Inspired by AsCast from Narnia fan fiction revolution!

Sadly, I don't even own the idea…

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"Peter, how can we trust that beaver? He could be on the Witch's side; maybe she gave him the gift of speech!" Susan hissed to me.

"Well, he said he knows Tumnus, and Tumnus saved Lucy…their ideas can't be that different if they're friends…" I said, still trying to sound even remotely in control of the situation.

"Peter, honestly! He can't be trusted!" she insisted.

"What do you want me to do, Susan?!" I exploded in an angry whisper, "We'll freeze to death out here alone, and as Ed pointed out to me earlier, we haven't the slightest idea of how to get back, nor if the wardrobe will let us back through! We have no choice but to follow him!"

"Oh, goodness, Peter…" she said softly, "You're right! We don't even know where he's taking us, either! What if he takes us to the Witch?"

"Well," I said, again trying to sound reassuring, "As I said before, he's a beaver. If he truly is an enemy, then I think we're more than evenly matched."

"She smiled, "Yes, that's true. Beavers are usually good; it's the rat and wolves and such that are bad."

I nodded, proud of myself for cheering her up.

As we got further into the woods, however, I grew uneasy all over again. There were dark, snow-covered shapes everywhere. The beaver had said something about the trees talking and being spies, so he was either completely batty or he was a traitor; it seemed to me that he was talking rather loudly for one who had urged so much caution. And it was awfully dark…anything could happen here, where no one could see us.

I call my current state-of-mind (for this time) "wary," but when we passed a huge, fresh wolf print in the snow, I was downright suspicious. "Mr. Beaver" didn't even quicken the pace! It only told me that he knew that the wolves wouldn't harm him, or that he just wasn't paying much attention and therefore was at fault for not being alert in the shadowy woods. Either way, I didn't trust him.

"Su!" I hissed.

She turned towards me, showing me her pale face and wide eyes: classic signs of terror.

"Did you see that?" I asked.

She nodded wordlessly, and I grabbed her hand. It was cold, clammy, and she was shaking.

Maybe that was what did it: knowing that my sister was scared, and this beaver, our guide and temporary guardian, didn't do anything about it. If Susan was scared, then Lucy was probably terrified out of her mind. (She had had a dream about being circled by huge wolves once. She had woken me up with her screaming.) Edmund inched closer to me; whether it was a conscious idea or not, I don't know, but he was obviously nervous and jittery as well.

I ran towards "Mr. Beaver" (How did we know that that was his real name? It could have been something like Thomas, or Robert!) and tackled him. Edmund soon joined me, as did Lucy. Susan stood to the side for a moment, looked around at the intimidating trees, and then joined in as well.

In the ensuing "battle," I was kicked, punched, shoved, and bitten (I was really trying to pin the beaver down, but I was always knocked away), but it was when someone raked me across the cheek with their nails that I finally grabbed the two nearest people (Edmund and Lucy) and tossed them out of the fray and into a snow drift, then I got a hold of the other two and pulled them away from each other.

We all stood looking at each other for a few moments before Lucy smiled through a bloody lip (I couldn't help wondering if I had given her that, and more importantly: would it get around to Mum if I had!) and said,"That was fun!"

I smiled back a bit and then let the grin drop. I took a quick survey of everyone's injuries. Ed had a bruise on one cheek and his nose was trickling a bit of blood (leave it to him to get the most wounds), and Susan had a scrape under her eye and a clump of fur from her coat was missing.

It was quiet for a moment as we stood there, panting.

"Why'd you go and do that?" Mr. Beaver asked indignantly.

I gave him a steady gaze (racking my brain for an excuse that seemed reasonable. "You seemed suspicious" wouldn't have worked.), and finally said, "Just remember that that is what happens if you even think about lying to us, no matter how trivial the matter."

And the funny thing: we weren't even remotely betrayed by those two beavers at any time during our reign!

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As I said before, this is for the hosts of AsCast, the Narnia podcast from NFFR (I sound like and advertisement!). If you haven't listened to them, go look them up on iTunes!

Please review!

~Cori