When Your Novel Strikes Back

by Heather Lawson

  Chapter the Fourteenth – Sand Wars

  The group stared in horror as panels fell away from the walls of the giant castle to reveal sand cannons, all of which were soon pointing at them. They scattered as the cannons shot sand cannonballs at them. Dan fell into the moat, where he was instantly attacked by the minion whom Heather had pushed into the moat earlier. Heather and Ally were making their way around either side of the castle, looking for a way in, while Ayesha remained at the front, dancing about so as to avoid all the cannonballs hurtling towards her.

  Heather searched the walls of the castle frantically, trying to find a way inside so that she could stop the attack on her friends. Things seemed to be getting more dangerous for them as the novel continued, they needed to get back home and fast.

  Rounding to the back wall of the castle, she bumped into Ally again. There was a series of small notches that looked as though they would be able to climb them up to the roof if they could just get across the moat. Heather ran over to Ally, a plan forming in her mind.

  “I’m going to jump across and climb the wall, you go back to Ayesha and see if you can help her,” she said.

  Ally nodded and ran back around the corner of the castle. Heather took a deep breath and took a few steps back before running towards the castle and jumping over the gap that had been made for the moat. She barely made it, her feet slipping down the ledge. She managed to grab onto the wall and pull herself up to stand on the small platform beside the castle wall. She turned slowly and looked up at the wall in front of her, it was going to be a long climb.

  Ayesha was still dancing around when Ally made it back to the front of the castle. Ally spotted the umbrella that Ayesha had brought with her and grabbed it as she ran towards her friend.

  “Ayesha! Over here!” she shouted, opening the umbrella and propping it up in the sand so as to protect them from the onslaught.

  Ayesha ran over to her and dove under the umbrella. Sighing with relief as she was finally able to stop.

  “Thanks for coming back Ally,” she said.

  “Anytime.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “Heather’s going to let us into the castle as soon as she can,” Ally replied. “We just need to wait it out until she gets the drawbridge down.”

  “What about Dan?” Ayesha asked, glancing around the umbrella to glance at the moat, even though she couldn’t see down into it.

  “I’m sure he’s fine,” Ally said, although she had a troubled look on her face.

  “Guys! Get ready!” Heather’s voice drifted over the sound of cannon fire.

  “How did you get up here?!” Wax’s voice could be heard too.

  “Magic,” Heather replied.

  Ally and Ayesha glanced around the umbrella to see Heather standing face to face with Wax at the top of the castle. Wax made to grab her but she dodged him and disappeared for a few moments. When she reappeared, the drawbridge was lowering.

  “No! You can’t let them in, this is my castle!” Wax shouted, pouting and still trying to grab Heather.

  “Well that’s too bad!” Ally shouted, drawing Wax’s attention. “Because we’re coming in!”

  She ran towards the now open archway at the front of the sandcastle, Ayesha following closely behind her.

  “Minions! Help me!” Wax shouted.

  Out of nowhere hundreds of minions appeared, surrounding Ally, Ayesha and even Heather on the roof.

  “Alright guys, let’s show them how it’s done!” Heather shouted.

  She ran along the edge of the wall and then jumped into the group of minions closest to her. Punching, kicking, writhing, head-butting, anything she could think of to hurt them and get them out of the way. Ally and Ayesha were doing much better at the bottom of the castle, they were synchronized in their battle strategy, using each other to swing kick and punch the minions closest to them.

  Ally and Ayesha eventually made their way slowly up the steps inside the castle until they reached the roof, where Heather was still valiantly fighting the minions that were surrounding her. They quickly jumped into the group and helped fight them off. Wax was pacing back and forth in his place at the front of the castle, seeing all of his minions falling one by one. He glanced over the wall to the moat to see Dan slowly winning his battle against the moat minion too.

  When Wax turned back to view situation on the roof, he was surprised, shocked and dismayed to see that his minions had fallen at the hands of Ally, Ayesha and Heather.

  “Really? Three girls can defeat hundreds of grown men?!” Wax cried, falling to his knees. “It’s not fair.”

  “What will we do with him now?” Ally asked, looking at the other two.

  “I have an idea,” Heather said.

  The three of them left Wax on the roof of his castle, crying silently to himself, and made their way back down the stairs to the drawbridge. Heather kicked the foundation of the castle until it crumbled and the entire walls came crashing down. The three of them ran as far as they could from the tidal wave of sand and watched as the dust settled. They could see arms, legs and heads poking out from everywhere in the heap and at the very top was Wax’s head. They stepped closer to the heap again, admiring their handiwork.

  “Hey! Over here!” they heard a voice shouting to them.

  They made their way around the heap and spotted Dan, half submerged in the sand heap. He had obviously been on his way out of the moat when they had collapsed the building. Heather grabbed his hands and pulled while Ayesha and Ally dug at the sand surrounding his torso. It took them a few moments but they finally managed to pull Dan out.

  “Oh great, now I’ve got sand in my underwear,” he said, dancing from foot to foot and watching little trails of sand falling out of the legs of his jeans. “Peachy.”

  The girls couldn’t help but laugh, not wanting to let Dan know that they had actually forgotten about him when they collapsed the building. Ayesha and Ally linked their arms through his, attempting to make an effort to be more friendly to him. Heather was walking beside them, staring at her thumbs as she wiggled them about in front of her.

  “I think I hurt my thumbs killing all those bad guys,” she frowned.

  “You’ll get over it,” Dan said. “I was half buried in sand.”

  “I guess,” Heather said, dropping her arms to her side.

  “So,” Ayesha said. “What now?”

  “We ask that guy over there where we are?” Heather said, pointing to a man who was standing not so far away from them.

  “Hey! Hey you there!” Ayesha shouted.

  “Me?” the man asked, pointing to himself and looking around.

  “Yes, you,” Ally said as they approached him. “My friends and I are lost, could you tell us where we are?”

  “Oh,” the man said. “Yeah, sure. You’re at Pebblerock Beach.”

  “Pebblerock…”Heather said, trying to remember if the name was familiar or not. “How far are we from Ficton?”

  “If you follow that road over there you’ll be there in no time,” the man said, grabbing the surfboard that was sitting by his feet. “Hope you get there alright.”

  “Thank you,” Heather said.

  “Let’s go home,” Ally said, leading the group to the road that the man had pointed out.