It was the sounds of snarling and growling that woke them up first.
They were all trained to be light sleepers. In the mountains, you had to be. You never knew when an attack would come at night.
They lay still, hoping the noises would go away. But then suddenly, there was a loud thud as some creature struck their door. “I smell humans inside,” it yelled. The creature pounded on the door several more times.
The door stood. The door was made of strong wood. Behind the wood were several steel beams that reinforced the wood. And behind the door were two large boulders that they pushed into place every night before bed. The door would hold, at least for a while. And then…
They were all looking at each other. Finn put his finger to his lips to motion everyone to stay quiet. Then, as quietly as possible, Finn climbed out of bed. The others followed his example.
Finn grabbed his sword from where it hung on the wall. He took it out of its sheath. Carlyle took one of the axes from the wall. Margaret took one of the knives. Catherine took the crossbow, and pulled back the strings, and fitted an arrow.
The pounding on the door stopped. For a moment it was quiet.
“They’re looking for rocks,” Finn said. “Stay ready.”
A couple minutes later, there was a crash of something colliding with the door. The wood cracked. The steel beams held. The two boulders kept the door in place.
Another crash as another huge rock collided with the door. Then another crash.
Pretty soon, most of the wood on the door was reduced to splinters. Although the steel beams still held, there were big gaps between the steel.
One of the ogres stuck his face through the gaps.
“Now,” Finn said. Catherine pressed the trigger on the crossbow, firing an arrow right into the ogre’s right eye. The ogre screamed in pain and immediately retreated.
Catherine hurried to fit another arrow into the crossbow.
Another ogre put his arm in through the door. Finn raised his sword high and chopped down. The ogre’s arm came clean off.
There was a cry of rage from outside. “You’ve just made them mad,” Margaret warned.
There was a pause, and then they could hear one of the ogres running towards the door at full speed. He crashed into the door, dislodging the door from its hinges completely. The two boulders behind the door also wobbled from the force of the impact.
The ogre entered into the house and roared like a lion.
The ogres were inside. The wait was over. The real battle had finally begun. They all knew that the next few minutes would be critical.
Catherine’s heart was pounding fast. She could feel the adrenaline flowing through her. She raised the crossbow and fired an arrow at the ogre. Then, suddenly, the crossbow burst into flames while it was still in her hands. Catherine screamed out and dropped the crossbow on the ground in shock. Margaret quickly threw a blanket over the crossbow and smothered the flames. Catherine looked over at Margaret. Margaret looked back at Catherine. Margaret could see Catherine wanted to ask something. “Not now,” Margaret said. “We need to deal with the ogres first.”
The arrow that Catherine had shot hit the ogre in the neck. The ogre screamed out in pain. Flinn swung his sword and sliced the ogre’s head out.
“Quick, out into the open,” Flinn said. “If we have to fight them, then let’s do it where we have room to swing our weapons.”
Flinn dashed out the door. Carlyle followed him. Fortunately, it was a full moon, so they could see the ogres clearly. There were five more ogres standing outside. They were big ugly things, covered in blue skin.
One of them roared, and charged towards Finn. Finn thrust his sword right into the ogre’s chest. It fell over dead.
Another ogre charged at Carlyle. Carlyle hacked at it with his ax to try to keep the ogre at bay. Flinn quickly came to Carlyle’s aid and swung his sword and cut the ogre’s head clean off.
Margaret and Catherine followed them outside. Margaret carried the crossbow now. It was a little bit singed, but still functioning. Margaret fitted an arrow into the crossbow and fired it at one of the ogres. It went right into the ogre’s chest, but didn’t go deep enough to kill it. (Ogre’s can have very tough skin.) But it still caused the ogre to cry out in pain. The ogre charged towards Margaret, but once again, Finn swung his sword quickly, and chopped off the ogre’s head.
It was at this point that the remaining two ogres decided to flee.
Finn collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
“It’s over,” said Margaret.
“For now,” Finn said, panting.
“I don’t think they’ll be back tonight,” Margaret said.
Finn stood up slowly. His joints ached. “I’m getting too old for this,” he said.
“Just a few more years,” Margaret said, smiling. “You did good tonight, Finn.”
“The door is completely shattered,” Finn moaned.
“The iron bars are still usable,” Margaret said. “We’ve got plenty of wood planks. And we still have those two boulders. We can barricade the entrance for the rest of the night. Then we can rebuild the door tomorrow. I don’t think those ogres will be back tonight. But we should get inside soon. Aefar and the other vampires hunt during the night.”
Finn scanned the sky, looking for bats, or any other flying creatures. “Yes,” Finn agreed. “Let’s get back inside, before anything else shows up.”
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