The other woman bent down. “Hey, stupid! You got company sneaking in here?” Her chin hair pricked his nose. “Want me to beat you with Mabel’s switch like I used to beat your kid, you dumb goat?!”

BELCH!! He emitted the loudest burp any goat ever made, or ever will make, in her face. She jerked back in disgust as Mabel laughed so hard she nearly fell over. Ernestine’s boots stomped furiously out of the barn and the four of them heard her yelling at Mabel all the way back to the farmhouse. Roscoe and Paco hopped out of the hay.

“Believe me, kids, her breath was worse!”

“Can somebody get this hay off me?” Clementine’s muffled voice cried. Roscoe removed it with his teeth, accidentally biting an ear in the process. “Ouch! Watch it!”

Roscoe smiled. “Watch what? Your ear? Only half of it’s left!” Clementine squealed.

“Okay, you two. We don’t want those crones coming back,” Paco said.

“Why don’t you leave this place, Dad?”

The stubborn old goat snorted, “Nah, what’s the point? Unlike you, I couldn’t spend the rest of my life being ruled by a little dog!” He looked down at the rat-terrier. “No offense.”

Paco nodded. “None taken. I’m sure he would’ve felt the same about you. But that’s not why we’re here.”

“It kinda is why we’re here,” Roscoe said, turning sad. “Dad, King Pugsly was assassinated.”

The goat gasped and his hind legs stiffened. “Assassinated, you say? By whom?”

“Farangis.” Roscoe’s father’s face drained of all emotion and he looked away. “Dad, we know you’ve seen him, and we know you’ve also seen where he lives.”

“I don’t want to talk about it! That was a long time ago!”

The friends looked at each other. They knew this was uncomfortable for both father and son.

“Tomorrow morning, sir,” Paco said, “we’re leaving to kill the great snake, but we need you to tell us where he hides.”

The old goat nearly choked, “K-kill him?! You are going to kill the snake that blinded my eye?”

“Not just us, Dad. A human boy is coming, too.”

The old goat laughed in disbelief, “If only your mother were here to see this!”

“Dad, if we don’t kill Farangis now, in four nights he’ll attack the kingdom!”

The goat looked somber. “How do you know this, son?”

“A field mouse was there after Farangis’s snakes killed our king,” said Paco. “He heard them say that Farangis himself would come to kill us on the next full moon.”

“And who knows what they’ll do next?” Clementine said, still stuck in the hole.

“There are dark times ahead if we don’t act.” Paco looked sadly at the ground.