Pt 9B
Jill, the dwarf, and Strawberry walked closer to the hills, upon leaving the cave. The heat made Jill tired and sweaty. She rested on the ground and said, "this would be much easier with a car or a plane."
"A what?" the dwarf asked her.
"Don't worry. They don't exist here." Jill panted.
"Perhaps travel would have been easier with better shoes," he pointed at her flat shoes. Jill was still wearing modern day clothes, including jeans and a band T shirt.
"Well are there any comfortable Narnian clothes around here?" she stood up.
"They have to be made," he answered.
"By who?"
He looked down, "Centaurs."
Jill took a silent breath and said, "Let's move on."
The three of them walked for about five more miles, when Strawberry led them astray.
"Where are you going?" Jill followed him.
The dwarf sighed, annoyed.
Strawberry led them about 100 feet away, where they found a dead goat on the ground.
Jill gasped. "What happened?"
"You could smell that?" the dwarf looked up at Strawberry.
The goat had a big wound on its side, as if it had been stabbed then left alone.
"If someone was going to use it for game, why leave it?" Jill questioned.
The dwarf looked around cautiously. "Because they just killed it," he pointed and pulled Jill down just before two arrow were shot their way.
"What is it?" she asked the dwarf.
"Centaurs."
Jill stared at him.
"We have to get out of here," the dwarf gestured her to follow, as they crouched out of there.
"Strawberry," Jill called behind her.
Back to where they were, before led astray, the two sighed with relief.
The Jill panicked, "Strawberry," she called. "Strawberry!"
"Shhh, no." the dwarf warned her. "They'll hear you."
"But we can't just leave Strawberry out there." She noted.
"I'm sure the horse is fine."
"We just left him out there."
"He's a horse. He's fast. And he can fly"
"Can he? I haven't seen him so much as float. I'm not sure he can fly." Jill worried.
A second later, they heard a loud 'neh' coming from Strawberry, from up above. He was up above the trees, flying!
"Whoa," Jill was amazed. She had never seen a huge flying creature-not even a dragon. She never crossed paths with Maleficent.
Strawberry landed a few yards in front of Jill and the dwarf. Jill ran up to him and padded the fantastic creature.
"Can we fly him then?" The dwarf asked, staying where he was.
"Strawberry?" Jill asked permission.
Strawberry lowered his wings, allowing her to ride. Jill smiled and got on the tall creature and got on his back, after he lowered himself.
Jill turned to the dwarf. "Come on."
He shook his head. "You must defeat this evil on your own."
"What? Ginarrbrick," she addressed him.
"Only a human and defeat this evil. And I don't want to watch you battle such a being." He said.
"Why a human?" Jill questioned.
The dwarf Ginarrbrick sighed. "Only a human can enter through the gate. Only a human can get close enough and defeat it."
"You think it'll defeat me," Jill realized. She stared ahead, looking at the back of Strawberry's head. "You don't think I can do it?"
"I don't doubt you, but this evil has great unnatural power. It has no morals and-" he was concerned.
"You're worried," Jill discovered, forming a side smile. "Thanks for your concern. I'll return when I've slayed this evil." She clicked her heels, and Strawberry ran off with her and flew above ground.
After a minute of flying on Strawberry, Jill relaxed, and released her tight grip in his mane. She looked down to see them soaring above the forest. Jill sat strait up and opened her mouth to laugh. "This is better than a hippogriff. Haha. Wahoooooo!"
Strawberry landed just outside the tall gates where the evil resided. She got off him and looked past the gate. They were up on a tall hill. Beyond the gate was the top of the steep and rocky hill. At a part of the gate, there was a small slot leading to the other side.
"What am I supposed to do here?" Jill wondered. She looked at Strawberry and back to the slot. She placed her finger there, and then whinced, "Ow!" She retrieved her finger that had been pricked and was bleeding.
After a few moments, the dark gate opened on its own.
Jill stayed where she was, being unafraid. This was about more than her. It was about saving a land, being a hero to them, seeing Ginarrbrick again and Strawberry, and most importantly, being a ruler.
She gave Strawberry a last glance as she entered through the gates, which closed once she passed them. Jill walked into the eerie place keeping a look out for this evil. The rocky footing on a steep hill was difficult to climb. She fell about five feet to the bottom, where the gate caught her. That's when she saw a body-a skeleton. Jill's eyes widened at the sight of it. Then she noticed the skeleton had a dagger. She reached over and retrieved it, then got back up.
She tried again up the steep, rocky hill that was about a half a mile high. The steepness was at a 75 degree angle and wasn't a smooth climb either. Jill fell again, and again, and 6 more times. But then she got back up and tired again. "For my friends," she said as she got up. "For justice." She got up after another fall and said, "For Narnia." She made it half way up the hill that time, before falling. Jill huffed and shouted, "For the crown!" With that motivation, she made it to the top of the hill.
At the top, was about 5 five feet in diameter for space. The surface was flat, luckily. Jill looked around, gazing at the land while the evil floated up to her at the top of the hill. Jill felt its presence immediately.
She turned at saw this tall dark being in front of her. It stood about 8 feet tall, had this dark shadow look to it that was always moving, as if it was on fire. It reminded her of a tall bat with a hooded face. The evil stood on one end of the summit, while Jill remained on the other end.
"What are you?" Jill asked the evil.
The evil made a terrible screeching noise. Jill covered her ears, but that didn't make the pain any less worse. She screamed in agony while her ears bled.
She removed one had from her ear and grabbed her dagger. She moved over to the creature (on her knees) and swiped the evil. The dagger went right through the evil. It was untouched.
Jill got up and attempted to stab it's unseen face, but the evil's hands wacked her with such a force, she fell back to the ground.
She got up quickly and avoided its next attack. It leaned over to her, but she moved away and hopped on its back. The evil had an odd rubbery feel to it. Jill made a face before lifting up the dagger. The evil tried to jerk her off it. Jill held onto its back as she drove the dagger into the evil's unseen face.
The evil's face glowed from where the dagger hit it. Jill got off and watched the evil light up in little cracks around its body and burst.
The force of the burst blew Jill back, off the cliff. Everything went in slow motion for her as she fell back, down the tall cliff. About 50 feet down, Jill hit a large patch of dirt that stuck out from on the cliff. Jill landed hard, and was knocked out.
Jill was still unconscious after that fall. The gates had dissolved. The Narnians saw the evil be defeated on the cliff and looked for their hero. Ginarrbrick smiled at her success. Strawberry "neh-ed" in joy.
Jill was lying on the ground, with a bloodied up leg and arm. Her ears had dried up blood on the side, going down her neck. The dagger was on the mini cliff beside her.
The burst from the evil left several little pieces of light floating around. One piece landed on Jill, on her stomach. Another landed on her leg. One piece landed on her wound, on her arm, form the fall. Then other on her face.
Jill awoke, as the injuries began to heal. The pain was going away. She looked up as a piece of the light landed on her ear. About 20 pieces of light landed on her, and about 3 pieces landed on the dagger.
Strawberry flew up to the top of the cliff and looked down, to find Jill. He flew down to retrieve her and got her away from the hills.
Strawberry took her to an open field-a meadow where several Narnians gathered to meet their hero. He landed on the ground, and let Jill slide off his wing. Every Narnian there bowed to her. Jill smiled and cried in happiness. I made it.
She thanked all the Narnians there. "Thank you. I'm so grateful for your support. I am glad I could save this land for all of you." All 30 of them. The wolves, the rabbits, the birds, the fauns, nyads, dryads, etc. She realized her friend was missing and asked them, "Where is Gin?"
"Some centaurs took him that way," a faun told her, "you majesty." He pointed behind them. He was a teeneger form the looks of it.
"Would you like to show me where exactly?" Jill asked.
The faun looked at her. "It would be an honor to assist the queen."
Jill smiled.
He led her about a mile into the woods, where a group of centaurs gathered and held about a dozen dwarves captive.
"Let them go," she demanded.
The centaurs laughed at her.
"I said," she took out her dagger, "Let. Them. Go!"
"You have no idea who you're up against," a centaur teased.
"Don't worry about these creatures. They'll get a quick death," a female centaur laughed.
"That's not reassurance," Jill called. "And I don't think you all know who I am."
"And who are you?" one asked.
"I am the one who defeated the evil."
The centaurs talked amongst themselves. 'How could she survive?' 'The evil is truly gone?' 'If the evil were gone, then Aslan would be here?' 'Not if all was well.' 'Aslan would want to meet this land's savoir.' 'So maybe she's not the savoir?' 'Then what is she?' 'She sides with the dwarves. She's no ally of ours.' 'She defeated the evil. How can that be bad?' 'She survived that fall. How?' 'Are you saying?' 'He's right.'
One centaur walked up to her. "These dwarves have crossed us. We've had an ongoing dispute for years. Now we can end it."
"By genocide?" Jill was appalled.
"You don't see how this could help the land. One less feud to settle." He said.
"No. I told you all to let them go." Jill ordered.
"We can't do that. We won't, so please let us be." The centaur asked.
Jill took out her dagger and ran up to the other centaurs. "Let them goo!"
The centaurs fought her, or rather, blocked her attacks.
The faun went over to the dwarves and freed them from being tied up. Then they all fought against the centaurs.
When one centaur got sliced by Jill, he got angry and grabbed her. Jill used the dagger to stab him, and her let go. She backed away, and watched as he turned to stone!
Jill looked at her dagger. She went over to another centaur about to kill the faun and stabbed the centaur. That one also turned to stone. The faun looked surprised and then he smiled. Then she ran over to the next one, being attacked by two dwarves, and stabbed it. After a few minutes, half the centaurs were turned to stone, and the others fled. Ten centaur statues remained in their view. The dwarves smiled at them.
"She saves us all," Ginarrbrick beamed.
Jill hugged him. "I'm glad you're alright."
"How did you turn them to stone?" a dwarf asked her.
"With this dagger, somehow…" Jill answered.
"Does this mean you're on our side?" a dwarf asked.
Jill looked at all of them. "Absolutely."
The remaining centaurs gathered at a new location, in a cave where a about 30 more centaurs resided, including centaur children.
"She turned them to stone?" a female centaur worried.
"It's unnatural," one said.
"She defeated the evil, and got this power?"
"This girl is now some hero in their eyes?"
"She did save them," a boy centaur stepped forward.
"Go back to sleep," he mother asked him.
"How could she side with the dwarves?"
"May she'll change them."
"More like they'll change her."
"Any chance we could change her mind?"
"We tried that and she killed 10 of your husbands and brothers and fathers. This girl possessed a great evil in that dagger, and I worry for our safety." A male centaur led them. "She killed my father, our ruler. Our leader. We will not fall to his killer's wrath. We will not succumb to her trials. We have to find a true leader, a true hero. That girl is not it!"
The centaurs nodded.
"I thought that whoever killed the evil would be our true hero. What went wrong?" A female centaur questioned.
"I'm not sure." The leader answered her.
"Thanks for all your help," Jill said to her staff, from inside a small hut they built her.
"No problem." They all bowed.
"Tumnus," Jill called to the faun that was with her for the centaur attack. "I hope my power didn't scare you."
He turned to face her. "Not at all. It was amazing."
She sat up. "Why thank you."
"You saved my life. For that I will be forever in your debt." He promised.
"I'm sure that will come in handy in the future."
Jill's follows gathered in front of her, as she used the dagger to stab into the ground of an isolated area. Instantly, the area around the dagger frozen and spread quickly. A frozen wall formed around the Narnians, and formed a roof. It continued to grow and create a grand ice castle. Jill held on to the dagger, which began to change into a long and skinny sort of wand. The power from this dagger/wand changed her clothes to be a very light blue color and form icicles on top of her head. She let pulled to wand out, and the Narnians cheered.
"Thank you, your majesty," a wolf bowed.
"It's much more comfortable in the cold," another wolf said.
Jill beamed, as she sat her newly created throne.
"The centaurs will have to hide in caves to keep warm," a dwarf called.
Jill looked around at all these happy Narnians. All these loyal creatures. She sat on her throne, and looked up. This is everything.
The entire land, reaching from the lamppost to the chair paravel (where the centaurs and other creatures hid) was frozen over.