The nome spoke with a strange accent, similar to Jerry's and yet not quite the same, as if they came from different countries. Thomas remembered Jerry telling him once that the nomish race was divided into two major sub races. Those living in the northern foothills of the Blue Mountains, a country they called Nomehome, and those living in and around the Majestic Mountains, a country they called Pastora. Jerry was a Blue Mountains nome, and so Thomas guessed that these were Pastoran nomes, a race that he knew almost nothing about.

     Jerry went to stand beside the Captain in case he was called upon to mediate, and some members of the ship's crew muttered to each other. These people had clearly been badly abused by someone and the sailors fingered their weapons in case they suddenly came under attack. Seeing this, the nomes drew back in fear, but the Captain stepped forward, reaching out with his empty hands to reassure them.

     "Thank you for your welcome," replied the Captain. "We realise that we are trespassing on your island, but had no way of asking permission before coming. If you've been shipwrecked here and want passage back to the mainland, we can help you there provided there aren't too many of you." The Captain was remembering the estimate made by one of his men that there might be several hundred individuals on this island, but these nomes might not represent the majority of the island's population. They might be recent shipwreck victims, forced to live among a hostile native population who treated them harshly.

     "Oh no, no, no, no, no," said the nome, shaking his head vehemently. "Our grandparents were shipwrecked here, that is true, and went to great efforts to escape, but we who were born and grew up here are very happy here, or at least we were."

     "What do you mean?" asked the Captain. "If you don't want to leave, what do you want?"

     "We have lived on the back of this creature for over a hundred years, and were happy here," said the nome. "We have everything we could possibly want or need. The trees provide us with fruit, timber and clothing. Animals and birds live among them, which we hunt, and we get even more from the sea. The soil, we call it soil for want of a better word, is rich enough to grow a wide variety of crops, and we have domesticated some of the native animals. Our only regret is that we cannot build our homes underground, and must build log cabins to live in, but that is a minor problem and does not bother us. Life here was as close to paradise as it is possible to get in this world, until about five years ago.”

     “Why?” asked the Captain. “What happened?”

     "One day there was a terrible storm, during which giant waves swept half way to the centre of the island. Two of our villages were completely washed away with great loss of life. When the storm finally died down, nearly one in four of us was dead or lost in the sea and our grief was very great. Worse was to come, though. We were in the middle of rebuilding our shattered lives when three lifeboats were washed up on the beaches, from a pirate ship that had sunk in the storm, and out of them came over forty shologs. We knew nothing of shologs then, having been cut off here all our lives, and our knowledge of the outside world consisted only of the stories passed down by our grandfathers. We would have welcomed them and offered to share the island with them, but they didn't give us the chance.

     "They have taken over the island and made us all slaves. We fought at first and killed some of them, but they killed many more of us. Most of the grown men were killed in that time, leaving only the women, children, the old ones and a few like us who were injured and unable to fight on but have since recovered. The shologs fight for the love of fighting, continuing to fight even after we had stopped resisting. They took everything we had. They beat us and whip us for any reason at all, or for no reason, and are as cruel to the woman and children as to the men..."

     His voice choked off as he struggled to hold back his emotions, and it was several moments before he could continue. "I beg of you, you must help us fight them! There must be twice as many of you as there are of them, and many of us who survived their coming or have grown up since will fight beside you. Between us, we will drive them back into the sea and regain our freedom. You will all be rich! Please, we beg of you, say you will help us."

     The Captain scowled grimly and rubbed at his young arm. "Snouts, you say," he said. "Over forty of them. Shologs are good fighters. I've fought them many a time, on shore and at sea, and never without losing valuable men."

     "Aye," agreed a nearby sailor. "I've fought them also, on the Morning Maiden. They love fighting for its own sake. They don't care whether they win or lose so long as they can win glory for Skorvos, their God. They must be half crazed from being stuck here for five years with no-one but nomes to fight. If they learned of our presence here, they'd be so overjoyed they'd fight with the ferocity of twice their number."

     "The nome said something about treasure," said another sailor. "What treasure?"

     "They brought their treasure with them," said the nome. "If you help us defeat them, it will all be yours."

     The sailors eyes gleamed. "Well, what about it skipper?"

     "I must think of the safety of the ship and all its crew," replied the Captain doubtfully.

     "How many of you are there?" Jerry asked the nomes.

     "About five hundred in all, but only about sixty men who can stand and fight," said the nome. "As I said, most of our men were killed when they first came."

     "Then there must have been a couple of hundred of you who could fight when they first came," said Shaun. "You nomes are no mean fighters yourselves. I've heard stories of your exploits and victories in the goblin wars. Surely two hundred nomes could defeat forty shologs."

     The nomes exchanged nervous glances. "There is something we haven't told you," said the spokesman, a little nervously. "One of the shologs is... a wizard."

     "What!" exclaimed the Captain. "How powerful a wizard?"

     "He destroyed three of our villages with balls of fire. He killed dozens of us with bolts of fire that leapt from his fingers. His touch can kill, and he can hypnotise people and turn them into his willing slaves. He can even command the lightning! No-one can stand against him. Even the other shologs are afraid of him. If it hadn't been for him, we would have defeated them when they first came, but instead he defeated us almost single handedly."

     The Captain looked grave. "I have fought shologs before, many times. Their ships are everywhere. No merchant ship is safe from them, and a crew has to learn to fight them or perish. A wizard, though, that's another matter. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't hesitate to help you and free you from this oppressive evil, but I have no right to ask my crew to face up to a wizard."

     "What about the treasure?" asked the sailor who'd spoken before. "Some of us might think it was worth while for that kind of reward. How much did you say there was?"

     "Lots, lots!" cried the nome hopefully. "Great boxes and chests full of it! All the treasure they've plundered from the ships of the Western Sea in twenty years of piracy, and it's all yours if you defeat them."

     The sailor's eyes glittered, and some of the others looked interested as well, but the rest still looked doubtful. "We've still got to defeat a wizard first, don't forget," said the Captain. "It's not as though we've got any magic users on our side, except for the young lady here."

     "Yes we have," said Shaun, indicating the three wizards and his sister. "We have three wizards against their one, and a cleric of Caroli, the Healer. That should help to even the odds a bit."

     The nomes stared at Jerry in amazement. He was a wizard? A member of their own race?

     "Hey, wait a minute," protested Thomas. "We're barely more than apprentices, just out of University, and we can only cast one spell each a day, whereas this sholog wizard sounds as though he can use mid level magic! That's hardly a fair match."

     "And I can only use the Lady's power in self defence and to heal," added Diana. "I cannot take part in any fighting."

     "It's still better than nothing," said the sailor. "When the lads learn we've got spell monkeys, pardon me, wizards on our side, they'll leap at the chance to grab a share of the loot. You say you can't order us to take on a wizard, skipper, and we respect you for that, but I bet you'll get a lot of volunteers."

     “Aye!” said another. “We signed on to fight, to defend your ship against pirates and earn a little loot in the process, but we’ve seen precious little of either for months. Let us fight, Captain! Let us do what you signed us on to do!”