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

Chapter 21: The biggest surprise

Lily, Tara, and Stacy walked across the dry ground. Ever since the dirt cavern imploded, there had been quite a bit of trouble getting the dust out of their hair and clothes. The sun beat down hotter than ever, and the dirt on their skin provided an atmosphere that kept the heat in. Lily wiped mud and sweat off her forehead. "This place should be named the land of everlasting dry dirt," she complained. Stacy nodded as Tara smacked a lazy mosquito away from her face.

She looked up. "What is that?" Tara pointed to a gray hill in front of a forest not too far away. A figure sat on the top. As they watched two short people (probably dwarves) seized his arms. The figure yelped in shock, and Lily spotted a dark blue cape. "Jake," Tara said. "Only he could wear that ridiculous cape," Lily agreed. Stacy knitted her brows in concentration as an unconscious Jake disappeared into the forest along with the two dwarves. "We should follow them," she said. They ran for the hill.

***

Jake was taken by surprise. The dwarves seemed to appear out of nowhere, simply leaping out of the trees and grabbing his arms. As Jake yelled, "Hey!" the biggest of the dwarves knocked him out with a fist.

Jake opened his eyes. At least a million pairs of eyes looked right back at him. Dwarf eyes. He jumped to his feet and unsheathed his sword. He was in a packed room. The crowd of dwarves suddenly omitted a roar of battle and charged him. Jake would be fighting one against a million. This is a stupid way to fight, he thought. He raised his sword and, feeling quite silly, jumped into the chaos.

He hacked his way through the dwarves, occasionally booting an unsuspecting dwarf in his rear end. He was starting to get the hang of it when another wave of yells flooded into the room. Another thousand dwarves appeared, and this time they clutched weapons in their hairy fists. That couldn't be good. Jake kicked a weapon out of a dwarf's hand and took hold of his wrist, throwing him into his tiny comrades. He was now fighting with two blades instead of one. Luckily, the dwarves liked to jump, or Jake would have had to lean down to hit them. It seemed only minutes before arms began to get tired. The sound of ripping cloth startled him. He turned around to find that his blue cloak was now riddled with holes. Stupid dwarves.

***

Tara clambered up the hill, Lily and Stacy following close behind. She leaped over tree roots and rocks. Once she tripped and almost smashed her face into a tree. But they kept running. Up ahead she could see the elfin city. They were almost there. Then things went terribly wrong. Suddenly there was no grass under Tara's feet. She fell into a hole. Stacy and Lily joined her with a lot of screaming, too shocked to stop themselves. "Shush!" Tara hissed. She scanned their surroundings. They seemed to be in a large chamber constructed of stone. There was a great yelling sound that looked as though it came from everywhere. Then Tara's eyes got adjusted to the darkness. The yells came from dwarves. Thousands of them. They were packed together in the large room. Most were empty handed, but a few had weapons. Tara, Stacy, and Lily were standing on a hidden platform in the chamber's corner. But what were they fighting? As Tara looked into the massive crowd, Stacy screamed, "Look!"

Tara followed Stacy's finger and saw Jake, wielding two sword. Lily frowned. "How can Jake hold back that many dwarves?" Tara knew she was right. Jake's cloak was in tatters. He also had a bunch of cuts and scratches on his face. Tara was positive he couldn't fight any longer. "Arm yourselves," she said. Stacy and Lily patted their empty pockets. They must have lost their weapons during the collapsing dirt chamber. Even Tara had lost her plentiful supply of grenades. She unleashed a round of creative cussing and turned to the others. "We'll go in fighting." Stacy looked shocked. "With no weapons?" "We could get weapons from dwarves," Lily said. "Let's stick with that," Tara concluded. They jumped off the platform. "Yeah," Lily muttered. "We're just awesome at kicking dwarf butt."

***

Lily wanted to run into a little dark corner and hide.

Of course, she wanted to help her friends, but against this many dwarves? That was a bit over the top. Lily punched and kicked dwarves while Tara danced around like a gymnast, throwing dwarves. As for Stacy, she ran around, tripping dwarves and kicking them as they tried to stand up. Once or twice, Lily would have to dive wildly out of the way to avoid being trampled. A current of air whooshed through the chamber, ruffling her hair. Wait ... where did the wind come from? The air seemed to blow from the opposite direction of the big hole above. Then Lily saw it. A small tunnel, the size of a car door, was on the far side of the chamber. A faint stream of daylight was visible through it. Our exit, Lily thought. A clang of metal rang behind her and she spun on her heel. "Jake!" she yelled. Unfortunately, the yell scared Jake more than it alerted him. He turned around and nearly whacked her with his sword. "Hey!" Lily protested. "Do I sound like a dwarf?"

***

Stacy didn't know how to fight.

She obviously could punch and kick, but that was general stuff. Everybody could do that. She wasn't like Tara. Tara could jump into the air and smash two dwarf heads together while booting two more dwarf butts. Stacy could barely manage to block a swing from a weapon. Then she heard Lily's voice: "Do I sound like a dwarf?" "Sorry!" Jake yelled. Stacy stifled a laugh. Lily as a dwarf? Hilarious.

"Stacy!" Tara shouted. Stacy turned around. Tara pushed her way through the massive dwarf army, with Jake and Lily following close behind. "Lily says she found an exit," Jake yelled. Lily screamed as a dwarf almost hit her with a spiked club. Tara pointed to her left at a small tunnel with daylight streaming through. "I have a way to get there," she said. "So how do we get there?" Stacy said. She wished she hadn't asked. Tara gave her one of those evil smiles that made her think: Are you the villain? Then she stepped on a dwarf's head and began running over the dwarf heads, leaping over gaps in the crowd. Jake and Stacy groaned while Lily loudly complained: "Is Tara mad? Why can't there be an easier way?" But eventually, they agreed to follow Tara's example.

At first, the dwarves went silent as they ran over their heads. Then the yells of protest and terror began to rise.

"Ow!"

"My poor head!"

"Mommy!"

Finally, Stacy reached the tunnel, where Tara was waiting. "Took you long enough," she grumped. Whatever, Stacy thought. They squeezed through the tunnel. Once or twice Stacy would hit her head on the tunnel top and feel sympathy for the dwarves. But still: they had stepped on those dwarves for a good reason, right?