As soon as Kane strode around the corner of the chapel, he immediately crouched and pressed his back against the wall, stifling a laugh.

Peering around the corner of the chapel, Kane watched with amusement as Lorcan attempted to calm down after his frightful encounter with him, only to be interrupted by falling into the hole he’d dug with a loud thud.

Kane had to fight off the urge to go and check on Lorcan while simultaneously resist a laughing fit at the sheer poetic nature of what he’d just witnessed. This little “war” was already proving to be worth his time and he was very grateful to have been brought in on the whole thing by Dobble and Puckleflup.

“Well done, sir! You had the priest praying to his Maker just at the sight of you!” Dobble whispered eagerly as he and Puckleflup crawled out of a nearby bush and approached Kane on all fours.

“What did I tell you about calling me ‘sir’, Dobble?” Kane said looking over at his co-conspirators just in time to see Puckleflup elbow Dobble with a overly stern look on his face.

 “Of course, si… Of course. We were just excited, that’s all.” excused Dobble.

“Yeah, we did everything just like you told us!” Puckleflup exclaimed just a little too loudly for Kane’s liking.

“Sssssh!” Kane hissed. “Lorcan might hear us and then you’ll have definitely lost this little war.”

Taking his eyes off of the two, dirty goblins, Kane peeked around the corner and was shocked to see Dyn Hysbys talking to Lorcan with a mouthful of his apples.

“Shoot! Dyn Hysbys is with Lorcan.” Kane scowled at the sight of the crackpot old man. “Where does he even come from? I looked away for half a second…”

“The Magic Man is here? Where!?” The two goblins asked in unison with excitement as they scrambled up onto Kane in a wild attempt to see around the corner. Elbows and curses were thrown and Kane’s face was pushed into the wooden wall by one of the two vying for a view. With a growl, Kane grabbed each of flailing goblins by the back of the neck and carried them away from chapel and into the woods. Out of sight of both Lorcan and Dyn.

Tossing the now fighting duo onto the ground, Kane stood over them and stated forcibly. “You two clearly don’t understand how to stay quiet! Now, I have missed what Lorcan did with my apples! That better be a good reason why it matters if Dyn Hysbys shows up?”

Like toddlers being scolded, Dobble and Puckleflup scowled with their bottom lips and turned away from each other, arms crossed. After a moment, and an additional inquiry from Kane, Puckleflup spoke up.

“Well, sirs… while I was watching the Locke Lady and Dobble was watching the chapel-man last night, the Magic Man came and talked to me. He scared me half to death.”

“And what did he say to you?”

“He asked what Puckleflup was doing, so I told him I was on a secret mission for the Captain. He said that sounded like fun and I told him that you wanted me to watch the Locke Lady and to tell him what she was up to.”

“Did he do anything after that, Puckleflup?” Kane said, clearly stewing at this turn of events. Dyn was a wild card and clearly could get involved in unforeseeable ways that would make this whole venture incredibly difficult.

 “Not really…” Puckleflup said, scratching his head has he tried to remember the previous night’s events. “He stayed and watched for awhile and then when the Locke Lady and Perran came to take your apples, we followed them to the chapel and then left.”

Placing his hand on his face and releasing a long, drawn out sigh, Kane continued. “So what you’re saying is that Dyn knows what is going on and could have been telling Lorcan all about what’s going on? And worse, if Dyn doesn’t tell Lorcan then he clearly has something else in mind, which could mean anything for all of us…Wait…Did you also say Perran was with Shay?”

“Yes, sir.” Puckleflup said, nodding happily that he had remember that detail.

“Well, that escalated quickly. It seems like half of Woodland is involved. At least Haute and Titania haven’t gotten involved…” Kane spoke, thinking out loud.

At this, Dobble finally spoke up. “We could go talk to them if you wanted to, sir. Well… maybe not the Demon. Puckleflup could go do that.”

“No!” Kane barked. “If I find out either one of them gets involved with this little prank war because of you two, the least of your worries will be losing the war.”

At the threat, both of the goblins quieted down as they watched Kane pace between the tries, waiting for him to continue.

“Alright. Here is what we’re going to do. I want the two of you to gather all the chickens you can find, unharmed mind you, and meet me at Shay’s bakery later tonight and then…” Kane begin to whisper his plan to the goblins and the more Kane explained, the wider their smiles became.