After the battle, Ashleigh and Daddy stayed hunkered down in the crater, since they were worried that the battle could start again at any moment. There was no rhyme or reason to why the battle started or stopped. Soon, they heard the sound of heated discussion coming from in front of the crater in the direction they were heading before the battle started.
Daddy peaked his head over the top of the crater and took a look. What he saw made him scratch his head in puzzlement. Walking towards them down the middle of the battlefield were two strange-looking men. The first was Ashleigh's height, but was much broader and had a long beard. The second man was very skinny and short in stature. His most poignant feature were his ears, which were long and pointed. Ashleigh peaked over the top of the crater and jumped up quickly. "Get in a crater quickly", she yelled "These skeletons come alive and fight!" Both men stopped in their tracks as if struck. They both stared at Ashleigh until one finally said "A human child!" and took a step towards Ashleigh. Thats when Daddy pulled himself out of the crater and stood next to his daughter. "Aieee! A giant!" yelled the little man. Daddy said "No, I'm a human, but I don't think either of you are human, now that I get a closer look at you." Both men froze. With a wiggle of their fingers, ten skeletons got up and surrounded Daddy and Ashleigh. "Ah, treachery!" Daddy yelled as he pulled his broad sword. The little man yelled "drop your weapons! There are too many of my soldiers and you will surely die before you can slay all of them." Daddy said "but you will die first!" "How is that?" said the thin man, "we have you surrounded" With that, Daddy dropped his broad sword and fitted an arrow to his long bow. "My arrow will fly well before they strike me down, and you shall be dead." Daddy said calmly as he pulled back on the bow string. Ashleigh casually pointed her crossbow at the thin man. The skeletons quickly fell back to the ground, lifeless once more. "Let's start again" said the short man, "My name is Grundge, and I am a dwarf." "And I am Morlock, and I am an elf." said the wispy looking fellow. "What are you doing here in the eastern realm of the Middle Earth?" "A hidden door led us here." said Ashleigh. "I thought we hid all of the doors to our realm," said Morlock, "You must be very clever." Ashleigh smiled. "Our castle is just over that hill", said Grundge. "Why don't you join us?" "First, I'd like to know why you had those skeletons battling. "Those? They are our game pieces. We play Battle Chess" Morlock said. He wiggled his fingers to make a skeleton dance. "They are harmless if you don't get in their way, or if we don't direct them at you." With that, the four of them set out for the castle.
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