The Baron's double-cross

The Baron’s double-cross


Don't go near the forest -- Baron Theodore told the five young boys.

After some intense thought, nine-year-old Charles who was the Baron’s nephew spoke up, "it's haunted, that's why you don't want us to go near the forest. That's right, isn't it, Uncle Ted?"

"Well, Charles, I wouldn't exactly say it was haunted. But in the last few months many young people your age have disappeared."

"Charlie, Uncle Ted doesn't want to us to go near the trees so we won't get lost." Glynn was almost 13 and the oldest of the five boys. The other three were all his friends and he had to show that he was smarter than his younger brother. "If we go into the trees, someone is sure to get lost and then Uncle Ted being the Baron and all will have to call out the guard to search for the one missing." Glynn looked at his friends with a snicker indicating they all knew it was going to be Charlie who was lost.

Charlie spoke up very confidently, "well, Uncle Ted, you won't have to worry about us getting lost. We aren’t going into the woods, right guys." Charlie never noticed that the other four boys not only didn't agree with him, but they all smiled as he gave surety to his uncle that they weren’t going to do exactly what they all were there to do.

"Well, Charlie, I am glad to hear that. You other boys remember, Charlie said you weren't going into the woods."
After assuring the boys that he would be back to get them later, the Baron turned and started his ride back to the manor house.

While all of this was going on outside the forest, just a few hundred feet in the woods nestled on a large branch were two beings that looked like shaggy dogs except for their humanlike faces. One started scratching under his arms and the other told him to stop in a harsh but quiet voice. The first one said, "I don't see why we have to wear these skins all the time."

"If we are supposed to be gremlins, then we have to look like gremlins. Now be quiet so the boys don't hear us. Since the Baron told them not to come in the forest, you know those boys are going to do just the opposite and we need to be ready to get them, when they do.”

"I still don't see why he wants us to get these five boys. After all two of them are his nephews."

"That's exactly why he wants us to get them. The young boy, Charles, is the heir to the manor and the Baron has to turn it all over to him on his 15th birthday. That's less than six years from now. The Baron is a young man and he doesn't want to give all that up. This way he gets to keep the manor and take over the entire duchy because the Duke and his men can't protect the people."

"Well, here come the boys so we better get ready. Which one do we let escape?"

"For sure it can't be either of the nephews." They both laughed with a sinister sounding cackle.

Things worked very well for them since the only boy not caught by their drop net was the second oldest one. He was not related to the Baron so they let him ride away to spread the news.

The two gremlins released the boys from the net one by one, tying and gagging them before they got them on their own ponies to take them a few miles deeper into the forest. In a small clearing they were met by a gang of slavers who took the boys and their mounts and paid the gremlins in coin.

They laughed all the way back to their hole in the ground, thinking it was funny that they not only used the boy's own mounts to carry them but sold them to the slavers, too. These four boys had brought almost as much money as all of the others combined. It was too bad they had to let the one boy get away.

After they went into their den in the ground, the gremlin who was the boss released a young girl of twelve or thirteen that they had captured earlier. She hugged him and squealed when the other one got too close. He thought it was funny that she used him as her protector just because his helper had nibbled her fingers and toes. When the helper bit her on the back a little, she was willing to do anything for the boss just to keep the other one away from her. She thought that they had killed and eaten all of the others that she knew they had captured and she was willing to serve them so that she wouldn't be eaten, too.

She knew that these two weren't gremlins because she had seen the boss undressed when he had sex with her. She was so anxious to stay safe, that she voluntarily cooked for these two. Since they had been gone all morning and she was trying to please the boss, she asked if she should fix something for them to eat. The boss hugged her and told her that would be very nice.

They had only been back to their underground warren a short time when they heard clanging and hollering coming from their entryway. The boss spoke up angrily, "damn, I
made a mistake when I showed the Baron our den and its entryway. Now he has come to kill us."

"But why would he kill us? We done the things he wanted just the way he wanted them done."

"That's just it. We’re the only witnesses to his crimes. We not only helped get rid of his nephews, but stirred up enough trouble so he can have his own guards control the duchy."

"But even if we talked, no one would believe us."

"No one would want to believe it, but it would cause enough doubt that the king would have to send troops down here to control the area and that would stop the baron’s little plan. Remember he wants to take over this area and we're the ones who helped him to do it. Best we get away from here."

"What about the girl?"

"Bring her. She knows too much about us to be left behind. She knows that we're not really gremlins, but only men dressed in animal skins."

"Fine. Now how do we get out?"

"Just because I showed the Baron this little den and it's entry doesn't mean I showed him all my little secrets. There's another little passage that goes where even you don't know and it will take us away from here, so that they can't find us. Come on, let’s get going. After we get out and things settle down a bit, we'll show the Baron some real reasons why you don't go near the forest."