The approaching Orcs looked much like the lone Orc that had attacked the group. Only the color of their skin and armor varied. All of the Orcs were large, repulsive looking, carried large and sharp looking weapons, and were wearing very aggressive expressions.
The heroes looked upon the Orc army with equally aggressive expressions. Sampson’s expression was just a little different than the rest. His was aggression like the rest, only it was mixed with excited anticipation.
When she felt the army was close enough, Black Cat launched herself into battle signaling with her tail for the other heroes to follow. Not far into it Black Cat realized that the heroes appeared to be fighting a losing battle, at least with the way they were fighting. Every hero had gone after a different Orc, and most were barely making progress against the army. There were too many Orcs attacking at once. The heroes would need to come up with a strategy to greatly reduce the enemies numbers.
“Spy Girl!” Black Cat called out, “Do you have any gadgets that could attack multiple enemies at once to at least give us some fighting room!”
“I think so!” Spy Girl called back after defeating her Orc. Spy Girl stopped fighting Orcs for the moment to look in her small, but mysteriously deeply pocketed utility belt. As she did another Orc began approaching from behind her. Chihuahua, who happened to get thrown in Spy Girl’s direction by the Orc he had been fighting, noticed this.
Regaining control of his flight ability, Chihuahua flew a circle around the Orc, distracting him for a few seconds. Spy Girl began pulling something long and green out of her belt and began doing something to. To Chihuahua who only saw quick glimpses, as he flew around the Orc, it looked as if she was unwrapping or peeling whatever it was.
Another Orc appeared while Chihuahua was busy with the first and raised his ax like weapon, which may have been an ax, Chihuahua wasn’t sure. Just before the weapon hit Spy Girl, Chihuahua rushed towards it and grabbed the handle in his jaws. Because Chihuahua had super strength, among his other abilities, upon having a hold on the Orcs weapon, the little dog was able to hold on tightly and pull the Orc in a different direction by twisting around in the air, though what he really wanted to do was get the weapon away from the enemy. As he was struggling to do this, the other Orc attacked Chihuahua.
With an extra strong twist, using all his strength and his full body to achieve his goal, Chihuahua finally twisted the weapon free from the Orcs hand. Chihuahua then turned, or rather, straightened himself out just in time to avoid having his head removed by the weapon of the second Orc. Instead of losing his head, the Orcs weapon landed a clean hit and cut right through Chihuahua’s long tail.
Fighting a yelp that would make him lose his grip on his confiscated weapon, the now angry little dog swung the weapon at both Orcs, who at this time were standing very close together. The Orcs were lined up just right and Chihuahua put just enough force in his swing to remove something very important to both of them.
“I got it!” Spy Girl exclaimed suddenly. She was holding something long and yellow.
Chihuahua heard her but didn’t respond. He was distractedly sniffing at something long, brown, and furry on the ground. With a whimper, Chihuahua realized that the thing used to be his tail. Chihuahua wanted to pick it up and make DWW reattach it, but he looked in the direction in which the majority of Orcs and heroes were fighting and once again he felt very angry. With a growl, Chihuahua decided that his tail could wait. Right now there was a battle to be won!
Spy Girl threw her gadget towards the center of the enemy army.
“Was that an ear of corn?” Asantra asked.
“Sort of,” Spy Girl replied. She then explained, “It is corn in the sense that it looks, feels, and is grown like corn, but it acts very different and you wouldn’t want to eat it.”
“Why’s that?” Wonder Horse asked curiously.
“What it does is highly destructive,” Spy Girl answered then offered no further explanation knowing that the heroes would find out what the corn does very shortly. Spy Girl watched where she had threw the corn and waited patiently until she saw a bright flash of light. The flash was a signal that Spy Girl knew meant the corn was ready to activate. As soon as she saw this, Spy Girl urgently said, “All heroes fall back now!”
Everyone did as Spy Girl said and the kernels of the corn began popping in all directions. As kernels hit something they exploded. This went on for several seconds, and maybe even as long as a minute passed before all was quiet, at least quiet as far as the exploding corn was concerned. Sadly, the results were not what had been expected. Only minimal damage had been done to the Orcs closest.
“It wasn’t powerful enough!” Black Cat said.
“Well, it was designed for humans and human sized enemies,” Spy Girl explained feeling disappointed.
Suddenly Sampson had an idea. “Do you have another one?” He asked Spy Girl.
“One, why?” She asked suspiciously.
“I have a good idea,” He replied smiling mysteriously and somewhat evilly at the same time. “This time, though, make sure it lands directly in the center of the Orc army!”
“How?” Spy Girl asked.
“Use the birds,” Sampson replied simply.
The birds, Miles and Screetche, soon found themselves flying over the Orcs with an ear of corn in their talons. Upon finding direct center they dropped it into the army which for some reason had stopped attacking and was only beginning to attack the heroes.
As it fell, Sampson used his magic to make the ear of corn as large as possible until it exploded. By the time the kernels began popping each kernel was almost as big as an Orc. This time, for most of the Orcs, as they got hit by a kernel, it meant instant death. For the remaining Orcs, which were around ten rather than two hundred as before, they were either injured, stunned from the bright light caused by the corn activating and the explosions from each kernel, or both. As soon as this opportunity presented itself, the heroes were upon the enemy quickly eliminating all remaining Orcs.
Upon winning the battle, all of the heroes except Chihuahua, wanted to celebrate. Chihuahua unhappily returned to his tail and picked it up. And for the first time, since it got cut off, Chihuahua felt the pain of losing his tail in more ways than one.
Sampson didn’t follow the other heroes back into the market either, but this was for a different reason. Sampson was looking thoughtfully at the dead Orcs.
Chihuahua carried his tail, which was colder than he had expected it to be even for having been sitting in snow, towards DWW. As soon as he reached her he handed DWW his tail, which she took from him.
“Can you reattach it?” Chihuahua asked her pleadingly.
DWW looked at the tail thoughtfully and examined it. Although she wanted to say something positive to him, DWW knew that she couldn’t. “I’m sorry, Chihuahua, but I can’t,” DWW answered him regretfully. “That part of your tail is dead. All I can do is clean and close your new tail stub.” While it was true that DWW couldn’t do anything about the tail he lost because magic can’t bring back the dead, although it can reanimate dead things with brains, she could easily have used her magic to give him a full tail again. DWW didn’t mention this to Chihuahua because she knew how proud the little dog was of his tail and he would never feel this way about any tail created by magic, it just wouldn’t have been the same.
Although he hadn’t noticed before, Chihuahua looked back to see that his tail was sill bleeding. Sadly, Chihuahua allowed DWW to do what she could in the shelter she had created. When she was finished she told Chihuahua to go celebrate with everyone else although she knew Chihuahua probably wouldn’t do this.
As Chihuahua came out of the shelter, he was surprised to see the other heroes waiting for him. Black Cat was sitting patiently in the front of the group. Before Chihuahua could say anything Black Cat said, “You may have lost your tail but you should be proud; not for the loss of your tail, but because of why. You lost your tail in a battle helping a friend and because of this the courage and loyalty you showed will not go unrewarded.” Black Cat paused here then she placed a paw on Chihuahua’s shoulder and continued, “You have now achieved full hero status. Today you are no longer my sidekick…you are my partner. Congratulations Chihuahua!”