Episode Two: The Wall of Fire and the Evil Bees

Warden Ogl and several dozen other goblins jumped onto their rams and headed toward the meadow. The rest followed, carrying empty pots, baskets of corn, and fish that was already beginning to spoil.
The Warden knew what the fish was for. After all, he himself had ordered it caught after Mor told him something interesting. But Ogl still did not understand how the ordinary-looking corn was supposed to help.
The Warden of a neighboring goblinum had brought an entire cartload of this corn. He claimed there was nothing else like it anywhere. Besides its excellent taste, it had one other unusual property and was never taken to other goblinums for trade.
But in hard times, there was no place for secrets or greed. So the Warden had sacrificed the entire supply without hesitation and assured Ogl that the corn would definitely surprise the Hermits and hold them up for a while. Warden Ogl tried his hardest to imagine how it would do that, but could not come up with anything. Still, they did not have much choice anyway.
After passing the fields, Ogl finally saw what he had been waiting for and nodded in satisfaction.
At the narrowest part of the meadow, a broad, high barrier of logs and branches covered with dry hay stretched from one edge of the forest to the other. To build it, the Bignoses had had to mow almost all the meadows, leaving only a minimum of grass for the sheep, and take all the hay from the haylofts that had been prepared for winter.
But now a formidable obstacle stood before the attackers. At the Warden’s signal, it was supposed to burst into flames and become an impassable wall of fire for a time. When the enemy saw the flames, they would surely try to go around them through the nearest forest. But there, they were already expected. The Warden did not know whether the plan would work. All he could do was hope.
He was about to give another order when he noticed movement among the trees. A moment later, goblins began riding out of the forest. They slowly filled the meadow, gradually approaching the barrier. A huge goblin rode at the front.
Suddenly, he stopped short, as though he had seen something completely unexpected before him. One of the warriors rode up to him, remained there for a short while, and immediately raced back, disappearing among the trees.
Interesting, Ogl thought. It looks like the big fellow gave some kind of order, and that one hurried off to carry it out. Apparently, they didn’t expect to meet resistance here. That’s good. Let them worry.
The halt did not last long. The Hermits began moving forward again, noticeably faster this time.
“Fill a pot with burning coals from the fire and go to the hay. Set it alight when they get as close as possible. Then come straight back,” the Warden ordered the goblin standing nearby.
The goblin nodded, grabbed a pot, and ran to carry out the order.
From a distance, it was impossible to make out the pot. So all the Hermits could see now was a Bignose running toward them with something in his hand. Even if they had been able to tell that it was a pot, they still could not have seen the burning coals inside. Warden Ogl drew his sword and moved forward. Everyone else followed. The goblins with Ant Power rode at the front. According to the Warden’s plan, they were the ones who would face any Hermits who still decided to break through the wall of fire.
Meanwhile, Lukdun was approaching the strange haystack at the head of his army. Or rather, he did not even know what to call it. In his lands, a haystack was usually small and round. Here, the hay stretched in a long strip across the entire meadow. But right now, he was more interested in whoever was beyond it than in the hay lying ahead. So Warden Appo had been wrong when he told him that the Bignoses did not know about the attack. No, Lukdun had no doubt that his army would be victorious. But would the victory come as quickly as Warden Appo had expected? It was clear now that the Bignoses had had time to prepare. And if the battle dragged on, they might need more Ant Power. Warden Appo was unlikely to be pleased about that.
Lukdun rode very close to the hay and stopped. After examining the ridiculous barrier, he even smirked. Then he raised his sword high above his head. It was the signal to attack. The warriors behind him did the same and now watched their leader closely. The moment he charged forward, they would follow. Lukdun already knew who would be the first to fall to his sword. It was the Bignose standing almost directly opposite him, who had brought a pot with him for some reason.
Maybe he wants to surrender? Lukdun thought.
But the next moment, the Bignose quickly reached the hay, emptied something from the pot onto it, and immediately ran away. The hay, thoroughly dried in the sun, burst into flames at once, sending tall tongues of fire and thick smoke into the sky. It became so hot that Lukdun and the warriors nearest him had to back away. The Hermits behind them also began to retreat little by little from the blazing wall.
“Stay calm!” Lukdun shouted. “It’s only hay. It’ll burn out soon.”
But the fire did not die down as quickly as he wanted. The hay was already burning out, but the branches and logs continued to blaze. It was impossible to jump over such an obstacle. Time passed, and the flames gradually diminished, but the barrier was still impassable. Lukdun was beginning to grow nervous. A messenger from Warden Appo had just ridden away after asking how the battle was going and whether the anthills would be captured soon.
What should I do? Wait until the fire goes out completely? That will take time, and Warden Appo has already sent a goblin. I need to break through faster and capture those damned anthills, he thought, looking around.
To the right, the fire stretched far into the distance and reached the forest. To the left, the forest was very close, and Lukdun thought exactly as Warden Ogl had expected.
“There’s the nearest open route! The forest! We’ll go through the forest, where there’s no fire, and no one will be able to stop us there!”
He raised his sword again, turned his ram to the left, and charged toward the forest with a shout:
“Follow me! This is our way!”
Warriors on the Bignoses’ side also headed toward the forest. They were the same goblins with Ant Power. But they had been sent there more as reinforcements. The main hope rested with the goblins sitting in the trees, who were already taking buzzing kegs from their bags. Now it depended entirely on them whether the enemy would be able to break through the forest.
Lukdun and his goblins quickly reached the edge of the forest, where the fire ended. The Hermits rode a short distance into the woods. There were no Bignoses here. Even if there had been, they would have been defeated without mercy. Lukdun relaxed and ordered his warriors to move forward. He wanted to go around the fire and ride back out onto the meadow.
But before the Hermits could start moving, a scream rang out among them. Everyone turned and saw two goblins desperately waving their arms as though fighting off something in the air. Then they pulled on the reins and galloped away.
“What is this?!” Lukdun shouted.
The goblins began exchanging frightened looks. Suddenly, another scream rang out. Another warrior started waving his arms and raced away, not even watching where he was going.
“What is going on here?!” Lukdun roared, furious.
Soon the screams came more and more often. From the outside, it looked as though the Hermits were going mad one after another and fleeing without knowing where they were going.
At last, Lukdun saw the bees. He looked up and spotted Bignoses in the trees, throwing small kegs down. When they struck the ground, they broke open and released the bees. Apparently, the bees were extremely unhappy with such treatment and blamed everyone they found in front of them. They immediately attacked those around them, and no Ant Power could protect against them.
The bees were relentless and merciless. They pursued their victims for a long time. Fleeing the unbearably burning stings, many Hermits drove their rams to exhaustion. The goblins ran so deep into the forest that afterward they did not know where they were or how to get back to the others. Some were stung so badly that their bodies swelled and literally burned with pain. They collapsed helplessly to the ground and could not recover for a long time.
The army was dwindling before their eyes. And the bees, having satisfied their desire for revenge, calmly returned to the hives, where the Bee-master was waiting for them.
Before long, sharp bee stingers sank into Lukdun as well. At first, he endured the pain stoically and swung his sword, trying, if not to kill his unexpected enemy, then at least to drive it away. Of course, it did not help. Worse still, his actions only angered the bees, and they furiously drove their stingers into his body. In the end, the pain became so intense that even such a hardy goblin could no longer endure it.
“Retreat!” he shouted, turning his ram around.
But no one paid any attention to his order. Such panic had already seized the remaining Hermits that they were scattering in every direction.
Vile Bignoses. Just you wait. When the fire dies down, I’ll make you pay for this, Lukdun thought in the heat of his anger.
He, a skilled warrior who had received incredible strength, had been forced to retreat by mere bees. And the army that had seemed invincible only recently had scattered through the forest. The thirst for revenge completely took possession of his mind.