7. The Great Battle Between Good and Evil

The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus

by L. Frank Baum

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.