June 8, 2003 – 16:45
They chuckled as they got deeper into the forest. The scent trail led them to a clearing and a hunter's cabin at the back of it.
They saw five goblins playing cards outside of the cabin. Coralis, Veronica and Eva stood behind the tree line and watched the goblins for a minute.
"If the vampires involved don't have a daylight bracelet, they won't stick their nose outside. We each kill one goblin, tie up the other two and we then go into the cabin," said Veronica.
They bumped each other's fists and walked toward the goblins. As soon as they saw the trio approaching, the goblins stood up, accidentally reversing the card table.
Without stopping nor saying a word, Coralis and Veronica unsheathed their swords and Eva pulled out her knife. The goblins walked toward them.
"What are you doing here? You aren't supposed to be here," said one of them.
The women quickly beheaded three of his companions and Veronica got behind him, grabbed his wrists and pushed him down. Coralis and Eva teamed up to restrain the remaining goblin.
"You tell all that to my Father from your cell, now shush," said Veronica while slightly twisting his head to make him lose consciousness.
"We'll take these two back to town when we're done here, so the mayor can see for himself that we did our job and took out the danger, and you can then take them to your dungeon," said Coralis to Veronica.
"I'll call Hendrick right now. I'll tell him to meet us by the church."
Veronica made her call and they went into the cabin when she was done with it. The cabin consisted of one large room. Along the back wall, they saw two large cages, with each a sleeping prisoner in it, and about ten vampires sleeping in another corner.
"Do we kill them all?" said Eva.
"Yes. No point in keeping one alive. None of them are wearing clan jewellery and I don't want to stay here until nightfall," said Veronica.
The prisoners woke up while the trio was busy beheading the vampires. Eva noticed their movements from the corner of her eyes and paused to look at them.
"Are you the mayor's son and the neighbour?"
"Yes. Who are you?" said the woman, in a raspy voice.
"We're your rescue party."
"They are monsters."
"Yes, no more monsters now," said Eva as her friends beheaded the last two.
"Have they done anything to you two?" said Coralis, still holding the blood-covered sword in her left hand.
Both prisoners showed them their wrists and neck, and several vampire bites could be seen. Veronica cursed.
"Are you able to walk?" said Coralis.
The prisoners glanced at each other and stared at her. Eva searched the dead vampires for keys and Veronica called Hendrick.
"My brother is close with two of his men. They'll meet us here instead."
Eva found the keys and opened up the cages.
"You don't need to come out now, help is coming. Just know there are no more bad guys around," said Eva.
"Eva, want to watch over them while Veronica and I wait for Hendrick outside? Hopefully, no more roaches will come, but I'd rather not take any chance. I also want to make sure our prisoners won't wake up," said Coralis.
20 minutes later, Hendrick and his men arrived at the clearing.
"It's always you two, always," said Hendrick while looking at the scene, shaking his head. "Lucas?"
"Partially, probably. Alfredino is the one who sent Blue here, what does that tell you?" said Veronica while Hendrick's men went inside the shack.
"It doesn't tell me anything good, but I'm going to enjoy myself questioning the two you mercifully left alive."
"Thank Blue for it. She wants to show them off to the mayor before we take them into our custody," said Veronica as she watched Hendrick's men carrying the prisoners outside.
"Always so thoughtful," said Hendrick to Coralis.
"Is it me or our prisoners aren't in the same position they were when we walked into the shack?" said Veronica.
"I don't know, nothing would surprise me at this point. If this is indeed a setup, I'm sure they have people spying on us. Why not take them while we weren't looking…?"
"Let's get out of here, we'll figure it out when we can interrogate your bounties. I'll take one and you two take the other one? Eva can watch our tail and we'll come back here to clear the evidence when we're done in town," said Hendrick.
Eva called the mayor while they were heading back toward the church. Jan waited for them as they exited the forest and rushed to his son. His neighbour, who was with him, rushed to his wife.
"Thank you so much, I don't even know how to thank you," said Jan and lifted his head to look at Coralis and Veronica as they passed by him, carrying an unconscious goblin. "Is he the one behind the kidnapping and murder?"
Jan saw Hendrick coming out of the forest behind them, carrying the other goblin.
"Yes, these two are behind it," said Coralis.
"They look monstrous," said Jan. He looked at the blood splatters on Veronica, Coralis and Eva. "Are you okay, we have a doctor in the church."
"Think about what they've done to your town. These are the true monsters out there," said Hendrick.
"We're fine, don't worry," said Coralis.
Two hours later, there was no trace of what had taken place in the clearing and the hunter shack. While Coralis was talking to Veronica and Hendrick, Eva reached out to High Mage Finnas.
"Blue," said Eva when she disconnected the call, "we need to go to Winnipeg, to High Mage Finnas's residence."
"We'll let you know if we find anything useful out of the two goblins you left alive," said Hendrick.
Coralis and Eva took off toward Winnipeg.
"High Mage Finnas wants your full report on what went down. He doesn't understand why the EBEE was involved there when King Matthew's family didn't call them. After I talked to him, he called King Matthew. Apparently, Hendrick did try to call the CMMA after Veronica told him what was going on and left to meet with you, but got no response," said Eva once they crossed state lines.
"They activated a spell to purge all smells, thinking you'd be there, yet the CMMA didn't technically send you. If King Matthew's people had found out about the strange bodies and disappearances and called the CMMA, they wouldn't have been able to get in touch with them… so they probably anticipated me to call you directly."
"Like what happened at Healing Moon last year, except this time, Alfredino sent you there before Veronica could think about calling you directly."
"They never released High Fay Zaaro, right?"
"They didn't tell you? The day of his trial, last month, he managed to break through the energy suppressant spell put on him. Apparently, High Elf Yalor and two other High Mages had to take him down and they destroyed him," said Eva.
"Then it means the CMMA has another traitor among their high ranks."