Chapter 65- raiding the base but stalled by decoys and a trackless departure
Later
The White Witch waited in her magnificent crystalline sleigh with her snow-white reindeer who were reined to the vehicle waiting nearby, her equally deceptively beautiful onyx-eyed glare that was filled with a caustic concoction of a variety of EXTREMELY toxic chemicals that were completely the opposite to her appearance, such as a thirst for blood, fixated on one of the hidden entrances of Gandalf's base. With the deceptively angelic Being of Pure Evil were some of her highly ugly cronies, among them Pazuzu the leader of the Shadows, Púca the leader of the Banshees, a few Wolves, the new lead of the Black Dwarves named Tenebris who had been promoted as leader of the group of short and chubby Humanoids shortly after the previous leader, Gollum's death at the jaws of the Rainbow Serpent when Dionaea and her group set it free; and a number of other creatures including a few Nogitsune who were hoping to find Belladonna. However, they were currently unaware of her demise. With Jadis and company were a large number of smaller sleds most of the cronies had used for their mode of transport, and reined to them were the ugly yule goats.
The White Witch and her army had arrived outside the base's secret entrances in huge numbers and now a MASSIVE majority of them had entered into the base like floodwater and had begun to wreak indescribable destruction on the highly complex underground structure that had taken Gandalf and company years and years to build and finish, a goal they had managed to achieve in time before Jadis took over Narnia. Palpatine the Drop Bear head and Romulus the leader of the Secret Police Wolf Pack were amongst the plunderers who had plunged into the underground structure and had begun to destroy everything. Inside the compartments of the base, everything was practically being destroyed as the evil creatures went about searching for anyone hidden within as well as any resources on the Golden Age Prophecy and Aslan, such as books. The minds of the creatures were completely warped with pure bloodlust and other unmentionable desires and they were practically behaving like feral non-talking beasts as they ransacked the base from top to bottom. It would take me too long to describe the resultant mess once the evil creatures had finished their destructive search in the base for anyone hidden within but put it like this, the compartments of the base will resemble severe bombsites. Hellhounds and other fire-utilising creatures were torching everything within their paths, Minotaurs and Satyrs were shredding everything while Wolpertingers, Drop Bears, Wendigoes, the evil Nekomata and Bakeneko, the Nogitsune and Wolves and the rest of the ugly creatures and Talking Beasts who had fallen for the Witch's side were mauling everything in their paths as they desperately searched for any inhabitants including Gandalf and Kyukon. The revolting and frightening Nukekubi and Rokurokubi were using their equally frightening traits with the former having detached their heads and were sending them flying around as disembodied heads in smaller and narrower passages such as the venting system while the latter were stretching their necks to search the higher places with the flying creatures, among them the Bat-Harpy. And the Hags, Boggarts, Bogeymen, Vampires, Sluaghs, female-only skeletal beings called Hone-onna, and the rest of the revolting creatures were wreaking destruction everywhere they went in the base with some of them using their evil magic to blow up various objects such as bookshelves in the hopes of destroying any resources on Aslan and the Golden Age Prophecy. The base was indeed being turned upside down and inside out by the Witch's large army of revolting creatures.
While the rest of the army of creatures were searching the base, some of the creatures waiting outside began to discuss about Belladonna. Some were ugly, club-armed giants, some of them skeletal giants called Gashadokuro, all of who towered even above the Witch and were as tall as a large tree, while a few more of the creatures were a type of Winged Horse but they were nothing at all like the Pegasi or their horned counterparts, the Alicorns. These Winged Horses, like almost every other creature who followed Jadis, were VERY ugly and had a revolting appearance. They were Horses but they were not like any typical horse you'd normally think of, not even a Winged Horse. These creatures were a rotting brown to jet-back or were pale, deathly, sickening green and had a skeletal appearance with skin much like the Wendigoes and also the Hone-onna. Their wings were Bat-like in contrast to the feathered Bird's wings of true Pegusi and Alicorns and they had a series of bony spikes running down the backs of their heads like a Dragon, and their tails were a lanky, almost fleshless whip-like structure. These horrible versions of Pegusi, called Carcassi (singular: Carcassus), were also armed with Vampire-like fangs like a Sabre-Toothed Cat, and their eyes were gleaming orange, similar to a Hellhound's eyes. Because of their hideous appearance and their resemblance to the feather-Winged Pegasi and Alicorns, the Carcassi have often been dubbed as 'undead Pegasi' or 'Zombie Pegasi', and they, like almost every other species under Jadis's leadership, were ultra-violent and bloodthirsty, and had been known to hunt Unicorns and even Cherubs for their blood which was their favourite food, and one of their dishes was Cherub or Unicorn blood soup, the blood taken from a captured Unicorn or Cherub and prepared into the dish. One of the Carcassi, a male, began to speak.
"I sure hope Belladonna is alright," he told his friends, "Her Majesty over there," he turned to face Jadis in her sleigh briefly, "is really looking forward to seeing her and turning her into a nine-tailed Fox as a reward for finding the super-secret base."
"She will be," said Púca with assurance, "After all, she is one of Her Majesty's top sorcery students, with Amanita being not too far behind."
A wicked smile formed on the Carcassus's fanged Horse-like muzzle as he turned and faced the entrance to the base once again. A massive stream of footprints marked the snow and lead straight into the entrance which resembled a burrow, indicating the Witch's cronies' entry into it but eventually, the cronies will be exiting the base once they had finished their mission in destroying the base from top to bottom and bringing out anyone who maybe hiding within.
A good while later, the large crowd of plunderers returned to the surface and the Witch from the burrow-like entrance, oozing out of the burrow-like entrance like a stream of heavily polluted water. However, the plunderers had returned emptyhanded and with extremely furious looks on their faces.
"Your Highness," said an evil Nekomata as he advanced towards the Witch with a few other Nekomata who had fallen for Jadis's side. Their fur was jet black; their eyes were glowing blood red (not from fury mode, the mode a Nekomata or Bakeneko entered when any of their close friends and loved ones is hurt or in danger) and the tips of their two tail bore a sinister blue-green flame. These Nekomata were skilled in the dark branches of magic such as shapeshifting, illusion casting and animating deceased carcases which they used as a form of intimidation and torture. The group of two-tailed black Cats then bowed before Jadis and rose back upright.
"I'm afraid the entire base is deserted," continued the evil Cat, "There's no-one, NO-ONE in ANY of the compartments, whatsoever. We have searched everywhere."
"Even in the air vent system and the storage rooms," said one of Nukekubi, her head now back on her body, and had detached her head with the other Nukekubi searchers to investigate the air vent system, "are completely deserted."
"We also couldn't find any books on the maned Pussy Cat and the Golden Age Prophecy," said a Nogitsune as he stood with a few Wolves, among them some of Nanu's relatives who had hoped to get their paws and teeth on the Wolf to kill him for turning against Jadis. Then Romulus came forward.
"We've practically decimated each and every room and searched for any inhabitant and source on Aslan and the Prophecy, even on the very mentioning of humans, those extra-Narnians who had somehow managed to find their way into this world, but we couldn't find any," said the lead Wolf. The Witch, at this, glared at the plunderers volcanically as a Bat-Harpy walked in, a scowl on its ugly face.
"Furthermore," it growled, "It seemed that Gandalf and Kyukon had been aware of our coming and must have evacuated the base…" it called for a group of more Bat-Harpies to come forward, which they did and brandished a number of life-sized dummy Fauns constructed from fabric, non-talking animal fur and stones and carefully fashioned to resemble the real, flesh-and-blood Goat-Men. Many of these dummies had been shredded by the feral creatures of the Witch as they ransacked the base, and a number of other dummies, fashioned and modelled after a variety of other species such as the Talking Beasts, and also the Magical Creatures, such as the Centaurs and even the Merfolk in both their aquatic tailed and legged land forms, had also been found. A furious scowl formed on the Bat-Harpy's grotesque face as it continued its explanation. "And in the process, those two sly nine-tailed Foxes must have left behind these dummies as decoys to distract us while they make their escape."
"Are you meaning to say that those two nine-tailed Canid Ferrets have set up a distraction to STALL US FOR TIME!?" snarled the Witch, making the Bat-Harpies surge back as though they expected her to wave her wand and turn them into statues. She LOATHED being outsmarted and because of that, a childish outburst was threatening to erupt and the Bat-Harpies and the other creatures nearby could see that in the Witch's behaviour as the Snow Queen continued to tremble in rage. As the Witch continued to threaten to explode, a Nogitsune, Amanita who was one of Belladonna's sisters and was as equally evil and deranged as the Fox who had caused Gandalf and the others so much trouble, besides being one of the best sorcery students of the Witch in addition, turned to her.
"Well, nine-tailed Kitsune are EXTREMELY wise, tricky and excellent tacticians," she said cautiously especially as Jadis shot her a hellish glare. Amanita and the other Nogitsune flinched and backed away, not wanting to be on the receiving end of the Witch's wrath. Then before Jadis could open her mouth and let loose a MASSIVE Banshee-like scream of wrath, Palpatine and some of his Drop Bear underlings walked in with a few more evil Nekomata, three Chubacabra, a Hellhound, a bipedal-apelike creature called a Yowie, and three Manticores, one of them being Malefor. The Yowie and a Nekomata were carrying something.
"Your Majesty," shouted the lead Drop Bear, "While we were ransacking the base, we found this deceased individual."
All eyes, including those of the Witch, turned and converged on the carcass in the Nekomata and Yowie's hands and paws. Amanita and the other Nogitsune hardened their gazes on the carcass as they felt familiarity prick at them.
"She has been fatally charred black, clearly indicative of nine-tailed Kitsune foxfire damage, similar to what happened to Palpatine and his mate's two cubs," said the Yowie and with that, he and the Nekomata gently laid the carcass onto the snow. Recognition took hold of many of the creatures who knew this evil two-tailed purple-black Fox when she was alive (and had one tail at the time). Her fur had been seared off, including off the two tails, and the rest of her body had been scorched black. Her eyes, which had been so full of the flames of insanity, bloodlust and pure wickedness like that of Jadis when she was alive, were now lifeless and glassy, and she was limp. As soon as recognition of the carcass fully took hold in many of the creatures of the Witch who had known her when she was alive, despite the fact that she had two tails now, immense despair washed over them, especially as realisation hit.
"Belladonna?" said Amanita, her eyes wide with shock. The other friends of Belladonna, especially the other Nogitsune, all shook their heads in disbelief while the others simply looked on. The Witch continued to glare at Belladonna's carcass.
"Useless!" she hissed angrily, "And I was gonna make her into a nine-tailed Kitsune to be my second-in-command as a reward for finding Gandalf's base as well, but she somehow stupidly allowed herself to get caught by those two nine-tailed Rats and get herself killed by their foxfire."
"Well, who are you gonna make into a nine-tailed Fox now that Belladonna is gone?" asked Púca as she stood with many of the other Banshees. The Witch glared at the lead Banshee for a while as she thought this over. After thinking, she turned her glare to Amanita and said, "SHE will be made into my right-hand nine-tailed Fox," and with that, she shot her icicle-like wand at her to indicate to her followers of her choice. Amanita, at this, gazed back at the Witch in surprise but then an EVIL smile formed on the Nogitsune's muzzle as she relished the idea of becoming a nine-tailed Fox right on the spot in Belladonna's place. Just then, the sounds of heavy feet in snow reached the Witch and her army's ears, and all heads were turned in the direction of the sounds' sources, which were a few of the Giants and Gashadokuro, as well as a couple of Slender-Men. The thumping noises of heavy feet plunging into the snow were from the feet of the Giants and their large skeletal counterparts.
"Your Majesty," said one of the Gashadokuro at the front, "We have been examining the outsides of the other entrances while your smaller followers were inside the base destroying it and searching for inhabitants to capture and records to destroy and we have come to the possible conclusion that Gandalf and the others have indeed left. Where, I can't say for we could not find any footprints, not even one, as each and every entrance is devoid of footprints." (After Gandalf and the others had left with the Archenland-bound crowd heading south, the Fairies who had left with Kyukon had, at Kyukon's command, used their magic to erase the footprints left behind in the snow to prevent the Witch and her army from tracking them down. This was another sly and clever move to further prevent the Witch and her cronies from easily finding the evacuees).
"Great, now HOW in NARNIA are we gonna TRACK DOWN THAT LOT THEN!?" snarled one of the other evil Yowie.
"I don't know; they could have left for ANYWHERE in ANY DIRECTION!" growled one of the evil Satyrs in frustration. The Witch, however, maintained her composure which was unusual for she often threw paddies if things did not go her own way.
"Doesn't matter," she said, "We're gonna have to search up and down the country for those little worms. But first…"
She turned to Amanita and commanded the Nogitsune, who was purple-black like Belladonna but had only one tail for she was younger than that evil Fox and not yet past the 200-year-old mark which was the mark where a Kitsune, or Nogitsune, sprouted their second tail, to stand in a clearing. The rest of the Witch's cronies backed away as the Witch prepared to cast a spell onto Amanita. As they moved to a safe distance, evil smiles had formed on their faces (apart from the Slender-Men and the Triffid-Mouths for they did not have full faces). As the Witch began to perform some type of ritual, Palpatine looked on with a toothy, fang-bearing smile.
"I sure hope Gandalf and Kyukon get pierced with extremely painful offense when she becomes a nine-tailed Fox," crooned the Drop Bear head. Then after finishing the ritual and uttering a complex incantation, the Witch spun her wand, normally used by her for casting the living being-to-statue turning spell, around and shot it forward at Amanita. A powerful blast of pure blue-white energy exploded from the tip of the Witch's wand and surged towards Amanita. Because this spell was not the petrifying spell the Witch was casting, it was something entirely different.
The Witch's followers all flinched and shielded their faces as the blast of light erupted as the spell hit Amanita and engulfed her. Then the transformation process began. Amanita was lifted into the air as the stream of magical energy continued to pour like water from a firehose in our world from the Witch's wand and enclose her like a telekinetic grasp. Then the Fox's purple-black pelt began to transform, starting from her head. An aura of white light erupted from her nose and began to move like a wave of water down her face, her head, neck and then her body to her tail. In the aura's wake, the fur was transformed from purple-black to pure white, as white as Jadis's skin. This was likely because of Amanita's acquisition of the nine-tailed form being illegitimate and unnatural, for when a Kitsune sprouted its ninth tail at age 900 Narnian years; they always turned ivory gold with metallic yellow fur strewn through their pelt and on their tail tips, and Amanita was still under 200 years old. The aura tsunami continued to flow down the Fox's body and when it reached the base of her single tail, the aura expanded into a halo and from the halo, the single tail began to split from the bottom up. Jadis's cronies looked on as Amanita's tail transformed from a single tail into a fan of NINE tails, like Gandalf and Kyukon's set. Then as soon as the transformation was complete, the Witch withdrew her wand and ended the spell, freeing Amanita from the magical grasp and gently lowering her to the snow, the light dying down. Then as soon as the light had faded, Amanita bore a completely different appearance. Her fur was now vivid snow-white, similar to a Unicorn's pure-white hide or most of a Cherub's wings, and her eyes were onyx-black, and Amanita's rear bore a magnificent set of shining white nine tails. Amanita was indeed a sight to behold. However, don't be fooled, for the newly transformed Fox still bore her EXTREMELY toxic concoction of a love for bloodlust, sadism and psychotic behaviour. Furthermore, since she was now a nine-tailed Fox, having completely bypassed the natural aging and growth process of the Kitsune species as built into the by Aslan when he formed Gandalf and Kyukon from ordinary Foxes, Amanita also had all the powers and abilities of a nine-tailed Kitsune such as upgraded foxfire and other magical abilities. Amanita tested her foxfire on a nearby tree. She shot a paw at the leafless plant and from her paw, exploded a stream of pale blue lightning which then engulfed the tree. The cronies watched on and flinched when the tree was destroyed by the foxfire lightning. Palpatine formed an evil smile as Amanita then breathed a stream of flames at another tree and destroyed it, surprised at the immense power. She then turned to gaze at the Witch, who smiled wickedly at her. Amanita, proud of her newfound power, smiled back an evil, toothy smile in thanks to the Witch for granting her the shortcut into a nine-tailed Fox. However, there was a drawback to Amanita's transformation.
Because she had become a nine-tailed Fox so quickly and had not grown naturally and in a way that Kitsune should, both physically and through learning and experience over the centuries, Amanita was still NOT as wise and as intelligent as Gandalf and Kyukon, and her telekinesis and other Kitsune powers were still developing, despite her foxfire getting an upgrade, and it was the ONLY power that had been upgraded. Even then, it was still not as powerful as Gandalf or Kyukon's and she could still be killed by the foxfire from those two truly powerful nine-tailed Kitsune. Because of her underdeveloped knowledge and experience, Amanita's nine-tailed Fox sham was sure to be exposed at some point, but due to the fact that she could cast illusions and shapeshift as trained under Jadis, the discovery that her appearance as an extremely powerful nine-tailed Fox was a façade would likely be a long distance off since nine tails and a bright coat were symbols and a crown of a Kitsune's wisdom and experience, and Amanita had allowed herself to become a mockery of that crown. However, the super-proud and arrogant Nogitsune did not care and absolutely RELISHED her new appearance and nine-tailed status, as well as her status as the Witch's second-in-command in Belladonna's place, and the Witch had planned to use her as an intimidation tool to frighten her opponents as well as an accomplice during her corrupt rule over Narnia, especially with Amanita's shapeshifting and illusion casting powers she had acquired under her studentship with the other Nogitsune and other magical Talking Beasts such as the Nekomata and Bakeneko. The Witch, as soon as she was finished with transforming Amanita into a nine-tailed Fox, barked at her crowd of cronies to spread out and search for the evacuees and also for Gandalf and Kyukon and their helpers. Palpatine, Púca, Romulus, Malefor and everyone else obeyed and dispersed to begin their search for the former base inhabitants while Amanita, now in her new, (but SEVERELY underage) nine-tailed, white Fox form, climbed into the Witch's sleigh with Jadis herself and also Tenebris who climbed into the driving part of the sleigh. Then with a thwack of the reigns and a shout, Tenebris commanded the white reindeer into running and pulling the sleigh with them. Then within moments, the Witch was off, many of her cronies in tow as they followed either on foot, on the wing or in their own, smaller sleds pulled by the yule goats. As they left, the Nekomata had taken Belladonna's carcass for they had planned to use it as a puppet with their zombie-animating powers once they found the evacuees (which would be near-impossible, as long as the Archenland-bound evacuees stay on track under Aslan's guidance).
As the Witch and her crowd left, the base in which Gandalf and the others dwelt was now no longer habitable. Every compartment and corridor was in utter shambles and it was likely that it will never be used as a base again in a while.