital rape, for a pregnancy would be fatal to a poor little goblin woman and the baby, and 'informed consent' an oxymoron. A goblin girl would do anything you asked, including kill herself, which was likewise judged capital murder. Half-goblins were invariably the result of a woman playing with male goblins, who were adorably cuddly cute and absolutely eager to please, singly or in groups. No one really felt comfortable admitting their mother… did that. Though, the offspring did get a big boost in maryoku, especially if the mother was an earth majutsu user. Like all other visible traits with goblin hybrids, what kind of maryoku the children bore came from the mother. Wolfram's old troop of strong majutsu users from relatively modest backgrounds, no doubt had a few goblin-powered talents. When a strong majutsu user came of rather ordinary folk… one didn't ask.
After midnight, they gave up, and decided to head home, as the goblins assured them there was only the one hostage search party from Trondheim. They left a note for Wolfram on one canoe, and took the other. Adelbert ran the majutsu paddling device. The goblins did all the canoe porting.
oOo
Please review? Pretty please?