More monsters came out of the ground the next morning. The sentries standing guard alerted the castle, and soon General Graten came running out with his sword. “I’ve been waiting for a chance to try this thing out,” he said.
There were several monsters coming out of the ground. Catherine and Vivian were nowhere in sight, but it wasn’t clear whether or not their magic would have an effect anyway. The monsters lately had been resistant to magic.
General Graten let out a yell as he charged at the monsters.
The monsters were a bit surprised to see him running towards them, actually. “What is this human that comes near us,” taunted the first monster. “We will eat him whole.”
“We will suck on his bones,” said the second one.
“Human!” yelled the third monster as a taunt, “Do you wish to die?”
General Graten had his sword unsheathed now and raised as he ran forward. “Your sword cannot hurt me,” said the monster. But when General Graten swung, it actually went right through the monster.
General Graten swung the sword, and cut off the monster’s head. The head of the monster dropped to the floor. General Graten grinned in satisfaction.
The other 4 monsters were puzzled by this, and were momentarily silenced. General Graten held his sword aloft, and gazed at them with challenging eyes. “Which one of you is going to try to attack me next?” his eyes seemed to say. The other monsters momentarily held their ground.
But then General Graten noticed that the headless monster was still moving. The beast lumbered slowly, and picked up its head, and then re-attached it to his body.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said General Graten. “What kind of beasts are these?”
“You’ve got to do better than that to kill us, human,” the creature growled.
“Alright,” said Graten. “The next time I won’t leave your head in one piece.” He swung his sword again, but this time the creature dodged it.
General Graten had forgotten the incredible speed at which the monsters could move. Even though they were now vulnerable (sort of) to his sword, it was still incredibly hard to hit them as they ran at fast speeds. While one monster dodged Graten’s sword swings, the others rushed him.
Graten very soon realized he was on the defense instead of on the attack. He was able to keep the monsters at bay by constantly swinging his sword in a defensive circle around his body. But he knew he was in a bad situation. He backed up slowly.
One of the monsters got a little careless in his attacks, and General Graten sliced off his hand. The monster howled in pain, and this brought Graten some satisfaction. But he wasn’t even sure the amputation would be permanent. He remembered the spider had been able to regenerate its limbs. Would all the rest of these monsters be able to regenerate their limbs?
By now, the rest of the castle was beginning to come to General Graten’s aid. General Graten had been so eager to try out his new sword that he had rushed out without waiting for the others, but Midor, George, Rufus, Charles and Jason all ran out in their armor, followed by Grace and Robert.
Henry, who normally would have been leading the charge, was not there. The spell that Catherine had used on him was keeping him always by her side.
But speaking of Catherine, where was she? That’s what Graten wanted to know. “Where is Catherine?” he yelled.
“Didn’t you check with her?” asked Rufus. “You’re the commander of her army.”
“No, I got excited about this sword,” Graten grunted. It was difficult for him to talk and keep up his defensive sword thrusts at the same time, but he did his best. “I ran out without checking on her.”
“She’s probably sleeping again,” said George.
“Someone needs to check on her,” said Midor. “We’re not going to be able to fend these monsters off by ourselves.”
Jason sighed. “I’ll do it,” he said, and he ran back into the castle.
All the men had their swords drawn, but the monsters’ skin was so tough that the blades did little harm them. The blades simply bounced harmlessly off the monsters’ skin whenever they swung their swords. Or at best, only caused minor cuts on the monsters’ skin .
Only Graten’s sword was effective, but Graten was getting more and more frustrated. At last he said, “It’s no use. They won’t get close enough for me to cut them again unless they’re going in for the attack. So I guess I might as well let them go in for the attack.”
General Graten walked out among the monsters. He had his sword lowered, but as one of them rushed forward to attack him, General Graten suddenly raised and swung his sword. Graten moved fast, his arm was only a blur of fast movement. But the monster also moved fast, and Graten was knocked off his feet. When Graten got up, he saw that he had cut the monster deeply, but the beast was still alive. And now the others were moving in for the kill.
Graten got to his feet just in time, and swung his sword quickly to both his left and right. There was a cry of pain from the monsters, and then they fell to their knees. The sword had cut directly into them. It had not killed them, but it had wounded them grievously.
While the monsters were on their knees, looking at the huge gashes across their chests, Graten moved quickly. He swung the sword and chopped off the head of the first one monster, and then swung the sword again and took off the head of a second monster.
Graten would have tried to hack the heads into little pieces (in order to stop the monsters from putting the heads back on their bodies, like they did last time) but he didn’t have time. The other three monsters were moving towards him. General Graten readied his sword to defend himself.
Meanwhile, Midor called out, “Quick, he needs our help.”
While General Graten was facing down the final three monsters, Midor ran up and grabbed the head of one of the monsters. He would have attempted to cut the head himself, except that he knew his sword would not be able to penetrate it. The only sword that could cut the monsters was the sword that could cut anything--the sword that General Graten held.
So Midor did the next best thing. He picked up the head, and hurled it as far as he could into the woods. It meant that the monster would at least have to wander into the woods to find his head, which at the very least could buy them all some time.
It was a move that Midor felt he had to make. Of course, he knew that the whole purpose of Castle Tauna was to try to stop the monsters from escaping into the woods. But at the moment, they simply had no way of fighting the monsters. Not unless they had ten swords like General Graten had. So their only hope was to try to spread the monsters out.
While Midor threw the first head, George grabbed the head of the second monster, and threw it into the woods in the opposite direction. Both monsters soon lumbered off in search of their respective heads.
Two monsters were now chasing their heads. That left three monsters left in the field of battle. They were moving at their usual fast speed. Graten swung his sword but the monster was too quick and dodged the blow. The monster’s claws struck General Graten’s chest. Graten was sent flying backwards. His skin was cut by the monster’s claws, but the injury was not serious. Midor, George, Rufus and Jason rushed to interpose their swords before the monsters could attack. They gave General Graten just enough time to get to his feet before the monsters threw them in all directions. While the rest of them picked their bruised bodies off of the ground, General Graten, who was back on his feet now, came out swinging his sword. One of the monster’s dodged Graten’s sword swing, but he managed to wound the second one. The third monster slowly circled around Graten, waiting for him to show signs of being tired.
At this time, Jason came running back out of the castle. “Where is Catherine?” asked Midor.
“She’s refusing to come out,” said Jason. “She said you only want her when you’re in danger.”
“She’s not entirely wrong,” said Rufus.
“Well, we’re in plenty of danger now,” said Charles. “We need some help.”
“Catherine said that if all you want her for is magic, and her magic is all you want, then it doesn’t matter who does the magic,” said Charles.
“No!” said Midor. “Vivian can’t control her magic!”
“You can’t argue with him, Midor,” said General Graten. “He’s just the messenger. Catherine’s not here. We’ll have a nice long talk later tonight and you and Catherine can debate everything over wine and dinner. But we can’t argue now.”
“He’s right,” said a voice, and Vivian, who had emerged from the castle and was walking towards them.
“Vivian, be careful,” said Midor. “These aren’t like the same monsters you fought earlier. They are resistant to magic. These are the same kind of monsters who killed Talon.”
“Be that as it may,” said Vivian, “You can’t handle them yourself, so I’m here to help you.” Vivian started chanting spells, and was immediately protected by a yellow light shield. She then started levitating. “I don’t know all the tricks Talon did,” said Vivian. “I can’t cause the ground to open up, but I can levitate objects. Hopefully I can distract them enough for you.”
“Do what you can,” Graten called out, swinging his sword. “We’ll try to handle the rest.”
Vivian looked for something large enough to throw at the monsters. She could only levitate objects that she could see. (She hadn’t yet learned Talon’s trick of summoning rocks and sticks from everywhere.) But she saw a couple big rocks. She slowly levitated one, chanting the spells that she needed. Once she felt she had the rock under control, she sent it flying through the air, faster and faster, until at last she drove it home, and it struck the monster full in the head at a furious speed. The monster’s head jerked backwards, and this was just the moment Graten had been waiting for. He lunged forward. The monster only needed a second to recover from the blow, but that second was all it took for Graten to swing his sword and cut off the monster’s head.
The other two monsters had not been idle during this time, and they were closing in on Graten and would have attacked him and torn him to pieces had not Vivian focused her spells on Graten himself and levitated him up and out of danger. The monsters could not fly, so by quickly raising up Graten (using the same spells Vivian had used to move the rock) Vivian had raised him up out of danger.
“Thanks darling,” Graten said, winking at her. Vivian was so busy chanting she didn’t have time to reply. She moved Graten away from the monsters, and then set him down. She needed to set him down before talking to him, because she couldn’t talk to him and maintain both the spells to keep herself levitated and to keep Graten levitated. It was too much chanting. But once she set him down, she could talk to him.
“Let’s make this quick,” she said to him. “I’ve heard that you’ve got a magic sword.”
“That’s right,” he said.
“Will you let me levitate you? I can make your body fly around.”
“Like you did just now?”
“Yes, but just now was a retreat. I can fly you in as an attack.”
“You mean you control my flying, and I handle the sword.”
“Yes, that’s right. Do you agree?”
Graten smiled and waved his sword in the air. “Do I ever!” he said.
“I won’t be able to talk to you once we begin,” she said. “I’ll be too busy chanting. So I won’t be able to warn you in which direction I’ll be sending you.”
“Send me in whichever direction you want. I trust you.”
“It might be jarring to be jerked in different directions without warning.”
“It probably will be.”
“But you agree?”
“I already said I agree. Stop wasting time.”
“And I can’t protect you and levitate you at the same time.”
“What?”
“The magical shield. I can’t put any magical shield around your body. You’ll be vulnerable to their attacks.”
“I’ve been vulnerable to their attacks this whole time. You’re wasting time, I already said I agree. The monsters are running toward us. You get yourself to a safe distance, and then you control me. Fly me through the air, I’ll do the rest with my sword.”
Without saying another word, Vivian started chanting. Once the spell had begun, she was able to raise Graten up by making an upward gesture with her arms. Graten shot up into the air quickly--a little bit more quickly than he was expecting, despite Vivian’s warning. He felt a bit of whiplash from the sudden elevation as his limbs got jerked around. But he recovered quickly.
“Let’s do it!” he yelled. “Attack!”
Vivian projected her arms forward in the direction of the monsters while she chanted. Graten felt himself flying through the air. As Graten neared the monsters, Vivian lowered him slightly so that his sword would be within striking distance. But of course, this also meant that the monsters could attack him as well. One of the monsters leaped up. Graten and Vivian were both surprised at how high the monster could leap. The monster swiped its huge paw at General Graten, and hit him with his claws.
Vivian, although she had not had any experience using her magic in combat before, immediately had a premonition that it would not be good for her to keep General Graten moving forward in the air. He had been hit forcefully, and if his body wasn’t given the freedom to fall backwards, then the blow could punch a hole in him. So she abruptly stopped her spell. General Graten’s body was hit backwards by the blow, flew through the air backwards, and hit the ground hard. He slid along the ground before he was stopped by a tree.
Graten slowly sat up. He had more gashes on his skin from the claws of the monster. He was bleeding a lot, and his body was too weary for him to stand up.
Midor and Vivian both ran to General Graten at the same time. “He’s through,” said Midor. “He’s not going to be able to fight any more today. Somebody else will have to take the sword.”
“You were never any good with swords,” Vivian said.
“I was alright,” said Midor. “I’ve used a sword before.”
“Not very well.”
“Well enough. But if you want, I’ll let one of your brothers, George or Rufus, take it instead.”
“I’ve had the same training as them. All the princes and princesses of Castle Tauna receive military training.”
“That was only training. Your father never took you out into any actual danger the way he did George or Rufus.”
“You’re just like my father, aren’t you? Trying to hold me back!”
“Vivian!” Midor’s voice was both shocked and hurt.
“We don’t have time to argue,” Vivian said. And she was right. The monsters were running right at them. Vivian grabbed the sword, and started chanting. She levitated herself up high into the air, and then flew down towards the monsters at a diving angle.
The yellow shield surrounded Vivian. (Because she was levitating herself, it made it easier for her to incorporate the magic shield into her chant, and she was protected by the shield of light.)
As she came down towards the monsters, one of them jumped up to hit her. Vivian swung her sword at the same time, and cut the monster in half.
Without pausing, she accelerated faster toward the next monster, and swung the sword. He also was cut into two pieces.
The third monster realized what was happening, and started to run. Vivian chased him and raised the sword. She swung at his neck, and cut off his head.
The three monsters were now in various pieces, but they were not dead yet. Instead, they wandered about the forest floor. Bodies were trying to find legs, arms were trying to find heads, and legs were wandering in search of torsos. Vivian knew she would have to act quickly before the monsters had a chance to reform themselves. First she tried a spell to stop them from moving, but that didn’t work. The monsters were resistant to magic. Then she tried chanting a spell to burn up their bodies, but it also didn’t work for the same reasons.
Midor came running up. “They’re resistant to magic,” he said. “You can’t harm them with spells.”
“Can I levitate them?” asked Vivian.
“Maybe,” said Midor. “It’s worth a try.”
Vivian started chanting, and started levitating different parts of the monster's bodies. She sent the head flying in one direction into the depths of the forest, and the body flying in the opposite direction. She sent the feet flying yet another way, and the torso a different way. Within a few seconds, all of the body parts had been dispersed.
“How much time does that buy us,” asked George (who had come over with the others).
“I don’t know,” said Midor. “In all my time living in the land of the monsters, I never had the occasion to see them cut in half before. Who knows how long it will take them to find the rest of their bodies. It looked like Vivian sent them pretty far into the forest.”
“Miles in each direction,” Vivian said.
“Well that should take them some time then,” said Midor.
“What about General Graten?” asked Grace. “Is he going to be okay?”
“He’ll need some rest,” said Midor. “But I don’t think anything was seriously broken.”
“Catherine has taught me some healing spells,” said Vivian. “I’ll try some of them out on him.”
“I’m not sure that’s necessary,” said Midor. “He’ll recover on his own in a couple of days.”
“Midor, relax. Healing spells aren’t even black magic. There’s absolutely no harm in it. You worry too much,” said Vivian.
“Vivian,” said Midor, “You know it’s more complicated than that. The magic, even the good magic, can be addictive. You’ve felt it.”
“I worry about the General being laid up in bed, even if it’s just for a couple of days,” said George. “More monsters could emerge from the ground at any moment. I suppose we could try to get Catherine to heal General Graten if you’re worried about Vivian. He is, after all, the commander of her army. She should show an interest in whether or not he’s fit to command.”
“If she still trusts him,” said Midor. “I’m not so sure how she feels about him now after he tried to convince her to free Henry. But it’s worth a try.”
“Honestly Midor,” said Vivian. “All of you. You are all completely reliant on magic. When Talon was alive, my father was constantly asking him to do this or that spell. Now you all want Catherine to do this or that spell for you. You couldn’t go a single day without asking for some sort of magic to make your problems go away. And you say that I’m addicted to magic.”
“Vivian, be reasonable,” said Midor. “You’re making it sound like we want magic for any minor inconvenience. But General Graten’s injuries aren’t a minor problem.”
“I know, it’s a big deal. Which is why you need magic to help you. The problem is, you think you can get magic for free without paying anything for it. Just let Catherine do all your magic, so that I’m not sullied by the magic. But one day, Catherine isn’t going to help you.”
“She’s already not much help,” said George.
“Well there you go. Exactly. So you need someone to do your magic, but you can’t rely on Catherine. Just let me help you.”
“The magic is addictive,” began Midor.
“I can take care of myself,” said Vivian. And she began chanting the magic spells. She closed her eyes as she chanted, and a glowing light came out of her hands, and enveloped General Graten, raising him slowly off of the ground. Then, she stopped, General Graten’s body fell back to the ground, and General Graten slowly opened his eyes.
“Am I dead?” he asked.
Vivian smiled. “Not dead, dear General. You were injured in the fight, and I used magic to revive you.”
General Graten sat up and laughed. “I’m just joking with you,” he said. “I knew it was magic. Do you think this is the first time I’ve been seriously injured, and someone had to use magic to revive me? I know the feeling very well.”
Vivian looked confused. “You do?”
“Of course. Why, I should tell you stories of what happened to me when I was out on campaign in Fera during the grain wars. I had a sword go right through my heart. I would have died immediately if there hadn’t been a sorcerer in our army. Of course, here in the forest you know nothing about Mora, or Fera, or the grain wars, or any of what happens in civilization, do you?”
“You forget, General, that I was once the King’s forester,” said Midor. “And I used to report regularly to the Court at Mora.”
“Regularly!” General Graten snorted in derision. “They hardly ever saw you at the court. You were more of a myth or legend there than an actual man. Some of them even doubted you actually existed.”
“Nonetheless, General, I’ve seen your cities and your kingdoms.”
General Graten nodded. “I’ll grant that to you, Midor. You certainly have. But the rest of them have never been outside the forest.”
“You’ll have to teach us all about it sometime later when we have more time,” said George. “Right now, we need to figure out what we’re doing.”
“The monsters are gone,” said Rufus.
“They’re in the forest,” said Midor. “A lot of the monsters have escaped into the forest. They’re going to do even more damage there.”
“I suppose you’re more concerned about the animals in the forest than you are about the people in the castle,” said General Graten sarcastically.
Midor rolled his eyes, and ignored the comment. Instead he turned to George. “You know as well as I do that this castle only exists because the forest permits it. We have a duty to protect the forest.”
“That’s what this castle was created for,” said Jason.
“We don’t even know how to protect ourselves,” said George. “We can’t defeat the monsters.”
“Our ancestors did,” said Rufus.
“Did they?” said George. “Or are those history books a lie? Maybe our ancestors didn’t defeat anything.”
“And one more thing,” said Charles. “Those monsters didn’t escape into the forest just now. We sent them out into the forest. We didn’t even try to protect the forest.”
“I know,” said Midor. “But we had no choice. Those monsters would have killed us otherwise.”
“Exactly,” said George. “So, we are admitting we can’t fight against the monsters. At least, we can’t fight against them as we are now. We need help. We need magic. And we can’t rely on Catherine.”
“But these monsters are magic resistant,” said Midor. “Spells don’t work on them.”
“No, but the spells work on everything around them,” said George. “The ground beneath their feet can be shaken. The rocks on the ground can be hurled at them. And we can use Vivian’s powers of levitation to attack from the air with the magic sword.”
“He’s right,” said General Graten. “We need that power if we’re going to fight the monsters. You know it as well as I do, Midor.”
“They’re right, Midor,” said Vivian. “I know you’re trying to protect me, but you can’t protect me any longer. I am a daughter of the castle Tauna. I am the rightful heir. I must protect my castle and my forest. I will do everything I can to fight these monsters, even the magic corrupts me in the process.”
“It will make you just like Catherine,” Midor warned. “You know that.”
“If that’s what has to happen, then that’s the price I will pay,” said Vivian. “I’m prepared.”
Midor lowered his head sadly. “I can’t argue with you any more, Vivian. I know you’re right. We can’t fight the monsters without you, and the castle needs your protection. I wish there was someone else who could help us, but there’s not.
“I’m glad we’re agreed on that,” Rufus said. “It’s a good first step. But we need more. Talon had magic and he was defeated by the monsters. Even with Vivian’s magic today, we barely defeated the monsters. I’m not quite sure what good it does for us to wait here and guard this entrance to our realm. When the monsters do emerge, we can’t defeat them, and our best hope is that they will run off into the forest without killing us. It begs the question: why do we try to fight them at all? Why not just let them run off into the forest.”
“We need to keep track of which monsters escape from the realm and into the forest,” said Midor.
“Fine,” said Rufus. “We can do that while being hidden in the bushes. Or we can do that from the castle towers. Or we can get one of your bird friends to hide in the trees. But there’s no point in trying to fight these monsters in a battle that we know we can’t win, and then hoping they run off into the forest.”
“You’re right, Rufus,” said George. “At least, you’re right for the moment. We can’t give up on fighting these monsters completely, but we need to re-think our tactics. If we can’t think of a way of defeating them, then it does no good to fight them when they emerge from the magic realm.”
“I’ll admit they licked me pretty good,” said General Graten. “But I’m still learning. I need more practice.” General Graten turned to Midor. “That sword you gave me is good, Midor,” he said. “It does actually cut through anything. Even the monsters.”
Midor nodded. “You wielded it well, General.”
“Not well enough, though. The problem is that the monsters are too fast. But if I could increase my speed, then…” General Graten turned to Vivian. “I don’t suppose there’s a magic spell that could make me move faster.”
“I don’t know. I’m sure there’s a magic spell for everything, but…”
“Catherine will know,” said Midor.
“Catherine won’t help us,” said George.
“No, but Catherine wants to corrupt Vivian with magic as much as possible,” said Midor bitterly. “She’ll teach it to Vivian. She won’t even ask what it’s for.”
General Graten looked at Vivian. “You’ll do it then?”
“I’ll ask her,” said Vivian.
“Great,” said General Graten. “The next time those monsters appear, I’ll be ready.”
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