To our surprise there wasn't actually any further trouble at the fete. No fights, no injuries and no one getting spooked by things they shouldn't see.

Well, unless I count myself at discovering the real reason Ethel didn't want the stall leaving unattended - the sheer volume of weapons she'd stashed there.

The following meeting found us all in a side snug in the Axe with the door shut with a note in Mel's sternest handwriting - which I think was the underlined red pen - dissuading people from poking their noses in looking for a seat.

"Anyone heard from our new friends about where that bonnacon is then?" Old Charlie asked after wiping the foam from his mouth as he put his pint back down.

There was a collective head shake and shrug.

Henry grimaced. "That means we have to track it then."

Muriel took another hefty gulp of her wine.

"Dare I ask what's involved in that?" I asked, guessing I did not really want to know the answer.

"If we're lucky, burnt foliage and arid ground that shouldn't be," Young Charlie replied. "If we're unlucky, highly acidic dung."

"And if we're very, very unlucky, the still smouldering carcasses of whatever it's attacked using said corrosive flatulence," Henry added. "If you thought some of the stuff we've come across before was grim, this stuff..." He didn't need to finish his sentence, the fact that he let it hang said enough.

"Okay, but you guys said you'd dealt with some before, so you must have some idea how to fight it?"

"We go old school for this one, even by our standards," Ethel explained. "Only those who can use a shield get close, everyone else stays ranged."

"Though even the best shields will only be temporary against those caustic attacks," Young Charlie explained.

"Have you tried weaving them with sapphire chives?"

Everyone suddenly turned to the fireplace and saw a little trio of goblins sat in the ash leftover from early spring. One was smearing it on it's arms as if it were a tattoo.

Muriel, however, was frowning. "I don't know that one."

"I can show you!" One replied happily, practically bouncing. "Nothing else we know lasts as long against..."

"Bonnacons?" Jimmy suggested as we all realised the goblin didn't know our word for the beast.

"Yes!"

Muriel shrugged to herself. "Worth a try, I'd like to research it first though."

"Then we show nice lady in morning where to find it!"

"Can you also show us whereabouts this bonnacon has set up shop?" Henry asked. "It'd help if we had the lay of the land."

~-x-~

And that was how I found myself trudging through a misty wood with Muriel, Declan and a pair of cheerful goblins in search of sapphire chives.

"My research didn't turn up a lot," Muriel admitted. "All I really found was details of a pendant allegedly made in the fifteen hundreds to ward off evil spirits. And I'm not entirely sure that was real."

One of the goblins, Zee, snorted. "Sapphire chives won't stop spirits."

"You need Duck-Bow for that," Res added alongside her. "All my clutch swear by it."

"I didn't know goblins needed to ward off spirits."

"Humans do not?" Zee asked, cocking her head to the side. We all confirmed that that would be considered unusual. "But... you bury your dead in your homes!"

"No, we don't."

Res and Zee shared a confused look. "But we have seen the rows of markers!" He replied.

"Oh, you mean within our towns?" Muriel asked and they both nodded vigorously. "And goblins don't..?"

"No, we burn! Release spirit and set it free to find peace."

Muriel looked like she was absorbing fascinating new information on the supernatural. I was just trying not to think about goblin funerals. Or how muddy my boots were now we'd reached the riverbank, they were going to have to dry for days after I hosed them down.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Res and Zee happily splashed at each other before turning to look around. "So we normally find plenty growing in the tree shade around here."

"Okay, what are we looking for?" I asked.

"Tall, thin stems, a deep blue-green colour," Res explained. "They are actually green stems with blue sap."

"And sometimes it oozes out and crystallises."

"Is that where the name comes from?" Declan asked.

"That and to tell the difference from normal chives," Zee replied with a toothy grin.

I glanced at Declan and Muriel as if to ask them if there was something I was missing. "I'm guessing we shouldn't eat these, then?"

"No no no," Res agreed, and rubbed his belly. "Cramps and vomiting... but not food."

"I do not want to know," Declan decided firmly.

"Me neither," both me and Muriel agreed.

"So do not eat!"

I couldn't help but chuckle at the cheerfulness with which Res said that as we started our search.

"I think I see something over there," Muriel added after we'd all been searching for a while. "Though it might just be some long grass."

Zee hopped partway up a tree trunk to get a better vantage of where Muriel was pointing, squinting before brightening. "Promising!"

So we trundled over with our new friends leading the way, until we came to a stop at a small patch of weirdly blue, tall chives. And luckily for us, just a couple of trees over was an even larger patch for us to carefully harvest enough of for our purposes whilst leaving enough in tact to keep blooming. Our helpful goblin friends explained how best to cut and twist to minimise the sap loss, apparently that was the most important part.

"Then why not just harvest the sap?" Muriel asked as she followed their instructions as precisely as she could.

"You need the stalks too, together they are the best defence. Sap is most important, but not only part," Zee tried to explain.

"Once all this is over, I might need to experiment with some of these," Muriel admitted. "Are there any other plants you use like -"

"Hundreds! Plants very, very useful!" Res agreed brightly, then held out a knife - Declan darted back five paces - then rolled it to offer Muriel the handle. "Look at the blade."

Muriel carefully took it and looked closely at the blade whilst myself and Declan tried not to be too nervous about the goblins easy way around sharp, pointy objects.

Muriel showed little concern as she turned it over and over, before her frown deepened and she brought it closer to her face. "Is this... no... Have you carved a blade directly from the leaf and are preserving it with something in the handle?"

"Yes!" Zee agreed happily from her perch on a nearby stump. "Prepared correctly the leaves can be just as sharp as any metal, but more deadly because of the way they react with our potions."

"I've never seen anything like this!" Muriel was, clearly, fascinated. "Nor read about this kind of forging. This is..."

"Mind boggling?" I offered.

Muriel chuckled. "That is a word, yes, but I was more impressed than anything," she explained, handing Res his knife back. "Even at the height of their knowledge human druids couldn't do anything like this."

"Wait, height? You mean the druids of today lost their knowledge somewhere along the way?" I asked.

"Oh, yes, they're nowhere near as powerful as they once were. I'm not sure how or why, but a lot of their knowledge has been lost. Maybe just as a natural progression of industrialisation or technology meaning a lot of their old histories were dismissed as fantastical tales or superstition now that we had machines and science. Nothing says science and magic have to be mutually exclusive, you know."

"I'm sure the scientists would disagree with that."

"Cars would be considered magic to those from the medieval age."

Well, she had us there.

Once we had a good supply of the sapphire chives carefully harvested and stored, we set off back. By now most of the mist had dispersed, leaving behind a slightly muggy feeling to the summer warmth. Which, if anything, just made the squidgy feeling in my socks feel worse.

We had just got to debating how far Henry's group had got staking out the lair the bonnacon had made when Declan stopped short as he noticed one of the bushes rustling ominously.

"There shouldn't be anything dangerous out this way," Muriel whispered. "Henry started trapping this area to keep things off of Bill's land."

"They'd be nearer the fence though, right?" I asked, though felt stupid doing so since we could see the fence from where we were.

The goblins shared a slightly guilty look. "We maybe moved some of them."

"What?" Declan demanded.

"Only slightly!" Zee added quickly, and pointed not far away. "Makes more sense there because -"

"Fuzzy!" Res suddenly called happily.

"What?" Declan, Muriel and I all asked at the same time, whilst Zee turned to where Res was looking and happily made the same cry as both goblins ran merrily towards the bush.

Before any of us could ask what had just happened both goblins tumbled out of the leaves as they giggled whilst petting and bouncing with a tortoiseshell cat we all recognised as the grumpy old thing that hung out at the Axe.

"Twinkle?" Muriel asked in disbelief.

"I didn't think that cat liked anyone," I added.

"I once saw her cough a fur ball into one of Old Charlie's shoes when he was changing them, because he was sat on the closest chair to the fire," Declan added.

"That's nothing," Muriel replied. "Remember when she knocked over the fire-poker onto Henry? Even Brian nearly murdered her that night."

Not every pub has a cat, but a surprising amount do considering the amount of chaos one of those fluffy creatures can cause if things are not to their standards. But perhaps other pubs have less grumpy cats. We were all convinced Brian only allowed her to stay because he'd nursed her as a kitten when he found her in the cellar soaked and freezing and clearly abandoned. She'd pushed it plenty of times since.

Yet here she was, playing with two goblins as if she were a completely different cat.

"Maybe we should start calling her Fuzzy too?"

As if on cue she stopped dead and hissed at the humans.

"Maybe she's part goblin?" Declan suggested.

"Nah, they're way too friendly for that old grouch," Muriel replied.

"Why does Fuzzy not like you?" Res asked.

Us three humans shared a look that turned into a group shrug. "No idea," I finally offered. "She's always been grumpy."

Zee giggled. "But she always plays with us."

"This might sound mad... but is there something in the pub that the cat doesn't like?" Muriel asked carefully.

"Like what?"

"Everything?" Declan suggested, clearly one of Twinkle's various victims.

The goblins both looked at the cat in thought before Res asked, "is pub old enough to contain cursed items?"

"Probably, I think it's the oldest building around," Muriel agreed.

"Cats sense dangerous magic," Zee added helpfully. "We help search later, make Fuzzy happy."

"Okay, so we just need to hunt down and remove all possibly cursed items from the Axe just to see if it calms Twinkle down... no big deal..." Declan joked.

"That's not even the weirdest nor hardest thing about today, Dec," Muriel reminded him as gently as she could.