The Articulum Part 11 By: Lance Holloway Peten was the first to wake up. He, Turlon, Wilm, and the two roomen were circled around the remains of their campfire. Vulla was off a ways just waking up also. Rarguf was farther in the woods, but his snoring was as loud as if he was sitting in the middle of the circle of sleeping bodies. Off in the distance through the tops of the trees, Peten could see Sorrora's castle perched on top of a mountain. The rising sun reflected off the towers in a dazzling array of light. It wasn't too far from where they camped in the valley. All they had to do was scale the mountainside, sneak into the castle, find Jamk and the others, and sneak back out. Easy to say, but Peten knew it would be much harder. Suddenly the woods were quiet. That meant one thing: Rarguf was awake. The dragon slowly crept towards camp rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Good morning, Rarguf," Peten said. Rarguf stopped rubbing his eyes and squinted towards Peten. "Good morning," he yawned. He stretched his long neck and let out a loud moan. The others woke up from that. "Sorry," he said. "It's time they needed to get up anyway," Peten said laughing. Turlon propped himself up with his arms. "Well, since you were up, why didn't you make breakfast?" he asked. "I already did," Peten pointed to the egg shells next to the burned out fire. "I'm surprised the smell didn't wake you." "Thanks, for sharing," Turlon said and got up to stretch. "You better get ready. We need to head for the castle soon," Peten said. Mikmer hopped to his feet. "Are all you humans this pushy?" he asked. "No. Peten just recently decided to be," Turlon said. Peten just glared at the two. "Peten's right though," Rarguf said. "We do need to reach the castle as soon as possible." Lewmer nodded in agreement. "It would be to our advantage if we did." "Well, I want to have breakfast first," Turlon said and dug out some eggs from his supply bag. Peten packed his supplies up and prepared himself for the first castle raid of his life. ----------------- The small army reached the stone castle walls and stopped. Swurg couldn't believe how dirty the walls were. Living on a mountain was no excuse. He could never stay in a castle that looked like that. Swurg scanned the wall. He could see trullums peering at them from the top waiting to attack. Swurg turned to the captain. "Attack when possible. I'm going to take care of some other business." "Yes, Master," the captain said. Swurg turned his elephant away from the walls and rode off. He circled around to the side of the castle where there weren't as many trullums. In the distance he could hear the charge of his soldiers and the battle cry of the trullums. ----------------- "What is that noise?" Ketta asked. Nobody responded. Jamk heard it too. It sounded like thunder and shouts. "A battle?" he said. "More than likely," Arna said. "Sorrora isn't noted for her hospitality." Jamk listened to the ruckus outside the castle. It was hard to tell what it was through all the stone castle walls, but it sounded more like a battle the longer he listened. Then an idea struck him. "You know," he said hopping to his feet, "while they are out there battling, we could try to escape." "I don't know if it would work," Kelmer said. "I mean, they might think the attackers are here to rescue us and thusly are guarding us more." Arna walked to the bars and peered down the corridor. "If I know Sorrora, she would make sure the attackers don't make it in her castle to begin with," she said. "If we could get out of this cage, then we would have a good chance of escaping." "But, how are we going to get out?" Jamk asked. Everyone seemed to be lost in thought. Jamk could not think of a single plan to get out. Suddenly, Metty raised her head from her knees with a sly grin on her muzzle. ------------- "Look! A way in!" shouted Rarguf from the air. "I see a drainage grate at the back of the castle." The dragon landed near Peten. Turlon scanned the area Rarguf was talking about and saw the grate. "Would it be easy to get in that way?" Peten asked. "It sure would," Rarguf said. "Well, not for me or Vulla. We are too big. But you five should be able to fit through." "Then let's go," Turlon said. "I want this to be over with." He hated the idea of sneaking into a castle. "Hey, what's that sound?" Mikmer asked. "It sounds like a battle," Rarguf said. "That will make your job easier, since most of their forces would be at the battle. You better get going before somebody wins." Rarguf ripped the grate from the wall. "You're right," Peten said and squeezed through. Rarguf turned to Turlon. "Vulla and I will hide in that clump of trees over there," he said pointing to a clump of trees. "Okay," Turlon said and followed Peten. Mikmer then Lewmer crawled through. Wilm managed to follow even though he had to crawl on his flippers. ------------- "Metty, I'm sorry. We can't bring Dabb back," Arna said backing up against the bars. Hate flared in Metty's eyes. She slowly hopped to the woman. "You could have changed Sorrora at the start!" "But, I needed to wait!" Arna said. Metty continued to approach Arna, and Arna continued to press herself against the cell bars. Jamk hopped between the two. "Now, look here. I'm tired of you two fighting!" "Get out of the way, Jamk!" Metty yelled and shoved him out of the way. She pounced on Arna and they rolled on the floor fighting. "Guard! Guard!" Jamk yelled. Strangely enough, a trullum answered the call. "What do you want, kangaroo?" the trullum said. Jamk had given up on trying to figure out which one used to be Mulmer. "Stop those two from fighting," Jamk said. The guard stepped closer to the bars just as Arna and Metty crashed into them. The guard began laughing a huge thunderous laugh. "Aren't you going to stop them?" Jamk asked. The guard was about to respond when Metty and Arna grabbed his ankles through the bars. The startled trullum didn't even suspect that Jamk would shove him over. With his ankles being held, the guard fell over with a loud thud and lay there unconscious. Metty and Arna stood up and dusted themselves off. "That was easy," Metty said. "You didn't have to get so into the part," Arna said. "Who said I was acting?" Metty asked and helped Jamk retrieve the keys from the toppled guard. Jamk rushed to the lock and began trying keys. One finally clicked. "We're free!" everyone shouted and hopped, except for Arna who ran, out of the cell. -------------- Turlon followed Peten through the small tunnel. It was dark, but he knew the others were behind him. Peten was carrying the portable light so at least one of them knew where they were going. The tunnel had gotten tall enough so they didn't have to crawl, but it was still narrow. Then Peten stopped. In front of them was a type of door. I had a small hole which looked to be used as a handle. "Help me open this," Peten said and pushed on the door. Turlon managed to squeeze next to Peten in the narrow tunnel and push also. Slowly the door opened. The two of them eventually forced the door to have a wide enough opening for them to go through. The five of them emerged in what looked like a library. The door they had pushed open was actually a book shelf. "I think we are in the library," Mikmer said. "Now we have to find where they are holding our friends," Peten said and quietly ran to the other side of the room where the normal entrance door was located. He peeked out into the hall and signaled the others to come. The others followed. When Turlon reached the door, Peten had already gone out in the hall. Turlon looked and saw the hall empty except for Peten. He followed him. One by one the others entered the hall, too. About half way down the hall, there was a large door on their right. It was cracked open, so Peten peeked in. "Wow," he said and opened the door enough to go in. Curious, Turlon looked through the doorway also. Inside was a room full of animals. Dead animals. All sorts of animals were stuffed and put on display in this room. There were bears, tigers, rabbits, and some that Turlon had never seen before. Like the one that seemed to be a mix between an eagle and a lion. Then he heard a gasp. He turned and saw Mikmer and Lewmer staring at an animal off in the corner. Turlon walked over to see and stopped in his tracks. The animal they were looking at was a rooman. And not ANY rooman. "Dabb?" Turlon asked no one in particular. Peten spun around from his tour and ran to the group. "We have to find the others!" he said. "Who ever did this will pay!" Lewmer shouted. Wilm barked. "Quiet. We don't want them to hear us," Peten said and peeked out into the hallway. After his signal, the group ventured out into the hall. -------------- Swurg instructed the elephant to stay. The elephant nodded. The creature would be well hidden at this part of the fortress wall. There was a slight indention and trees growing around. Swurg looked up at the wall towering above him. "Well, I guess I better get this over with," he said to himself. He never really liked Sorrora. He cast his levitation spell and floated above the wall. He spotted the open window to Sorrora's bedroom at the top of the tower. That's where he headed. The battle was concentrated at the main entrance to the castle walls. Fortunately none of the trullums spotted the wizard floating above them. He glided through the window and gently touched down. Looking around the room, he saw it was empty. Surely he knew Sorrora better than this. She always watches battles from this window. Then he heard footsteps. They didn't sound like Sorrora's though. They sounded more like thumping. Suddenly the door burst open. Swurg could hardly keep from laughing at what he saw enter. Sorrora barged in with a startled look on her face. But, it wasn't the look that got to Swurg, it was the face. A kangaroo's face. "Swurg!" the kangaroo shouted. "Sorrora? Is that you?" Swurg asked choking back a laugh. "Shut up!" She said and hopped over to the window. "Why are you attacking me?" "My dear kangaroo," Swurg said joining her at the window. Sorrora gave him an evil stare. "You have something I want." "Like what? My talisman is gone, if that's what you want." "Oh, come now. You know what I came for." Swurg looked out at the battle. Apparently the trullums were better than his soldiers. Well, at least in size. "I think we need to make the battle more even," he said and waved his hand. Out on the battle field, the shiny armor of Swurg's soldiers glittered as it flew apart. The growing bodies of the men began to glitter itself as their skin grew green scales. The soldiers continued to fight oblivious of their new reptilian form. They even used their long tails as if they were born with them. The shocked trullums paused for only a second, then continued fighting their newly enhanced foes. "Why did you do that?" Sorrora demanded. "You aren't as much fun as you used to be," Swurg said. "You always transformed your trullums into something better than my soldiers." "And then you will change your soldiers into something better. Yes, I know. But...." "You can't do it," Swurg interrupted. "You can't cast a spell." "How did you guess?" Sorrora said sarcastically. "Was it the fact that I am this kangaroo thing? Was it that I hadn't done anything magical in the battle?" "Sorry," Swurg said putting his hands up in defense. "I thought the kangaroo body was just another phase you were going through." "Humph!" Sorrora said and hopped away from the window and plopped down on her bed. She jerked up in pain and repositioned her tail. Swurg held back his laugh. "Now, back to why I came..." "I don't know what you are talking about," Sorrora said folding her arms. "You don't? Then who thought that you would make a good kangaroo?" Swurg walked away from the window and sat in a chair next to her bed. Sorrora didn't say anything. "I see," Swurg said. "Why don't we negotiate?" To Be Continued....