The Battle of Ebulon (29 page)

Sampson didn’t follow the
other heroes back into the market either, but this was for a
different reason. Sampson was looking thoughtfully at the dead
Orcs.

Chihuahua carried his
tail, which was colder than he had expected it to be even for
having been sitting in snow, towards DWW. As soon as he reached her
he handed DWW his tail, which she took from him.

“Can you reattach it?”
Chihuahua asked her pleadingly.

DWW looked at the tail
thoughtfully and examined it. Although she wanted to say something
positive to him, DWW knew that she couldn’t. “I’m sorry, Chihuahua,
but I can’t,” DWW answered him regretfully. “That part of your tail
is dead. All I can do is clean and close your new tail stub.” While
it was true that DWW couldn’t do anything about the tail he lost
because magic can’t bring back the dead, although it can reanimate
dead things with brains, she could easily have used her magic to
give him a full tail again. DWW didn’t mention this to Chihuahua
because she knew how proud the little dog was of his tail and he
would never feel this way about any tail created by magic, it just
wouldn’t have been the same.

Although he hadn’t noticed
before, Chihuahua looked back to see that his tail was sill
bleeding. Sadly, Chihuahua allowed DWW to do what she could in the
shelter she had created. When she was finished she told Chihuahua
to go celebrate with everyone else although she knew Chihuahua
probably wouldn’t do this.

As Chihuahua came out of
the shelter, he was surprised to see the other heroes waiting for
him. Black Cat was sitting patiently in the front of the group.
Before Chihuahua could say anything Black Cat said, “You may have
lost your tail but you should be proud; not for the loss of your
tail, but because of why. You lost your tail in a battle helping a
friend and because of this the courage and loyalty you showed will
not go unrewarded.” Black Cat paused here then she placed a paw on
Chihuahua’s shoulder and continued, “You have now achieved full
hero status. Today you are no longer my sidekick…you are my
partner. Congratulations Chihuahua!”

“Really?” Chihuahua asked.
His eyes were shining with excitement, “I’m now a hero…like
you?”

“Yes,” Black Cat said, her
eyes shining equally as bright.

“But how did you know?”
Chihuahua asked in confusion, “I didn’t think anyone
noticed.”

“I know I didn’t say
anything earlier, but I did notice,” Spy Girl said. “I told Black
Cat because I felt you deserved more than just a thank
you.”

Before Chihuahua could say
anything else something caught his attention. Chihuahua stood
rigidly for a couple seconds sniffing the air.

“What is it?” Black Cat
asked unsheathing her claws in case another army of Orcs was
nearby.

Suddenly Chihuahua’s stub
tail began wagging. Excitedly he said, “I smell cookies!” He then
ran off towards the scent. Black Cat relaxed and followed him at a
slower pace. The rest of the heroes then followed her. While most
of the heroes were beginning to celebrate in the market, one was
busy with something else.

Sampson was performing a
spell over the entire, recently killed, army of Orcs. During the
battle he had noticed just how good of fighters the Orcs were and
with Spy Girl having used up all her exploding corn, if he had
control over this Orc army Sampson wondered if enhanced with his
magic, he could take over this world. Now of course was as good a
time as any to try he figured.

Just as his zombie Orcs
began to rise, DWW noticed and quickly alerted the other heroes.
The heroes complete with DWW, approached Sampson, whose army had
now fully risen. Sampson’s zombie army was now ready and awaiting
his command.

The heroes treated Sampson
as any other villain and waited until he made the first move to
attack them.

“Zombie Orcs attack!”
Sampson called. The zombie Orcs didn’t move. “Attack!” Sampson said
again. Still he got no action. “Zombies, come on! Attack! Attack
now!” Sampson was getting very frustrated and feeling very
confused. Why were his zombie Orcs not listening to him?

Suddenly Turtle
materialized in between Sampson and the heroes. Quickly she
conjured up a fishbowl then using her magic she turned a confused
and surprised Sampson back into a fish.

“What just happened?”
Wonder Wolf asked confused.

“In order to prevent an
attack from Sampson, as I had expected,” Turtle began looking at
DWW as she said that last part. “I used my magic to join with him
so that I would be in him the entire time.”

“He should have been able
to sense your magic then, shouldn’t he, or at least have known
someone else was using his body?” Grizzly Girl asked.

“I was never using his
body exactly,” Turtle said. “He never knew I was there because I
allowed him complete freedom right up until that last moment, or
last spell he performed. During that last spell I made it so that
instead of using his magic, he was using mine which meant that the
zombie Orcs would not be loyal to him…but to me.” Upon explaining
this Turtle released the zombie Orcs from the spell and the Orcs
resumed being dead.

“I should have known you
would have a plan,” DWW said apologetically.

Turtle looked back at her
thoughtfully, but didn’t say anything for a few moment. When she
eventually did say something, it was to all the heroes. What she
said was, “Now that all the enemies really are gone, let’s go
celebrate!” And that’s exactly what they did.

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Entry Point
13- by Kate Porteous

Teardon knelt and placed
her hand on the ground to feel the beat of the war drums as she
glanced towards the night sky. The voice that had called her here
still seemed to echo in her mind. The war drums seemed to be the
only thing other than the shadow of her beloved left in all the
worlds that brought a true smile to her scarred face. She glanced
towards the icy cave behind her that had led her to Ebulon and
watched as the shadows that followed her grasped at the edges
pulling themselves free. Darkness followed her as it always did as
she stood up and made her way towards the Orc torches that shone
through the trees in front of her.

It had been so long since
this warrior had felt like this, the anticipation of battle and the
smell of blood in the air made the long trip from Karpagne seem all
the more worth it. Teardon was dressed in a dark purple hooded cape
that was just a smidgen too big and had seen better days, her black
iron handled claymore was sheathed across her back and was nearly
as tall as her. She wore red clothe pants and shirt under her iron
plated plain armour.

The torches drew closer
as the shadows caught up to her taking on their own forms. A small
shadow whirled around her and landed on her shoulder in the form of
a gothic fairy. “Will we be spilling blood tonight?” the fairy
spoke with multiple voices and an eerie eagerness. “Patience Aylen,
soon” Teardon answered with a voice so quiet sometimes the wind
could not hear her. The Darkness behind her had started taking its
own form one of a wolf, one of a gargoyle and one of a hooded man
that was dressed the same way Teardon was. The rest of the darkness
took to the sky and whirled above them staying in shadow waiting to
take its true form.

Aylen looked towards the
hooded man “More souls Maliki,” Maliki nodded in
acknowledgement.

“I have never tasted Orc
blood before, do you think I will like it.” The wolf said in an
angelic voice that seemed to have its own echo.

“I’m sure you will my
dear Wynter, you will have your fill tonight,” Aylen answered the
wolf as Teardon raised her hand bringing the party to a stop at the
edge of a cliff that overlooked the Orc army.

The gargoyle through a
sinister laugh said, “They will all die tonight, they... will...
all... die” “They shall Kastion, this will be fun,” Aylen said
clapping her tiny hands.

As the party looked upon
the Orc army they noticed that it was not just one breed of Orc
that stood ready to march to battle but many. There were three
distinct groups with about forty members which were large warrior
type Orcs that had either a pig or a lizard face and had a sword or
axe in one hand and a fire torch in the other. There were several
groups of about twenty to a cluster of medium sized Orcs whose
faces resembled a rotting corpse and who were waving daggers above
their heads as they screeched. There were also about thirty smaller
Orcs that had white faces with no features but a set of glowing red
eyes who were wielding war axes and swords in a group in the middle
of the horde. Scattered through the army mostly at the head of the
horde were about fifty heavily armoured Orcs with horns on their
helmets and wielding large two-handed war axes. Teardon had
estimated this army at about three hundred warriors including the
half breed Orcs that seemed to have no real formation playing the
war drums all ready to march in the opposite direction to the cliff
face. Teardon noticed that at the front of the horde was an Orc
that was much taller than the rest whose armour appeared to be made
of gold wielding a large claymore that also shone of gold against
the torches held by his brethren. On this Orc’s head were two large
horns, what appeared to be ratty shoulder length hair and a gold
jewel encrusted crown.

Teardon looked towards
the dark shadow that still had not taken its true form and said,
“The Raygon is ready.”

Aylen clapped and giggled
and started singing “how many will die tonight,” she then flew from
Teardon’s shoulder and towards the Orc army. Aylen whirled around
the rotting Orcs and as she went they let out ear piercing screams
as their blood sprayed into the air. Aylen counted one, two...five
still singing as she went. Kastion soon followed wearing a smile
that was just as sinister as his laugh. His laugh was so evil that
it caused some of the Orcs to weep and hold their ears as they
buckled under the weight and fell to their knees. Kastion then
descended upon a group of pig faced Orcs and quickly and
efficiently tore body parts from them randomly and started to
devour them. He ate it all arms, legs and even hearts all the while
letting his laugh coat the battlefield.

Wynter was next bounding
gracefully down the cliff face with her paws barely touching the
ground. The Orcs had now become aware of an enemy and let out roars
and screeches and frantically looked for an enemy they could run
through. Wynter went straight for the lizard and pig faced Orcs
knocking them over and tearing their throats out one by one. She
bounded from one victim to another leaving a trail of bloody
footprints as well as a line of blood that fell from her barred
teeth. The bodies of the Orcs she had just slaughtered rose up
shaking and contorting violently. Once the undead warriors had
found their footing they then turned on their brethren clumsily but
effectively.

Maliki looked to Teardon
for approval to join the fray, she nodded. Maliki drew his long
thin rectangle shaped sword also made of shadow from his left
sleeve and flew towards the armies. Maliki majestically wielded the
sword left to right and in a spinning motion cutting through any
Orc unlucky enough to meet his blade.

The horned warriors at
the front of the horde had come through the bulk cutting down all
the walking corpses Wynter had left in her wake. These Orcs were
clearly far superior warriors than the rest and were not easily
overpowered. Wynter had been surrounded by them and she darted
frantically for a way out. Aylen came from nowhere whirling around
the warriors still counting and spraying blood, it was enough for
Wynter to free herself and turn on her would be
dispatchers.

Kastion flew above the
horde piercing their ears with his laugh and occasionally swooping
down to pick off the weaker Orcs for his next meal. His laugh
proved too much for some of the Orcs who just dropped to the ground
and drew their last breathe. Maliki was a superior warrior that
always kept one eye on Teardon in battle. The smaller faceless Orcs
used this to their advantage. A large group of them leapt into the
air at him and several managed to run him through, he raised his
sword into the air and a pale blue light whirled above it sucking
the souls from the fallen Orcs towards him and then into him. This
caused the faceless Orcs swords and axes to be pushed from Maliki’s
body sending them into the air and landing against trees and the
ground with that much force that they exploded when they hit the
ground.