Chapter 9 The Fox Friend

I heard the howls, first followed by a crashing sound as the wolves pushed the barrel away from the tunnel exit. The Fox was below still below us and it looked to me like he was using his tail to wipe away our tracks in the snow. A moment later, he was surrounded by the wolves and they began circling him.

"Greetings, gents!" he said. "Lost something, have we?"
"Don't patronize me!" said the head wolf, Maugrim, harshly. "I know where your allegiance lies. We're looking for some humans."
The Fox chuckled. "Humans? Here in Narnia? That's a valuable bit of information don't you think?"

Suddenly, one of the wolves pounced at The Fox and grabbed him. He let out a small yelp but nothing else; however the action made Lucy nearly gasp before Peter quickly placed his hand over her mouth to stop her. A glance told me that the Beavers had done the same thing to each other.

"Your reward is your life," Maugrim taunted, laughing. "It's not much, but still. Where are the fugitives?!"

There was a pause. I held my breath, knowing that he would make the right choice. But the Pevensies and the Beavers, however, looked as if they believed The Fox would actually give them up. There was no way he would because he followed Aslan and knew better than to send anyone into the hands of the Witch. Of course there was also the small matter of the prophecies that probably aided his decision.

The Fox sighed and hung his head, seemingly in defeat. "North. They ran north," he told.
"Smell them out!" Maugrim commanded to the rest of the wolves.

Then the wolf holding The Fox threw him down on the ground as he growled. The Fox yelped once as he hit the ground. All the wolves took off running, heading north and he tried to stand but was unable to. We watched from the tree as The Fox laid limp on the ground. Everyone seemed to want to help him, but was unsure if it was safe to go. I was the first move.

I scrambled down a couple branches and then jumped the rest of the way down. No one protested like I expected them to, so I ran for The Fox. By the time I reached him, Lucy and her siblings were right beside me. The Fox was still alive and not injured too bad. Just enough that he couldn't get up at the moment; some of that was probably due to the pain from being bitten. Mrs. Beaver was quick to react.

"I'll help our Fox friend here. Ana, go get some firewood please. Peter help me move him," she assigned.
"What about us?" Lucy asked, her voice begging to help.
"Well, you can stay here, for now."
"Oh, okay," she replied rather sadly.

It looked as if she wanted to help in some way, but she realized she couldn't. Susan and Lucy stayed behind and made themselves comfortable on the snow, as much as one could anyway on the cold ground. Mr. Beaver seemed to wander through the stone creatures, almost like he was looking for something. Peter carefully picked up The Fox and moved him prior to Mrs. Beaver instructions. I left to gathered some loose branches and sticks on the ground- if there was any- for a small fire. We would need a lot of it and I figured I would have to start breaking the branches off of trees to get enough.

I came back with an armload of sticks for firewood, some of which I had managed to find in the snow. The Pevensies were sitting in a circle on the ground and our Fox friend was beside Peter. They all looked at me when I came back. Mrs. Beaver was getting something out of the bag she had made. I set the firewood down in the middle of the Pevensies, closer to The Fox. Then I looked around for Mr. Beaver because I hadn't seen him earlier. He appeared to come out of nowhere. But in reality, he suddenly just came into view and I assumed that he was with his badger friend.

"Thank you Ana. Now we just need to get this fire lit," Mr. Beaver said.
"I'll try," Peter said.
"Go ahead," he encouraged.

As Mrs. Beaver finally found what she was looking for, I walked closer to her and The Fox. I wanted to help her, if she would let me that is. However, before I could ask if she would like any help, I heard Peter sigh and turned to look at him.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I can't get it started," he replied. "It's too wet."
I thought a moment before saying "Let me try. I might be able to get it."

He nodded and moved back to his spot by his sisters. He managed to past me the flint, Mrs. Beaver had either manage to grab it our they had found some in one of the creatures houses, and I tried striking it, like normal. But Peter was right with his assessment that the wood was too wet as it wouldn't spark at all. I knew that a fire needed to be started soon or we would freeze tonight. The temperature gets colder as the night goes on and it was definitely cold now. I could see Lucy shivering slightly, even though she tried to hide it.

Knowing that it would be nearly impossible to light the wet wood, I frowned and tried striking the flint again. Like before, it didn't work and I almost sighed in defeat before I remembered that I had a tiny bit of fire ability, since I was a phoenix as well. It wasn't enough to actually do any harm to anyone and I doubted it would work on the fire, but it was worth a try. No one ever figured that I would have fire ability, even if it was just a little, as a human but I guess the phoenix part was a bit stronger than we thought.

Thankfully, it wasn't a lot as I wouldn't want to have fire ability at all even, if it was just a tiny bit. IF I was to be honest, I kind of didn't want the phoenix to be a part of me anymore. I was wishing I was born normal, didn't have some big secret. There were many times when I wondered what it would've been like to be a normal human as maybe things would've been different. I wouldn't have experienced so much loss and maybe, just maybe, I could've found out where I came from. But with this phoenix, it made things hard and my past was much different. Sometimes I couldn't help but wonder if my parents had abandoned me because of it, if they had abandoned me at all.

When I snapped my fingers, I could create a spark of fire. Nothing else besides a spark, but as I grew and the phoenix powers grew stronger, I knew others suspected I was capable of more. But I wasn't willing to test it now or ever. All we needed was enough of a spark to get a fire going, so I snapped my fingers. No one seemed to hear me snap but the spark ended up setting the damp firewood into flames. I suspected that it had something to do with being set using magic. Everyone had relieved looks on their faces as the flames began warming them up.

Both Beavers were sitting down with Mrs. Beaver and The Fox beside Peter, on the far side of the fire, and Susan on his right. Lucy sat just beyond Susan, which put her next me. Mrs. Beaver was taking care of the injured Fox and I was going to move over and help her, but I decided against it. She had things under control and it didn't look like she needed anyone's help, though he did squirm from time to time.

Mr. Beaver had the bag in his paw and began to dig through it. He finally found what he was looking for and pulled it out. It was a loaf of bread which he handed to me. I wasn't sure what he wanted me to do with it at first, but then realized I was supposed to divide it up between the seven of us and I did. I even managed to save some of it. Though not much.

Minutes later, Mrs. Beaver seemed to be about done helping The Fox.
"Are you all right?" Lucy asked.
"I wish I could say their bark is worse than their bite," he tired chuckling but it didn't work. "Ow!" he said with a yelp.
"Stop squirming!" she scolded him. "You're worst than Beaver on bath day!"
Mr. Beaver looked at us and then said "Worst day of the year."
This made the Pevenises smile a little and I tried to hold in a chuckle.
Then The Fox stood up. "Thank you for your kindness, but I'm afraid that's all the cure I have time for.".
"You're leaving?" Lucy asked, surprised.
"It's been a pleasure my Queen and an honor," he bowed, "but time is short and Aslan himself has asked me to gather more troops."
"You've seen Aslan?! What's he like?" Mrs. Beaver asked him, giddy almost.
"Like everything we've ever heard." Then he looked to us, mostly the Pevensies with an occasional glance to me. "You'll be glad to have him by your side fighting against the Witch."
"But we're not planning on fighting any Witch!" Susan said.
"But surely King Peter! The prophecy!"
"We can't go to war without ya," Mr. Beaver encouraged.
Peter thought for a moment then said, "We just want our brother back." He tossed something into the fire and I realized it was a crumb.

After the discussion, The Fox went on his way. He headed north. The same direction he had told the wolves to go. Mrs. Beaver told us that we should get some sleep since we had a long journey tomorrow. Of course we didn't want to argue with her, so we tried. They had managed to find the entrance to one of the homes hidden in a tree, and encouraged the Pevensies inside. It would be a tight fit for all of us to sleep comfortably- with five of us being humans and the homes were made for creatures- and both myself and the beavers debated about going inside. After some persuasion from the Pevensies, though, we eventually relented. Many of them were asleep shortly after, and I soon followed them with a smile on my face, knowing that for the time being we were all safe for another night.

The last part might seem a bit confusing, but I rewatched the movie and noticed something I hadn't before. While they're around the fire talking, in the background there's a tree and you can see light coming from inside it. I assumed that it was home for one of the creatures that had been turned to stone and that they would've used that place to sleep. So that's what I'm doing here, using it as the place they slept.

Sorry about the delay! A lot of stuff has been happening and I just got inspiration to write a new story. I'll try to update this more often.