The goblins stopped in their tracks and lowered their weapons. Maybe it had something to do with the eccentric display Elvish was engaged in. There was no use denying the blue suede boots he was wearing were not cursed. Rather than ready another arrow or draw his sword, he had felt an uncontrollable urge to throw down his longbow and shuffle his feet to the left while shaking both his hands in the air and raising and lowering his upper body. He was powerless to resist. This was a more exaggerated version of the compulsive dancing Elvish had found himself unwillingly engaged in previously, but his half/singing, half/chanting was exactly like before.

“Uh-huh-oh-yeah!” said Elvish, shaking his hands in the air again.

As his head came up for the fourth time, Elvish realised he hadn’t captured the goblins’ attention with his ludicrous dance moves, it was something else. They were looking behind him, above his head. He couldn’t turn around to see what it was as trying to move his feet and body to a magical internal rhythm was taking up all his effort. He saw them edging away though, retreating to where their campfire was at the edge of the clearing.

The goblin who’d previously been licking out the cooking pot broke ranks, turned and started to run. A brilliant streak of blazing white light emerged from behind Elvish and struck the ground near this goblin’s heels. Elvish had never seen one before, but he knew someone had let loose a magic missile. That seemed to be the trigger for the other three goblins, and they turned on their heels and followed their compatriot into the forest, whooping and squealing. Thirty seconds later, there was no trace of them. Now that the danger was over, Elvish felt no urge to dance, and he turned around to see who or what had launched the impressive bolt of light.

“Impressive dance moves, Elvish Parsley.”

Elvish saw a brilliant white unicorn in front of him. He had never seen a unicorn before. Many people doubted they existed, but here it was. That alone would have held his attention if it had not been for the equally captivating creature sitting astride it. The elf was dressed in gleaming white chainmail and she had long, flowing white hair.

“How do you know my name?” asked Elvish, doing his best to reply in High Elvish. He hadn’t used that for quite some time.

“That is just one of the things I know.” said the elf, “Here, give this to your companion. It will speed his recovery but say nothing to him about me.”

The elf had taken a small glass vial from her belt and she threw it in the direction of Elvish. Amazingly, he caught it. Inside was a sparkling turquoise coloured liquid.

“Where did you come from? How come you appeared out of nowhere to help us? Did you just happen to be passing through?”

“I must take my leave now, but we will meet again.”

“But…” started Elvish as the elvish-rider-of-unicorn started to move away from the clearing, “I am indebted to you. What is your name? How can I repay you?”

“The name is Fluilla.” said the elf, “You must follow your path if you wish to repay this debt.” With that, she rode off and before long Elvish wondered if he’d made her up. More likely, he thought, the Gods had conjured her up to make sure he and Grimly were not beaten to a pulp by goblins.,

Elvish walked over to the concussed Grimly, who was in a prone position on the grass near the embers of the goblin’s makeshift campfire. He was gurgling and clearly massively hurt. Cradling his head, Elvish administered the turquoise potion Fluilla had given him and saw his friend make a remarkable almost instantaneous recovery in front of his eyes. As Grimly came to, Elvish wondered if Fluilla’s appearance was tied to the magic blue dancing boots he was wearing. It seemed a possibility and a nice power to have at his disposal if she appeared any time his life was seriously under threat.

“How do you feel?” Elvish asked his friend as Grimly opened his eyes.

“Remarkably well. What happened to the goblins?” Grimly surveyed the clearing and then sprung to his feet. “How come I feel so good? The last thing I remembered is being clobbered over the head with a club.”

“Come on,” said Elvish, “let’s find the spell book and get out of here. Those grubby creatures might come back. I’m sure if we dig around near the campfire, we’ll find it.”

“You mean you didn’t kill them?”

“No, I think I must have scared them off with my dancing.” Elvish said with a grin.

***

Although it was very late by the time Elvish and Grimly arrived back at the Heartbreak Inn, the place was heaving. The sounds of merriment spilled out onto the street, with rowdy singing and clinking of glasses disturbing the tranquillity of the clear starry night.

Elvish waited while Grimly handed over the dappled white mare to the ostler. He proceeded to take the creature to the stables and Elvish and Grimly headed for the bar. Under his arm, Elvish tightly clasped a scruffy leather tome that was bulging with papers. As expected, they had found the spell book wrapped in cloth and buried next to a tree near where the goblins had been eating.

Inside the tavern, their eyes were drawn to the bar and the figure of their patron, standing off to the side, observing the scene. Unlike the others in the packed tavern, he was not drinking, and seemed to be surveying the scene as he had been earlier that day. Had he already given up on them? Grimly waved and the two of them approached the wizard.

“Welcome, welcome, gentlemen.” said the wizard with no name. “I see you have recovered the missing tome. Splendid work.”

Elvish placed the spell book on the bar in front of the mage and watched as he inspected it, taking it in his hands and then sniffing it as if he could tell it was the genuine article from its smell.

“Aren’t you going to open it, make sure it’s what you were looking for?” The book was fastened shut and required a small key to open it. No doubt it was also protected by magic of some sort.

“That will not be necessary. “said the wizard, placing a small stack of coins on the bar. “Now, if you will excuse me, I must dash. Please accept this silver as a token of my appreciation.”

Grimly took the silver coins from the bar and split them in two, giving half to Elvish. It didn’t look like much when he had his share in his hand.

“I can’t stop thinking there’s something odd about that wizard,” Elvish said as Grimly placed one of the coins on the bar and ordered two flagons of ale. He then spotted the three other members of their party of adventurers in the corner and hailed them. Botox the dwarf got up and started coming over.

“What business did you have with that charlatan?” Botox asked as he reached the bar. Botox had brought his axe with him. It was never out of his sight.

“Charlatan? You mean the wizard? We’ve just come back from another adventure tussling with goblins. He paid us to get back his spell book.”

“Wizard? That scoundrel isn’t a wizard. Didn’t you see he has no beard?”

“What do you mean? I thought…”

Botox half growled, half laughed and then said “Wizards always have beards. Remember that. I bet the silver he gave you was false too. You won’t be the first to have been duped by that faker.”

Elvish took out one of the silver coins the supposed mage had given them and placed it between his front teeth. The coin broke in two when he clamped his mouth shut and he felt the part of the coin in his mouth dissolving on contact with his saliva. It left a sour taste in his mouth.

“What the…?” Elvish started. To his side he heard Grimly arguing with the bartender who was refusing to take his silver in return for the ale she had just placed on the bar.