The elf’s gaze turned to where she was pointing, and the others followed suit. There on the ground, scrunched up against a wall, was a small, dirty creature. It was humanoid, with scrawny legs and dirt-caked skinny arms, and it was somewhere between green and black in color. It was simply too dirty to be sure, and it smelled just as bad, Nashtra did not look at all impressed by its presence.

“A goblin,” he said, as though noting out loud what it was. He was not at all worried about it, and he looked over at Sir Carter with an even gaze. “He seems to have made a meal of the bats.”

“Better it than us!” Carter scoffed. “Star bats are fine for eating the mushrooms in the catacombs, but not for supper.”

“I hear that it is bad luck to hurt a star bat,” Lord Ridley added.

“For this goblin it will be!” Sir Carter said. He pulled a rope from his travel bag and knelt down beside the goblin.

The thing was fast asleep, it belly fat and round, surrounded by the remains of several star bats. Cerys could not help but think what a terrible shame it was that they had not only been hurt, but killed. She noticed that they no longer glowed, either, and looked back up at the living bats who still clung to the ceiling.

Their deaths will not go unpunished, she wanted to say to them out loud. She knew, however, that the others already though her weird enough, so she decided not to speak to the bats.