Word count 70,554

The ship had run aground, it had happened so suddenly there was nothing any of them could do about it, one moment they were sailing over clear waters, the next they were stuck on a sand bank. Mark scowled at his brother as Jules leaned over the bow of the ship and looked down.
“We are stuck,” he finally announced.
“What gave you that crazy idea?” Mark demanded.
“Oh put a sock in it Mark,” Jules muttered.
Leah shook her head at the brothers and asked, “What should we do?” She looked out past the bow of the ship and saw nothing but water.
“Send out an SOS,” Jules moaned as he started pacing.
“That is our brilliant captain’s plan?” Mark asked with a scoff.
Jules rolled his eyes. “I was being sarcastic Mark.”
“I think it might work!” Jason suddenly exclaimed, breaking up what would have been a fight when he did so.
“What might?” Jules demanded.
“The SOS,” Jason said.
“We can send it to the girls!” Galdorn said when he caught on, his eyes glowed in hope.
And so they sent about, trying to get help from Cassandra and Elsa, but all their yelling only left them with sore throats and the knowledge that the girls could not help them out of this one.
“So what do you suggest we do, sit here?” Mark asked as he glared again at Jules.
Jules rolled his eyes again and said, “Really Mark, you sound like you are goin to start a mutiny too!”
“Give me one reason why I should not!” Mark suddenly snapped.
Jules stared at him hard before he answered. “Because I am your older brother and your captain!”
“You are an author who killed his character and was put in their book!” Mark cried and drawing his sword added, “And I will be captain if I take over this ship!”
Jules drew his own sword and the characters stared in disbelief as they realized what was happening. They were about to say something when a sharp gasp came from behind them, they all turned and gasped in horror when they saw a dark man had hold of Leah, knife at her throat.
“Villain!” Jules growled. “Let her go!”
Villain laughed. “The gallant Jules wants to save his first mate I see, and what about you Mark?” he asked with a sneer.
“Don’t you even think of harming her!” Mark snapped.
Villain laughed again, this time louder. “If either of you wishes to save her then sheath the swords, and come with me!”
“Come with you were?” Jules demanded. Villain looked over the side of the ship and Jules followed his gaze until it rested upon a small boat.
Jules looked over at Mark, and then at Leah. Leah seemed to be begging him to try and take Villain on while Mask’s look plainly said, “We have to obey for her sake/”
Jules groaned and said with a snap, “Fine! We will come!”

They ran through the woods not daring to stop. They really had no idea where they were going, just that they had to get there fast. Or maybe it was the feeling that they had to get away from the Rangers fast. There is something very sad in knowing someone you were trusting was really a bad guy plotting your death and in a way they wanted to be as far away from the men who had done just this to them.
They ran until they reached a hill that rose above the trees, this they climbed and then sat down enjoying the cool, rich green grass. For a long while no one said anything, they sat in silence that was both peaceful and sad. When they did speak it was in soft, whispered tones that blended with the soft breezes.
“How can this be a place of danger?” Cherise said sadly. “How I would long to live forever in a place like this!”
Katie lay back on the grass, pillowing her head on her arms. She sighed heavily and whispered, “So do I, I am so inspired here.”
Sarah and Jane said nothing because there was nothing they could say. And so they stayed there for so long they seemed to forget all else about them as the peace of the land lured them off to sleep. They felt into a light doze that, a moment later, they were yanked out of.
Sitting up they all looked about, trying to see what had disturbed them. They moaned when they saw him, Villain, standing over them. “Come now,” he said with a smile. “Do not look so surprised! You knew I was going to return and finish this did you not?”
“Leave them alone!” Reamann snapped as he stood and drew his sword. Kallen stood on his right and Jake on his left.
Villain shook his head. “You don’t get it do you? You cannot stop me with swords and bows and arrows, or even guns for that matter,” he smiled as he remembered Hanz’s attempted to shot him.
“Then how do we stop you?” Jane asked, she had stood up and was facing him off.
Villain smiled at her as he said, “By coming with me, you will soon see how this must end!”
Authors and characters looked at each other but they knew there was really nothing they could do but go with the man. And so, in the end they agreed, though they did so with great reluctance.

They had to free R.K.; that was their only thought. No matter what they had to free R.K.. As they ran toward the torture room this one thought driving them on, they began to wonder how they would free him. Pip was in no shape to fight, in fact she could barely stand!
The cat hissed as he thought about Rufus, there was nothing he would like to do better at that moment then sink his teeth into that rat. Trojan, the cat, and Mark reached the torture room first as Sam and Meggy had stayed behind to help Pip. The characters burst into the room just as a big man snapped his whip again which landed on R.K.’s back. From the looks of it he had already been whipped a lot and had not he been tied up it is very likely he would have fallen over.
“Let him go!” Trojan snapped as the cat’s eyes landed on Rufus who was over seeing the whole thing.
Rufus laughed at them as the man snapped the whip again. The authors came running in at that moment and Meggy and Sam lowered Pip to the floor so they could draw their swords.
“You don’t stand a chance!” Meggy snapped at Rufus. “Let him go and we will not sick kitty on you!”
The cat licked his jowls though he did not like being called kitty.
Rufus laughed as the man with the whip turned and looked at them with an annoyed glance. They recognized him though they had only seen him once before; he was none other then Villain.
Villain laughed at their expressions and Rufus laughed with him, though Rufus’s laugh was cut rather short when the cat saw that none one was looking at him and pounced. Rufus yelped and tried to draw his sword but it was too late. The cat smiled at him and said, “Never mess with a hungry cat when you look like dinner.” And then he ate him. If was not a pretty sight, but after all, the cat was, well a cat and Rufus was a rat and that was the nature of things.
Villain was not very pleased at having one of his men eaten, but he did not waste his time with the cat. Instead he told the authors and characters to surrender to him.
“Give us one good reason why we should!” Sam demanded.
“Because I have R.K., and as you can see to have him torture causes your friend a great deal of pain,” and he looked at Pip as he spoke.
The others looked over at Pip as well, and then over at R.K., and then at Villain. Trojan looked ready to toss his sword into the man, but instead he growled, “This is why no one likes you!”

It should go without saying that he got the others as well. Through trickery and deceit he managed to capture them all. He led them to an island, one he had made special for this purpose. Sure it seemed a little crowded with all the Inkling members and their characters on it, but he was not the sort to complain.
Villain gave them a day to rest and share their adventures with each other. Sarah and Sybil found each other and clasped each other in a tight hug. Villain rolled his eyes at them and then left, there was one last person he had to get before the group was complete, and he was only to be found in the real world.
The next day Villain called everyone out into the main square were he addressed them. Standing up on a plat form he said, “I must say with great reluctance that I am pleased with you all, you have preformed much better then I thought you would, in fact I thought you would all be done in on your first adventures, but you proved me wrong.” No one smiled at him, in fact all they did was glare.
No matter, at least they were listening. “As you can see you all have failed the first requirements of the game, which was to kill me,” he smiled because it was so obvious that he was still alive. “But also none of you died, and so that brings us to a problem. Now, I can either let you all go, or I can do you all in right now. Thankfully for all of you I am not the sort to just knock off a bunch of young authors, but I am also not the sort of man who will just let you all go either.”
Still no one spoke. What was wrong with them all? Cat had their tongues? “So then, to settle this matter I have come up with a plan, a duel. You guys must choose someone to fight me, we shall be civil about it and only do it to the first blood. I do not care who you pick, I am willing to face any of you.”
He looked them all in the eye but they did not blink and every one of them returned his gaze. That was good, very good. “If I win you all stay here as my prisoners for the rest of your lives. If the person facing me wins you all go free, simple enough don’t you agree.” Still no one answered, they showed no emotion.
Villain rubbed his hands together and listened to the dry sound. He allowed himself to smile gleefully as he added, “Also I have gone out of my way to bring to you someone you all know.” He looked over his shoulder and nodded his head. The cloaked figured, dressed in brown pants, loose shirt, bare feet, long cloak, and hood, stepped forward and up to his side. The figure said nothing and moved very stiffly.
“I present to all of you, Spy,” Villain said as he rested a hand on the boy’s shoulder. Spy pulled back from the touch though he did not glance up at Villain.
The Inklings all gasped as they gazed for the first time upon Spy. They could not see his face as the hood covered his features. Villain liked their reaction, he liked it so much he laughed as he dismissed them. Spy was very eager to leave Villain’s side and move down with the Inklings, he followed them as they made their way to the beach to try and decided who should face Villain. He stood quietly in the back and did not saying anything as he listened to them talking.
“I should be the one to do it,” Maddock was the first to speak up. “This whole thing was my idea and I should be the one who gets us out of this mess.”
Theobald shook his head. “No Maddock, Sybil needs you, I should be the one to go.”
“You sound as though he is going to kill you,” Sybil scolded. “He said it was to the first blood, not the death.”
“I would not trust him on that if I was you,” Spy spoke for the first time.
All eyes turned on him, their looks full of uncertainty. “Villain is one of the worse bad guys in all of history, he is known for not keeping his word. I doubt highly he will let his opponent live, and I doubt even if the man you choose was to draw first blood he would not keep his word and let you all go.”
“What do you suggest we do then?” Mark asked warily.
“The only wait out of this is for Villain to die, like he said,” Spy said gravely.
“How do we do that, and how do we even know we can trust YOU?” Mariella snapped.
Spy lowered his head. “You can’t.”
“I thought you were one of us,” Beth said. “How can you be one of us if we are all here?”
Spy sighed heavily. “I am one of you, in your world. This is Villain’s world, and he was able to bring me here in the form of someone else.”
Everyone looked confused and said nothing for a long while. “You mean, if we were to remove your hood we would see which one of us you are?” Gabrielle finally asked.
Spy nodded his head. “Yes, only you cannot remove my hood, it goes against the rules of this land and is therefore impossible. Just like Jake could not fight the man with a gun nor Hanz could shot Villain. Villain made rules and we have to listen to them.”
“Why?” Jules demanded. “Why can’t we break them.”
“They won’t break,” Soy said gravely. “Here, try it, come try and remove my hood.”
Jules walked up to him and grabbing the hood pulled back hard, it refused to move. “See?” Spy asked when Jules stopped his pulling. “We have to obey because we can do nothing else.”
“And to get out we have to kill Villain?” Laura asked in a whisper.
“I fear so, though you must keep in mind he is just a character, killing him would be no different then killing one of your characters in your books.”
For a long time no one said anything, Spy let it all sink in before she added, “Also, I fear that the man who kills Villain will die.”
That hit hard. They all stared at each other, stunned by the realization.
“What if a character was to kill him?” Jason finally asked.
“Then the character would die for real, his memory and existence would be forever lost,” Spy shook his head sadly as he spoke.
“That is better then one of our authors dying though,” Cael said gravely as he looked at Beth.
“What if I fought him?” R.K. asked.
Spy rested a hand on his shoulder as he sat on the beach. “I fear that will not do R.K. though your gallantries wonderfully thoughtful. But you see, you and Pip are connected as you have both learned from the torture chamber. If you were to die R.K. then Pip would die.”
R.K. scowled at this but he looked sideways at Pip and gave a half smile. He knew he could never risk Pip’s life, even if they didn’t get along all the time, no more like they hated each other, though deep down they both knew they were fond of each other.
“Let me face him,” Jordaan said. “I die anyways.”
“Well so do I,” Maddock said before anyone could say anything. “So why not let me face him?”
The other characters all stepped forward then and gave reasons as to why they should be the one who faced of Villain. All too soon order was lost and everyone was arguing. Spy sighed heavily and moving over to a tall rock that jutted out of the sand he whistled loudly and called them all back to order.
“Do behave yourselves or I shall face Villain.”
“If you were to face Villain would the one who you are die as well as you?” Rose asked wondering if she had worded it right even as she said it.
“Yes, if I was to die then the Inkling who is me would die as well,” Spy said gravely.
“You seem to know a lot about all this,” Jo said as she looked up at Spy.
“Yes I do,” Spy admitted. “It is because Villain told me many things, and other things I learned while I was in the land. It turns out when you are in a new body you learn things quickly. But that does not matter, what matters is Villain and who should face him.”
“I do not think a girl should be forced to fight him,” Prinz said as he looked at the girl characters.
“I agree,” Spy said. “This is a man’s position.”
“It should be someone who knows much about sword fighting,” Cedryck added.
The characters who did not know much about sword play stepped back with the girls. The also decided he should be well into manhood, being that he would have already lived much of his life as opposed to the young men.
After many hours of work they had it narrowed down to a few men, but where still indecisive. Spy was going to suggest they sleep on it. The duel was for afternoon the next day; that would give them plenty of time to choose though in the end Spy feared they would have to resort to drawing strays. He sighed heavily, this was not how he had been hoping things would turn out; though there was really nothing they could do about it at the moment.
      Spy placed his fingers to his lips and was about to whistle again and call everyone back to order when a quiet but loud voce said from the back, “Send me to fight him, I will go!”
Everyone turned to see who had spoken and some of the writers gasped in wonder at what they saw.

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