The Carter looked to his sister. “Is he always like this?”

Cerys gave him a nod. “He’s only fifteen,” she told him.

Then the knight look to James. “Tell me again, why exactly did you choose children to help us?”

“We can talk about that later,” James told him, as though he were close to losing his patience. “Are you going to bring the Goblin with us?”

“For a time, yes,” Carter told him.

The creature snarled and grumbled when the knight told it to get to its feet, and tried not to walk at first. It quickly learned that the group moving on, and that he would have to as well, be it dragged or on foot. It walked, though stubbornly, and grumbling with every footstep.

The star bats grew restless the further they went, squirming and making noise as the party passed them. It was not exactly a shriek, but more than a chirp. There were more of them, too, as though the entire extended family had taken refuge in the catacombs.

They had nearly passed all of the bats by when one of them began to screech, flapping its wings from its perch.

“What is that one so mad about?” Cerys asked as she jumped back.

The goblin snarled and glared up at the star bat, and James understood. Sir Carter did, too, and he spoke up before the younger nobleman could.

“Did you attack these bats on your way in, goblin?” He demanded to know.

It hissed and grumbled back.

Sir Carter did not seem to appreciate its reply. “Why even ask your kind?”

He was about to ask it something else when several other star bats began to join the first one in screeching and letting the humans know how upset they were. The next thing they knew, the bats let go of their perches and began to fly around them.