John, Midor, and King Carlyle woke up still in the Gnome tunnels, after a night of feasting, and then drinking.
King Carlyle had not slept well on his bed. But he was too stubborn to admit that he had made a mistake, so he refused to say anything about the horrible night sleep he had had.
John’s bed had been comfortable, but John had not been able to sleep because he had spent the whole night worrying about everything that had been happening. He had laid awake most of the night, and when he did briefly drift off to sleep, he had strange dreams which were much too vivid for him to get a good night's sleep.
The only one of the group that did get a good night's sleep was Midor. Midor had just as much to worry about as the rest of them, but Midor always had plenty to worry about. There was always some sort of crisis going on in the forest, and Midor had long ago learned how to get a good night’s sleep no matter what the crisis.
They all came out of their rooms and breakfasted with the Gnome King. John was also pleasantly surprised to see his friends Jacob the frog and Benjamin the mouse, who had been found by the gnomes and brought down to the gnome hall.
“I was wondering where you ended up,” John said to them.
“We were wondering about you,” said Benjamin.
“We spent the whole afternoon hopping through the forest trying to get to the castle,” said Jacob. “And then when we got there, Bartholomew the fly told us that you had disappeared.”
“Jacob, Benjamin, I’m glad to see you as well,” said Midor. “I understand you’ve been good friends to John, and we’re going to need good friends in the coming days.”
“Days?” asked John. “What is going to happen?”
“Yes, Midor, please tell us,” croaked King Carlyle. “What plans have you got for us over the next several days?”
“I’m not quite sure yet,” said Midor. “We need to figure out some way to get Catherine out of that castle.”
“There are many magical creatures in the forest,” said John. “What about recruiting those witches? Or finding a sorcerer? Or what about the fairies?”
“That’s exactly what I want to try to avoid, if I can,” said Midor. “I don’t want to start some sort of big magic war in the middle of the forest. It could be very messy.”
“Yes, I remember,” said King Carlyle. “About 10 years ago, some witches tried to attack the castle. Talon defended us, but with all the spells flying back and forth, it almost set fire to half the forest.”
“Yes, we lost a lot of good trees that day,” Midor said.
It took a moment for the gravity of this to sink in for John. He had almost forgotten trees in the forest could talk. “You mean, talking trees got burned up?”
“It was quite horrible,” King Carlyle agreed. “I felt very bad about it. Especially since the mission of our castle is to protect the forest.”
“Ah, I see,” John said. “Okay, so we want to avoid magic battles. But then how are we going to get Catherine out of the Castle?”
“It’s complicated, isn’t it?” said Midor. “I don’t know what the answer is yet. I guess the first thing to do is to send word back to the castle. We need to let them know you’re okay.”
“I’m not hopping all the way back there!” Jacob croaked. “I still haven’t rested up from the last time.”
“It is a long way to go for a small animal,” Midor agreed. “And probably for a small fly as well, so let’s not send Barthelemew. Is there any way we could get word to Sandi and Stuart, the two red cardinals who helped us out last time?”
“I will put the word out now,” said King David.
“Great,” said Midor. “Let’s get them to send a message back to the castle, if we can. Maybe we can even arrange to meet up with some of the family.”
