“Unther for goodness sake! Come on!” I urged. Unther refused to get out of the tree. “You said you wanted to get down, now come on!”
“No! You just left me-”
“Okay, we’ll let the tall, strong ogres and their wizard master get you down.” Anne shrugged.

“FINE.” Unther sighed. The mountain shook again.

“Anne, I wonder if we can somehow get the mountain to fall and crush them.” I said suddenly.
“That’s a good idea! We can use the purple stone to slam stuff into it. Maybe boulders and trees-”

“COME ON!” Unther complained. We grabbed him and brought him to the treehouse.

“Stay here.” I commanded.

“With these old hags?” He exclaimed.

“These ‘old hags’ are the king and queen!” I hissed.
“OH!” Unther turned red. “Your majesties, I had no idea, you are just so pale and old and dirty-”
“That’s enough.” Anne said.

“How old are you guys, anyway? I believe King Oliver was turning sixty-eight twelve years ago?” Unther continued.

“Yes, he is eighty now, and I am seventy-four.” Persephone answers cooly. “If I am correct, you are the one we found using the stones, which attracted the ogres?” Unther turned red.

“Your majesty, I’m sorry!” He wailed. “I just heard rumors of magic-”
“That’s all right, I’m just glad you’re sorry. By the way, how is your brother?”

“Oh, Darius?” Unther asked. “Oh, fine, fine-”
“Darius is your brother?” I exclaimed. Unther looked at me in a duh way.
“All right, well we should be going.” Anne interrupted. “We have some ogres to kill.”
“Oh wait!” Persephone sprang up off the bench and pulled off her rainbow ring. She handed it to me.

“No, what if you need it?” I said.
“We won’t.” She said, “Take it. You might need it.”
“Thank you.” I accepted the gift. Anne and I leapt out and began to float towards Ogre Mountain (That was our name for it).

“I hope this works.” I worried. 

“It will.” Anne assured me. We flew to the mountain and looked around for big rocks.

“There’s some over there.” I said, pointing to some extremely large rocks.

“Yep, those’ll work.” Anne nodded. We both lifted a boulder each, about the size of two elephants.
“On three.” I nodded to Anne. “One, two, THREE!” We launched the boulders at the thinner side of the mountain. The boulders satisfyingly crashed into the mountain. Anne and I flew higher to avoid the large chunks of mountain that rocketed towards us.

“OGRES! ESCAPE!” We heard Madras scream. He was so bossy. “NO! DON’T LEAVE ME!”

“You do magic!” One ogre reminded him.
“Anne, the mountain isn’t crushing them, and they sound closer to the tunnel!” I panicked.

“Well, then, crush more rocks!” We continued throwing rocks, but unfortunately, one ogre came out, followed by forty-two others. (They came out pretty slow) And…..Madras. Darn. Anne and I hid in a particularly thick tree and watched Madras yell at the ogres again.
“I SAY ‘FIND A STRONG MOUNTAIN’. YOU GAVE ME A WEAK MOUNTAIN!” I almost felt bad for the ogres.
“But master, we lost Grog and Splicken and Trosh and‒” An ogre, Sloggo, it looked like said. “We sad now.”
“YES, and you only lost them because you found me a stupid. Ugly. Weak. MOUNTAIN!” A small ogre started to cry. BAM. Turned to stone.

“Yeah, um, why am I feeling bad for the ogres?” I asked quietly. 

“Probably because that stupid wizard with the stick is a bossy little‒” I interrupted Anne.
“Well that plan failed. What do we do now?”

“Let’s . . . go back to the treehouse and collect our thoughts.” Anne said.
“Sheesh, you sound like my mom.” We flew back to the treehouse, greeted by a smiled Persephone, an eye-rolling Unther, and a snoring Oliver.
“Well? How did it go?” Persephone asked. Anne and I looked at each other then at our feet.
“We . . . got a few by the looks of it, but there’s still a lot. And the wizard guy is still alive.”

“Yes, Madras will be quite hard to kill. He’s been ordering those ogres around for many years.”
“But why? He’s magical, so can’t he just do it himself?” Anne asked.
“Madras was . . . my stepbrother. He was jealous I got the crown. Even though he was older, he was not of royal blood. Then he found out about the stones, and was basically really mad.” Persephone smiled weakly. “I was crowned queen after I married Oliver, when I was twenty-two. Madras had learned magic, then came back to Linspire only to find out I was queen. He tried to use his magic, but wasn’t strong enough. Of course, he’s stronger now. He uses ores because he is lazy, but also because he wants to inspire fear to the people. A man of magic with an army of ogres? That is terrifying.”

“So, how do we kill him?” I asked. Persephone looked pained but didn’t answer. In his sleep, Oliver muttered, “Was once nice man, Percy still thinks he is kind insiiiiiiiiiide.” Oliver snorted and went back to a silent nap.
“Percy?” Anne inquired.
“Oliver’s nickname for me.” Persephone nodded. “I still believe there is a kind Madras inside. Maybe it was the magic, the amount of power that took over him.”
“So, you’re saying that if we somehow took away his magic, he might not be evil anymore?” I clarified. Persephone nodded.

“Okay, no prob.” Anne said. “What about the ogres?”
“Well, I was thinking,” I started.
“Oh, man.” Anne said.
“The ogres seem kind of innocent, they only kill for Madras. And they want to be free. And the rainbow ring can create worlds . . .” I let everyone process that. Oliver bolted upright.

“Excellent idea, Amy! All we haves to do is create a world, and you’ll be using good intentions because you just want them to be free, so that would totally work! Then, use the orange stone to pull away Madras’s staff and his magic, then break it!” We all stared at Oliver. Even Unther, who had been biting his fist, turned to Oliver with wide eyes.
“Um, why is he being so smart?” Unther questioned.
“He was once a very intelligent man.” Persephone said. “Now, ideas come and go.”

“Okay, list of stuff to do to save the world. Take away Madras’s magic, put ogres in their own little world, use the rainbow stone to save the village, then get something to eat.” Anne summed up.

“Okay,” I said, ignoring the last part. “Let’s do it.”