Assault on the Red Halls
After supper I continued me story about the wee lass turned Champion of the Aes Sídhe...
'Beannaithe and Mac arrived at last to the Iron-land, a mountainous region filled with foul air and fouler creatures. I will not describe them in detail, for I do not wish to fill your dreams with images of them. There were, however, some you might recognise by name if not by sight: trolls, goblins, and Big Folk soldiers and sorcerers. They were united in their delight in malice and cruelty.'
'Oo! They sound quite evil!' remarked Darowva.
'Aye, they were,' I replied.
'Beannaithe did not wish to fight every last one of these countless minions of Evil, so she donned a disguise. Wearing a dark, hooded cloak and a painted wooden mask made to resemble a goblin, she crept along silently, endeavoring to be as inconspicuous as she possibly could.'
'What's "inconspeakiness" mean?' asked Diolun. His face contorted in confusion. His siblin's and cousins laughed.
'Sorry, lad,' I answered. 'I simply meant that the lass did her best not to be noticed.'
'Ah, I see,' he said. 'Please continue!' she said with a smile.
'Wait! Where were Mac during all of this?' asked Darowva.
'She left him in a safe place where the cruel goblins would not find him,' I told her.
'In a stable?' she inquired.
'In the care of good Big Folk who were camped in a secret place away from the probin' eyes of the evil Iron-land folk,' I informed her.
'Ah, that is a relief!' she sighed.
'There came a point, however, where Beanniathe would be unable to continue without slayin' the guards. Surely they would stop her for questioning and, in so doing, would see through her disguise...'
'Oh, no!' cried Darowva.
'...Setting aside her cloak and mask, the lass charged the first guard she'd have to pass: a monstrous troll.
The phrase "The bigger they are, the harder they fall" came unbidden to Beannaithe's mind. She'd heard Fikta utter this phrase many times in the tales he told to his young ward. Beannaithe had never truly understood what it meant until this very moment.
Beannaithe charged the troll with a roar so loud that she surprised herself as well as the troll. She hewed the troll's leg from beneath him. He fell forward, nearly crushing her. She quickly dodged its massive bulk then, climbing upon its back, plunged Claíomh Solais through the troll's scaly hide and into its vitals. The troll died instantly and without comprehension of what had done it in.
She defeated the troll's mate, that is, his fellow guard, nearly as swiftly as she had the first. Wiping her blade clean on her discarded cloak, Beannaithe advanced towards the gate where two more trolls stood guard...'
'But before that happens this lot must advance towards their beds,' declared me daughter Ériu who'd just finished cleaning up after supper along with her two sisters.
'And, I might add, without weapons of any kind,' said Banba. Diolun reluctantly set down his wooden sword.
'Let's get a move on,' said Fódla. 'Morning comes bright and early. We wouldn't want you to miss breakfast because you'd overslept.'
'Good night, Granda,' me grandkids wearily said to me.
'Oíche mhaith, me darlin's,' I replied.
'Good night, Dadaí,' me daughters said.
