KNIGHT MASTER WARD LED a group of knights to the industrial quarter warehouse where he last saw the witch speak to the mysterious creature. He had waited until now to arrest the witch and bring her to justice—he needed backup first. Who knows what powers the witch had. The iron armor-clad knights marched behind their leader with swords drawn and with resolute faces. He had briefed them back in Castle Wardland, and now they were on their way to the witch to bring her in for questioning.

Their iron boots echoed on the cobblestone streets of Wardland. It was night, with the moon and stars high above, and the lanterns of the lampposts—made of oak wood—cast their shadows on the street as if they were double in number.

Knight Master Ward led the way until they stopped in front of the derelict brick building, still as unkempt and abandoned as he had found it. Oakwood planks boarded up some of the windows of the once fine building.

He didn’t say a word. Knight Master Ward only turned his head slightly and nodded to his men to begin action. Like a well-oiled fighting unit, they moved in unison towards the door. Knight Master Ward slammed the door open and in they went. He and the rest of the knights gripped their swords as they took careful step after careful step with boxes, crates, and old furniture piled up around them in haphazard fashion. Posts held up a wooden catwalk that snaked above them. Overhead, a window held a view of the outside sky where he had peeked in from before and found the witch’s hideout. Knight Master Ward’s eyes darted around, ever mindful of danger. This place could be booby trapped for all he knew.

He needn’t have worried. They found the witch at the center of the building, stooped over a cauldron. With a witch’s hat on her head, she didn’t seem to have noticed knights come into her hideout. Instead, she was fixated on stirring the bubbling cauldron, filled with a sickly green liquid. He put a hand over his nose. The rotten egg smell of the cauldron reached him even from his position.

“Hmmma. Hymmma. Hmmm. Hmmm, Hmmma. Hmmma,” she hummed, not even caring that knights with swords were in her vicinity.

His men behind him gave each other curious glances, not expecting the sight. Knight Master Ward, however, kept his resolve and gripped his sword tighter.

“By order of Wardland, I hereby put you under arrest!”

“Hmmma. Hmmma. Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmma. Hmmma,” she hummed once more, as if oblivious to his proclamation. The witch kept stirring the cauldron. Some of the foul liquid spilled and sizzled over to the floor.

Knight Master Ward felt his fury growing. “Did you hear me, witch!” he snarled. The knights behind him shifted uncomfortably, but still they had their swords drawn. “You are under arrest by the Knights of Wardland!”

The witch creaked her head sideways towards them, the wart on her nose clearly visible. “I heard you, knight . . .” she said. Even with a smile on her face, it looked like a sneer. She turned back to the cauldron and stirred.

Knight Master Ward gritted his teeth. She’s not going to come peaceably. They’ll have to forcibly arrest her. With one glance back, his men understood. Swords in hand, they advanced upon her.

He led the troop. If they could strike her quickly, they could incapacitate her and bring her in alive.

They didn’t get close.

The witch bared her teeth and with eyes glowing for just a moment, she transformed before them. Instantly, her form became that of a cat. The knights’ advance stopped at the sudden transformation. The cat hissed, its fangs sharp and deadly, and then bounded up the boxes and crates towards a blown-out window.

The witch had escaped.

***

Knight Duper and Knight Aiden rolled away as the hydra lunged down at them. Having missed its targets, it suddenly coiled up. Each one of its three heads sprung up while it bared its fangs and flicked its forked tongues.

Knight Steve noticed it finally and the treasure chest hinged closed even as Knight Duper and Knight Aiden drew their swords to combat the beast.

“What is that?!” Knight Aiden said aghast as he held his sword in front of him defensively. Knight Steve didn’t know what was going on. One moment he was about to open the chest and the next, a creature was attacking them?

The hydra slithered off to the side of the secret chamber while the two knights circled away from it. Knight Steve, on the other hand, stayed put, kneeling in front of the chest and looking up confusedly at the monster.

Knight Duper nodded one by one as if counting. “One, two, three heads—it’s a hydra!”

One of the hydra’s heads lowered with menace in its eyes.

Knight Aiden attacked first. “Ayaahhh!” he shouted his war cry. The hydra saw its chance, and one of its heads snapped at him. He was faster, though, and jumped, landing on its head, and with one arc, his sword sliced through its neck!

The other hydra heads screamed in pain as the severed hydra head fell to the floor, Knight Aiden with it. The severed head landed with a thunk and he hopped down to the stone floor triumphant. “Ha-ha!” Knight Aiden said exultantly. “One down, two to go!”

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Knight Duper’s eyes, however, watched in horror as the most unexpected thing happened. Instead of nursing its wounds, the hydra recuperated. It hissed once again and then, on its head stump, blocks added one by one until the third head grew back!

Knight Aiden’s jaw slackened, finally noticing what happened. “Looks like three to go,” Knight Duper said from behind him.

“What do we do! What do we do!” Knight Aiden said stepping back, but he didn’t get much chance to react. The hydra’s tail coiled around Knight Aiden and hoisted him up into the air. “Aaaahhh!” he screamed.

Knight Steve finally got his bearings back upon seeing his friend in danger. He fumbled for his sword, but suddenly, he grimaced and grabbed his head with both hands as a familiar voice echoed inside.

Open me . . . Open me . . . .

Knight Duper watched aghast at both the hydra drawing Knight Aiden closer to its jaws and what was happening to Knight Steve. “Focus!” he shouted at Knight Steve. He then threw his iron sword at the distracted hydra.

The sword arced in the air until it landed on the hydra’s chest, making it scream in pain and loosening its tail’s grip on Knight Aiden. He thudded on the ground with a loud thwack. It most certainly meant that Knight Aiden lost some hearts.

Recovering, Knight Aiden ran toward his knight friends, drinking a healing potion as he did so. Behind him, the hydra heads each tried to snap at the iron sword lodged in its body. The monster kept blinking as it continued to lose hearts, which enraged it even further.

Knight Steve joined Knights Duper and Aiden. “I’m sorry,” he said, feeling guilt at what happened. It wasn’t like him to be like this. He had finally found his sword.

“Let’s worry about that later,” Knight Duper said. Knight Aiden panted, still a bit shaken at the harrowing events.

“Thanks,” he said.

Knight Duper gave a determined nod back.

In front of them, one of the hydra heads bit onto the iron sword, ripped it out, and sending it clanging to the ground. With that done, it focused once more on the knights, each head baring its teeth, more enraged than ever.

“I have a plan,” Knight Duper said to the both of them. The hydra slithered closer, trying to find an opening. “Go distract them,” he continued.

“Why?” Knight Aiden asked as he held his sword in front of him. Knight Steve didn’t know why either, but a part of him was fearful not of the hydra but of the voice inside. He didn’t know when he was going to hear it.

“Don’t have time to explain, just go!” Knight Duper exclaimed.

“I hope this works.” Knight Aiden said. He ran off to the side close to the mossy stone brick walls of the secret chamber.

A moment later, Knight Steve moved off to the other side, closer to the chest.

“WOOOOOO! WOOOOO!” Knight Aiden waved his arms. “Over here, ugly!” Two of the hydra heads snapped in his direction. It hissed louder.

Knight Steve waved his hands out too. “Yeah, over here,” he said, but not as loud as Knight Aiden’s hollers. At the back of his mind, he didn’t want to hear that voice again. Especially not in a fight.

The hydra slithered off slowly towards Knight Aiden’s direction. It seemed it was trying to find an opening. “There you go!” Knight Aiden said. He waved his arms even faster. “WEEAAHHHH! WEEEAAAHHH,” he continued in the most annoying voice possible.

His heart thumping, Knight Steve gaped at the hydra coming towards Knight Aiden and then looked back at Knight Duper . . . who was busy at work constructing something.

Knight Duper had already built two pillars out of sandstone and was now hopping up at a third pillar. Upon finishing the pillar, he hopped down and headed towards the last end to make the final pillar.

Knight Steve closed his eyes. Please, no voices. Please, no voices.

The hydra seemed to have caught up to Knight Aiden at the corner of the secret chamber, but then, he ran away as fast as he could. “Haha!” he said. “Can’t catch me!”

Over at Knight Duper’s spot, he was putting the final touches on his creation—a platform. Four pillars held up a ceiling where, on top of it, Knight Duper hopped up, placing gravel underneath him. Already, several columns of gravel had been built atop the platform.

“Ready!” Knight Duper shouted excitedly. Knight Aiden ran towards him. Knight Steve saw it too and joined him a moment later as Knight Duper hopped down to his other knight friends.

“Follow me!”

The two knights quickly followed him under the platform. “Get him under here,” he said, and then focused his attention on the hydra. “LALALALALALA!” Knight Duper said. He waved his arms in the air excitedly.

Knight Aiden looked up at the underside of the platform, and seeming to understand, followed suit. “HEEEEEEYYYYYYY! HEEEEYYYYYYYYYY!” He followed it up by putting his pressed-together index finger and thumb to his mouth and whistled loudly.

Knight Steve figured it out too. He was still a bit slow at understanding, but he finally understood. They were trying to get the hydra under the platform so they could break one of the blocks above and cause the gravel to fall on it. “Over here, over here,” he said. At least the voice hadn’t come back yet, and he got a bit of confidence from that.

More enraged than ever, the hydra slithered towards the noisy knights and hissed louder and louder.

The noises seemed to combine into one jumbled mass of annoying sound, with each of the knights shouting aloud and waving their arms.

Knight Steve began to smile too, and he began to wave his arm more and more excitedly as the hydra continued to slither fast towards them. They certainly sounded annoying. It was actually kind of—

He closed his eyes as the voice came to him unexpectedly. Open meeeeeeeee. Open meeeeee.

The hydra arced back and sprung at the knights. Knights Duper and Aiden rolled to their respective sides, but Knight Steve was still there clutching his head.

The hydra heads opened wide, ready to snap at Knight Steve.

At the last moment, a hand yanked Knight Steve off to the side, saving him as the hydra landed and caught only air. The blocks above got picked with a pickaxe one by one, and finally, towers of gravel crashed down right on top of the three-headed monster, crushing it!

Knight Duper caught his breath at the crushed monster. Its tail was the only thing visible from the mountain of gravel on top of it.

Knight Aiden and Knight Steve were on the ground. He had saved him, and Knight Aiden looked back at Knight Steve, shaken at what had happened. Knight Steve shook his head, the voice now gone from his head.

“Is everyone alright?” Knight Duper asked.

“Um, yeah,” Knight Aiden said. He picked himself up and gave an unsure glance at Knight Steve who also picked himself up and dusted himself off.

“Looks like it’s dead,” Knight Duper said with a smile. The hydra’s tail twitched for the last time.

Seeming to have forgotten what happened with Knight Steve, Knight Aiden looked over at the crushed hydra and smiled. “That was awesome!”

Knight Steve laughed sheepishly. “Yeah, awesome,” he said in a whisper.

“Good job everybody!” Knight Duper said. “My idea was good, wasn’t it? I thought of it quickly and—Hey, where are you going?”

He caught Knight Aiden heading straight for the treasure. He followed him, but Knight Steve trailed behind both of them as they approached the treasure chest in the middle of the secret chamber.