Arnie stared at the pens at the gate and then he looked down at Flimgog. He saw that his pencil friend was also staring at the pens, his mouth open in shock.

The pen soldiers were staring at them with determination and resilience on their little faces. Arnie was surprised because he had thought that, as he was there, they would simply give up the village without a fight.

As the initial shock began to wear off Arnie began to think the situation through. The pens weren't doing anything and weren't making any moves but it was apparent that they also weren't going to move from their position. He suspected they had been training and preparing for this eventuality. Perhaps they had a spy or scout who had noticed him? He knew the pencils sent out scouts to spy and gather intelligence.

He kneeled down and put his mouth next to Flimgog and whispered. It was quite a strain trying to talk secretly to a small being such as Flimgog. "What should we do?" Arnie asked him, already expecting the answer he got.

"We must fight them and take the village back." Flimgog's voice sounded interesting in its whispered form. It somehow managed to maintain a kind of high-pitched squeak about it while still being a whisper.

"I suppose you are right" Arnie said, already having resigned himself to this. He stood up again and looked at his group of soldiers.

"Follow me" He said to them and they retreated from the village until they were out of ear-shot of the pens. He realised that he himself would still stand out but he wanted his soldiers to be out of the pens sight.

Once they had gotten far enough away, about 10 minutes march, he stopped his soldiers and knelt down to address them. They faced him and he saw a steely, grim determinism in their eyes. The sense of fun and child-like attitude of the previous night was erased for now. "It seems we must fight." he said it with a kind of sad note in his voice. Despite all the training, he still didn't like the idea of actual violence and the imminence of a real battle felt worse than he thought it would.

He continued talking, "Training only prepares you so much. As we know we need to take the village back. We have trained hard and we know what to do. We want to capture as many as we can of their soldiers and try and keep casualties to a minimum." He paused, looking at them all. They stared back at him and he thought they looked ready. "Are you ready?"

"Yes, Sir!" they said it quietly but it was a firm and definite statement.

"Good. Flimgog, you lead them, I'll capture as many as I can. Let's do it fast and let's do it well!" He turned and walked back towards the village. He heard them fall into step behind him as their feet gently tapped against the path.

As they walked, Arnie pulled out his sack and got it ready. He knew his training and knew how to avoid being trapped. He knew how to capture and to disable without harming the pens. He knew it and yet he felt nervous. As they got closer the fluttering of butterflies in his stomach worsened.

The pen soldiers were standing exactly as they were when he left. They looked as solid as ever, unyielding. Arnie took a deep breath and looked behind him at his soldiers. When they were only feet away from the gate he stopped. He took another deep breath and incredibly he felt the tension disappear and his stomach settle. He looked at the pens, they looked at him. He felt the strength radiating from his soldiers and he felt strong. This war had to end, he knew that.

"Pencils! Forward!" he shouted.

He felt them surge forward around him as they charged at the line of pens. Each pencil jumped straight at a pen, most of them falling to the ground and struggling against each other.

The pens had been ready for battle and were obviously well trained, they fought well. Arnie paused for only a moment before swooping down and grabbing hold of a pen. He attempted to be as gentle as possible while not losing control. The pen struggled, kicking, flailing and stabbing at him with its ball point tip. Arnie yelped in pain but managed to hold on. He stuffed it, still kicking, into the sack. The pen continued to wriggle but Arnie knew it wouldn't get out.

The pencils and pens fought ferociously, their high-pitched shouts and grunts ringing out. Arnie managed to get several more pens into the sack.

He noticed his pencils were struggling to keep ahead. They were outnumbered by about two to one and the pens had a definite advantage. Arnie tried to grab faster and bagged a few more.

Some pens broke throughhe ranks of pencils and reached his legs. They used very similar positions to those he had seen the pencils use. Their fighting techniques were also similar to those the pencils had covered in his training. A pen fell back and another used him as a sort of spear. They were jabbing at his legs. Arnie stepped back in pain as they continued to jab at him. He looked up and saw Flimgog floored by two pens up ahead. Arnie roared in frustration and grabbed at the pens attacking him. Two of them were knocked off their feet as he grabbed the other two. He stuffed them straight into the sack. He stepped forward and scooped up the two pens that were attacking Flimgog and got them into the sack too. "Are you ok?" he asked, apprehension in his voice. Flimgog stirred on the ground and pulled himself up.

"It'll take more than that to hurt me!" he called, sounding quite joyous and excited, before charging in to help some of his other soldiers.

Arnie turned and grabbed a nearby pen just as it was about to jump on one of the pencil soldiers and he stuffed it in the now bulging sack.

The battle went on only a short while longer. He scooped up most of the remaining pens until, quite suddenly as though a switch had been pressed, the last few sat down and waited to be collected, the fight completely gone from them. Arnie carefully secured the top of the sack.

His soldiers formed ranks in front of him. He looked around. There were a few pencils lying injured, but none looked serious. They looked tired, but pleased. Their small army of 20 pencils had defeated the 40 guards of the village.

"Well done! We have our first victory!" He heard the elation in his own voice as he said it.

The soldiers cheered and then began to sing.

"We won, We won and it was mighty fun.

"We won, we won, beneath the sky and sun.

"The pencils write and rule their land.

"With Arnie's strong and helpful hand.

"We won!

"We won!"

Arnie couldn't help but grin at them as they finished. "Let's go in and secure the village."

At the gate, before they entered, one of his soldiers grabbed another and they scribbled out the word "Quilsburgh" on the gate and wrote in its place, 'Shadingston.'

And with that done they entered through the gate into the newly recovered village.

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