Chapter 8
The battle and victory

That morning the giant gave everyone their food and at one o'clock it began. Sashtan walked over to the castle and said:

"King Bann ... otherwise the uncle of the royal Prince Sashtan, dare you come and face me man to man?"

The King appeared and was flabbergasted when he saw Sahtan. He said something to his page who ran inside. As Sashtan had hoped lots of archers appeared on the battlements.

The squirrels dropped no more [and] no less than seven stones into the water. Then a shower of arrows came from the dwarfs and many archers fell into the moat, while others looked worried and bewildered. Where were the arrows coming from? Twang! More arrows, and more archers fell. [...] Now the twenty-five remaining archers noticed the trees, but the dwarfs had jumped down from the trees and joined the columns.

Then the drawbridge opened and the King led out a vast column of soldiers. Sashtan's column rushed out to meet him and then everyone plunged into deadly combat.

The lion grabbed his chance and led his column into the open castle to finish any soldiers left. Sashtan hacked his way through the soldiers trying to get to the King himself. The battle was now in full spread[?] and Chris trembled as he fought. Joan fired arrows from a perch on the giant.

Then came the near tragedy ... Chris fell and was [at] the mercy of an enemy! But sashtan arrived not a moment too late and struck the man a tremendous blow.

"Sashtan - behind you!" cried Chris. Sashtan turned and struck his foe a slice in his neck, but not until it was done did Sashtan notice that he had killed King Bann. He said a short prayer for his uncle and then worked his way to the castle with Chris. [...] When they reached it they took a quick look at the lion's column's battle and then ran to the battlements. And when they got there, Sashtan made [a] megaphone and called:

"Stop the battle! The King has fallen!"

A dead silence fell and Sashtan walked with Chris to the battle ground. Then lots of talking beasts that had not been in the battle began to dig graves.

As Joan walked among the dead to Chris, she felt sick for there lay Dae as still as a rock and as cold as ice. She turned away quickly and ran into a unicorn ... a unicorn with a golden horn. And its body was whiter than the other unicorns.

"I am the mighty Tandar and for your courage, my dear, I shall bring two dead people to life again," said Tandar. Meekly Joan answered:

"Well, there's only one really and that's Dae, the centaur."

"Very well then," said Tandar and thrust his horn into Dae's heart. Dae stood up as if he'd just awoken from a sleep. Sashtan went over to Tandar and said:

"Oh, mighty Tandar, may I take this girl's other wish?" Tandar agreed and Sashtan bound the dead King's arms and legs. Then [he] said:

"Would you please restore to life my uncle, ex-King Bann?" Tandar went through the same process [and] then disappeared.

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