The wolves were now in slight, they were slowly advancing upon the authors, characters, and the man who was still muttering about how pointless life was and how no one cared about him, and anything else he could find to complain about at that moment.
Mariella was half tempted to throw him to the wolves and if the other girls had been asked they would have admitted that they were harboring the same feelings. After all, there is only so much depression one can be asked to take. Thankfully for the man the girls were soon distracted by the wolves when the leader rushed them.
Cael very gallantly jumped forward and swung his blade at the wolf, it meant with flesh and the wolf howled and jumped backwards, turned, and ran off. This would have been a good thing, had it not been part of the wolf’s plans. The moment everyone was distracted with his attack another wolf crept in from behind and without a sound grabbed the end of Christina’s cloak.
By that time Cael had wounded the leader and right when the leader howled in pain the wolf yanked and pulled Christina away from the others. For a moment fear made her freeze, and then she turned and with the flat of her blade hit the wolf on the nose. He growled but did not let go.
She then tried to cut the wolf with her sword but he ran about her, twisting her cloak about her legs and tripping her, causing her to drop her sword. She landed hard and with a soft grunt. The wolf smiled as he moved over her, resting his huge paw on her chest.
He opened his mouth at the same time Christina did to call out for help, but she did not have the chance before the wolf howled in pain and fell to the ground dead, Gabrielle stood over it, sword in hand. She looked at the dead wolf and then quickly pulled Christina up to her feet.
Christina grabbed her sword and moved back beside the others, al the while smiling her thanks at Gabrielle. As the two girls rejoined the others the wolves moved into a circle around them, smiling and looking very pleased with themselves over having caught their prey.
Christina squared her shoulders and prepared to fight off the pack with the others, or at least to die trying to fight them off. Cael looked very upset being that he was not able to fight them as a true gentleman should. Not that he would not try it, but he knew in the end he would wind up dinner and they would wind up facing the pack alone.
Beth looked over at Cael and grinned, she was very delighted to have him at her side again; she was very fond of him and liked his best out of all her characters. There was nothing better then knowing that he was now fighting at her side against a pack of man eating wolves.
The wolf leader looked at Cael and seemed to mark hi, as though saying, he is mine! The other’s seemed to understand this. The leader smiled, and then without a warning jumped right at the authors. His jaws flapped in the wind and he howled as he flew, landing right at Mariella’s feet.
Mariella held her ground, and kicked and jabbed at him at the same time. He received a foot in the nose and a sword tip in one ear. None of this was expecting and so he stood stunned for a moment, then tumbled backwards as his pack came crashing in, tumbling over each other to get at their meals.
Beth killed one wolf as it leaped at her and Gabrielle took care of another one. Christina got one as he tripped over one of his buddies, and then she got the buddy as well. Cael jumped into the middle of five wolves and killed them all as Anna took out one and Meg fought with another.
The leader felt an unknown fear creep over him when he realized these humans were holding their own against his hungry men. He could only watch in horror as the wolves fell dead.
Cael was still in the middle of it all, dropping wolves almost faster then they came at him. In fact after a while he was killing them faster then they came, because there was a lot fewer of them to come.
The girls were doing just as well, and before they quite knew it, they had killed nearly all the wolves, and the few that were still alive were running away. The leader too one last look at the band of wild eyed humans, then he bowed his head as though in respect, and without a second glance at Cael, he turned and followed what was left of his pack.
Gabrielle rubbed her forehead and said thoughtfully, “That was almost too easy.”
“You called that easy?” Meg demanded.
“That was too easy,” Cael muttered. They all looked at him and he pointed to the log. “The man, our killer, is gone.”

Mark looked down at Rufus and asked with raised eye brows, “You really think you can hold us back?”
Rufus looked at him, his red eyes flashing. A smiled crossed his lips as he glanced behind him and nodded his head. Into the room filed a horde of rats so large it filled very empty space of the room. “And I have more in the hall,” he said with a sneer.
R.K. yelled in pain again and Pip nearly fell over, Sam and Meggy grabbed her and helped her stand up. “If he dies will she?” Meggy asked worriedly.
“He is a semi-alter ego,” Sam whispered. “I do not think she will though it will be very painful.”
“We have to get to him then!” Meggy hissed all the while knowing this would be next to impossible with the rats guarding the way.
Pip’s face twisted in pain again and Rufus laughed, and the ordered his men to attack. The rats did not need a second bidding; they surged forward and with swords drawn, began their attack.
Trojan kicked at them while he swiped his sword low, seeing as how the rats were smaller then him. He stomped and yelled and threatened and called them names, which really did not help things any as rats hate being called names.
Meggy knew this of course and kept yelling at him to hush but he did not hear her as her voice was drown out with all the squeaking. Meggy was not stepping on the rats, mainly because she was bare footed and so it would hurt, and be rather gross. On fact none of the girls were stepping on the rats, because they were all bare footed.
That did not keep them from killing and tossing the rats left and right as the army continued to charge them. It was rather a mess down there, but really, what could they do?
The rats were not dying without a fight in fact they were putting up a very good fight, trying to run up their legs with great speeds and slash at their shoulders. This usually ended with them being thrown against the nearest wall, not that it stopped them, until the authors started to wonder if the rats were either very determined or very dumb.
Rufus was fuming mad as he watched his army drop. “Fight like rats you cowards!” Rufus yelled as he jumped up and down to add force to his words. It did not do any good, the rats still kept dropping. In the end they all lay dead, rats would never dream of retreating even if they knew they were all going to die.
Rufus stared in dumb found amazement at his dead army, and then he laughed and ran down the hall before anyone could grab him. For a moment no one moved, and then they realized where he was going and raced after him yelling, “R.K.!”

Isaac removed his hood and looked everyone in the eye. No one knew what to say, the girls were dumb founded and the characters had a guilty look about them.
“What do you mean prisoners?” Sarah finally asked as she looked over at Thomas.
Isaac ran his hand through his hair and said almost as though he regretted it, “We are the bad guys.”
“The bad guys?” Cherise asked in utter amazement. “How can you be the bad guys?”
“We were written that way with the one purpose to kill you all,” Thomas said as he looked over at Reamann, Kallen, and Jake.
Jane the character cast Jake a savage look. “How could you?” she demanded. Jake did not answer her.
Reamann stepped forward. “We changed the plot guys,” he said grimly. “We learned that if they die here they die in our world, and we don’t want that.”
“Yeah, so, you guys do not have to be bad any more,” Kallen said. “You can go away and, do something good.”
Jake smiled at them and waved his hand. “Bye now.”
Isaac shook his head as he drew his sword. “I am afraid that will not work,” he said gravely. “We were created to be bad and that is what we have to do.”
“You are stubborn aren’t you?” Kallen muttered.
Sarah looked pleadingly at Thomas but he just drew his sword without meeting her gaze.
“Oh! We should have known they were hiding something!” Katie moaned. “They did seem a bit perfect!”
“Too perfect,” Jane said as she scowled at them.
“I am sorry Jane,” Gilbert said as he too drew his sword, the other’s followed suit. “But there is nothing we can do.”
Kallen and Reamann drew their swords and Jake his pistol. “No, but we can.”
Isaac shook his head and dropped into a stance. “Then let us finish this.”
Jake lifted his pistol, only to find it had been replaced with a sword. This was not Cassandra and Elsa’s fault. There was an unwritten rule that a man in a book cannot shoot a some what good bad guy if that bad guy has a sword. It may have been a strange rule but there was nothing Jake could do about it, but deflect the blow Benjamin was swung at his head.
Reamann was taking on Isaac and Jeremiah and Kallen was up against the brothers Peter and Paul. That left Jake Benjamin, Gilbert and Thomas, quite a number to put against a man who had never used a sword before. Thankfully Elsa was able to write him in another sword.
The authors and Jane stood back for a moment in a daze as the characters fought, then they decided that even though the Rangers had been nice they could not just leave their characters to take them on alone, so they rushed in to help. Cassandra and Elsa saw this and so wrote them in swords as well.
And though it was hard to fight the nice Rangers they did until the Rangers were so badly beaten, black and blue, that they could not hold their swords any longer. They finally dropped them and fell to their knees. “Kill us swiftly,” Isaac said as he lowered his head.
Reamann sheathed his sword. “No,” he said. “Deep down I believe you seven are good characters, I am going to let you live in the hopes you will realize this and turn to some more useful task.”
The Rangers looked at each other but said nothing as the authors and characters turned and ran off into the woods. The Rangers waited until they were gone and then rose to their feet.
“What did I tell you?” Thomas asked with a sneer. “Show a little kindness and we can have them eating out of our hands!”
Isaac laughed as he sheathed his sword. “Come then my comrades; let us show them what traitors are really like!”

It was easy escaping the dwarves; seven against three armed and skilled characters, the dwarves did not stand a chance. Escaping the cave was a tricky matter, but even that was fairly easy, what was not easy was running across the open ground with an army of dwarves, mad flies, and another big spider, right on their heals.
“How did this happen?” Jo moaned as they ran.
“Well,” C said as he glanced over his shoulders. “It happened when Joy tripped over that rock and hit the ground and knocked those rocks loose and alerted the guards and…”
I know how it happened C, I was being sarcastic!” Jo snapped.
Justin laughed and nearly lost his footing and fell. They would have stopped and fought had it been just the dwarves, they may even have stood up to the dwarves and spider, but everyone knows you cannot win against flies, even the dwarves knew that which is why they had gotten them into their army.
And so they ran, trying to reach a stand of rocks in the hopes they could loose their pursuers in them. This seemed like a useless attempt but the only one that promised any hope.
“If only we had bows!” Sonega gasped as they ran. “We could rain arrows down on them!”
“Where are we going to get bows?” Rose demanded.
Cedryck tossed back his head and yelled, “Cassandra, Elsa, if you have not noticed, we could use some help here!”
At first nothing happened and everyone feared there was nothing the two characters could do for them, when in front of them the sky turned dark as though a cloud had fallen over everything. However it moved too quickly for a cloud and they were all amazed to see it was arrows, hundreds and hundreds of arrows that rained down upon their enemies.
They did not stop to look back but raced on harder now very eager to reach the rocks. Someone was behind those rocks and that someone, or rather someone’s were helping them out, which meant they were friends.
“Finally! Someone who will help us!” Laura cried as they pressed on. Laura stumbled once and Thaddeus caught her and helped her on.
Everyone was starting to get winded by the time they reached the rocks and dove behind them. They dropped to the ground and struggled to catch their breath, relieved to be safe at last.
“That was too close for my taste,” Joy said when she could breath again. Her eyes shown with excitement and everyone knew she was enjoying the adventure as much as the rest of them.
Laura smiled and lay on her back, Jo laughed and the others could not help but join in. Until a voice interrupted them. “Laugh now, because soon you will have no need to!”
They all looked up and saw a tall dark man standing over them. He was dressed all in black. The very sight of him took their breath away and they all stared wide eyed at him, not daring to say anything at first.
“Villain,” Ness finally managed to whisper.
Villain tossed his head back and laughed, because he had just won.

They were badly out numbered. They did not stand a chance, so it may seem pointless that they drew their swords and stood, ready to fight. Not one of the army that surrounded them spoke; they only looked at them with unblinking eyes, all the while wearing looks of men who know they have won.
“We are done for,” Sybil whispered as she looked at all the men around them.
Justyne shook her head and said with confidence, “The battle is not over yet.”
Hanz nodded his head in hearty agreement. Sybil smiled. “I did not mean that, we will not go out without a fight, what I meant was that this time I do not think we are going to make it out.” She looked side ways at Maddock as she spoke.
He lowered his head knowing he was to blame for this mess they were now in. Sybil reached over and touched his hand; he looked down at her, right into her green eyes. “Maddock I have always liked you, you are one of my most favorite characters. I am sorry I killed you pointlessly.”
Maddock looked down at her and suddenly wondered how he could ever have done anything to her. He smiled and said, “I actually did not mind, you wrote it very well, and I would rather die at your hand any day then live at any other author’s hand, even your Ted DeKker’s.”
An arrow was suddenly released, and the battle was on, but this time was different, because for the first time all the authors and characters were fighting on the same side. Even Jordaan put aside any hard feelings for Hanz and fought gallantly at his side.
Hanz, after killing about ten men with his sword, put it away and drew his pistols. He got to keep them because they were all badly out numbered and so the unwritten law agreed that it would even the odds if someone had pistols. Hanz spun the gun about his fingers and then shot two men, spun and shot two more before spinning them around his finger again.
Maddock killed a man and grabbed his sword as he yelled with a laugh, “Show off Hanz!”
“I agree!” Jordaan yelled above the battle din.
Prinz side stepped a swinging blade and found himself back to back with Jordaan as Hanz’s voice reached them followed by a gun shot, “But it is working!”
Jordaan and Prinz spun in a circle and killed about ten men. “We tell no one about this!” Prinz growled as he killed another man.
Jordaan grunted and said, “Nothing will ever pry it from my lips!”
On the other side of the battle field Justyne and Jonathan were fighting side by side, the gallant husband character refusing to leave his authoress wife’s side. Timothy fought as close to them as he could, clearly wishing to make up for his act if putting Justyne into the book.
Maddock and Theobald were fighting near Sybil though not beside her because one, she was a bad aim, and two she moved about so much they would probably end up dead at the end of her overly long sword. Instead the two men who had never really been any more at peace with each other the Prinz and Jordaan, ending up fight side by side. They were continually looking over at Sybil to make sure she was alright.
“She is going to get herself killed!” Maddock kept saying. Theobald simply smiled in answer.
From behind them Hanz was keeping up his shooting, dropping men left and right. Alex was in the center of it all with Damrin. He was rather worried Hanz was going to mistake him and shoot him; thankfully Hanz was a better aim and sight then that.
Damrin guarded Alex’s back as his author expertly fought back ten men at once without so much as breaking a sweat. Everything was going very well in fact, and it went even better when Hanz pulled out his grenades and Maddock his exploding rocks and well, as you can imagine, did away with the rest of the army.
They then stood back and looking about made sure they were all alive and well. Then they all grinned at each other and for a moment delighted in their escape. But it was only for a moment before a man appeared, a man dressed all in black. He stopped before them and said with a laugh, “You only think you have won, now the real game beings!”