Of Mice & Magic: Book 1 Ravenspell

Chapter 16: The Army of Darkness

Winning any great battle is a matter of training and strategy. He who is best prepared, wins his fight before he ever sets foot on the battlefield.

—Nightwing

Inside Nightwing's Cave, the monsters were finally going to sleep.

Though the day had nearly come and gone, Nightwing had stayed up all day, herding in prisoners to create new monstrosities, and then pitting them against one another, until he'd created his ultimate warrior—the Conqueror Worm.

Only then did he tell his minions, "Go search the forests. Bring me eagles and rattlesnakes, a thousand of each! And with them I will build an army that all of the forces of S.W.A.R.M. cannot repel."

Ben felt sickened by the barbarity of the display, the endless bloodshed.

He wanted to run away, but he'd seen what happened to Nightwing's familiar when he tried to escape. So instead, Ben took a little comfort in knowing that one day was almost done. If he had to serve Nightwing for a month, that meant that he only had twenty nine days left to go.

Many of the monsters went out that night to hunt for snakes and eagles. Ben suspected that in the morning, Nightwing would begin creating whole new races of monsters to fight his war. And within a day or two, they'd go to war.

Right now, the cave was relatively empty. Only a few guards remained.

Before they went to sleep, Nightwing ordered Fanglorious the snake, "Bring me a fresh newt!"

In moments a rubbery brown lizard was squirming in the snakes jaws, trying to escape. The snake wriggled up to Nightwing and dropped the lizard at his feet. The newt cowered before Nightwing and said, "Eat me and you'll die! My skin is poisonous, you know!"

"I know," Nightwing said. "But it's not your skin that I want, just your eye. Now, will you show me what I want, or will you make me rip it from its socket?"

The newt stared blankly, then said in a deep voice, "Three answers you may have of me: ask what is now, what shall come, or what may be."

"Show me my ancient enemy," Nightwing commanded, "Rufus Flycatcher, the High Wizard of S.W.A.R.M."

The newt's eyes glowed fiery green. Ben peered into them.

He saw a gorgeous scene. It was sunset in a swamp, far, far away. Green dragonflies cruised lazily through skies painted gold from a setting sun, while cypress trees cast blue shadows upon the dark water.

Frogs were singing everywhere—croaking so loudly that to Ben it sounded as if he were in a football stadium. There were leopard frogs, bullfrogs, green frogs, tree frogs, spring peepers, carpenter frogs. The calls were so loud and insistent and varied, Ben had never heard anything like it.

The vision zoomed in, down around the roots of a huge cypress tree. There on the cypress knees—knobs of wood that poked up from the black water—, sat a handsome bullfrog. Baby alligators patrolled the waters behind him like sentries, while a beautiful white heron watched the bank above, and a pair of turtles—large cooters—sunned on a log nearby. Fireflies danced in the air around his head, their green lights dipping and rising.

Ben had a terrible longing to take a jar and catch the fireflies.

Rufus Flycatcher was busily instructing some young frogs, most of which hadn't even lost their tails yet, about the difficulties in repairing the damaged wings of fireflies.