Once upon a time, there was a peaceful village in King Arthur’s kingdom called Comal – a village that was famous throughout the land for its jolly troop of frolicking monkeys. Although the people of Comal were peaceful, a nearby king was always threatening to invade the village, steal the monkeys, and take over their land. One villager by the name of Sir Melfour was determined not to let that happen.

But to understand this story, we must go back in time to understand who this Sir Melfour was really. Sir Brazos and his wife were a respectable family that had given birth to 2 sons and lived in Villabraz. One of the sons being Sir Brazod the 2nd and Sir Melfour. These two brothers hated each other very much. But unluckily for Sir Melfour, Sir Brazos liked Brazod the 2nd more.

Melfour had to work hard on the family land, feeding the animals and tending to the fields, but Brazod the Second stayed in the home reading his books and playing chess. As a result, Sir Melfour became strong and experienced in the ways of landowning and farming, while Brazod the Second became more educated. 

When it was time to train for the top general spot, people were excited. When the combat portion had started, it was clear that Melfour was a top candidate, but his brother wasn’t too shabby. During the spear throwing contest, Melfour had it 9 out of 10, while Brazod the 2nd had hit 2. But unlike Melfour, Brazod had something to say.

“Ladies and gentlemen, while my brother Melfour has made an impressive show of his skill at spear throwing, he was cheating! His spears are much lighter than mine so that they can go farther.”

But before Melfour could complain, people started to throw insults toward Melfour. Knowing that nothing could be done to make it stop, Melfour just left and Brazod was elected to be general. But sir Brazos didn’t appreciate cheating. He banished Melfour to the small village and didn’t give him any money.

Although Melfour was unhappy to be banished from Villabraz, he found Comal to be a pleasant and friendly village. And soon, he met a beautiful young woman named Megan to be his wife. He opened a small blacksmith shop and made swords, armor, and other items out of steel for the townspeople. So that people would have a need for his products, he also hosted jousting competitions.

Many things happened in Comal. There were robberies here and there. But Comal was usually a calm place to live. But one thing stood out:The Monkeys. The troublesome trio were causing ruckus and people loved it. Soon Comal became a popular place to people who wanted to see the monkeys, but that meant one thing: Money. Comal became rich and nearly as much as Villabraz. 

Brazod and his father took notice of this situation, and they were angry. “We banished that fool Melfour from Villabraz in order to punish him, and look what he does! He goes and makes himself rich off a bunch of silly monkeys. We must teach him a lesson about how to be appropriately humble and submissive to our great city,” Brazod told Sir Brazos one day.

Brazod decided to go undercover as a tourist and get information. Brazod entered the pleasant city and liked it there. As Brazod was strolling, he heard a man say, “Hopefully this keeps up. We have no way to stop armies from rolling through.” Brazod leapt in excitement and went home to tell his father.

Sir Brazos was not as keen on the idea as his son. “Slow down boy,” he told him. “We meant to teach Melfour a lesson, not take over an entire village. I am not sure this is the right thing to do.”

But Brazod had made up his mind; he had taken a liking to the village and wanted it for himself. However, he could see that his father would not agree. “Yes, you are right father,” he lied. “I will not do anything at this time.” 

That night, when Brazos was eating dinner, Brazod had been getting ready to ambush his father. Brazod knew when his father came because of a nasty but helpful burp. Brazos walked in and got taken down. Before he knew it Brazos was dead and the heir to the crown was Brazod.

Many people were suspicious of what happened but no one dared to question Brazod. Brazod had realized this happened and started to help the people of Villabraz. He paid their taxes and took care of the nobles’ houses. Soon, people forgot about the suspicions and carried on with their lives. Brazod had then decided to set his army up and told to get ready for an ambush.

And that’s what happened. The next day Brazod attacked a local market and took away a lot of food. But Brazod wasn’t happy. It was just too easy. So Brazod decided to do it again and again. Before he knew it, Brazod had taken almost ⅓ of the supplies of Comal. But then Brazod got another idea. Every time Brazod would go to Comal, he would never see the monkeys. So Brazod decided he was going to fully have an attack on comal.

Back in Comal, Melfour was upset. He suspected that it was Brazod who was slowly stealing their supplies, but he couldn’t prove it, and he knew that Brazod’s people would support him no matter what because of how he constantly paid them off with gifts. Melfour wanted to protect Comal and stop this draining of its resources, but he was not sure how to do it without angering Brazod’s kingdom. 

Melfour knew he would need to train an army of some sort before confronting Brazod, because with as much hatred as his brother had for him it was sure to turn into a fight. But surely Brazod would expect him to train an army. So, how could he gain an advantage against him? 

As he was pondering all of this, one of his favorite monkeys, named Felgur, leaped onto his shoulder and started nibbling on his ear. Of course! Melfour thought. Why hadn’t he thought of it before? He would train a monkey army!

Brazod would never expect it. It was perfect! But Melfour knew it wouldn’t be enough. He needed something else. So Melfour went to a secret location to talk to shepherds and farmers about fighting in a war, and as expected they knew nothing about fighting. Melfour was discouraged but didn’t give up. The next day. Melfour and his “army” of monkeys and people set out in  an open field to do some practicing. 

Although the people of Comal had always been peaceful, they were more than ready to fight to save their village. And since Melfour had great skills as a knight, he was a good teacher. He separated the villagers into two groups and had them practice jousting and sword fighting with each other. It was all going fairly well, except that the monkeys kept getting excited and trying to join in. It made practice very confusing. 

So Melfour decided to put the monkeys against each other. The monkeys fought and even took down a few shepards. Melfour was confident and went to see his brother. But while he was in Villabraz, he saw the army. It was huge. This scared Melfour. As much confidence he had, there was no way his army could beat that. As Melfour thought, he looked around and noticed something, a bull!

Melfour approached the bull cautiously, and it started to stomp at the ground as if it was ready to charge. “Whoa, whoa, Mr. Bull,” Melfour said calmly. Suddenly, the bull’s owner, one of Brazod’s stable workers, came around the corner, shouting at the bull. 

“What in Hades are you doing out here in the fields?” he shouted at the bull, hitting it with a whip. The bull roared, but fell back. “You stupid animal! Get back into that barn before I whip you again!” 

Although Melfour felt fortunate that he had been saved from being attacked, he felt very sad for how the bull was being treated. He remembered he still had some carrots in his pocket that he had packed for his trip. After he knew the stable worker was gone, he snuck into the barn and spoke gently to the bull as he fed it the carrots. Soon enough he had won the bull over, and was able to ease it out of the barn. The bull even allowed him to ride it home.

Melfour brought a few more bulls home and decided it was time to position themselves for attack. Melfour placed the monkeys in the front trying to bait any person while the bull and the humans were in the back. Melfour heard the sound and then saw a huge amount of blue soldiers running toward the monkeys. It was night time and Melfour wore full dark armor and couldn’t be seen. Melfour rode on his horse and charged toward the army.

Even though Comal was famous for its monkeys, it was clear Brazod’s men were not expecting them to fight in a battle. The monkeys were dropping onto the heads of their horses from the trees above and covering their eyes with their hands. The horses began to panic, rearing up on their back legs and kicking. Some of Brazod’s men were falling off their horses, while others were getting kicked off, and still others were getting trampled. Any time the chaos got too intense, the Comal monkeys  simply leapt back up into the trees, waiting to drop down on another horse. 

But then Brazod realized this. He told his men to fire the tree and destroy the monkeys. The monkeys ran and survived and this infuriated Melfour. “You can kill me but you cannot kill those monkeys,” he muttered as he charged. Melfour couldn’t be seen and therefore took down almost a third of the army. The army of comal wasn’t backing down either. Even with very little fighting experience they were holding back Villabraz. Melfour charged and reached the kingdom of Villabraz.

Brazod had placed a great number of soldiers at the gate to the city. Melfour had charged ahead so quickly that his men were far behind him. He would either have to take these men on his own, or try to survive while waiting for the Comal army. As he was trying to decide what to do, he began to hear the thunder of hooves behind him. He saw the eyes of Brazod’s men grow wide, and turned around to see what they were looking at. 

It was the bull! The bull charged and took down the men at the gate. Melfour was still not seen. While the bull was making chaos, Melfour managed to get in the city. Back in the battle of Comal, the army was fighting back pretty well. Villabraz hadn’t been able to do anything in Comal while Comal was actually defeating the huge army of Villabraz. When all looked well, Brazod ordered there to be a fire to be placed on the Comal army. He was going to burn them all.

Suddenly, a huge clap of thunder startled everyone. It was hard to tell if it was the sky or more noise from the battle. But soon huge raindrops were falling  on the men. The Villabraz army tried to light their firey arrows so they could shoot them onto the roofs of the Comal buildings, but the thunderstorm drenched their weapons and put the fires out. 

This got Brazod furious. He was now ready to send the last of is army, or the last 20,000,000 men of his army. But Brazod also calculated how many of the comal army men had died. Out of the 52,000, only 2 members had fallen. Brazod decided to fully send the army. But the Comal army had pushed through and fended off his army from Comal. When Villabraz’s army had arrived, they had to fight in the village of Cikto, not Comal. 

Meanwhile, Melfour was riding his bull undetected through the city of Villabraz. Suddenly he saw something that made him stop. It was the grave of his father. As he looked at it sadly, he heard a booming voice from the sky, saying one word over and over: BETRAYAL. Melfour knew what this meant, because the voice was his father’s. 

Melfour had always suspected that his brother had something to do with the death of his father, and this confirmed it. 

“What would you have me do, father?” Melfour asked. 

“DEFEAT HIM,” the voice boomed back. 

“I am trying, but his army is much bigger than mine,” Melfour responded. 

“DEFEAT, BUT DO NOT KILL. HE IS STILL YOUR BROTHER,” the voice said. Melfour was concerned. How could he fight the army and also protect his brother who was leading the army against his people?

Melfour first knew that he should visit his brother so he rode off in the distance. When Melfour arrived at the palace of Brazod and broke in. He hopped off his bull and snuck into his brother’s room. His brother was startled and immediately was upset. “What are you doing, here you traitor!” Brazod exclaimed.

“You shouldn’t be talking,” Melfour calmly responded.

“What do you mean I shouldn’t be talking,” Brazod shot back

This angered Melfour. “You killed our father and now you say that you didn’t!” Melfour took out his sword.

Brazod simply laughed. “You would go against our father’s wishes and kill your brother?” he asked. Melfour was surprised. 

“How do you know what Father said to me?” he asked suspiciously.

“Well…um…I just know,” Brazod stuttered. “It sounds like something he would say.”

Suddenly Melfour knew why the voice had sounded so familiar. “It was you!” he shouted at Brazod. “But wait – why would you tell me to defeat your own army?”

Brazod sighed. “It’s clear you are going to win. You have formed a magnificent army with the people of Comal. We cannot beat you. But I do not want you to kill me,” he said. 

Melfour was about to walk away happily, when he realized he’d been fooled. Melfour turned around to see Brazod charging with 4 other men. Melfour quickly took out his sword and started dueling them. As he expected, Brazod didn’t have much skill and was taken down easily. The  guards were the big problem. They jumped on Melfour at once and took him down. One thing that Melfour knew that the guards didn’t know was where all the trap doors were. Melfour clicked a button and all the guards went flying and Melfour got up and faced his brother who was holding an arrow.

“Brazod,” Melfour said gently. “We are still brothers. Let us resolve this situation without more violence. Our father would be so unhappy to see us quarrel this way.” 

Brazod merely pulled back the arrow on the bow and took aim at Melfour’s heart. “We’ll see about that,” he said.

And just as he was about to let the arrow fly, Melfour’s bull came charging into the room, butting Brazod in the chest with his big bully head. Brazod toppled backwards and fell out the window. 

Brazod fell unconscious and Melfour quickly took control of everything. First, he ordered every one to stop fighting. Then he gave all the land that was once Villabraz’s and gave it to Comal. Melfour also got Brazod and put him in prison.

Technically, Melfour could have become King of Villabraz, but the people of Comal wanted to make him King of their land. Melfour was torn because of his loyalty to his father’s memory but also to the people of Comal, so he decided to join the two towns into one big city. 

Melfour ruled over the city of comal-braz and led the city to victory over all enemies. Brazod spent his life in prison sobbing. 

One day, Melfour got a guest, the great King Arthur. King Arthur had invited him to join the round table. Melfour did so and when asked about how he took down the Villabraz army, he replied, “It wasn’t just me, it was everyone.”

-by Sarvesh, Grade 6