The monsters came at midnight.
General Graten was standing guard with 50 of his men. Midor, George, Rufus and Henry were also helping to stand guard. (The others had gone to sleep for the night. They took shifts every night.)
There was no warning this time. The ground simply exploded beneath them, and monsters leaped out.
The first was a huge serpent. It reared up it’s head, and immediately began attacking the soldiers. It’s fangs glistened in the moonlight.
It was a full moon, which helped illuminate things. The soldiers stabbed at the serpent with their spears, and it hissed and attacked them with it’s fangs. It tried to swallow some of the soldiers, but they used their shields to block it. General Graten ran at the beast and jumped onto its back, and tried to plunge his sword into its back. But the creature's hard scales wouldn’t let it be penetrated, and the sword did no good.
Henry lunged at the snake for a frontal attack, but his sword just bounced of off the snake’s coils.
“Get Catherine,” General Graten called to Henry, still riding the snake’s back.
“I’ll not be the first to leave the fight,” Henry responded.
“George,” Graten called out, “talk some sense into the boy.”
“I’ll go,” said George, who turned and ran.
The snake reared up, and General Graten fell to the ground. The snake hissed and spat venom in all directions. The venom burned the skin of those it touched. Then, the giant snake disappeared into the darkness of the forest.
“We’ve lost it,” said Rufus.
“Maybe we should--” Midor began, but he didn’t even have time to finish, before the ground exploded beneath them again. This time, the monster was a huge black wolf that sprang out of the ground. It growled, and then began leaping and charging at the soldiers.
“Use your shields men,” said Graten. “Don’t let it get it’s jaws around you.”
The wolf’s mouth was so huge that it could just about swallow a man whole (without even having to chew him). But whenever the wolf would try to eat one of the men, they would thrust their shields at the beast’s mouth, right where the wolf would close his jaws, they were usually able to keep the wolf back just enough to stop it from devouring them. The wolf instead would just chomp down on the shields, pick up the soldiers (whose arms were strapped into their shields) and toss them into the air.
“Keep sharp,” Graten yelled, as he charged for the wolf.
Henry and Graten reached the wolf at the same time. Graten, who had always been mildly amused by Henry’s impetuousness, was beginning to lose his patience. “Back off, boy! Don’t get in my way!” Graten yelled.
“You have no rights over me,” said Henry. “This fight is just as much mine.”
“You’re getting underfoot,” Graten said. “I need space to attack.”
The wolf, hearing them argue close at hand, swung its head in their direction and snapped its jaws. When it opened its jaws to bite at them, it left it’s soft tongue vulnerable for half a minute. Both Graten and Henry saw the opening, and both lunged at the same time, which resulted in them bumping into each other. Graten cursed. Henry recovered his footing and swung his sword wildly, almost hitting Graten. Graten jumped backwards to avoid the blow. The Wolf then snapped his jaws and snapped Henry’s sword in half.
Graten pushed Henry out of the way, and thrust upwards with his sword, stabbing the monster underneath the jaw. The wolf howled in pain. The wolf bared his teeth, and snapped. Graten jumped backwards just in time. Henry was standing up by this time, and thrust at the wolf with what little was left of his sword. Henry’s broken sword couldn’t even penetrate the wolf’s thick skin. But the wolf turned its head and snapped his jaws and would have bitten Henry’s arm off if General Graten hadn’t pulled him away right at the last minute.
While they were still fighting with the giant wolf, another monster emerged from the ground. This one looked like a giant spider. It had huge fangs that were dripping with poison. It immediately started attacking the men and lunging at them with its poisoned fangs.
Even Henry at this point was nearing exhaustion by the time the third monster arrived. The soldiers stuck to holding their shields and trying to deflect the spider’s fangs, but it was a difficult job.
At this point, George came back out into the field.
“Where is Catherine?” asked Graten.
“I couldn’t get to her,” said George. “The goblins and the ogre are keeping her too closely guarded.”
“Of course,” said Midor, knowingly. “She’s not going to let anyone gag her in her sleep, like Carlyle did last time.”
“Tell the goblins and the ogre we need to speak to her now,” said Graten. “Tell her about the monsters.”
“I did,” said George. “They didn’t listen to me.”
“What about Talon?”
“I can’t find Talon.”
Graten and George were shouting now, partly out of necessity (they needed to hear each other over the din of the battle) and partly because of the excitement of the moment.
While Catherine slept on , the rest of the castle was beginning to wake up. Jason, Charles, Robert and Grace came out to join the battle.
Grace shot her arrows at the monsters, and managed to embed some of her arrows in the skin of the giant wolf. The monster howled with pain, and charged towards Grace.
Robert immediately placed himself in front of Grace to protect her. Since Grace and Robert had both rushed out to the battle from bed, they were not properly armed. Robert did not carry a sword, and for a weapon he had in his hands only a spear that he had grabbed from the castle walls.
As the Wolf charged toward Grace, Robert ran forward and plunged his spear into the Wolf’s breast. It howled with pain, and momentarily stopped it’s charge. Grace took advantage of the pause to shoot another arrow at the beast, which hit the wolf in the side. It again howled in anger, then renewed its charge.
And then the Wolf stopped suddenly as if it had hit an invisible wall. And indeed, it had hit an invisible wall. Vivian was now walking out of the castle, chanting her magical spells. She chanted louder and louder, and the Wolf was lifted into the air.
The Giant Spider and the Giant Serpent (who had suddenly returned to the battle) both charged towards Vivian at once.
“Vivian, look out!” yelled Midor, as he ran towards her.
Vivian stopped her chanting, and stopped focusing on the Wolf, who fell back to the ground. She instead turned her attention to the giant spider and the snake. She uttered a spell, and a bolt of light flew out from her. It hit the spider like a knife, and cut off one of its legs. The spider stumbled momentarily, but then kept charging nonetheless. Vivian chanted again, and another bolt of light cut off two more legs. The spider halted.
The serpent slithered with amazing speed towards Robert, but Vivian sent a bolt of light at it that cut through it’s skin. A long gash was left on the serpent’s body.
The Wolf, who Vivian had momentarily neglected, was back on his feet and jumping towards Robert, but Vivian sent an energy bolt that cut the wolf across the chest, and it howled in pain.
“Vivian, no!” Midor yelled. Midor had been running towards Vivian this whole time, and when he reached her, he grabbed her arms and shook her. “Stop it!” Midor said.
“Don’t stop her!” said General Graten. “She’s fighting the monsters. We need her.”
“Vivian, this is black magic. You know that,” said Midor.
“She didn’t kill anything,” said General Graten.
“She doesn’t need to,” said Midor. “Any magic that inflicts physical pain or injury is black magic, whether it results in death or not.”
“No time to argue now,” said Graten. The monsters were already getting back to their feet, and this time, instead of attacking Robert and Grace, they turned to Vivian.
“Don’t do it,” said Midor. “It’s not worth it Vivian.”
“I’m sorry Midor, I don’t have time to discuss this now,” said Vivian, and she pushed Midor away and turned to face the monsters.
Immediately, Midor grabbed her again, and tried to restrain her arms. Vivian again pushed him away, but this time there was an angry chant accompanying her push, and her arms were surrounded by a light energy that added extra force to her pushing. Midor fell down to the ground hard. “You’ve never trusted me,” she said angrily. Her whole body was glowing now. “You’ve never trusted me to make my own decisions. You’ve always tried to control me just like my father.”
“Vivian, you know that’s not true,” said Midor.
Vivian was now floating up in the air, levitating, and surrounded by a glowing yellow light. “I am the heir to this throne, and I will start making my own decisions.”
“Is she flying?” Graten said, and he nearly dropped his sword in surprise.
“Vivian, be careful,” George yelled.
Vivian flew up to the mouth of the wolf. The Wolf snapped his jaws and tried to swallow her whole, but the yellow light surrounding Vivian seemed to give her extra strength. She radiated light and held the wolf’s mouth open.
“Vivian, just change him into a hamster,” said Midor. “Like Catherine did to the other monster.”
“I haven’t learned that spell yet,” said Vivian. “But I’ve learned this one.” She yelled out something in the druid language. It sounded terrible and forceful coming out of her throat, and a blinding flash of light followed. It knocked all the teeth out of the Wolf’s mouth. The creature howled with the pain of multi tooth extractions all at once. “Begone,” Vivian said. “Or I’ll cut you to pieces.”
The Wolf turned and ran.
Vivian flew towards the giant serpent and the giant spider. “Spider, you’ve already lost 3 of your legs,” said Vivian. “Go now, before I take the rest.”
The Spider hissed. “After us, more monsters are coming. Monsters who can’t be hurt by your magic.”
“So be it,” said Vivian. “I’ll deal with them when they come.”
The Spider hissed, and then ran into the woods, following the wolf.
The serpent stood facing Vivian. “Well Serpent,” said Vivian. “Do you require more of a demonstration of my power?”
“Me?” the serpent hissed softly, “I merely wish to--” And then, while it was still talking, the serpent suddenly struck. It had been hoping to catch Vivian off-guard by softly hissing, and then darting forward with its fangs, the way snakes are often wont to attack.
The serpent's fangs struck Vivian, and the serpent tried to inject his poison into her, but the yellow light surrounding and protecting Vivian deflected the blow. The serpent just bounced backwards, and Vivian was unharmed. Then Vivian chanted her terrible chant, and the serpent’s teeth fell out.
Vivian kept chanting, and bolts flew out striking the snake. It turned to flee, but Vivian followed it, chanting, and striking it.
“I yield,” the serpent cried. “Cease your attacks.”
But Vivian continued. And continued.
“Vivian, stop!” Midor yelled. “Stop, don’t give in to the black magic!”
“Mother!” Robert cried out.
“What’s going on?” asked General Graten.
“It’s the magic,” said Midor. “She’s losing control.”
The serpent tried to flee into the woods, but Vivian followed it. Midor tried to run after the two of them, but he couldn’t keep up. Robert ran after Midor.
Meanwhile, the soldiers slumped in relief. “Don’t relax too much!” General Graten shouted. “We’re not in the clear yet, lads. More monsters could come out of that hole at any minute.”
“We need more men,” said George.
“Did you see what just happened?” General Graten asked. “We don’t need more men. Unless you want to set up a buffet for the monsters. More men is just more food for them. 50 men couldn’t make a dent in these monsters, do you think 100 men can?”
“I almost had him,” said Henry. “With more practice, I could slay these monsters.”
“Shut up!” said General Graten.
General Graten turned back to George and Rufus. “We’ve been such fools this whole time. We have 3 magicians in this castle now. And we’re still using soldiers to guard these holes. We need to have one magician standing guard at all times--Catherine, Talon and Vivian. The rest of us can all get some sleep. And the moment one of these monsters so much as sticks his hand out of the ground, they’ll change him into a mushroom. Problem solved.”
“Didn’t you see what just happened?” asked George. “Vivian was using black magic.”
“Did you see those monsters?” asked General Graten. “We’re lucky none of the men were killed. If Vivian hadn’t come down, they could easily have eaten all of my men.”
“You know he’s right, George,” Rufus said. “It’s insanity to try to fight these monsters with men. We don’t have to use black magic, and it doesn’t even have to be Vivian. If we can get Talon and Catherine to patrol this area…”
“Maybe,” George admitted. “But among other things, the problem is that we don’t give orders to Catherine or Talon. They do what they think is good for themselves.”
“They don’t want this forest to be overrun by monsters anymore than we do,” said Rufus. “We should talk to them tomorrow.”
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