Chapter 66: The Water Sprite Queen

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King Carlyle and Jacob the frog spent several days with the Water Sprites, and King Carlyle was pleasantly surprised to find that as a frog, he was able to breathe underwater for long periods of time.  Jacob the frog explained that this is something that some frogs in the forest are able to do, and perhaps some of Catherine’s magic had left a bit of a residue.  

The Water Sprites were friendly and kind, and King Carlyle enjoyed his time under the water at the bottom of the river.  He loved exploring the underwater gardens, and swimming against the gentle current of the river, and meeting the fish and the various other underwater creatures.

But gradually, King Carlyle began to discover that not everything was well among the Water Sprites.  They began to talk about a lost queen, who had once been their benevolent leader, but who had gone on a journey down the river one day, and had never come back.

“We should find this lost queen for them,” said King Carlyle to Jacob.

“Indeed, it does sound like a problem,” said Jacob.  “But, your majesty, would not this job be better suited to Midor?  With Midor’s connections, he would be able to get every creature in the river searching, and no doubt the lost queen would be found before the day is out.”

“I feel that Midor’s powers are often much exaggerated,” said King Carlyle.  “If Midor could solve every problem in the forest, then how come we find so many problems everywhere we go?  But regardless, Midor is not here now.  And who knows where he is, or when we may see him again.  If we wait for Midor to solve all of our problems, then we will never be able to get anything done.  No, we have to solve the problem ourselves.”

“But surely your majesty is aware that we have another of other problems at the moment,” said Jacob the Frog.  “Indeed, we are on our own quest right now to the land of the fairies.  We cannot afford to get sidetracked on another separate quest.”

“I am King of this forest, and wherever there are problems, it is my duty to fix them,” said King Carlyle.  “What kind of a king would I be if I forsook the problems of my own people in order to solve my own problems?”

And so it was that King Carlyle and Jacob the Frog set off in search of the lost Queen of the Water Sprites.

Chapter 65: The Leaf Wars

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John travelled with Benjamin the mouse and the rabbits all day.  They followed Benjamin’s directions, which were supposed to bring them closer to the land of the fairies.  But by the end of the day, they had to admit they were lost.

The rabbits were getting more and more upset all the time, but they still stayed with them.  John did not know what they were going to do next, and he was beginning to get frustrated.  “I wish Midor were here,” he said.  “Or Robert.  I don’t know how to find my way around this forest.”

“Perhaps we can help,” said a voice.  John looked around to see who had said it.  “Who’s there?” he asked.

“It’s just us,” said a voice again.  “The leaf people.”

And then, one of the leaves got up and started walking.  John looked in amazement.  “What a forest this is!’ he said.  “Even the leaves are alive here.”

“Not every leaf,” the green leaf responded.  “Only the leaves of the magical trees.  Many years ago, the fairies made some of the trees magic, and those that had the magic grew magical leaves.  And we magical leaves can talk and walk just like any other creature.”

The leaf was a dark green tree leaf, but it had two tiny little legs sprouting out of it, which it walked around on.  And it had a small little face in the center of it.  And two thin arms that came out from it.  It was like a little person, almost, but it was a leaf.  Several of the leaves on the forest floor stood up, and began walking around, and John saw many leaf people.

John didn’t know what to make of it.  “Surely, I have seen a lot of strange things since I came into this forest,” he said.  “But I never thought that I’d see leaf people.  Is everything alive in this forest?  What about the rocks?”

“Some of us are,” answered a nearby rock, much to John’s surprise.  John practically fell over at this point, so the rock explained, “We rocks were also made magical many centuries ago by the fairies.  Not all rocks can talk, but the rocks near the land of the fairies can.”

John, Benjamin the mouse, and the rabbits now found themselves surrounded by the leaf people, who were standing up and  coming from piles all over the forest floor.

“Who are you people?” asked John.  “How is it that leaves can be alive after they’ve left the tree?”

“Again, we’re not ordinary leaves,” explained the leader patiently.  “Centuries ago, the trees around this area were given a special gift by the fairies.  The leaves on their branches are all alive.  And because of this gift, we stay alive, and we stay green, even after we fall off the trees’ branches.”

“But then the tree must just grow new leaves next spring,” said John.

“Indeed, they do,” said the leader of the leaf people.

“But then… then what happens to the new leaves?”

“In the autumn, they fall down.  But they still stay alive.”

“But if there are new leaves being born every year, then the forest must be full of leaf people.  How long do you live?”

“The fairies gifted us with long life-spans.  If nothing happens to us, we can live for a hundred years.  But few of us ever make it that long.  We are thin and fragile, and often killed by the other creatures of the forest.  It is a violation of the forest law, of course, but…”

“Yes, I’ve discovered,” said John.  “The forest law is not always followed in the remote parts of the forest.”

“Yes, exactly.  But also we lose thousands of our number every year to war.”

“War?”

“The leaf wars.  Among the leaf-people.  The house of maple has been trying to expand its territory, but the oaks are fighting back against it.  We birch leaves, for as you can clearly see, we are birch, have formed an alliance with the Elm leaves, but the house of Elm has recently fallen into civil war, and they have started fighting among themselves.”

“And how do leaves fight amongst themselves?” asked John.

“We have weapons that we manufacture, or that we buy from those that sell to us.  Such, at least, that that our small hands can hold.  The dwarves can make tiny little metal swords and spears, and some wooden bows and arrows as well are given to us by the elves.”

“But why do you fight?” said Benjamin.  “Surely it would be much better to all live in the forest in peace.”

“Sometimes it is necessary to fight to protect our freedom,” said the leaf.

“What does that mean?” asked John.

“The other leaves would seek to subjugate us and make us their slave,” said the leaf.  “We must fight for our freedom.”

“Will you join us?” another one asked John.

“Most assuredly I will not,” said John.  “For surely this sounds like the most foolish war that I have ever heard of, and I will not take part in it.”

“But with your human body, you are much stronger than a leaf,” said the elm leaf.  “You could tear up many of our enemies.”

“But I have no desire to tear up anyone,” said John.  “Does Midor know about this little war of yours?”

“Midor? Why yes, he helped negotiate our last peace,” said the birch leaf.  “Of course, the peace fell apart shortly after he left us.  The King of the Leaves was assassinated, and the various houses of the leaves took to warring again.”

“Midor has not been back here for many months,” said another birch leaf.  “So there has been no one to negotiate a peace.”

“Very well,” said John.  “I will negotiate the peace for you.”

“John, this is not wise,” said Benjamin.  “Midor was an expert at negotiating these things.  He knew intimately all the politics of the forest.  You may try to imitate him, but maybe you will only make things worse.”

“We shall see,” said John.  “Are you going into battle soon?”

“Yes, we are marching against the maple leaves this afternoon.”

“Let me go with you,” said John.  “I will make an alliance between you and the maple leaves.”

Meanwhile the two rabbits, Klangor and Starrof, thought the whole thing was very funny, and kept laughing the whole time.

Chapter 64: Negotiating with the Monster

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Catherine sat down with the hamster in the cage.  The blind ogre sat on one side of her, and Grinthal sat down on the other side.  Talon stood in the background.  Catherine kept chanting softly, and letting the ball of energy grow on her fingers.  Sometimes she would let the ball of energy fly out, and zap the hamster.  It squealed in protest.

“You don’t like the electricity?” said Catherine.  “A small little furry hamster like you, I shouldn’t wonder.  I wonder how much electricity it would take to kill you.”

“What do you want?” asked the hamster angrily.

“You know what I want,” said Catherine.  “I want us to come to some sort of agreement.  I want to form an alliance”

“You mean you want me to be your slave,” said the hamster.

“If that’s how you prefer to look at it,” said Catherine.  “I’ll be the one giving the orders in this relationship, if that’s what you mean.  But you won’t fare badly out of it.  I’ll make sure you are richly rewarded for your service.”

“Rewarded with what?”

“Well, I don’t know.  What does a monster want?  Do you want gold? Wine? Meat? Land?”

“Territory.  And fresh meat.  But I don’t need you to give them to me.  A monster like me just takes what he wants.”

“You know,” said Catherine, “I don’t know why I even bother keeping you in this cage.  I should just let you free in the forest.  There you can terrorize all the animals, and take all the meat and territory you want.”

“Do it,” said the hamster.  “Set me free.  I’d rather run through the forest in this form, and be free, then to regain my old form, and be your slave.”

“Well if that’s how you feel about it,” said Catherine.  “Then go free.  Run around the forest as a free hamster.  But remember, the offer is always available, if you want to come back some day.”  And Catherine took the cage to the window, and threw the hamster out.

The creature might have fallen to its death (for a fall down from the window is a long fall for a hamster), except Talon cast a spell, and the creature floated gently to the ground.  Whereupon it hit the ground, and went running into the forest.

“Give it a 5 minute head start,” Catherine said to Grinthal.  “Then I want every cat, fox and ferret in this forest to be looking for it.  I’ll give a reward to whichever creature eats the monster hamster.”

Chapter 63: A Monster Emerges

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The monster came at midday.

In spite of everything, they had still been watching the hole.  Three men at any time.  Jason and Charles and General Graten were standing by the hole, keeping the usual watch.  And since there was nothing else to do, they had started talking to each other and making small talk.  

General Graten was talking about his favorite subjects--the battles he had been in, and the men he had killed.  Graten was able to give graphic descriptions of the way he had killed men in the battlefield in a way that horrified Jason and Charles, although they didn’t know what to say in response.  Soldiers fight in battles, after all, and war was a way of life in their world.  It was normal and expected for a man to take pride in his accomplishments on the battlefield.  But at the same time, they both felt that a man should never spend too much lurid detail in the description of taking another life.  And yet, they knew all soldiers had a right to tell their stories of the battlefield, so they didn’t stop him.

It was the shaking in the ground that stopped Graten.  The ground began to shake beneath them, and threw all 3 of them to the ground.

General Graten was the first to his feet, unsheathing his sword instantaneously.  “This is it,” he said.  “This is the moment we knew would come.  I’ll be honest, boys, I wouldn’t have chosen your company to die in if it were up to me.  You're not my type--you’re too soft.  But sometimes a man doesn’t choose who he gets to die with.  Let’s make the best of this.”  

Jason and Charles noticed that General Graten seemed very nonchalant about the fact that he thought he was going to die.  It was as if this was something he had been waiting for for most of this life.  They, on the other hand, loved their life, and their hands were shaking as they drew their swords out.  General Graten noticed this with disgust, but said nothing.

Instead, General Graten simply said, “Someone has to alert Catherine.  It’s our duty to protect the queen.”

“You go,” said Jason.  “You’re the only one here who’s loyal to her.”

“This isn’t a question of whether or not you like the queen,” said Graten.  “You’ve all got family in that castle, and you want to protect them. You need to alert the queen so that she can raise the castle defences.  We don’t have time to argue about it.  I’m not leaving the fight.  I’ve been waiting for this death, and you’re not going to cheat me out of it.  If neither of you wants to warn the castle, that’s on you.”

Chales turned to Jason.  “You go,” he said.   “You were never any good in a fight anyway.”

Jason would have argued about this, except a hand came through the dirt just then, which was a sign the monster was emerging.  “I hate you,” he said, and ran for the castle.

Meanwhile, General Graten focused on the hand.  “You’re not getting out that easily,” he said.  He hacked at the hand with his sword.  There seemed to be a cry of pain and outrage from beneath the soil, but only a small cut was visible on the hand, despite the fact that General Graten had hit it with all his strength.  “That’s not good,” said Graten.  “These monsters are going to be tough to kill.”  He went to attack the hand again, but the monster emerged from the ground with a yell. He threw General Graten to the ground, and then looked around to see what to attack.

The monster was a hideous beast.  It stood on two legs like a man, but was covered in thick blue hair.  It was ten feet tall, and had huge curved horns on its head.  It roared, and it’s mouth was full of razor sharp teeth.  It roared, lowered its head, and charged towards Charles.

Charles held his sword and readied himself for the attack, but before the monster reached him, General Graten, who had gotten back to his feet, swung his sword and cut the monster in the back.

The monster had a thick hide that was difficult to penetrate with a sword.  Difficult, but not impossible, because the sword did make a cut.  Not enough to kill the monster, but certainly enough to wound him.  The monster turned around and faced General Graten.  It swung it’s huge claw at General Graten.  General Graten swung his sword, and hit the monster right in the paw.  Again, the monster had tough skin, but it was possible to do some damage, and General Graten had made a cut.  The monster roared with anger.  He swung at General Graten again.  General Graten again dodged the blow that was coming for his head, and again cut the monster on the paw.  The monster yelled, opened his mouth wide, and came down on General Graten as if to swallow him whole.  

“Graten, run,” yelled Charles(who was now getting to his feet).

Graten held up his sword vertically to block the monster’s mouth.  The sword was just slightly larger than the height of the mouth of the monster, and so he could not close his teeth down on General Graten.

Charles was now back on his feet, and joined back in the fight.  He swung his sword and hit the monster in the back.  The monster howled with pain, but no matter how many times they cut him with their swords, they barely seemed to make a dent in its thick hide.  They could cut the monster's skin, yes, but only on the surface.  They could not pierce his body.

Nevertheless, the monster was beginning to show some signs of fatigue and exhaustion.  “Had enough yet,” asked General Graten.  “Or do you want to feel this sword again?”

“You are a coward to hide beneath that sword,” shouted the monster.  “I do not use weapons.  I fight you in just my bare skin.”

“Humans use weapons,” said General Graten.  “If you want to find a creature with just their bare skin on, you had best fight the animals instead.”

“I will eat you up, human,” said the monster, and its voice sounded terrible.

“Come on then,” said Graten.  “Let’s have it.”

The monster charged at Graten.  Graten swung his sword again, and he did manage to cut the monster this time, but the monster did not stop charging.  The monster received the cut, and kept running, bowling into Graten and knocking him down onto the ground.  Graten went flying through the air, and landed flat on his back.  But Graten kept his grip on his sword the whole time.  As soon as he landed on the ground, he rolled over, and would have leapt to his feet, but the monster was already upon him.  The monster opened his mouth wide, and when he opened up his jaws, it was wide enough to fit Graten’s whole head in, and the teeth were sharp enough to cut through flesh and bone, and the monster surely would have bitten Graten’s head clean off right then if something had not stopped it.

Suddenly, there was a flash of blinding light as the whole sky lit up, and a loud boom followed as if by thunder.  Both Graten and the monster stopped to see what had caused it, and they turned to see Catherine emerging from the castle, followed by Jason.  

“Catherine, use your magic.  Stop the monster,” Charles yelled.

“Now we’re glad to see Catherine, are we Jason?” said Catherine sarcastically.  “I wish you had been so glad to see me two weeks ago.”

“Argue with the boy later,” said Graten.  “If you intend to kill the beast, do it now.”

“Tut-tut-tut,” said Catherine.  “How you all misunderstand me.  I have no desire to kill the monster.  Not when we can join the monster.”

“What do you mean?” asked Graten.

“You are very strong,” Catherine said to the monster.  “I could use a beast like you.  Will you join with me?”

“I will destroy you!” roared the beast.  “Who is this human who dares to talk to me?”

“Ahhh,” said Catherine.  “You don’t know who I am.  An understandable mistake, I suppose.  After all, you’ve been stuck in that other realm for hundreds of years.”  And Catherine began to hum softly, and chant in the ancient forest language.  A small ball of light began to appear at her fingertips, and slowly grew larger as Catherine chanted.

The monster’s eyes widened in recognition.  “Ah, you are a witch,” it said.

“I am,” said Catherine softly.

“I’ve eaten witches before,” said the monster, and it charged towards her.  It bounded large distances in a simple step.  The earth shook below it, and the very foundations of the castle seemed to be unstable as the castle shook.

Catherine was taken off-guard by how quickly the monster moved.  She didn’t have time to use any complicated spells, and simply used a simple spell to throw the ball of light at the monster.  It briefly knocked him down, but then he was on his feet again just as quickly, and bounding forwards towards Catherine.  While Catherine was still forming her second chant, the monster knocked into her, breaking off her concentration, and sending her flying backwards.  Catherine had to start the chant all over again now, but there was no time as the monster opened his mouth up to eat her.

And then, something neither the monster nor Catherine was expecting, another bolt of magic came up from the tower of the castle.  It was Talon, who had been watching everything from up in the castle tower, safely away from the fighting, where he liked to be.

The monster’s eyes widened in surprise as its body transformed.  And then, where there had been a monster only seconds before, there was now a cute little hamster.  Catherine picked it up, and tried to hide the fact that the monster had almost defeated her.  “I have a cute little cage just waiting for you,” she cooed.  “Of course, how long you stay in the cage is up to you.  If you behave yourself, we may let you out.  We may even transform you back to your old form, if we can reach an agreement.  But for now the cage.”  And Catherine walked away holding the hamster.

Charles and General Graten slowly picked themselves up.  They were walking stiffly from being thrown everywhere by the monster.  Charles walked over to meet them.

“That was it?” asked General Graten.  “That was the monster we’ve been fearing all these weeks?  That was hardly anything.”

“Hardly anything?” Charles said in surprise.  “He would have killed us if Catherine hadn’t shown up.”

“Yes, but Catherine did show up,” said Graten.  “And so did Talon.  So if we have two wizards on our side, what do we need to worry about these monsters.”

“You saw how easily it knocked over Catherine,” said Charles.  “If Talon hadn’t been there…”

“Yes, yes, Catherine got too close to it, I’ll admit that,” said Graten.  “But she won’t make that mistake a second time I bet.  As long as Catherine and Talon keep a safe distance away, it seems like we’ve got nothing to fear from these monsters.”

“None of us really know how powerful the monsters are,” said Jason, who was joining the conversation.  “They haven’t been released for centuries.  No one alive can remember fighting them.  But there were legends that some of the monsters themselves had magical properties.  Some of them have charms that can protect them from magic.  Some of them have magic themselves.”

“The one we fought didn’t have any protections,” said Graten.

“I didn’t say all of them,” said Jason.  “This one was apparently one of the non-magical ones.  But the next one might be one of the magical ones.”

“One got through the portal already,” said Charles.  “How long do you think before the rest figure it out.”

“It shouldn’t be long,” said Jason.

“Well, in that case, we need more men guarding this area,” said Graten.  “Three aren’t enough.  We should have fifty from now on.  I’ll see if I can recruit any from my soldiers.”

“What about the goblin army,” said Charles.  “There’s no point in having them all just annoy us in the castle.  They can join in the guarding.”

“I don’t think Catherine would allow that,” said Graten.  “She sees them as her personal bodyguard.  And I don’t want the goblins out here either.  They’re not trustworthy, and they’d just annoy the humans who were guarding.  I’d probably end up killing some of them myself if I were standing guard alongside them.”

“Hopefully we’ll be ready for the next one,” said Jason.

Chapter 62: Searching for King Carlyle

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After King Carlyle and Jacob the frog had vanished into the white water, John and Benjamin the mouse had spent hours trying to find them.  They went up and down the river bank, calling out their names.  

The rabbits, Starrof and Klangor, followed along, although they were blatantly unconcerned about whether or not the others were found, and seemed to find the whole thing terribly funny.  They mostly made snide remarks and laughed to each other.  John finally lost his patience with them.  “What?” he snapped.  “What is so funny?”

The rabbits just looked at each other, in a slightly confused way.  “You do not find this amusing?” asked Starrof, who sounded genuinely confused.

“The look on the frog king’s face when the cat dropped him into the water?” said Klangor.  “You did not see it?”

“You did not think it was funny when the frog disappeared into the water?” asked Starrof. 

There was a hint of concern in the rabbit’s voices--as if they were seriously worried that John was not making the connection between what had happened and the inherent humor in the situation.  John almost wondered if he should take this as a sign that the dragons were concerned with his well-being, but maybe that was going too far.

“Never mind,” said John.  “I’m sorry I asked you.  Just please, less laughing, and more help.  We need to find King Carlyle.”

“We do not need him,” Starrof said.

“I need to find him,” said John.  “And I’m not moving until I do.  So if you wish to continue to travel with me, you will help me look for him.”

They kept travelling down the river bank, but they could not find him.

John didn’t know this, but they initially did not go far enough in their search for King Carlyle.  John and Benjamin (the rabbits were not helping) did not realize how quickly the water had carried Jacob and King Carlyle downstream, and initially didn’t go far enough in their search.  But when they finally did start to go farther, then they went too far, and walked right by the place where King Carlyle and Jacob were.  But how were they to know that King Carlyle and Jacob were in a hole in the side of the river bank?  They could never have seen it from where they were.

So they continued down the river.  Much further than they should have.  And then, when they still didn’t see them, they came back.  Up and down they went, searching for King Carlyle, and calling his name, but never finding him.  

The rabbits complained the whole time, until at last an exasperated John told them that they didn’t have to follow him.  They could easily leave and go off by themselves.  But they mumbled something about how they needed to stay with the group, and then just kept following.  (The truth was that the rabbits were still hoping to get to the land of the fairies, and have their spell reversed to become normal dragons again.  But they couldn’t find the way there themselves.)

At last, the sun started to go down, and they had still not found King Carlyle or Jacob.  

“What do you want to do?” asked Benjamin the mouse.

“What can we do?” said John.  “We’ll just have to sleep here for tonight.  Maybe in the morning we can try and find him again.

“Maybe,” said Benjamin.  “But we also might want to think about continuing without them.”

“We can’t leave them,” said John.

“But I don’t think we’ll ever find them,” said Benjamin.  “It’s a big forest, and there’s no telling where they might be.  We already spent the whole day looking for them.  I don’t think we’re any closer to finding them.  We may have to just continue.”

“Continue where?” John said.  “We had been going to seek a cure for all 3 of us.  But now we lost King Carlyle.  We lost Midor.  Am I to go to seek a cure just for myself?”

“At this point,” said Benjamin.  “You may as well continue to the land of the fairies.  We’re almost halfway there.  It’s as much trouble to keep going as it is to turn around.”

“Do you know the way? asked John.

“I think so,” said Benjamin.

“Please, take us there,” said Starrof.

“We’ve wasted enough time looking for the frog king,” said Klangor.

John sighed, then said, “We’ll spend the next day looking for King Carlyle and Jacob.  But if we can’t find them, then we’ll have to go without them.”

Chapter 61: Transformations

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It wasn’t long before Vivian restored Midor to his rightful size.  There was no sense in not doing it, she said, after she had been doing so much other magic.  And Midor had to agree.

Catherine was busy teaching Vivian all kinds of healing spells.  And with all the goblins wandering around the castle, the healing spells became increasingly useful.  Someone or other was always getting in some kind of fight with the goblins.  Catherine refused to heal anyone.  She would teach Vivian the spell, but she would never perform the healing herself.

Vivian was getting better and better at learning the spells.  The first few took her many hours to learn, but after a while, she started to get a feel for the druid language.  She was able to memorize the spells quicker, and conjugate the nouns and verbs faster.  Catherine was very pleased.  “It just goes to show,” she said.  “You are my niece.  It’s in the blood.”

Talon, however, was getting upset at how quickly Vivian was learning the spells.  Spells that took him weeks to learn in his youth he saw Vivian master in a matter of hours.  He tried to hide his irritation, but many people remarked that he seemed angrier and angrier lately.  He was always in a grumpy mood.

The mystery of the ogre was soon cleared up as well, when the very same ogre that Grace had blinded showed up in Catherine’s courtroom.  It turns out that Catherine had summoned the creature to serve in her court.  She said something about more ogres being on the way, which made everyone nervous.  Goblin’s are one thing, but ogres were much more dangerous and much more vicious.  And they had been known to gobble up children.  The royal family began to talk seriously again about leaving the castle.  Midor said he would recommend it.  But at the moment one blind ogre didn’t seem to be much of a threat, so although everyone made preparations to leave, they decided to wait to see if Catherine was serious about bringing more ogres into the castle.

General Graten, on the other hand, was spending more and more time with Catherine.  Despite his initial ambivalence, she seemed to be gradually winning him over with gifts of wine and food, and he was slowly recruiting back his old soldiers (who had been dispersed to houses all around the forest, but were beginning to slowly re-assemble into an army again).  Catherine herself was growing more and more beautiful by the day.  She had already used her magic to revert herself to her youthful form, but now she was using the magic to make herself look more and more beautiful.  She had never been an ugly girl, at least not when she was young, but she was slowly transforming into a figure that was more beautiful and voluptuous than she had ever been before.

General Graten knew this beauty was only an illusion, of course, so he tried not to let it tempt him.  But after a few glasses of wine, he often became more prone to be tempted.  “And, after all,” he would sometimes tell himself.  “Isn’t all of beauty an illusion anyway?  What does it matter if the beauty is natural or if it is acquired, so long as the lady is beautiful?”  In these moods he would allow Catherine to sit next to him, and he tolerated her flirtations a lot more than he would otherwise.  He would allow her to playfully touch his arm, or for her finger to slowly caress her face. 

Catherine, of course, realized that General Graten was much more likely to tolerate her flirtations after alcohol, and so she kept him well-supplied with alcohol.  For Catherine was smart enough to realize that if General Graten was enamored with her beauty, then that was yet another form of control she had over him.

Robert and Henry and Thomas also noticed how beautiful Catherine was becoming.  Of course for Robert and Thomas, they always remembered that they were related to Catherine by blood, as she was their great aunt, and incest being frowned upon in this part of the forest, they did not entertain unchaste thoughts regarding her.  But Henry, on the other hand, was completely captivated by Catherine’s beauty.  He tried to act like he wasn’t, but his sideline glances at her were noticed by Alicia and Amanda.  And they were noticed by Catherine, who didn’t say anything, but quietly thought about how she could use him to her advantage.

Chapter 60: King Carlyle Fights the Pike

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King Carlyle swam out of the hole, and hit the pike on the nose with his frog arms.  The pike opened his mouth and let out a howl of anger.  (As King Carlyle had been discovering, now that he was an aquatic animal himself, he could hear the sounds of the aquatic animals underwater.)  The howl of anger seemed less because of the force of the blow (the frog arms could barely touch the pike with any force) and more from the anger the pike felt at being defied.

“Foolish frog,” it said, “I will eat you whole.  This will teach you not to defy me.”

“I’ve dealt with plenty of bullies like you in the past,” said King Carlyle.  “You never stop until someone stands up to you.”

“You can not hurt me,” said the pike.

“No, not by myself,” admitted King Carlyle.  “But I have many friends in this river.  If you hurt me, Midor will hear about it.”

“Midor?”  The pike spat out the word.  “I hate Midor.  He acts like he is king of the forest.”

“He had better not,” said King Carlyle.  “I am King of this forest, and if I hear of Midor conducting himself in any imperial way, I am going to have words with him.  No, Midor is not the king.  But what he is, is extremely well-known among all the animals and fish.  And I am under his protection.”

“You lie,” said the pike.

“He does not,” said Jacob the frog, who had ventured to swim out of the Water Sprites hole himself in order to help King Carlyle.  “Midor is in love with his daughter.”

“Now I know you are lying,” said the pike.  “A human could never fall in love with a frog.”

“This is the King Carlyle,” said Jacob, “transformed into a frog by the treachery of a witch’s magic.”

“King Carlyle?” the pike was obviously confused now.

“King Carlyle!” said the frog king indignantly.  “You must have heard of me.  I am king of this forest.”

“Your majesty, the water creatures do not concern themselves with the surface…” Jacob began.

“I know no King,” said the pike.

“He’s a friend of Midor,” said Jacob.  “If you eat him, then you better make sure you eat all of us.  Because the Water Sprites and I will go straight to Midor, to tell him what you did.  And once Midor decides he wants to find you, then you know as well as I do that there’s nowhere you can hide.  Every animal in the forest, every fish in the water, will help Midor track you down if he asks for it.”

“And you can not possibly eat all of them,” said King Carlyle.  “There are two many Water Sprites for you to catch them all, even if you could fit into their hole.  Which you can’t.”

“Then what do you want, Frog King,” said the pike irritably.  “Did you come out here just to tell me that I couldn’t eat you?”

“I want you to stop terrorizing this river,” said King Carlyle.  “I want you to stop eating the Water Sprites, and the other creatures who live here.”

“And if I don’t?” asked the Pike.  “Are you going to tell Midor?”

“I will,” said King Carlyle.  “But also once I’m back in human form, I’ll come back to this river myself and make sure to catch you with my bare hands.”

The pike laughed.  “I don’t fear you, either as frog or as human.  You could never find me when I choose to hide myself in this river.  But Midor I fear.  Very well, I will trouble the Water Sprites no further.”

“And the other animals as well,” King Carlyle insisted.

“I will bother no animal that does not bother me,” said the pike.  “If all talk respectfully to me, I shall eat none of them.”

“You must pledge yourself never to eat other animals,” King Carlyle insisted.  “That is the law of the forest.”

“That is not the law of the river,” the pike insisted.  “Down here, power is the only law.”

“As long as the river flows through my forest, you must obey,” said King Carlyle.  “If I hear of you eating any other animals, for whatever reason, I will tell Midor.  I will speak no more on the subject.  Do we understand each other?”

“You are very bold, for a frog,” said the pike, “even if you are a king.  But I understand you perfectly.”

“Good, you will find you can eat the seaweed on the riverbed floor, and it will provide you with all the nutrients you need, just like the other fish and creatures of the river,” said King Carlyle.

“You can thank the Water Sprites,” said Jacob the frog.  “For it is their magic that makes the seaweed and other plants of the river so nutritious.”

“I thank no one,” said the pike.  “The Water Sprites can be thankful that I do not eat them.  That is how they shall be repaid for growing the water nutrients.  I shall wish you now good-day.”

And the pike swam off.

A great cheer arose from inside the Water Sprites hole, and once the pike was gone, the Water Sprites rushed out and embraced King Carlyle eagerly.  They cheered him, and kissed him, and hugged him, and shook his little frog hands.  

King Carlyle, who over his long career had been used to saving the forest from threats like these, took the gratitude in good stride.  He thanked the Water Sprites for their show of affection, and calmly reminded them that he was only doing his duty as the king of the forest.

They wanted to show him their gardens as part of their gratitude, and so King Carlyle and Jacob the Frog graciously agreed to be taken down to the garden at the bottom of the river bed.  Here, they walked through swaying green seaweed, and so many beautiful flowers (flowers that the Water Sprites had created) on the bottom of the river floor.  They saw little underwater trees that the Water Sprites had also helped bring to life along the river floor.  It all looked so beautiful, and the sunlight, although it was dispersed by the water, shone down in watery shards among the greenness of the garden.  Both King Carlyle and Jacob both agreed that it was one of the most beautiful things that they had ever seen.