Chapter 68- a discombobulated mess and some fatalities
The escorts clashed violently with Krampus and his minions while the other escorts continued to help the crowd head back to the fork in the path and down the misty path but because the darkness and the blizzard summoned by their enemy was so thick and the winds so strong, it was proving extremely difficult, and the crowd, especially the kids and pregnant mothers, were in grave danger of getting attacked by Krampus's toy and Elf minions, but someone else was about to arrive… someone FAR worse than Krampus.
While the escorts continued to fight off the toy minions of Krampus and his Elves, the swords of some of them clashing with the candy cane weapons of the demonic gingerbread men while some of the others were slashing their bladed weapons or spears at the other toy minions as they hissed and lashed their tongues or other appendages such as sharp claws at their opponents, the crowd continued to struggle against the windy blizzard and the darkness. They deeply regretted rejecting Aslan's guidance to go down the foggy path and because of that, they had brought themselves and their escorts into this gigantic mess, and now they will have to risk life and limb to get back to the fork in the road and down the correct path which was smothered in mist for Aslan had indicated to them with his Lion fireball in the first place. Cedrus lunged at a demonic teddy bear as it terrorised a mother T-Rex and her T-Rex-lings and savagely drove it away with his stick while Tuvok, Kairyu and some of the latter's Talking Dragon underlings blasted some gingerbread men with their flame breath to save some more families from their assault, among them Faline and her kits, three of her younger babies clasped against her chest with her forelimbs and a petrified look on her face. Nearby, Colress and some other Centaurs were viciously duelling some of Krampus's Elf minions in a swordfight when one of the evil Elves managed to fight past a Centaurette's counter moves and nearly slash her neck, almost fatally wounding her much to her alarm. Shaking off the shock of this near-fatal miss, the Centaurette lunged at the Elf and plunged her sword right through its chest, killing it instantly while Colress cut down two more Elves with two slashes of his sword in a row. Nearby, some more of the Elves tried to get at the crowd, their eyes on the younger members but the Elemental Birds, among them Blaze, Cumulonimbus and Brina, appeared out of nowhere and drove them away. Blaze transformed into his flaming form and charged at the Elves while Cumulonimbus summoned a mini-thunderstorm before using its bolts to zap the Elves. While the pair did that, Brina unleashed her icy breath and froze some more Elves solid when suddenly; a ginger-coloured mini-figure decorated with various candies leaped up from below and flew towards Brina with a squeaky battle cry, its sharpened candy cane spear aimed for her throat. Brina, at this, froze, taken by surprise by the sudden appearance of the demonic gingerbread man as it continued to fly towards her when suddenly, a young Unicorn appeared and skewered the little candy figure with his icicle-like horn, plunging his horn right through the gingerbread man's candy torso, saving Brina from death. Brina looked on in shock as Tesseract; an extremely furious neigh exploding from his mouth, then removed the gingerbread man from his horn with a front hoof and pinned the candy figure onto the floor. He then prepared to devour the candy creature but Brina intervened.
"DON'T eat the gingerbread man, Tesseract, they're cursed and could make you violently ill," said the Roc, "Just trample it into crumbs."
Tesseract flashed the ice bird a look and immediately obeyed and trampled the gingerbread man under his hooves to turn it into candy mulch and killing it.
Krampus's gingerbread men and the other candy-based minions were cursed and were thus highly toxic and inedible, a deliberate defence mechanism set into them by Krampus when he and his Elf minions made them, so that any defending victim consumed them, they would be violently poisoned with a possible slow and painful death resulting. They were much like Belladonna's highly toxic but attractive food, such as the crystalline ruby apple that nearly killed Nanu. (Belladonna's chocolate cake that Troodon and the other kids who foolishly befriended the Nogitsune had consumed was not toxic but EXTREMELY addictive, and Troodon and the other kids were still afflicted with the desire for more cake even now, and it was going to take an awfully long time to overcome that addiction. The food Jadis also conjured was also magically imbued to be either extremely toxic or addictive but highly attractive on the outside to tempt the victim into eating it). However, poisoning from consuming Krampus's candy minions can be cured with fire-flower cordial which was the only potion capable of curing such deadly poison, but due to the chaos the crowd was in, any poisoning and injury to deal with may have to wait until they were safely down the correct path as indicated by Aslan.
Then as soon as Tesseract had finished trampling the gingerbread man to nothing but crumbs, he turned to help the others escape but before he could set to threat, a massive scream erupted from near him. At this, the young Unicorn snapped his gaze in the direction of the scream but the moment his eyes landed on the screamer, horror tore through him and his blood froze like the blizzardy air around him. An Elf minion of Krampus had managed to seize Janine, Koga's sister, and was now carrying her to one of the larger toy minions of Krampus to be either killed or eaten alive, and the young Wolpertinger was kicking and screaming and thrashing her paws and wings in the Elf's iron grasp. Outrage tearing through him, Tesseract bolted into action despite Cumulonimbus's protests wen the Thunderbird saw him charge at the Elf while he was occupied with a demonic plush rabbit armed with vicious fangs like an evil Wolpertinger.
"Tesseract, NO!" cried Cumulonimbus as he had the plush rabbit by the throat with his talons and surrounded by mini storm clouds. Tesseract did not hear the Thunderbird's cries and continued charging at the Elf as it continued to carry the screaming Janine towards Krampus and the larger toy minions, among them the giant python-like Jack-in-the-box dubbed by Kyukon as the Python-Clown-in-a-Box due to its snakelike behaviour, extendible jaws and its tendency to swallow its victims whole like a python, often alive. Then as soon as Tesseract was near the Elf, he released an EXTREMELY loud neigh and without hesitation struck the Elf with his horn, goring him through the chest before the Elf had time to react. The Elf, fatally struck by the young Unicorn's attack, fell down and released Janine who immediately spread her feathered wings and charged off after her family, terror consuming her while Tesseract, his horn bloodstained from striking the Elf through the chest, glared maliciously at the fallen Elf and Janine's attempted kidnapper. However, he was forced to retreat when he found himself confronted by a giant clown-faced beast.
The giant jack-in-the-box resembled a typical toy of the same name but it was much, MUCH bigger, about the size of a Basilisk. Its face was bone-white, like that of Jadis's skin and from its head, sparkling ruby-red jesters emanated. These jesters each ended in a golden bauble. The jack-in-the-box minion had a mane-like ruff around its neck and a stripy top below the fluffy mane. It had a pair of arms ending in cute white mitts, while below its vest; its body continued downward and along the ground, like the body of a Snake and on the tip of its tail was a cube, obviously the box from which a typical toy it was named for resided. The creature's eyes had upside-down U-shaped eyebrows and beady eyes, and below the eyes was a cute red spherical nose, and its cheeks had faded cute red patches, similar to a certain yellow rodent but fainter as though the red had been spray-painted onto its cheeks. Below the clown's nose was a cute, sweet smile. However, concealed under that smile was a MASSIVE extendible mouth which the Python-Clown-in-a-Box could enlarge at will to reveal the frightening interior of its mouth and throat and also to swallow its victims, and concealed under the Python-Clown-in-a-Box's cute, funny appearance was a murderous, bloodthirsty personality characteristic of a demonic toy minion of Krampus. Blaze saw how dangerously close Tesseract was to the Python-Clown-in-a-Box.
"Tesseract, get away from that clown-faced snake," said the Phoenix warily. Tesseract, however, was too rooted to the spot before the Python-Clown-in-a-Box, especially as the cutesy clown-faced creature reared up like a Cobra. Then Tesseract attempted to frighten the Python-Clown-in-a-Box by neighing as loudly as he could right into its face, much to Blaze's alarm. However, the wicked jack-in-the-box was completely unfazed and retaliated with a MASSIVE hissy screech right into the Unicorn's face. It flared open its huge mouth, revealing its blood-red oral-innards and the entrance of its throat and shoved it right into Tesseract's face, screaming right at him like a Banshee. The mouth was so large that it was wide enough to swallow a young Centaur and certainly a young Unicorn, and Tesseract felt like he was going to end up headfirst down that hatch any second since the Python-Clown-in-a-Box's enormous mouth was right close to his face. Tesseract, petrified by the Python-Clown-in-a-Box and its giant mouth, neighed in terror, turned tail and charged off, the evil Python-Clown-in-a-Box in hot pursuit.
As the crowd continued to hurry in the direction whence they came, Krampus glared at them with his evil red eyes and let loose a Bull-like call, making some of the crowd members and their escorts, including Tuvok and a few other Kitsune as they dispatched some of Krampus's minions with Tuvok having flung one of the demonic bunnies into a tree telekinetically, stop and shoot the Goat Demon with curious gazes.
"What's that Father Christmas counterfeit Beast doing, Tuvok?" asked Troodon nearby as he stood with Deodara. Tuvok, along with Cedrus, Passiflora (who had viciously destroyed and shredded a pseudo-Cherub doll, her rancour for the creatures burning fiercely within her), Ptériga and the other helpers nearby all stopped fighting Krampus's minions and gazed at Krampus as he continued to bellow into the stormy dark air. At this, alarm tore through them when they deduced what Krampus was doing.
"He's summoning help and backup, possibly that Tyrant," Cedrus's voice exploded into the air at the top of his lungs, "GET EVERYONE OUTA HERE, NOW!"
With that, the crowd began to pick up pace and hurry more than ever back to the fork, screams erupting among them while the helpers resumed warding off Krampus's minions. Amongst them, Obsidian was in hysterics, the sight of the Goat Demon and his minions having brought back a flood of memories of her family's demise since Krampus and his minions were the ones who had killed them and left her an orphan. She was being helped by an Elf (a good Elf) and some Fauns alongside the other victims of Krampus. But as the crowd rushed along through the dark blizzard, accidents began to happen as some of the members tripped and fell and were threatening to cause a chain reaction for the other crowd members near them or were threatened of getting trampled underfoot. Dahlia who was with Kushanku's group, was one of the unfortunate members as she fell forward onto her front, Kushanku and the others at first unaware that she had tripped. Then the Jackalope kit immediately covered her head with her paws as more of the crowd members stepped over her, a group of Theropods, Troodon's biological family, tripping over her as they were shoved into the Antlered Jackrabbit. Troodon's brother, the same brother who had tried getting Troodon into trouble with Ptériga and Cedrus the other day with the stone, screeched as he fell over Dahlia's rump and onto the snow. He then shot the terrified Jackalope a furious glare just as Kushanku and company turned round to find her and the bipedal Reptiles struggling to get up with the flurry of feet stepping over and around them.
"Jackalopes like YOU are HONESTLY CLUMSY," snarled the sibling of Troodon into Dahlia's face. Dahlia only replied with a silent, terror-filled gaze when suddenly, a few Phoenixes and Fairies appeared. The Fairies began to guide the crowd around the fallen Jackalope and Theropods while the Phoenixes quickly helped Dahlia and Ena and her family to her feet. As they stood up, Dahlia shot Troodon's brother an acidic glare.
"You're NO better than Belladonna when she caused us trouble, lizard boy, especially if you're gonna cause Troodon all that!" the antlered Rabbit hissed. At this, Dromaeo, when he heard this, rushed in and gave Dahlia a hefty shove in the chest while the brother of Troodon screeched and lashed at the Jackalope with his sickle claw, the tip of the claw almost catching Dahlia's ear and inflicting a scratch on it. However, a Fairy swooped in and guided the hissing pair of bipedal Lizards away before a fight could break out, while a Phoenix guided Dahlia away but the Jackalope kept her acidic glare on the two Theropods who in return glared back at her maliciously.
The crowd continued to hurry along through the dark blizzard as Krampus continued his call for backup. Some of the crowd members at the front (initially at the back but because the crowd had turned round, the backmost members were now at the front), managed to pick up speed and were rushing ahead. The helpers continued to fight off the minions of Krampus with a few Okuri-Inu and adult Nekomata driving the Python-Clown-in-a-Box away from Tesseract as it had managed to whack him with its powerful box-tipped tail and knock him down and before it could proceed to devour him. The moment the giant Jack-in-a-box had widened its mouth to swallow Tesseract headfirst; a Nekomata had rushed in and had telekinetically flung a small log end first directly into its mouth.
"Try swallowin' THIS you tacky CLOWN-FACED SERPENT!" screeched the two-tailed Cat as he flung that log into the Python-Clown-in-a-Box's mouth and then withdrawing his telekinetic grasp on it, the aqua blue aura around the hollowed tube of wood along with the blue glow in the Nekomata's eyes and around his paws. The log, the telekinetic grasp energy having become kinetic energy the moment the Nekomata released his mind-powered grasp on it, flew through the air towards the Python-Clown-in-a-Box and entered the demonic jack's mouth end first. The momentum carried the object on its trajectory and took the toy minion with it and safely away from Tesseract. The evil Jack-in-a-box then crashed at the foot of some trees in a shower of snow, the large tube of wood lodged in its massive mouth and throat like a gannet that had attempted to swallow a fish too big for its gullet. With a giant hollow tube of wood stuck in its throat, the Python-Clown-in-a-Box was helpless, especially as it began to choke and convulse to dislodge the inedible piece of wood while the Nekomata and the Okuri-Inu helped a petrified Tesseract away. The crowd continued along, the helpers ushering them on faster while the rest continued to ward off Krampus's' minions either through close combat or from a distance with bows and arrows and telekinesis but because of the heavy blizzard and darkness and more and more members falling down due to the rush, it was proving a challenge, especially since precious time was being cost, and that time was about to run out.
Cumulonimbus was forced back into one of the walls of leafless trees by an Elf of Krampus who slashed its sword at him, narrowly missing the Thunderbird's abdomen, forcing the unusually purple-black and silvery Thunderbird in countering with a small thundercloud and lightning strike from that cloud, zapping the Elf and flinging it at a large, demonic toy teddy bear and knocking the two back. As the cloud he had summoned with his thundercloud-summoning powers barely working in the Witch's winter spell disappeared, Cumulonimbus hovered on when suddenly, a bundle of fur appeared from above and landed on top of him. The Thunderbird released a screech of surprise as another Drop Bear plucked him out of the air and slammed him into the snow but before the Drop Bear could plunge its fangs into the Thunderbird's neck, Cumulonimbus let loose a lightning strike, electrocuting the Drop Bear, stunning it and making it scream in agony. Then Cumulonimbus squirmed violently out of the Drop Bear's grasp and the moment he was free, he slashed the Bear-like Beast with his claws over the throat before it could get up and attack, killing it in seconds. However, another Drop Bear dropped from the tree tops and attempted to land onto Cumulonimbus but the Thunderbird dodged, and lofted into flight, the Drop Bear chasing after him in an attempt to jump onto him. But as Cumulonimbus took off, he was made aware of a sound of a stampede and blades of metal on snow through the trees. At this, he shot a horrified look in the direction of the sound and immediately darted off the moment the sources of the sounds, a number of sleds driven by hideous beasts and pulled aging by yule goats, appeared, barely escaping getting butted by the ugly non-talking goat-like creatures. The crowd and helpers also saw the arrivals and immediately spotted as the group of sleds and yule goats landed onto the snow; drove round and pulled up. At this, Cedrus looked up and the moment the Curupira's eyes landed on the new arrivals, a horrified gasp was pulled into his mouth while Ptériga flapped off with some of her Sphinx comrades to confront them with Bursyamo and his underlings following, the instinct to battle to protect the crowd of migrating Narnians explosively taking control.
The moment the group of sleds and their carriers had stopped, some of them, a few Lizard-Men and Púca the leader of the Banshees, stood up just in time to see a flock of Fire Chickens and Sphinxes rush straight towards them, enraged screeches exploding from their mouths. At this, Púca immediately took action. Raising her bony hands, the ghost-faced Hag inhaled deeply and the moment Bursyamo and his underlings were close, the lead Banshee flung her hands forward and let loose an ear-rupturing scream. At the same time, her hands released a stream of blue-white lightning. Bursyamo and his underlings were stopped dead by the Banshee's powerful scream and were blown backwards from the soundwaves, some of the Basan and a Sphinx getting fatally blasted by the Banshee's powerful lightning while in the crowd of Narnians, hands, paws and wings flew to ears as Púca's screech, which was powerful enough to carry for miles and shatter our world's glass within metres of the lead Banshee's powerful cries, assaulted their ears. Kushanku, together with Sandstorm, Satoshi, Akira, Nyarth and the others with them covered their ears with their paws and screwed their eyes shut while Cedrus and the others did the same, Cedrus gripping his teeth. Púca continued to scream as loud as she could, advancing towards the crowd immediately after dispatching some of Bursyamo's squad, her extremely loud scream continuously exploding from her mouth and causing the Sphinxes nearby including Ptériga to writhe and shout in the snow in agony, their paws clasping their ears, along with the rest of Bursyamo's underlings, their wings on their ears and their faces twisted in severe pain. However, Bursyamo, despite his ears suffering the sword-stabbing assault from the lead Banshee's scream, immediately seized some soft plant material and stuffed his ears with them to dampen the scream blast. Then the lead Basan lofted into flight and lunged at the screaming Púca, and without hesitation, blasted the Banshee with his fire, throwing the lead Banshee into the air. While Púca was airborne, Bursyamo charged forward and tackled right into Púca's belly and with all his might rammed her into a tree trunk to knock her out. The moment Púca's screams were cut off by Bursyamo's attack; the crowd slowly removed their paws, wings, etc. from their ears which were ringing painfully from Púca's vocal assault, and Bursyamo's underlings, together with Ptériga and her Sphinx comrades, slowly removed their wings and paws from their ears, their ears ringing and their hearing slightly clouded as though they had been plunged into water. Cedrus, his also ears ringing, looked up just in time to see Púca land limply in the snow at the foot of the tree, Bursyamo hovering nearby with some of his underlings gathering around him. Then some Lizard-Men immediately gathered round the limp Púca with one of them, a large male named Ganondorf who was the head of the Lizard-Men, began to shake the Banshee awake.
"Púca," said Ganondorf as he shook Púca in his reptilian hands, hoping to get a response out of her, "Púca, are you okay?"
However, Púca remained unresponsive the impact against the tree trunk caused by Bursyamo having completely knocked her out. Though she was still alive, she was unconscious. Then Ganondorf, the other Lizard-Men and the other wicked arrivals felt horror tear through them as it dawned upon them.
"That Fire Rooster has knocked the lead Banshee out completely," said one of the other creatures, a Tenome as she examined the Banshee's limp body with her hand-eyes. At this, Ganondorf shot Bursyamo and his underlings a volcanic glare as the Basan descended to the snow and drew their swords and sticks, ready to fight in defence of the Narnians as they continued to hurry along to escape Jadis's minions.
"I'm gonna DISEMBOWEL YA for what you DID TO Púca…" snarled the large Lizard-Man and with that, he charged at Bursyamo, raised a hand and flared its claws which were laced with a paralyzing venom and brought it down towards Bursyamo but the lead Basan whop was skilful in close combat, raised his stick and blocked the Lizard-Man's attempt to slash him and envenom him. Ganondorf, an enraged grunt exploding from his mouth, then engaged Bursyamo in the fight to the death while the other arrivals lunged at the other Basan and the Sphinxes and soon, a fight had exploded. While Bursyamo and company kept the new arrivals occupied, Cedrus ushered the crowd to continue to move but before they could move any further, more sleds and ugly creatures consisting of Hags, Boggarts, Wendigoes, evil Nogitsune and Nekomata, Shadows, and other Horror species and also Ropens, Bat-Harpies and other flying creatures on Jadis's side, arrived and soon enough, those ugly creatures leapt from their sleds and engaged the crowd into a battle. Krampus and his minions then joined in the fight. Now it was the crowd's turn to defend themselves as the new arrivals lunged at them despite having not much training in self-defence or combat due to the incidence with Belladonna back at Gandalf's base.
Thundersparx lunged at a Boggart as it lashed its sword at a group of young Rabbits, Hares and Bakeneko and their carers and parents and let loose a lightning bolt to zap the Goblin creature and send it flying while Milky Way swooped down upon a Banshee, one of Púca's underlings as she sent some Elves, Fairies and Fauns, among them Guinan flying with its scream, exploding from her mouth in the form of sonic sound rings. Because the Banshee was one of the underlings of Púca, her scream was not as powerful though it was still powerful enough to send her opponents flying and assault the ears of anyone within a smaller range. Then as soon as she was close enough, Milky Way whirled round and powerfully kicked the Banshee square in the face with her back feet and knocked her backwards while Truffula the Tanuki jumped in and landed the killing blow by plunging her sword through the Screamer Hag's chest. Nearby, Snowwing and Crystal were hovering in the air, shooting arrows at some of the flying creatures of Jadis as they tried attacking some of the crowd members from above when a Ropen swooped in and with an enormous wing knocked Crystal out of the air with a wing slap in the blink of an eye. The young Parrot chick screeched as she fell towards earth, the black and glow-spotted Pterosaur creature swooping down on her, its beak open ready to catch her and possibly eat her when suddenly, an aqua blue aura surrounded the Ropen and stopped it dead in mid-air. Crystal managed to slow her fall by flapping her wings and looked up in time to see the Ropen enclosed in the aqua blue aura struggle as a Sphinx then appeared. The Sphinx, Ptériga, then appeared and with a screech and her eyes glowing aqua blue, sent the Ropen telekinetically flying towards a group of Bat-Harpies as they assaulted a group of flying creatures of the crowd, among them Lana and her group of Harpies including her boyfriend Hala, sister Suiren and friend Morgana. The Ropen smashed into the Bat-Harpies and sent the gargoyle-faced Bat creatures flying everywhere. Crystal flashed Ptériga a thankful nod and rushed off while Ptériga hurried off to deal with more minions of Jadis.
Elsewhere, Shadewing the Bat, Quill the Hedgehog, Dashiell and Amberpaw, and Faline the Rabbit were running along with some of the screaming other crowd members, young grasped in their arms or wings, away from a group of Shadows as they swooped after them, alongside a group of Triffid-Mouths and Bonehead-Crawlers (ugly Reptilian creatures resembling Crocodilian-headed Humanoids but with arms and a tail but no legs, and bone-white heads resembling a Reptile's skull, and could only crawl by pulling themselves along with their arms and tails. They resembled a certain creature that lived on an island in another world where a giant gorilla also lived, but were smaller) who chased the group, the Triffid-Mouths whipping at them with their venomous 'tongues' and the Bonehead-Crawlers lashing with their claws in an attempt to scratch any of them the moment they were close enough. Then Shadewing tripped and fell and within seconds, the Bat found himself at the mercy of one of the Bonehead-Crawlers who proceeded to tower menacingly over him and let loose a roar, its mouth wide open and its teeth bared. Shadewing let loose terrified whimpers as the hideous beast then raised a clawed hand and prepared to bring it down upon him to kill him but before the Bonehead-Crawler could make the fatal blow, a flock of graceful white birds appeared and swarmed it. Shadewing flinched as a group of Swans, among them Cygnus and his cousin Swomee then began to viciously beat the creature with their wings and jab their beaks into its hide, a few of them armed with daggers and swords for they had been trained in swordfighting, to help pierce the tough hide of the Bonehead-Crawler. Then as the Bonehead-Crawler began to writhe and thrash to dislodge the Swans from its body as they rammed their beaks and weapons into its hide, Swomee bravely flew to its open mouth and without hesitation and with an extremely loud battle screech, rammed her sword through the roof of the creature's mouth, resulting in an agonised scream exploding from the two-limbed, prehensile tailed creature. Shadewing then backed away as the Bonehead-Crawler, the moment Swomee withdrew her sword. However, the Swan was forced to land when she felt agonising pain explode from her wing, the same one she had gripped the sword to fatally wound the Bonehead-Crawler, one of the creature's dagger-like teeth having punctured it during her delivery of the fatal blow. As Swomee landed on the snow, her wing bleeding from the tooth mark, the other Swans backed away as the Bonehead-Crawler thrashed about violently and crash-landed right onto a group of Zombie Pegasus-like creatures called Carcassi as they tormented some of the other members of the crowd, among them a family of Echidnas and Webby the Platypus. As soon as they had slain the Bonehead-Crawler, Cygnus and company parted to either deal with more of Jadis's minions or help guide the frightened crowd members from the scene. Shadewing as assisted by one of the Swans as he helped him to his feet while Swomee had her wing injury treated with a drop of fire-flower cordial carried by another Swan.
Elsewhere, Obsidian the Wampus Cat, her vivid orange-red markings slashing her jet-black fur glowing fiercely with anger and aggression, was viciously battling a Slender-Man, her fore and middle paws deftly wielding four swords, one in each paw and deflecting the Slender-Man's attempts to attack her with his sword. Because Obsidian was so good at utilising four swords, she was able to confound the Slender-Man and eventually cut him down with a fatal slash to the legs. The Slender-Man fell like a tree as he was fatally wounded, Obsidian fiercely looking on. Then a Hag appeared but rather than charge at Obsidian to physically attack her, she had in mind a different weapon. As Obsidian lunged at the Hag to also cut her down with her four swords, the Hag immediately pulled out a strange flask-like container and some strange powder and the moment the Wampus Cat was close enough, the Hag immediately tipped the flask upside down and flung the powder down at her feet. A gassy explosion erupted before Obsidian and sent her flying backwards as the powder and the liquid from the flask made contact with each other on the floor at the Hag's feet. The Hag then looked on evilly and with a wicked grimace as Obsidian recovered and scrabbled for her four swords that had flown out of her paws and as the smoke rose from the mixture she had made at her feet. The green smoke then rose and formed a screen for this smoke was a form of magical smoke. Nearby, Thundersparx had managed to drive off a Nekomata that was torturing some more Bats and Dinosaurs with a few animal carcasses for many of the Nekomata and Bakeneko on Jadis's side had the ability to animate dead bodies. However, when he heard a startling sound, he snapped his attention to the source and when he saw a magical smoke cloud hover before a certain individual, horror tore through him.
Obsidian continued to lay there on her back, her petrified gaze on the magical smoke hovering above the wicked Hag as it began to flash her visions. A ghostly, sinister voice then began to emanate from the smoke and torture the Wampus Cat.
"You know you are useless… You know you are worthless… Wampus Cat…" hissed the voice, much to Obsidian's trembling fear. Obsidian continued to gaze at the smoke as it began to flash her torturous images, those images taking on her worst fears such as the frightening eyes in the dark.
"I know your fears, Obsidian…" continued the torturous ghost voice from the smoke which sent chills down Obsidian's spine, especially as it flashed her images of the various creatures that petrified the Wampus Cat most, "And I know your guilt…"
Thundersparx rushed in and began to try and snap Obsidian out of her trance.
"Obsidian, don't listen to the voice!" called the Raiju. However, Obsidian was too rooted to the spot to hear her Raiju friend's voice as the green smoke then took on the form of three familiar creatures. It were Obsidian's mother, father and brother Granite, and their faces were glaring at Obsidian. In their faces were betrayal, disappointment and loss of faith. Obsidian began to tremble and weep as the three apparitions of her deceased parents and brother began to berate her. However, these three were not real. They were just visions conjured by the Hag's spell. Thundersparx began to panic when he saw the sinister cloud's images begin to torture Obsidian.
"You should NEVER have taken us out on that hunting trip, you no daughter of mine," growled one of the larger Wampus Cat apparitions that had taken the form of Obsidian's mother, "If you hadn't have suggested the four of us going out on that trip, we wouldn't have encountered Krampus."
"Obsidian, ignore that image, it's NOT REAL and what they are saying is NOT TRUE AT ALL!" shouted Thundersparx. Obsidian continued to gaze at the unreal apparitions of her parents and brother as the one in the form of her father spoke.
"It's ALL YOUR fault that we are dead, Obsidian," said 'he', "You SHOULD be ashamed of yourself."
"We would still be alive, and I would have grown up alongside you, Obsidian," said the smaller apparition, taking the form of Granite, Obsidian's deceased brother, "But BECAUSE OF YOU, I NEVER had that chance… I hope you're proud of yourself."
Obsidian felt guilt ignite by these words flare within her and she began to tremble and weep. Her breathing spiralled out of control and she began to tremble violently. Thundersparx then tried to intervene but found himself face to face with a Humanoid with a Spider's body. At this, the Raiju was forced to defend himself against the Ushi-Oni, along with an evil Troll as they lunged at him, leaving Obsidian to continue to face the torturous apparitions in the smoke cloud conjured by the Hag on her own. Then the three Wampus Cat apparitions began to heap abuse at Obsidian and told her that she should put herself down and other negative things. Obsidian, despite the extreme guilt over the loss of her family flaring within her as triggered by the magic torture cloud, eventually overcame that guilt, seized her swords and charged towards the Hag who continued to laugh at her emotional torture. Then with a MASSIVE Cat screech, Obsidian cut down the Hag with one slash of one of her swords, ending the wicked creature's life and the nightmarish cloud spell she had conjured up, along with the three Wampus Cat apparitions taking the form of her family. At the same time, Thundersparx slayed the Ushi-Oni and mortally wounded the Troll, before going over to Obsidian.
"Your family would never say such things and they would NEVER blame you for that incident at Krampus's clutches had they survived that event in your life," said the Raiju as he began to comfort the weeping Wampus Cat, "You did right in trying to find additional food for your family and fellow villagers…"
Obsidian then let loose some sobs and was pulled into a hug by Thundersparx. Then after the pair broke the hug, the two left to help fend off more creatures of Jadis.
The vicious fight between Jadis's minions including Krampus and his toy and Elf minions, and the evacuating Narnians continued to rage with more of the crowd members fleeing for the fork in the road, but despite the best efforts of the fighters including Cedrus and company, more and more of Jadis's minions just kept appearing and appearing, and some of the Narnians were beginning to get fatally cut down by the new arrivals or slaughtered by Krampus's toy minions. Soon, their leader will eventually arrive, and that was not too far away now. Molayne, Alexandrite, Padparadchsa "Paddy", Ahhuayo, Link, Cyril and Desdemona continued to viciously fight against a group of Wendigoes with Ahhuayo, his tail-hand grasping a Sword, slashing the Skeletal Goat-like beast and killing it while Cyril rescued a group of Tengu youngsters from a Nukekubi and a Killer Ghoul by driving the pair off with his hooves, claws and beak. Link then rushed in and with his antlers, the young Peryton gored the Killer Ghoul and slaughtered it. As his enemy fell, the winged Buck glared maliciously at the corpse of the Killer Ghoul.
"I could NEVER strand those monsters," he growled. Suddenly, Desdemona's voice shouted, "Look OUT!"
At this, the Peryton looked up and to his horror, he saw a Nogitsune armed with two swords in its paws appear and slash the blades at him. Startled, Link darted to one side and narrowly had his feathered wings hacked off by the savage Fox, the blade of one of the swords only shearing off some of his flight feathers. Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Ahhuayo, Cyril and Desdemona then took up defensive stances as the Nogitsune stood before them with the two swords in its paws but when they examined its features, they shuddered violently and Ahhuayo almost retched. The Nogitsune was charred black but it had familiar features such as the two tails and a feminine look to it but when the seven examined the familiar Fox closer, they saw that it was walking on its hind legs unlike the Nogistune they knew when she was alive and before Gandalf burned her to death with his foxfire, and that her eyes were glowing in a menacing red-orange light, and that light was piercing the seven like a Wendigo's shining white glare. Then a bipedal fork-tailed Cat appeared. These bipedal Cat's eyes were glowing red-orange and its two tails ended in sinister sea-green flames, all features of an evil Nekomata and one of Jadis's minions. The Nekomata then glared viciously at the five young Animals and Ahhuayo as they shuddered at the armed carcass of Belladonna under the animation of the wicked Cat for the Nekomata and Bakeneko on Jadis's side had the ability to telekinetically animate corpses.
"Yes, she is back to deal with you Narnian rats," snarled the Nekomata and with that, he had the carcass of Belladonna engage the seven in battle. Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona were too petrified by the animated corpse of Belladonna but Ahhuayo, a volcanic glare on the Nekomata who used to be one of his so-called friends before he defected, took up the offer to fight the carcass. Then the Ahuizotl and the animated carcass of Belladonna under the Nekomata's control began to circle with Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Link, Cyril and Desdemona watching on.
Elsewhere in the crowd, Ena and her family were trying to escape some of Krampus's toy minions including some candy cane weapon-armed gingerbread men. Under the guidance of some Tengu, Dwarves, Centaurs and Fauns skilled on combat, the family of Theropods hurried in their escape with a Tengu helping the crippled Ena along. As the group moved along, a scream erupted from nearby, prompting the group to shoot frightened gazes in the direction of the scream and to their horror, they spotted a Fox with a fan of tails emanating from its rump. Its fur was pure white and its nine tails were waving in the blizzard but its face was laced with pure insanity and sadism. Helianthus, one of the female Tengu, shuddered in outrage.
"HOW INSULTING, ESPECIALLY TO THE KITSUNE!" she snarled and with that, she drew her sword and went to confront the Fox who was Amanita but some hands appeared and latched onto her shoulders.
"That is EXTREMELY unwise, Helianthus," said a Centaur, "What if that Nogitsune is truly powerful like Gandalf? She could char you into a blackened corpse with her foxfire."
Helianthus, at this, gazed at the Centaur and relented to his advice and did not go to confront Amanita in battle just to be on the safe side. However, the appearance of a nine-tailed Nogitsune had sent immense terror tearing through the Narnians and they began to rush for the fork in the road all the more, knowing that a nine-tailed Fox was the most powerful form of Kitsune and Nogitsune, some even crying out to Aslan for help. However, Amanita's appearance was only a façade intended by the Witch to intimidate her opponents but the Narnians were too stricken by fear to realise this. But the appearance of a Nogitsune with nine tails was not a good sign. The crowd HAD to get back to the fork and down the misty path at all costs.
Ahhuayo clashed his sword in his tail-hand against one of the swords of the animated Belladonna corpse, his eyes glaring viciously into the orange-red glare of the carcass. The Nekomata whose body position was in the exact same pose as the carcass, then pushed forward to telekinetically have the corpse behave the same way and shove Ahhuayo backwards and send him tumbling onto the snow. The Ahuizotl, at this, shot the evil Nekomata a stunned look. The Cat smiled wickedly while Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona looked on, too frightened to move.
"Hah, hah!" cackled the Nekomata, his eyes still a red-orange colour and his body position matching the corpse's exactly, "I'm very good at this puppetry, you traitorous slime-ball. Now it's time to pay for your APOSTASY AND BETRAYAL of OUR GODDESS OF THE HIGHLANDS AND OF NARNIA!"
And with that, he moved his arms to animate the arms of the Belladonna carcass and slashed the swords in the carcass's paws at Ahhuayo. However, the Ahuizotl dodged and sent the swords slashing at the snow where he had been seconds before. Then Ahhuayo rolled to his hand-like feet, reared up on his hand-like hind feet and continued his fight with the Belladonna carcass by swinging his sword grasped in one of his hand-paws, at it in an attempt to slash it only for the Nekomata to make it dodge and counter with the two swords. Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona watched on as the sounds of metal blade striking metal blade echoed into the blizzardy air as Ahhuayo viciously clashed with the carcass animated by the Nekomata. Then after a few more frightening minutes of violent clashing of swords, the Nekomata managed to have his puppet slash Ahhuayo in the hip and wound him. The Ahuizotl let loose a bark of agony and fell down, his sword falling from his hand-paws and those two hands shooting to his injury which began to ooze blood to the horror of the six watchers. As Ahhuayo continued to grasp his injury, the Nekomata, an evil and triumphant look on its face, then walked in sync with the Belladonna carcass and raised its paw, the movement of its puppet matching it exactly.
"Now it's time for you to DIE, you TRAITOR," cackled the Nekomata evilly as Ahhuayo, his face twisted in agony with Desdemona rushing to his side, looked up and quivered at the Belladonna carcass, its eyes glowing the menacing red-orange glow like it's animator and the sword hovering in the air, ready to deliver the fatal blow. However, before the Nekomata could have the corpse bring down the sword and slay Ahhuayo, a bipedal Lizard appeared out of nowhere and jumped onto his back. The telekinetic link between the Nekomata and its puppet was broken and Belladonna's corpse fell limply onto the snow, the swords falling out of its paws and the red-orange glow fading from its eyes. Ahhuayo flinched as he, Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona then looked up and saw Troodon then fatally slash the Nekomata with the strike toe claw on one of his feet to put the evil Cat to death and rescue Ahhuayo and the other six. As soon as he had slain the Nekomata, a Talking Dragon appeared and burned the remains of Belladonna's carcass to ashes. As soon as the Dragon had finished the job, Troodon came over to Ahhuayo and the others, a distressed look on his face.
"Ever since that Poisoned Apple of a Fox had showed her true colours towards me and the others who had befriended her," he said in a strangled voice, "I have grown to despise her and that Nekomata's bringing of her carcass to use as a puppet top fight you has ignited those bad memories."
Ahhuayo gazed at the young Theropod as a few Curupira rushed in to scold him when suddenly; screams erupted from nearby, sending alarm tearing through the group.
"MOTHER, UNCLE DROMAEO AND MY SIBLINGS!" screeched Troodon and before anyone could stop him, he had charged off despite the Curupira's shouts for him to return. Ahhuayo, Molayne, Alexandrite, Paddy, Cyril, Link and Desdemona wanted to follow but two of the Curupira ordered them to escape to the fork in the path, which they reluctantly obeyed, while the other Curupira charged off after Troodon.
Ena, Dromaeo and the other Theropods in the family were being mercilessly chased down by a group of Wendigoes, Tenome, evil Tengu and Drop Bears as the evil creatures continued to lash their claws and swords at the group of bipedal Lizards. One of Troodon's cousins nearly had her feet wounded when one of the Drop Bears lunged at her from below and slashed at her feet with its claws only to miss by inches while Dromaeo almost dropped the basket containing the eggs and young Theropodlings when a Tenome charged into his side to get him to drop the precious cargo only for him to jump up and slash the hand-eyed Hag with his sickle-claws to drive it away. The other young Theropods continued to dodge the attacks of the Wendigoes, Tenome, evil Tengu and Drop Bears but Ena, with her cripple as a result of her spinal injury thanks to Troodon and Belladonna's deed, was having greater difficulty. Without her deftness characteristic of a small, fleet-footed Theropod, she was very vulnerable and soon, she tripped and fell. Dromaeo and the other Tehropods of her family continued to rush on when they saw that the adult female Theropod had fallen.
"ENA!" cried Dromaeo. Ena tried to get up but a Drop Bear jumped onto her and restrained her to the horror of her relatives.
"MOOOOOM!" screamed her sons and daughters while her nephews, nieces, brother and sister-in-law let loose horrified screams as a Wendigo towered menacingly over Ena as she was restrained by the Drop Bear. The Wendigo, its bone-white eyes glowing menacingly in the dark blizzard, then raised a lanky, bony hand and prepared its claws but before it could slay Ena with those claws, a screech erupted from nearby; stopping the Wendigo and the other would be killers of the Theropod family. At this, the attackers together with Ena and the other Theropods, shot confused glances this way and that but before they could identify the owner of the screech, a small, fleet-footed Theropod Dinosaur appeared, heaved himself off the snow and flew like a pouncing Cat at the Wendigo, his sickle claws poised to strike. Then before the Wendigo could act, Troodon was on its face and the moment he was on the skeletal Goat-like creature's head, the little Theropod scored his sickle claws over its face. Dromaeo and the other Theropods ducked as a small shower of blood flew their way. Then after severely wounding the Wendigo, Troodon jumped off the creature and leaped onto the Drop Bear, also slashing it across the face with his sickle claws. The Drop Bear immediately jumped off of Ena and grasped its bleeding face, screeching in agony as Troodon made another mark on its paws with another sickle-claw slashed. Then Troodon wildly turned towards the other attackers of his biological family and engaged them in savage combat, using his agility and sickle claws and jaws to dodge their attacks and counter by inflicting them with scratches. While he kept the attackers occupied, Dromaeo helped Ena to her feet and helped her to safety while the siblings and cousins of Troodon looked on in utter astonishment as Troodon raked his sickle-claw over a Tengu's face, making it scream in agony.
Troodon continued his savage attack on his family's attackers while his family continued their escape to safety when suddenly; ginger-coloured comets rocketed in and knocked him off the face of another Wendigo just as he was finishing delivering a sickle-claw scratch to its face. Troodon let loose a surprised screech as the group of demonic gingerbread men, all armed with candy cane weapons, then plunged with him into the snow. While the injured attackers of his family left to treat their injuries inflicted on them by Troodon, Troodon turned his attention in fending off the gingerbread men as they lashed at him with their candy cane weapons. Ena, Dromaeo and the rest of Troodon's biological family watched on as the Theropod lashed its sickle-claws at the gingerbread men as well as snap his jaws at them. Troodon lunged at two of the gingerbread men and gobbled them down before stomping on a few more of the wicked candy creatures of Krampus. However, because he had eaten two of the cursed gingerbread figures, the magical poison built into them by Krampus began to immediately work their sinister effect on the Theropod, and he began to feel his stomach lurch violently as the sickness took hold. Not too far away, Deodara appeared and watched in horror as Troodon began to weaken under the effects of the gingerbread men he had eaten. At this, horror tore through her. Then as Troodon began to lose concentration in fending off the gingerbread men, one of the gingerbread men launched itself into the air and towards the struggling Theropod as he continued to weaken under the effects of the cursed poison of the two gingerbread figures he had swallowed, a candy cane spear in its candy 'hands'. Then to the utmost horror of Deodara and his biological family members, the gingerbread man plunged the sharp end of its spear right into Troodon's hip, making the Theropod scream in agony and Deodara cry in extreme horror, her hands on her cheeks. The gingerbread man then twisted the candy cane to deal more damage and yanked out the weapon before jumping off Troodon so that he could collapse into the snow, his injury bleeding. As he fell into the snow, Troodon's agony-saturated eyes gazed at Ena and the others in his family, especially as the gingerbread men began to swarm him, ready to deliver the fatal blow to finish him off with their candy cane weapons. Ena shot Dromaeo and the others a look.
"We need to help him," she said, "He's in trouble."
Dromaeo and the others apart from a few gazed at Troodon as he lay wounded and helpless on the snow, the gingerbread men piling onto him. He was now too weak to defend himself from these marauding candy minions of Krampus, and those minions were ready to kill the young Theropod. Then memories of their brother/cousin's involvement with Belladonna appeared in Troodon's siblings; and cousins' minds, alongside the resentment they still had for the young Theropod. Dromaeo and his mate also shuddered with rage.
"Dromaeo, guys," demanded Ena in increased desperation. At first, Dromaeo and the others did not reply and continued to gaze at the wounded Troodon under the blanket of cursed gingerbread candy. Then finally, they made their decision.
"Let's go," said Dromaeo, his claws latched onto two of his offspring who would be two of Troodon's cousins.
"B-b-but what about Troodon?" demanded one of Troodon's sisters, she and four other young Theropods, including a brother (not the brother that had attacked Troodon and tried to land him in trouble with Cedrus and Ptériga) who, despite their resentment towards him for causing trouble with Belladonna, wanted to help him. However, one of Troodon's other brothers came in, the same brother that tried to land Troodon in trouble, a resentful look on his face.
"Look, he's caused us a LOT of trouble, especially with that two-tailed Fox rat, okay?" he said, a sour glare on the struggling Theropod under the gang of the gingerbread men, "And furthermore, he has crippled your mother along with that filthy Fox. So let's leave him and let him pay for his actions."
The sister, the four other siblings and Ena continued to protest but at their family's urging, they left Troodon to his fate. This ignited guilt within Ena and the other five as they left Troodon to deal with the gingerbread men by himself.
When they saw Troodon's biological family leave the poor Theropod to deal with the clump of cursed candy himself, Deodara and one of her sisters who had also appeared, drew in horrified gasps and rushed to Troodon's aid. Nearby, Passiflora and her Cherub comrades were viciously destroying the pseudo-Cherub dolls with their swords and arrows, extremely thunderous and volcanic looks on their faces, one of the young male Cherubs even flinging one of the pseudo-dolls directly at Krampus only for the Goat Demon to use his telekinesis to deflect the doll and prevent it from hitting him. While the Cherubs viciously fought their most despised toy minions built by Krampus as an intentional insult to them, Deodara and her sister leaped at the gingerbread men and began to drive them off of Troodon, using her stick as a weapon. She struck some gingerbread men with her stick and smashed them into candy pieces and trampled more of them underfoot while her sister drove away more of the cursed creatures from Troodon who was wounded in the hip and struggling to get up. The moment he was free, one of Passiflora's associates swooped in and seized the weakening Theropod, lifting him off the snow. As soon as he was in his hands, the Cherub began to carry Troodon to safety and for treatment but Troodon looked on as his adopted Curupira mother and aunt continued fighting the gingerbread men when suddenly, one of the gingerbread men, after dodging Deodara's sister's attempts to flatten it with her stick, leaped to one side so that it was behind both Curupira women before launching itself into the air like a pouncing tiger. As it flew towards Deodara's sister with her back turned to her, the gingerbread man aimed the sharpened tip of its candy cane stick for her upper back and as soon as it landed onto the Curupira female's back, it plunged to candy cane weapon into its target like a dagger. The sister of Deodara, upon feeling the extreme agony of the candy cane blow, suddenly went rigid, her eyes bulging out of their sockets and her mouth wide open but with no noise coming out. Then horror tore through Deodara and she screamed, and Troodon in the Cherub's arms as he carried him away to safety flinched violently. Some of the other Curupira nearby, including Cedrus, snapped their gazes in Deodara's direction when they heard her screams and when they saw that one of the two female Curupira had been fatally stabbed, the gingerbread man withdrawing its candy cane from Deodara's sister's back, an EXTREMELY sadistically triumphant look on its face, then dropped to the snow and ran off, its bloodstained candy cane weapon in tow.
Deodara's sister then toppled backwards towards the snow, the demonic gingerbread man looking on with sadistic triumph from a distance as its comrades surrounded it. Deodara seized her sister before she could hit the snow and began to shake her to keep her awake. However, it was too late for the gingerbread man had inflicted a fatal blow on her. Troodon began to cry for Deodara's sister as he was carried away by the Cherub to safety. Deodara continued to shout at her sister to stay awake but when she found herself surrounded by the evil toy minions of Krampus and some of Jadis's minions including Amanita and her nine-tailed appearance and deceptively beautiful sparkling white fur, the Curupira matriarch had no choice but to retreat. The moment the last of her sister's life ebbed away, Deodara placed her body onto the snow, seized her stick and fled for her life for she was unable to drag the now-dead body of her sister to safety due to the dangers, and the grieving for her sister will have to wait. As she fled, some of the other helpers including Cedrus continued to deflect the attacks of Jadis's minions and the toy minions of Krampus as they continued launching a barrage of various attacks such as telekinetically thrown projectiles, spears, venom, venomous whip-like tongues, claws and arrows, among other types of weaponry. While the marauding minions of Jadis and Krampus continued to work together to attack their opponents and manage to kill some of them, the crowd of Narnians continued their hurried struggle back to the fork in the path through the dark blizzard, the young clasped against their breasts or protected by their bodies.