Episode Six: The Hermits Retreat

Mor, Vuk, and Nuk were drawing closer and closer to their home goblinum. The Hermit kept pursuing them, seeming to have entirely forgotten about his wounded leg. He would hardly have been able to handle three goblins, but a clash with him would cost precious time.
Not for a moment did the Bignoses forget that back home, they were hoped for and awaited with impatience. So there was no way they could afford to waste time. That’s why Nuk and Vuk, after exchanging a glance, decided to stop.
“Run. We’ll hold him off,” said Nuk.
Mor wanted to stop too, but the brothers began pushing him so he would keep running.
“All right. But be careful,” Mor warned.
Running out of the forest and coming quite close to the outskirts of the goblinum, he nearly ran straight into the Hermits. Catching himself in time, Mor saw that its entire eastern half was occupied by the enemy. He had to make a wide loop to reach the goblinum from the west. There was no one there. Everyone who could not fight had fled to the distant meadow.
Mor saw that the Hermits were advancing and would soon take the central square. He nervously began searching with his eyes for the one on whom much now depended.
“Brakha, are you here?” Mor shouted with all his might.
“I’m here. Over here, quickly,” Brakha called back, hiding in a house on the neighboring street.
Mor ran up to him and showed him the casket.
“Yes, that’s it. Here’s the key,” said Brakha.
Mor snatched it and began quickly jabbing it into the lock. At last the lock gave way, and the casket opened. Inside lay their salvation. Mor handed the casket to Brakha and ran off to look for Warden Ogl.
Having found him with difficulty on one of the streets among dozens of fighting Bignoses, Mor shouted loudly. Warden Ogl turned around at once, because that was exactly the voice he had been impatiently waiting to hear. He rushed toward Mor.
“Well, did it work? If not, we will all perish,” Warden Ogl said anxiously.
Only now did Mor notice the dozens of wounds on him.
“Yes, Warden. We have the casket, and there are still many pouches inside it,” he answered quickly.
“Good. Bring it here quickly.”
Taking the casket, the Warden immediately ran to the warriors and began giving each of them a pouch. He went on running from street to street like this.
As the warriors received the Ant Power, their resistance grew ever more stubborn. Soon everyone had it, and in the square the Bignoses managed to stop the Hermits’ advance. But they still didn’t have enough strength to drive them out of the goblinum. By this time, many had already perished.
Help came from where Warden Ogl did not expect it at all. In the heat of battle, he did not see a large detachment of Bignoses ride into the western outskirts of the goblinum. It turned out they had come from the one goblinum that had earlier refused to help. In the meantime, they had gotten a new Warden. This goblin turned out to be more worthy than the previous one.
When Warden Ogl was told about the detachment, he did not hide his joy. After greeting the goblins who had arrived, Ogl handed out the Ant Power to them, and they immediately rushed into battle.
Now the Bignoses had enough strength to push the enemy back. Under their pressure, the Hermits gradually began to retreat. Mor was eager to fight too, but Warden Ogl stopped him.
“I’ve given out the Ant Power to all our warriors. So the casket won’t be needed for now. But it’s the most valuable thing we have. And I want you to be its guardian,” he said.
Mor had no choice but to carry out the Warden’s order.
Meanwhile, Warden Appo and Torul had already ridden out of the forest, crossed the long-extinguished strip of fire, and were unhurriedly approaching the anthills. Warden Appo looked into the distance, where the goblinum could be made out, filled with his warriors. From here it seemed that they had captured it.
“And here’s our key to future victories. Let’s take a look at them now, and then head to the goblinum,” he said, pointing to the anthills.
“Of course, Warden. But don’t forget about the casket. Perhaps you could give the order to our warriors now, so they can start looking for whoever took it?” Torul reminded him.
“If the goblinum is captured, then the Bignoses are defeated. Then who will they give the Ant Power to? Don’t worry. They won’t be able to hide from us in the forest for long. We’ll go to the goblinum now, and I’ll order all our forces thrown into the search for them.”
Warden Appo examined the anthills and nodded with satisfaction, as if they were saying something to him.
“We’ll need to leave our best warriors here to guard them day and night. If those fools, the Bignoses, had done that, I wouldn’t have brought my army here, and many of them would still be alive. But I won’t make that mistake. The anthills belong only to me, and no one else will dare even approach them.”
“That’s a wise decision, Warden. After all, without the Ant Power everything will collapse. So I ask you to send our goblins to search as quickly as possible.”
The casket wouldn’t leave Torul’s mind, and he was beginning to grow nervous.
“Calm down,” the Warden said coldly. “I’ll decide myself who to send where. Now what’s that happening over there? There are more and more of our warriors at the edge of the goblinum. But if they’re advancing, it should be the other way around.”
Warden Appo peered intently at the goblinum. There, the Hermits were retreating from the streets under the pressure of the Bignoses. He kept watching, and anxiety appeared in his eyes. He could see more and more clearly how his army was falling back.
“Why are they retreating? How is this possible? They have the Ant Power, after all,” Warden Appo said, bewildered.
“Apparently the Bignoses have it now too. The Ant Power from your casket, you arrogant fool!” Torul shouted hysterically.
“How dare you speak to me like that! I am the supreme ruler of all the Hermits!” Warden Appo raised his sword.
“You are a stupid, good-for-nothing goblin. That’s what you are. I revealed the Ant Power to you. I gave you everything to conquer the Goblin Forest. Through your hands, I wanted to accomplish everything I had dreamed of these past years! But you couldn’t even capture a single goblinum. You’re a pathetic, wild failure of a goblin, and I have no intention of staying near you any longer!”
Torul galloped past the anthills, darted into the forest, and disappeared behind the trees. The enraged Appo wanted to chase after the Counselor and kill him, but then he stopped.
The road home is closed to him. In the Bignose goblinums he’ll be an unwelcome guest too, and the other clans will soon hear about him. So let him rot in the forest, he decided, and looked to the west.
There, his army had already retreated completely from the goblinum. The Warden noticed that the Bignoses, making their way out into open ground, were spreading out more and more and trying to surround the Hermits from both sides.
It’s their own fault, he thought, smirked crookedly, and hurried into the forest, from which he had recently ridden out.
Reaching the edge of the forest, he turned his ram around and looked once more into the distance at his retreating, dwindling army. Suddenly a noise rose across the meadow, and then the meadow itself seemed to come alive. It was as if the grass had grown legs and begun to move. The noise grew louder, and soon the Warden saw the forest rats. These were the very rats that had made short work of the Hermits and were now coming back to the meadow to polish off their favorite fish.
“That’s all we needed,” Appo said, displeased, and went on watching the battle.
His warriors were slowly retreating, fighting off the Bignoses’ attacks with all their strength. So far they had not let themselves be surrounded. But the Bignoses managed to slip through the forest unnoticed and strike suddenly from the right. The Hermits thought that this was another detachment that had been hiding in the forest the whole time and was now going to surround them. They broke into a run. And the only road they knew was across the meadow, which the rats had already managed to overrun.
In their panic, the Hermits did not realize what a fatal mistake they were making. The nimblest rats managed to jump onto the running rams, and from there easily made their way to the goblin’s body. As soon as a goblin stopped to fight them off, several more rats immediately jumped onto him. The Hermits riding behind saw what carnage awaited them ahead. There was no way to ride around the rats across the meadow, because they were running everywhere.
All around, the terrible screams of goblins rang out. Some, bloodied and exhausted, fell from their rams, completely covered in rats, while others still held on and desperately shook them off. The Hermits, driven mad with fear, with rats ahead of them and Bignoses behind, began to scatter. They were ready to run anywhere, as long as they could get away from this ill-fated meadow.
Not very much time passed, and the meadow emptied out. Everything around fell silent, and only the occasional groans of the mangled, dying Hermits were a reminder of what had recently taken place here. The Bignoses stopped near the anthills. There was no one left for them to fight. Far off, at the edge of the forest, only one Hermit remained — the one who was to blame for everything that had happened over the past two days.