“Run!” shouted Rob as she flew towards the Night Knights, sword in hand. Finn was close behind her.
“We’ll slow them down!” he shouted back to Woggy and Sara as he ran into the fight.
“Don’t let them get away!” Mr. King shouted as he drew the sword from his belt. He stood between the children and the exit. The Night Knights were closing in behind them. Spark flew right at Mr. King’s face, blinding him momentarily. Woggy knew this was their opportunity to escape. He grabbed Sara’s hand and ran toward the doorway. Mr. King slashed his sword in the air, trying to hit Spark, but he was no match. Spark zoomed around his head as fast as light.
The doors were creaking shut.
With each footstep Woggy and Sara took, the exit got smaller and smaller. Faster and faster, they ran. They could hear Mr. King shouting and slashing as Spark taunted him.
The doorway was just a few feet away— they were going to make it. Their feet were kicking forward until Woggy’s foot kicked the rock ledge and he fell, landing on all fours. He looked up at the doors— they were not going to make it.
“Go without me,” he yelled to Sara, but she was already picking him up and pulling him through the door. They stumbled through just in time.
They glanced back through the crack of the closing doors as Spark zipped through, just in time. Then Woggy and Sara heard the doors clap shut with a boom of finality.
Inside, Mr. King was still dizzy and tired from fighting Spark, but he smiled when he realized that he still had two children trapped in his castle. Then, he frowned a little when he saw how well they were battling his knights.
It was a well-matched fight. Finn and Rob faced off against the two knights in armor. They had practiced sword fighting so much with each other that they were now marvelous sword fighters. It was blade against blade, and the sound of clashing metal echoed through the courtyard.
Finn battled the shiny Knight who was quite skilled as a fighter. He twisted his sword expertly at the wrist, blocking every blow that Finn made. The Knight was cautious, almost as if he did not want to get his armor dirty. Blades slashed and flashed and clashed together. The shiny knight was quick and skilled, but so was Finn.
Rob dueled the tarnished Knight who was clumsy, but as strong as an ostrich (which are very strong.) This knight swung from the shoulder; his sword moved wildly as he tried to reach Rob as she flew through the air as graceful as a bird (not an ostrich, which are not very graceful– she looked more like a swallow, or a robin.) Rob braced with her sword using all of her strength each time their blades met. She flew high, she flew low, closer and further, looking for some way to win the fight, but the Knight’s strength was prevailing.
It was an even battle, but Rob and Finn were beginning to lose strength. The Knight Nights were much bigger than them and swinging swords can be quite exhausting.
“Up the stairs!” shouted Rob. They started backing up the stairs that led to the top of the wall. This turned out to be an excellent idea because the Night Knights had trouble walking up the stairs in their heavy armor. Rob and Finn were soon at the top of the stairs. They ran over to the edge of the wall and looked down at the moat filled with glistening water. The Knights stumbled up slowly after them.
“Will you be okay jumping into the water?” Rob asked Finn.
Finn just smiled. He was ready to get out of there, alligators or not. They sheathed their swords, took a step back and then ran and jumped out over the edge. The breeze of freedom rushed by their faces as they fell and, for a moment, it seemed that they had escaped the nightmare. They were back in A-Dream. But only for a moment.
They were expecting the cool splash of water, but instead they felt ropes entangle them. A net enveloped both of them, effectively stopping their escape. They hung there against the wall, trying to reach for their swords, but they were too trapped to move well.
Mr. King stood atop the wall holding the rope that held the net. The net that held Rob and Finn. He laughed and bellowed out into the field for Woggy and Sara to hear: “I have your friends now! I will trade your friends for my treasure!”
……
Sara and Woggy had escaped, found the pony, and ridden to the top of the hill. They turned to look back, hoping to see Rob and Finn close behind them. But no one was there. When they ran out of the castle they had no doubts about Rob and Finn being able to escape. Rob could fly and Finn was fearless. But now that they were separated the doubts crept into their minds, and so did regret. They should have stayed together.
They could see a net hanging over the edge of the castle, and Mr. King standing on top of the wall. Just as they were about to go through the waterfall at the cave entrance they heard Mr. King’s voice booming, and they knew that Rob and Finn had been captured.
“Should we go back?” asked Sara.
“We have to go save them,” said Woggy.
“How are we going to save them?”
Woggy reached into his pocket and pulled out a key, the key to the treasure room. “We are just going to have to give him what he wants. The treasure. But we need a plan. Mr. King can’t be trusted.”
Together Woggy and Sara came up with seventeen different plans for how they were going to rescue their friends and not let Mr. King get all of the treasure. But after all of that planning, and all of the clever schemes they came up with, they realized that none of them would ensure the safety and freedom of their friends. They simply could not risk Rob and Finn for treasure. Their friends were more valuable than all the gold in the world. They were just going to have to do a trade with Mr. King—the treasure for their friends.
They decided that even if they were not going to use a clever scheme, they were going to need swords and some other supplies. Sara pulled out her papers and pen. They stepped far enough away from the waterfall at the cave entrance to not get wet. There was a nice flat rock at the top of the hill, perfect for drawing.
The day was losing to the night. Darkness was settling in. Woggy held the torch up to give Sara enough light to draw. Sara put pen to paper to draw a sword, then she lifted her hand, and turned to Woggy to ask him what kind of sword he wanted. That is the moment the wind decided to blow. It was a gust out of the darkness, and when it gusted, it scattered all four of the pieces of paper out into the dark with it.
Sara sat there with the pen in her hand looking into the inky distance. The wind had blown the torch out and she sat in the warm dim light that Spark gave off. At that moment Spark was no match for the creeping darkness.
There was no way that they could find any of those papers now. They were scattered in the wind. Gone. Sara felt defeated. First there was the betrayal of Mr. King, and then she had been separated from her friends—well, all of them but Woggy—and now she did not even have the ability to contribute to the rescue. Not to mention that she was far from home. She had forgotten that she was far from home when everything was fun and exciting, but now that things were hard and scary and darkness was creeping into A-Dream, she just wanted to go home.
Sara cried. It was a scared, helpless bout of tears. The kind of cry that just needs to come out because holding it in would be a lie. Sometimes you just have to let the sadness out to make room for other feelings. Sometimes the best way to let out the sadness is through tears.
Each tear that fell from her eyes splashed onto the ground and transformed into a tiny, blue flower. This is how things are in A-Dream. Even when you are sad and everything feels like a nightmare, A-Dream will do whatever it can to add beauty. And beauty is something that helps us remember to hope.
Spark flew around her and landed on her shoulder in a warm, comforting way. Woggy reached out his arms to hug her– it was the sort of thing his mom did when he cried. He felt it, too: the loss, the betrayal, the far from home-ness.
Woggy wanted a hug, too. He missed the safety of home. He missed his mom’s comforting words, and the smell of waffles cooking. A few tears trickled down his cheeks as well. Sara leaned into Woggy as he hugged her. Hugs are magical because they connect us to each other. Hugs remind us that we are not alone.
Sara looked at Woggy with wet eyes. “What do we do now?”
Woggy felt like Sara needed him now, and that he needed her too. They needed hope, and he hoped he could give some to Sara. Woggy looked at the little patch of blue flowers growing at their feet, and he began to believe that together they would be able to rescue their friends.
They needed to rescue Rob and Finn from the mean Mr. King. Then they all needed to get home. Woggy wiped his wet cheeks, stood up, and reached his hand down to Sara. “We are going to get our friends back,” he said in a confident voice.
……
Inside the castle, Mr. King was walking towards the dungeon, dragging a big net across the floor. Two children wriggled and squirmed inside the net. Two knights in shining armor marched behind.
The floor was smooth, and the net glided across its shiny surface. Rob and Finn kept trying to kick and grab and roll the net, but their efforts were in vain.
“You have two options,” Mr. King said to his captives. “You can take me to the treasure room now, or you can wait in my dungeon until your friends come and take me to the treasure room. Either way I will get my treasure.”
“You will never get the treasure. Our friends escaped, and you have what you need. The rest of the treasure doesn’t belong to you, it belongs to everyone,” said Rob bravely.
“Well, I guess you have decided to wait in the dungeon, then.”
Mr. King opened the door with the “DUNGEON” sign above it. He pushed the net in sending Rob and Finn way down into the deep dungeon. The door closed leaving Rob and Finn in complete darkness.
Mr. King locked the door, and then he turned to the Night Knights. “What are you doing?” he shouted at them. The shiny Knight had a cloth in his hand. He was polishing off a smudge that was on his arm. The Knight shrugged and kept on polishing.
“Don’t just stand there!” bellowed Mr. King. “Your job is not done yet. Go get the other two children!”
The Knights nodded their armored heads. They turned around and clomped away down the hallway. They marched into the courtyard with the sound of clanging metal. In the courtyard they mounted horses made of pure shadow—the horses were darkness, they were gloom, they were the Mares of the Night.
The big wooden door opened slowly, and the Knights on their Night Mares galloped out into the darkness. People will tell you that shadows disappear when it is completely dark, and they may be right. The truth is that no one knows. Just because you cannot see them does not mean they are not still there. This is because light does not create shadows; shadows come from light being stopped. The night was dark, but the shadows were darker.
The Night Knights did not have to travel far on the Night Mares because Woggy and Sara were already walking back to the castle.
Sara’s pony neighed and bolted back up the hill at the sight of the Night Mares. Spark darted around Sara, then stopped, frozen in the air. After a few seconds he shot straight up into the sky, leaving Woggy and Sara alone in the darkness with the Night Knights and the Night Mares. But Sara and Woggy kept walking towards them. They were scared, but their fear was not going to keep them from rescuing their friends.