Two of the Others patrolled a tower overlooking the forest that, if one walked long enough, would lead to the Black Mountains.  It was mid-afternoon by then, and there were very few remaining human troops to find and destroy, or take in if they surrendered.  Many of those who surrendered were slaughtered anyway, though, when Daniel wasn’t looking.  The Others had been waiting just as long as Catherine for their triumphant return, and refused to take it calmly back without a few very well-deserved slaps in the face to Richard’s kingdom.   Now, with little left to do except walk back and forth along the tiny walkway of the tower, the two took a brief rest.  Their job was to look for any troops or citizens who tried to escape into the woods.  Any they saw were to be killed on the spot, and these two Others in particular had shown great skill with a bow and arrow.  At the distant range they stood at, where a person would only appear to be an inch or so tall to the squinting archer Others, the target would be picked off with ease in a single breath whether or not it was night.

                Many citizens had been killed, although most had realized the direness of the situation and retreated to their homes.  A warning had been issued that if any citizens exited their homes for any reason, they would be killed as well on the spot.  Several had tried, leaving to aid the remaining troops to attack an Other who had already killed a family member or friend, but this had ended in a few messy encounters in the street ending with the civilian being brutally felled, so this idea was quickly abandoned by all in the surrounding villages and provinces that had been taken by Catherine’s forces in favor of cowering in their homes, praying for a miracle they had a feeling wouldn’t come.  Some, namely the poor, hung on to the hope that their titanic savior, Caroline, would come in their hour of need, although, from her absence, most assumed she was already in the clutches of the powerful witch, or even dead.

                The pair of Others, leaning against the stone frame of the tower, leapt into action, straining their eyes into the distance.  They thought they had seen a large patch of ground simply caving in on itself into the ground, as if some massive force had pressed it down into the stone underground.  Of course, there was nothing there to be seen.  One of the Others fired an arrow that landed directly in the center of the crater, but it struck nothing.  They looked at one another, suspicious, and soon the other drew his bow as well, training it on the crater.  As they did, another crater appeared, this time closer to them, and they instantly released another couple of arrows that struck the center of the crater again.  Now that the hole in the ground was closer, they could begin to make out its shape.  It wasn’t circular, or even particularly irregular.  It was long and rounded, with the ground churned in smaller holes on the narrow end closer to them.  As soon as a third crater, even closer to them, was being formed, they fired their arrows, which met nothing but air.  This time, though, it was close enough to see with better detail.  The pair wiped their eyes, bewildered, as they looked far down and away at what looked like a ten foot long footprint smashed into the damp ground.

                The next puzzling thing came as they heard a tree in the forest creaking.  They couldn’t be sure which it was, but they assumed it was falling down.  However, their suspicions were quickly aroused again as they heard the snap of tree bark, but no loud thump as the tree hit the ground.  They craned their necks over the edge of the tower, deciding at length that perhaps one of them should go and investigate.  It took a moment, as neither of them wanted to do it, but after a brief tussle, the shorter and marginally weaker of the pair was pinned firmly against the walkway ground, and so was forced to go.  He climbed down the tower in record time, alighting on the ground below.  The Other still perched in the tower looked on as his battle comrade marched cautiously down the hill, and into the trees.  After a moment, the Other heard and saw the trees being rustled.  They were a bit too far off for an accurate shot, but he began to fire quick volleys of sharpened arrows into the trees.  He wasn’t sure if he had managed to actually pierce something, since the trees had ceased shaking, but after a few more minutes, the alternate Other still hadn’t returned.  Just beginning to resolve to go and get reinforcements to help him investigate the strangeness, the Other noticed something else odd.

                A tree, mostly likely the same that had been snapped, emerged from the cluster of forest.  He cocked his head, drawing his bow in its direction without firing so that he could observe it safely.  It appeared almost to be walking, tottering from one side of its roots to the other, still nearly level with the ground as it rocked back and forth, coming further and further into open field.  The Other fired his arrow, striking the tree in its branches.  It paused for a moment before moving again, but instead of going to the side, it began to rise, going up and up into the air until the Other had to level his arrow with his eyesight to have a clear shot.  He was dumbfounded as the flying tree began to hover, spinning ever so slightly.  This continued for several minutes before, finally, the invisible Caroline, her siblings tied tightly into her hair and resting on her shoulders, flung the tree with all her might.  It shattered against the tower with such force that it collapsed, killing the Other still on top.

                Waves of Others heard the smash and began rushing toward the hillside pass into the forest next to the palace wall, egged on by their superiors.  After a few moments, a cluster of around two hundred Others, with more on their way, had gathered around the destroyed tower, confused, as they saw simple tree branches and leaves floating around the stone wreckage.  It seemed impossible: not only had a tree been wrenched from the ground in one piece, it had been driven with enough force to stagger stone to the ground in one stroke.  They shivered in confusion and even slight fear that apparently some threat still loomed, but were quickly forced into a more focused mode by their superiors, falling back into march and position, overlooking the empty fields which made no more sound or random craters.  All that could be heard were a few vultures cawing far overhead in the sky, the whistle of the chilling winds, and an odd, nearly indescribable creak coming from the ground as Caroline tiptoed closer and closer to the Others.

                With a loud, somewhat high-pitched battle cry, Caroline kicked outward, swiping her foot right through the crowd of Others.  She knocked most of them down, and the others that she didn’t went down with another swift swing of her foot.  Smacking her foot back into the earth, she realized an Other had gotten his arm stuck between her of her toes, and she had just mercilessly dragged him into an unconscious state.  She wriggled her dirt-covered toes, releasing him, as she turned back to the bewildered army.  Many Others had drawn their blades and bows but were unsure of where to strike.  Raising her massive foot into the air, the princess planted it downward, mashing several Others into the ground with a single stroke, and she continued, gasping as she felt them smush into the dirt beneath her soles, going deeper as she ground them into the mud with the twisting ball of her foot.

                By this time, the troops had regrouped, and some had even discovered Caroline’s position.  However, as one drove his sword down against the top of her still-invisible foot, he received an electric shock from the magical shield Christine had placed around them, which sent him flying back.  Several other troops found this to be true, and as Caroline continued stomping out the army, more troops began filing in, seeing the commotion.  Most of them, however, quickly were either mashed into the dirt under her raging feet, kicked aside by a sweep of her toes and the hem of her robe as she stooped, or they found themselves shocked into a prone position upon striking the magical shield.   Some fired arrows, but these disintegrated on contact.  More and more troops continued pouring in, and one Other on a rooftop used a bugle that echoed across the streets of the kingdom, calling reinforcements.

                “CAROLINE!” called out Anne in worry, seeing the oncoming waves.  “They’re coming back!”

                “I see them, little sister, I see them…” whispered Caroline in a deep sense of focus, hardly noticing her sister’s words as she methodically picked where to make her next step or kick.  Finally, the creatures began to wise up, and starting piling themselves on top of her feet.  This was remedied quickly as she kicked them off, but soon, they got another idea.  A few Brute Others had showed up, each carrying chains wrapped around their arms.  Unraveling them, they tossed them to one another, stretching them across Caroline’s feet.  Then, working in tandem, they began to swing around the circumference of Caroline’s reaching distance, lightly roping the chains around her ankles.  Caroline was too busy at the moment to notice.  An Other had started climbing up her invisible dress.  She plucked him off between two fingers, placed him in her outstretched palm, and then flicked him with two fingers: the strike sent him flying with a terrified shriek through the air, rolling down the hill.  Meanwhile, the Brutes all twisted, pulling together over twenty of their strongest chains, which, despite the electric shock, allowed them to force Caroline’s ankles together.  This caused her to lose her balance, and the princess went down with a large crash against the dirt that knocked over every Other that was still standing within a one hundred foot radius, and crushed quite a few more underneath her back.

                “Ohh… what…” groaned Caroline dizzily, clutching her head, rubbing her palms against her siblings to make sure they had made it all right; she was pleased to find that her hair had broken their falls, but her eyes widened again as she saw the Others dashing at her.  Already, a few dozen had piled onto her legs, trying to hold her down.  They weren’t incredibly heavy, but she could see the fierce determination in all of them as they appeared to be hanging in midair, gripping her bare shin.  Several tried to climb up the bottom of her foot, but she quickly smacked them back to earth with her toes.

                “Caroline…” gasped Anne uncertainly.  “Errr…”

                “Don’t be afraid, Annie…”

                “Caroline…” she breathed again.  “I really think that…”

                “Hold ON!” grunted Caroline, squinting and looking at the Others in determination as they continued piling onto her.

                “CAROLINE!” screamed Phillip as Caroline’s entire front side was covered in Others.

                “Now; hang on!” yelled Caroline.  She pushed herself over, rolling over in a complete 360, instantly mashing every single Other on top of her into the dirt, most of whom were knocked senselessly unconscious.  With the army scattered and a few hundred at least having been felled, Caroline saw her opening, and began to dash through the village, around the palace wall.  However, instead of wrenching the gate open, Caroline dashed past it, going toward the deep cliffs of the river that ran through the kingdom.

                “Caroline?  Where are we…”

                “Just hold on, Annie, I have an idea.”

                Catherine paced around cheerfully in the Great Hall, no Other daring to breathe a single word to her.  Elizabeth laid on the ground, shivering a little with pain, as she had been wracked so thoroughly by Catherine’s electric bindings.  “And so… having come this far, my dearest Duchess…” cooed Catherine, leaning over closer to her face.  “I ask you… ONE… MORE… TIME… How do I get past this barrier?”

                Elizabeth, breathing hard, spat a wad onto the ground in tiredness and then looked up at the witch, weakly.  “Perhaps if you sing a lovely enough song, the curse will take pity on you and allow you through.”  Catherine, rather than resorting to magic, kicked Elizabeth in the face while she was down, causing her to grunt and grip at her nose painfully.

                “Richard’s taught you well.  You’re just as stubborn as he is…  If only he had found you before me, hmm?”

                “That’s one thing I suppose we both shared in our past times with him,” smiled Elizabeth.  “The difference… of course… being that when I became his wife, it wasn’t through witchcraft.  It was love, something you would never be able to understand.  Something like marriage was just another trick to you, but I suppose that once you realized no one would ever be with you unless they were under the influence of black magic, you had to do what was necessary.”  Without even answering verbally, Catherine reared her hand back, charging it with a glowing orange orb that quickly turned red, pulsing, as her fingers curled, her face flushing purple with pure rage.  Elizabeth flinched, awaiting her final fate.

                However, before Catherine could deal the fatal blow, a deafening crash sounded through everyone’s ears, and a moment later, a large hole had been blown in the widest wall of the Great Hall, sending a rain of shattered glass down to the Others that were cowering underneath it, killing many of them instantly.  A Brute was even crushed underneath a cascading chunk of pillar.  Catherine covered her face, backing up for protection, before opening her eyes wide at the figure standing in the opening, outlined in a silhouette against the blinding sunlight.  At first, she thought it was Caroline, but suddenly, the shadow reached a hand-like claw inside the Great Hall, going onto its haunches, snorting black smoke through its snake nose, clanging its broken chains against the marble.  The beast’s child had been set free from its prison by the cliffs.

                Catherine sent a quick few bolts of energy into it, and forced it to take a moment to collect itself, but it kept moving on forward with relative ease.  As she saw her relative ineffectiveness on the slowly advancing beast, its sizzling drool being left in a trail as it padded directly toward the nervous witch, she pointed forth.

                “Don’t just stand there, buffoons!  Kill it!  Drive it out of here, NOW!”  The Others, themselves in a state of shock, picked up their weapons and advanced on the beast.  It swatted several of the Others aside, but the more agile ones advanced in their larger crowds, jabbing their weapons into the beast’s feet.  It yelped in pain as over a dozen spears were prodded into it, and it swatted everyone to the ground before clambering back out of the Great Hall and running down the descending road to the village, swatting Others aside like paper wads as it went.  “Get moving now!” called out Catherine.  “It could severely weaken our troops, and until my power is returned, that is not a risk we can take.”  Most of the Others immediately filed out of the place, but Catherine raised a hand before the remaining dozen could leave.  “Not you.  Someone must guard my special guests.”  Nodding, the Others returned to their posts, as Catherine looked down at Elizabeth’s still cowering form, her back to the massive hole in the wall.

                “So, once again, my dear, we find ourselves at a seeming impasse.  I need you to tell me how to get through this barrier, and you… well, I assume you want to survive, unless the pain of Richard’s loss is weighing just a bit too heavily on your soul,” she mused, already charging her fists with glowing energy again.  “Let’s make it easier.  Tell me within the next ten seconds, and I promise you… I will NOT take a full two hours to end your life.”  But Elizabeth only stared up at her, hate in her eyes, before closing them again, a tear trickling to the cold marble as a chilling breeze began to settle in.  “Very well,” cackled Catherine.  “One.”

                Nothing.

                “Two.”

                Still nothing.

                “Three.”

                Nothing visually took place, although Elizabeth felt what must have been a separate draft from the one blowing about the mostly destroyed Great Hall.

                “Four.”

                Elizabeth felt the slightest rumble in the ground touch her cheek.

                “Five.”

                Elizabeth pressed her hands flat against the ground, feeling the slight rumble grow larger and larger.

                “TEN!” laughed Catherine, becoming bored with linear counting.  “And…” she began, but before she could strike out at Elizabeth, she instead curled her hand back over her shoulder, gripping her fist.  With a loud smack, Caroline, who had been reaching forth, invisibly, to grab the witch and subdue her, fell to the ground with a deafening smack, compelled by Catherine’s impromptu counter spell.  With a flick of her wrist, Catherine sent the ring flying off of Caroline’s finger, exposing herself and her two siblings into view.  She clapped her hands together, then swung them apart, ripping Phillip and Anne from Caroline’s hair, dragging them quickly across the ground into the arms of an Other each.  “See that they don’t get away from you.  You can handle children, right?” she asked sarcastically, to which she received incessant nods from the Others, before turning her attention back to the princess, sprawled on the floor.  Caroline began to quickly arch her back, pulling herself into a kneeling position and outstretching her hand again to grab the witch, but Catherine waved both arms, easily locking Caroline against the marble in what looked like a net of glowing green strands, attached to the ground.

                “PRINCESS!” bellowed the witch.  “So glad that you could join us…”

                “I wouldn’t have missed paying you a visit for all the world, Catherine,” growled Caroline.

                “My, my, my, this IS a different greeting than the last time we found ourselves in this room.  Tell me, girl, do you still harbor those feelings of goodwill and peace toward EVERYONE you meet?”

                “Of course.”

                “Even ME?”

                Caroline hesitated, blowing out air to slow her increasing heartbeat.  “I wish you no harm, Catherine.  No matter what you’ve done, I don’t feel I should have to destroy you.”

                At these words, Catherine cackled deeply.  “Oh, I see… YOU don’t feel you should have to destroy ME!”  Caroline nodded solemnly.  “I see, I see… Elizabeth, dear!” called out the witch.  “I am aware that you may take a little longer standing up, so I feel I ought to give you fair warning that you are going to want to do it very… soon…”

                “Mother…” gasped Caroline, trying to reach out a hand to help her sprawled parent, but she couldn’t outreach the green, magical bindings.  Then, suddenly, the bindings were tightening as Catherine held out a hand, clenching her fingers.  Caroline grunted in pain as the binds made several cuts into her skin, grinding against her with their electric energy.

                “You continue lying there, Duchess, but the sun continues rolling over the horizon… and your dear, dear, monstrously sized wretch grows nearer to death.  So, what do you say?” she asked, clenching particularly hard and causing Caroline to scream with a pain that echoed over most of the kingdom.  Phillip and Anne began crying for her, struggling uselessly against the strong arms of their Other guards.  Elizabeth studied her daughter, tears rolling down her cheeks, her hand shaking, for more than two minutes before she leapt to her feet, grasping the crystal in her hand.  “Now, it seems we’re moving along, finally,” laughed the witch, releasing her grip somewhat on Caroline’s slicing magical binds, allowing the princess to gulp up oxygen with a rapid fervor, stinging pervading her entire body.  “Place it inside.  Go on, I’ve been waiting half a century for this… practically nothing of my life, you can continue on.”  Shaking, Elizabeth approached the barrier, holding the crystal.

                “MOTHER, STOP!” screeched Caroline, reaching out, but her body was quickly crunched by the bindings, causing her to shriek in pain again.

                “Tsk, tsk, princess… mother knows best,” quipped the witch, watching Elizabeth intently.  However, as the duchess reached the barrier, she found herself at an invisible force that didn’t allow her to pass.  She, too, was the incorrect candidate.

                Groaning in disgust, Catherine waved a hand, knocking Elizabeth’s battered form back to the ground, taking the crystal away from her and back into her own hands.  She turned, her face contorted with rage, but then softened when her eyes fell upon Caroline’s subdued body, her soft eyes shut tightly from the discomfort, her arms writhing at their sides in an effort to break through the green streams of energy that had roped her down.  She had just realized something.

                “Oh, Richard.  Dear, dear, Richard…” laughed Catherine, studying Caroline.  “I see your game now…”

                “You SEE?  There is no way to do it simply by walking through, Catherine.  She is not your key, so just leave her ALONE!” shouted the princess.  The witch nodded in agreement.

                “You couldn’t be more correct, princess.  And that’s why I need not her, but you.”

                Caroline’s throat went dry.  “ME?  B-B-But why would it be…”

                “YOU?  Well, I’m not entirely certain, dear, but I would be willing to bet every last ounce of my current abilities that it is, indeed, you, who must walk through the barrier.  It all makes so much more sense now…” she muttered, waving her hand.  Caroline, still bound in the green energy ropes, was pulled into a standing position.  She floated backward, far out of the range of the keyhole barrier, and was slowly deposited on the ground, the bindings fading away.  Instantly, the princess was back on her feet, her hands outstretched for another go.

                “Ah-ah-ah-AH, princess… I wouldn’t want to go testing my limits now!” shouted the witch to ensure Caroline could hear her.  “MEN?” she indicated loudly.  Two Others, on each end of the room, each held one of Caroline’s siblings.  “You may be a very large young woman, dear, and you may be physically powerful, but you possess no magic ability like me, and therefore have no chance of reaching both of your siblings before they are slaughtered by the hands of my men.  And THEN…” she drawled.  “I’ll make you put the crystal into the keyhole ANYWAY.  Your choice, dear,” she said, smiling wickedly, and waving her hand  to send the tiny blue crystal floating out toward Caroline, who caught it nimbly between two fingers like a grain of rice.

                Caroline gulped, her eyes shifting between her two siblings, her body shaking and tears welling in her eyes.

                “NOW, princess, or we begin the carving.  And believe me, the Others have TERRIBLE self-control at the first smell of human blood…” chortled Catherine loudly, indicating toward the Other holding Phillip.  It shook him violently, gripping for an instant around his throat, causing Caroline to flinch in pain for her brother for a moment before the creature released him.  Tears began to roll down Caroline’s face, and at that point, she knew she wouldn’t have the self-control for much longer to stay standing there, with the crystal pinched tightly between two of her soft fingertips, refusing.  She knew that all of them would be brutally tortured if she didn’t comply.  But putting the crystal inside the keyhole would doom the rest of the kingdom.  Her eyes fell over to Anne, who had been dropped and slammed against the ground, nearly knocking her unconscious and causing a small, bloody cut to form on her forehead.  And, choking the tears in her throat, Caroline knew she had run out of options.

                She was going to do it.  She had failed.  She took a step forward.

                “GOOD, princess, good…” laughed Catherine.  “Keep going, now, don’t be shy.”

                Caroline continued trekking forward, and, taking a deep breath, placed a foot inside the magic barrier, and then pulled the rest of her body in, still gripping the crystal.  Catherine shrieked triumphantly at the success.  “Oh, I KNEW it.  I just KNEW it!” she cried out, breathless, as her victory became ever-closer.  “Don’t STOP!”

                Caroline came to rest in front of the tiny boulder, a mere skipping stone at her feet.  She knelt down to ensure she would fit in the Great Hall, and extended her hand over it, her fingers pinched tightly still around the precious crystal key.  Horror had been filling her heart all the way on the walk to the stone, and yet, somehow, another thought was filling her mind: not of fear of the future, or even for anyone’s lives.  It was something Christine had said, before departing at their first meeting:  “It was… your mother.  Your mother has caused all of this.  It has all come to fruition because of her.”

                Caroline glanced over at Elizabeth, wondering, knowing Elizabeth had not been particularly, integrally involved in the whole plan that had doomed Richard and his kingdom as well.  And then another, seemingly random, thought entered her mind.  They were more words from Christine.  The stone had locked away the power of Catherine… and her descendants.  And her descendants.

                Her descendants.

                It was… your mother.  Your mother has caused all of this.  It has all come to fruition because of her.

                Her descendants.

                Caroline’s blood ran cold as she looked from herself to Catherine, gulping hard, and suddenly, a feeling of warmth flooded her body, completely against the feelings she ought to have been experiencing in such a dire situation.  It reminded her of the comfort of her father, when she knew he was doing everything he could to protect his family.

                At that moment, everything became perfectly clear to Caroline: goose bumps ran along her arms, and she had to suppress a nervous smile as her arm began to shake.  Richard had done it.  He had saved her again.  She took a deep breath, thanking Richard in the heavens.

                “DEAR!” shouted Catherine threateningly.  “Take much longer, and I’ll have to shred all of your little friends into the supper of the Others.”  Caroline looked to her, nodding, allowing more tears to fall down her face, but this time only for effect.  Her hand quivering, she released her fingers, allowing the crystal to drop.  Some magnetic force instantly grabbed the crystal from the air, pulling it toward the stone in a slow, rotating circular motion before it inserted itself into the formation in the rock.

                “NOW!” laughed Catherine, dashing forward, closer to the rock.  “Give it back to me NOW, Richard!” she screamed dramatically, holding out her arms.  The rock began to glow, and then, without warning, began to glow a pale red, shooting beams of light all around the destroyed Great Hall.  It began to smoke, then, as a glowing lava-like liquid began seeping out the pores of the stone.  Finally, as the beams continued pouring from the lava, the ground began to shake.  Caroline backed up, standing up fully, allowing her head to pass through a very large hole in the ceiling that had been created earlier, as she continued looking down.

                “GIVE IT TO ME!” screeched Catherine, and as she said this, a beam of red light rattled through the air, attaching itself roughly to Catherine’s chest.  In a spray of sparks, she began to convulse, tossed to the ground, screaming with pleasure as she felt her former power returning.  The Others holding the children and Elizabeth quickly backed up to make some room, and even Daniel, his hand around the scruff of the prince’s tunic, was frightened, so he backed up as well.  Groggily, Luke came to, blinking and looking around, but not revealing his consciousness to Daniel.

                Finally, the beams ceased roaring, and shot back into the oozed lava, the glowing stopping altogether.  Smoke settled over Catherine’s body, which still was lying on the ground, breathing heavily but laughing.  Her eyes began to fog over, becoming a solid black color as full control re-entered her body, and she pulled herself to her feet with a loud smack that sent a rippling crack in all directions, creating an indent in the marble floor.  Staggering as if slightly drunk for a moment, she looked at her fingers closely, watching microscopic streams of electricity and energy flowing between them without even trying.  She touched two fingers together, watching a roaring fire that didn’t seem to singe her skin appear in her palm; she closed her hand, smiling widely, and extinguishing the flame.

                “AT LONG LAST, I HAVE RETURNED!” roared Catherine, rising into the air in flight, spinning around with her arms outstretched.  “AND NOW, ALL OF YOU SHALL BOW BEFORE…” she began, but was interrupted by a gentle coughing sound.  She turned to see the seventy foot princess staring at her with a hard grimace, her upper lip contorted.

                “It is time for you to leave, mother," she mused triumphantly, thrusting out a gigantic hand and sending an absolutely massive bolt of blue electricity at Catherine from her own long fingers, her fully recharged powers restored again by the stone, sending the witch flying directly through the stone wall of the Great Hall in a spray of dust and colored glass.