General Graten was running through the castle halls. The goblins had long ago learned to get out of his way to avoid his kickings. And as far as they all knew, he was still under the protection of Catherine. (They didn’t know about any of the recent friction between him and Catherine.) So they still didn’t dare to attack him back.
General Graten, for his part, had it in his head that he needed to capture their king, Grinthal. But the problem was that General Graten didn’t know where Grinthal was. It was a big castle, and he wasn’t sure which room Grinthal was in. He ran through the hallways, but couldn’t find anyone.
The truth was that recently Grinthal hadn’t been very visible around the castle. General Graten had never thought about it until just now, but it seemed that Catherine was hiding him somewhere. He turned around and started running back towards Catherine’s quarters.
Midor by this time had gone. (Midor had run off to alert the others and get reinforcements.) So General Graten entered into Catherine’s quarters unopposed. (The big ogre lay dead on the floor.)
Or, at least he thought he was entering unopposed. For no sooner had General Graten stepped toward the doorway, then he was met by Henry standing in front of Catherine’s door, his sword already drawn.
“Ah, there you are,” said General Graten. “I think Midor’s looking for you, Henry. Still under the enchantment, I see.”
“General,” Henry said in a voice with no intonation. “You are to turn back. None are to enter.”
“Out of my way, boy,” General Graten said. “I don’t have time for this.”
Henry raised his sword as if to strike. General Graten smiled. “Careful Henry. I’ve been drinking. You know I never fight fair after I’ve been drinking.” Henry swung his sword at General Graten. General Graten drew his sword out of his sheath, and easily blocked Henry’s swing with the flat of his own blade. “How does this whole enchantment thing work, anyway?” said General Graten. “I don’t suppose it gives you any enhanced abilities? Or are you the same terrible fighter you’ve always been?”
Henry swung his sword again, and General Graten blocked it again. “Remember how badly you always wanted to beat me?” he taunted Henry. “Well, now's your chance to see how good you are. Only we’ve crossed swords before, haven’t we, Henry my boy. You couldn’t beat me before, and you won’t be able to beat me now.” Henry swung the sword again, and again General Graten blocked it. “You may not believe this Henry,” General Graten said slowly, “but I don’t really want to kill you. I think you’ve got potential. And besides, Midor would never speak to me again if I were to kill you. And then who would I talk to in this castle?” Henry swung again, and General Graten blocked again. “I can’t believe Catherine would ever bother enchanting you, Henry. You’re fighting as slow as ever. What value does she possibly think there is in enchanting someone as slow as you?”
But this last comment enlivened Henry. Up until now, he had had a dead look in his eyes. But now, his eyes suddenly seemed to burn with fire. “What mean you sir? I am devoted to Catherine. I love her more than any man alive!” And Henry started hacking wildly at General Graten with his sword. Henry’s energy was such that General Graten had no choice but to start taking steps backwards. Henry swung his sword faster and faster and the blows came more and more furious.
But even though General Graten found it wise to slowly back away, he was not worried by any means. In fact, he recognized that enchanted Henry was making all the same mistakes that unenchanted Henry usually made. If he gets excited, he attacks too fast, and leaves himself open for counter attack. General Graten waited until Henry was swinging so fast that he clearly was not paying attention to his form, and then with a well placed parry, he easily knocked the sword out of Henry’s hand. “Henry, when will you ever learn,” said the General dismissively.
But somewhat to General Graten’s surprise, Henry did not surrender. In fact, Henry flew at him now with his bare fists.
“Have it your way,” said General Graten, and he threw his sword to the ground. “I’ll beat you with my first just like I beat you with my sword.”
Henry, however, momentarily stopped hitting General Graten, and bent down to pick up the sword that General Graten had thrown on the floor.
“Ah, here’s where you give yourself away,” said General Graten. “Unenchanted Henry was a fool, but he had honor. He would never pick up a sword against an unarmed man. I can quite clearly see the work of Catherine’s magic on you.”
“My instructions were to prevent outsiders from entering Catherine’s chambers,” said Henry. “And I will do that by whatever means that I can--honorable or unhonorable. You’ve put yourself at a disadvantage by disarming, General. But you need not fight me on such terms if you do not wish it. I offer you the option of retreating from this fight, and I promise you I will not pursue.”
General Graten nodded and smiled. “Glad to see some of Henry’s arrogance is still present in there. Maybe there’s hope for saving you yet. Henry, you can’t beat me. You never could beat me. It doesn’t matter what you are armed with.”
“By which, General, you mean to indicate to me that you are not retreating?”
General Graten put up his fists in a fighting posture. “Hit me with your best shot kid. Go ahead, take a swing!”
Henry swung the sword at a downward angle towards General Graten’s neck. General Graten stepped out of the way at the last minute, and the sword swung down, hitting nothing but air. Then, before Henry could raise the sword again, General Graten hit him in the face with his fists twice. Once with the right fist, once with the left fist. While Henry staggered backwards in shock from the blows, General Graten wound up his arm, and threw his most forceful punch with his right arm. Henry fell backwards and hit his head on the castle wall, and then slumped down. While Henry was still lying dazed on the ground, General Graten knelt down and picked up his sword. “Stay down, Henry,” he whispered.
“I have to protect Catherine’s chamber,” said Henry, although he now appeared to be in a confused state.
“Okay, but take your time,” said General Graten. “I’ll wait until you’re ready.”
Not even waiting to see whether or not Henry was delirious enough to believe the lie, General Graten ran on into Catherine’s chamber.
This was a room of the castle that General Graten had never been in before--neither before nor after Catherine had arrived at the castle. General Graten looked around and saw the normal castle stone walls, a bed, a small reading table next to the bed covered with various books spread open which he deduced (correctly) were spell books.
And then, in a large glass bottle in the middle of the room, was Grinthal.
“Bottle” might be the wrong word for it, because bottle implies a small container used for holding a small amount of liquid. This was more like a big glass jug that completely surrounded Grinthal’s body. But it did narrow up at the top just like a bottle did. Grinthal sat trapped in this large glass jug looking miserable. His arms were also bound by chains, but they didn’t appear to General Graten to be metal chains. The chains were glowing.
“Ah, as I thought,” said General Graten. “Catherine’s getting smarter. She’s realized that as long as you’re running around the castle, all any of us have to do is capture you in order to neutralize the goblin army. The goblin army always does what you say, so if you are captured, whoever controls you controls the goblin army. But if Catherine hides you away in her room, instead of having you run around the castle, then it’s much harder to capture you. And to get to her room, someone has to get past first the blind ogre, and then past Henry.” General Graten laughed to himself. “I’m sure that sounded good to Catherine in her head. That blind ogre looks fearsome. Too bad he’s blind. And Henry… well, to give the lad credit, he looks the part. I mean, if you never saw him in action, you would think he would be a great warrior. He’s got the body for it--young, tall, muscular, brave even. Catherine never bothered to test him out to see if his sword fighting skills matched his looks. And then Catherine made the greatest mistake of all--she forgot to keep me happy.”
“What do you want?” said Grinthal miserably. “Have you come to kill me?”
“I will if it suits me,” said General Graten. “And don’t you ever forget that. But it doesn’t suit me. I’ve got a proposal that I think will suit both of us quite well actually.”
“And what is that?”
“I want you to leave this castle, take your goblin army with you, and never return.”
Grinthal looked at him suspiciously. “What’s the catch?”
“There is no catch. You want to be freed, I want you and the rest of the goblins out of this castle, it works for both of us.”
“But what about Catherine?”
“Well, if Catherine ever catches you again, then that’s your problem. I can’t protect you from her. And she’ll probably be mad. I’m not sure what she’ll do to you, to be honest. But if you want to stay imprisoned in this glass jar…”
“No, no, let me out of this thing!”
“I thought so. And the agreement is that you and your goblin army go far away and never come back to this castle again.”
“Yes, of course.”
“It’s a deal then.” General Graten swung his sword at the jar. Grinthal cringed inside the jar, waiting for the jar to shatter around him. But instead, General Graten’s sword simply bounced off of the jar.
“Of course. She’s protected the jar with magic,” said General Graten. “I should have known.”
“What does that mean?” asked Grinthal.
“Well, it means I can’t break you out of here. So we’re going to have to modify our agreement somewhat. Would you have any objection to being carried out of the castle in this glass jar?”
“What? No. I demand that you break me out of here!”
General Graten sighed and assumed an irritated but patient tone. “Yes, Grinthal, I would, but I can’t. The jar appears to be protected by magic. It can’t be broken.”
“I don’t want to stay in here forever!” Grinthal shrieked.
“You don’t have to stay in here forever,” said General Graten in the same irritated-but-patient tone. “But you do need to get someone who knows magic to undo the spell. Your options are to wait here in Catherine’s chamber until Catherine decides it’s advantageous for her to release you, or to be carried out by your followers. Maybe out in the forest you can find someone else who can do magic.”
“No deal,” shrieked Grinthal.
“Grinthal, be reasonable. I’m offering you the option of returning to your army. Wouldn’t you rather go back to their care instead of Catherine?”
Grinthal scrunched up his face in frustration. “Fine,” he said. “Fine, take me back to my army!”
“I knew you would see reason,” said General Graten, with a slightly sarcastic tone in his voice. He squatted down to his knees, and wrapped his arms around the glass jar. Then he tried to stand up, but he couldn’t. The jar was too heavy. “Ugh! How much do you weigh, Grinthal!” General Graten exclaimed. “Who would have thought a little goblin like you would be so heavy?”
“I expect Catherine has put a spell on the bottle to make it heavy,” said Grinthal sadly.
“I suspect she has. Good thinking, Grinthal. You’re not as dumb as you look. Well, Catherine’s thought of everything.” General Graten tried to lift the bottle once more. The bottle wasn’t fastened to the floor by magic--General Graten could budge it a little bit, maybe even lift it a couple inches off the ground, but it was too heavy to pick up. Catherine had indeed used a heavy spell.
“It’s no use,” said Grinthal, even more sadly now. “I can never be free until Catherine wishes it. Just leave me here.”
“Hang on,” said General Graten. “I can’t lift the bottle, but I can move it just a bit. I wonder…” General Graten leaned his back against the wall, and put his feet up on the bottle. Then he pushed against the bottle with his feet along the bottle. It wobbled back and forth slowly…
“No! No! No!” yelled Grinthal, who realized what General Graten was trying to do.
“Hang on. Almost got it,” grunted General Graten. He strained his body as his feet pushed against the jar and… thud! The jar toppled over, with Grinthal still inside.
“Ouch!” complained Grinthal. “I bumped my head on the glass. My arms are still bound, so I can’t use them to protect myself. Be careful.”
“I’m not going to be careful. I’m still drunk,” General Graten said. “Besides, I only ever said I would get you out of here. I never promised you a pleasant trip.”
“Do not… do not roll me out of here. I command it.”
“Grinthal, it’s too late to stop now. We’ve already started.”
General Graten bent down and rolled the bottle forward with his hands. Despite Grinthal’s protestations, the bottle began rolling forward down the hallway.
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