Thomas ran up the stairs, and back into the forest. The ghosts were still moaning and swirling around. In fact, it seemed that there were now more of them than before. Was this because Talon had disappeared? If Talon was gone, who would control the ghosts? Thomas ran for the castle. A ghost came right in front of him, and opened its mouth wide to scream. Thomas kept running, and ran right through the ghost. Because the ghost was made of spirit, he was able to run right through it. But he felt the air change to freezing cold as he passed through.
Or maybe this had nothing to do with Talon’s disappearance. Maybe the ghosts were picking on him now because they could see he was all alone, and scared. And he was scared. He ran as fast as he could back to the castle, and banged on the door. “Marcia! Marcia! Are you there? Let me in!”
The door quickly opened, and Thomas ran inside.
“Are you okay?” said Marcia. “Are they still out there? Is Henry okay?”
“We need to wake everyone up,” said Thomas. “Mom, Dad, Grandfather, Grandmother, everyone.”
“Are you crazy? We’re going to get in trouble if they find out you went out in the middle of the night.”
“We already are in trouble,” said Thomas.
*******************************************************************
When Robert had gotten hit by Talon’s incantation, it was like a strong gust of air hit him right in the chest. It picked him up off of his feet and sent him flying backwards into the grove, where he landed on his butt, tumbled over a bit, and then came to a stop. He jumped up immediately, and ran back. But once he ran out of the grove, he was running into more grassland. The stone floor, the underground chamber, it was all gone suddenly. It was just the grove, surrounded by more grass, and a few trees dotting the landscape. It looked all very picturesque--like a nice park with grass and trees--but it was not the chamber where he had been moments before, and Robert had a bad feeling that maybe there was no way to get back to where he had been.
“Alas, son, he got you as well,” said a voice. Robert turned around and saw Midor, his father, still dressed in his ranger uniform with his green shirt and his green hat. On his back, he carried his usual green rucksack “I should have warned you earlier about Talon. I’m sorry.”
Robert was speechless upon seeing his father again, but he had very little time to talk to him. General Graten tumbled into the grove next, and did the same thing Robert had done--jump up and run forward, only to gradually realize he was no longer in the chamber.
“Over here,” said Robert, calling Graten over to where he and his father were standing.
“What’s going on?” asked Graten.
But they didn’t have a chance to answer before Henry fell into the Grove. And then, shortly afterwards, John. And just when they were all beginning to catch their breath and look around, Talon and Grace fell into the grove together.
“Hello, what’s this?” said Midor. “Is that Talon himself? Well, maybe we have a chance of getting out of here after all. Quick, grab him!”
Robert, Henry and Graten helped Grace hold down Talon. Talon started to mutter some incantation, but Henry covered his mouth. Midor reached into his rucksack and got out a small piece of cloth. “Quick, stuff this in his mouth. Don’t let him speak, or he’ll use his incantations.” Henry stuffed the cloth in Talon’s mouth as the others held him down. Midor removed some rope from his rucksack. “Now, let’s bind him up,” he said.
Talon was an old man with spindly arms, but he had an unnatural amount of strength in those spindly arms. He almost pushed them all away and freed himself, but all together they were able to overpower him, and bound his arms tightly with the rope. When at last they had him, they were exhausted from the effort. “It’s okay now,” said Midor, as they began to relax slightly. “If he can’t speak, and he can’t gesture, then he can’t make any new spells. He can’t hurt us now.”
“Where are we?” said General Graten.
“We are in a magical prison,” said Midor.
“How did you get here?” Robert asked.
“Talon imprisoned me here a year ago,” said Midor. “About a year ago, the Bear King asked me to help locate his missing son. I travelled through the woods looking for clues, and the clues led me to the kingdom here. As I began to get more and more clues, I uncovered the hidden staircase beneath the hollow tree. I came down, and surprised Talon doing his incantations. He banished me into the grove, because he didn’t want to take the chance that I might tell anyone about this place.”
“But what is this place? Why does he want to keep it a secret?” asked Grace.
“I don’t know,” said Midor. “But this is where all the monsters of the forest are banished.”
“Of course,” said John. “That’s why there’s been no monsters in the forest for hundreds of years. They’ve all been hidden here.”
“Possibly,” said Midor. “I’m sure Talon here knows a lot more about this place, but don’t ungag him just yet. I don’t trust him.”
“So there are monsters here?” asked General Graten.
“All over this land. As long as you stay inside this grove, you're safe. This grove is magic. But everywhere else around this land, monsters are lurking.”
“How have you survived here for so long?” asked John.
“It hasn’t been easy,” said Midor. “But I know a thing or two about surviving in the wilds. I can hide myself in the trees or in the bushes very well when I need to. And when I sleep, I always come back to this magic grove. The monsters can’t get you as long as you stay inside here.”
“So how do we get out of here?’ asked Grace.
“There’s one man who knows how to get us out of here,” said Midor. “And fortunately you, my dear, brought him right to us. But getting him to do what we want, that will be the tricky part.”
“I have some experience getting people to do what I want,” growled General Graten, as he raised his sword.
“I’m sure you do,” said Midor. “But a sorcerer is not easily scared, you’ll find. It’s hard to get an upper hand on them.” Midor turned to Robert. “The other way to get out of here is to have someone from the outside reach into the grove while still keeping their feet in the chamber. Was there anyone else with you who could do that?”
“Yes, Thomas was with us,” said Robert. “A boy from the castle. But will he come back to rescue us?”
Henry laughed. “He will. He’ll want to see Grace again, so he’ll come back.”
“But you know,” said Robert, “It was the funniest thing. He couldn’t hear your voice when you called to us. Everyone else could hear you, but Thomas couldn’t.”
“Who is everyone else?” asked Midor.
“The five of us: Me, Henry, Grace, John and General Graten.”
“None of you are from the castle then?” Midor asked.
“No, they are from the kingdom of Mora,” Robert said.
“That explains it,” said Midor. “Talon must have put a spell on all who live in the castle so that they couldn’t hear my cries. Maybe he forgot to update the spell when you four came.”
“So Thomas won’t be able to hear you, but could he hear us?” asked Henry.
“I doubt it,” said Midor. “I suspect the spell is for any voices that come from the grove.”
There was a silence as they each contemplated what this meant. Finally, Grace spoke. “Thomas came down to the chamber with us,” she said. “He saw the grove, and he saw us disappear into it. And we told him that we could hear voices coming out of it.”
“But,” continued Robert, “He never actually heard my father’s voice. He doesn’t know that he’s only supposed to stick his hand in the grove, and not walk into it.”
“But he saw everyone disappear into the grove,” said John. “Maybe he’ll figure it out that he’s not supposed to just walk into the grove.”
“Hopefully,” said Midor. “It’s our only chance.”
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