ANCIENT ENEMIES
Hey and howdy, folks! It's spring break, which means no school for a whole week! Of course, I still got homework to do, but I don't have any classes, and I can catch a few extra Zs and have a little more time for my stories and art. I've been itching to do more Narnia stories, especially after watching "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" yesterday. This time, I thought I'd introduce a few more of my original characters, besides just Terence.
Be sure to let me know what you think!
Characters (with exceptions) © C.S. Lewis and Disney/Walden Media
Other Characters and Story © unicorn-skydancer08
All rights reserved.
Chapter 1: An Old Nightmare
Castle Cair Paravel was deserted. Terence raced anxiously from room to room, searching desperately for some sign, any sign of his friends—or, at the very least, another occupant.
But there was no one, not a single soul to be found in the enormous castle.
"Tumnus!" Terence shouted with all his might. "Lucy! Edmund! Peter! Susan! Where are you?"
No one answered.
"Oreius!" Terence continued to wail frantically, his voice rising significantly in volume and pitch. "Beaver! Sir Giles! Philip! Romulus! Marcellus! Answer me!"
Yet all the white-haired boy got in reply were his own echoes.
Even so, he continued to hunt the Cair relentlessly, leaving no nook or cranny overlooked.
Finally, when he reached the throne room, he could see a solitary figure standing by the massive stained-glass window at the very front. Without hesitation, Terence made a swift beeline to that person. "Oh, am I glad to see you!" the youth exclaimed breathlessly. "There's no time to lose—" But then he slid to an abrupt halt, and the rest of his sentence died on his lips when his companion turned around.
To his utmost horror, it was the very last person he would have expected or wanted to run into: Scorpio, his old, sworn enemy.
The horrible face that had haunted Terence for ages now stared right back at him. At many hundreds of years of age, Scorpio's face was as bony as a skeleton's, and as pale besides. His hair, his mustache that curled at both ends, and his pointed goatee shone a fine, bright black, which contrasted vividly with his milk-white skin. Though he had but one eye, that glaring red eye seemed to see right through Terence, penetrate his soul. Though the two men stood a fair distance apart from one another, Scorpio nevertheless gave off the impression of being very tall. He was also very strong; regardless of his thin, corpselike body, Terence knew him to possess inhuman strength.
"Hello, Terence," Scorpio greeted him, in a voice as smooth as silk and as cold as solid ice. "I've been expecting you."
"Scorpio!" said Terence, his own voice nothing more than an aghast whisper. "Wh-what—what are you doing here?"
"We have some unfinished business to attend to, you and I."
"Where are my friends?" Terence asked tremulously. "Where is Tumnus? Where is Lucy, Peter, and all the others? What have you done with them?"
"Not to worry, my dear boy," Scorpio replied, with a nasty smile that promised otherwise. "I have taken good care of them."
Terence could only imagine what sort of awful fate had befallen Tumnus and all his precious friends.
Impulsively, the youth turned to run—only to be intercepted by a gang of snarling, snapping werewolves, led by none other than Moloth, Terence's other greatest enemy and Scorpio's most loyal advocate.
"Going somewhere?" Moloth rasped at Terence, curling back his lip to reveal his dreadful fangs, his golden eyes burning with an unholy fire.
Terence didn't hesitate to back the other way. Inadvertently, he stumbled and fell onto the solid marble floor. He landed flat on his back, and Moloth immediately pounced on him and pinned him down with his gnarled gray paws so that he couldn't move. Though Terence struggled with all his might to get free, Moloth easily held him fast.
When Terence found he couldn't fight the beast, he lay perfectly still, although he turned his face as far to the side as possible to avoid the monster's hideous countenance—as well as his fetid breath.
"Come, now, Terence," Scorpio's voice crooned from above. "You know it is vain to fight me. Why suffer a ghastly death, when you can join me?"
"No," Terence never hesitated to defy his ancient foe. "Never!"
Scorpio laughed; a cruel, malicious laugh that chilled Terence to the core. "Ah, bravery," he taunted. "Something I have always valued. Your friends had it, too—or, is it mere foolishness?"
"Let me go!" Terence shouted.
"As you wisssshh," Moloth hissed, in the imitation of a snake. The man-wolf therefore opened his massive jaws, and lunged at Terence's neck…
"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!"
Terence's own scream woke him up. Gasping for breath, drenched in a cold sweat, the white-haired youth glanced fearfully around to find himself in the safety of his own bedchamber.
Scorpio was gone. Moloth was gone. Everything was as it was before.
When Terence finally acknowledged that it had all been a nightmare—a truly horrendous nightmare, but a nightmare nonetheless—he sighed and flopped back against his pillows, running one hand over his sweat-soaked face. As he waited for his violently pounding heart to calm down, there was a wild clatter of hooves and Tumnus came bursting into the room. The hour was very late, yet Tumnus was wide-awake.
"Terence!" the faun gasped, looking and sounding extremely worried and frightened. "Terence, are you all right? What happened?"
At the sight of his beloved mate, alive and well, Terence felt his throat tighten and tears well up. "Oh, Tumnus, it's you!" he cried gratefully, his voice choked with emotion.
"Are you all right?" Tumnus repeated as he rushed to the boy's side at once. "I could hear you screaming all the way from my chamber." He took a seat alongside Terence on the bed and reached for his hand; Terence could feel the faun's hand trembling slightly. "What happened?" the faun asked again, his tone much softer this time, but still panic-stricken.
Instead of answering verbally, Terence simply grabbed Tumnus and hugged him as if he would never let him go. In a moment, Tumnus's arms slid around Terence's shoulders as well and clung fervently to him in return. Terence buried his face deep in the faun's neck, inhaling the familiar cinnamon-and-pine scent of him, and Tumnus could feel the warm trickle of tears against his skin. He shifted his position just a little, putting up his hooves and settling himself more comfortably against the mound of pillows. Terence did not object. He only continued to huddle against Tumnus, while Tumnus held him and stroked him like a child.
Later, when Terence had grown calmer, he and Tumnus loosened their grip on one another—although neither released the other completely—and Terence at last explained just what had happened. He left out the part of Scorpio and Moloth; so all he really told Tumnus was that he'd had a terrible dream in which everyone had gone away and he couldn't find them.
"I'm sorry, mate," said Tumnus sympathetically when Terence was finished.
Terence covered his face with his hands. "I'm sorry, Tumnus," he quavered. "But I can't bear the thought of losing you, of losing anyone here at the Cair. You have all come to mean so much to me. You're like family. If anything happened to you—" He broke off, unable to complete the sentence, but Tumnus understood perfectly.
Very gently, the faun drew the poor boy closer and embraced him once more. "Don't worry, Terence," he whispered soothingly. "I'm here, right here. I'm not going anywhere." Terence only sniffled in reply, and Tumnus rocked him idly to and fro and bestowed a light, brotherly kiss on his crown. "Shhh…it's all right. I promise, it's all right. Just take it easy…"
It was unknown how long the two stayed in that position, but when Tumnus was about to return to his chamber to resume sleep, Terence refused to let him leave.
"Don't go," Terence implored. "Please stay, Tumnus. Please?" His earnest tone and his beseeching blue eyes got the better of Tumnus, so Tumnus simply slid under the covers with him and lay with him.
The faun was the first of the two to nod off. Terence, despite having the warmth and comfort of Tumnus's presence, could hardly bring himself to close his eyes for terror of seeing Scorpio again.
But in the end, it proved useless to resist, and the boy slipped inescapably into the awaiting arms of a deep sleep.