Shane Porteous - The Battle of Ebulon - A Shared Anthology

“I got it!” Spy Girl exclaimed suddenly. She was holding something long and yellow.

Chihuahua heard her but didn’t respond. He was distractedly sniffing at something long, brown, and furry on the ground. With a whimper, Chihuahua realized that the thing used to be his tail. Chihuahua wanted to pick it up and make DWW reattach it, but he looked in the direction in which the majority of Orcs and heroes were fighting and once again he felt very angry. With a growl, Chihuahua decided that his tail could wait. Right now there was a battle to be won!

Spy Girl threw her gadget towards the center of the enemy army.

“Was that an ear of corn?” Asantra asked.

“Sort of,” Spy Girl replied. She then explained, “It is corn in the sense that it looks, feels, and is grown like corn, but it acts very different and you wouldn’t want to eat it.”

“Why’s that?” Wonder Horse asked curiously.

“What it does is highly destructive,” Spy Girl answered then offered no further explanation knowing that the heroes would find out what the corn does very shortly. Spy Girl watched where she had threw the corn and waited patiently until she saw a bright flash of light. The flash was a signal that Spy Girl knew meant the corn was ready to activate. As soon as she saw this, Spy Girl urgently said, “All heroes fall back now!”

Everyone did as Spy Girl said and the kernels of the corn began popping in all directions. As kernels hit something they exploded. This went on for several seconds, and maybe even as long as a minute passed before all was quiet, at least quiet as far as the exploding corn was concerned. Sadly, the results were not what had been expected. Only minimal damage had been done to the Orcs closest.

“It wasn’t powerful enough!” Black Cat said.

“Well, it was designed for humans and human sized enemies,” Spy Girl explained feeling disappointed.

Suddenly Sampson had an idea. “Do you have another one?” He asked Spy Girl.

“One, why?” She asked suspiciously.

“I have a good idea,” He replied smiling mysteriously and somewhat evilly at the same time. “This time, though, make sure it lands directly in the center of the Orc army!”

“How?” Spy Girl asked.

“Use the birds,” Sampson replied simply.

The birds, Miles and Screetche, soon found themselves flying over the Orcs with an ear of corn in their talons. Upon finding direct center they dropped it into the army which for some reason had stopped attacking and was only beginning to attack the heroes.

As it fell, Sampson used his magic to make the ear of corn as large as possible until it exploded. By the time the kernels began popping each kernel was almost as big as an Orc. This time, for most of the Orcs, as they got hit by a kernel, it meant instant death. For the remaining Orcs, which were around ten rather than two hundred as before, they were either injured, stunned from the bright light caused by the corn activating and the explosions from each kernel, or both. As soon as this opportunity presented itself, the heroes were upon the enemy quickly eliminating all remaining Orcs.

Upon winning the battle, all of the heroes except Chihuahua, wanted to celebrate. Chihuahua unhappily returned to his tail and picked it up. And for the first time, since it got cut off, Chihuahua felt the pain of losing his tail in more ways than one.

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.