* * * * *
When the other ogres entered the clearing, Arbid’s father almost dropped his axe. What good would it do against them? It hadn’t been much use against the first ogre, and these were half-again as tall and wide as it was!
He hurried to the cabin, got inside, and used the axe the best way he could: he swung it at the closed and locked shutters on the back window and broke them open. “Out!” he shouted to his family. “Run!” he said, picking up the youngest and half-tossing him outside. “Hurry!” he said, grabbing the oldest by the shoulder and giving him a shove. “Take them to Mungo’s!” he ordered as the second oldest scuttled past, just avoiding a shove of her own. “Don’t look back!” he shouted as he helped the little ones out. “Don’t!” he snapped as his wife hesitated and he lifted her protesting body through the window. “Run!” he added as he climbed through to follow.
His wife hesitated, staring after their running children, and came up short. “Arbid?” she asked, studying the children’s backs and bobbing heads as they ran in a staggered line. Her husband nearly fell as he leapt to the side to avoid running into her. He came to a stop, turned around, reached back to grab her—but she was already running back to the cabin. “ARBID!” she screamed, but to no avail.
“NO!” Arbid’s father called after her. “Ogres!”
But she wasn’t listening. Arbid was in trouble!
She had almost gotten through the window when he reached out to pull her back out. “Go,” he said. “I’ll fetch him.”
“But—“
“Go!” he ordered, giving her a harsh shove. “The other children need you—“
Still, she hesitated. Arbid was her favorite, the one she loved the most! But the other children…. She nodded, reluctantly, and scampered after her other children. They knew the way to Mungo’s, but they needed her. Arbid.…