What kind of Magic?

Chapter 4

Langia traveled slower through the cursed forest. She kept telling herself to be brave, but her nerves took over and she jumped at every little sound she heard. After a while when nothing happened, she calmed down. After all, her golden lights were still around her. She took out her directions again to see where to find the castle.

Langia made the mistake of reading her notes while walking, and she tripped over another root. Once again she landed on the dusty ground. "Darned root." She muttered to herself as she picked herself up.

As soon as Langia stood up, she found a large ax at her throat. She gasped, and felt cold metal against her skin. What suprised her most however, was not that she was being threatened by a massive ax, it was the thing that held it.

The beast was at least six feet tall. It had a massive bull's head covered in brown fur, and it's dark, black eyes bore straight into Langia's without blinking. It had the heavily muscled torso of a man. The only clothing it wore was a brown loincloth. It walked upright on, not a man's legs, but on two cow legs. In it's human hands, it held the massive ax it used to threaten her.

Langia recalled something as she looked into the beast's face.

A few years ago, a terrified farmer had come to the castle telling of what he had experienced in the woods. He lived at one of the farms bordering the forest. One day, some of his livestock wandered into the woods. He went to get them back, of course. He depended on those livestock for his livelihood, and he was a sensible fellow who didn't believe in the horror stories about the cursed forest. It turned out that some of his livestock had ventured to the cursed forest. He later told that he had seen a massive, half cow, half man creature in the woods. The man never did return to the forest. People had dismissed this story, saying that the man had been hallucinating, or that he had mistaken one of his own cattle for a beast. Langia now knew this story was very true.

Langia's senses overcame her fear. Surely, this beast knew something of the Dark Warlock. She took a deep breath and silently prayed that this beast understood human language. "I need to find the dark warlock the lives in these woods. Do you know where I might find him?"

The beast looked taken aback. It stumbled back a step. Then, it slowly lowered the ax and nodded. Langia felt slightly relived that it understood her. The beast turned it's back to her and started walking off. After a few steps, it turned and looked over it's shoulder at her, cleary wanting her to follow. Langia realized it would lead her to the warlock.

Langia felt slightly odd as she followed the beast through the forest. It had a strange gait, (probably because of it's cow feet) as it lumbered through the woods. She noticed that despite it's large size, it made no noise as it walked. She wondered if there were more beasts like this in the forest.

Langia was suprised when the beast stopped in front of a thick wall of thorns. She wondered if the beast really had understood her, or if it had led her to a trap. The beast held it's ax in both hands and thumped the end of the pole on the dusty ground twice.

Thump, thump.

At first nothing happened, then the thorn wall shifted. Langia realized the thorns were untangling from each other, and opening a path for them. A shudder went through the wall and it stopped moving. Where there was a thick, seemingly impassable wall, there was now an open archway. The beast gave a satisfied little grunt and stepped through the archway.

Langia let out a gasp as she saw what was behind the wall. They appeared to be in a sort of courtyard surrounded by the thorn wall. Well, if you could really call it a courtyard. It only had some thornbushes and spindly trees. As the thorns closed up behind then, Langia's attention was not on the courtyard.

A massive black castle stood in front of her. It was windowless, and made of a stange black stone. While Langia's castle was ornate and beautiful, this one was definitely the opposite of that. This castle was devoid of decor, it seemed almost devoid of life. The storm clouds spiraled above, with the center of the spiral right above the castle. This was, without a doubt, the Dark  Warlock's castle. 

Langia followed the beast to the doors. The beast had to thump its ax twice again to open the door.  This appeared to be the only way in or out of the castle. Langia realized this beast must be the guardian of the castle, the fearsome one mentioned in the legend. The beast seemed fearsome enough, but not really aggressive. Langia couldn't really understand why.

The doors took them into a large central room. It had stairways leading to other floors and other rooms. The beast stopped in the room for a second. Langia stopped too, unsure of what to do. Then, the beast shook it's head, and grunted something to itself. It started off to a small door set in the wall.

The beast opened the door and Langia saw a small spiral staircase. She saw the beast head up the stairs and she followed. They were going up the stairs for what seemed like forever. Langia wondered where they could be going up such a long staircase.

Finally the staircase stopped at the top of a tall tower. The tower was completely empty. There was no furniture. The only  different thing was the window on one wall. It appeared to be the only window in the entire castle. But that was not the only special thing about this room.

There was someone in the room.