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“please” didn’t matter. All that mattered was power, so that no one, ever again, would tell him that he couldn’t make them do what he wanted. One day that girl on the swing would see how powerful he’d become, and then she’d be sorry for not sharing. He would work his way up in power until he was king of Burrowsville. No—king of the Underworld.
    Unlike Fudd, Grissel had never gone to school. No schools existed in Flog, because there was nobody smart enough to teach in one. Unless you count the Flog Academy of Fear-Making, in which Goblins practiced the art of causing fear in others. With his natural talents, Grissel quickly growled, attacked, and clawed his way to the top of his class. He was especially good at blowing things up. In fact, for graduation he blew up the Flog Academy of Fear-Making. The academy wanted to give him a medal for having done such a good job at it, but the medal had been inside the school and also blasted to smithereens. Grissel’s father was so proud, saying that next Christmas he could eat at the table instead of being eaten on the table.
    Not long after that, the humans opened a mining operation that caused them to dig very deep into the earth. Their drills came close to Flog, too close. The Goblins tried everything they could think of to stop the humans, such as kicking in their tunnels and breaking their drills with rocks. Nothing worked. They just made wider tunnels and stronger drills.
    One day Grissel decided it was time to stop the humans once and for all. He led a group of Goblins to the surface one night. They blew a giant hole into the earth and drove all the human machines into the hole. With another explosion, Grissel buried the machines. The humans decided the ground wasn’t stable enough for mining, and all drilling stopped. Grissel was a hero.
    He had lived a quiet life in Flog until three years ago when that human boy, Elliot Penster, stopped the Goblins from catching the Brownie, Patches Willimaker. Then he knew it was time to be the Goblins’ hero once again. He had led them in a war against the Brownies ever since.
    Fudd wanted to be the Brownies’ hero. He had spent his life trying to become the most powerful of all Brownies. It cost all of his gold to buy the only existing copy of The Guidebook to Evil Plans , which clearly stated, “Commit to your beliefs. No super villain ever rose to the top by doing things halfway (page 2).” Queen Bipsy had stood in his way before. Now it was King Elliot who kept him down.
    But Fudd couldn’t kill King Elliot on his own. Very deep inside, Fudd knew that just wasn’t nice. And by nature, Brownies are usually peaceful creatures. But now that he and Grissel had joined together, things were different. With Fudd’s superior mind and Grissel’s ability to create trouble, Fudd was sure that nothing could stop them.
    “If we’re going to get Elliot, then we need to know more about humans,” Fudd said to Grissel. “There’s only one Brownie smart enough to help us. Patches Willimaker.”
    “Where is she now?”
    “Probably in school,” Fudd said. “Probably in room twelve on the fourth row, probably coming back from lunch right about now.” Grissel stared at him, but Fudd just shrugged. “What? It’s just a guess. How would I know?”
    Oddly enough, that was exactly where Patches was when the Goblins showed up.
    Patches was just about to raise her hand and answer the teacher’s question about her favorite food when her teacher cried out in fear and pointed to the back of the classroom.
    Patches knew what was happening just by the nasty smell that she’d detected. Goblins . Luckily, the school had conducted a Goblin drill only last week, and she remembered what to do. She jumped to her feet and yelled to her classmates, “Don’t look at them. Just run!”
    Despite her own warning, Patches snuck a look behind her. Three Goblins had come. They looked confused by all the Brownies who were frantically running in