They assembled at dusk.
“I did a lot of work filling up this chamber with dirt,” General Graten said. “Me and my soldiers. The dirt in this forest is tough, you know. It’s been well trodden by everyone. It’s got lots of plants and roots in it. It was difficult work to dig it all up. But we did it. And now you’re going to undo that work?”
“Ah, General, my apologies,” said Catherine. “It’s a pity you didn’t have someone with magic abilities to help you.”
“It’s a pity Talon never told me half the things he could do with his magic,” Carlyle muttered.
“Yes, strange that you didn’t inspire more confidence,” said Catherine sarcastically. She turned back to General Graten. “I’m sorry you feel your efforts have been wasted, General, but you can hardly blame me for that.” Then Catherine turned to Vivian. “This will be good practice for you,” Catherine said. “You haven’t had to transport dirt like this before, have you?”
“I don’t think so,” said Vivian.
“Okay, good, this will be a challenge, but I think you’re ready for it. Underneath all of this dirt is a stone chamber underground.”
“Yes, I remember,” said Vivian. “I was there when we pulled my son and Midor out from it. And I was there when they filled it up with dirt.”
“Okay, so you know what you have to do now. You have to remove the dirt, but leave the stone chamber standing. So it will be a simple transportation spell, but dirt can be a difficult thing to focus on. There are so many dirt particles, so it’ll never do any good to focus on the individual items.”
“I’ll want to use a spell for moving a whole mass of things,” said Vivian.
“Yes, but, remember, you don’t want to move the stone walls, just the dirt, so be careful how you focus the spell.”
“But the stones are all underground. How can I focus the spell when I can’t even see the stones?
“Yes,” said Catherine with a smile. “That is the problem, isn’t it? What are your options?”
“I could move the dirt little by little,” said Catherine. “As if I’m taking small shovel-fulls of dirt out each time.”
“We’ll be here all night,” growled General Graten. “It might be easier just to shovel it out ourselves.”
“Careful what you volunteer for, General,” said Catherine. “If Vivian can’t figure this out, it may come to that.” Catherine turned back to Vivian. “But come now, Vivian dear. You’ve solved harder puzzles than this before. Moving the dirt bit by bit is one option. What are your other options?” Vivian appeared stumped, so Catherine helped her. “Think about what your problem is,” Catherine said gently. “And then think about what spell would solve that problem.”
“The problem is that I can’t see the stones.”
“Yes, good.”
“So I’d need a spell that would show them to me. But I can’t use a finder spell if I don’t have a sample of the stones.”
“You don’t need a finder spell,” said Catherine. “A finder spell would be for if the stone was lost somewhere in the forest, and you hadn’t a clue about where in the forest it was. But here you know the stones are directly under us. You just need to separate what are stones and what is dirt.”
“I can’t get a sample of the stones, but I can get a sample of the dirt,” said Vivian. “I could use the spell to tell me what the outline of the dirt is.”
“Yes, that would work,” said Catherine. “But you could also just use a revealing spell to see through the dirt.”
“I don’t think I’ve learned that yet.”
“Oh, sure you have. It’s the same spell we used to practice seeing through walls.”
“Oh, of course,” Vivian said. “How silly of me.”
“It’s okay,” said Catherine. “It’s quite normal for beginning witches. You have all these thousands of spells, it’s easy to only think of the spell in the context in which you learned it, and forget that they can be used in diverse situations.”
“This is taking forever,” General Graten said. “Enough with the magic lesson. Can we just get started please?”
“However long you think this may take, General,” said Catherine, “I assure you it is still quicker than digging through the dirt. Which is what you would have to do if Vivian and I weren’t here. So you’ll allow me some time to train her.” Catherine turned back to Vivian. “Use the revealing spell to see exactly where the stones are. Then, while you’re focused on the stones, use the removing spell to remove the mass of dirt between those stones. Do you think you can do it?”
“I think so.”
“Okay, give it a try. If in doubt, estimate conservatively on the dirt. If you don’t remove all the dirt the first time, we can always use other spells. But you don’t want to collapse the whole building.”
Vivian started chanting and pointing her hands, and pretty soon dirt was flying up everywhere. Catherine used her own spell to protect her from the dirt, but the rest of the people assembled just had to run for cover.
It was most of the royal family that was assembled to see Carlyle, Midor and Henry off. Plus the castle guests like General Graten, Grace, John, and Kolet and Aurora. (By now, most people in the castle had heard some version of the story behind Kolet and Aurora, even though not everyone wanted to ask John about it directly.)
Eventually, Vivian cleared the chamber of dirt.
While Vivian was performing her magic, Aefar came up behind Catherine. “They have increased their number,” he said. “They have the boy Henry with them, as well as the pixies.”
“Your instructions remain unchanged,” Catherine whispered back. “I don’t know what you’re so upset about. The addition of more food should make you happy. Henry is not kin to me, so he’s not under my protection any more than Midor is.”
“I didn’t agree to fight pixies,” Aefar said.
Catherine actually turned around to look at Aefar at this point. She had a very quizical look on her face. “What a peculiar vampire you are, Aefar. Imagine a vampire being afraid of a 6 inch pixie.”
“They have magic.”
“They have barely anything,” said Catherine. “Nobody in the magic community ever worries about a pixie.”
“It’s said that they have mysterious powers that no one knows about. Even the witches couldn’t tell you exactly what a pixies powers are,” said Aefar.
“Aefar, you are journeying into the land of monsters, where you are going to encounter several creatures who have mysterious powers that no one clearly knows about. And then, if Carlyle succeeds in his mission, you’ll help him fight yet another creature with mysterious powers, Ambrosia. I fail to see how the addition of the pixies changes anything. Now step back. Vivian’s almost done with her spell, and I don’t want anyone to overhear us.”
Vivian had indeed finished with the spell. Most of the dirt had been removed from the underground cavern. It had been piled up all around the forest floor, and most of those who were gathered around had been covered with dust.
Catherine walked over. “Well done, Vivian,” she said.
“I’ve made quite a mess of things, haven’t I?” said Vivian, looking around at the dirt everywhere.
“It’s the forest. Once it rains, the dirt will get cleaned up,” said Catherine. “There are more sophisticated spells you could have used which would have placed the dirt neatly somewhere else, but, we’ll worry about those for another day. So, you’ve definitely got the majority of the dirt out. But the chamber is not as clean as it could be, is it?”
“I followed your advice and was conservative with the spell,” said Vivian.
“Yes, and that was smart. But we can go in now and clean up the remaining dirt.”
“I think this little magic lesson has gone on long enough,” said General Graten. “The chamber doesn’t need to be spotless.”
“For once, I agree with General Graten,” said Midor.
Catherine smiled at them, but it was not altogether a friendly smile. “Very well,” said Catherine. “If that’s how you gentleman feel about it. Let the expedition begin, then.”
Midor and Carlyle stepped forward. Jacob the frog was in Midor’s shirt pocket. The pixies hopped along the floor.
Henry stepped forward as well. General Graten grabbed him briefly by the arm. “You know you’re making a mistake,” said General Graten. “You don’t need to go with them. And you’re not ready to go with them. I have so much more to teach you first.”
“I knew you would say that to me, General” said Henry.
“And I knew you wouldn’t listen to me. Why I ever wasted my time trying to train you is a mystery for the ages. You never listen to me, and you’re determined to get yourself killed. Well, I won’t waste any more time trying to talk you out of it.”
General Graten released Henry’s arm.
Henry paused before continuing. “General,” he said, “Your sword fighting skills are far superior than mine. As are your skills in hand to hand combat. I have much still to learn from you. When I come back, I hope you will take me under your tutelage once again.”
“Did you just admit your inferiority?” asked General Graten.
“I did,” said Henry.
“Well, maybe there’s hope for you yet,” said General Graten. “If you value my skills at fighting, perhaps you will value my judgment.”
“I value very much your judgment, and your skills at prediction,” said Henry. “If you were to tell me that I had very little chance of returning alive from this expedition, I would take your prediction as superior to my own.”
General Graten sighed. “Okay, go on. What’s the next part?”
“The only thing I do not value is your sense of honor. You have none.”
“A sense of honor serves no purpose to a man other than to get him killed,” General Graten said.
“So I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” continued Henry. “But it is my sense of honor that compels me to share the danger with my comrades.”
“Fine,” said General Graten. “Fine, go ahead and get yourself killed. I make it a point never to argue with stupid people.”
And so, Henry, Carlyle, Midor, Jacob the Frog, and the six pixies entered the realm of the Monsters.
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