© 10 July 2014
This is an alternative ending for the battle of Cair Paravel, which occurs towards the end of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. In CS Lewis's tale, Jadis the White Witch's evil army is getting the better of Peter's army until reinforcements, lead by Aslan himself, arrive from the castle of Cair Paravel and save the day.
Before this battle, the White Witch has killed Aslan using Deep Magic from the dawn of time. Aslan took the place of the traitor, Edmund. However, using Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time, Aslan is resurrected because if a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's place, the Stone Table would crack and death itself start working backwards.
However, what if there was hidden Deepest Magic, old when all the universes were created that even Aslan knew nothing of?
I do not own any of the characters in this story.
THE ALTERNATIVE BATTLE
Horrible things were happening wherever she looked.
"Off my back children," shouted Aslan. And they both tumbled off. Then with a roar that shook all Narnia from the western lamp-post to the shores of the eastern sea the great beast flung himself upon the White Witch.
Lucy saw her face lifted toward him for one second with an expression of terror and amazement. Yet that expression lasted one second only. Then a look of triumph filled the Witch's face. "You fool, Lion. Did you not think that I would anticipate your resurrection? You who think you are all-powerful? Know ye not that there are older, more powerful entities than you?"
Aslan paused; his great talons paused in the act of striking her down.
"What do you mean, Witch?" he asked. Yet so great was his majesty that he thought the White Witch must be bluffing. He was Aslan, the creator and god of this world.
"Out beyond the spheres are creatures whose merest whisper would blast your soul and send it shrieking into the abyss," she replied, her eyes afire.
She struck the ground with her ancient stone knife. Immediately a crack appeared between them. It spread rapidly, drawing a jagged line between the two armies. As if by mutual consent, both forces stepped back away from the crack. It rapidly widened and deepened with a terrible creaking and groaning as if the very earth itself was in pain.
Peter leaped back over the crack, joining his sisters and Aslan. "What is this? What's going on?" he asked, looking up at the great Lion for reassurance. He didn't like the look of confusion in Aslan's eyes.
Then Jadis the Witch uttered a dread incantation which was taken up by all her monstrous army, their deep voices bellowing over the field. "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."
The inhuman syllables meant nothing to the children but they were shocked when Aslan cowered backwards, looking more like a beaten cat than the great Lion he was.
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn," the monsters chanted again and again, louder and louder.
"No, no, stop. You cannot do this," Aslan cried out.
All the time, the crack widened and deepened. Trees uprooted and tottered, falling into the crevasse. Rocks and boulders tumbled in. With a cry, an injured centaur, too slow to escape, fell down. Worse, far worse, darkness seemed to ooze out, filling the ground and sky with grey gloom. A thick, roiling cloud rolled over the sun and the once bright day turned to dusk. Peter hugged his two sisters, trying to protect them.
"I'm scared," Susan whimpered.
"Don't be," Lucy said encouragingly. "I'm sure Aslan knows what he's doing."
Yet it didn't seem to Peter that the Lion had any more understanding than they had. Looking around, Peter noticed some of Aslan's army starting to fade away. Following a clan of squirrels many fauns threw down their weapons and were running to the woods and several eagles were flying away, now little more than dots on the horizon. A group of dwarfs huddled together in a protective bunch, their axes and mattocks held to their chests. But they, too, were edging away from the crevice.
And still the hideous monsters of the Witch's army howled and chanted. Hags, Wraiths, Ettins, a Cyclops, shroud-wearing Ghouls, Vultures, evil dwarfs and ape-men as well as the spirits of poisonous trees. Strange, unearthly, fungoid creatures with cruel pincers and heads covered with cilia flew overhead.
"Can't you do anything to stop them, Aslan?" Lucy asked him.
The Lion shook his head. "She knows a magic much deeper and stronger than anything I know of. Flee! Save yourselves."
And then the tortured earth cried out in agony as it was forced asunder. A shape, manlike but vaster reached up out of the ground. Seawater cascaded from the huge creature's grey, rubbery yet scaly body, pouring back down into the abyss from which it emerged. Narrow, bat-like wings extended from its back, extended out, blotting out the already darkened sky. In their shade, night fell and a cold wind, colder than the blackness between the stars, poured forth. Frost covered the earth and the children's clothes.
Worse was the immense creature's head. Beneath red-rimmed eyes, a mass of tentacles stretched forth around its open maw. Purple seaweed, dank and rotten, crowned its giant head. It roared, a bellow of mixed rage and triumph, a scream of age-old yearning that echoed and re-echoed over the land. A stench of rotting fish mixed with other, worse odours, filled their noses.
The children sank to their knees in terror. Still the being reached up out of the abyss until it seemed to fill the angry skies.
"Aslan, stop it!" they cried.
"My powers are nothing compared with this."
Still the monsters on the other side continued their chanting as more and more of this demon came out of the abyss. Peering upwards through eyes nearly closed, Lucy saw terribly long, sharp curved claws on the ends of its webbed hands.
The huge monster lowered its tentacles and reached for Aslan. With a show of courage, the Lion bit off the tip of one. Green ichor squirted from the wound, falling onto the field. As it did so, the grass withered and died as acids hissed and bit.
The monster screamed with rage and pain. The children covered their ears against that terrible sound. It shook the surrounding hills and more trees toppled and crashed to the earth. A flying pegasus tumbled out of the air, crashing to the ground and whinnied with pain as its back broke. With one blow of his axe, an ogre chopped its head off, and then held it aloft.
"Run, children, run. I cannot save you from this," Aslan called over the tumult.
"What is it?" Peter asked as he got to his feet.
"Did you never study the Necronomicon, Lion?" Jadis the Witch answered for him from over the other side of the abyss. "This is the Great Old One, summoned from his drowned city of R'lyeh to claim this land for his own."
"How?" said Aslan.
"Fool. Did you not know that there are also immense oceans beneath the land?" the Witch laughed. "And these connect with the deepest trenches where that which is not dead may eternal lie."
"You dared to call...," Aslan seemed reluctant to say the word.
"Yes, I summoned Cthulhu."
The huge entity, Cthulhu himself, raised his arms up to the skies as if he would pluck the sun itself from the heavens. With one great clawed hand, Cthulhu leaned down and lifted Aslan up as if the great Lion weighed no more than a kitten. His tentacles palpated Aslan's struggling body and then the monster's maw opened wide.
With horror, the children saw rows of fangs surrounding an octopus-like beak. There was a horrible crunching sound, one long drawn out roar of pain and fear and then every bone in Aslan's body shattered as the beak closed. A moment later, Cthulhu swallowed the Lion's broken body whole.
Looking around Peter saw the tattered remnants of Aslan's army fleeing for nearby forests and hills. Dropping his sword and shield and grabbing his sisters' hands, Peter turned and ran, dragging Susan and Lucy with him. He only took a few steps before he felt himself and the girls snatched up into the air, lifted higher and higher in the monster's hand. Peter kicked and struggled but it was useless, like fighting a mountain.
They were held up to that foul mass of tentacles which slimed and caressed their shuddering bodies for one long-drawn out moment. Then Cthulhu opened its maw and blasts of fishy, rotting air made them retch and gag. Then Cthulhu leaned its head forward and devoured them whole.
Peter's last thought was that he hadn't expected it all to end like this. He had been sure that the reborn Aslan and the forces of good would triumph over evil.
Susan's was a last scream of pure, sheer terror.
Lucy's last thought was of her brother, Edmund. She hoped he would survive and carry on the fight.
Edmund himself watched aghast as Cthulhu scattered Aslan's army and then devoured his family. Time to change sides again. Crawling out from behind a rock, he stood and then, heart in mouth, leaped over a narrow part of the chasm.
"Well done, your majesty," he said. "Now we can rule this land together, as you promised."
Jadis the White Witch drew herself to her full height. Her snow-white face was tight with fury. She pointed at Edmund. "Destroy the last Son of Adam," she commanded. Immediately, Cthulhu turned his bloodshot eyes on Edmund.
"N-no," the boy stammered. "P-please, you p-promised."
"Fool, promises are made to be broken," the White Witch sneered.
Edmund dodged Cthulhu's first swipe but he was snagged by the talons on the monster's second. Kicking and screaming, he was drawn up to that fanged orifice and a moment later he, too, was eaten alive. There were now no more Sons of Adam or Daughters of Eve left to challenge the White Witch's rule.
Using felled trees to bridge the abyss, the White Witch's army crossed over and routed the hidden remnants of Aslan's defeated army. And with Cthulhu raised from his sleep and Aslan slain, the White Witch's endless winter was just the beginning of Narnia's nightmare. There was now no hope...
THE END.