{"id":823,"date":"2012-09-14T13:37:42","date_gmt":"2012-09-14T19:37:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/?p=823"},"modified":"2012-09-10T13:38:15","modified_gmt":"2012-09-10T19:38:15","slug":"179-dr-e-versus-da-goblinz-5-of-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/2012\/09\/179-dr-e-versus-da-goblinz-5-of-5\/","title":{"rendered":"(179) Dr. E versus Da Goblinz (5 of 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the short story I wrote, poked at, and have finally made available. \u00a0I’ll be releasing it in bits throughout the week, but if you are impatient and just want to read the whole thing, I have it available here: Dr. E versus Da Goblinz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Melo was drawn into the center of the summoning design, the design that from this vantage looked completely in place despite my inept bumbling through the bushes of earlier. \u00a0If I\u2019d had more time, maybe, or that flamethrower, I could have done more. \u00a0Of course, I hadn\u2019t thought of the weed-killer, or of going through the gate instead of climbing the wall. \u00a0I never finished college, either.<\/p>\n

Dare started to scream, or yowl, which decided me. \u00a0I heard the low thrumming of the gate, the taste of fresh-mown grass on the back of my teeth, and pine sap on my tongue while I started pulling the goblins off Dare. \u00a0Blood was everywhere, and thorns pierced my hands. \u00a0I remember yelling, \u201cNo!\u201d several times as my hands grew numb and I started trying to kick them from me, petals and leaves everywhere as my carnage against the goblins matched what they did to Dare. \u00a0They ripped bits of flesh with curved claws of thorns.<\/p>\n

Dare rose up, pulling from the vines and fragrant perfumes with a roar, his face a mess of blood and fury. \u00a0Some of the goblins had smaller clubs made of roots and spines that they used to beat and bruise against him. \u00a0A word, a motion, and the plants in the area withered, as if water was drained from them, as if the force of the sun blighted them from the roots out. \u00a0The kind of thing you\u2019d use against mushrooms, I suppose. \u00a0Caught in the edge of the magic, I felt dizzy, as if I had been crossing a desert.<\/p>\n

Melo countered with the song of the gate drowning out the strange almost-silence of the night, and the fight wordless except for grunts and moans from the combatants. Burrs attached themselves to Dare, a flood wiped away the drought, and the scent of evergreen filled the air. \u00a0The sunshine relented somewhat, and I was deafened by sudden creaks and pops of tree limbs cracking and changing, as wood bent as part of Melo\u2019s invocation. I took a moment to glance at him, and saw in his hand a rod of living wood.<\/p>\n

Dare wiped blood onto his shirt and dove for his gun. \u00a0I moved to get to it first, and the grasses beat us both, rippling the gun from us stalk by stalk. \u00a0Melo raised the rod, and the younger man called out.<\/p>\n

Dare threw a gesture at Melo, a word, a curse, and the darkness was absolute. For a moment all there was were the trees, giant sentinels transported into the occasional bursts of my eyes trying to make sense of what the streetlight and pale moon gave. \u00a0Dare lunged at me, and I ducked, and I heard the sound of \u201chuge\u201d (that\u2019s a note that has its own orchestral section) behind me. \u00a0I felt the wind as it passed. \u00a0I felt the thump as it hit Dare, hard, and the sudden crashes, a fall of logs instead of a pile of bricks.<\/p>\n

There were words I couldn\u2019t make out, a curse broken as a stream of goblins followed the revived sunshine, slipping into the cracks where a tree fell down and broke through the brick wall, onto what was left of a twitching, murmuring Dare. \u00a0I stared, listening to the birds sing their pre-dawn songs over the sounds of Dare\u2019s slow descent to silence.<\/p>\n

The sudden dawn burst, showing the ruin of the backyard. \u00a0It looked as if hit multiple times by lightning, trees and shrubs split, and everywhere the movement of a quiet mass of small creatures as they harvested the night\u2019s work and took him into the darkness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was exhausted, but I looked for Melo. \u00a0I saw that he had fallen as well. A ring of mushrooms surrounded him. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t help myself; I hesitated for a moment. \u00a0I read too much. I moved towards him.<\/p>\n

I was pulled away by soft grasses, and the smell of fresh apples. \u00a0\u201cShhh,\u201d said the creature, green and brown and growing. \u00a0A creature of this place and Beyond. \u00a0\u201cShhh,\u201d it repeated, the sound of wind through the meadows, and the first brush of a cool breeze on a hot day as it rattles the leaves. \u00a0I was pushed down to the ground, sobbing, I think. \u00a0Manly tears, of course. \u00a0Very manly.<\/p>\n

I woke up on a cushion near a window. \u00a0I recognized the backyard from occasional glimpses I have had when Beatriz went from front to get something out of her shed. \u00a0My hands were washed, and there were bandaids carefully applied. \u00a0My jacket, full of blood and green stains hung neatly on a chair. \u00a0I could hear someone singing mournfully in Spanish from a radio somewhere deeper in the house.<\/p>\n

I saw flowers, a late summer garden awash in yellow. \u00a0Sunflowers, amber primroses, hollygrapes, golden corydalis, and in the corner yet another cluster of pretty yellow flowers: a spray of cheery, carefree, Goblin Gaillardia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I\u2019d had more time, maybe, or that flamethrower, I could have done more. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001002,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interlude-madness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823\/revisions\/840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.3-2-1-boom.com\/doctor-e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}