“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Shawn asked nervously.
“You’ve fought ogres before, haven’t you?” Carlyle asked.
“Sure, when they attacked my home,” Shawn said. “But, I mean, we’ve never gone into the ogre territory before.
“We’re going into fight the ogres on their territory so that they won’t attack our homes,” said Carlyle.
The group was lined up to fight the ogres. Lucas, Kevin, Marcus, Paul, Shawn, Stella, Gabrielle, Lucinda, Molly, and Abby were all there.
Jack and Anna and the children from the goblin caves were there as well.
As was Verus, the robber king, with his robbers.
And Catherine was there with her wolves and her ravens.
They were all about to go down to fight the ogres.
The ogres lived on one of the neighboring peaks on the mountain range. To get there, they had to travel to the peak of the mountain they were on, and then go down the other side. Then, after a ways, the mountain began to rise again. Once they got to this part, that was the slope that the ogres lived on.
As they traveled up the next slope, they could see the ogres lying down on the slope. The ogres were surprised to see them. They did not expect to see humans traveling to their side of the mountain.
Ogres are giant creatures. They are roughly the same shape as a human, but they are about nine or ten feet tall. They have tough skin that can be either blue or grey depending. They have a huge mouth, with sharp teeth like knives. Their mouths are big enough that they can bite off a human head, and indeed this is one of their favorite things to do. They love to pick a human up in their huge hands, bring the head right into their mouths, and then chomp down on it.
However, ogres are not invulnerable. Their skin is tough--tough enough so that it is resistant to being punched or scratched by a human hand. But not tough enough to withstand the steel of a sword. And because ogres can sometimes be slow and lumbering, it is possible to cut them or kill them with a good sword. Finn had once cut down several ogres with his sword when he was defending his family. Catherine and Carlyle had seen him do it.
The teeth of a wolf could also pierce an ogre’s skin if the wolves bite down hard.
The ogres saw them approaching, and began standing up. They were talking to each other. “They are surprised to see us,” said Shawn. “They can’t believe we’re actually coming to them. Usually they’re the ones who attack us.”
“They’re going to get a lot of surprises coming,” said Carlyle.
“Watch out,” Alfred said. “They’re going to attack with rocks.”
Sure enough, the ogres began picking up boulders and hurling them down the mountain slope. Everyone began moving frantically to get out of the way of these huge rocks. Two of the robbers had their heads crushed by huge rocks. “It’s no use,” said Verus. “We can’t stand against this rock assault. We should run.”
“Keep calm,” said Catherine. “There’s a limited amount of boulders up there. I think they’ve almost thrown all of them.”
Indeed, pretty soon the ogres ran out of boulders to throw. They then gave a horrible yell, and started running down the mountainside. Some of the ogres were carrying clubs. Others picked up rocks or sticks as they ran down the hill.
“This is bad,” Verus said. “We should run now.”
“No, whatever you do, don't run,” said Carlye. “This would be the worst time to run. You can fight them if you keep your sword steady and in front of you. If you run, they’ll just get you from behind.”
“You can’t outrun an ogre anyway,” said Alfred. “They’re too fast.”
As the ogres got closer, Gabrielle started shooting arrows. She hit several of the ogres, but the ogres were so big, and their skin was so think that it’s hard to kill them with a single arrow. They came on.
“Shoot for their eyes,” Catherine advised Gabrielle. “You can’t kill them, but you can blind them.”
Gabrielle nodded, and took out more arrows.
The ogres were almost upon them now. Lucinda threw one of her spear’s, and felled an ogre. Abby hit another with her slingshot.
And then, the ogres were upon them. Carlyle attacked the first one with his sword. Just as he had seen Finn do once, Carlyle thrust his sword upwards, and stabbed right into the ogre’s chest. It howled in pain, but then Carlyle withdrew the sword, and cut off the ogre’s head.
Kevin swung his club, and tried to knock one of the ogres down. But it’s very hard to fight ogres using clubs. Clubs are what ogres are most comfortable with. The ogres swung back their clubs, and knocked Kevin right over.
Meanwhile, Shawn used his sword to cut an ogre down.
Catherine, since her adrelenaline was going full force, didn’t even have to start singing. Her hands immediately started glowing with energy. One of the ogres tried to grab her, but Catherine immediately grabbed the ogre back with her glowing hands. The ogre howled in pain. It turned and ran back up the mountainside. Catherine tried to keep hold of it, but the ogre was too swift, and was able to disappear up the mountain without Catherine being able to stop it.
The wolves attacked the ogres in groups. Five or six wolves would attack an ogre at once, biting at its legs, or leaping through the air and jumping onto an ogre. The ogres would try to throw the wolves away, but the wolves just kept coming back. Pretty soon the ogres would get tired of fighting the wolves, and would turn and run up the mountain.
It was at this moment, just as some of the ogres were beginning to turn and run, that the bears came charging out of the trees, and attacked the ogres.
Carlyle was surprised. “I thought the bear said they weren’t going to help us.”
“They wanted to see if we could fight the ogres on our own first,” said Catherine. “They didn’t want to defeat the ogres for us. But once they saw that we were defeating the ogres by ourselves, then they wanted to be part of the winning side.”
The bears were fierce opponents for the ogres. Some of the larger bears, when they stood on two legs, were almost as big as the ogres were. The bears also had sharp claws, but the ogres had thick skin, and strong bodies, so the ogres were able to withstand the swipes of the bear claws. But if the bears bit down with their fearsome jaws, they were able to crush the bones of the ogres. Of course the ogres also had fearsome teeth and mouths, so it was an evenly matched battle.
Perhaps if the ogres had only been fighting the bears, they could have held their own. But now that the bears were simply added to the humans and the wolves, the ogres didn’t stand a chance. Soon, all of the ogres turned and fled.
“Don’t stop,” Catherine called out to everyone. “Don’t let up until they surrender to us unconditionally.”
However, it is one thing to defeat an ogre. It is another thing to catch an ogre that doesn’t want to be caught. With their long legs, and incredible stamina, the ogres could run very fast, and they took off in all directions. The mountains shook as their huge legs pounded the ground.
The king of the ogres alone remained to meet Catherine and the rest of them. “My name is Azure. I am the king of the ogres. But my brothers have all run away and deserted me,” the king said sorrowfully.
“Fear not,” said Catherine. “Do as we say, and we will not hurt you.”
“And what must I do?”
“You must leave these mountains and never return,” Catherine said. “Tell your brothers. Ogres are no longer welcome on these mountains. If we see any ogres, we will kill them.”
Azure bowed his head in silence, and did not argue.
No comments:
Post a Comment