Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the fourteenth chapter of The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.

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Today we'll be continuing the life and adventures of Santa Claus by L.

Frank Baum.

Seven the Great battle between good and Evil ACK listened gravely to the recital of claws stroking his beard the while with the slow, graceful motion that betokend deep thought.

He nodded approvingly when Claus told how the nooks and fairies had saved him from death, and frowned when he heard how the Aguas 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 deed should be thwarted by the Aguas.

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 Aguas.

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 Aguas, and their king, perching himself on a point of rock, demanded fiercely, who dare calls 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 Ogwas began muttering at this speech, and their king turned threateningly on the master woodsmen.

You are set to roll 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 claws.

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 Axe 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 Aqua sprang to their feet with menacing gestures, but their king motioned them back.

Never before he cried to ask, while his voice trembled with rage, has an immortal declared himself the Master of the Aguas?

Never shall an immortal venture to interfere with our actions again.

For we will avenge your scornful words by killing your friend Claudes within three days.

Nor you nor all the Immortals can save him from our wrath.

We defy your powers.

Be gone, master Woodsman of the world.

In the country of the Aguas you have no place.

It is war, declared Aque 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 Burzi, where he called a meeting of the Immortals and told them of the defiance of the Aguas and their purpose to kill Claws within three days.

The little folk listened to him quietly.

What shall we do?

Asked Aque.

These creatures are of no benefit to the world, said the prince of the Nooks.

We must destroy them.

Their lives are devoted only to evil deeds, said the prince of the reals.

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 act and threatened the life of our adopted son, said beautiful Queen Zerlin.

We must destroy them.

The master woodsman smiled.

You speak well, said he.

These auguas 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 Agua who struck down is one foe, the less to oppose us.

Prepare them 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 Agua 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 woodsmen.

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 Agua.

There were 300 Asiatic dragons breathing fire that consumed everything it touched.

These hated mankind and all good spirits.

And there were the threeeyed giants of Tatteri, 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 Goozal goblins with long talons of sharpest swords with which they clawed the flesh from their foes.

Finally, every mountain Agua in the world had come to participate in the great battle with the Immortals.

King Agua 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.

Acad commanded them to a symbol 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 woodsmen stood first, bearing a gleaming axe that shone like burnished silver.

Next came the reels, armed with sharp thorns from bramble bushes.

Then the nooks bearing the spears they used when they were forced to prod their savage beasts into submission.

The fairies, dressed in white gauze with rainbowhued wings, bore golden wands and the wooden emphas and their uniforms of oak leaf green carried switches from Ashtrees as weapons.

Loud laughed the Agua king when he beheld the size in the arms of his foes.

To be sure, the mighty axe of the woodsmen was to be dreaded.

But the sweet faced nymphs and pretty fairies, the gentle reels and crooked nooks, 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 Tatterry 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 axe.

Then rushed the threeeyed giants of tattery upon the nooks and the Goozal goblins upon the rails and the fire breathing dragons upon the sweet fairies.

Because the nymphs were axe's own people, the band of Agua 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 Agua, had he known the law, his ignorance cost him his existence.

For one flash of the axe 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 marvelled the tattery giants when the spears of the little nooks pierced their thick walls of flesh and sent them reeling to the ground.

With howls of agony, woe came upon the sharp tallied goblins when the thorns of the reels 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 once rushed a power that caused their fiery breaths to flow back on themselves so that they shriveled away and died.

As for the August, they had scant time to realize how they were destroyed.

For the ash switches of the nymphs bore a charm unknown to any Agua and turned their foes into claws of earth at the slightest touch.

When AK leaned upon his gleaming axe 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 Tatteri.

The goblins had perished everyone, as had the terrible dragons while all that remained of the wicked Aguas was a great number of earthen hillocks dotting the plane.

And now the immortals melted from the valley like do at sunrise to resume their duties in the forest while AAK walked slowly and thoughtfully to the House of Claws 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 in the villages without fear.

Will not the August harm me?

Asked Claus.

Eagerly.

The Aguas, 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 Aguas and their allies and of their great battle with the immortals.

They were part of this history and could not be avoided.

Thank you for joining Bite at a Time Books today while we read a bite of one of your favorite classics.

Again, my name is Brie Carlyle, and I hope you come back tomorrow for the next bite of the life and adventures of Santa Claus.

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Take it chapter by chapter one by time so many adventures and mountains we can climb.