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The first goblins to realize the wall of fire was an illusion were dropped by expert bowshots. The rest of the goblins retreated to the top of the hill, none wanting to be the first to fall.

A goblin larger than the rest started to berate them, and they started grouping for a mass charge.

"What the hell is that thing?" Randol asked when he saw the larger goblin.

"It look s like a monster goblin compared to the rest of them." Borst replied as the group looked in amazement at the bigger goblin.

"It looks like they are getting ready for a mass charge down the hill. Kalira take careful aim with me and we will see if we can drop that big beast and they may flee."

Derissa smirked. "It's a target."

She leveled her crossbow against her arm, then thought a moment. "Wait! I have an idea... it'll buy us some time...maybe." She looked to Randol who would most certainly protest what she was about to do. She smiled to him and winked, "D'you trust me?"

She knew his answer wouldn't be any different than before.

Not verbally, anyway.

"Wait here. Don't fire anything at them..." Silently, she moved toward some shade and disappeared into the shadows of the trees, heading for the goblins. She murmured a few words and a couple of the goblins fell over, sleeping soundly. She waited for the others to move. They were quite rightfully distressed. She crept a little closer, looking at the big one. She spoke a few more words, a small light forming in her hands.

She looked up.

The large goblin-thing was staring right at her.

"Nuts!" She smiled sweetly and walked forward, not really interested in parlay. She spoke out a greeting in goblin, an extended her hand. She was going to have to run quickly once this over. The goblin-thing stared at her hand. She smiled again and reached for his. He pulled back and stared at her, confused as to how a human knew goblin.

"Who?"

"Friend."

The goblin scratched his head. He then extended his hand. As soon as she touched his hand, she smiled and held on for a moment. Slowly, he began to crumple, feeling himself--quite literally--become dumber. If that's possible. He let out a bit of a yowl, because, it apparently hurt, and Derissa just stood there. "Oh, great..." she sighed through her teeth.

She was now being stared down by the goblins. "I gotta remember that spell has a light involved..." She glanced over to where Randol and the others were.

Hopefully, he'd do something. Unless, he decided to pick this time to actually listen to her...

Caleb shifted nervously, looking at Derissa surrounded by goblins. He took a tentative step toward them, then stopped.

"Do you suppose she knows what she's doing?", he asked Randol.

At that moment, the goblins roared with anger, and converged on Derissa. While they might now be leaderless, taking revenge was something they could all understand.

Caleb cursed, and started running toward the mass of goblins. After a moment, Borst followed. Kalira held her fire, wary of hitting Derissa by mistake.

The boat came closer to shore, Derissa's ploy having kept the mass of goblins far enough from shore that they didn't seem to be an immediate threat. A man in the prow could be seen looking through a spyglass, though, and shaking his head, clearly debating if they could load up the humans and be off again before the goblins could charge.

Randol watched as the scene unfolded, not knowing what to do. "Why does she always ask if I trust her and then go and do something crazy?" he thought to himself.

Kam spoke up and said, "Hey Randol, I think your girlfriend is in trouble up there."

Randol shot her a glance and then looked up on the ridge. He saw that the goblins were moving closer to her and she wasn't doing anything. "What do I do? Do I help her or will she get mad if I do? Does she have evrything under control?"

Then he saw her glance down at him with help in her eyes. The goblins closed in so Randol acted. He grew angry and his eyes grew red. He ran up the trail a bit, held his hands up and spoke to the heavens in a booming voice. Suddenly, the skies grew black and cloudy. Thunder rumbled and lightning lashed out and down by the goblins. The jolt of the lightning bolts caused the bigger goblin to release her hand and she was free.

A couple of more lightning strikes kept the goblins at bay and from getting to Derissa momentarily.

The distraction of the lightning gave Caleb and Borst time to reach Derissa, and start a fighting retreat back to the rest of the group.

The large goblin seemed to have trouble figuring out what to do, and just stood there stupidly as the humans retreated. The goblins nearest the humans started chasing them, but the outlying ones wanted nothing to do with magic lightning, and started drifting away into the hills. When the large goblin failed to bring them back with threats and blows, more of the horde started to drift away.

Caleb, Borst, and Derissa reached the others with a scant half a dozen goblins on their tail.

Kam stood, sighing. "Do I have to do everything for you?" The wobble as she stood belied her words. Even with her magic gauntlets, she would have trouble managing an all out fight.

The boat drifted closer, encouraged by the reduction in goblin strength.

"SHOOT THEM!" Derissa enunciated clearly toward Kalira and then turned and let fly with her own crossbolts and took a glance to Caleb, making sure he was okay. "Get to the shore line and don't let Kam try to fight! We need her healthy!"

She cast a glance back at Kam and frowned. Just leave them, Derissa. You have your requirements. Grab Caleb and swim to the boat. Let them deal with the goblins. She glanced at Caleb again, then caught sight of Randol. She couldn't leave now. Not that she finally got him to trust her. Legitimately. She growled and reached to her thigh for her throwing daggers, slinging them toward the goblins. "Where's the boat?!"

IT'S ALMOST HERE. WE NEED A COUPLE OF MINUTES." Randol yelled above the excitement. "I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH MORE I CAN KEEP THE LIGHTNING GOING. I AM GROWING WEAKER!"

Finally, Randol collapsed and the lightning and the clouds soon dissipated. The boat was now close enough for people to start swimming to it. Randol hoped Kam would be alright to swim but he wasn't sure if she was strong enough.

Suddenly, there was arrow fire from the boat and they were shooting up at the goblins as the boat inched its way closer to the beach head. A dinghy was lowered and a couple of men rowed toward the beach. Derissa got everyone into the water to start swimming to the dinghy.

She looked at Kam and Randol not knowing what to do. Well, she knew what to do but wasn't sure if she wanted to. Randol said, "Derissa, just go. We will be fine. I just need to recupe my strength and I will get Kam to the boat."

Derissa looked at the swimmers and then at Randol and Kam and back at the swimmers. Then it became clear to her. She knew what she had to do.

All of her roguish instincts said cut ties and run. No point in waiting for the stragglers. It wasn't her fault they'd exhausted their energy.

But her heart wouldn't let her. It was, after all, Kam--a woman who'd become a partner in crime, so to speak. She couldn't just leave her there--not when Kam had risked her life to keep Derissa safe while they rescued the humans.

Of course, there was Randol...curse him. Curse him for being handsome...and caring about her. She wasn't happy with the fact that she'd allowed herself to become weak and allowed this man to worm his way into her heart. She couldn't leave him there.

She rummaged in her belt pouch for some potions. She pulled out one that was labeled "Lesser Health." She handed it to Kam. "Drink. Don't ask...just drink." She looked at Randol, then handed him one labeled "Refresh." Neither potion would fully help them, but it would be just enough for them to get to the boat--Derissa hoped.

She watched the trees for more goblins, but didn't see any. She looked back toward the boat, calculating their time left. It wasn't much.

Kam was was almost instantaneously feeling better but she was leary of the label on the bottle but decided not to question it and took to the water to swim to the boat.

"Come on Randol. We have to go and we have to go now."

Randol got to his feet as he was feeling stronger too. They were about to dive into the water when Randol stopped her.

"Derissa, wait a minute." Randol said as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

Not wanting to hear Randol get mushy, she sighed and said, "We really have to go."

"I know, I know. I just wanted to thank you for all you've done. I don't know what your intentions were or are but I just wanted to thank you for not abandoning us and not killing us in our sleep." he said with a chuckle.

"You're welcome. Can we go now?" she said and turned back to the water.

He grabbed her, spun her around and kissed her. She almost melted as their lips parted and he kissed her deeply, passionately.

"Come on Randol. Lets get out of here." she said as she reluctantly broke away from the kiss.

"I can't. I have to stay here until I find another blood diamond. I can't save my land and destroy the dragon without it." he replied solemnly. "I'm sorry."