From Chapter Sixteen: the Flaming sword

 

 

Abruptly something struck my head from behind and I toppled in among the children. My pate reeled in a maze of thick pain.  two figures trampled over me into the house and in an instant, the twins had run out behind Beerwin.

I caught the visage of these creatures.  One held a spiked club that dripped with blood from my own head, and the other wielded a ball and chain.  They wore garnaches of hideous, leprous green.  Their faces were fierce and primitive. Long, tangled, white beards lined mouths of sharp fangs.  Long noses jutted out beneath bushy eyebrows set on thick brows.  shocks of white hair stood on edge, frilled like bolts of lightening.  Their ears were also hairy and long like those of a wolf.

At once I sprung to my feet and swung my sword, though the cottage reeled around me and my head throbbed with agony that pounded darkness and blurred my vision.  They turned their weapons on me. My blows were easily parried, but the Grimace must have nicked one slightly, for its magic killed him.

  

The world spun and I heard running outside the cottage.  Past the shoulders of the creature I fought I saw that Beerwin had somehow prevented the children from running into the forest. They were  in the field between us and their enemies.  I steeled myself to keep from sinking into addled blackness as the monster cast blows from his ball and chain at me.  The weight and snare of the weapon nearly toppled me before I could pierce the creature through with an unexpected stab.  He died instantly and I threw myself out into the night.

“Zombiac!” called Beerwin, as he nocked another arrow, “it is the Elfin!  The Elfin are come from the stars to steal children!”