The next morning Arnie woke early. He hadn't slept well and wondered if he had slept at all. His mind was full of what he'd seen and experienced since arriving in this strange land. It was also full of wondering what was going to happen when they marched on the Pen stronghold. He thought too of the girl he had seen in the pictures again. How did she get here? What was she doing? What would happen when they met?

They had all settled down to sleep on the floor of the main chamber where the meeting had been held. The floor was comfortable enough and Arnie noticed that nothing in Sockland ever seemed to get cold – cool yes, but never cold.

He sat up and looked out amongst his sleeping soldiers. They were sprawled around the room, some snoring quietly and others completely silent. He wondered if some of them were now awake like him.

He decided to let them have more rest and not to rouse them yet. He didn't know what obstacles they would face on the journey and wanted them to be rested and ready. So, he lay back down and closed his eyes. Thoughts were continuing to boil and bubble around in his mind and he was lost in it, his consciousness swirling. At some point, the boiling thoughts and the land of dreams clashed and converged. Where the two crossed he didn't know but he became lost in a world of dreams. Dreams of pencils and pens, dreams of giant feet, of glittering leaves and of other vaguely formed strangenesses.

When he opened his eyes again the room was alive with action. Some pencil soldiers were buzzing around moving to and fro, some were huddled together talking quietly and others were sitting in quiet contemplation. He felt more rested and more ready than he'd ever felt before for anything.

He got up and Flimgog noticed and ran to him from across the room where he had been talking to Alagog.

"Arnold, do you feel rested?" he asked.

"Yes, thank you. What's happening here?"

"We have been discussing the route and the journey ahead." he clapped his hands loudly and the sound echoed throughout the room. A few of the pencils came to where they were standing. Alagog was with them. Two of them carried a scroll of rolled up paper between them. When they got to Arnie, they unrolled it on the floor and Arnie saw that it was a map.

"This is the map that we found." Alagog started to speak. "This is where we are now." and he pointed to an "X" on the page. "We need to go here." he pointed at another "X" on the page on the upper right hand side.

Arnie studied the map. He saw where they were now. Further down the page was the mark indicating the village he had trained in, it was slightly larger than the others. He assumed this indicated it was the capital or main village of the pencils. There were a lot of tree images on the map too, signifying a large amount of forest. He was fascinated. There were various villages marked around the map, but all in all, Writingshire wasn't large. There were, he noticed, around 20 villages in all. When his eyes came to rest on their target destination he noticed that it too was marked with a larger "X", signifying that this was the main pen village.

"As you will see" Alagog continued, "our route is through the trees along this path. We will go from the back of this village straight through the forest." he pointed at a very slight line running through the trees on the map. "If we leave soon, we will arrive before the day is over."

"Ok" Arnie said. "And are we ready to leave? Are we stocked with supplies?"

"Yes" It was Flimgog who answered. "We and all our soldiers are ready to go."

"Ok. No reason to delay in that case. Let's get going then."

At the order Flimgog and Alagog ran off and gathered all the pencils into even lines. When they were settled and quiet Arnie spoke to them.

"We now march on our enemy. We'll free prisoners, we'll disable the...erm...girl...erm...enemy weapon." He was unsure about what he was going to do when that time came, but injected some certainty into his voice. "We'll take back what is rightfully yours."

"Oooh Aaaah!" they shouted, sounding like Roman Gladiators on helium.

"This is a dangerous task and we must work together. We must remember what we fight for." The intensity and volume of Arnie's voice was growing. "We fight for the freedom of the pencils. The freedom of Writingshire. We fight to restore peace to our lands!"

They all cheered again.

"Now, let's go!"

He stepped through the chamber door, through the hallway and out of the building. His soldiers followed without hesitation. Flimgog and Alagog were at either side of him. It amazed Arnie once he had started training just how fast these guys could move. Despite being tiny compared to him, they could easily match his pace. He couldn't understand it when he looked at them as they didn't seem to be moving extra fast or over-exerting themselves. But they were as fast and as loud as him nonetheless. They walked together, in a swift march towards the far end of the village sticking to the winding, blue road.

When they reached the gate at the opposite end of the village to where they had first entered, Arnie paused and looked out. The gate itself was small. It was just wide enough for him to fit through and was only as high as the wall. The wall itself came up to about his chest, high for the pens and pencils but not high for him. He looked over the gate at the expanse of trees ahead. The forest was just like the forests he had previously seen here in Writingshire. They had the same gleaming, glistening, diamond-like leaves and the same golden coloured trunks and branches. He marvelled for only another moment, overcome with a fresh feeling of incredulity and then swung open the gate and stepped through.

There was a thin, barely distinguishable pathway through the tightly packed trees. Arnie stepped towards it. Flimgog and Alagog were there with him and the others were following close behind.

As he stepped towards the trees, he heard a rustling to his left, somewhere around the wall. It was a very quiet sound, but he looked around anyway. He could just see over the wall as it curved around the village. On the outside there seemed to be a stick in the ground. Arnie thought it looked oddly out of place, unfitting. He got the feeling that something was wrong with it being there. He knelt down and beckoned for Flimgog and Alagog to come closer.

"There seems to be an odd stick in the ground round there." he whispered, pointing to where he had seen it. "But, I also heard a rustling. I have a funny feeling about it so I think we should check it out before we go."

"Ok, we will check it now." Flimgog muttered quietly. He and Alagog, with two others, began to creep around the edge of the wall. They wouldn't be visible from around there and Arnie noticed how incredibly quiet they were able to be while moving.

He stood up again and looked out to the horizon, keeping the motionless stick in his peripheral vision at all times. When Flimgog and Alagog appeared around the wall, the stick moved suddenly as though spotting them. Arnie was surprised to see arms rise up from its side as it turned away - as if to run. Flimgog and Alagog were too fast however. They bounded forward, pouncing on whatever it was. There was a scuffle and some quiet grunts as they all landed on the ground.

The struggle didn't last long and Arnie saw his two soldier gripping whatever it was at each side and marching it round towards the main group. As they reappeared around the wall and came into full view Arnie got a proper look. He was amazed at what he saw. It was tall, compared to the pencils, and thin and it had a metal strip as it's face. Atop the head was some tall, fine "hairs". It was a paintbrush.

Flimgog and Alagog brought it to where Arnie was standing and held it in place. Arnie knelt down and spoke. He didn't know what to make of this yet.

"And who are you?" he asked.

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