Arnie woke up the next morning (although it looked no different from the "night") . He felt fresh, though he didn't think he had slept for very long. The warmth and happiness he had felt the night before lingered, but he now had a anxiety beginning to build up. Today they were leaving for battle. He lay still for a little while, thinking it over and wondering what was going to happen.

He got up and prepared himself to leave, he stowed his supplies in a backpack they had provided for him (full sized for a human) and made sure he had his sack that would be used to capture the pens.

He thought again about what he would do about the girl. What would she be like? Could she fight? Would he be able to fight? These questions and more were swirling around in his mind. He had always avoided physical confrontation in his life.

Once he was set to go, he left his house and wandered to the area he was supposed to meet his soldiers. They were already there and waiting. Flimgog came over to meet him as he approached. "Are you ready Arnold?" he asked.

"As I'll ever be." was his reply. "Are you packed and ready to go?"

Flimgog bowed slightly in assent. "Yes, we are fully prepared."

"Ok. Let's go over the plan again." Arnie kept his voice steady and confident sounding despite his mounting feelings of tension and worry.

Flimgog pulled out a map, it was beautifully sketched on parchment style paper. Marked on the map was the village of shadingston. Next to it was written in smaller letters "Quilsburgh". He knew this was the name the pens were using for it since they had captured it.

"We approach the village walls. First we will attempt to bargain. Give them an opportunity to surrender. If they do then we will take the village. We will hold their soldiers prisoner and release our own prisoners if they have any." Flimgog was reciting what they had agreed earlier.

"If they do not surrender, or if indeed they attack, then we go into formation and capture and disable as many of their soldiers as possible and take the village by force. We do not expect to find the weapon there, so it should be a straightforward takeover."

Arnie thought it over in his mind, searching for flaws, before responding. "Sounds good." he said. "I think that about covers it."

Flimgog spoke again, "It is about half a days march from here, so we had best move off."

Arnie was ready and he watched as his soldiers formed a few straight lines, with flimgog at the front, together they headed towards the village gate. Arnie was surprised at how fast they could actually move. They had no problem keeping up with him.

When they exited the gate, they began down the same path into the trees that he had arrived by. They all walked along in silence for a while. As they went through the trees Arnie looked around as he hadn't before. He was stunned by what he saw. Despite having seen so much that was unusal in this land he was still surprised. He saw one of those green, flexible ruler snakes winding up a tree, he saw needle beaked birds made of rolls of thread. And once when he looked at the ground he jumped back in surprise as what looked like a giant spider scuttled across his feet. In fact, though he only saw it quickly, he thought it was a hairbrush with white, frightening eyes. It disappeared as fast as it had appeared.

After walking for some time, Flimgog stopped up ahead and, looking at Arnie, pointed at a narrow, golden path that disappeared into the trees on the left. Flimgog spoke in a whisper, "This is the way" and they all turned and continued their silent march onwards.

After what seemed like hours of marching Arnie felt like asking Flimgog when they would arrive. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again as Flimgog, in the lead, halted and held up his long, thin arm. Arnie stopped too and looked ahead to see if he could tell why they had stopped.

He saw it through the clearing up ahead. There stood a village. It was very similar to the pencil villnage. A similar wall ran right the way aroud it as far as he could see. There stood a gate up ahead and it looked as though it was guarded.

His soldiers and Flimgog looked at him expectantly. "What should we do?" Flimgog asked, in an almost completely unhearable whisper.

"We stick to the plan." Arnie said, sounding more confident than he felt.

"Are you all ready to attack if needed?" he asked his soldiers. They all whispered their assent.

"Good. Let's go"

Arnie stepped to the front of the group and Flimgog was at his side while all the other soldiers fell in behind them. Their unit consisted of about 20 pencils.

They had made it only a few steps up the clearing when an echoing noise blasted out from the village ahead. It sounded like a trumpet, but like it was a voice making it rather than an instrument. The noise repeated itself three more times. Was it some kind of alarm? Arnie wondered.

As they looked ahead a large collection of pens appeared at the village gate. Arnie could see them preparing as they drew nearer and nearer to the gate. They were remarkably similar to the pencils, instead of an eraser for hair, they all had kind of flat-caps. He noticed that some were blue and some were red or black. They had the same gangling arms and legs as the pencil people. Blue seemed to be predominant colour at the gate.

Arnie recognised their defensive fighting position. One pen holding another out, the ballpoint sticking out as a weapon. There was at least 40 of them standing guard.

Arnie and Flimgog stopped about 4 feet from the wall with Arnie towering over it and all the pens like a living skyscraper. The pens looked straight at them, but made no move. Arnie thought he saw fear in their tiny eyes, but he wasn't sure. It could have been rage or determinism.

"We would like to offer you an opportunity to surrender. Turn the village back to us, and release our prisoners being held here. The offer is valid for a short while only."

Arnie looked expectantly at the waiting soldier pens and held his breath.

One of the pens, the one he imagined could be the leader, stepped forward. He was not holding up another pen as a weapon.

"Do you surrender and accept our offer?" Flimgog asked.

"The pen stared at him hard for several moments.

"Of course not." his voice was so matter-of-fact, Arnie couldn't believe it.

"We will fight you to the end." the pen continued, "But you may leave now if you wish to avoid defeat."

Without another word he turned and walked back to the ranks of pens. Arnie just stared.

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