Hours went by, and I struggled to keep my eyelids from closing shut. I yawned more and more frequently. I've been drawing diagrams and making lists non-stop for these past few hours. I was feeling mentally fatigued, so I decided to get up and stretch my legs. I stretched my arms above my head and leaned back, hearing some pops come from my back. It felt good to be able to stretch.
"So are you going to sleep?" I jumped and nearly had a heart attack. I looked backwards and saw that it was just Wendy. Since when did she walk so quietly? "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," she said plainly.
"I just didn't expect you to be awake right now," I replied, scratching the top my head.
"Why aren't you asleep right now?" she asked me straight forwardly.
"Well, I have to get this strategy perfect," I say. "If this isn't perfect, someone is going to get hurt. Or worse." I looked at her and she nodded, like this was the answer she was expecting.
"And what are you doing up?" I question her.
"Maxwell told me that we have to keep the fire going all night. If anyone got caught in the dark, he said they wouldn't come back out. The dark is Charlie's domain." That made sense to me. But as to why he gave Wendy the job, I don't know. Maybe Wendy suggested that she could do it or something. I glanced over at the campfire and observed that everyone else was asleep. Wendy was monotonously stacking logs onto the fire and adding kindling. I say something I regret.
"You had a sister?" Wendy continued tending to the fire as if I had not said a thing. "Uh, never mind. Sorry," I said, sharply turning back to my papers. She stood up and quit putting kindling on the fire. Still not facing me, she said this.
"Yes. I had a sister. She died when we were young. I still knew her very well though. She was my best friend." She turned and faced me. She had tears streaking down her face, but her expression was blank. "I miss her, but I know that she is okay somewhere." Her voice was steady and emotionless, even though she was telling me all this. She stood with her arms at her side, her hands shaking slightly. I felt bad for bringing the subject up. She continued standing there, now unmoving. I had to do something.
I walked over closer to her, and I put her head on my shoulder. I felt a little awkward for doing this, but again, she must be having a rough time. She rested her head on me and didn't speak.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up. I'm too nosy for my own good," I say to her, trying to be sincere. She pushed herself off my shoulder and shook her head.
"It's okay, I just haven't ever told anyone before. I've always never spoken about Abigail. Thank you Wilson." She walked back.
"But wait, thanks for what?" I say to her, catching her before she walked off. She turned her whole body to face my direction.
"For being here." She gave a smile so faint, that I still don't know if she actually did smile. "Don't stay up all night," she said to me. I said I'd try not to. She went back to where she chose as her sleeping spot.
I found myself standing and staring at where Wendy was going to sleep. I abruptly turned around and went back to where my work was. I have to get focused now. I'm not going to sleep tonight.
Finally, after hours and hours of extreme mental pressure and determination, I gazed proudly at the plan that I had created. At long last, my strategy had been perfected. I had a back-up plan for every back-up plan. I had every last miniscule detail planned out to the location of every person during the attack, to the combat techniques. I also made up some ideas for the construction of the defense, and the collection of resources. I smiled proudly at the papers that I had recorded my designs on. I was looking at the battle plan page, and I set it down and found Willow in my face.
"Oh hey Willow," I said tiredly. I give out a long yawn, and rub my stinging eyes. "What's up?"
"What's up is that you look like a homeless person." I realized that I must have looked that way. My hair was ragged, a beard was starting to grow on my face, and my eyes must have looked irritated.
"I don't care what I look like," I said to her, with a little of energy back in my voice. I waved the papers in front of her face. "I have the plan done." I saw Woodie get up out of the grass bed that he made for himself. He moved himself over to where I was.
"Wilson, you don't look so good. Maybe you should take a nap, eh?" he said to me.
"I'm completely fine," I say to him, slurring some of my words by mistake. "I have to get the plan explained to the pig villagers." I stand up to walk to the pig king, who was still asleep. My legs felt numb and I stumbled as a result of it. I was almost to the pig king. I had to wake him up so we could get the villagers assembled. The pig king was fast asleep in his trademarked royal chair. I didn't want to be rude and wake him up, but with an army invading soon, I felt that I had no choice.
As I approached the chair, the pig king started making weird wheezing sounds. Concerned for his health, I picked up the pace. I was about an arms length away from him when he suddenly disappeared. Yes, vanished. Out of thin air. Out of the throne came weird shadows. They took on the forms of various animals. Wolves, snakes, and one was even a frog. Confused and surprised, I stumbled back a few steps.
I don't believe it. Charlie is standing in all her malevolence. She shrieked a horrible cry, and she flew towards me, her tentacle-like shadow legs flowing horrifically behind her. I turned and ran in the opposite direction. She instantly teleported on top of me somehow. She had my right arm pinned with one of her mangled hands, and she had my other limbs restrained by her many legs. She screeched while her face was next to my eyes. Her mouth grew, and she now had two mouths with rows of black teeth. She is going to kill me. I'm going to die. I yell loudly as she sunk her two sets of fangs into my chest.
"Wilson!" I gasp and breathe heavily as I sit up. Wendy had a look of disapproval on her face. "I told you not to stay up all night," she told me. I couldn't tell if she was mocking me or if she was serious. I sat up as the dark spots left my vision. It was a dream. That's a relief.
"Agh, what happened?" I said, rubbing a knot on my head. It felt like someone hit me with a rock.
"You were walkin' and ya just fell flat on yer face, eh?" Woodie said to me, as he was picking something out of his teeth. I thought that I wouldn't pass out from exhaustion, but I guess I was wrong.
"It was pretty funny," Willow said, not looking up from the flame of her lighter. Why is she always staring at that stupid lighter? She had a small smirk on her face.
"Well as long as you're entertained, it's all worth it," I replied, annoyed. I look around and take a quick head count. Everyone is here but Wolfgang.
"Hey, where's Wolfgang?" I ask no one in particular. Wickerbottom looked up from a small, pocket-sized book she was reading. She was seated at the grand dining table. Maxwell was reading the Codex Umbra a few seats down from Wickerbottom.
"Wolfgang went to hunt with Chip's hunting party," Wickerbottom continued, "They informed us that they would return about midday. They should be coming back any moment." I must have passed out for a few hours. I've already lost a lot of time in the beginning phase of the village defense. But alright, I guess I'll wait for everyone to be present before I start saying any strategy.
Around ten minutes later, I managed to spot Chip's form in the distance. He was walking at a medium pace on the cobbled road that swung through the village. I saw more pig villagers appear, walking behind Chip. I hadn't spotted Wolfgang yet. A scarce time later, Wolfgang appeared behind the hunting party. He was dragging something enormous. What the heck did they kill?
Shortly, the hunting party arrived to the village, and soon after their appearance, the villagers crowded around and set their sight on the beast they took down. I jogged over to take a look at what Wolfgang had dragged in. My jaw fell to the floor. It was no creature like I had ever seen before.
It had a spherical body with two extremely long legs. If the creature were standing, I'd say it was at least eleven to twelve feet tall. The spherical torso had only a single eye on it, like a cyclops. It was covered in a straight coat of black fur, and had three enormous eyelashes for its single eye. It had a beak on it, and its one eye was still open.
"What in the heck did you bring here Chip?!" I say to Chip, pointing at the creature. Chip looked at me like I was crazy.
"Village call this tallbird. You never see tallbird?" he asked me. I told them I never saw one before, and that we didn't have 'tallbirds' in my world. He gave a weird facial expression. Wolfgang was moving his shoulders side to side, in an effort to stretch them.
"It was tough beast," Wolfgang said to me, leaning on a spear as he did. "It almost get me." Wolfgang walked over to the campfire and drank from the canteen. Wendy and the rest of our group sat around Wolfgang and interrogated him about his hunt. Watching them talk, I could only think about the amount of time we were losing to set up a defense. But truthfully, curiosity got the best of me and I sat on a stump that was in the vicinity of our camp so I could listen to Wolfgang's story. The hunting party he was with stood next to him so they could listen in as well.
Wolfgang started out by telling us how they found their prey. Through his broken English, I pieced together what happened. Wolfgang followed the pig villagers until they came upon a nest. On that nest, there was a large blue egg. He stopped telling his story and motioned at one of the pigs with his hand. A pig who participated in the hunt brought over a blue egg. I inspected the egg. It was huge, at least as big as a football. He continued on talking about how the tallbird jumped out of a clump of trees and charged them when they approached the nest. With great enthusiasm, he described the fierce combat that took place. He told of how he rolled away from the smashing attacks the tallbird threw at him. He filled us in on the plan that he and the pig villagers used to take it down. The pigs distracted the tallbird from the front, and Wolfgang flanked and attacked it from behind. In great detail, he described how he skillfully scaled the legs of the beast, used his momentum to swing onto its head, and then deliver a killing blow to the back of its skull. As he finished his story, I noticed how every pig villager had slowly joined in, listening to the story. There was a crowd behind me.
Chip clapped Wolfgang on the back. "Is great warrior," he said with praise. "Maybe better than Wilson." There was no doubt that he was better at fighting than me, but I didn't say anything. Looking around, I saw that this was my opportunity to tell everyone of the plan. Even the pig king was a short distance away, eating an appetizer of spider glands. I got everyone's attention and held up the paper which contained my thought out strategy. As usual, all the attention was set on me.
"Okay, so here's the plan."
