Ralph and the Pixie

The Thane had planned his strategy well. The mercenaries were well trained, and fought savagely when the Goblin army returned, crippling the first onslaught. Wave after wave they repelled, and fought with the utter abandon of despair, in the face of certain knowledge that their families had been murdered in their absence; they had paid a grim price for their part in the perversion of the principles on which the Elf Kingdom had been founded.

Yet savagely though they fought, the Goblin army was massive, and such losses were negligible to them. Every day brought the two forces nearer to Mirrindale. Within a week, the army of defectors was a mere twenty miles from Narvi, forced back in a slow, agonized and inevitable withdrawal from the North. But by now, being battle hardened, they had become orderly, organized and efficient, and guarded the mercenaries’ rear while waiting for the Thane’s signal.

As the two forces drew near to the fortress city, the Thane began laying plans to spring his final trap for both the Merchants of Mirrindale and the mercenaries. Any Merchant who wished to surrender everything he owned could join the Thane’s exodus from the Elf Kingdom. Any who wished to keep his worldly belongings could stay in Mirrindale, where they would be sequestered up with the remainder of the mercenary army.