The gate to the village opened easily, swinging silently. Arnie clutched the sack closed and held it secure as they entered. Flimgog and his soldiers led the way in.

The whole place looked similar to the pencil village. There were some slight differences in colour and other small details. They walked along a blue, winding path that went through the village past the various small houses. Up ahead was a bright, sun-orange building. It was much larger than the rest and Arnie assumed that this was, as it was very similar to what they had in the pencil village, the house of the village leader.

His soldiers checked houses as they passed but the place seemed to be empty of anyone. They meticulously checked in each and every building as they wound through the village. Arnie looked around as he walked but there was no one around.

"Do you think everyone left before we came?" he asked Flimgog, perplexed.

"I am not sure. Perhaps that could be if they were expecting us. Or perhaps they evacuated while the fight went on."

"Is there any other way out of the village?"

Flimgog ordered a small team to check the perimeter for another exit before answering. "Often our villages have exits for emergency escape. I have never personally been here, but I suspect it will. Perhaps they evacuated when that alarm sounded earlier."

Sure enough, it was only a few minutes later when his soldier scouts reappeared and confirmed that there was an exit, and that it was wide open. There were small footprints that also looked fresh.

"It seems we missed them then. You're probably right about the alarm." Arnie said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Let's finish checking all the houses."

The search of the village went on for quite some time but there was no one in the houses. The whole village was empty. "Let's check the main house now." Arnie ordered.

His soldiers gathered with Flimgog in the lead and they marched up the path towards the house. Arnie was amazed at the similarity between this building and the one of the pencil leader. But then he remembered that this was originally a pencil village that had been taken by the pens. Flimgog spoke, as though he knew what Arnie was thinking, "Each pencil settlement or village has a building for the leader. In this way he can travel between villages as he pleases. They are all built very similiarly."

They entered through the door, Arnie ducking slightly, and entered a wide, high ceilinged hallway. Arnie looked up and saw the same kind of ceiling as they had back at the leader's other house. It made him dizzy so he looked away. Up ahead was the doorway to what he assumed would be the main chamber.

He walked forward towards the door and his soldiers followed along. They paused outside for a moment while Arnie held his ear to the door and listened carefully. There was a rustling noise inside, but it was very faint. He listened more closely, but couldn't hear anything else.

"I think it's clear." he whispered to his soldiers. "Seems to be a slight noise, but it is probably just a breeze or something. Be ready."

He held the door handle firmly. He felt his soldiers tense and prepare themselves. He took a deep breath and then turned the handle. The door swung open easily and Arnie almost fell over the threshold into the room. He looked around as he entered and was shocked by a sudden movement at his side. He started to react, ready to attack or defend and then noticed that it was a table running across the room away from him. He almost laughed out loud as the tension slipped away.

There were several tables standing around, most of them were completely still, looking at the new arrivals.

Arnie looked around. He heard Flimgog mutter something and a few of the soldiers began searching the room. The place looked very well used and recently occupied, but was now totally deserted. There were even some half eaten trays of food. The same odd shaped and odd coloured dishes he had been living off since being here.

The soldiers returned from searching through the room. They had found no sign of anyone and no sign of any traps.

"What should we do now?" he asked Flimgog, hoping he would know what was best.

Flimgog was silent for a moment, observing the room.

"We should probably search the whole building. Who knows if there may be others hiding." he sounded as though he didn't believe there were others but didn't want to take the chance.

"Ok." Arnie said simply. He had only ever seen the entrance hallway and main chamber back in the other village and had no idea what else would be here.

Flimgog split the soldiers up into several teams. He told them to report to him immediately if anything unusual was found and if not to report back to this spot when complete. There were five doors leading out of the room and he directed each group to take a particular door and to search high and low for anyone or any sign of anything useful. He and Arnie took the center door.

When they went through, they entered another hallway as wide and as high as the entrance hall. "These places are pretty big for such a small race." Arnie said. It came out as a question. Flimgog answered as they walked towards the door at the end of the hallway. There were no other doors leading out. "Yes, the leaders have always had it this way. It allows them to entertain guests such as yourself or others of a larger nature. For example, in days gone by, we used to be visited by the Queen of Sockland herself."

"Queen?" Arnie asked. He felt confused and stopped walking.

"Yes, of course." Flimgog had also stopped and they were both just in front of the door. "There is a Queen of all Sockland. Writingshire and Washingshire and the other places are areas, or states, of Sockland. The Queen rules us all. But alas, she hasn't visited since the fighting began." He sounded sad.

Arnie was stunned. He had a lot of questions suddenly running through his mind. How could he find the queen? Who was she? What was she? He opened his mouth to ask, but then closed it again, deciding he would ask once the search was complete. He hadn't even considered what lay beyond the pens and pencils, so engrossed had he become in their fate.

"I'd like to ask you more when we've finished the search."

"Of course Arnold. I would be happy to answer your questions." Flimgog replied in his usual polite squeak.

They opened the door and peered through. The room was dark and Arnie stepped over the threshold with Flimgog following him in. Up ahead he heard movement and voices. High-pitched, squeaky voices making no effort to be quiet. Arnie held his breath and listened hard, trying to make out what was being said. He could hear the voices distinctly like there was a large group of these small people just out of his sight. He couldn't make out what they were saying.

With his breath still held, he stepped forward again as quietly as he could.

A silent but sudden blast of light flashed on in the room. Arnie lifted his hand to protect his eyes. It took nearly a minute for them to regain focus despite him trying desperately to see what was up ahead.

When he finally managed to look ahead his jaw dropped. Flimgog let out an loud squeal of surprise.

Up ahead half of the room was barred off with thick, white, metal-looking bars. The bars reached from the floor to the ceiling and more bars went across from left to right; forming a sort of net or grill. They were lined up very close together to prevent small pencil or pen bodies from escaping. In the middle of this wall of bars was a locked door made of the same material. However, the most shocking thing of all was what was beyond the bars. Interspersed with various basic furnishings and mostly lying down - although all looking rather comfortable - were at least twenty pencil men.

Most of them seemed to have just woken up and were looking at Arnie and Flimgog in silence.

Then, one of them spoke. His voice the usual sqeaky voice of the pencils,

"You took your time!"

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