After Lester’s nap, he was eager to prove himself and took off to gather supplies. He took a large black bag with him and intended to visit 5 gardens to fill up his bag with carrots, but thought better of it after the first garden when he realized the bag was getting too heavy to visit more than one garden at a time. He brought the bag from the first garden back to Nogdorf and dumped it at his feet. Without a word, he took the empty bag and left for the second garden. After the fifth garden visit, the pile beside Nogdorf was ginormous. “ What do we do now, Nogdorf?” Lester asked.

  “ You must magically enhance the carrots to prepare them for the carrot cannonade, Nogdorf answered. “This spell may take you a little time, so I need you to practice on it now. Take off your shoes so you have a better connection with the electrical energies of the earth. Direct contact is very important. Now, I want you to stand in front of the pile of carrots, but back about five feet. Now spread your legs apart and sway. Don’t sway from side to side, but front to back and back again. Over and over. Now, taking your arms and holding them out to the carrots, while you continue swaying, move them like they are waves of the sea, pushing forward on the forward sway. Ok, that’s better. Keep your eyes on the carrots.”

  Lester did as he was told and just when he felt he couldn’t go on any more, Nogdorf suddenly had him stop. “Look at the carrots,” he whispered. Lester couldn’t believe his eyes. The tops of the carrots popped off and went shooting all over the forest, up in trees, over to the river and into creatures ' hair. What a scene. Then the most amazing thing happened. The pile of carrots was glowing like a big moon sitting right on the ground.

  “ Who would you say are our best shooters, Lester? The honey badgers? Yes, they never miss. I’m awfully glad we have them on our side. Will you please go round all of them up?” While Lester was gone, Nogdorf said a few incantations of his own and appearing before him were three cannons. When Lester and the honey badgers returned, they were pretty surprised to find cannons.

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  “What?” Lester started, but Nogdorf interrupted.

  “Good evening honey badgers. Are you ready for war?” Nogdorf asked.

  “Always, sir,” the large badger with a stripe down both arms answered. He looked like he was wearing sergeant’s stripes. His name, by the way, was Sarge.

  “I need you, as the strongest creatures on the good side, to be in charge of the carrot cannonade. We need to have the cannons in the three places the dark creatures will enter from. I need you to choose three teams, Sarge and get the cannons moved, as well as a third of the carrots to each location. But before you go, I would like to demonstrate how the carrot cannonade works.

  Nogdorf grabbed a handful of carrots and walked over to the nearest cannon. He aimed it at the river, away from the woodland creatures. There was a chute in the back of the cannon, with a hole in it just the right size for a carrot. Nogdorf started feeding carrots into the hole, one after the other. Just as quickly as he put the carrot into the cannon, it shot out the other end toward the river with incredible force. “ Now, do all of you honey badgers understand how it works? The only difference is you will aim it at the dark creatures. OK Sarge, get your men stationed in their places. One man on each team will be the lookout, so you aren't taken by surprise and so your aim is true. Now, head out and set up.”

  Sarge got his men divided up into units and got them headed out with their heavy loads .He was in his element, being made for this very task.

  As tired as Lester was, he was hopping all around, excited about the spells and about the attacks and he couldn’t seem to hold still. “What’s next, Nogdorf? Surely you don’t have anything more exciting than this.”