Round Table: The Sword in the Stone

Chapter One: Suspension
My name is Brandon Bennett. I used to be one of the four kids to sit at ‘the loser table’ as the others would call it. Now, I’m a sword swinging, butt kicking teenager. But because it’s supposed to be a secret, I’ve put it into writing and gave it to the only people I knew I could trust it with. So let’s get something straight here first; don’t tell anyone else you read this. Otherwise, it could put the safety of the world at risk. Now that we have the rules set, I’ll begin my story.

My friends and I were sitting at what was called the loser table. It wasn’t just called that because all of the losers sat there, but because it was different from the rest. This table is circular, while all of the other ones are rectangular.

“Pass the ketchup.” I said to my friend Morgan. Morgan has long brown hair and blue eyes. Today, she was wearing a white sparkly T-shirt with a brown shrug over it and jeans.

“Here.” she said sadly.

“Why are you so upset?” asked Lance. Lance is another friend of mine. He used to be on the wrestling team, but an accident on a skiing vacation ended his career.

“Because my parents are thinking about getting divorced and I can’t stand the tension between them anymore! Last night, my mom threw a plate at my dad and he tried to beat her with a frying pan! I finally broke it up when I smashed our nicest lamp. I’m supposed to pay for it, but it was worth it just to stop their fight.” Morgan replied.

“Will a food fight lighten your spirits?” Lance asked.

“Will it involve plates, pans or lamps?” she said sarcastically. She swiped the ketchup and sprayed Lance in the face. Lance laughed as he threw his orange at her.

“Guys, stop you’ll get us in trouble.” Victoria said. Victoria has blue eyes the color of tropical waters. She has blonde hair that was pulled back in a ponytail. She was wearing a denim jacket over a black T-shirt. Pink Floyd was written on the shirt with a picture of a cash register below it. She was also wearing jeans. The fact she was a tomboy would make you think two things: 1) Why is she stopping a food fight? 2) Why is she sitting at the loser table? Well, she’s been in detention twice, and the principal told her next time would result in three-day suspension. And the reason she sits at the loser table, is because she knows so much about computers.

“Why?” asked Morgan, dumping applesauce on Lance’s head.

“Because it would result in suspension.” I told her.

“No, this would result in suspension.” she said. She stood up and walked over to Dwayne at the center table. She picked up his tray and smashed it into his girlfriend Tara. When the tray clattered to the floor, everyone could see her expensive outfit littered in applesauce, pizza and milk.

“Ewwwww!” Tara screamed.

“Hey!” yelled Dwayne. Morgan could be in more trouble than she realized. Dwayne was on the track team, and the captain of the wrestling team. But then, Dwayne did the unexpected. He stood up, and walked out the door. Dwayne left the room. He didn’t beat on her. He didn’t pin her to the floor and demand she apologize to Tara. He left. The lunchroom was quiet and still for five minutes, all eyes watching the door. Then Dwayne enters the room with the principal and two teachers behind him. Morgan shot me a look that I know meant ‘I told you so’, though I was confused as to why she was happy to receive suspension. The principal scanned the room and locked his eyes on Lance. Lance smiled tauntingly. The principal whispered to the other two teachers. They nodded and made their way over to our table.

“Lance Harris, Brandon Bennett, and Victoria Charming you will all join your friend Morgan Rockett in suspension.” they said in unison in a creepy tone. This is how it started. Suspension. If Morgan hadn’t done this, I’d have no story to write.

It was Wednesday. Our first day of suspension. We had all gone to Honeysuckle Woods, where we meet on weekends. Lance and I sat against Giant, the biggest tree in the forest, while sucking on the honeysuckle the forest was so famous for. Victoria and Morgan had gone down to the river to swim.

“Hey, why do you think the principal suspended me and Victoria too? We hadn’t thrown anything. Besides, you and Morgan had evidence all over your faces.” I asked Lance.

“I don’t know, man, maybe… maybe Dwayne told the principal you guys threw stuff too.” he replied, though I knew he regretted saying that. Dwayne had been best buds with Lance until the accident.

“Maybe.” I said. Then, Morgan and Victoria returned from the river. They were completely dry except for their feet.

“The water was really cold,” said Victoria. “We got up to our ankles and that was it.” They both sat down across from us. “Don’t you find it strange the principal-”

“Suspended us too? Yeah. Dwayne must’ve told the principal we threw food too.” I interrupted. “Hey, it’s three. Better go home” Morgan said, standing.

“Alright.” Lance said, standing up. Victoria and I stood up too, and we all walked together until we reached Dim Lantern Drive and went our separate ways towards our houses. When I got home I plopped down on the couch. I was exhausted. My brain kept repeating a single thought: why was I suspended? The phone interrupted my thoughts. I went and picked it up.

“Hello?” I said sleepily.

“Hi Brandon! It’s Morgan’s mom. Morgan seems upset, and I thought her future husband would be able to talk to her.” She said. She said future husband as if I knew about this. I didn’t know Morgan liked me. “So, could you come over tomorrow? Anytime is fine.” she said.

“Uh, sure.” I said, confused.

“Bye!” she exclaimed. I hung up and walked over to the couch and lay down. The rest of the night I spent like that. Lying on the couch thinking away, until I finally fell asleep.

Chapter Two: Descendants
It was the next day, and we were all back at the forest. The big rocks across from Giant had something very different about them. The largest one had a sword stuck in it.

“Did the renaissance club come down here last night or something?” Morgan joked. I climbed up along with Victoria and Lance. Lance pulled on the sword handle. Nothing. Victoria gave it a tug. Nothing. I pulled on it, and it slipped out as if the rock were butter.

Lance said, “Dude, have you been working out?”

“No.” I said. I stared at the sword, astonished.

“Or Lance lost his muscle.” said Morgan. I rolled my eyes at her.

“I’m going to ask the renaissance club’s leader to examine this. See if he recognizes it as one of his.” I said.

“Y’ know the whole renaissance club thing was just a joke.” Morgan said from below.

“How would a plastic sword get stuck in a rock anyway?” Lance wondered.

“I don’t know. It feels so lightweight. I’m sure it’s plastic.” I replied.

“Let me hold it.” said Lance. I handed it to him. “Whoa!” he said, yanked down by the weight of the sword. “Dude, I thought you said it was light!” he yelled.

“It is,” I said, taking the sword. I lifted it easily. “See?”

“Stop yanking our chain man.” Lance said.

“I’m not.” I replied.

“Where did you find this? This is the finest craftsmanship on a sword I’ve ever seen!” said Carter, the leader of the renaissance club.

“Um, I found it in the woods. Has your club been there in the last two nights?” I asked him.

“No, but I wish I was! Can I have it?” he asked.

“Thanks, but I’ll hold on to it. So, why is it the best?” I asked.

“Because, this is supposed to look like Excalibur, the sword in the stone, King Arthur’s weapon! And this seems to be made of metal, not plastic. This thing could be real.” He said. He said it in a tone that spoke ‘of course it bears resemblance to Excalibur! I mean everyone knows that!’

“Excalibur? What do you know about it?” I asked.

“Well, to Arthur, the sword was very lightweight. Anyone else, who held it, would have trouble carrying it, because it was so heavy. It was also said to grant sword fighting expertise to the wielder.” he said.

“Interesting.” I said.

“Oh, hi, Brandon! Morgan is upstairs I made cookies do you want a cookie? You don’t have to have a cookie they’re just there if you want one. Oh! And I’m making tacos I’m making the taco meat on the pan my husband tried to beat me with! Did you here I was getting divorced? I heard you heard I was getting a divorce. Yes, these are some rough times, he he…cookie?” That’s how Morgan’s mom greeted me when I arrived at her house.

“Hi. No thanks. Yes I heard.” I said, answering all of her questions. I went upstairs to Morgan’s room. It had posters on the walls of Zach Efron, David Archuleta and Sterling Knight. Her bed was against the back wall with a nightstand next to it. A laptop sat on the nightstand along with an alarm clock, a book, several crumpled up wads of paper, a broken pencil and a pack of gum. She was sitting on the bed. She was chewing gum and had just thrown a wad of paper at a picture of her parents on the wall. The paper hit the picture and fell onto the nightstand.

“Hey” she said.

“Hi. Um, your mom said some weird stuff on the phone last night. I didn’t know you liked me.” I said.

She sighed. “I don’t. My mom just likes you and wants me to marry you. But seriously, I don’t feel that way.”

“Good,” I said. “Anything about Lance?”

“Yeah. He called and said six guys in red hoods broke in and attacked him. His parents weren’t home. He wrestled them down, but they all got away. He said they dropped something though. A red card. It said More Dread on it, with a picture of a black dragon in the center.” Morgan replied.

Then we heard downstairs: “Oh, hello Victoria would you like a cookie? I’m making tacos did you hear I was getting divorced because-”

“Not right now Mrs. Rockett.” Victoria said. Then she burst in the room. “Good news and bad news. Good news, I’m a wizard! Bad news, red hooded guys are running around terrorizing the neighborhood.”

“Wait you’re a what?!?!” I asked.

“A wizard,” she said. “I’ve figured it out. I’m a descendant of Merlin. That sword we found is Excalibur. Brandon, you’re Arthur’s descendant. Lance is Lancelot’s and Morgan is Guinevere’s!” I looked at her as if she had gone crazy. And at the moment, I think she had. “And how did you figure that out?” I asked.

“Well the hooded guys broke into my house and attacked me. I just thrust my hand at one of them and told them to stay back, and he just flew backwards into the wall. One of them, that were clearly the leader, had said ‘This one’s Merlin’s! Proceed with caution!’ I pointed my hand at a group of them and told them to go away, and they just vanished. The rest of them fled.” Victoria replied.

“So, you mean you’re a wizard? But you barely know where to find spells. All of those on the Internet? Fake.” I told her.

She pulled out a large book. It was dusty and weathered, and cobwebs covered the pages. “I found this in my library. I was searching More Dread along the shelves, but instead I found a book titled ‘King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table’. I pulled it out, and there behind it was this- Merlin’s spell book!” she said.

“Lance was attacked too,” Morgan said. “By guys in red hoods. He’s okay though.”

“Wait- this is the real Excalibur? I mean, I had my suspicions, but…”

We were back in the Honeysuckle woods, and we were on top of the big rock where we found the sword. We decided to give the rock the nickname, Camelot. We all stopped sucking on our honeysuckle to talk. “I’m still taking in this news. I’m Lancelot?” Lance asked.

“No, you’re just a descendant.” I reminded him.

“Oh. Right.” He said, embarrassed. “So the red hooded guys- you know, the More Dread Guys, they seemed older than us, they were obviously trained to kill, and they have been studying magic for a long time, according to Victoria’s account of them.”

“Yeah. They all new magic. But the part I found the strangest was that the leader was younger than the rest, at least our age. He even asked me- ‘Enjoying your suspension?’ he knew we were suspended. They could have been spying on us for a long time.” Victoria said.

Then, a young man in a red hood and mask came out from the honeysuckle bushes. “More Dread Gang! Attack!”

Chapter Three: More Dread Gang
I quickly drew my sword as ten men in red hoods emerged from the bushes. The leader flicked his wrists and red orbs of light and magic glowed in his hands. He threw them at Morgan, but Lance pushed her out of the way just before they hit. I leaped off of Camelot and rammed into one of the men, knocking him off balance. Then, I hit him in the chest with the flat of my blade and he toppled over.

I swung around and sliced another guy as he charged in from behind me. Victoria had begun to flip through the pages in the book, looking for a good spell. Morgan was throwing rocks at one guy, while Lance tried to advance on the leader. The other members of the More Dread Gang were trying to blast me with scarlet orbs.

But I knew exactly what to do. I side stepped an orb and then sliced the guy who had fired it. I deflected an orb off my blade then rolled underneath another guy’s blast. Then I slammed him on the head with the butt of my sword. I knew all the right moves. Carter had been right. The sword grants sword fighting expertise to the wielder.

Finally, Victoria found the right spell. Blue orbs hovered above the palms of her hands. She fired them in the direction of one of the enemies, but he dodged it. The orb though, instead of slamming into a tree, turned and knocked the same guy from behind. “What kind of spell was that?” I asked her.

“Same as theirs, only it’s blue and it never stops searching for it’s designated target.” She replied, conjuring up another orb.

“Look out!” I heard Lance say. I turned just in time to see three members of the More Dread Gang barreling towards me. I kicked one guy in the face while Victoria used a spell to lift the other two guys, slam their heads together and toss them into a tree. She even turned another guy into a tree. Then, I spotted the leader standing on top of Camelot, aiming an orb at Lance, who was currently occupied with another member of the gang.

“Watch out!” I called, but he didn’t hear me. Just as the leader was about to shoot, Morgan came from behind and grabbed his arm aiming it away from Lance. The orb hit a bird instead. The leader spun around and smacked Morgan across the face. She picked up a stick and was about to hit him with it, when she noticed the bird.

The bird had begun to grow extra legs, and the feathers on its belly transformed into fur. Lance came to her rescue and grabbed the leader, pulling his hood down. “Dwayne?!?!” Lance said, surprised. That was Lance’s mistake. Dwayne got loose from Lance’s grip and pushed him off Camelot. Lance landed next to the bird, and saw how much it had changed.

Fur sprouted everywhere but it’s head. The beak had grown dangerously large and sharp. Its wings had also remained with feathers, and a long tail with a brown tuft of fur on the end had sprouted from the bird. On its front legs the bird’s legs remained the same, only they now had razor-sharp talons. The bird’s newly grown fur turned a bright shade of gold. It roared ferociously, like a lion. Lance was face to face- or face to beak- with a griffin. I raced towards Lance and pointed my sword at the griffin.

“Stay back.” I commanded. The griffin cocked its head and had begun to wag its tail. “I don’t remember griffins in the Arthurian legends.”

Victoria replied, “It isn’t. Mythical creatures still exist though. I read all about them in the book.”

“Anything about griffins?” I asked.

“Griffins?” she asked. “They’re very friendly and loyal creatures. They only attack those that threaten its friends or family. They’re sort of like dogs. Oh and they’re half hawk, half-”

“Lion?” I asked.

“Yeah. Why?” she said. That’s when I realized she was too busy fending off the More Dread Gang to look over at me.

“Because there’s one standing right next to me.” She finally looked over at me and saw the griffin.

“Awwwww. He’s so cute.” said Morgan.

“More Dread Gang draw your hunting knives!” commanded Dwayne. They all took hunting knives out of their sleeves, two for each present member. Eighteen hunting knives against Excalibur, Lance’s fists, Morgan’s rocks and stick, and Victoria’s magic. If the More Dread Gang moved quickly enough, we were all dead meat.

But then, Victoria did something I’m certain no sane wizard would do. She climbed up on the griffin, removed her leather jacket and slipped it into the griffin’s mouth, while she held the jacket sleeves like reigns. “Alright Pepperoni. Let’s go.” she said calmly. She yanked back on the reigns and the griffin reared back, and then surged forward on all fours. It slammed into half of them with its front legs, while smacking another five with its tail. “More Dread Gang, fall back.” Dwayne ordered. All of the members of the gang fled the scene, except for one that the griffin had somehow managed to eat.

I turned to Victoria. “Pepperoni? Where did that come from?”

“He has a red spot on the back of his neck.” she said as if there was nothing wrong with naming a griffin. “I’m going to keep him. As a pet.” she added.

“Won’t your parents find it strange if they wake up and look out their window, and the first thing they see is an eagle-lion mutant flying around their backyard?” Lance mentioned.

“There’s lots of trees back there. Maybe I can train him to stay hidden there.” she said hopefully.

“Good luck with that.” I said. The griffin burped in agreement.

“I know what to feed griffins. I read it here.” she said, holding up the book.

“Yeah. Really big worms.” I joked. Lance laughed. He was really beat up from the fight. He was completely sweating. His black hair was a mess. His shirt had tears in it here and there, and his face was red from the red orbs that had gotten a bit too close to his face. “Whoa man, are you okay?” I asked him.

“Yeah I’ll be…I’ll be fine” he said. He started walking in the direction that lead out of the woods, but he staggered and fell to the ground. Morgan ran over to him and let him lean against her for support. We all walked together past Dim Lantern Drive to Lance’s house, except for Victoria who flew home on Pepperoni since it would look weird if we showed up with a griffin behind us.

“Oh dear! What happened?!” asked Lance’s mom.

“Uh, we were racing home and he tripped and uh… hit his head on the grass real hard.” I answered. She gasped.

“Is he okay?!” she asked.

“Um, yeah he’s fine luckily my new neighbor was walking by, and he’s a doctor and he took a look at Lance and he said he’ll be fine… he just needs to rest until he stops sweating and aching.” Morgan said.

“Oh, good! I never know what I’d do if something happened to him! Thank you for walking him home.” She said as she closed the door.

“Oh wait! I forgot something. Could I have a look at one of Lance’s…trading cards? It’s red.” I asked her.

“Oh sure! Come on in.” she said. I walked into the house. It was the fanciest house I’d ever seen. It had beautiful blue wallpaper with elaborate patterns of shapes you’d never learn about in geometry. Lance had gone and laid down on a large red sofa with fluffy orange throw pillows on it. Even the kitchen was nice! I had no idea Lance lived in such a nice house. His mom went upstairs to get the card. I noticed a stained glass window in the backroom. The glass composed a picture showing Arthur sitting at the round table with his fellow knights.

His mom came back down and handed me the card. “Here you go.” she said cheerfully.

“Thanks,” I said, “tell Lance I said get well.”

“Alright. Bye.” I stepped out and she closed the door. I examined the card. More Dread it said. I thought about the window in Lance’s house. More Dread. Arthurian legend. What did more dread have to do with Arthurian legend? More Dread. More dread. Where have I heard of that in the Arthurian legends? Before I could slip it into my pocket, I was tackled to the ground. “Alright, talk!” a voice said. “Are you a member of the More Dread Gang? You have that card. You must be part of it. Well you’re not getting to me!”

“What? No, my friend stole this from them. I was just examining it.” I replied. The person got off of me. I stood up and drew my sword. When I turned, instead of seeing a kid my age, I saw a seventeen year-old boy. He had short blonde hair, and his eyes were an intimidating shade of green. He was wearing a white tank top that was torn in some places, and had a few pizza stains on it. He was also wearing jeans. And to complete the description, he was armed with a six foot long spear.

“Excalibur! Who did you steal that from?” he asked.

“No one! I found it, stuck in a rock. My friends and I are descendants of Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere and Merlin!” I told him. He gave me a dirty look like ‘I ought a skewer you’, but he lowered his weapon and reached his hand out.

“What is your name?” he asked.

“Brandon Bennett.” I told him. We shook hands.

“Descendant of Arthur?” he said, smiling.

“Yes.” I answered.

“Finally. I finally found him. I’ve been searching everywhere for the descendant of Arthur. I’m from Chicago.” he explained.

“And you are?” I asked.

“Oh, right. I’m Troy, descendant of Perceval, knight of the Round Table.”

Chapter Four: Troy
“Go away!” Morgan shrieked. She picked up a large tree branch and pointed it at Troy. “Morgan, its fine. Troy is the descendant of Perceval.” I explained to her. I had brought Troy to the Honeysuckle Woods, but Morgan didn’t like him being here. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon. Tomorrow, we went back to school. We still haven’t figured out how we’re going to avoid the More Dread Gang leader, Dwayne.

“Purse Evil? Who’s that?” she said, not lowering the branch.

“Not Purse Evil. Perceval. A knight of the Round Table, back in the days of Camelot.” he said calmly. He grabbed the end of the stick and twisted it until Morgan lost her grip on it.

“How do you know he didn’t just say that? He seems tall enough to be a member of the More Dread Gang.” she said. She did have a point. There was no actual proof he was Perceval’s descendant. But I trusted him. He even said ‘You’re not getting to me’. I mean, it could have just been an act, but I don’t think so. All of the sudden, Troy’s eyes widened.

“Guys, take cover there’s something coming this way.” he said. He drew his spear and positioned it in his hands so he’d be ready to throw it. Then I saw what he meant. He saw Pepperoni. The griffin was completely unaware of the boy below, ready to spear him. But Pepperoni wasn’t just out on one of his hunts, (Victoria allowed him to go out on one hour long hunts for food) the wizard girl was actually riding the griffin.

“Wait, stop!” I yelled. But I was too late. He threw that spear straight at the griffin. Just as it was about to hit, the spear stopped right there. Then, the spear came straight back to Troy’s hand.

“What?” he said confused. He was about to try again when I finally got his attention. I told him about how Merlin’s descendant had tamed that griffin, and spearing it would be a bad idea. “Merlin’s descendant? Alright, so that’s three of you. Where is Lancelot’s?”

“Resting up. He got beat up pretty bad during an encounter with the More Dread Gang yesterday.” I said.

“Alright.” he said. The griffin landed.

“Why did you try to spear my griffin?” she asked. The griffin growled at Troy. “Pepperoni, no. Here’s another turkey leg.” she said, tossing a turkey leg in the air. The griffin snapped up the turkey leg in the blink of an eye.

“I’m sorry but… where’s the descendant of Merlin? I’d like to meet him.” Troy said.

“You’re talking to her.” said Victoria. “What just because Merlin’s a boy means his descendants have to be the same gender?”

“Um…no?” Troy replied. “Look I’m sorry about the griffin-spear thing I…I didn’t know any human being would be able to… tame a griffin” he said, still not believing what he was seeing.

“It’s alright. Hey Morgan, how have your archery lessons been going?” she asked.

“My teacher said I’m getting really good.” she replied.

“You’ve been taking archery?” I asked.

“Yeah. If we’re going to fight off this More Dread Gang, I have to have more than a bunch of rocks and a stick.” she answered.

“That is true.” I replied.

“Um… Brandon, care to introduce me to your friend?” asked Victoria.

“Hm? Oh right, this is Troy, descendant of Perceval.” I said.

“What school does he go to?” she asked. The thought that Troy went to school completely slipped my mind.

“I don’t know. What school do you go to?” I asked Troy.

“I don’t go to a school. I mean, I used to back in Chicago, but not anymore. I’ve been well educated though.” he replied.

“When did you leave Chicago?” I asked.

“About three months ago. My parents are always traveling around the world though, so it was okay with them if I left. To see the country, you know?” he said.

“Three o’ clock. Gotta go home.” Morgan said. “Sorry about… you know.” She said to Troy. “It’s okay.” he said.

It was Monday. We were back in school, and things did not start out well. My first class was history, which I had with Lance, but he was absent, still recovering from battle. Dwayne was in that class as well, and he was present. I hadn’t forgotten I had a project in that class, so I did it over the long weekend I had received. But when I went up to turn it in, it was completely blank! I turned around to grab a pencil, when I noticed Dwayne eying me, with a hint of light perched on the tip of his finger.

He had used magic to erase my paper! I couldn’t do anything about it, so I threw it in the basket. Dwayne had erased my name on it too, but I still wouldn’t have turned it in. After being asked to re-do the ten page essay again only doubling it to twenty pages, I exited the room and went to math.

In math class, the thing that had gone wrong was immediately noticed. On the board, in chalk, was written:

Mr. Jordan is a stupid, incompetent teacher.

Courtesy of Brandon Bennett

Now, you may already know this, but just so we’re clear- I did not write that! Dwayne had been the first one in the room. I tried to erase it, but every time I erased a letter it reappeared in the same spot. Dwayne had put a spell on it. Great.

Then, Mr. Jordan walked into the room. Standing at the chalkboard made me look even guiltier. “I don’t appreciate you expressing your feelings in that way Mr. Bennett. Please, go down to the guidance counselor’s office.” he said. I didn’t bother arguing. I walked down to the guidance office and spoke with Ms. Kaiter.

“Brandon, I don’t see why you have been so disruptive lately. Food fights, not doing homework, writing false words about teachers? What has gotten into you? Has something at home been bugging you? Anything stressful about, parents, bullying, or relationships?” she asked.

“Bullying.” I said, realizing the chance to rat Dwayne out.

“By whom?” she asked.

“Dwayne Freeman. He crumpled up my homework and wrote that on the board. I was standing in front of it to erase it.” I told her. As soon as I said Dwayne Freeman, her eyes lit up. “Dwayne Freeman? You must have him mistaken for another student. He is one of our best students. In fact, he might even be the best. I’m going to let you off with a warning. Run along now.” she replied. The way she said that was strange. As if she were sleepwalking when she said it. I walked out anyways, a bit scared by it.

The rest of the day went on like that. Dwayne doing something that got me in trouble. Or embarrassing me. When I got home, I immediately went to the couch to lie down. Then the phone rang. I picked up. It was Ms. Kaiter. “Hello, Brandon. Could you come down to the school? In the courtyard. I’m going to try and fix this… problem.” she said. Then she hung up. Looks like I was going to the courtyard.

I got to the school. Six teachers were still there, including Ms. Kaiter. I entered the courtyard. Ms. Kaiter, the other five teachers, and Dwayne were there. I noticed how all of the teachers eyes were wide open, never seeming to close. My hand gripped the handle of Excalibur, which somehow the teachers either didn’t care about my having it, or hadn’t noticed. All of the video cameras were down. “Thank you for coming, Brandon. Ms. Kaiter thought it would be best if we met to solve our little ‘bullying problem’ you mentioned.” said Dwayne. He stepped to the side and there was Troy, tied to a chair. I drew Excalibur.

“Oooooo. Brandon, no weapons in school!” he said drawing his knives. “Teachers, disarm him.” he commanded. The teachers, still not blinking, turned and walked towards me.

“You hypnotized them into suspending me and my friends.” I said.

“That’s correct.” he replied. My math teacher, Mr. Jordan, swung his fist at me. I quickly ducked and swung at his leg, giving him a good sized cut.

“No!” Dwayne yelled. Then I realized what I had just done. I harmed a teacher. They may have been hypnotized, but it didn’t mean this wasn’t them! I examined the cut, but it wasn’t bleeding. It was steaming. Steam was actually coming from the cut. Mr. Jordan then collapsed and fell asleep.

“What just happened?” I asked myself.

“The hypnotic spell’s essence is leaving their bodies.” said Victoria, running in. Morgan was with her.

“So I didn’t actually hurt him, right?” I said, hopefully.

“No.” said Victoria.

“Oh good.” I said, relieved. Victoria blasted a large flaming ball at Mr. Jackson and Ms. Keener. They collapsed. I ran to untie Troy, but Dwayne was racing over to stop me. Luckily Morgan fired an arrow that pinned his shirt to the wall.

I finished untying Troy, while Morgan and Victoria freed the teachers of their hypnotic spell. Dwayne finally freed himself from the wall. “Do you know how long it takes to hypnotize six people?!” he said angrily.

“Five months.” Victoria said.

“That was a rhetorical question.” he said. He took something out of his jacket pocket. “See you tomorrow.” he said, throwing the object at the ground. The room quickly filled with smoke. Once it cleared, Dwayne was gone.

“We need to get these teachers back to their offices before they wake up.” Morgan said.

“I-I just don’t- don’t understand why- why he’d break- break up with me.” said Tara, sobbing. Dwayne had broken up with her that morning, and she wasn’t taking it well.

“It’s okay. Dwayne was a jerk anyway. You’ll find someone else.” said Jenna, Tara’s best friend. Tara sniffed as Jenna walked her into the cafeteria.

“Wow. Tara is a mess. Usually her hair is in perfect condition, and her outfits looked like they’d be worth a hundred bucks. She’s taking this in the wrong direction. This is a good thing. Dwayne was a big jerk.” I said. The whole lunchroom was silent except for Tara’s sobbing and Jenna’s soothing voice. Tara wasn’t even looking at her lunch.

“Don’t worry, there are better guys out there” Jenna said.

“How could you say that? I’ll never find a great guy!” Tara screamed. She continued to cry as she fled the room.

“Hi everyone! Isn’t it a wonderful day?” asked Tara, skipping into the cafeteria. It was Wednesday, the day after Dwayne broke up with her.

Why are you so happy?” asked Jenna.

“I take it back, I found someone else!” she said hugging Jenna.

“What’s his name?” asked Jenna. Tara leaned forward and whispered in her ear. “See, I told you!” Jenna happily shouted.

It was Wednesday afternoon, and we were all back at Honeysuckle woods, even Lance. After not being here for five days, I filled him in on what had happened. It was 5:00, and Troy was supposed to be here at four. I hoped he wasn’t kidnapped again. Suddenly, there was Troy, running up the street towards the woods. “Hey guys. Sorry I’m late. My girlfriend saw me running up the street, and stopped me for a little while.”

“Girlfriend?” I asked.

“Yeah. Her name is Tara.” he said, smiling.

“Good for you.” I said. What could I do? If I told him her ex-boyfriend was Dwayne, the leader of the More Dread Gang, he’d dump her and she’d be heartbroken. I went back to my conversation with Lance. Then, Victoria burst from the trees. She had gone out to scout the area.

“Guys, there are at least thirty members of the More Dread Gang over the hill. They’ve set up a camp. But the worst part is there are four more people who have been hypnotized. Two of them, are your parents Brandon. One is Lance’s mom. The other, is Tara.”

Chapter Five: Camp Troubles
Only when I arrived at the camp did I realize how bad it was. They had three large tents, a log cabin, and a large bonfire. Guarding the camp was a griffin, clad with red armor and draped with red blankets. The blankets also had pictures of dragons on them. Next to the griffin, two on each side, were the hypnotized people.

Inside the camp, gang members were bustling about, carrying firewood, practicing archery and knife handling, and pushing carts carrying food and crates. This camp could have been here for a few days without us noticing it. Then, exiting the log cabin was Dwayne.

He wasn’t wearing a red hoodie as he usually was. This time he was wearing a blue T-shirt and jeans. He also had straps on his arms where his knives were kept, usually hidden under the red hoodie. He flexed his arms downward, and the knives slid into his hands. We all crept up the hill.

“Victoria, do you think you can tame the griffin, or at least keep him quiet while we get our parents and Tara to safety?” I asked.

“I think so.” she said. She calmly crept towards the griffin. “Hey there big fella.” she said, stroking its head.

Okay. She’s got things under control. I told my self. Morgan hid behind a tree to the left of the entrance and fired a volley of arrows at my dad and Lance’s mom. They both collapsed, freed of the hypnotic spell. Morgan climbed up into the tree to get a good view of the camp. “Okay, now be free” Victoria said to the griffin, letting it off its leash. The griffin took off. Now Morgan could get a clear shot. She fired an arrow that hit my mom, while Troy smacked Tara with the shaft of his spear.

“Sorry.” he whispered. Victoria summoned Pepperoni and told him to take these four home, loading my parents, Tara, and Lance’s mom on to his back. He flew away to get them home quickly before they awakened. Now we needed to take care of the camp. Morgan notched five arrows in her bow and prepared to fire them at a group of members training archery. The irony in that.

Troy and Lance snuck into the closest tent and prepared for battle. All they found was a bunch of crates and a rookie member, who passed out from fear. They exited the tent to find five members standing there to greet them. Lance punched one, but the other four began to attack him. Troy stabbed two then whirled back just in time to introduce the spear’s wooden shaft to another member’s face. Lance shoved the other two into the tent, and then smashed wooden crates over them.

Morgan had shot down ten others. We had taken care of half of them.

I ran in with Excalibur, just in time to hear: “More Dread Gang, ready your bows!” All of the fifteen leftover gang members drew their bows and notched their arrows. They aimed upwards in the direction of the tree Morgan was perched in. I hacked one of them with my sword, and Dwayne noticed me then. He ran over, knives ready.

I parried his first swipe, and then sidestepped his follow-up attack with his second knife. I circled my arm to knock his left knife out of his hand. He slashed with his other knife, giving me a cut on my hip. He summoned an orb to his hand and tossed it at me. It hit me in the stomach. It was a strange feeling. It burned and stung a bit, but at the same time, it kind of tickled. He was about to stab me with his right knife, when Troy ran in and stuck his spear into Dwayne’s arm. It wasn’t a deep cut, and it didn’t go through, but it was a wide cut. Dwayne smiled at me. “Good game.” he said. Suddenly, Dwayne vanished. He was gone. He had just transported away.

“What about the archers?” I asked.

“Taken care of.” Lance said, punching the last one in the head.

“Good. So… what are we going to do with this camp? We can’t just leave it here, or Dwayne will come back and reuse it.” I said.

“I have an idea.” Morgan said, joining us down there.

We left the clearing where there had once been a camp, but now only smoke and ashes. We had burned it down.

“It’s getting late. We’d better go home.” said Morgan.

“What home?” Troy asked. That’s right. Troy was from Chicago. He didn’t have a home.

“Come on home with me,” I said, “I’ll introduce you to my parents.” We all walked to Dim Lantern Drive. That’s when we all separated. It was just me and Troy now. We started up the road to my house. My parents were surprised when I walked up to the door with a seventeen year-old behind me.

“Hello, can I help you?” my mom asked him.

“Yes, hello, I’m Troy, and I got lost from my parents. See I was at the airport, and I had just gotten off my plane…” He went on to explain he had got lost and asked if he could bunk here until his parents found him. They bought it.

“Here is your room.” said my dad, showing Troy around the house.

Troy smiled.

The next day at school, Dwayne was absent. Probably recovering from yesterday. It was the best day I’d had since I found the sword. Troy was being home schooled by my mom, while my dad was at the factory where he worked. Funny thing though, Tara wasn’t there either. This would ruin her perfect attendance record. We were sitting at lunch. Lance was wearing his old wrestling jacket over his white and blue wrestling T-shirt.

Morgan was wearing what she had on the day of the food fight. Victoria had her hair down instead of in its usual ponytail. She was wearing her denim jacket again, only this time over a The Eagles band T-shirt. Her pants were jeans like her jacket. The lunchroom was the loudest it had been in a few days. Then again, it was almost Friday.

My brown hair had been done up nice by my dad. “I like your hair.” said Morgan. She wasn’t her usual goofy self.

“Parents have another fight?” I asked.

“Yeah. My mom has been packing his things ever since.” she replied.

“Wow.” said Victoria.

“What is it?” I asked.

“I swiped Dwayne’s phone while you were fighting him. His last ten calls were from his dad.” she said.

“Really? Where does he live?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I’ll call him on my phone.” she said.

“He lives in a small house on Shallow Pool Lane. Dwayne’s mom divorced him and moved away. She got a job as a lawyer and saved up money to buy a mansion, where Dwayne lives with her. He also said that she had gone on a business trip to California and hasn’t been heard of since.” Victoria told us, after talking with Mr. Freeman. “He has invited me over. I asked if I could bring company. He said yes.” she continued. She had brought Pepperoni here to the woods.

“Climb on.” she said. Morgan and I immediately got on.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” asked Lance.

“Positive.” she responded. Lance hesitated, then climbed on. Troy had stayed back at my house to help out my mom. Actually, she asked him to stay. Pepperoni took off in the direction of Dwayne’s dad’s house. The flight was magnificent. The woods looked beautiful from a birds eye view. The worst part was when we flew over Shallow Pool Lane. It reeked of smoke and burnt barbecue. No kids could be seen playing on their lawns like you did at Dim Lantern Drive. On most lawns were dead plants and lawn chairs. In the lawn chairs, were people, smoking and drinking alcohol.

I did not like this part of the neighborhood. Pepperoni finally spotted the right address, having hawk’s eyes. He landed in the back Yard to prevent being seen. We went through the gate and around to the front door. Dwayne’s dad was in a lawn chair, smoking. “Can I help you?” he asked.

“Hi! I’m Victoria. I spoke with you on the phone and you invited us down here.” she said.

“Oh. Right. Well, come on in.” he said getting up and opening the door. “Is that griffin of yours potty trained?” he asked. He probably saw us flying in.

“Pepperoni? Yeah. I trained him well. Not to worry.” Victoria replied.

“Good. Would you like a drink son?” he asked me.

I figured all he had in his refrigerator was alcohol, so I politely rejected his offer. We went over to the table and sat down.

“I’m sorry, sir, but, you know about griffins?” Victoria asked.

“Griffins, dragons, mermaids, anything mythical, really.” he said. “I learned all about them when my son started that gang. I swiped a book from ‘em and read the whole darn thing. More Dread. What a dumb name. If he was trying to make it sound like Mordred why didn’t he just use it?” he continued.

“When did he start his gang?” asked Lance.

“Oh, maybe two… three years ago. Around the time he and Wendy moved out. The ages in that gang are varied. Seventeen, thirteen, twenty five, forty six. They’re good and quick with knives and arrows, and are expert wizards. There are hundreds of people in that gang, spread out all across the country.” he answered. I asked him where this mansion was. He said that it was isolated in a large clearing about ninety miles from where his son had set up a gang camp about seven days ago.

I was about to ask him why he and his wife got divorced, when I noticed Pepperoni going nuts outside as several gang members roped him down. “Victoria, Pepperoni!” I said. She looked out the window quickly. She stood up.

“I am so sorry Mr. Freeman, just one moment.” she said. She raced out the back door. The rest of us followed, leaving Mr. Freeman sitting there, confused. “Pepperoni?” he whispered to himself.

I unsheathed Excalibur and stabbed the closest one. Morgan, not having her bow with her, picked up a frying pan that was resting on the grill, and ran into battle. Lance kept gang members away from Victoria while she tried to untie Pepperoni. One of the members shot Lance with an orange orb though, and I had to take his position. Wait- orange orb? Then I noticed Lance hadn’t been hurt by the orb, but the orb had instead unraveled and wrapped around him.

He was stuck on the ground. So was Morgan. I deflected one orb off of Excalibur, and it bounced back and coiled around a gang member instead. But that was all the gang needed. I was too distracted with that orb I managed to get hit with another. Victoria was all that was left, and she hadn’t made any progress with the ropes. Another gang member grabbed her and blasted her with an orange orb. We were all stuck. No one can help us, I thought. My thoughts were interrupted by the loud sound of a gun shot. A member crumpled to the ground, wounded by a bullet.

“Leave those kids alone!” said Mr. Freeman, reloading his pistol.

Chapter Six: The Journey Begins
Mr. Freeman shot the members that had fired the orbs at us, and we were all freed. I stood up and sliced another four before joining my friends behind Mr. Freeman. Victoria created a force field around us to keep us safe from the enemies. A small group of them drew their knives, while several others created a small thundercloud and tossed it towards us. Apparently, that spell was very draining, and the group collapsed. The thundercloud floated straight through the force field, and then created a miniature tornado that threw Victoria off focus. Her force field failed.

Members began running at us. Mr. Freeman shot two down, I stabbed another. Victoria tried getting rid of the cloud, while Morgan hopped on a member’s back, and began to hit him on the head with the frying pan.

We had defeated them all, when Mr. Freeman told us, “It’s not safe here. Get all the help you can get. Go to my wife’s mansion. See if you can find out more about Dwayne’s gang, and tell him I said hi if you can. Also, that mansion’s been creeping me out for a while. I want you to find out its secrets, and then destroy them. Take my lighter, and drop it on them once you find it out. Burn them. Destroy them, do anything it takes to keep anyone else from ever figuring it out. Or it will endanger us all.”

We all heeded his warning. Victoria untied Pepperoni and we took off to the forest. There, we found Troy. “Okay, everyone call your parents and tell them you’re hanging out at another person’s house.” I instructed. When everyone finished, I filled Troy in on what had happened at Mr. Freeman’s house.

“So, now we’re going to the mansion?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I replied. Troy climbed on. Pepperoni flew us in the direction of the camp we had burned down. Forty gang members were down below, armed with bows, trying to salvage what they could from the fire. They wouldn’t find much. One spotted us.

“Hey! Look up there! Griffin! Shoot it down!” he commanded the others. Uh oh, I thought. A volley of forty arrows sailed towards Pepperoni. Victoria created a force field that bounced back a few arrows. Pepperoni rose upward to avoid another group. At least five arrows stuck Pepperoni’s wings. Pepperoni roared in pain. Another arrow bounced harmlessly off his beak. He couldn’t take much more with those arrows stuck in his wings.

He dove straight down as another cluster of arrows sailed over us. Then I noticed that Pepperoni didn’t dive- he was falling. He plummeted straight through a group of trees about a mile from the camp. At least it was in the right direction. We were all okay, except Pepperoni. Victoria carefully removed the arrows from the wings. Pepperoni wailed out in pain. “Sssshhhhhhhhh! Pepperoni, its okay.” Victoria said. “Well, I guess we’re walking.” she said.

“Walking?! Can’t you just do your bippity boppity boo and like, fix him or something?” Morgan asked.

“No. I haven’t figured out how to perform any healing spells correctly. He can’t go on. But, I can’t leave him here either. The More Dread Gang could get him.” she said. “Would anyone be willing to stay behind and look after him?” she asked. I hesitated. I didn’t exactly feel comfortable with Pepperoni just yet.

“I’ll do it.” said Troy.

“Okay.” said Victoria.

“What? You’re supposed to say ‘Troy you don’t have to do that’.”

“Well you were wrong.” she said. Troy sighed.

“What does he eat?”

We were walking for what seemed like days. The reality was we had only walked eleven miles. Seventy eight more to go. “Can we rest?” Morgan asked.

“No. Not until dark.” I said. We still had about three hours of daylight.

“Can I at least have something to drink?” Morgan asked. I grabbed a water from my pack and tossed it to her.

“Drink up.” I said.

She drank a quarter of the bottle. “Why can’t we stop?!?! I mean-”

“Quiet.” I interrupted.

“Aw c’mon, I-”

“No, I think I heard something. Quiet.” Everyone was silent. I heard a distant snore-growl noise. I ran in the direction of the noise. The good news was, the noise was coming from the direction we were going in. I stopped when I reached a small hill. A large gaping hole was in the side of the hill. A large uprooted tree was lying alongside the hole. The noise was coming from in there. Lance and Victoria finally caught up with me.

“Whoa.” Lance said.

“Guys, wait up! What are you running for?!?!” Morgan yelled, tripping on a rock. Her water bottle flew from her hand and in to the hole. The snoring turned into a ferocious roar. A large ogre emerged from the hole. It didn’t seem to notice us at first, but when it did, it picked up the tree and held it up like a club.

“Wait to go. You woke up Shrek.” I said, immediately naming the ogre.

Chapter Seven: Fortress
The ogre swung his club like a baseball bat. He tried to hit me because I was closest. I rolled under his first swipe and stabbed his foot. It just made him angrier. He turned the tree around so a sharp end he had carved was pointing forward. He aimed it down at me, but Victoria kept him from stabbing down with a spell. He became frustrated with the club. “Club, broken!” he whined. He threw it aside and attempted to swing his fists at me. I stabbed his foot again. Green blood gushed from his foot. His skin turned from green to yellow. He roared with rage, and prepared to strike again. I rolled out from underneath him just before his fists came down. “Ow!” he cried as his fists came down on his wounded foot. He barreled towards Morgan, who was searching for something to hit it with in the duffel bag we had brought.

“Morgan, look out!” shouted Lance. Morgan turned then leaped straight out of the ogre’s path. The ogre missed Morgan and fell… on top of our bag. He rose off the ground.

“Sack broken.” he said, tossing the bag a long distance. Lance ran out of the ogre’s cave.

“What were you doing in there?” I asked him.

“Scavenger hunt?” he said, pulling out a bow, arrows, and a two and a half foot double-edged sword. “Morgan, heads up!” he said tossing her the bow and arrows. She caught them and notched an arrow. Lance ran in to battle with the sword. Victoria produced a knife using her magic.

Lance and I sliced the ogre’s legs, hoping to get him to fall so we can get a better reach of his stomach. Victoria hopped up on the ogre and repeatedly stabbed in the head. The ogre simply threw Victoria off and punched me and Lance away.

“Bad toys.” he grumbled. He must’ve thought we were his playthings. It must’ve been a baby ogre.

“Uh, Yeah. Whatever.” said Morgan, firing one last arrow. The arrow impaled itself in the ogre’s stomach, and he collapsed.

“There are tons of food and supplies in the ogre’s cave. Let’s go in.” said Lance. I followed them inside. The ogre’s cave was a mess. Weapons and treasure littered the floor. There was even a treasure chest in the corner. It was just full of old rusty swords and worn-out clothing. Lance and Victoria were in the ogre’s ‘kitchen’ stocking food in an old sack. The ogre also had a Chik-fil-a poster stuck upside down on the wall. We had just finished packing. We stepped outside, and saw the ogre was gone, replaced by a sign. It read:

Well Done. You’ll need an item at the top of the Abandoned Army Fort to the East. Good Luck.

“When did that get there?” asked Morgan.

“I don’t know.” I replied. “Maybe Dwayne put it there as a trap.”

“Nope,” Lance said. “We don’t know anyone who would just take away an ogre’s body and replace it with a sign. It must be someone trying to help.” Lance said. East was a little off path where we were trying to go, but we’d still make it in the same amount of time. “Alright. Let’s walk a few more miles then rest.”

We had made a campfire. We had sixty-nine miles to go to the mansion, thirty-two miles to the fort. Victoria and Morgan had already fallen asleep. “So, how good are you with that sword?” I asked Lance.

“Not very good. It doesn’t feel well balanced and the blade’s a bit rusty.” he replied.

“Maybe Victoria has a spell that can fix that.” I said.

“I don’t know… I might just get a better one… I don’t know where I’d find one, though. I mean, you found your sword stuck in a rock, and it was in perfect condition… well balanced, sharp blade. And yours gives you fighting expertise. Anyone else would have to practice- a lot.” he said.

“We’ll ask Victoria in the morning.” I said, falling asleep.

“Hey. Hey, you dead? Hey.” a voice said, poking me with a stick. I woke up. “Hey! You’re alive! Alright, I was gettin’ worried.” the voice said again. I looked over. Towering above me, armed with a stick, was a horse, but where its head should’ve been, there was a human body from the waist up. What are those called? Centaurs. That’s it.

“You’re… you’re a centaur.” I said.

“Am I not?” the centaur said looking down at his horse half. I looked around me. My friends were gone.

“Where are my friends?” I asked.

“Those guys? A few of my centaur buddies took ‘em off to our camp about thirty miles east from here.” he replied. Then he turned around. “Hop on. I’ll take you to your friends.” he said. I got on. This was weird. I mean, I had ridden on a horse before but not a centaur. I figured it couldn’t be too different. “Hold on.” he warned. I grabbed on to his shoulders and we were off.

“So, what’s your name?” I asked him.

“Prescenan.” he said.

The centaur camp was beautiful. Large maple trees grew all around. Tents were spread around, each one a different color. “Your friends are in the gray tent. They were to stay there until proven not guilty. You know grown-up centaur stuff.” he said.

“Wait- not guilty of what?” I asked.

“Trespassing on centaur territory.” he said. He walked me over to the gray tent. Inside, being guarded by four centaurs, were my friends.

I unsheathed Excalibur. “Let them go.” I said. The four centaur guards lurched back in fear. “He bears Excalibur!” one said.

“Whoa. Didn’t see that coming. I’ll be right back.” said Prescenan. He galloped out and entered into a red tent. A few moments later he came back out. He entered the gray tent.

“The chief said to let you go because, you know, you are Arthur’s descendant, and these are your buddies. But I would gladly take you to your destination. Where are you going?” he said.

“The abandoned army fort about two miles east.” I said.

We had arrived at the army fort, but it wasn’t abandoned. Members of the More Dread Gang walked on top of the walls, armed with crossbows. Guard towers were filled with archers. “Okay guys, this time, we are in stealth mode.” I said. We walked around to a postern gate. Guards were standing on each side of the entrance on the inside. “Victoria?” I said.

“Got it.” she said. She flipped to a page in her book. “I’m going to need some sort of weapon.” she said.

“Here take an arrow.” said Morgan, drawing an arrow from her quiver.

Victoria breathed on the arrow. She positioned it in her fingers and through it through the door.

“What are you doing?” I said. “I thought we were going to sneak in.”

“We are. That was a special spell. Once the weapon lands, anyone around it vanishes.” she said. I looked through the door. Sure enough, the guards were gone, replaced by a thin mist.

We ran through. A cart full of hay wheeled by, and Lance and I jumped in. Morgan and Victoria hopped in another. We were dumped out into a stable. I poked my head out. All I saw were horses happily digging into their feedbags.

“Coast is clear.” I said. We all emerged from the hay.

“I thought you said it was safe!” Morgan said.

“It is, I-” I stopped right there because that’s when I saw what she meant. Those weren’t horses. They were centaurs. And they were wearing red hoodies. One unsheathed his sword and called, “Snack time is having a small intermission, boys.” They all looked up from their feedbags, and drew their swords. “Charge!” the lead one said.

I pulled out Excalibur, and began slicing. Lance drew his sword and killed one, but another came and pushed him down. The centaur was about to stab him, so I countered the attack with Excalibur. I whirled the sword past his and cut his front legs. He crumpled to the ground. Morgan blasted a group with arrows. Victoria used magic to cause the centaurs to drop their weapons, and then Lance would go in and swing his sword at them. All that was left was the leader, who was galloping towards the exit. Morgan fired an arrow at him.

“Four kids snuck into camp! We have to-“ and he collapsed, an arrow sticking out of his back. He then vanished, replaced by a sign. It read:

Good job. Now run!

Now we were in trouble. Dozens of gang members ran in and formed a circle around us, knives ready. One walked in to the center, and put his hood down. Dwayne. He clapped. “I see you managed to pass our defenses, and sneak into our stables. Yes, even centaurs can join us. More Dread Gang, sheath your knives, have sleep orbs ready.” he said. The gang did as commanded.

Dwayne then fired a green orb at me. I deflected it off of Excalibur, but unlike the other orbs I had deflected, this one made a numbness go all the way up my arm. It distracted me, and I was hit with another. I immediately crumpled to the floor, and fell asleep.

Chapter Eight: The Centaurs Strike Back
I woke up inside of a prison cell. I was chained to the wall. Excalibur was nowhere to be found. “Hey, you’re awake.” said Lance, sitting on my right. Victoria walked across from the other side of the room and picked the lock. I stood up.

“Looking for Excalibur? We know where it is. In the armory on the other side of the fort.” Morgan said.

“What happened?” I asked.

“We don’t know. We were put to sleep too.” Lance said.

“Any spells to get us out of here?” I asked Victoria.

“Yeah, but I didn’t get to that page yet. And the book is in the highest tower, where they keep all valuable items. It’s also where they probably have that item the sign told us we needed.” she said.

“Oh.” I said. Then two gang members walked in. They were centaurs.

“It’s time for lunch.” one said. The other laid a plate down on the floor. It had some cold chicken legs on it, and a few slices of pizza. They exited the cell, locking the door behind them. One more entered with water bottles. He was about to leave, when Morgan hopped up.

“Wait!” she called to him.

“What?” he replied.

“Could I have another slice of pizza?” she asked. I rolled my eyes.

“No.” the guard said. He took another step.

“Please! I really want one!” she said, grabbing him.

“No kid! Get off me!” he said. He walked out, and closed the door. Another member locked the door behind him, and walked away.

“Phew! It worked.” said Morgan.

“What worked? You annoyed another person? Woohoo, that’s another one to add to your list.” I said sarcastically.

“Why aren’t you thanking me? I just swiped his keys!” she announced. Now it made sense. She walked over to the door, and was about to unlock it, when the keys slipped from her hand and fell just out of reach.

“Darn!” she said. Then, a member ran by shrieking, “We need men out there! We are under attack!” An arrow whizzed by and hit him in the back. He fell down on the floor, and was about to unsheathe a knife, when a second arrow flew into his stomach, and he died. A large figure came by and kicked the door down. He was armed with a bow.

“Prescenan!” I said.

The centaur smiled and said, “I was worried when you didn’t come out. I ran back to camp and rounded up as many centaurs as I could. We all came here to free you!” he said. “Oh, and can you take this off my hands? It’s really heavy.” he said, handing me Excalibur. Then he gave the bow and quiver full of arrows to Morgan. “I hope you don’t mind I used a few.” he said. Then he handed Lance his sword. “Okay, now hop on and I’ll take you to the tower to get Victoria’s book.”

Dozens of items were in the room. The item we were looking for could have been anything. Victoria had already found her book. “Where do we look?” I asked myself. A sign appeared in the center of the room right after I said it.

The sword will tell you the item you seek.

P.S. I’m looking forward to meeting you.

“The sword will tell us? What does that mean?” I asked.

“Uh, I think that’s what it means.” Morgan said, pointing at Excalibur. I looked down at it. It was glowing!

“Play hot or cold with it.” Prescenan suggested. I walked near a group of items. The sword’s light grew dim. Not any of these. I walked around the room, pointing my sword outward towards the items. The sword grew brighter, and finally, when I got to one item, its brightness temporarily blinded me. I picked up the item on top. The sword flashed, and then the light was gone. The item I was holding was a shield.

“This is what we were looking for? A shield?” Morgan said.

“Maybe the person leaving the signs knows what they’re talking about. They might know something will happen at the mansion, and we need this to protect ourselves from it.” Lance said.

“Alright, can we talk about this later? We really got to get out of here.” Prescenan said.

We had exited the fortress, but it was night, so we had to stay in the blue tent at the centaurs’ camp. Each color stands for something. Red tent is the chief’s quarters. Blue tent is guest room. Green tent is storage room. Purple, pink and yellow are sleeping quarters. Orange is the armory. Black tent is the bath house. White is mess hall, and gray is prison quarters.

Everyone else was asleep but me. How could you sleep if you had a nap against your will earlier that day? I decided to take a walk around camp. I saw a few woodland creatures running about. One was a monster, but didn’t seem to pose any threat. I was passing by the mess hall, when a large boulder flew by and hit the gray tent. Thank goodness no one was in there. A second boulder passed by and just missed the green storage tent. I drew Excalibur.

“Show yourself!” I called. From the trees, came a large, green skinned ogre. He was much bigger than the last one I’d fought. He unclipped a disbranched tree, which had one end of a vine tied to the end of it. On the other end of the vine, hanging down was a boulder, with sharpened tree stumps stuck to it. The ogre had constructed a mace. I didn’t know they’d be smart enough to do that. The worst part though, was the ogre had red armor covering everything above his waist except for his head and arms. Written on the armor, was More Dread.

It swung the mace at me. I jumped and grabbed the vine, careful not to fall on the sharp boulder down below. I climbed up and onto the tree. I ran down the tree, but the ogre wasn’t confused anymore and tried to grab me. I sliced its hand and jumped onto his shoulder. I leaped onto his head from there, and began stabbing. He tried grabbing me again, but like last time I smacked his hands away. I continued stabbing, and finally it fell to the ground, dead. Then, another boulder raced by and smashed the black bathhouse tent. A second ogre emerged from the trees, also wearing red armor and armed with a mace. I sidestepped its first attack and cut the vine. All it had now was a tree. It swung again and smashed a flagpole down. The ogre ran at me. I dug Excalibur through a chink in the ogre’s armor. The ogre roared as it took a final swing, which missed me by ten feet.

Prescenan galloped out of his yellow tent. When he saw the ogres he said, “This isn’t good. If ogres are answering the More Dread Gang’s call for recruits, we’re all in danger.” My friends and twelve other centaurs came out to investigate.

“What-” Lance asked, interrupted by the sound of a horn. The centaur chief emerged from his tent, and the other twelve centaurs, six on each side, drew their swords and raised them to create an arch. The chief walked underneath it, and approached us.

“The watch towers have found a pack of red armored ogres walking south towards the forest where you found your sword. If they get too close, they will hurt several residents of the area. We must put their rampage to an end.” He then drew his own sword. The butt of the sword had the head of a griffin carved on it, and the double edged blade had pictures of centaurs vanquishing enemies molded into it. Two centaurs galloped forth and put him in his armor. I wasn’t positive about the chief going into battle. He was quite old looking, and the armor didn’t fit him well, so I was guessing it had been a while since he has been in battle.

“Francis, I want you and your construction team to rebuild these tents.” he said. A centaur from the pink tent galloped out with several construction tools and materials, followed by many others. They went to work on the black tent. “Prescenan, you and your group prepare for battle. Quickly!” the chief continued, walking back to his tent. My friends and I followed Prescenan to the armory.

Chapter Nine: Fall
My armor was a bit too big. Lance’s armor fit him perfectly. Morgan and Victoria said their armor wasn’t comfortable either. Probably because it was made for centaurs. We were already at a small clearing where the chief said the ogres would arrive at shortly. To be honest, I was scared. I’ve defeated several More Dread Gang Members, but not too many ogres. It was a lot different. The first few ogres that came from the bushes were unarmed. They only carried red banners with the More Dread Gang’s mascot on them, the red dragon.

They were shot down easily by a dozen centaur archers. Our army was quite small. It only had thirty swordsmen, including me and Lance. About twenty archers, ten on each side of the clearing, including Morgan. Victoria was the only wizard, obviously. Only three, including Prescenan, were armed with spears. Five more ogres, armed with large swords, rushed in. The first was shot down by Morgan and a few centaurs.

The other four got too close for the archers, and then the swordsmen went to work. A small group of centaurs sliced their swords at one, and he fell. Another ogre hacked a centaur duo apart, but others ran up the flat of his large blade and started slicing his face with their swords. Prescenan and his buddies took down a large blue ogre that was armed with single edged sword. Lance and I took on a large green one. It nearly hit Lance with its blade. Lance and I had to parry the blade together because it was too heavy for either of us to take alone. Finally, Lance found a chink in the monster’s armor and sliced it. The ogre crumpled to the ground, wounded.

Another faction of ogres, armed with giant crossbows, sprouted from the trees behind us. Victoria, Lance and I charged at them. They fired their crossbows, but Victoria used a spell that caused the arrows to halt in midair, and drop to the ground. Lance and I broke a few crossbows before stabbing their owners. Prescenan then galloped in with his friends, taking the lives of two more ogres. I turned around. The archers flank was completely destroyed, except for Morgan and one centaur she was riding on. The swordsmen group was retreating. Prescenan and I ran into battle. Once we showed up, the swordsmen began rallying their troops once again, regaining hope.

Several ogres, armed with maces and axes, smashed through another group of centaurs. A loud horn blew. I heard the chief cry, “Rally together my fellow centaurs! Reinforcements are on the way!” Sure enough, I could hear the pounding of more hooves on the ground, coming this way. Ten centaurs charged two ogres, but another ogre smacked five of them away. I ran towards the ogres, Excalibur at the ready. Just as I swung at the first one, about fifty centaur warriors leaped in, surprising the ogres.

The reinforcements rambunctiously swung swords and released bowstrings, defeating several ogres. A few ogres with crossbows fled. But it wasn’t over. Five ogre spearmen rushed in stabbing and smacking their enemies. One smacked Morgan aside with the shaft of its spear. Lance rushed to her side. Through all of the fighting, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the chief, lying on the ground. He had a spear stuck in him. Prescenan was rushing forward, but I stopped him just in time.

“Prescenan, the chief is down.” I told him. His eyes widened. I led him to the chief. The battle was finally over, and the surviving centaurs were celebrating their victory. Except for Prescenan. He pulled the spear out of the chief’s chest.

“Don’t worry you’ll be okay.” Prescenan said to the chief.

“No. I’m much too old. I’ve survived many wounds but none like this. It is time, Prescenan.” the chief replied. Prescenan began to weep. The other centaurs, realizing what has happened, bowed their heads in sorrow.

“Hey, it’s alright. It was just his time. He told you he was old and would die soon. That means he came into this battle knowing he would most likely die. And, now there can be a new chief.” I told him, trying to cheer him up.

“No, Brandon. You- you don’t understand. He- he was my father.” Prescenan replied.

Chapter Ten: Departure
We were in the blue tent. The funeral had just ended. I felt awful. If I had known it was his dad I wouldn’t have said that stuff. One of Prescenan’s friends, Thomas, had talked to me about it. He said not to worry. He had arranged a wagon to take us to the mansion. I was packing my things when Prescenan walked in.

“Don’t feel sorry. You were right. He was right. He knew his time would come, and that was it. I need to accept that. But I’ll never be a good chief like him. I’ve always dreaded the day I would become chief. That’s why I’ve appointed the job to my brother Jeremiah. He hasn’t been here for a while, but his chariot has just arrived. So has yours. I’d like you to meet Jeremiah.” he said, wrapping everything up. I stepped out of the tent.

There at the entrance, standing next to a golden clad chariot, was Jeremiah. He had a goatee and dark droopy eyes the color of coals. His hair was the color of burning embers, and he was wearing a green shirt that had a target on it.

“Hello.” I said, a bit scared. He seemed quite intimidating. It was as if I had just entered his space bubble, and he was debating on whether or not he should smack me. I noticed he had a rifle strapped to his belt. He reached his hand out.

“A pleasure to meet you.” he said in his Australian accent. The accent surprised me. I shook his hand. “Descendant of Arthur is you?” he continued. I nodded. I was afraid to speak. Luckily, Lance came to my rescue.

“Hey Brandon, we gotta go.” he said pulling me away and into our wagon. Oh, and just so you aren’t confused, this is a large horse- I mean centaur- drawn wagon, not one of those red ones that kindergarteners ride in drinking their juice boxes. We were all in the wagon. Morgan was fine from the ogre battle. I couldn’t get my eyes off that centaur. He was so strange.

“Hey, you okay?” Morgan asked.

“Yeah I’m fine. Just the new chief…” I replied.

“Yeah, a bit creepy right?” Lance said. I nodded.

“You know what the scariest part was? That rifle he had. He had a slight grip on it when I spoke with him.” Victoria said.

“He’s probably just nervous… you know, becoming the guy in charge...” I said.

“Yeah.” said Morgan.

“I mean, Prescenan was scared… why shouldn’t Jeremiah be? I bet any centaur would be scared.” I continued. The others nodded in agreement. Morgan crawled over to the food crate and pulled out a few hard- boiled eggs. She cracked hers on her head, peeled the shell off and bit. We all copied her.

“So how do you think our parents are doing? Think they’re worried yet?” asked Victoria. I hadn’t thought about that. I didn’t even know what day it was.

“What day is it?” I asked.

“Tuesday.” said Lance.

“I think they might be getting worried. Let’s call them.” I said. I called my parents. Voice mail. I asked the others what they got. Victoria said her mom and dad went on vacation. Lance’s mom was starting to worry, but she is a lot better now. Morgan left a message for her dad. We spent the rest of the day talking and playing games like I spy and tic tac toe. The rest of the ride was fairly boring that day. It was around ten when I finally fell asleep.

I woke up lying in grass. I sat up. My friends were against a tree, beaten up. “What happened?” I asked.

“You slept through the whole thing. The More Dread Gang killed our chauffer then climbed in the back. We woke up and started fighting back.” Morgan said.

“But you slept through the whole thing and our wagon was stolen.” said Victoria. “Now we’ve got to walk the next thirty miles.” I sighed. I stood up from the grass.

“Well, we’d better get started then.” I said. We had only walked a few feet when something jumped out at us. Oh, great. I thought. I can barely take three steps without bumping into trouble. A man dressed in old tattered clothes stood in front of us.

“You kids need a ride? I’d gladly give you one if you can do something for me.” he said. I gave my friends a look that said ‘don’t trust him’. They rolled their eyes to show they already understood.

“What do you need?” I said.

The man replied, “Oh, nothing much. I just need you to get me something valuable that I can sell so I can quit living in the woods, some food, and a glass of water from the river a mile that-a-way.” he said, pointing west. I sighed.

“Why do you need this stuff?” I asked.

“’Cuz I’m tired of living in the woods. I can’t find any food, I’ve got bad shelter, and I am really thirsty.” he replied. Well, I guess it isn’t a bad thing to help out some homeless guy, but this guy seemed really strange. Morgan then pulled me over to her.

“The shield.” she said. I looked down at the circular shield around my arm. Something valuable the old man had said. The shield was valuable, but I had a feeling that we would need it later. I tried to explain this to Morgan as best I could, but she still wouldn’t listen. She said we’d talk about it later.

“Okay, we’ll be right back. We need to go and get those things.” Lance said to the man. The man nodded and slunk back into the trees. He darted back out quickly before we left and shouted, “Don’t drink the water!” I rolled my eyes. Whatever, I thought. We began walking west towards the river. Along the way we found several bushes littered with berries. Victoria ate one and told us they were not poisonous. We picked many berries and put them in a large piece of tree bark we found. Then Morgan and Lance mashed them with stones.

We had food for the man. Victoria carried the berry mixture until we reached the river, where she set it down on the riverbank. We all stared at the water. It was very strange. The water was completely clear, except for a long, thick dark stripe that went down the middle. Someone probably spilled something in it. I took out a canteen the centaurs had given me and began to fill it with water. I looked up at the stripe. It was so weird. Then I heard someone make that breathing sound. You know, after you drink something you make this breathing sound out of satisfaction or relief? It goes ahhhhh. Yeah. That. I turned my head to see Morgan sipping water from the river out of her hands.

“What are you doing!?!? That guy told us not to drink the water!” Lance exclaimed.

“Do you really believe that? The guy could be delusional for all we know. It’s fine.” I said. I spoke a bit too soon. The big stripe rose out of the water, and then I saw it wasn’t a stripe at all. It had a long serpent-like body and pitch black scales. Its head was shaped like a bull’s, but the snout was elongated with sharp dagger-like fangs inside. Its eyes were a blood red shade. It snarled at us as its head lunged forward. I handed the canteen to Lance and drew my sword. I took my first swipe. The creature quickly snapped his head back then dove towards me for another strike. I swung again, missing. I sidestepped before the creature could bite me, but his left horn caught my shoulder and knocked me down.

A few arrows appeared in the monster’s neck, the only part not protected from scales. Morgan notched more arrows in her bow to go for another shot. The monster spit out a large black liquid from it’s moth that covered Morgan from head to toe. It didn’t appear to burn her, so I figured she’d be okay. Victoria blasted the monster with blue orbs, but it only irritated him.

Now is my chance. I thought. “Victoria! Keep him occupied!” I yelled. She nodded. She tossed six more blue balls of energy as I raced towards it. I hacked the monster right behind its head, in the neck. The monster let out a loud blare that sounded like a bull and a monkey. It turned its head straight at me. Victoria blasted it again, but the monster ignored her. Morgan shot it in the right eye, but it ignored her too. Then the monster opened its mouth slowly, as if it were going to enjoy ripping my throat out.

The mouth, I thought. The monster was just about to snap its jaws down on me, when I shoved Excalibur into it’s mouth, with the blade pointing up towards the sky. You know, like how if you shove something in between a crocodile mouth, it keeps its jaws from closing? I did this, only with a sword, so it didn’t keep the jaws from closing. I quickly lurched back as the monster bit down on the blade. The monster let out one more cry before dying. Then the monster fell to the ground, half of its body still submerged in the river. The monster turned to stone before crumbling into pieces. Excalibur lay on the ground covered in green blood. I took it to the river and washed it.

“So, what’s next on the list?” I asked.

We were returning to the man with the three things for him. We had had a conversation earlier about something valuable to give the man. Morgan brought up the shield, and everyone else (except me), agreed that it was valuable and to give it to the man. So we were on our way back. It was Wednesday. Our parents were definitely freaking out. I wondered how Troy was doing back where we left him with Pepperoni. What if he was attacked? What if Pepperoni’s injuries were too serious? What if Pepperoni was dead? These were questions I kept asking myself over and over, over and over.

“Well thank you.” a voice interrupted. I hadn’t noticed we had arrived back. The man took the shield, the canteen, and the berry mix. He took a sip of the water. He made the breathing sound. “Ah, yes, this is definitely the best water I’ve ever had!” he exclaimed. I doubted that, but maybe that monster gave the water some sort of flavor that made it taste better. He then ate the berry mix very quickly. He took the shield and strapped it on his back. “Alright, now follow me.” he said. We walked through the trees and came across a small clearing with a single tree in the center. Parked behind the tree, was a car.

It was a cherry red muscle car. It was perfectly shiny and clean, as if it weren’t parked in the middle of the woods. The man took out car keys and pressed the button. The car made a beeping noise as the lights inside went on. The man clapped his hands and the door opened. “Wait so if you’ve had a car, why couldn’t you just drive out of here?” Morgan asked. “Because the More Dread Gang- yes, I know about them- put a spell on this glade, preventing me from journeying too far from it. If I do, the spell will simply transport me back here to this glade.” the man said.

“So you’re saying that we got all that stuff for you so you could drive us to our destination, but you forgot to say you can’t drive any where at all?!” Morgan exclaimed. The man remained completely calm.

“No. I was hoping for help from a descendant of Merlin.” he said, eyeing Victoria. She sighed.

“Okay.” she said.

“Alright, be sure to time the spell just right.” the man said, driving the car. Victoria was in the passenger seat, and I was in the back with Lance and Morgan. As we got closer to the edge of the car’s boundaries I could make out a faint shade of red forming a wall. Victoria performed the spell just a few yards away from the wall and a large section of the wall turned blue. The man pressed his foot on the gas pedal real hard and we drove through the blue section of wall. We all cheered. The man continued driving. Strangely enough, a clear path was formed straight ahead of us, so we had no problems with trees. For awhile.

Chapter Eleven: Crash
We had driven about twenty miles. We had maybe ten miles left, but the path ended right there. Several trees began to sprout in front of us. The driver easily swerved around them, but up ahead were several trees standing in a row, as if they were guarding the road. I saw sweat on the man’s forehead. Then instead of stomping on the brakes, he unlocks the car door and leaps out. My eyes widened.

“So, anyone have their learner’s permit?” Morgan joked. I flicked her in the head. Then, the car slammed into the trees.

This is like the second time this has happened to me this week, I thought. I was tied to a large tree, my hands tied by another rope higher up the tree. I also had a cloth wrapped around my mouth. On both sides of me were Lance and Victoria. Morgan’s lucky she was on the other side, because I would’ve smacked her for that joke she made earlier. Lance and Morgan were awake, but Victoria was still out cold. That airbag had hit her pretty good. I then wriggled my head around to get the gag off. It finally slipped down onto my neck. I saw the man leaning over a fire, prodding it with a stick. Lance had gotten his gag off too. Sadly, so had Morgan. The good news was she kept quiet. We all did because we didn’t want the man to hear. The man then stood up, and walked over to the shield.

He picked it up, and then his body glowed. He then said to himself: “Ah, it’s just the river water. I knew there was something special about it, but superhuman agility and strength? Amazing!” He was kind of stupid, because then the ropes holding my hands up snapped. Morgan, on the other side of the tree, snapped them. She had drunk the river water as well. That’s why she could do it. Then Lance, Morgan and I were free from the tree after Morgan broke the rest of the ropes. Victoria almost fell and made a big noise, but Morgan and I caught her. We didn’t want him to know we were free yet. He was still sitting with his back to us. Our weapons, I finally noticed were laid against a tree that was next to him.

We silently crept towards our weapons. But apparently, we weren’t too stealthy because then he whirled around. He stood up and ran at us. We started to run away, but we weren’t too quick either. He grabbed Lance’s wrists and tossed him into a tree. He then grabbed my foot and flipped me up on the air. I was about to land when he caught me by my feet. He then leaped up onto the side of the tree we had been tied to, and tied me upside down to the tree. And he was real quick about it too, having superhuman strength and agility.

He then leapt off of the tree and tackled Morgan. Morgan, however, grabbed his shirt collar and picked him up. His eyes widened.

“Someone just can’t follow instructions, can they?” he said. He then kicked Morgan in the stomach and he fell to the ground. He stood up and uprooted the nearest tree. He raised it over his head, ready to smash Morgan with it. Morgan stood up and looked at the tree like it was nothing. He swung it down, but Morgan caught it with one hand, and flipped it over her. The man, still holding onto the tree, flipped with it. Morgan stopped it just before it hit the ground, and then positioned it in her hand like she was getting ready to throw a javelin. She threw it, and the man smacked into another tree. She dusted her hands off.

The man barely stood up. He raced towards Victoria. He picked her up, and then drew a long knife. He pointed it at her throat. “Stay back.” he said. Morgan sighed. She put her hands up in surrender. “That’s right. Very good. Now come over here and tie your friend Lance to the tree.” he said. She did. “Thank you. Now up against the tree.” he said. She got up against the tree. He took a rope and said what I think was the only spell he knew. The ropes magically tied Morgan to the tree. Or at least, I think that’s how it happened, because at that point all of my blood had gone to my head. Then I passed out.

I woke up about an hour later. I was still upside down, and Morgan and Lance were still tied to the tree. Victoria was still knocked out, only now she was hogtied next to the fire. Excalibur was still where it was when I last saw it. The man emerged from the bushes, and picked up Excalibur. “Man this thing is heavy.” he grumbled. He then put the blade in the fire. He was melting it. I began to panic on the inside. But the sword didn’t change at all. Well, except for the fact it was turning a blue color. Then the sword produced a golden orb from the handle. “What the-” the man said, looking at the orb. The orb then shot off the sword and hit him. He was blasted back into a collection of poison ivy bushes. The sword rose up from the flames, and flew towards me. The blade hit the rope, and I fell off. Then the sword clattered to the ground. The man walked out of the poison ivy, scratching himself. I cut Morgan and Lance free, and we all grabbed our weapons, including the shield.

Morgan shot the man with several arrows. The man fell to the ground, dead. I untied Victoria, who had just woken up. She was beaded with sweat. She almost collapsed when she stood up. We started to walk north, towards the mansion. As we walked, I noticed how all of the birds were facing toward us. So were the squirrels, rabbits, snakes, and foxes.

“Anyone else notice the animals acting strangely?” I asked.

“Probably has something to do with us being here. They aren’t used to having humans around.” Lance said. I nodded, though still kept my eyes on the animals. A fox darted across the path, and an owl followed by a few sparrows flew past us, but other than that, the animals showed no movement and no emotion. Finally Morgan broke my concentration on the animals.

“Hey guys, what’s that up ahead?” she said. I looked where she was pointing. There, about twenty yards ahead, was a large pile of logs, like a beaver dam. It was blocking the path. We all went up to it. Lance grabbed a log and tried to pull it off, but it was too heavy.

“I’m going to climb up and see what’s on the other side.” I said, beginning to ascend up the log wall. When I reached the top, I saw even more logs stretch out at the same height for farther than I could see. The problem was, it looked a bit unstable and I could make out where traps and snares were hidden. I climbed back down. “We can’t just climb over. It’s sort of like a bridge, but the path is unstable and there are traps on it. Probably set by the More Dread Gang.” I reported to the others.

“Then, how do we get through?” Lance asked. I shrugged.

“I don’t know.” I replied.

“Hey guys, what’s this?” Victoria said. It was the first time she had spoken since the accident. She was examining a small bit of the log Lance had tried to move. The part she was examining had metal on it. A piece of metal was bolted into the wood. It had a card slider on it. The things that you slide credit cards through at the supermarket. Above the slider, written in red ink, was:

Insert Your Card

“Card?” Lance said. “What card?”

“It could be a trick. The More Dread Gang probably put it here.” Victoria said. My eyes widened. I fished through my pockets, hoping it was still there. From my left pocket I produced a red card with the words More Dread Gang written on it, and a dragon drawing in the center.

“It isn’t a trick.” I said. “This is how members gain access to the mansion.” I said, sliding the card through the slider. The logs then shifted to the sides to reveal a doorway. “After you.” I said. The others walked inside. I took one last look at the animals before stepping inside. The logs shifted again to close the doorway. It was very dark in there.

Victoria lit a torch she found on the wall. The path in here seemed much shorter than the path with traps on it, because we were out of there in no time. It must have some sort of spell on it. Once we exited the tunnel I didn’t see a mansion. Instead I saw a towering cliff, with the mansion mounted upon its plateau.

“Maybe we should have brought some climbing gear.” Morgan said.

“Well, we thought we were flying here, but apparently we were wrong.” I said. We walked up to the base of the cliff. “So… how do we get up?” I asked. Lance pulled a rope out of the bag the centaurs had packed for him. He came over and tied a small section of it to my waist. “We climb.” he said, tying it around his own waist.

We were maybe ten feet off the ground and only Lance and I were on the cliff so far. The reason we had the rope is so if any one of us fell, the rest of us could pull them up. The cliff was maybe forty yards high, so it wasn’t too much of a climb. I continued to climb higher and higher, sweat beading my face. It was the afternoon, and there weren’t a whole lot of trees near the cliff, so the sun made the climb hard. The rocks were very hot. I tried not to hold onto one for too long because of the heat.

“Are we there yet?” Morgan joked. She had already climbed onto the cliff. She was just a few yards below me. Victoria was still quite low to the bottom. She was probably drained of energy after the crash. Lance was well ahead of me, at least twelve feet ahead. I had become so focused on everyone else I didn’t realize the rock I had just grabbed on was unstable. It broke away and I fell about five yards. Lance caught a section of his rope to prevent me from falling, but I hit my head on a rock.

“Ow!” I shouted. Lance began to pull harder.

“Plant your feet on the cliff.” he said. I put my feet on the cliff. He pulled me up until I could get a hold on more rocks. I looked down to see how Victoria was doing. Morgan was half pulling her up. I continued climbing. Lance was already about six feet from the top. He tripped a little bit, but caught himself before falling down too far. I started to pull Morgan up so it would be easier for her to pull Victoria up. She got mad at me for doing that so I let go and continued to climb. Lance reached the top and had begun to pull me up.

I was about five feet from the top when I heard someone shout. “Hey! That guy is breaking in!” Lance had been spotted. Then I heard the voice give an order to ready your bows. I reached the top and began pulling Morgan up. An arrow flew by. I turned to see a group of More Dread Gang archers firing their weapons. One pierced Lance’s bag causing a few things to spill out. Some items dropped down the cliff. I finally pulled Morgan up when the member said: “Reload your bow!”

“Okay.” Morgan said, loading her bow with an arrow. Before the gang members could draw arrows from their quivers Morgan had fired several arrows, piercing them. All that was left was the one that had been giving orders, who Lance defeated easily. We walked up to the mansion.

It was incredible. It was the largest house I had seen, and it had neatly trimmed bushes around its perimeter. A small dirt path leads the way to the house. It was about five stories and had countless numbers of windows. The only bad part about the windows was there were archers standing guard in them. Luckily they hadn’t spotted us yet. The sprinkler system was on, and a few bird baths were found on the lawn. There were even some small trees growing there. What broke the beauty of the lawn were the large statues of monstrous dragons that stood there. Gargoyles stood on both sides of every window. A security keypad was next to the beautiful front door. The porch had brilliantly fashioned chairs with lavish cushions laid on them.

A small table was knocked down on its side, with a broken picture of Dwayne with his dad lying next to it. A card slider was beside the door. I slid the card through and the door opened. I stepped inside, and two gang members were standing at the doorway to greet me. They were probably door guards. I dropped down to the floor and swept their legs off the floor. They fell to the floor, but quickly recovered to draw their knives.

I drew Excalibur and stabbed the first one, but the second one dodged my follow-up attack and then went in for a strike. He made a cut in my arm, but it wasn’t severe. I parried his next attack then tried to trip him again. Instead he leaped over me and kicked me back. Lance came up from behind and smashed the flat of his blade over the guard’s head. I stood up.

We continued to walk through the front hall. It was stupefying! The place was nicer than Lance’s! Two spiral staircases led up to a humungous indoor balcony that over looked the front door. We each climbed the staircases. Up on the balcony was a pair of double-doors with potted plants on both sides. Real plants, not those cheap plastic ones. A circular table was in the center, but other than that, the area was very open. I opened the double doors, but nothing was inside but a few coats and More Dread Gang hoodies hanging from a coat rack. I walked down a hall in the left wing that connected to the balcony.

Several doors littered the sidelines, like excited fans at a football game. Countless doorknobs appeared to my left and right. I opened each door, but inside only found it to be a closet or bathroom, and on occasion I may discover a bedroom behind one. I finally reached another set of double doors at the very end of the hallway. I hadn’t noticed my friends had followed me down the hall. Except Victoria, who was exploring the right wing.

“‘Discover its secrets’ Mr. Freeman had said. Impossible. This place is huge!” Morgan said, complaining. I opened the doors, and several gang members rushed out, knives already drawn. I raised Excalibur, ready to take them on. The first few members pushed past us before turning to attack us from behind. Lance and I stood back to back, while Morgan notched an arrow in her bow, ready to shoot the first gang member that dare come close. Many members leaped forward, and Lance and I defeated them with a series of hacks and slashes. Morgan shot one that was armed with an axe.

Another member kicked Lance’s sword out of his hand. The member was about to stab Lance, but I parried the attack then sliced the guy. Morgan retrieved many of the knives off the floor and had begun to slip them into her pack. Meanwhile I defended her from enemy attack.

“What are you doing?” I asked, parrying another attack.

“Loading up some souvenirs.” Morgan said as if this were the best moment to do this. I parried another attack then stabbed another guy. We had finally finished doing this.

“Wait- where’s Victoria?!” I shrieked. Lance’s eyes widened. We all darted towards the right wing. Victoria was fine, though she was battling a small group of members, and the double doors were wide open. She kicked one last one in the stomach before saying “C’mon guys let’s go through.” She then darted through the doorway. We ran in after her. Inside was a large dining room. Another set of double doors showed the exit. We walked out. Another long hallway extended in front of us. Only this time, there were no doors at all. An opening at the end of the hall showed a staircase going down. We raced to the end of the hallway and descended down the staircase. The room we were now in looked very old. It looked sort of like a medieval dungeon, it even had jail cells.

I heard clapping. I turned and saw Dwayne, standing at the top, clapping. “Bravo!” he said. He snapped his fingers and a large steel cage appeared around us. “Wow. That entrance was magnificent. May I see it again? Oh wait, you can’t do it again. You’re in a big cage, that’s in a room filling with water.” he said, pulling a switch up. As soon as he flipped the switch I could hear water rushing out from somewhere. I immediately felt water splash my legs. The water was cold. Dwayne walked out. We were doomed. None of us could reach the switch. None of us could get out of the cage. The water was rushing in very quickly. It had already risen up to my waist.

“Remember when I was packing knives? Yeah, it was for something like this.” Morgan said, taking a knife out of her pack. She tossed it up towards the switch. It missed. She threw another. Miss. The water was already up to my neck, and with water around it was getting difficult for Morgan to throw knives. Victoria sighed and rolled her eyes then shot an orb at the switch. It flipped up, and the water stopped. But the cage was still an issue. We wouldn’t be able to saw the bars with our swords…unless…

“Victoria, make Excalibur hot!” I said. She performed a spell and Excalibur began to turn blue. “That’s creepy dude.” Lance said. A golden orb formed on the handle, and then flew off. The orb hit the bars and the cage exploded. We all rushed out.

“I’m just glad to still be in one piece!” said Morgan. We ran up the stairs. There was no trace of Dwayne or where he went so we didn’t know where to look next. We went back to the balcony and headed down the left wing. Behind the set of double doors was a living room, complete with a sixty four inch flat screen TV and recliner. “Nice.” said Morgan. We opened up another door at the other end of the room. A set of stairs going up were found behind it. We went up. At the top was a large bedroom with a king-sized bed. We opened another door in the room where we found a large bathroom, with several sinks and toilets, and a large bathtub with jets. We walked on where we found yet another door, which seemed a bit strange.

Behind this door was another bedroom, only it looked more like a room for a young kid. Bookshelves were on the other side of the room against the wall, and a racecar bed was in the center. In front of the bed was a video game console and television. It seemed like someone had been here recently, because the bed was undone and the video game was paused.

A door at the other end of the room opened and a young boy, possibly eight, walked out. He was holding a stick of gum and popcorn. He didn’t even look up as he sat on the bed and continued the game. Then I noticed the game character was a member of the More Dread Gang, and in the game the object was to destroy mythical creatures and descendants of knights from Arthurian legend. I went over to the kid.

“Hi.” I said.

“Hey.” he said, not taking his eyes off the game. He took a handful of popcorn and ate it.

“So, what are you playing?” I asked him. He took awhile to respond. He ate some more popcorn.

“More Dread Conquest.” he said. The gang member on screen vanquished an enemy centaur and then ran inside a red tent. The chief’s tent.

“And, why are you playing it?” I asked.

“Because my dad lives here and he wants me to have fun, so he bought me this game. He said it would change my life.” he replied.

“And is it working? Is it changing your life?” I asked.

“Yeah it sort of is. I wish these guys in red were real. That would be awesome.” he said. I sighed. I stood up and walked out the door the boy had come from. My friends followed. We were in a kitchen. An angry looking chef was leaning over the stove, and a gang member was rummaging through a refrigerator, so it was quite easy to sneak by them. We opened another door and stepped out. There was another staircase going up, and when we came out we found another bedroom. The walls were completely painted red, and a bed with red blankets was in the center. A boy about my age stood in front of the bed. He had a knife in his hand, and he threw it at a target that was painted on the wall.

I snuck around him. I didn’t want to bother him if he was throwing knives. I opened the next door, and a brilliantly lit library opened up before me. It was two stories high and had a large skylight at the top. In the center of the room, was Dwayne.

Chapter Twelve: Dragon
Surrounding Dwayne was nine gang members. Each one of them had a glowing orb in their hands.

Dwayne sighed. “You are impossible to get rid of.” Dwayne said, not even turning around. “Hopefully this spell will solve that problem.” he continued. “Now More Dread Gang, perform the spell!” he commanded. The other nine members in the room began to chant. The orbs in their hands slowly began to rise up in the air. Victoria fired an orb at Dwayne, but he simply bounced it off a force field. Lance and I tried to kill the members to break the spell, but Dwayne simply flicked his wrist at us and we flew to the opposite end of the room. Dwayne shattered every arrow Morgan fired. He was probably becoming so powerful because of the spell the other members were performing.

The orbs reached a height of about twenty feet, and then started to form together into one large orb. Lance ran towards Dwayne. Dwayne unsheathed his knives and parried every one of Lance’s attacks. The giant orb began to become distorted, forming into a different shape. Morgan finally hit Dwayne with an arrow because Lance had kept him busy. The new shape grew two small holes right next to each other, and the light from the holes was a snow white color. The shape grew scales and wings, and then a tail. A large red dragon with white eyes dove down at Morgan.

Lance smacked the dragon on the nose with the flat of his sword. The dragon roared with anger and sent a barrage of flames towards Lance. Lance and Morgan dove in opposite directions to avoid being barbecued by the dragon’s scorching breath. The dragon turned and smacked me down with its tail. Victoria forged a bow and arrows out of thin air, but had trouble loading the bow. Morgan sent arrows flying towards the dragon. The dragon’s tough scaly armor protected him from them, and only irritated him. I stabbed the dragon in the leg with Excalibur, but it didn’t take but a touch of the blade to frighten the dragon. Victoria finally blasted the dragon with an arrow. Unlike Morgan’s arrows, these arrows had a green light emanating from the tips.

I charged at the dragon for another attack. I stabbed it in the tail. The dragon let out a piercing cry. It landed to encounter us on ground. Victoria fired more arrows. The dragon finally became tired of her and choked up another fireball at her. She formed a force field to keep the flaming hazard from hitting her. Lance chopped off one of the dragon’s claws. Morgan had begun to shoot down gang members. I had completely forgotten about them. Dwayne was no where to be found. Probably has a better thing to do than try and destroy us. The dragon smacked Lance off balance. The dragon sent flames at him, but Victoria created a force field just in time. The only thing that happened to Lance was that he got a bit sunburned.

I tried to scare the dragon away with Excalibur, but gang members blasted me down with orbs. I asked Victoria if she could find weak spots in the dragon’s armor. “Just below the neck and its left wing.” she replied. That’s when I decided I had gone insane, because next thing I knew I was on the dragon’s back. I tried to climb up towards the left wing, but it was difficult because gang members were firing orbs at me and the dragon was flailing around, trying to get me off of his back. Lance helped by killing a few members. The dragon finally decided that its strategy wasn’t working, so it took to the air.

The dragon flipped upside down, and I could barely hold on. “Catch!” Victoria shouted, tossing me a knife. I caught it, and then she instructed me to stab the knife into a chink in the dragon’s armor. I stabbed the knife deep into a chink near its right leg. The dragon, which had been moving in a circle, halted. I hung there, holding onto the knife. The dragon turned back over, and then tried to catch its own legs to get the knife out. I swung back over onto its back. The dragon breathed fire at me, and I was pushed off of its back. The dragon burned itself in the process though.

“Morgan, fire arrows at the dragon’s left wing!” I shouted. Morgan nodded as she stabbed a gang member with an arrow. She notched an arrow and waited for the flying beast to turn its body so she could get in a good shot. The dragon though, had very different plans. It breathed fire in a circle around itself, me, Lance, and Victoria. It would be much harder for Morgan to shoot it now. The dragon snapped me up by my pack, flung me into the air, and opened its mouth, ready for me to fall into it. Victoria threw a large fireball at the dragon, knocking its head out of my path. I landed on its neck and slid down its belly to the floor. Morgan tried firing arrows at the dragon. They didn’t do much.

Lance sliced the dragon’s tail, creating a large gash. Victoria launched an orb that smacked the dragon in the left wing. The dragon roared with pain. It breathed flames towards me. “Victoria, can you create a way for me to get closer to the wings?” I asked, rolling out of the path of the fire ball. She didn’t even respond. All of the sudden, I felt like I was on an invisible escalator, taking me closer to the dragon’s weak spots. The dragon tried smacking me off the path, but apparently there was a force field in front of me too. I leaped up onto the dragon’s back, found the knife I had stuck on it, and began to climb further up to the wings. Victoria and Lance tried to keep the dragon distracted, but nothing distracts a dragon like something crawling on its back. I stabbed the knife into a section of its back just below the wings, then unsheathed Excalibur.

The dragon turned its head towards me. I took a good look into those white, lifeless eyes. I stabbed it deep into its wings, and the dragon evaporated into dust, leaving only the sound of a painful cry behind as it disintegrated. The flames died down. I had defeated a dragon.

Chapter Thirteen: Burn
“Now what?” Morgan said, as the flames faded away.

“Now, we have to burn the mansion down, like Mr. Freeman told us to. I’m surprised the dragon didn’t do it itself, but then again, once we killed it the flames faded, so maybe there is something magic about them.” I said.

“Hey, check this out.” Victoria said. We walked towards the center where she was standing. On the floor, was a circular shape.

“What’s so important about this?” Morgan asked. I removed the shield from my back. It was the exact shape and size of the one on the floor. I laid it on the circle, and all of the bookshelves began to shift. Behind one was a pathway, leading to a room full of desks and papers. We began rummaging through the papers and desks.

“Hey guys, it’s a letter from Jeremiah to Dwayne. It’s demanding Dwayne surrender himself to the centaur police for trespassing on centaur territory and killing innocent centaurs, including the former chief.” Lance said.

“Victoria, who called Dwayne last?” I asked. She pulled out his phone and searched his caller ID.

“His dad called him last… and then before that is some guy named Derek… oh, here it is, Jeremiah. He called him yesterday.” she replied.

“And it looks like Dwayne was working on a letter back to him.” Lance said. I walked over to the table and read the letter.

''October 12th, 2011 Jeremiah,

I will not allow myself to be bested by a centaur. My gang and I will arrive at your camp to attack and defeat your pathetic army by daybreak. Unless you--''

The letter stopped there. Dwayne hadn’t finished it yet.

“We need to get to the camp! If Dwayne destroys them, his army will have an all access pass to the Honeysuckle Woods and our neighborhood!” Lance said. I crumpled up the letter. I pulled the desk out of the room and into the library. The others followed my example.

“This is all the fuel we’ll need for a fire.” I said. I took out Mr. Freeman’s lighter and dropped it on the papers. They immediately caught fire. We ran out the way we came. “Get out of here! It’s burning down!” I shouted to the little boy. He dropped his video game controller and followed us out of the mansion. The mansion burned and crumbled. Several gang members were racing out of the mansion. Even that angry chef was running out. I told the little boy to run to the neighborhood about ninety miles south from here and hide for his own protection. He nodded and ran off in that direction. My friends and I climbed down the cliff, swiped the card through the slider and ran through the log tunnel. Once we were out, we stopped to take a breath. All of the gang members that had fled the mansion ran towards the east, probably to meet Dwayne at the army fort.

“Now we need to get to the centaur camp. And fast.” I said. We ran to the area where we had defeated the man. He was gone. In his place were a misshapen creature, with gray skin and a crest coming out of the back of its head. It had a sword. It wore armor over a brown vest and baggy shorts. It raised its sword and pointed it towards us. It hissed at us and said something in a language I didn’t understand. Several more of them leaped out of the bushes, armed with whips and knives and chains and bows. The biggest one had a chainsaw.

“These are goblins.” Victoria said. “They eat flesh, are very agile, immune to fire, and can poison you if they bite you. Be careful.” One of the goblins waddled towards me. They walked very strangely because their legs were like a frog’s, and their back was hunched over. He gestured for me to come with them. I wasn’t sure why, but I followed.

Chapter Fourteen: Feast
The goblins led us for about ten miles. The goblins at the head were whispering amongst themselves in their own language. We finally reached where the goblins were taking us. Apparently we were at a campsite. But it didn’t look like a camp that had been set up by goblins. It looked like boy scouts or campers had been here. Either they had fled, or they had been eaten by the goblins. I tried not to think about it too much. A goblin with a very long crest on his head limped forward. It had a scepter that was carved out of a stick with a jewel stuck on top. He was obviously the goblin chief or king. He turned and shouted something in his tongue. All of the goblins cheered.

“Maybe he found out we are descendants of Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and Merlin?” Morgan said. All of the goblins ran towards us. They lifted us into the air and began to carry us off towards a group of picnic tables.

“I’m guessing they did.” I said. The goblins put each of us down in front of a picnic table. Then they pulled the tables up on the side so the top was to our backs. The king goblin hopped up on to a rock and shouted another garble of words. The goblins cheered again. I was confused. Two goblins came up to each of us, holding trays of food. I took some food and ate it. The goblins cheered again. Everything I did was an event. My friends ate some food too. It was so good. There was some cooked ham and fresh mashed potatoes. They also served snicker doodles and cherry soda. I didn’t eat the snicker doodles because I’m allergic to cinnamon. It was the most I’d eaten since the centaur camp.

Two goblins then appeared on both my sides. They each held an end of a chain. Two appeared at each of my friends sides too. The goblins wrapped the chain around me and the table. I didn’t realize how bad it was until that point because of the delicious food I was being served. They finished chaining me to the table. They had chained each of my friends to a table too. The goblin king announced something else and the goblins cheered again. They tilted the tables back on its four legs. I struggled against the chains. They were trying to eat us!

They continued to stuff food in my mouth. I was officially freaking out. I kicked and flailed, but to no avail. The goblin king climbed up in front of me and created a green orb on the tip of its scepter. I knew what that meant. I would be put to sleep and then they would cook me and eat me. Victoria performed a spell to cause the orb to disappear. The king became frustrated.

He then shouted something else. The goblins unchained me from the table and then tied me. They took me to a tent and knocked me out.

I woke up. I was still in the tent. I was tied to something. I looked back. Victoria and I were tied back to back. Two guards were in the tent. I rolled my eyes. I unsheathed Excalibur. It wasn’t easy. I was about to slice the ropes when the guards started freaking out. They bolted from the tent. “Okay.” I said, cutting the ropes. I ran out of the tent and freed Morgan and Lance, who were in the tent next door. The goblin king ran up to me. I raised Excalibur. The king dropped down to the ground and began bowing. The other goblins followed his example.

I looked around, confused. “Uh, you are going to let us go and take us to the centaurs?” I said, unsure of what would happen. The king stood and nodded quickly. Several other goblins ran and picked up materials. They drew out blueprints and ran to me. They bowed before presenting the design. It was for a chariot. “Oh, uh, yes, this will do. This is, uh, fantastic. Get on it immediately.” I said, trying to sound as kingly as possible. They bowed again before darting off to begin construction.

It took an hour for them to finish just one chariot, and they were building four. When they finally finished, I saw a big problem. We had nothing to pull them. The goblins had already thought of this though. They had wrangled some horses to pull us. Once they finished hooking up the horses to the chariots, we were ready to go. We each climbed into a chariot.

“Do we need licenses to drive these?” Morgan joked.

“Morgan!” we all shouted.

“What?” she asked. We grabbed the reigns and the horses galloped off. The horses reached the clearing where we had not only met the goblins but had also vanquished the man. It became treacherous here because of the trees. We had driven south a little while when we found the car, smashed up against a tree. We drove straight past it. We continued going south. We passed the red boundary line, and then arrived where we had had our wagon stolen. The horses stopped there. They began to freak out, running all over. They finally stopped then ran west towards the river. They leaped the river, but Morgan’s chariot collapsed from the landing. She continued to hold the reigns, the horse dragging her along. Her horse finally began running north, back towards the mansion.

Something was wrong with the horses. Mine started running in circles. Victoria’s chariot tipped on its side and started to drag along the ground. Lance was the only one with a chariot still in tact, but his horse was going farther west. My chariot collapsed. I fell straight through the floor and scraped my legs on wood and metal. I cried out in pain. My horse then began to run west with Lance’s chariot. Lance’s reigns snapped and his chariot tipped backwards over him. My horse dragged the chariot right out from under me and I fell back onto the grass. It had started to rain lightly. I passed out from the rough ride.

I had a dream while I was asleep. I was in the middle of the mansion, the flames gone, nothing left but rubble. Dwayne was there. He kicked away a rock. He walked over to a fried TV. It was the TV the little boy was playing his game on. Dwayne smashed it. He walked over to where the porch had been. He picked up a broken picture frame with a picture of him and his dad in it. Anger spread out over his face. He shouted and chucked the picture off the side of the cliff. He looked right at me. “You are still alive! Ahhhhhh!” he shouted at me, unsheathing a knife. He ran towards me. He was about to gouge my face open, when the scene changed. I was in Mr. Freeman’s house, but it looked much different. I saw toys fit for a ten year-old. A little boy sat on the couch.

Mr. Freeman was in the kitchen, standing next to a woman dressed in a Burger King T-shirt and jeans. They were arguing about something. The little boy hopped off of the couch. He looked just like the little boy that had been playing video games. He walked up to Mr. Freeman and the woman. He was carrying a painting. It was a pretty good painting. It was a painting of a dragon. “Mommy, daddy, look at what I made at school today!” the boy said cheerfully. “Not now sweetie” the woman. She went back to arguing. Then Mr. Freeman shouted something at her. I couldn’t make it out because just then the scene shifted again.

I was back where Pepperoni had crashed. Troy was standing alongside Pepperoni, who looked very sick. “Don’t worry… I’m sure Victoria misses you too and is on her way back right now.” Troy said to Pepperoni. He sounded awkward and doubtful though. Finally, Lance arrived in the scene.

“Brandon… Brandon…Brandon!” he said, shaking me. I woke up. Lance was kneeling next to me shaking me and telling me to wake up. He finally stopped. “Good you’re awake. I can’t find Morgan or Victoria. I think we’re in some kind of cave.” I looked around. Outside one of the horses was running around in circles. My legs really hurt. I had a few bandages wrapped around them. “Did you have any strange dreams? Because I had a dream that Victoria had been dragged by her horse to the ogre’s cave. I also dreamt that Morgan was taken to the goblin’s camp again. Oh, and I dreamt that I was in the army fort, and several centaur gang members were preparing for battle.” Lance said.

“Then I think I know where Victoria and Morgan are. Troy is still with Pepperoni, but Pepperoni is sick and really misses Victoria. Dwayne returned to the mansion, and he knows we are still alive. Also, I dreamt about Mr. Freeman arguing with his ex-wife.” I said, answering Lance’s question. “So, my dreams were sort of like, visions?” Lance asked. I nodded.

“Victoria probably sent them to us to show us where she and Morgan were.” I said.

“But, how would she be able to send you visions of Mr. Freeman from back three years ago, when she didn’t even know about Mr. Freeman back then?” Lance asked.

“I don’t know, we’ll ask her when we find her.” I said.

“Shouldn’t we split up, you look for Victoria, I search for Morgan?” he said.

“We won’t need to. The goblins should be able to supply Morgan with a ride to the centaur camp. Unless they forget who she is and try to eat her…” I said.

“Alright, but first we had better get something to eat. There’s some fruit in the back of the cave I think…” he said. I followed him to the back of the cave, where there was lots of fruit and meat and other stuff. There was even a stick of cotton candy, though I’m not sure how that got there. Lance had a tear in his pack from an arrow, but the entire top half of my pack had been chewed off by a dragon, so we decided to use his pack. We stepped out of the cave. It was night, and we had to find Victoria and get to the centaur’s camp by daybreak. A large portion of the area was covered with trees. I took a bite out of an apple.

“Let’s get started.” I said.

Chapter Fifteen: Midnight
It was about an hour to midnight. We hadn’t reached the river yet, so I was beginning to worry. “Hey, what’s that up ahead?” Lance said. I looked where he was pointing. A dim light shone ahead. From the looks of it, the light seemed to be from a fire, possibly a candle or lantern. I ran towards the light. Holding the light was a red-headed centaur with a rifle strapped on his waist.

“Jeremiah!” I called. He turned and unclipped the rifle from his belt.

“Who goes there?” he said in his Australian accent.

“It’s me, Brandon, descendant of King Arthur.” I said. He put his rifle away.

“You’re lucky I asked questions before shooting.” he said. “But what are you doing back here? You should be back at home shouldn’t you? We all saw the smoke from the mansion. We thought you would return to your home immediately.” he said.

“Yeah, well we got a bit sidetracked. Listen, Dwayne is planning to attack your camp at dawn.” I told him.

“WHAT?!?!” he exclaimed. “Then I must get back to the camp.” he said.

“Oh, um, could you give us a ride there?” I asked.

“Well, I suppose. But no pit stops. We have to get there quickly.”

Jeremiah had taken us back to the camp. It was a lot different than before. All of the tents were yellow except for the chief’s tent, which was red. The borders of the camp were heavily guarded by archers and spearmen and a large wooden gate was built in-between the watch towers. Several centaurs, including Prescenan, were mining for gold in a section of cliff behind the chief’s tent. The mining centaurs had chains on their hands.

“Why are those centaurs mining?” Lance asked.

“Because they disobeyed my orders. That bunch there went hunting after curfew.” Jeremiah responded.

“What’s curfew?” I asked.

“Well, it’s a certain time that you have to-“

“No, no, I mean what time is curfew.” I interrupted.

“Oh, eleven thirty.” he said. I checked the time. It was eleven thirty now. “Alright, warrior centaurs. An army from the abandoned army fort will be arriving to destroy us. An army of More Dread Gang members.” Jeremiah said. Several centaurs gathered around to hear of this news. “Prepare for battle and be ready to defend the camp.” he said.

Francis, the construction centaur, spoke up. “But Chief Jeremiah, you had our general arrested yesterday. How are we to fight without a leader?” he said.

“We don’t need Prescenan. I will lead us to victory!” Jeremiah shouted. Several centaurs cheered. Except Francis. All of the centaur warriors galloped off to the armory to prepare for battle. Francis pranced over to me.

“Brandon, Lance, we cannot win without Prescenan. Jeremiah… has made many of the things here unfair and illegal. We must free Prescenan before midnight.” he said.

“Why midnight?” I asked.

“Because at midnight… Prescenan and several other innocent centaurs will be executed. I told you… Jeremiah isn’t right in the head.” We had maybe twenty minutes to midnight. We needed to think of a plan and carry it out before midnight. I ran over to Prescenan.

“Prescenan, at midnight, you are going to be executed. But I think I have a plan. I’m going to cut you free with Excalibur and then we make a run for it.” I said.

“No, we need a better plan. I heard Jeremiah’s speech and I will not leave my fellow centaurs to die. I must fight. So, here’s the better plan. You cut us free and then we put on helmets so no one recognizes us. Centaurs usually don’t where helmets in to battle so I’m positive this will free us and get us in to battle unidentified.” he said.

“Yep that’s a better plan. Only one flaw. The executioner comes to get you guys and he sees- oh yeah - nothing!” I said.

“Then we just knock out the executioner before he comes to get them.” Lance said.

“How come all of the sudden everyone else is thinking of better plans?” I said.

I had cut the centaurs free. The executioner had been ‘mysteriously’ knocked out on his way to the prison tent. The armory was just next door so there was no trouble getting in. Prescenan and the others slipped on their helmets and armor. The plan worked. “Prescenan, could you give Lance and me a ride to the ogre cave?” I asked.

“Sorry, but I can’t risk getting thrown back in prison again. You’ll have to go on your own.” he said. I understood. Lance and I left the camp and started off towards the ogre cave. It was very quiet and eerie in the woods at night. I was starting to doze off a bit when Lance alerted me of strange noises up ahead. I became very vigilant. Then several gang members sprouted from the forest. I drew Excalibur and took one wide swing that kept a few members away. Lance deflected several scarlet orbs. There were just too many of them. They had most likely been spying on the camp and scouting the area to report battle strategies to Dwayne. They all charged at us. I had no idea what to do. I started hacking, but these members were too quick. Suddenly, all of the gang members started freaking out. A few of them started smacking themselves. Another group started to beat their heads against trees. Victoria emerged from the bushes.

“You guys are lucky I’m good at this because otherwise you would have gone insane too.” she said.

“Finally! We came to find you…” Lance said.

“Well, give yourself a pat on the back because you did.” she replied. I filled her in on what had happened since we got separated. She filled me in on what she had gone through too. We were about halfway between the cave and the centaur’s camp. It was about a quarter to three in the morning, so we had to get back to the camp quickly in order to assist the centaurs in battle.

We started on our way back to the camp. Victoria ate a few oranges from my pack. We walked about an hour, but we finally made it back to the camp. We just had some trouble getting in…

Chapter Sixteen: Identification
“Name.” said the guard centaur.

“I’m Brandon Bennett, descendant of King Arthur. I have Excalibur.” I said, drawing my sword.

“Nice try. But I can’t let anyone in no matter how important they are. As of two seventeen A.M. this encampment has been on lockdown. No one gets in, no one gets out.” he said.

“But I need to get in to help you win the battle.” I said.

“Yeah, well how am I supposed to know you aren’t spies of the enemy?” he said.

“How do we know you’re not an enemy trying to stop us from helping the centaurs?” Victoria said.

“Go away.” said the centaur. I sighed. Then, a sly smile appeared on my face.

“Oh, okay. Well guys, looks like we have been locked out.” I said.

“Brandon?” said Lance.

“We got locked out Lance. Time to go, right?” I said.

“Oh, right. Heh heh. We failed. We’d better go home now then.” Lance said. We all turned and walked around to the side of the camp.

“Okay, here’s the plan,” I whispered. “We scale the walls over here in this shady area so we get in undetected and help fight the More Dread Gang to defend the centaurs… and our neighborhood.” I continued.

“Great plan.” Victoria said. I fished some ropes- the same ropes we had climbed the cliff with- out of my pack. I tied one end around Lance’s waist- he was the best climber, so we all decided he should go up first. I tied the middle around my waist and the other end to Victoria’s. Lance started to climb up. The two centaurs in the watch towers were facing forward towards the abandoned army fort, so they didn’t notice three twelve-year old kids climbing the walls of the camp. There were, however, two centaur bowmen at the top of the wall we were climbing, so that could make things difficult.

Lance was about six feet up the wall when I began climbing. I saw someone I knew appear at the top of the wall… she was armed with a bow.

“Lance,” I whispered.

“Yeah?” he whispered back.

“Morgan got in before they locked the gates. She is at the top.” I whispered back.

“Good,” he said, continuing to climb. Victoria climbed on. Lance had reached the top, and had begun to talk with Morgan as he pulled us up. I finally reached the top. The guard centaur walked through a postern gate. He saw Lance.

“The enemy is climbing up the northern wall!” he exclaimed. Then several centaur warriors rushed over to the top of the wall. Victoria climbed up and saw what was happening. Jeremiah galloped forward.

“What are you doing?!” he exclaimed.

“Uh, we were trying to get inside so we could help you win the battle.” I said.

“My people do not need your help. You have trespassed on our territory and you will suffer the consequences.” he said. “For trespassing, I hereby sentence you to three years in my dungeon.” he said.

“Uh, Chief Jeremiah, you know the laws. You have no authority over the descendant of Arthur.” a centaur said. It was Prescenan, still in his disguise.

“NO! I am chief now, and I say I have every right to have authority over them. THEY ARE CHILDREN!” he shouted. “NOW! I want you four to take them to the dungeon immediately or you shall join them! Continue battle preparations immediately!” he shouted. Four centaurs walked over and escorted me, Lance, and Victoria to the dungeon. Just as they were about to lock the doors, Victoria performed a spell. The four centaurs collapsed to the ground. Lance walked over and pushed the door open.

We were just about to step out of the prison tent when we were met by another group of centaurs. It was Prescenan and his buddies.

“Hey, all of the centaurs, except Jeremiah, had a secret meeting. We have all decided that he is crazy. But we can’t encounter him about the matter until after the battle. But don’t worry, because we were just coming to free you. Oh, and every time Jeremiah comes around, you’ll have to hide. Don’t worry though, no one else will turn you in.” he said. I sighed with relief. Then, I heard Jeremiah’s voice getting closer. I dashed back inside. I heard him say: “You! You right there! Set up barricades in a line just behind the gate! Do it now or you will be thrown in the dungeon and forced to mine gold for ten years! Move!” he shrieked. I heard the clambering of eight sets of hooves grow fainter as Prescenan and his friends galloped off to set up the barricades.

I heard Jeremiah trot off to go and torment another group of warriors. My friends and I ran out of the prison tent and in to the armory. We each put on our armor and ran into the sleeping quarters. Several centaurs were in there, but none of them galloped off to report to Jeremiah that we’d escaped. Prescenan was right. I lay down on a bed. It was about a quarter to five, so I had an hour to get some rest.

Chapter Seventeen: Meeting
I woke to the sound of trumpets. It was a quarter after five. I peeked outside my tent. The gates were opening, and Jeremiah was trotting down the path towards them. When the gates fully opened, I could see a single More Dread Gang member standing there. His hood was down, so I could just make out his face. It was Dwayne. He began talking with Jeremiah. After a few minutes they walked together down the path and entered the red tent. I ran out of my hiding place and ducked down just below the window of the red tent. Jeremiah stood behind a desk while Dwayne took a seat on the opposite side.

“Why are you here? Tell me the truth.” Jeremiah said.

“I told you, I’ve come to reach an agreement. I would like you to surrender your land, and everything within thirty miles of it.” Dwayne replied. “Also, I would ask you to never interfere with my gang and their plans. Trust me, we will make the world a better place, bring it to a new age where all will be right.” he continued. Yeah, right, I thought.

“I’m sorry but I will not just-“ Jeremiah said.

“I am not finished yet.” Dwayne said. Once the new age has come to be, your people will have domination over all of the eastern United States, I promise you. Not only that, but you will receive the greatest weapons, and have countless bagfuls of gold, jewels, and money.” Dwayne said.

This was an offer I knew Jeremiah would take in a heartbeat. But he wanted more. “I’m sorry, but no. I would generously accept your offer if you were to give me domination over Australia and Western Europe as well. Also, I would like a large palace built by the finest builders.” Jeremiah said. Dwayne began to breathe heavily. Jeremiah was getting quite greedy. Dwayne pulled out a piece of paper and set it on the desk.

“Sign this to accept my offer.” he said. He took out a quill and jar of ink as well.

“Or, you can go by the agreement on my terms, get what you want and walk out happy.” Jeremiah said.

“Well maybe giving you Western Europe would be a bad idea because someone else wouldn’t be happy then. And then I wouldn’t be happy, would I?” replied Dwayne. He sounded very annoyed about Jeremiah’s greed now.

“So you will give me Australia?” Jeremiah said.

“No! If I go beyond the boundaries of my terms I will be in serious trouble!” Dwayne shouted angrily.

Jeremiah sighed. “May I speak with this ‘someone’ you speak of?” Jeremiah asked.

Dwayne laughed. “Not yet.” he said smiling.

“Then no signature.” Jeremiah said. Dwayne snapped his fingers and a small flame hovered above his right index finger.

“You take the deal, or I burn the deal, and your people will be destroyed, it’s your choice, but you are the chief. Your people are on the line here Jeremiah. If-“ he stopped there. I heard his footsteps get closer to the window. I walked around to the back. Dwayne was just about to peek out the window when I went around the corner. He sighed. He went back inside.

“If you don’t sign this, it’s suicide.” Dwayne said. I thought he was starting to get Jeremiah. Jeremiah lifted the quill. He slowly dipped it into the ink.

This can’t be happening, I thought. Jeremiah touched the quill to the paper. He was slowly writing a J. Jeremiah released his breath. I hadn’t even noticed he was holding it. He snapped back to his senses and stopped writing. He dropped the quill on the floor and spilled the ink on the paper.

“No.” he said.

“What?” Dwayne said.

“No. I’m not signing this. We go by my terms or we battle until the end. My people will not go down without a fight.” Jeremiah said. Dwayne relit his finger.

“So be it.” he said. He pressed his finger to the paper and it burned into ashes.

Jeremiah clapped his hands twice. “Guards, escort Dwayne to the prison tent.” he said.

Dwayne’s eyes narrowed. Two guards walked in and grabbed his arms. They handcuffed him and pulled him out of the tent. Dwayne struggled to get away, so he was being dragged to the tent. They threw him in first before going inside. One of the centaurs flew out of the tent. Dwayne started running out, but the other centaur caught him. Dwayne turned and kicked the centaur in the shins.

Jeremiah galloped out of his tent. “The prisoner is escaping! Open fire on him!” he shouted. The centaur archers, from their perches in the tree towers, began to fire arrows down at him. Dwayne side stepped several arrows and then caught another. He used the tip to cut his hands free. He dashed towards the exit. The gates began to close slowly. An arrow impaled itself in Dwayne’s shoulder. He kept running. He leaped just before another barrage of arrows hit the ground.

He ran straight through the gates, which closed right behind him. Jeremiah galloped to the center. “Centaurs! Dwayne, the enemy leader, came on a diplomatic mission. His efforts to convince us to surrender have failed! But he will return, with a great army! We must reinforce the barricades! Archers, refill your quivers. Warriors, sharpen your swords and spears! We shall win this battle!” he exclaimed. I had to admit, his speeches were motivating. I snuck back to the sleeping quarters to get some more rest. It was five thirty. We had thirty minutes until Dwayne returned. I closed my eyes and fell back asleep.

I woke up about twenty five minutes later. I looked outside. All of the centaurs had begun to form a square formation facing towards the gate. I ran out and got in the middle to stay hidden. I met my friends there in the center.

“Hey, your helmet isn’t on right.” said Lance. He fixed it. I could already hear drums thundering in the distance. We had three minutes until sunrise. Many centaurs were armed with spears and swords. The three front lines were composed of archers. The centaurs on the outsides had long shields and spears. Those lines were made to protect all other warriors from enemy fire. The drums got really loud. They were coming from the other side. Several centaur archers on the wall readied their bows. The enemy had arrived. I heard a faint but familiar voice.

“More Dread Gang, ready your bows! Warriors, prepare your blades! Ogres- smash the gates.” Dwayne called. The gates began to shake as ogres pounded it with their hammers and maces. A large hole began to form in the center of the doors. I could see the large hammers at work from over the gate. The ogres were swinging it above their heads and then smashing down on the gates. I saw an ogre head peek through the door. I noticed centaurs on the wall were beginning to blast the ogres with arrows. It gave me an idea.

Then, in my best Australian accent I shouted, “Archers aim above the gate and open fire!” The three lines of archers did as I commanded, thinking it was Jeremiah.

“Wait no! I didn’t-“ Jeremiah tried to say. But the centaurs had already released their bowstrings. Countless arrows flew over the gate and vanished from our sight. One of the centaurs in the watch tower began to cheer. He trotted down the stairs and galloped up to Jeremiah.

“Brilliant! The arrows have impaled several members!” he said.

“Oh, yes, uh, I thought of it all myself. Brilliant, is it not?” Jeremiah said, confused. The left gate was smashed halfway, and the right had snapped off of two of its hinges. Ogres started to squeeze through the left door. Many of them were much too big, but some managed to get through. The guard line at the front easily defeated the first ogre, but a second smashed several of them with his hammer.

Jeremiah killed the second one. The next few were armed with crossbows. Compared to the centaurs, the arrows were like large spears. Several guard centaurs and a few archers were shot with the gargantuan arrows. Morgan was firing arrows at the ogres from the center. One ogre, armed with a mace, was about to slam Prescenan, but he was saved by his seven buddies. The centaurs on the wall were slowly being defeated by archers on the other side. Soon a dozen ogres had entered the camp. The bathhouse and mess hall were already smashed.

The dozen of ogres were all armed with giant swords and shields as tall as they were. They advanced slowly, but they were still very difficult to shoot because of the large shields. I could make out gang members behind them, knives ready. There were even some enemy archers that stood between the ogres, firing arrows at any chance they had. Most of the guard centaurs at the front had fallen. The archers at the front had begun to fall back.

“Brandon, your sword.” Victoria said.

I looked at it. “What about it?” I said.

“When it gets hot, it fires golden orbs, right?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I replied. I deflected an orb. The gang was getting awfully close. All of the archers had fallen back to the back of the formation.

“According to my book, golden orbs are highly explosive. They have the power of ten grenades combined!” she said.

“So?” I said.

“Do you think it could bust those shields up?” she asked.

I understood now. I pointed the handle at the wall of shields that were slowly moving towards the army, pushing it back. Victoria lit her finger, just like Dwayne had, and touched it to the blade. It glowed blue. A golden light formed on the butt of the sword. It glowed with intensity, and flew off the sword. It hit the shield in the middle, which seemed to be the thickest and broadest of them all. Okay, maybe it wasn’t and I’m just saying that to make me sound cool.

It hit the shield and a large explosion blew the shield in half and threw the ogre back. I’m not exaggerating this time. I heard screams of terror as the ogre fell on dozens of gang members behind him. I blasted another shield and another. Soon the line began to fall back as one by one ogres fell, shields demolished. Many gang members ran back behind the gate to take cover for the ogre’s fall.

I heard Dwayne shouting at them about how they are cowards and they should get back into battle. Many gang members snapped back to reality and charged back into battle. One of the ogres fell forward, nearly crushing the front lines. I looked back at Victoria. She seemed exhausted. I guess using the same spell for a long period of time can really drain you. I saw Prescenan gallop by and stabbed several members. His buddies followed not far behind as they defeated two ogres together.

“Prescenan!” I called. He trotted over.

“Yeah?” he asked, smacking a member with the shaft of his spear.

“I need you to take Victoria to the sleeping quarters. She isn’t feeling too well.” I replied. He nodded, stabbed a member then gave Victoria a ride to the sleeping quarters.

Lance ran up to a member that was behind me and stabbed him. I turned to see him crumple to the ground. “Thanks.” I said.

“No problem.” he replied. I saw Jeremiah stab an ogre. He then galloped back to the back lines. Morgan was firing arrows like crazy. Soon her quiver was empty. She tried to refill it with arrows from the ground, but almost got killed doing it. I noticed that the members were retreating. Dwayne didn’t even stop them. Then I saw the lack of ogres. They were probably going to get reinforcements.

“Rebuild these barricades. Oh, and you over there. I want you to set up some barbed wires here. And you pick up that large sword over there and put it up above the gate. Yes you! And who’s watching TV? Get back to work!” Jeremiah ordered. Prescenan and Francis were lifting an ogre’s sword to put above the gate, while his other buddies were reinforcing the barricades with the remains of the large shields. I was helping Jonah, the army’s best archer, set up barbed wire. Luckily Jeremiah had just gone inside his tent, so I didn’t have to hide. Then, the camp’s doctor, Harold, came out of his tent.

“I’m afraid we have lost forty-two good centaurs.” he said. “Thirty two were guards and ten were archers.” he said. “We also have six wounded.” he said. Jeremiah walked out of his tent to hear this. I ducked down behind a barricade to avoid being seen. Jeremiah went in to the sleeping quarters to see who had been wounded.

“WHAT IS THIS!!!!!” he shouted. I got on Prescenan’s back so Jeremiah wouldn’t see me when we went to observe what he was yelling about. When Prescenan walked in I saw Jeremiah holding Victoria’s hands behind her back. “I thought she was in the prison tent! Whoever was in charge of guarding the dungeon you can take your key and lock yourself in a cell right now because you just earned a year in there!” he yelled. I rolled my eyes. This guy was a total whacko. He handcuffed Victoria and pushed her towards Prescenan. “Take her to the prison tent and ensure no one else escapes. I do not want these prisoners to ruin our chances of defeating Dwayne.” he continued.

“Right away, sir.” Prescenan said. He escorted her out of the tent. He unlocked her handcuffs. “You’re lucky he didn’t go to throw you in himself. But he probably will next time. Be careful.” he said. She nodded. She walked into a different tent to go to sleep. Jeremiah walked out.

“You brought her there already? Wow, that was fast. I may consider not throwing you in the dungeon.” Jeremiah said.

“Uh, thanks.” said Prescenan, doubtfully. Jeremiah galloped off to enter his tent. I couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen me.

Chapter Eighteen: Unsuspected Battle
It was eight o’ clock. Thirty minutes after the battle. I would have gotten breakfast from the mess hall, but an ogre had smashed it with his hammer. So I just ate some bananas and a waffle that had somehow ended up in my pack. I think the goblins might have put it there. Lance and Morgan had joined me for breakfast. But, we had to take a break in the middle to save Jeremiah’s butt. What a jerk he is. He didn’t know it was us though, he thought it was Prescenan. You see, for breakfast, Jeremiah was going to have pancakes with strawberries, English muffins and freshly baked doughnuts. His breakfast had already been prepared for him for after the battle, so he had no trouble with a smashed kitchen. The chef centaur was bringing the breakfast to Jeremiah’s tent.

“Hey Brandon, does that centaur look familiar to you?” Lance asked.

“No.” I said.

“Because I recognize him as the centaur gang member Morgan had swiped the keys from.” he said. I immediately recognized him. He must have poisoned Jeremiah’s breakfast.

“Prescenan!” I shouted. I told him all about it. He galloped into the chief’s tent. I went and peeked through the window.

“Your breakfast, chief.” the centaur said. Jeremiah leaned over his plate, trying to decide what to eat first. Then Prescenan came in.

“Uh, chief, don’t eat that food.” he said.

“Why not?” Jeremiah said.

“Because… because it’s standard protocol that your chef tastes the food before you eat it, to see if it hasn’t been poisoned. For your own safety, of course.” Prescenan said.

Jeremiah thought about this. “Yes, well, I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt to let him taste it. I mean, it is for my own safety. Taste the food, chef.” Jeremiah said. I started laughing. The centaur spy slowly picked a doughnut off of the tray. I could see sweat beading on his forehead. He was about to take a bite, when he dropped it.

“Well, I probably shouldn’t, because I would just get my gross germs on your food and spoil it. Why don’t you just enjoy and not worry about it being poisoned? I mean, what are the odds of that happening?” he said.

“Aw, c’mon. It won’t hurt and even if-” Jeremiah said.

“No!” the spy said, drawing a knife. Then his eyes widened. He had blown his cover. He threw off the apron and ran out of the tent. Morgan, from the treetops, shot him with several arrows. Lance and I ran up behind him and began to club him on the back with our swords. It was Francis who finished him off with his spear. The spy crumpled to the ground. I walked back into the sleeping quarters to continue breakfast.

I could hear more drums rumbling, but they didn’t seem to be coming from the front gate. I climbed the stairs on to the wall. I peeked over the edge. I couldn’t see anything on the ground, but in the trees I saw many gang members armed with bows. Dwayne wasn’t there. It was at least fifty archers. I ran to get my friends. Lance, Victoria, Morgan, Prescenan, and Francis joined me back at the wall. Morgan readied her bow.

“More Dread Gang, we have been spotted. Fire your bows!” the front one said. They all sent a barrage of arrows flying at us. We all ducked. Morgan was the first to come up again, firing arrows at gang members. Soon ten then twenty gang members had fallen out of the trees. I looked down over the wall… then noticed the team of gang members climbing the wall. Prescenan, Lance and I began to smack members off of the wall, while Morgan, Victoria, and Francis were shooting the archers.

Then about five gang members made it to the top. Prescenan tried to smack the closest one back down, but the member caught his spear. “I drank the river water.” he said.

“Good for you.” I said, stabbing him. Lance took care of the rest of them. I looked how the others had done with the archers. Francis shot down the last one with his crossbow.

I heard more drums rumbling in the other direction. “We’d better get down there. I bet the reinforcements are here.” I said.

Chapter Nineteen: Breach
The drums stopped right when they reached the gate. I could see a large ogre, the biggest I had ever seen, armed with a hammer. He began smacking the gate with the hammer, while gang members ran in through the gap in the gate. The archers fired at the gang members, shooting many of them down. Dwayne was in a chariot being pulled by four black horses. The chariot couldn’t fit through the gate yet. The large ogre made short work of the left door, and soon dozens more gang members poured into the camp. But now the centaurs were on the offense.

About two hundred centaurs surged forward, trampling anything in their way. The big ogre still couldn’t fit through the doorway, so it continued to smash against the right gate. The number of centaur archers on the wall had been replenished, as well as the number of guard centaurs in the front. Gang members fell here and there. Occasionally an ogre would arrive at the gate, but the archers usually took care of them. I heard the sound of machinery tinkering on the other side. I didn’t know what the sound was until I saw a large boulder fly over the wall and smash a group of warrior centaurs. They had a catapult.

I ran up to the front lines next to Jonah. He fired a flurry of arrows at a group of ogres. The arrows he fired were tipped with flaming arrowheads, and the ogres found it very irritating. They must be afraid of fire. I was about to tell Victoria, but she had already figured it out. She threw fire ball after fire ball, blasting back the ogres. Soon I saw a line of guard gang members formed just as our guard centaurs were.

They began to enter, but came in slowly because the giant ogre was swinging his hammer like crazy. The right gate had begun to jut in towards us. A few more smacks of that hammer and the gate would be demolished. “Victoria, you need to defeat that giant ogre.” I called. She nodded and ran up the stairs. She appeared on the wall and conjured up a large flaming sphere. She hurled it at the ogre. The ogre yelled out in pain. She blasted him again. This time he dropped his hammer.

She blasted him one last time and he fell back and crushed about fifty members. But then, the catapult launched a boulder right at the gate. The impact blasted the debris forward at the centaur army. Parts of the walls had begun to crumble.

“The enemy has breached the gate! On the defensive!” Jeremiah called. The guard centaurs raised their shields again. Archers fired arrows at the oncoming enemy. At least three hundred gang members were still alive. I saw two catapults on each side of Dwayne’s chariot. At least ten ogres were at the rear of the formation. Because of the dust, many of the gang members in the front lines didn’t see the barbed wire. An ogre rushed in, and fell straight into a hole that had been dug and covered over with leaves. Jeremiah gave the order to ready the ballista. I didn’t know what he was talking about until I saw many centaurs on the wall loading a giant arrow into an ogre’s crossbow. They fired the mechanism and the arrow impaled several members. The centaurs worked on reloading the crossbow with another arrow.

“Look out!” I heard someone yell. A large stone sailed through the sky before dropping to the ground and smashing a cluster of warriors. Another arrow was fired from the giant crossbow, but it was on fire, so not only did it defeat many enemies, but it frightened the ogres away too. Dwayne’s chariot had finally entered the camp. He snapped his fingers and the chariot began to transform. A large cannon formed above Dwayne and the wheels became tank tread. The chariot was a tank. It easily rolled straight over the barbed wire and holes that had been done, and the ballista failed to spear it with any arrows. All of the centaurs began to break from the formation, running for their lives.

“Victoria, could you heat up Excalibur once more?” I asked. She didn’t look happy about it, but she agreed to do it. A golden orb exploded the hull of the tank. Dwayne snapped his fingers again and the tank became a helicopter. It flew up in the air, as Dwayne blasted orbs down on the army. I tried again. The orb missed. Again. It missed. Morgan ran by and picked up Excalibur.

“Hey, what are you doing?” I asked.

“Don’t worry.” she said. Victoria kept Excalibur hot. Morgan loaded Excalibur into her bowstring. “How do you carry this thing?” Morgan asked. She aimed up at the helicopter and fired. Excalibur was still hot as it flew up in the air. An orb flew straight up and blew Dwayne’s copter out of the sky. Dwayne was no where to be found. He must’ve died up in the explosion.

“We… we won. We won!” Jeremiah shouted. All of the centaurs cheered. The enemy retreated, except for a few that the centaurs took prisoner. I smiled. We had won. We had defeated the More Dread Gang and saved the centaurs. And our neighborhood.

Chapter Twenty: Jumping to Conclusions
My friends and I had left the camp about an hour ago. We were going home. “Wait!” Victoria said.

“What?” asked Morgan.

“I just remembered something. Remember when Dwayne just disappeared in a flash of light when we fought him at the camp he was building?” she asked.

“Yeah.” I said.

“I saw a flash of light just like that before the orb hit the helicopter. Dwayne isn’t dead. He just transported to safety!” she said. Our eyes widened. We ran as fast as we could back to the camp.

“So, you mean that Dwayne isn’t dead, and he is going to return? Again?” Prescenan said. I had just finished telling him what Victoria had figured out.

“Yes.” I said.

“Well this can’t be good.” he said.

“Duh!” Morgan said.

“We have to prepare the centaurs for battle. Dwayne will return and the centaurs will be completely unprepared.” Victoria said.

“I’ll run this by the chief.” Prescenan said. He galloped in to the chief’s tent. He came back out. “Jeremiah said to prepare the troops.” he said.

I was helping reset the barricades. None of our traps had been taken down yet, so we had no problem with them. Centaurs were gathering weapons, refilling quivers and setting giant arrows into the ballista. One of the centaurs in the watch tower shrieked: “They’re here! It’s the biggest army yet! Five hundred strong! Accelerate your battle preparations and assume the formation!” I looked through the gate. Five hundred gang members were in the distance, but they didn’t seem to move. Dwayne wasn’t with them from what I could see. There were no ogres, but there were a few catapults. But what really caught my attention was the convoy of centaurs rampaging forward, swords ready. There were at least one hundred enemy centaurs. They got closer and closer.

“Ready! Aim! Fire!” Jonah called. All of the centaur archers blasted arrows forth. The entire two front rows of enemy centaurs went down, while other centaurs tripped over their bodies. The convoy entered the camp. “Fire the ballista!” called Jonah. The crossbow shot another row of enemies. The enemy centaurs reared back and leapt over our front line of guards. They landed, trampling many archers. The enemy began hacking and swinging. Lance and I ran up to help. I leaped on one of the enemy’s backs and grabbed his arm. I disarmed him then stabbed him with his own knife. Lance and I stood back to back, defeating every enemy that dare come close.

Morgan appeared next to me, shooting down many enemies with her arrows.

“Fire!” Jonah called. The ballista fired a large arrow that speared a group of enemies. Our army was slowly falling back as the enemy centaurs surpassed our wall of shields. Jeremiah stabbed a centaur.

“Ready the sword! Push them back to the gate!” he called. The army began to push the enemy back towards the gate. They were just below the gate when Jeremiah said, “Drop the sword!” I looked up above the gate. The ogre sword that Prescenan and Francis had put up above the gate dropped. The enemy centaurs looked up, and just before they could move out of the way, the sword crushed them. The enemy centaurs had been defeated. But we didn’t let our guard down for a minute. We knew at any second, a stone could hurl at us and blow a hole in our army. The army did, however, slowly advance out the gate. We had all decided we weren’t going to fight inside the camp anymore. Two tents had been destroyed, and one of them was on fire.

The enemy didn’t move or advance for what seemed like hours. If anything, they were getting further away. It turns out, they were. They had completely vanished from our sight. None of us moved anywhere. We all stayed where we were. Everyone seemed perplexed. Why would an army five hundred strong just leave?

After two more hours of standing there, we had gone back inside the camp. The flames had already been extinguished. It was noon, so I broke for lunch. Harold walked to the center of the gate. “I’m afraid I have some troubling news.” he said. “We lost thirty more men, leaving us with one hundred thirty eight warriors.” he said. “Here are the names of those who have died.” he continued. He cleared his throat.

“Those who have died: Drake Harrison John Alistair Beck Johansen Joshua Loraine Stanley Owens Marcus Nichols Thomas Lee Jackson Harvey Arnold Germane Nathan Smith Eric King Zachary Lyte Brian Lopez Henry McArthur Francis Young…”

My head snapped up when I heard the name Francis Young. Prescenan had tears in his eyes. Francis had died.

“… Samuel Hart Daniel Grieves Ronald Grayson Herman Goldberg Oscar Ward Franklin Carson Travis Jackson.” Harold said, finishing. He sighed. He walked back into his tent. All was quiet. My friends and I ran in after him.

“What caused the death of Francis Young?!” we all shouted together.

“He was stabbed by an enemy centaur.” he said. “Most of them were stabbed to death. Beck Johansen and Eric King however, were trampled by the enemy.” he said, as if we wanted to know. We sauntered out of the tent, saddened by Francis’s death. I went into the sleeping quarters and went to sleep, tears in my eyes.

Boom! Boom! More drums. They rumbled on in the distance. I rose from my bed. I went outside. It had started to rain. I walked over to Lance. “Hey Lance, what’s gone on since I was asleep?” I asked.

“Nothing much. Those drums have been going on for hours now though.” he said. I checked the time. It was three o’ clock. Then, Prescenan galloped out of the chief’s tent.

“The chief is gone!” he exclaimed. “He must have been captured during his rest.” he said. “Yeah, but didn’t everyone here agree he was kind of delusional? Now there can be a new chief that can make things right.” Morgan said.

“No, Morgan. My father made a law. You cannot have a new chief until the present one is proven dead.” he said.

I sighed. “So, we have to go and save him again? I mean, look at what he has done already. He threw me and my friends in jail, yells and threatens everyone, almost surrendered the camp for domination over the East Coast, which we all know Dwayne would have betrayed him and broke the deal with, and he threw his own brother in jail. What good has he done?!” I said.

“He is still the chief and we must obey my father’s laws.” Prescenan said.

“You mean the ones Jeremiah hasn’t done away with yet?” Lance said.

“Yeah.” said Prescenan. “We must organize a search party. Also, set up some archers along the trails so they can ambush any enemy that tries to enter the camp while we are gone.” he said. He started to sound like a leader now. And he said he couldn’t pull off such an important responsibility.

“For the search party, joining me will be: Alex Jenkins Justin Johansen Fred Nichols Henry Reynolds Hunter Burns Jacob Waters Ian Matthews Scott Brown William Harvey Trent Kerrigan Darrel Germane Jonah McArthur Lance Harris Victoria Charming Morgan Rockett Brandon Bennett.” he said. The search party had been prepared. We all had weapons ready. We were going to sneak into the enemy camp, find Jeremiah, rescue him (if he wasn’t already dead), exit the camp undetected and set up a bomb on the outside. Then we would make a quick getaway before the bomb exploded, destroying Dwayne’s army. As we went along the path we set up areas where the archers would hide so they could ambush any enemy forces. We finally marked out all of the spots when we finally focused on our actual goal. We had to figure out a way to get inside. We thought about hiding in the carts, but last time that didn’t go so well.

“Hey guys, I have an idea.” Morgan piped up.

“No!” we all shouted.

“Hey, guys, maybe this isn’t such a bad idea. Let’s see where this goes.” Jonah said.

“Thank you Jonah.” Morgan said. “Okay, so we knock out some gang members take their hoodies put them on and just walk in like we’re new troops.” she said. Then, everyone started talking at once, saying how it was a good idea.

Then, we all stood to the sides of the postern gate that my friends and I had entered through before. “And, Yeah, so um, then the bird turned into some lion thing. What do you call it? A griffin, right, right. And one of the kids got on the griffin and like started goin’ wild with it and stuff. So then, we all ran and-” said a gang member, walking out of the gate.

“Dude, I’ve been through way worse.” said the other one. They both looked up.

“Huh?” they both said, as we bashed them over the heads with a metal pole. I took one hoodie and Lance took the other. Fifteen more hoodies to go. Luckily, a group of sixteen members walked out the door after a drill instruction.

“Man our instructor is the strictest-“ PONG! He got hit with a pole. The other members drew their knives, but we took care of them with six metal poles, a branch and a guitar. Ian was the most musical of the group, so he thought he could cheer us up a bit if he brought his guitar along. Seeing a member smashed over the head with a guitar definitely raised our spirits.

We had all slipped on our disguises. Ian was going on about how much money he had paid for it and such. We made it through, and immediately ran into Dwayne. He looked up from his clipboard.

“Oh. You must be the new recruits- uh, I thought I had ordered more, however. Then again, I ordered them from Colorado. So, how was the road from Colorado to here in Pennsylvania?” Dwayne asked. Hunter spoke up.

“Oh, the road was treacherous. There were more of us, but they fell on our journey here.” he said. Dwayne nodded.

“Oh you four show the new recruits to their stables.” he said, gesturing to us. We led the centaurs to the stables.

“Okay, so we need to get to the prison. It’s across on the other side. But they might lock Jeremiah in the special cell at the top of that tower.” Prescenan said, pointing at a tower. It was heavily guarded around that area, so we were guessing that was where they had locked him. We walked up to the bottom of the tower.

“Hey, you can’t go up there.” said a member.

“Oh, we are the new recruits. You seem to know this place pretty well. Could you give us a tour? Starting with the prison. That’s the area you seem to know best.” said Ian.

“Oh, well… I suppose.” the gang member said. He opened the door and we all went inside. Once he closed the door we knocked him out, took his keys, and threw him in a cell.

“Alright now all we have to do is get Jeremiah, dress him in a disguise and walk out.” I said. We threw open the door and went up the stairs. Upstairs there was a single cell in the center. It was quite small. There inside, was a centaur. It was Jeremiah. He was asleep.

“Okay, the rest of you go back downstairs and watch the door.” Prescenan ordered the other centaurs. They opened the door and went downstairs. Lance took out the keys that we had swiped from the guard and unlocked the doors. We walked in.

“Jeremiah, wake up!” Morgan said, slapping him. I started laughing. She shook him. “Hey, I think he’s out cold.” Morgan said.

“That’s okay we just have to get him out.” Prescenan said. Then we heard the sound of the cage door closing behind us. We all turned. There was Dwayne, with several guards behind him. The guards had Jeremiah by the arms. But if Jeremiah was out there then who was in the cage? Dwayne performed a spell and the fake Jeremiah in the cage vanished, along with the keys that Lance was holding. Dwayne locked the door behind us.

“I’m not that stupid you know. I knew it was you the moment I saw you. Then, I realized this was the perfect trap. You will be stuck here, while my army obliterates your camp, then moves on to destroy the rock you call Camelot. Then, all of Excalibur’s power will be cut off and nothing will stand in my way of bringing the world to a new age.” he said. “Oh, and just so you can’t heat up your sword and do that little trick of yours.” he said, producing a green orb. He blasted Victoria and Morgan and they immediately fell asleep. “Oh, and I gave you a room with a view of your camp, so you can watch it crumble.” he said, walking out. I looked out the window. I watched as a large army marched towards the camp.

Chapter Twenty One: Rush
We had finally woken Morgan up. After Dwayne had walked out two more guards had come in and used their magic to chain us to the bars. We were too far from each other in the cage to make contact. “What… happened?” Morgan said, half awake.

“Dwayne put you to sleep using his magic and now there is a huge army traveling to the camp to destroy it.” Lance said.

“But don’t worry, because I have a plan.” I said. “Okay, so the guards didn’t chain you to the wall because you were asleep. So, you fire one of your arrows at that key on the wall. The key slides down your arrow and lands just close enough for you to grab it and unlock us.” I said. Morgan nodded. She picked up her bow and fired it at the key. The key jumped a little bit from the impact, but it was just enough for the key to hop off the hook, slide down the arrow and drop just in Morgan’s reach. She unlocked the cuffs and then the cage. We ran downstairs. There were sixteen guards, one for each centaur. The centaurs were in the cells. Only Ian and Jonah saw us. I gave them a signal that was supposed to mean ‘Do you have your weapons?’. They answered by smacking two guards on the heads. Another one turned.

“Hey! Don’t make me shoot you with a purple orb again!” he said. Then, Morgan shot him with an arrow. The other members saw us and ran to fight us. It wasn’t much of a fight. Ian and Jonah simply held their poles out and the first three members ran straight into them. I deflected a purple orb back at a guy. Then he stood straight up and started smacking himself. I guess that was the purple orb working there. Then two members tripped over a knocked out member. The other seven were defeated by Prescenan. We unlocked the cell doors and the centaurs galloped out. Even Jeremiah was there. He didn’t seem to care about me, Lance, and Victoria being here as long as we got him out of there.

“Thank goodness you’re here! I don’t know how much I could’ve taken with that song! Apparently Ian brought his harmonica too and while we were in there he kept playing 100 Bags of Feed on the Wall.” Jonah said.

“Well he wouldn’t let me play The Wheels on the Catapult and those are the only two songs I know on the harmonica.” Ian said. I rolled my eyes.

Then we left the fort and dashed down the road towards the camp. Dwayne and his army were almost there and we had no way of getting there before them even if we rode on the centaurs going at full gallop. “We’ll never make it in time.” Lance said.

“Yes we will. I have a transporting spell.” Victoria said.

“Then how come you don’t just teleport us anywhere at anytime?” Morgan asked.

“Because I just learned it and inexperienced wizards can’t perform any spell any time. Only the simple spells can.” she replied.

“Well, what are you waiting for, we need to get there now.” said Jeremiah. She performed the spell and I saw the others bodies slowly begin to fade and soon, completely vanish.

We had appeared back at the camp. Centaurs were frantically running about, gathering any weapon they could. The army grew closer and closer to the camp. I was setting up barricades when the first arrow hit the ground. “Fire!” I heard a voice cry. Then several arrows pierced the ground. The enemy had arrived. Centaurs quickly got into the formation. They raised their bows and fired. Gang members fell, arrows piercing them. The enemy army advanced up to the gate. Members ran in, some attacking our army, and others falling to the traps we had set. Barbed wire, hidden holes, nets, and fire traps littered the area in front of the gate, making it difficult for most members to enter. Dwayne, in a new chariot, easily rolled over every trap. Even the fire, which seemed strange because his chariot was wooden. Maybe he had put some kind of spell on it. He leaped off of his chariot once he was sure he had surpassed every trap. He calmly walked towards us, countering every attack.

“Fire the ballista!” Jeremiah ordered. A large arrow flew into Dwayne. He stayed down on the ground for a while. The whole battle stopped and stared at Dwayne, lying on the ground. It was sort of like the day we had gotten suspended, when the whole lunchroom fell silent and stared at Dwayne, seeing if he would pound on Morgan. Dwayne rose from the ground, the large arrow impaled in Dwayne’s shield. The tip of it had gone through and stuck itself in Dwayne’s hip. He pulled the arrow out of the shield. He had an angry look on his face. He flicked his wrist at the ballista and it burst into flames. He charged at our army. Anyone who got too close to him he obliterated, even his own allies. He was racing towards me. He leaped up and landed on the guard centaurs shields. Then he kicked off, knocking several of them down. Then he transformed his sword into a wand and flicked it at all of the centaurs that were surrounding him. They all started to fall, grabbing their heads as if something had crawled inside them. I really didn’t want to know what the spell had done, so I dropped the thought. Dwayne transformed the wand back into his sword and stabbed another centaur. He blasted another group with green orbs, another with red ones. He knew all the right moves. Just like me. I started racing towards him. I finally met with him in a small space in the army.

“Make room!” he said, creating a fiery ring around us. He readied his sword. Right then, I wished there was something that could really help me right now. I thought back to all of the things that had happened since I found the sword. I had met a griffin, centaurs, ogres, goblins, river monsters- wait- what had Victoria said about goblins? ‘They are very agile, can poison you with their bite, they are fire proof’… fire proof! I tried to possibly telepathically communicate with the goblins. If I was a king in their eyes I could probably summon them. But I was beginning to get off focus, because right then Dwayne almost stabbed me. I sidestepped quickly and swung with a return strike. He rolled and almost stabbed my leg. I stabbed downward, but he quickly tripped me, so I just ended up on my back. Dwayne rose and blasted me with an orange orb. I was stuck to the ground. He positioned the sword in his hand, and stabbed downward. He was knocked aside by a large feathery mass before his sword could hit me though. I looked over at what had just saved me. There, on top of Dwayne was Pepperoni. On top of him, was Troy. Dwayne struggled to get up.

“Get off of me you stupid griffin!” Dwayne shouted.

“How dare you call him stupid!” Victoria shouted. She broke through the flames and shot Dwayne with a black orb. There was a large explosion. Dwayne lay there, in the middle of a black crater. The whole battle fell silent for a while. The enemy finally came back to their senses after a few minutes and began battling once again. They were much more aggressive now. They began tossing torches onto tents, swinging their knives in wide arcs. Pepperoni launched himself into the air, dropping boulders on the enemy, occasionally diving down to snatch up some of them. Victoria fired black orbs, creating large gaps in the enemy lines. Another tent burned down. Jeremiah was no where to be found. Lance and I vanquished enemies every second, never stopping to rest. Morgan and Jonah were blasting multiple enemies with arrows, while Ian was leading a group of centaurs that were trampling the enemy.

Prescenan was letting no enemy pass where he was standing. I knew why. He was fighting right where Francis had fallen. Dwayne was still passed out in the crater. Those black orbs were very destructive. However, they drained Victoria too quickly so she decided to throw blue orbs from now on.

Some centaurs ran about trying to extinguish the flaming tents. I finally calmed them down and they returned to battle. “Darrel! Scott! Jacob! Lead an attack around the side through the postern gate!” I shouted. The three centaurs and several others galloped through the postern gate and attacked from the enemy’s right side. They weren’t expecting it and it thinned out their lines to the rear. The members of the gang became angrier than ever. A group of them began to perform a spell together. A large shape appeared in the sky. They were trying to summon another dragon. One dragon was enough. “Morgan! Jonah! You need to shoot down the ones that are performing that spell!” I shouted.

They fired arrows at the members that were performing the spell, but they were too far from them. The blob in the air started to look more and more like a dragon. The dragon was much bigger than the one I had defeated before. It hadn’t fully formed yet though. I thought we would just be defeated by them and lose. But then something else came to our rescue. It was so relieving when help finally arrived to help us fight the More Dread Gang.

Chapter Twenty Two: Aid
The goblins fiercely vanquished the spell performers, and the dragon shape vanished. The goblin king approached me and said something in goblinish or whatever language they were speaking. All of the goblins cheered then charged once again into battle. The goblins were overwhelming the enemy. About a quarter of the army retreated and another quarter had already been defeated. I couldn’t believe I had actually summoned them. I found out later that Morgan had told them to come here when she had been dragged there by her horse.

The centaurs were a bit uncomfortable around the goblins but continued to fight. By now all of the tents had been burned down except for the chief’s tent. Jeremiah was still no where to be found. I ran to Prescenan.

“Prescenan, I can’t find Jeremiah. Help me look for him.” I said.

“Alright.” he said. I climbed on his back and we traveled to the chief’s tent. Inside, was Jeremiah. And he was shaking hands with Dwayne. I hadn’t even noticed Dwayne got out of the crater.

“I’m glad we could reach an agreement.” Dwayne said. He picked up a piece of paper off of the desk and put it in his pocket.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s a contract. I just signed it and this land has been surrendered to Dwayne and his army.” Jeremiah said. I was immediately filled with anger.

“YOU IDIOT! You just surrendered the land to him!? He isn’t even going to give you domination over the east coast. He’s just going to betray you!” I yelled. Jeremiah rolled his eyes and sighed.

“Whatever, kid. You don’t know anything.” he said. I drew Excalibur.

“Rip up that contract immediately!” I demanded. Jeremiah clapped his hands.

“Guards arrest him and throw him in the dungeon for seven years.” he said.

“What? You don’t have that kind of power over me. In fact, now that you surrendered this land to Dwayne you don’t have any authority!” I said.

“Yes, I do.” he said, slipping on a red hoodie.

“You- you’ve been working with them this whole time?” Prescenan said.

“No, I just joined them like two minutes ago.” Jeremiah said. “And I’m the director of centaur members and the guards are members, so guards, arrest him.” he said. The two centaurs grabbed my arms. I kicked one in the shins and elbowed the other in the stomach. Two more galloped in and knocked me to the ground. They laid me on my belly and handcuffed me.

“Hey!” Prescenan yelled. He smacked the guards with his spear. Then I heard Jeremiah cock his gun. He aimed at my throat.

“Make one more move Prescenan and I’ll pull the trigger.” Jeremiah said. Prescenan stopped. Jeremiah lifted me off the floor by my shirt collar. I kicked him in the shins and he dropped me. He aimed his gun at me. Dwayne walked out of the tent. I got up. Jeremiah was hesitating. I could see it on his face.

“Any last words, runt?” Jeremiah said.

“Just two.” I said. “Good night.” I said. Jeremiah crumpled to the ground. Behind him, was Lance. I slipped my wrists through the handcuffs. The guards hadn’t put them on tight enough. I ran outside. The battle was over. Only one member stood now. Dwayne.

“One on one, Bennett?” he said. I drew my sword. He drew his. His sword was strange. The handle was silver and had two curved knife-looking things at the tip that made it look like a trident. I walked up to him. I swung my sword. He stepped back and parried. I swung lower near his legs. Instead of parrying he stabbed forth above my blade. I knew he would do that. When I was younger Lance and I would play with plastic light saber toys and it always happened that same way. I sidestepped and then performed an upward swing that knocked his sword out of his hand. He blasted a red orb at me which I easily deflected. He blasted a green orb that I simply sidestepped. He flexed his arms downward and his knives slipped into his hands. He quickly slashed at me. I parried each one of them. Battling him became- easy.

He blasted a group of white orbs at me. What they do I don’t know because I dodged them. I dashed in and made a quick swing at his right arm. I had made a deep and wide cut in his arm. He cried out in pain. Victoria walked up to him and created a silver orb on the palm of her hand. She blasted Dwayne with it and he crumpled to the ground. He got back up just as fast though. He looked really angry. He flicked his wrists but nothing happened. “No. No. NOOOOOOOOO!!!” he shouted. He started to run, but was stopped by Prescenan and his buddies. He backed up. Then Jeremiah ran in and ruined the whole thing. He picked Dwayne up set him on his back and galloped out of the camp.

“Organize a party to follow them.” Prescenan said to Ian. Ian galloped off.

“What kind of orb was that?” I asked Victoria.

“Power draining orb. He doesn’t have any magic abilities anymore. He can learn it again, but it will take a long time. I don’t think we’ll be hearing from him for awhile though.” she said. “Good.” I said. I walked into the chief’s tent with my friends to sleep. Hey, all of the other tents had burned down, so where was I supposed to sleep?

We were finally back at home. Prescenan had arranged a wagon home for us and we actually made it with no problems. Of course, for being gone so long our parents grounded us all for two weeks. We still talked to each other at lunch and in class at school, but we couldn’t talk over the phone, hang out with each other, watch TV or have computer access. That was okay with me, because if I hadn’t gone on that journey I probably wouldn’t have these things anyway.

As it turned out, Victoria’s parents did go on vacation, but was ruined when they saw a news story about four missing kids. Anyway, we finally finished our two weeks and life went on normally…for awhile. One night, Halloween in particular, I saw a little boy running through the streets. I went outside to find out who it was. I finally caught up to him.

“Hey, what’s your name?” I asked. He turned around and came closer. I finally recognized him as the kid that had been playing video games at the mansion.

“Kevin. You’re the kid I met at the mansion. You’re Arthur’s descendant. I- I finally know who I am now. I’m Galahad’s descendant.” he said. I don’t know how he figured it out, but I believed him. I asked Morgan the next day if she would take him in. She said yes so many times, the word yes sounds weird now. The reason she was so happy was because if she had a brother she’d feel more comfortable in her family. Troy started going to an actual school. He had a lot of fun there and was starting to feel at home. Funny thing, my parents never asked Troy about his parents. It must be because they liked him so much. Good thing, cause he wasn’t going to be leaving.

Victoria, for some reason after school, would go around the neighborhood everyday and hang out with kids. Pepperoni became healthy again, and continued living in Victoria’s backyard. Lance continued to monitor the activity happening at the centaur camp, calling Prescenan on his cell phone. The centaurs found the contract that Jeremiah had signed, and burned it. The land was theirs again. Prescenan had said that he was ready to become chief, and now that Jeremiah was a member of the More Dread Gang he did. He rebuilt the tents and restored his father’s laws to order. The tents are colorful again.

I got a call from Lance later. He said the centaurs had found Jeremiah, or at least located him. He said they located him in Washington D.C. Dwayne didn’t show up around school anymore. Mr. Freeman congratulated us on a ‘job well done’. On winter break, my dad brought me with him on a business trip to New York City. And there I saw Dwayne. He was in an alleyway when I saw him. He didn’t see me. He was reading a book and every once in a while he would look up and make some sort of strange hand gesture. The last time he did it, a small flame danced above the tip of his finger.

Later, in the springtime, Victoria announced to us that we were going to Washington D.C. to track down Jeremiah by having her parents take us on a trip there. Our next goal was clear. Find Jeremiah. Looked like we were going to D.C.