Inner-Selves, No. 22, Part B

After a short time of walking, the group arrived outside of one of the four gates leading into the playhouse, the home of the youth sprites. They met no one along the way, the spirits were too nervous to go near the band of travelers. Standing in front of the huge gate was a gigantic diapered triceratops, it had the image of a volcano on the front of its diaper, but unlike the other youth sprites they'd encountered before, this one was wielding a huge hammer instead of a rattle. It looked like one of those toy hammers a child uses to hammer blocks through holes on the classic baby toy just described. The green triceratops noticed the group of heroes and took a battle stance in front of the gate.
"Halt! What is your business here?" the triceratops asked. "The gate is guarded?" Seth asked, not really expecting this. "It's one of the security measures the youth sprites have taken to prevent outsiders from entering the playhouse, we'll have to defeat him in order to pass" Daisy replied. "Hey, big guy, we have business to attend to on the other side of that gate, let us pass" Fidget said, he remembered that Speckle had warned them to avoid unnecessary fights, the closer they got to Kat, the tougher the opposition would be. "I'm afraid I cannot allow that strangers, my name is Thorn and it is my job as the guardian of this gate to prevent all outsiders from entering the playhouse. For your sake, I suggest you turn around and go back to wherever it is that you came from" the guard answered. "He looks tough, but if we all charge him at once, we should be able to take him down" Macho said. "Alright, that plan sounds good to me, how about you Fidget?" Seth asked. The wolf received no answer, this was because Fidget had already charged at the dinosaur. "What the?! Fidget you idiot, you can't just charge in there without thinking!!" Seth shouted.
Fidget ran towards the triceratops and drew his sword, ready to attack. Thorn saw this and swung his hammer down in an attempt to crush Fidget, Fidget jumped up to avoid it. As the hammer hit the ground, the resulting shockwave knocked the rest of the party back a distance and they fell to the ground, since Fidget was in the air, this didn't happen to him. The spot where the hammer had struck was now reduced to a crater, anyone hit by that hammer would most likely be dead. "Is everyone alright?" Daisy asked, the others replied, feeling a bit shaken, but otherwise ok. While in the air, Fidget attempted to slash the triceratops, but Thorn had raised his hammer up to block the attack. Fidget landed on the ground, this wouldn't be as easy as he thought. "You avoided that perfectly little one, you are clearly no ordinary warrior, but in the whole 300 years that I have guarded this gate, no one has ever bested me in combat, you will lose this battle, so I'll warn you one last time, turn around and leave this place" the guard said to Fidget. "Then I'll become the first one to defeat you, because we have someone to rescue on the other side of this gate" Fidget responded. "Hold on Fidget, let us help!" Sophie pleaded. "We'll have a better chance if we work together Fidget" Seth added. "Thanks but no thanks, I wanna fight this guy myself, no matter how hard he swings that hammer, I can withstand every attack, I trained extra hard for this sort of thing" Fidget responded.
"Whether it is one warrior or one hundred, all who would dare challenge me will fall!" Thorn declared. The triceratops swung his hammer down to try to crush Fidget again, but Fidget didn't move this time. "Hmmph, take your best shot!" Fidget said grinning. "Fidget move!" Seth shouted. Fidget raised his sword above his head with one hand and stopped the hammer from crushing him, everyone was taken aback, Thorn was the most shocked. "You stopped my attack?! How did you do it, no one has ever done that before!" Thorn stammered. Fidget kept smiling, as he stood between the hammer above his head and the ground below him, the hammer couldn't come down any further. "That's amazing Fidget!" Sophie cheered. Macho was suprised, but said nothing. "You trained him well Speckle" Daisy thought to herself. "J-just what kind of training were you doing Fidget?! This is incredible!" Seth exclaimed. "Believe it or not, this really didn't come from any training, it came from experience" Fidget replied. "Experience, what're you talking about?" Seth asked. "My training with Hat n' Flops was supposed to last 10 days, but I completed it in 3 days, after that, I fought with him for 5 days straight, in order to gain experience, that was the thing I needed most according to him" Fidget explained. "You fought, for 5 whole days, really?" Seth said. "Yep, I didn't stop to change my diaper even once" Fidget stated. "THAT'S REALLY DISGUSTING FIDGET, YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO TELL ME THAT!!" Seth shouted.
The triceratops grew tired of listening to this, he wanted to get this over with quickly. "Well then, if one attack won't work, then I'll finish you with my 10-hit combo" Thorn said. He raised his hammer and struck Fidget again, Fidget stood his ground the whole time. "1...2...3...4" the guard said with each successive hit. The strikes from the hammer were stirring up dust as the ground beneath Fidget started to crumble, but still Fidget stood his ground, blocking each hit. The cloud of dust was so thick that Seth and the others couldn't see what was happening, all they could hear was Thorn counting up to 10 and the sound of his hammer crashing down with each hit. "I can't see a thing, do you suppose he's ok?" Sophie asked. "We should go help him" Macho said. He took a step towards the dust cloud, but Daisy stopped him. "No, we should stay out of this, Fidget won't be defeated so easily" the teddy bear assured him. "Uh, 7...5...2...uh...I've never had to count this high, but I'm sure I'm close to 10 by now!" the dinosaur shouted. With one final strike, Thorn was breathing heavily, truth be told, he'd actually swung his hammer 15 times, but despite that, as the dust settled, Fidget was still standing there, completely unharmed. "Had enough yet, I can stand here and do this all day, but we're in a hurry" Fidget said. "Grrrrr, I've had enough of this, I'll strike you 10 times harder with this blow little one!" Thorn shouted, feeling frustrated. Once again, Fidget stopped the attack, but this time, the hammer shattered to pieces. They fell to the ground around Fidget, everyone's jaw was hanging down in awe. "N-no way, my hammer is broken" the dinosaur stammered. "You can't fight anymore, now give up!" Fidget said.
"This isn't over yet little one, I have a spare!" the triceratops shouted. From behind him, he pulled out another hammer just like the last one, Fidget had had enough of this. "Take this!" Thorn shouted. As he swung it down, Fidget jumped up towards the hammer, with a few quick slashes of his sword, he'd cut the hammer into pieces, they fell to the ground, Fidget landed and sheathed his sword. "He did it" Seth said, he couldn't help but smile a little. "Haha, way to go Fidget!" Sophie cheered. "Y-you, how could you do this to my hammers?!" Thorn shouted, as he burst into tears. He sat back on his behind, creating a small tremor as he hit the ground, as he continued to bawl the whole time. "Uh, h-hey there's no need to cry" Fidget said, feeling embarassed and slightly ashamed now. "Why did you do it? Those were my only weapons, they were my pride and joy" Thorn continued crying. "W-well someone could really get hurt by those things, I couldn't just let you keep swinging them around" Fidget said, starting to feel sorry for him, he rubbed the back of his head, this was really awkward for him. "Wow, that guy seemed so tough but now..." Seth said, not sure of what to make of this. "He comes off as this frightening ogre, but deep down he's just like a little boy" Sophie said, looking on. Thorn stopped crying and wiped his eyes, then he looked at Fidget. "Why am I crying? You won fair and square, besides I can always get new hammers, I've had those for 300 years, I shouldn't expect them to last forever" Thorn said. "That's the spirit" Fidget said, smiling up at him.
Thorn got up and looked down at them all, a smile grew over his face. "I never thought such a little one like you could beat me in battle, you must be really strong, as a reward for your well-earned victory, I shall open the gate for you" Thorn said. "Really? Alright!" Fidget exclaimed. The rest of them ran over to Fidget, and Thorn started to turn around. "The challenges ahead are much greater my friends, but I wish you the best of luck on the other side" the dinosaur said. He knelt down and lifted the gate with each hand, slowly raising it up. "Alright, we're finally gonna go inside" Seth said. Thorn finished raising the gate, he was feeling happy that he could help the travelers, but those feelings soon changed to horror. He gasped and started quivering, Fidget had noticed this. "Hey Thorn, what's the matter?" Fidget asked. "There's someone over there, who is that?" Sophie asked. It was true, about 10 yards from them on the inside of the gate stood a youth sprite wearing a light blue onesie with a red arrow that faced upward on the front of it, the rattle he carried had the same symbol on it. "Who is it, and why is Thorn so scared of him?" Fidget thought. The youth sprite slowly advanced towards them, his eyes were closed, but he seemed to know where they are anyway. "O-overseer...of Austrailia...Jinx, the Dingo!" Thorn stammered, chills were running down his spine. "Well, well, what do we have here?" the dingo asked, the grin on his face grew wider as he chuckled.