Chapter 61- the damage has been done, problems for Troodon
As soon as everything had pretty much calmed down and Belladonna's blackened body had been seized for cremation for Gandalf did not want to give the evil Nogitsune a proper burial, the casualties had been taken to the medical compartment and because they did not have time to recover and return to full health as Gandalf knew, fire-flower cordial had been administered to most of the patients rather than the other potions, such as the Fracture-Fix Potion, to speed up recovery at Gandalf's command though the casualties with more minor injuries such as cuts had refused the cordial in order to preserve it, instead insisting to the medical carers to give the cordial to the casualties with more major injuries, such as broken bones or severe stab wounds. Thus, the cordial had been directed to the casualties with those major injuries. Kushanku was glad to have the potion given to him for his broken leg rather than the revolting tasting Fracture-Fix Potion after hearing what Cyril had to go through when his wing was broken by Belladonna who had taken on the Nekomata's form to land him in trouble with the soup incident in the kitchen. Due to the number of casualties with the major injuries quite a bit of the super-precious red cordial had been used but thankfully, the medical plant farmers had managed to synthesize more of the magical potion from most of the rest of the fire flowers in the crop compartment while the remaining flowers had been transplanted into pots with the other plants to be taken on the evacuation. But despite the amount of fire-flower cordial being used, the casualties with the major injuries and poisoning, including Nyarth (who had been very close to the brink of death as a result of eating the extremely toxic and mangy apple as forced by Belladonna), Trotterhoof, Obsidian and Milky Way, were restored to health quickly, though some had not been as fortunate due to the immense severity of their injuries. Troodon and the Rabbit kit, however, were not given any of the cordial since they did not have any emergency or life-threatening injuries or conditions though they still had the chocolate cake addiction, something the fire-flower cordial was not able to heal for the addiction was more psychological than physical, meaning the two will require intensive therapy to overcome the last remnant left on them by the toxic Nogitsune but that may have to wait. Now that the base's secret was out and the Witch and her cronies were likely on their way, it was time to implement the emergency plans…
A little while later
While the medical compartment was busy with frantic relatives of the casualties, Gandalf looked on sombrely. He knew that the evacuees were now in grave danger thanks to Belladonna and her insidious guise and wicked efforts. He had managed to deliver his emergency plans to the evacuees and the helpers and had made his decision: to send them on the Great Exodus to the southern country of Archenland as soon as possible while he and the rest of the inhabitants will flee elsewhere with the ultra-precious and invaluable possessions such as their books, the flora and fauna exclusive to Narnia and the aquatic creatures rescued from the Witch during the construction of the base. It was indeed devastating for Gandalf and company. They had worked EVER so hard for decades to build this highly complex base which was supposed to be a secret hiding place from the Witch and her cronies as well as a refuge for the evacuees from which they will leave for their Exodus to Archenland in a few years (with the exception of some species such as the Okuri-Inu, who were supposed to depart earlier due to their reproduction and fertility problems caused by their lack of exposure to the natural day-night cycle above ground). But that had been dashed and cut short because of the insidious and evil Belladonna, and it was so devastating that Gandalf and Kyukon had begun to weep severely. They rarely wept like this, except when some of their offspring, among them Belladonna had left them to join the Witch alongside a number of other Narnians of various species which had grieved the parents of the Kitsune species greatly. But the loss of the base's secrecy was just as devastating and as grieving as that event, and the event of the Witch taking over Narnia and locking it in the Eternal Winter, along with a HIGHLY corrupt dictatorial system involving that curse and the unfair laws and the Massacre Event, and Gandalf knew he had to get everyone to safety soon because once the Witch and her company enter the base, nothing will stop them from destroying it and capturing everyone inside. Because of this, a massive mist of panic and despair was enveloping the evacuees like a thick blizzard. Kids were wailing and individuals who had been traumatised were petrified. They did not want to see the Witch and her army of horrifying monsters again, and they certainly did not want to get involved in the slaughter like that in the Arena of Death during the three Massacre Events that had happened since the Witch's capture of Narnia in her fist of iron-solid ice marking the beginning of the Age of Winter. Things certainly were in utter turmoil at the moment. Belladonna had indeed endangered them all, and to add more salt to the wound, especially for Ena and Faline and their families and the relatives of the kids involved, Troodon and the other kids including Fluffy-Cotton, Webby the Platypus and Cloudhorn the Alicorn, who had been involved in Belladonna's release from the dungeon compartment had also played a part in this life-threatening endangerment of everyone else's lives, so they were mostly shunned by most of the other evacuees and shown no sympathy, and it was likely that forgiveness was a long way away for these kids. Even their own families fiercely shunned them because of what they had done with Ena even disowning Troodon and barring him from ever stepping near her or his siblings and cousins again, much to Troodon's heartbreak.
While Gandalf looked on tearfully, his emotions threatened to explode like an over-flooded reservoir through a dam, Kyukon had just finished speaking with a few of the medical carers, among them Belle, a Mermaid in her legged land form, about the health of Trotterhoof, Shadewing, Obsidian, Milky Way, Mensa, Rubyfeather and Quill. However, the faces of the Mermaids and Mermen, the Fauns, Fairies, Elves and medical Tengu were sombre, as Tesseract, Bombacio and Chicory could see from a short distance. However, the conversation was too low for the trio to hear but Chicory managed to read the lips of Kyukon and Belle as they spoke for she was very good at lip-reading and was able to read the movements of various creatures including Canids such as the Kitsune, and Humanoids and part-Humanoids like the Merfolk. When she deciphered what Belle was saying regarding the health of the seven victims, she turned to the Unicorn and the Sheep.
"Well, Mr Trotterhoof, Mr Shadewing, Miss Obsidian, Miss Milky Way and Mr Quill have been saved from death in the nick of time," the Sauropod said before her face fell, "But Mrs Rubyfeather and Mrs Mensa had not been as fortunate. Apparently, they had…"
At this, horrified and saddened looks came upon the faces of Tesseract and Bombacio.
"Are you meaning to say they have…" baaed the latter worriedly. Chicory was about to reply when suddenly, movement pulled the Sauropod youngster's attention back to the talkers. It was Cedrus, the patriarch of the Curupira tribe and one of Gandalf's higher ranking helpers, an Alicanto, a Troll and a few Fairies and they had a sack on them. Then as Chicory, Tesseract and Bombacio examined closer, they realised that the Fairies and the Alicanto were holding some strange looking spheres while the lead Curupira had the sack's mouth open, exposing more of the spheres inside.
"Kyukon," said the lead Curupira, "We found this bag of beacon balls in the air vent where Nyarth, Troodon and Faline's missing son had been found. What do you suggest we do with them?"
"Excuse me just a minute," Kyukon politely told Belle and her group and turned to Cedrus and his group, her onyx eyes on the beacon balls. At this, she ordered Cedrus and the group to hand them to her.
"I'll destroy these," said she as soon as Cedrus and the group had handed over the sack of the balls. Then Kyukon left to deal with the beacon balls. Chicory, Tesseract and Bombacio walked in.
"What are those spheres?" asked Tesseract.
"They're beacon balls," said Cedrus in a low and serious voice, "They're special magical locator objects that emit a signal that is detected on locator screens. Jadis and her cronies, especially the patrollers and the Secret Police, use them to keep track of each other's locations during their missions up and down Narnia. Unfortunately, according to Troodon and the Rabbit kit, a few of those balls have already been planted by them and Belladonna and will have alerted Jadis of the base's location since the signals emitted by the balls are able to travel even through solid matter such as earth. Even though a few of them had been planted, it's still enough to land us in serious danger of being found by the Witch and her army of Dark Sprites, Horrors, Goblins and the rest of them, seized and the base destroyed. That is why Gandalf wants to implement his pans ASAP."
Chicory, Tesseract and Bombacio shuddered violently. They did not want to come face to face with those HORRIBLE creatures, and Tesseract hated to admit it but some of them, most especially the Goblin species such as the Boggle and the Pig-faced Goblins, the variety of Hags including the Tenome and the Common Hag, the demonic plant-like creatures with three toothed 'petals' around their mouths called 'Triffid-Mouths' who were armed with a long whip-like stinger that snaked out of their mouth and was used in lashing at their victims' face and injecting poison, the Slender-Men and the Xenojaws, often gave the young Unicorn nightmares for days. And Tesseract remembered that Jadis had a variety of other lone-working monsters working on her side as well. Those monsters often terrorised any Narnian that had ventured alone into the wilderness where they were most vulnerable, and he had been one of them.
When he had been a younger foal, barely a few months old based on his golden coat (Unicorns, when recently born, had golden fur instead of silvery white seen in older foals, adolescents and adults, and that golden fur is slowly replaced by the silvery white as the Unicorn grew) and had just learned to walk and gallop, he had been stalked by a Slender-Man when he got separated from his mother and the Unicorn herd in a blizzard at night while they were migrating and searching for somewhere else to live after their home was destroyed by a band of Boggles and Pig-faced Goblins for a rich deposit of precious stones and metals, all 'fossils' of deceased underground gem and metal plants native to the underground nations of Bism and surrounding under-earth countries that dwelt deep within the bowels of Narnia's earth. And Tesseract's herd's home had been above this deposit, hence the herd's forcing into wandering nomads by the Boggles and the Pig-faced Goblins. The Slender-Man had severely terrified Tesseract and had traumatised him, following wherever he went and appearing one place to the next, appearing to phase and teleport between those locations wherever the foal looked, and the Unicorn still remembered the bone-white faceless Humanoid beast with long, lanky limbs and a black suit, but what chilled the Horned Horse to the bone most was the faceless stare of the creature, and it had tormented him for a good few days. Then shortly after escaping the Slender-Man and then a patrol of Boggles, Werewolves, Common Hags and Triffid-Mouths, whom Tesseract, despite his desperation, daren't seek help from due to the terrifying, hideous appearance of the monsters, Tesseract had had a disturbing encounter with Krampus, the Father Christmas counterfeit creature resembling a bipedal Goat creature with lanky clawed fingers, massive horns and Goat's hooves. Tesseract had often described Krampus as being like an oversized Faun or Satyr, both who had Goat-like features with the latter being more goat-like than the former, who was able to summon a dark blizzard wherever he went, most of the time for Krampus sometimes dropped the blizzard to make himself appear more like Father Christmas to unwary victims like how he had appeared to Kushanku and four of Faline's Rabbit kits during their journey to Gandalf's base. Tesseract had almost been captured and possibly eaten or killed by the giant Goat-like creatures but he had managed to fight back, with one of the larger toy minions being run through with his horn, which only had been a short cone but damaging enough to inflict injury on the toy minion, and escape. After that, Tesseract had a close and chilling encounter with another horrifying lone creature, a bipedal demonic Cat. Tesseract remembered the Cat ghost as having jet black fur, upside down U-shaped white eyes with large black pupils; white hands ending in massive talons similar to Krampus's claws, and a sneering mouth stretching from cheek to cheek, that mouth being full to the lips with massive sharp rotting yellow-white teeth and fangs, and the creature walked on its hind legs like a Nekomata and its similar, single unbranched tailed cousin, the Bakeneko. In fact, Tesseract had dubbed the creature as Krampus's Bakeneko due to its resemblance to one and its magical abilities such as distorting itself and making itself appear scarier, and it had chased Tesseract through the dark, blizzardy forest until he eventually found himself in a village where he was taken in by some Archaeobirds who had found him hiding behind their shack. From that night on, Tesseract had never seen his herd or his family again but he had been grateful to the Archaeobird family who had taken him under their wings. However, that period of time had also been one of the most traumatic times of his life and he had never ventured out into the snow alone again, and the upcoming Exodus was making the Unicorn's nerves shudder violently as he feared separation from the crowd. Shivering, Tesseract left with Chicory and Bombacio, flinching when they heard a blast of foxfire explode down the corridor. The trio snapped their attention in the direction of the sound and saw a golden yellow flash. Kyukon had utilised her foxfire and had destroyed the bag of beacon balls with it.
Back in the medical compartment, Kushanku was locked with Alexandrite, Satoshi, Akira, Sandstorm, Padparadscha, Cyril, Desdemona, Molayne, Link, Dahlia and also Nyarth who was restored to full health. He had been plucked from the brink of death by the administration of the fire-flower cordial just in time which had purged his system from the vile poison from Belladonna's disgusting apple he had been forced to eat under the threat of more torture from her foxfire. If the administration had occurred any later, Nyarth would have succumbed to the poison and thus become another of Belladonna's fatalities, and Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm would have had to deal with two lost brothers, this time with one of Kushanku's biological siblings. Shadewing, Trotterhoof, Milky Way, Quill and Obsidian had also been plucked from death in time when Belladonna had mortally wounded them. However, the two other seven casualties, Rubyfeather and Mensa, the mothers of Crystal and Snowwing respectively, had not been so fortunate. During their transport to the medical compartment, the pair had succumbed to their fatal injuries. The two's bodies were now wrapped in special cloths, ready for burial, and Crystal and Snowwing, tears running down their cheeks in massive torrents, were receiving condolences from their friends. Then Kushanku and company joined in the group hug to offer their condolences to the pair as they also wept. Their weeping made Sandstorm's gut wrench. This was horribly familiar. The Cheetah cub flinched and shuddered as images of a familiar Cheetah cub flashed in his mind, including how he died, and Alexandrite and Paddy (Padparadscha) also had memories of their mother and brother and how their brother had died from an illness and their mother meeting a similar demise, resulting in the sisters becoming orphans. Now two more young Talking Beasts had just become orphans as well, having lost both their parents now.
Before Mensa the Skvader and Rubyfeather the Parrot had joined Dashiell and his family with Snowwing still as an egg (Skvaders, along with Perytons and Wolpertingers, were oviparous or egg-laying creatures) and Crystal as a hatchling, the mates, or husbands, of the two had passed away. Snowwing's father had died suddenly at the clutches of the Snow Siren Yuki-onna during a hunting trip similar to how Obsidian's family had met their demise at the clutches of Krampus, while Crystal's father had passed away from hypothermia due to the freezing conditions and lack of proper shelter Rubyfeather had in her hollow from them. The deaths of their husbands had forced Mensa and Rubyfeather to leave their old homes and to seek shelter in the homes of other creatures, the mothers protecting their eggs and babies from the freezing winter during their journey. Crystal had been the only chick of Rubyfeather and her husband but Snowwing had been part of a clutch of two eggs. However his sibling had died in its egg, having been frozen to death by the winter air. As a result, only Snowwing had hatched in Dashiell and Honeycomb's den shortly after the Cheetahs had taken in Mensa and her clutch of two eggs, and also shortly after Kushanku, Satoshi, Akira and Sandstorm had been delivered by the Sylph to the Cheetahs who were taken in. It had been a heart-breaking loss and Mensa had focussed on raising Snowwing as her only son and single mother, while Crystal had been raised by Rubyfeather who had also refused to marry another male Parrot since they had support from the other members of the family including Dashiell and Honeycomb. As the Parrot chick and Skvader kit grew, they had grown very close to their mothers but now that their mothers had passed away thanks to the wicked Belladonna, it was though a massive part of them had been hacked off, rather like a Dryad tree losing a major bough to a hacking axe of one of Jadis's merciless cronies, and it was going to be a long road to recovery for the two orphaned youngsters, and thankfully they had support from a variety of other creatures who had also lost parents, including Obsidian.
While Kushanku and company continued to comfort Snowwing and Crystal over the loss of their mothers, a familiar Theropod stood nearby, his eyes streaming massive tears down his scaly cheeks as he looked on at the group hug. Troodon was envying the group for he had longed for such a union like that from Ena and his relatives, but the group of Theropods had shunned him with Ena telling him that he was no longer her son and had told him to NEVER step near the family again, and that had slashed open a wound in Troodon that was deeper than the wound in the minds of Kushanku, Sandstorm, Nyarth, Satoshi and Akira inflicted on them by Dashiell. However, the rejection was based on Troodon's own actions which made the guilt within the young Theropod churn even more, especially since he had participated in endangering everyone else's lives by freeing Belladonna from the dungeon, and now he was all alone, rejected by his own family. Tearfully and not wanting to watch Kushanku and company in their group hug any longer, Troodon left for the sleeping compartment.
A little while later, Troodon arrived at the compartment and made a beeline for the chamber he slept in. Around him, various Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures were packing up their valuables and vacating the chambers, knowing they will no longer be staying here after Belladonna's actions. Troodon dodged several passing creatures, some of them shooting him disgusted scowls as though he was some repulsive Goblin, and entered the chamber where he saw Ena (who had been administered fire-flower cordial to help mend her damaged spine but due to the severity of the damage caused by the fall from the ladder as caused by Belladonna and Troodon, she had been forced to use crutches for her spinal cord had been damaged. Despite the fire-flower cordial's fantastic properties in healing a wide variety of injuries including broken bones, there were certain injuries it cannot heal such as spinal cord damage; hence why Ena was using crutches, and it cannot revive casualties that had already died either) and the other Theropod youngsters: his mother, siblings and cousins, as they packed up their belongings. However, as Troodon took a few steps near the group of bipedal Lizards, the atmosphere above them was not at all welcoming, indicated by some of the scowls of a couple of his brothers when their eyes found him while they were packing their toys into a sack. Ena's eyes also found Troodon but the moment they did, they creased into a scowl as well.
"Give me one good reason why I should allow you near us," she hissed hostilely. Her other children and nephews and nieces, however, remained silent but maintained their fierce scowls towards Troodon. Troodon timidly shuffled his feet and tried to come up with an answer.
"Tongue stuck in your mouth?" said one of his sisters, her voice, threatening, at Troodon's initial silence.
"I'm one of your siblings," Troodon timidly replied.
"Not good enough," replied the sister, "In fact, you're not one of us anymore, especially after you injured Mommy here during our lesson with Mrs Truffula on tree crop safety."
"Yes, and neither are you my son," said Ena and with that, she and her other children and nephews and nieces resumed packing their things. Nearby, another adult Theropod, Ena's brother and Troodon's uncle, also shot Troodon a bitter glare and continued helping his offspring pack their toys and family pics. Troodon then flinched with hurt when he saw one of his cousins take a black crayon and scribble out one of the Theropodlings in one of her pictures of the family, obviously Troodon when he was a tiny baby. Troodon then tried to reason with them.
"I-I-I've only come to collect my things," he timidly said, fearing that one of the Theropods would lash at him and attack him.
"You can do it after we have packed but you are NOT packing with us," snapped Ena as she placed another family picture into her sack and turned to help one of her older sons to pack his animal figures. Troodon began to shudder, his eyes threatening to spill tears.
"Look, it was not my fault," he said, "It wasn't my fault that Belladonna had hid her true colours from me and the other few kids who helped her escape. In fact we thought she was our friend…"
"There's no point in trying to excuse your way out of the mess you have made, Troodon, we aren't changing our minds in letting you back into our family," said Ena, "You have injured me and have endangered EVERYONE'S lives."
"Alongside those other foolish kids including a few of Mrs Faline's kits, such as Fluffy-Cotton who had let out that two-tailed Snake in the first place," put in one of Troodon's brothers as he helped a cousin pack two baby Theropodlings, a couple of Troodon's recently hatched cousins and wrapped in baby blankets, into a basket ready for transport. The other Theropods nodded in agreement and continued to pack.
"Just get out of here and wait outside until we've finished," snarled Ena. As she said this, one of the sisters who was one of Troodon's clutch-mates (hatched in the same clutch of eggs as him), deliberately bumped into Troodon as she walked past and sent him into a stumble which he pulled himself out of in time. After regaining his balance, Troodon continued to gaze in disbelief at his family.
"But as I've said before, we had no idea how wicked Belladonna was and we thought she was our friend," protested the Tetropod desperately, "We didn't know she was such an evil Fox, and after she showed her true colours to us, it was too late…"
"Look, you can't escape what you have to atone for, Troodon," said Ena, "And I'm surprised you're not treating the mess you've made with seriousness and guilt. You may think what you and Belladonna have done is not significant, but those of us with true feelings and who know better, know FULL WELL that it is."
With that, she barged past Troodon one her crutches, one of her crutches nearly landing on Troodon's feet, and handed her sack of belongings, with her name written on it, to a Raven outside who took it to look after it while the Theropod family packed the rest of their things from the chamber.
"B-b-but what am I supposed to do if I have no family? You're the only family I have," the Theropod continued to protest desperately, "Furthermore, if I'm not allowed anywhere near you or even anyone else, including our family friends like Mr Flintplate and his family of Stegosaurs, how am I supposed to survive on my own?"
"Oh, Troodon, clever young lad like you should know how to improvise," said Ena with a mock smile, before her distasteful scowl returned, "I'm sure you'll figure something out."
"But you will NEVER, EVER eat with us, sleep alongside us, travel with us OR play with us EVER again, so you're entirely on your own from now on, that's for sure," put in Troodon's uncle and Ena's brother to which all the siblings and cousins nodded in agreement. Troodon, dejection and despair consuming him, breathed a distraught sigh, turned and left, leaving his family to continue packing with none of them even flashing him a sliver of concern for the now-outcast Theropod. He basically felt like a Horse that had been kicked out of his own herd or a Sheep out of his own flock with no chance or ounce of hope of returning. Tears streaming down his cheeks, Troodon rushed out of the sleeping quarters.