Ak listened gravely to the recital of Claus, stroking his beard the
while with the slow, graceful motion that betokened deep thought. He
nodded approvingly when Claus told how the Knooks and Fairies had saved
him from death, and frowned when he heard how the Awgwas had stolen the
children's toys. At last he said:
"From the beginning I have approved the work you are doing among the
children of men, and it annoys me that your good deeds should be
thwarted by the Awgwas. We immortals have no connection whatever with
the evil creatures who have attacked you. Always have we avoided them,
and they, in turn, have hitherto taken care not to cross our pathway.
But in this matter I find they have interfered with one of our friends,
and I will ask them to abandon their persecutions, as you are under our
protection."
Claus thanked the Master Woodsman most gratefully and returned to his
Valley, while Ak, who never delayed carrying out his promises, at once
traveled to the mountains of the Awgwas.
There, standing on the bare rocks, he called on the King and his people
to appear.
Instantly the place was filled with throngs of the scowling Awgwas, and
their King, perching himself on a point of rock, demanded fiercely:
"Who dares call on us?"
"It is I, the Master Woodsman of the World," responded Ak.
"Here are no forests for you to claim," cried the King, angrily. "We
owe no allegiance to you, nor to any immortal!"
"That is true," replied Ak, calmly. "Yet you have ventured to
interfere with the actions of Claus, who dwells in the Laughing Valley,
and is under our protection."
Many of the Awgwas began muttering at this speech, and their King
turned threateningly on the Master Woodsman.
"You are set to rule the forests, but the plains and the valleys are
ours!" he shouted. "Keep to your own dark woods! We will do as we
please with Claus."
"You shall not harm our friend in any way!" replied Ak.
"Shall we not?" asked the King, impudently. "You will see! Our powers
are vastly superior to those of mortals, and fully as great as those of
immortals."
"It is your conceit that misleads you!" said Ak, sternly. "You are a
transient race, passing from life into nothingness. We, who live
forever, pity but despise you. On earth you are scorned by all, and in
Heaven you have no place! Even the mortals, after their earth life,
enter another existence for all time, and so are your superiors. How
then dare you, who are neither mortal nor immortal, refuse to obey my
wish?"
The Awgwas sprang to their feet with menacing gestures, but their King
motioned them back.
"Never before," he cried to Ak, while his voice trembled with rage,
"has an immortal declared himself the master of the Awgwas! Never
shall an immortal venture to interfere with our actions again! For we
will avenge your scornful words by killing your friend Claus within
three days. Nor you, nor all the immortals can save him from our
wrath. We defy your powers! Begone, Master Woodsman of the World! In
the country of the Awgwas you have no place."
"It is war!" declared Ak, with flashing eyes.
"It is war!" returned the King, savagely. "In three days your friend
will be dead."
The Master turned away and came to his Forest of Burzee, where he
called a meeting of the immortals and told them of the defiance of the
Awgwas and their purpose to kill Claus within three days.
The little folk listened to him quietly.
"What shall we do?" asked Ak.
"These creatures are of no benefit to the world," said the Prince of
the Knooks; "we must destroy them."
"Their lives are devoted only to evil deeds," said the Prince of the
Ryls. "We must destroy them."
"They have no conscience, and endeavor to make all mortals as bad as
themselves," said the Queen of the Fairies. "We must destroy them."
"They have defied the great Ak, and threaten the life of our adopted
son," said beautiful Queen Zurline. "We must destroy them."
The Master Woodsman smiled.
"You speak well," said he. "These Awgwas we know to be a powerful
race, and they will fight desperately; yet the outcome is certain. For
we who live can never die, even though conquered by our enemies, while
every Awgwa who is struck down is one foe the less to oppose us.
Prepare, then, for battle, and let us resolve to show no mercy to the
wicked!"
Thus arose that terrible war between the immortals and the spirits of
evil which is sung of in Fairyland to this very day.
The King Awgwa and his band determined to carry out the threat to
destroy Claus. They now hated him for two reasons: he made children
happy and was a friend of the Master Woodsman. But since Ak's visit
they had reason to fear the opposition of the immortals, and they
dreaded defeat. So the King sent swift messengers to all parts of the
world to summon every evil creature to his aid.
And on the third day after the declaration of war a mighty army was at
the command of the King Awgwa. There were three hundred Asiatic
Dragons, breathing fire that consumed everything it touched. These
hated mankind and all good spirits. And there were the three-eyed
Giants of Tatary, a host in themselves, who liked nothing better than
to fight. And next came the Black Demons from Patalonia, with great
spreading wings like those of a bat, which swept terror and misery
through the world as they beat upon the air. And joined to these were
the Goozzle-Goblins, with long talons as sharp as swords, with which
they clawed the flesh from their foes. Finally, every mountain Awgwa
in the world had come to participate in the great battle with the
immortals.
The King Awgwa looked around upon this vast army and his heart beat
high with wicked pride, for he believed he would surely triumph over
his gentle enemies, who had never before been known to fight. But the
Master Woodsman had not been idle. None of his people was used to
warfare, yet now that they were called upon to face the hosts of evil
they willingly prepared for the fray.
Ak had commanded them to assemble in the Laughing Valley, where Claus,
ignorant of the terrible battle that was to be waged on his account,
was quietly making his toys.
Soon the entire Valley, from hill to hill, was filled with the little
immortals. The Master Woodsman stood first, bearing a gleaming ax that
shone like burnished silver. Next came the Ryls, armed with sharp
thorns from bramblebushes. Then the Knooks, bearing the spears they
used when they were forced to prod their savage beasts into submission.
The Fairies, dressed in white gauze with rainbow-hued wings, bore
golden wands, and the Wood-nymphs, in their uniforms of oak-leaf green,
carried switches from ash trees as weapons.
Loud laughed the Awgwa King when he beheld the size and the arms of his
foes. To be sure the mighty ax of the Woodsman was to be dreaded, but
the sweet-faced Nymphs and pretty Fairies, the gentle Ryls and crooked
Knooks were such harmless folk that he almost felt shame at having
called such a terrible host to oppose them.
"Since these fools dare fight," he said to the leader of the Tatary
Giants, "I will overwhelm them with our evil powers!"
To begin the battle he poised a great stone in his left hand and cast
it full against the sturdy form of the Master Woodsman, who turned it
aside with his ax. Then rushed the three-eyed Giants of Tatary upon
the Knooks, and the Goozzle-Goblins upon the Ryls, and the
firebreathing Dragons upon the sweet Fairies. Because the Nymphs were
Ak's own people the band of Awgwas sought them out, thinking to
overcome them with ease.
But it is the Law that while Evil, unopposed, may accomplish terrible
deeds, the powers of Good can never be overthrown when opposed to Evil.
Well had it been for the King Awgwa had he known the Law!
His ignorance cost him his existence, for one flash of the ax borne by
the Master Woodsman of the World cleft the wicked King in twain and rid
the earth of the vilest creature it contained.
Greatly marveled the Tatary Giants when the spears of the little Knooks
pierced their thick walls of flesh and sent them reeling to the ground
with howls of agony.
Woe came upon the sharp-taloned Goblins when the thorns of the Ryls
reached their savage hearts and let their life-blood sprinkle all the
plain. And afterward from every drop a thistle grew.
The Dragons paused astonished before the Fairy wands, from whence
rushed a power that caused their fiery breaths to flow back on
themselves so that they shriveled away and died.
As for the Awgwas, they had scant time to realize how they were
destroyed, for the ash switches of the Nymphs bore a charm unknown to
any Awgwa, and turned their foes into clods of earth at the slightest
touch!
When Ak leaned upon his gleaming ax and turned to look over the field
of battle he saw the few Giants who were able to run disappearing over
the distant hills on their return to Tatary. The Goblins had perished
every one, as had the terrible Dragons, while all that remained of the
wicked Awgwas was a great number of earthen hillocks dotting the plain.
And now the immortals melted from the Valley like dew at sunrise, to
resume their duties in the Forest, while Ak walked slowly and
thoughtfully to the house of Claus and entered.
"You have many toys ready for the children," said the Woodsman, "and
now you may carry them across the plain to the dwellings and the
villages without fear."
"Will not the Awgwas harm me?" asked Claus, eagerly.
"The Awgwas," said Ak, "have perished!"
Now I will gladly have done with wicked spirits and with fighting and
bloodshed. It was not from choice that I told of the Awgwas and their
allies, and of their great battle with the immortals. They were part
of this history, and could not be avoided.