The Woalds of Wardwood

Chapter 3 Explanations

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James was carried away to a horse, his captor mounted it and tied James's hand's together on the saddle. They were met by a small group outside Cair Paravel's gates. 'Well, bally-hoo, thats the ticket!' cried one man that they met who James vaguely recognized. Wasn't he with the group of men he had met the other day? 'One of the Princes by all accounts. Well, he's coming with us for a while. Don't worry kiddy, we'll find a use for you, come on, move out, hurrah!'

With that James was rushed of with around 30 horsemen. Dressed in Telmarine style though with perhaps slightly more of a flamboyant nature. He did have a nice breakfast and at dawn a golden, fiery, sun rose above the horizon in a panoramic splendor. But that was as good as his day got. The force was well-armed and James noticed that many were carrying staffs quite openly. They were also full of confidence and very vicious. In fact it was their behaviour which turned him quite against them and destroyed any slight change these people might have had of influence with the boy.

These men were arrogant, over-confident, mean-looking, had a lack of respect for life and distinctly trigger-happy. They were traveling to their main camp in the forests but on the way left many creatures frozen in stone. As soon as they left Cair Parvael a troop of Dwarf guards met this fate. As did a Fawn, some Badgers, Bears, Beavers, a proud Centeur who wasn't even in their way and even a mighty Giant.

It was only when a dark, creepy shape looked out and scuttled at them from some trees that the Captain said, 'Not this one! Tis one of the giant spiders. We can attract more. Those things can get nasty.' He then turned around to his men crying, 'Well, a good day! We've shown those sub-creatures a thing or two. All right a few might retaliate, even many but we'll show them. Only a short trip now to our home, Hurrah!'

They have set up just about every other creature in Narnia against them and they cry, 'Hurrah!' thought James with good logic. As the day moved onto mid-day they had lunch which they shared with James. As it happened they had to take it in a hut from a sympathizer they knew as it was starting to turn wet and windy.

The leader tried to convince James to take up with them. 'Now my name is Captain Manweather-Oppingtom. David Manweather-Oppingtom to be precise. I am your friend around here!' He smiled a tad unconvincingly. 'Now my boy wouldn't you like to be King of all of these lands?'

'Well, that wouldn't be bad, but how? I am not royalty!'

Manweather-Oppingtom laughed, 'Yes, you are though you don't realize it. Descended by blood from the last, great, human Narnian rulers. You only have to reach out for your claim to take it. '

James, who knew something about royalty, countered, 'But don't you have to be the oldest to rule? I'm not I am afraid, Steve is over a year older than me!' A sharp gust of wind blew the huts door open. James shivered in the wind. He looked very unconvinced at the Captain.

'Well, perhaps you can be the second most important person in the land. One step along the way to supreme power. Well, I can't deny that at the moment, the Queen, Narnia happened to have a Queen at this time, is ruled by an elected council,' Manweather-Oppingtom fairly spat at the word elected 'But she'll just have to go. Her claim is no-where as solid as yours And you never know,' the Captain reached down to James, his long, blond hair touching James's neck, 'If your brother isn't suitable, maybe you can rule in his stead. Absolute power, think of it!'

'And in the meantime we can show those subbies a thing or two! One for the Telmarines, Hurrah!' he cried! By the way, subbies were a very insulting term some of the Telmarines had for talking beasts that weren't human. Fortunately most of the talking beasts hadn't yet heard the term.

'Hurrah!' cried the troop in unison. And waved their staffs high in the air.

James smiled but he was even more worried about been with these people. Young as he was, he did recognize something. If Steve was an absolute ruler and these people removed him if he didn't like Steve, it didn't say much about his absolute power did it? And if that was the case, what would stop these people doing the same to him if he did something they didn't like. James was quite a clear thinker in these matters. He recognized someone trying to set up a puppet ruler when he saw them!

Anyway, lunch was over and everyone set up to move out. On this occasion they didn't tie James to the saddle, just carried him. 'I think we can trust this one, he's with us!' cried the Captain, wrongly. Out on the plains, near a river with the mountains of the south-east in sight, they saw some Dwarfs. One of them called out at the men to stop.

'Look at that, what a pathetic bunch! I wouldn't use any of them as a Lawn Ornament!' declared Captain David to predictable laughter from the men. He reached up his staff. 'Out of the way, little one, or I'll have you!' A warning from one of his sub-ordinates stopped him. As well as the Dwarfs some Wolves came up from behind, howling. Some Fawns appeared from behind some trees bandishing warning arrows. Some Bears and Ratties strengthened the force. Also, the ground shook as two large, 10ft tall and strong with it, Giants backed up the force.

To make matters worse a strong storm unleashed its full furry at them from the mountains. Although I am afraid to say that none of these matters seemed to worry the men unduly. 'What on Narnia to you want?' the Captain asked, fully helmeted as were all of his men, so they couldn't be identified later.

A Dwarf made a statement, 'We have identified you as those who have been committing atrocities across Narnia.' There was some laughter amongst the men. 'We order you to surrender, submit to justice, and to inform us the location of the Woalds of Wardwood. Otherwise we are prepared to used force.'

'I suggest you all get out of the way before you all regret it,' replied Captain David.

'You have one minute, or we'll use force!'

The Captain of the men raised his staff high as did several others. 'I'm game, who's first to be turned to stone,' he cried. There was a cry from behind him as in response to this a Fawn had fired an arrow into the men, one of whom fell from his horse. At the same time the rain grew stronger and there was a clap of thunder and flash of lightning from the sky.

'Right, charge!' he ordered and the men galloped at the Dwarfs. James saw several be turned to stone. But the non-humans put up a reasonable fight as well. Several arrows fired into the troop which forced them to separate to be less of a target. But the Dwarfs were also very tough. In fact, one Dwarf nearly succeeded in cutting the heart of his captor in a high swipe of his axe that one wouldn't have thought a Dwarf could reach.

This caused the horse to rear up and neigh, waving it's legs. James was thrown of onto the crass, only just avoiding one of the horse's hoofs stepping on his head. The fight was a bit wet, muddy and confusing. The stamps of the Giants shook the ground and did James hear the roar of a Lion was it? Still, this seemed to be James's moment so he took a quick run to a nearby wood. It was a few seconds before any of his captors notice him and one cried, 'Hey,' and fired an arrow at him that twanged into one of the trees.

But James made it undercover. But with a last glance at the fight, yes he could see a mighty Lion. An angry, mighty Lion at that. He wasn't sure, but it seemed to be trying to separate the foes. The human captain had galloped away. The two Giants had totally ignored the fight and had quarreled with each other cheerfully in a Heavy(Giant?) Weight boxing fight! But exhausted and terrified, James ran on into the woods.

James hid under the branch of a large oak. He heard the Captain gallop near to him but saying, 'Outwitted them lot! Aren't I bally brilliant? Oh, all right, together we are! Don't interrupt. Come on lads, follow me!' and riding away in a flourish. He lay still for a while. He had eaten so James wasn't hungry and after a while it stopped raining. Though it was still very cold, he was near the mountains after all.

James risked a look out of the woods. He heard the roar of the Lion again. It was close to him now. The Lion looked straight at him, spotting the boy. The Lion galloped up and called to him. 'No need to be afraid, Son of Adam, I mean you no harm. But I can see, and smell you. You shouldn't be wandering around alone in this country. Come!'

The Lion now looked friendly so James cautiously approached the beast. The Lion licked him with a long, wet tongue. 'Now, my name is Aslan. You might have heard of me. I have only returned to this country after many hundreds of years. And I find things in a right old mess. I think I should have returned earlier. Still, come on, Son of Adam. Jump on board. Fancy a ride?'

James wasn't quite sure how to take Aslan. Still the Lion was powerful and didn't seem to be in League with either the Supremacist Men he had just left or some of the wilder animals. He had of course heard of Alsan earlier as well. So he agreed and laughed as Alsan stood up, roared and galloped along the riverbank, his maine flying in the wind. James did decide on one thing, 'Aslan, I think I have heard of you, but one thing, you could call me James. Preferable to Son of Adam!'

'Fine, James. Many of your Scottish Kings were called that I believe! I can't stay around here too long. I'm not sure who I can trust and I should be off to Cair Paravel at least soon. But we can enjoy the country!' Which now he was out of danger for a while James found he could appreciate.

But they hadn't gone far when James heard a terrible Wolf howl. But not a dangerous one. More of a sorrowful one of a Wolf in dreadful pain. He looked around on Aslan's back and saw the creature. One poor Wolf was lying on the grass howling mournfully with a gaping wound on his back.

Aslan walked past. 'Can't we do something for that poor creature?' asked James as pity had taken his heart.

'We might.' Aslan growled. 'But I should point out that this creature as I saw was one of the more aggressive wolf-pack. I don't think he would show you similar mercy if you was in his position. 'He might be dangerous,' Aslan did not look in a hurry to help, but the Wolf howled again.

'Go on Aslan, please we must be able to do something!'

'Oh, very well, young lad!' Aslan walked over to the Wolf. He licked the Wolf's wound with his tongue. This had a magical cure, but more was needed. 'James, take one of your tubs and full it with water from the River. And one of the weeds!' With Aslan's guidance the Wolf's wound was healed and it stood up on its legs.

And bowed to both Aslan and James. Astonishingly. Though the Wolf was hurt and would need looking after at least for a day. But he said, 'Greetings, oh noble Aslan. And I thank you, James for saving my life. Maybe you Humans aren't all bad. So, the time of your arrival has finally happened. I didn't believe the rumours myself, for this to happen in my lifetime!'

Aslan returned the greeting regally whilst pointing out the Wolf's errors that the beast had committed in his life. The Wolf, called Smelli, agreed at that time. James was quite happy to stay and chat to the Wolf. But in the distance smoke was rising in the sky amongst the clouds in an unerving manner.

Aslan sniffed. 'I must be away!' he declared. 'War is brewing. I am going to need all of my powers to stop this one I believe.' He looked down at Smelli. 'Your'e still in danger, aren't you? James, as this was your idea, you could stay for a while and look after, er, Smelli? I will be back soon, I hope! James was eager to agree.

But Aslan was kept busy, obviously, and it took Smelli more than a day to recover to a stage when the hound could walk. And James felt he couldn't leave the creature until he was better. Though it was only now that James decided to actually look at that parchment he had picked up a little while back and had been in his pocket for a while.

He had had a quick look at it whilst he was changing at Cair Paravel and mentioned it to his brother but had thought no more about it. Now he looked and could see that was obviously a map of some kind given directions. Not only that it was to 'The Woalds of Wardwood.' A thought occurred to the boy. Was it possible that he had actually had in his possession this map that was causing so much concern to everyone?

'That map looks familiar!' said Smelli standing up and having a look. 'That, I can't believe it, that's that map we lost. The one we were supposed to be delivering to Cair Paravel. Well, anywhere with quick copying facilities would do, but there aren't that many of those on Narnia. You must have just picked it up after we dropped it.'

'So, why don't we take it back to Aslan or someone in charge, your friends?'

'Not sure that would be much good. How many of those in power around here can we trust? And besides we really need to go to this place to find out for sure were it is. The map by itself isn't clear, I understand! We Wolf's didn't do a wonderful job as map-keepers did we? I can't trust all of the Dwarfs at the moment either, some are only too eager for war with the humans. I might suggest that we try to find it together,'

'But it could be anywhere! All right, why don't you show me where it is?' suggested James and showed the parchment to Smelli. The Wolf sniffed at it and dropped his tail in rather an embarrassed manner.

'What is it?'

'Well, we wolfs have wonderful abilities as you know. Do you know, that one of us alone can survive those mountains for weeks whereas a human would starve. We can gallop up to 30 miles per hour at a stretch, well some of us can, and whilst we have mastered the art of talking as you know, reading is a bit tricky for us in that I'm afraid we can't!'

'You can't read?'

'Correct! Picture look nice, though!'

'What bloody idiot trusted the map to a bunch of Wolfs?'

'I think that was Sakura actually!'

'But you have some idea of what the map is showing?'

'Also correct!'

'So I can read this but barely understand it, you can understand it but can't read it?'

'You do have a good summing up abilities!'

'We can only really trust ourselves,'

'One or two others maybe but basically yes!'

'I can't find my brother or Taure. So I suppose I'll have to search for it myself. I might find the place.'

Smelli sounded aghast. 'What? You've no chance. A young boy like you out in those mountains all alone. There are all sort of dangers you might very well blunder into. And knowing you humans, probably will! But you are right to be careful about who you can trust. So, I'll come with you. Though I can't read, I might well be able to recognize any landmarks you describe. The White Mountains sound familiar, for example! You saved my life back there. I now have a life-debt to you.'

The night was beginning to draw in. An owl tooted. 'Ok, fine. Lets wait till morning then I suppose we'll start looking. Agreed? So you want peace in Narnia too?' which wasn't quite what Smelli had said but the wolf nodded. I'll need your help, all those mountains and forests look pretty but so strange to me that the thought of having to look for a particular wood makes me ill. But, come on then!' James took one look at the towering and now foreboding looking mountains in the south where he would have to start looking for the Woalds of Wardwood with his new friend, Smelli.