Lucent was frantically hunting for the other nine detonators, when Bobby Bear walked past him grumbling. Bobby stood up on his hind legs, sniffing the air. The other bears following behind him did the same. Jerry Bear got a look on his face like, “Oh I smell honey coming from the other direction. Maybe I can get there first.” He ambled off in the direction of the river. Bobby Bear was getting slower in his old age so Frank Bear beat him to the clearing and they saw the beehive. Frank ran to it first and just as he stepped in front of the hive, he landed on the lever that caused the board on either side of him to close tightly on his eight foot tall frame with the pyracantha thorns being pressed into his sides. Frank yelled, but couldn’t get loose since he was still stepping on the lever and with holes being poked in his sides, blood came out like he was a big bear sieve! Bobby Bear was so grateful at that point that he was older and slower.
Jerry Bear got to the clearing by the river and the smell of the honey was so powerful it compelled him to run on his hind legs. He met a similar fate as Frank. The third bear trap caught a young teen-age bear. Bobby Bear checked on the other traps by following his nose. When he saw they had lost 30 % of the bears, he called a retreat, to Lucent’s chagrin. When Lucent challenged him for ordering a bear retreat, Bobby Bear just snarled at him and kept on going.
Lucent found another detonator at this time and set it off. He started laughing maniacally at his power. This bomb had been placed under Lily the boar’s house and when it blew up, Lily flew up into the air and her big, colorful tent dress flew out to the side of her and acted like a parachute. She landed hard and looked startled, trying to figure out what had just happened, but she was still kicking.
After all of the rats had finished clearing out the tunnels, they started marching on the good creatures. All in all they started with 400 rats. This was no small army.
Aaron and Angelica Mourning Dove had taken over organizing the birds and started sending them off in three directions. The magpies, the owls and the cardinals headed out from the river location. They saw the rats marching down below, got directly overhead and aimed carefully, hitting the rats right in the eyes. This just served to make the rats angrier. They wiped off their faces in the dew on the grass and kept going.
Aaron sent the eagle army, the buzzards and the crows near the area where Bobby Bear had been and they got busy pooping in the eyes of the rats and the bears. This only slowed them down so Lester appeared with an overflowing burlap sack of chili peppers. He set the bag down in the path slightly ahead of the rats and bears and said, “Hilliracum, hahaness, hoopsila! The chili peppers started raising up out of the bag and then started raining down on the rats and the bears. The rats and the bears began laughing out of control and when there was a pause in the laughter, one of the rats or bears would tell a corny story and they would all start laughing again. The laughing totally disabled them. That group of dark creatures was tied up for hours.
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The third path had been invaded by dark creatures: ferrets, snakes and more rats and bears. Merina Mouse ran to Lester and said in her tiny, squeaky voice, “Help Lester, the dark creatures are here.” Lester knew just what to do and grabbed the bread bag from his waist and untied it. He told Merina to keep all of the good creatures back; that it was very important. She did and he hopped over to the mob headed toward him. He took out a handful of the blessed basil and blew it into their faces. He continued grabbing handfuls of the basil and following suit until the bag was empty. Everything was eerily still. The dark creatures had been turned into statues by the Basilisk Breath.
One of the wolves had come from the other direction and was holding his rapier over his head and slammed it into Merina, who was facing the other direction. Thankfully she was wearing her gossamer shield clothing so the knife bounced right off of her and went into the wolf. She said in her little squeaky voice, “Lester, I had my doubts about the gossamer shield, but boy am I glad we made them. It saved my life.”
Nogdorf had transported to Lucent and found the bombs’ detonators. He quickly did a reversal spell and the detonators disappeared. Lucent was as mad as a hornet. “You had no right to do that. Those were mine. I got them from the hard work of babysitting Olivia’s kids. They are such brats.”
“Where are they, Lucent?” Nogdorf asked.
Lucent sneared, “I cooked up them and their scaredy cat mother for lunch. Ha. I told them they would be set free if they helped, but I lied. Ha ha ha.”
Nogdorf happened to have some Basilisk Breath on him so he stepped closer and blew it all over Lucent. Lucent was, of course, immediately turned into a statue. Word spread quickly among the dark creatures that Lucent and a large number of dark creatures had been turned into statues and retreat was sounded. It became eerily quiet until Nogdorf began shouting “Hip, Hip Hooray. Hip Hip Hooray.” and all of the good creatures joined in.
They had a celebration that night in a pot-luck dinner, spread out on the riverbank and you have never seen such a celebration. Lester was toasted with elderberry wine and Nogdorf, too. They celebrated until the sun came up. Nogdorf, as a parting gesture, said, “Good creatures you all put your whole hearts and strength into defending our wonderful forest. I am very proud of you and especially Lester who did not buy into the ‘can’t be done’ attitude, but persevered until he learned the difficult spells. These, I’m proud to say, were masterfully executed and helped turn the tide for our victory. Now, go home and get some well deserved rest. We will meet in two days to clean up the battle scene. “
