Two Worlds (Written by a 10-year-old author, 62,000 words, 72 chapters)

Chapter 13: The war goes on

SWOOP! Lily woke up. What was causing that sound? Turning around she saw an elfin spaceship hovering above the battle scene. A large tube jutted out of the bottom and it seemed to be sucking up all the dwarves. When the last dwarf disappeared into the tube, a glass sphere attached to the back of the aircraft filled to the brim with dwarves. With a loud BANG, the sphere launched into the distance. The side cockpit window popped open and Tara's face poked out. "Tara!" Lily yelled. "Tara?" Stacy said, causing Lily to jump. She hadn't realized Stacy had woken up yet. As the spaceship landed other elves began to stir. Tara jumped out of the spaceship and ran to meet Lily. "Is that my spaceship?" Stacy asked. "We won the battle!" Lily said with delight. "Not yet," Tara said. "Come." As Lily followed her into the west tower Stacy said, "You have no idea what a war is."

Tara led Lily and Stacy into the control center. Stacy ran to one of her precious computers as Lily and Tara sat down in some chairs. "If one side wins a war," Stacy explained, "The losing side will want revenge, possibly starting another war," "So ..." Lily said. "There's going to be another war?" "Most likely," Tara replied.

Lily wailed in distress. "Another war?" she cried. "Why?" "You know perfectly well why." Stacy didn't take her eyes off the computer. "We're wasting time." The three crowded around the computer as Stacy typed. "It's almost certain that the dwarves will start another battle, probably with double as much fighters as last time, so we need to create something twice as powerful as our latest technology," she said. "Like ... what, exactly?" Lily asked. "Follow me," Stacy said as she walked to a door.

Inside the room, there was one empty table and another three tables with random weapons and labeled glass vials. "Where are we?" Tara asked. Even she didn't know about the room. Stacy didn't answer. She was too busy putting on a lab coat and a pair of rubber gloves. Stacy snatched a vial from a table. Pouring some of the stuff into a Petri dish she slid it under a microscope. After a few moments of looking, Stacy snapped her fingers at Lily. "Get the vial labeled iodine dioxide," she ordered.

For hour after hour, Stacy pummeled Lily and Tara with instructions. Lily watched in fascination as the liquid in the Petri dish changed from brown to purple to neon pink. As Stacy added the final ingredient to the liquid, a roar of an angry crowd shook the ground. Tara ran to the window and gasped. Lily peered out of the glass. Over the hill, beyond the wall, a large ... no, humongous carpet of dwarves marched towards the elfin city. It would be just like the previous war, with an overwhelming number of dwarves. Only this time, there would be no walls to stop them from charging straight into the elfin city.

Lily managed to take her eyes away from the monstrous sight, rushing to the table where Stacy was working. "We've got company! You need to hurry!" Lily said. "Hold on!" Stacy said as she poured the now bright purple liquid into unused grenade shells. "These might not work," Stacy said. "But it's the best chance we've got." The three stuffed as many grenades as possible into plastic bags they found on the floor and ran out of the room.

As Lily sprinted down a hall Stacy explained to her and Tara how the grenades worked. "To detonate the bomb there's a red button you can't miss that activates a five-second timer. Press the button, toss the grenade at the enemy and get out of the area as fast as possible," she said. "Got it," Lily said.

Lily, Stacy and Tara burst out of the northern door. Thedwarf army had reached the city and was now climbing over chunks of rubble."Any last words before we kick some dwarf bottoms?" Tara asked. "I hatedwarves," Lily said. "I am so ready to beat up those dwarves," Stacy added.They yelled in defiance and charged into battle.