Chapter 77- aftermath and the journey continues
The rest of the evacuees, or those that had managed to survive Jadis, Krampus and their minions' savage attack on them when they disobeyed Aslan's guidance to go down the foggy path that resulted in quite a number of victims getting slain or turned to stone in the process continued to walk quickly down the foggy path with Aslan guiding them with his golden Lion fireball that shone brightly ahead of them in the fog. Kids and small creatures such as the metallivorous (metal-eating) Alicanto Birds kept close to the others to avoid separation and getting lost in the thick fog while pregnant mothers were carried by the stronger and larger creatures such as the Centaurs, Kirin and Unicorns. The aquatic creatures such as the Merfolk, Ichthyocentaurs and Dolphins were pushed in their levitating tanks though a few of them had sustained damage in the form of large cracks in their sturdy glass, or glass-like equivalent to our world's glass, from the attacks of Jadis and company, and the lamps in which the Pyros, among them Emberflame, were still intact except for three of them which had been smashed during Jadis and company's attack, resulting in the Pyros and the Will O Wisp within them being released and exposed to the lethal frigid air. Because they had been unable to seek safety of another lamp, the three Fire Sprites eventually fizzled out and passed away. The darkness and the blizzard brought upon them by Krampus had been lifted and it was now daylight with a light snowfall, but that natural daylight was fading as night, the natural night that is, was fast approaching, the Narnian sun approaching its setting point in the Eastern horizon which was actually also the edge of the Narnian disc for Narnia was a flat, disc world as opposed to a sphere like earth.
As the evacuees continued along under the guidance of their escorts who had been Gandalf's helpers in addition to the new arrivals who had originally gone with Gandalf first but had been called upon by the Kitsune to help the endangered migrants, a large majority of them were saturated with pure terror and heartbreak from the attack of the White Witch, the Father Christmas imposter and their cronies which had resulted in a large number of casualties, fatalities and a few more turned to stone statues. Deodara and her family including Troodon were grieving the loss of Deodara's sister who had been fatally stabbed by one of the gingerbread man with its candy cane spear, and a few of the kids had ended up becoming orphans due to Jadis's attack on them. A clutch of five Ducklings had lost their single mother to Jadis's cronies when one of the Futakuchi-onna whose head-jaws had fatally bitten her when she tried to protect them from the savage Humanoid Yokai beast. While there were those that were grieving the loss of their loved ones from Jadis and company's attack, there had also been casualties, some of who had been fatally injured, such as from the slashes from the venom-laced claws of the Lizard-Men, the biting of the Fiend-Fairyflies, and the Scorpion tail stings from the Manticores, as well as massive blood loss from lethal slashes of swords or other sharp, bladed weapons from Jadis and Krampus's cronies, or burns from the flame attacks of the fiery cronies of Jadis, such as the Hellhounds for there had been several of those Black Dogs amongst Jadis's attackers as well. These casualties were being carried to safety by their comrades and although the majority of those that had been pulled from the brink of death by the application of the Fire-Flower cordial which had healed their fatal injuries and had neutralised any venom they had received from the venomous creatures such as from the Lizard-Men and Manticores (Bursyamo being one of them when he had been clawed across the chest by Ganondorf), the last few were unable to be saved. This was due to the limited and small supply of Fire-Flower cordial the evacuees had due to the low number of Fire-Flowers Gandalf and company had managed to grow, and apart from the cordial still in the possession of Kushanku's group, that supply had run out. And even though the defectors from Jadis's cronies also had some supply of Fire-Flower cordial they had managed to steal from the Witch and their former allies' labs where the cordial was being processed into a form of poison, even that was not enough to pull all the individuals from the brink of death. For those with non-fatal but serious injuries, however, potions of other types had been administered to treat them with the appropriate potion being applied to the appropriate injuries, such as the Fracture-Fix Potion for broken bones much to the sufferers' reluctance due to its FOUL taste, but they knew they had to take it.
After a Cherub and a species of Faun-like Humanoid called an Adlet (who, like Fauns had the upper body of Humanoids but the legs and tail of a Canid rather than the goat legs and tail that Fauns had, and there was a number of them amongst the evacuees), had had their fatal injuries cured with the last drops of Fire-Flower cordial, with the Cherub facing death from massive blood loss and the Adlet from a fatal sting from a Manticore (he had been in EXTREME agony since a Manticore had managed to sting him in one of his Dog's legs with its Scorpion's tail and was dying until now), the Fairy and Belle the medical Mermaid (in her legged land form for she had chosen to walk the way rather than transform into her aquatic form in the tanks) who had applied these drops then gazed at the empty bottles.
"That's the last of our Fire-Flower cordial," said the Mermaid sadly as the Cherub and the Adlet were pulled from the brink of death. Then a flying Ferret-like creature with scythe-like claws called a Kamaitachi flew in. He was a young adolescent Kamaitachi based on his size and had white fur, and had a metallic yellow spot on his forehead and he, alongside the newcomers, had been defectors from Jadis's army.
"I can't believe that we found you so easily," said the hovering Ferret, "I thought you'd have been IMPOSSIBLE to find after you stalled 'our' army for time with your decoys and deletion of your footprints. We had been forced to show our change of alliance when we came upon you like Krampus's dark blizzard…"
However, Belle did not reply to the Kamaitachi's disbelief as she continued to gaze at a fatally wounded Wolpertinger who was one of the brothers of Koga and Janine, one of the individuals she had been unable to save. This Wolpertinger had been stung several times by a Triffid-Mouth when he had been trying to shelf his family from the savage sentient plant, which was actually a corrupted Dryad on the Witch's side, when it lashed at them with its lethal whip-like vine, and this Wolpertinger had taken a large number of extremely painful hits. Now he was dying from the envenomation from the Triffid-Mouth's stinger for like a Manticore's tail stinger, a Triffid-Mouth's stinger vines were highly venomous. Nearby, Janine, Koga and their family stood with streams of tears running down their cheeks as they watched the Mermaid look over their dying relative in despair. The adolescent Kamataichi who hovered nearby also shuddered and began to shed a few tears. He could not believe that his former Mistress and former allies would take such pleasure in torture like this, and although he had not witnessed the Massacre Event yet (he had been at the Narnian beach near where the Cair Paravel Castle would eventually be and helping to haul in the captured Talking Sea Creatures but had managed to help a few of them escape while his 'allies' had their back turned, among them a Merman prince of an underwater city and an only son of the King Merman and Queen Mermaid that ruled there during the event), Teal'c had only begun to realise how immoral, unfair and corrupt Jadis and company were with the Narnians and had begun to think about leaving them, but he had been too afraid to show his change of alliance. Teal'c, at one point had also been part of a thieving group helping to sneak food from Jadis and company to the starving Narnians but he had been caught by his parents and imprisoned for days, along with the other participants in his group when they were caught packing food from the food storage area to take outside the palace grounds. Then the Kamataichi heard a familiar voice call him.
"Teal'c, can you lend a claw over hear please? One of the young Ichthyosaurs had leaped out of one of the tanks," called Ahhuayo who had been one of Teal'c's friends when Teal'c had been a pup. Teal'c flashed one final glance at the Wolpertinger family as they huddled their dying brother/son/cousin, and left in Ahhuayo's direction to rescue the struggling Ichthyosaur and place it back into one of the tanks.
While the evacuees and the newcomers, the defectors from Jadis's army, continued to hurry down the foggy path and treat their injured comrades, Dashiell was being carried in a hammock-like leaf held like a stretcher by another Adlet and a Satyr. The Cheetah had been fatally injured by a combination of a Fiend-Fairyfly attack and laceration from a sword-like candy cane weapon from one of Krampus's gingerbread man minions, and that candy cane weapon had been laced with a poison potent enough to kill an adult Cheetah. Now Dashiell was dying from this poison as it continued to wreak havoc on his system and cause his organs to shut down. As the Adlet and the Satyr gently placed the Cheetah down separate from the other evacuees, Bursyamo (now healed of his fatal Lizard-Man slash from Ganondorf during his battle with him thanks to the application of Fire-Flower cordial), touched down nearby and gave the Cheetah a disgusted, stink eye look. Krimson the Karura, however, was too busy helping the evacuees with his underlings but they too were disgusted with Dashiell and Amberpaw for this whole mess. Nearby, Passiflora the Cherub and an Owl managed to pick out a familiar form flying in the air through the fog. The pair immediately called for the large form to come and land.
"You REALLY have gone and done it, Dashiell," said Bursyamo in a low voice. This voice tone was saturated with utmost disbelief, disappointment and of someone who had lost faith in someone who kept letting them down, "Not only have you attempted to cause division amongst the evacuees, but you have also persuaded a LOT of them into disobeying the Great Lion's guidance and go down a forbidden path where Jadis and company, along with Krampus and his minions, had managed to find us and attack, resulting in so many fatalities, more individuals getting turned to stone and a few more dying. We have used up every last drop of Fire-Flower cordial to rescue as many dying casualties as possible but due to the sheer number, we are unable to save EVERY SINGLE one of them."
Dashiell only replied with an extremely sad and guilt-saturated gaze. The Cheetah was clearly stuffed to the brim with guilt at persuading the crowd into going down the clear path against the escorts' commands, and even worse that of Aslan for the Lion had indicated to the crowd that they should take the foggy path. The Adlet and the Satyr also glared at the Cheetah in utmost disappointment matching that of the lead Basan's glare.
"Not to mention tear so many hearts into two," said the Adlet and with that, the Dog-Humanoid gestured to a family of Goats as they huddled together with tears running from their eyes and down their cheeks. Dashiell weakly flashed the Goats a gaze and flinched with a flash of guilt.
Just then, the noise of pounding of paws in snow occurred nearby, pulling Bursyamo, the Adlet and the Satyr's attention from the Cheetah to the arrival, which was Ptériga with Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Cedrus and also Kushanku, Nyarth, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Ryn, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Paddy, Azula, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne on her back, along with the two Sylphs who had carried some of them. As soon as the Sphinx had touched down, her Sphinx comrades, the moment they saw her and had a wave of relief course through them, rocketed towards her as her riders disembarked from her back. Relief also swept through Bursyamo, the Adlet, the Satyr and many of the other members of the crowd as they saw the arrivals.
"KUSHANKU, GUYS!" called Chicory the Sauropod from the crowd while Tesseract galloped in to meet with Kushanku and company, alongside a few of the other creatures, among them Deodara, her offspring and Troodon and some of the Curupira tribe members the moment their eyes found Cedrus as he dismounted Ptériga moments before her Sphinx comrades rushed in and swallowed her up in a relieved hug. Then as soon as the number of crowd members had met Kushanku and company, the fourteen were pulled into a group hug. While this happened, Ptériga broke her hug with her Sphinx comrades. It was then that Bursyamo spotted an extremely sombre look on the Sphinx's face. Kushanku and company's friends and family also broke the hug with the Nekomata and his friends while Cedrus's family released Cedrus. Nearby, Milky Way and Obsidian met with Trotterhoof and Thundersparx and also noticed that the Raiju and the Pig bore extremely sombre facial looks as well.
"Has something happened?" asked Bursyamo, dread welling within him. At first, Ptériga didn't answer verbally. Instead, the Sphinx lowered her Woman's head and feathered wings. Passiflora and the Owl flew in as the sombre look also formed on Cedrus's face. Kushanku and company also began to weep heavily again. Through the crowd, Dashiell looked up and saw the fourteen but not with resentment, but immense guilt. Then after a while of silence, Sandstorm finally broke it. Nearby, the rest of the escorts continued ushering the crowd down the path.
"While… we were fighting… some of Jadis's… and Krampus's… minions…" began the Cheetah cub slowly, "and when the Witch… herself found us… Mr Gandalf appeared…"
Gasps rolled through the listeners and Passiflora covered her mouth with her hand in shock.
"Did I just hear that right?" asked Tuvok from the crowd.
"Gandalf came in to help!?" blurted out Passiflora incredulously. Sandstorm flashed the Cherub a tearful gaze and broke down again. Then Nyarth continued the Cheetah's explanation.
"Mr Gandalf... came to help us but... he... he... he..." he trailed off, not wanting to mention it. Glances were exchanged between the listeners.
"Nyarth," said Tuvok as he walked in, "What happened to Father?"
Nyarth didn't reply but only broke down in tears and more sobs. Then Thundersparx finished the explanation.
"That nine-tailed Fox was so brave," said the Raiju, "He confronted the White Witch but sadly... he was overpowered and then he was... was..." then he trailed off, not wanting to mention Gandalf's demise at the hands of the Witch. At first silence hung over the crowd but then it dawned upon them. As it did, tears began to well in the eyes of Tuvok, Deodara, the other Curupira present, Bursyamo, Passiflora and the other listeners and some of them began to break down in tears. Keteleeria erupted into tears and leaped into her mother's arms and sobbed, her mother hugging her while everyone else bowed their heads. In the flowing traffic of evacuees nearby, the other escorts who had heard of Gandalf's demise also began to weep as did many of the evacuees. On his stretcher, Dashiell winced and began to weep all the more. It was clear that not only had he endangered everyone else's lives with the loss of some of them but one of the fatalities had also been the father of all the Kitsune species as well.
"Gandalf fought the Witch to save these fifteen," said Cedrus with a gesture to Kushanku and company, speaking in a strangled, tearful voice, "But unfortunately, it didn't end well for him..."
"He's met his end hasn't he?" said Dashiell in a weakening voice, "The Witch had managed to..."
"Yes she has, Dashiell," snapped Nyarth bitterly as his grief over Gandalf's demise took hold. He then stormed over to Dashiell and glared at the adult Cheetah in the eye. Behind him, Kushanku, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Ryn, Crystal, Snowwing, Dahlia, Alexandrite, Azula, Paddy, Link, Cyril, Desdemona and Molayne all came in and gathered around the dying adult Cheetah. Some of them wore saddened looks when they saw the state of Dashiell but a few of them had resentment and rage boiling dangerously within them and that rage was piercing Dashiell through those individuals' frigid and tearful glares.
"Please, I'm your father," pleaded Dashiell to Nyarth but the oldest brother of Kushanku shook his head bitterly.
"Not anymore you're not," snapped Nyarth in a strangled, enraged voice, "In fact you said it yourself back in Mr Gandalf's base that we were no longer your adopted offspring..."
"Nyarth," said Thundersparx but Nyarth swept on, more tears spilling down his cheeks.
"Mr Gandalf is DEAD because of you!" screamed the Nekomata at the top of his voice, making Dashiell flinch harshly much to the shock of Thundersparx, Kushanku, Sandstorm, Satoshi and Ryn but to the agreeing glares of Dahlia, Snowwing, Link, Cyril, Azula and Desdemona. Molayne, Paddy, Alexandrite and Crystal, however, backed away, not wanting to be drawn into the fierce confrontation and blaming.
"If YOU hadn't persuaded so many of the evacuees into going down that foggy path, WE WOULDN'T HAVE HAD FATALITIES, AMONG THEM MR GANDALF!" screeched Nyarth right into Dashiell's face much to the boiling guilt of the Cheetah. Then before Cedrus or any of the other adults could walk in and restrain Nyarth, the Nekomata had turned tail and bolted, sobs escaping from his mouth and tears flying everywhere.
"Nyarth!" called Trotterhoof and with that, the Pig rushed off after the sobbing and devastated Nekomata. Alexandrite and a number of others also gazed sadly at Dashiell, turned round and left one by one. Only Kushanku, Satoshi, Ryn and Sandstorm remained with sad gazes on the dying Cheetah as he wearily lifted his gaze to them. The three Nekomata knelt down by Dashiell's side.
"Y-y-you four," whispered the dying Cheetah sadly and guiltily, "I-I-I-I would like to apologise for all that I have said back at the base..."
"You don't have to apologise, Dad," said Sandstorm, "You were just upset..."
"Yes, especially from Soran's betrayal of us and your surviving of that savage raid on our former home village and town, and not to mention the loss of your mate Honeycomb and Gingerfur," said Kushanku. He winced as he mentioned the loss of his adopted brother and mother to the Massacre Event and to Jadis herself respectively and Sandstorm, Ryn and Satoshi also wept for them for a moment. Dashiell, however, shook his head.
"No, what I have said to you five was completely out of order and unreasonable," said the Cheetah, "I only caused you more emotional damage when that Fox slimeball Belladonna was causing everyone trouble, and I blamed you for the death of your mother and brother and I shouldn't have done."
Ryn then took out her bottle of fire flower cordial and uncapped it but just as she was about to apply the healing potion, Dashiell shook his head.
"No, don't waste that precious resource on me, my adopted daughter," said the Cheetah much to Ryn's tearful gaze, "Save that for future emergencies."
Ryn placed the cap back onto the bottle and packed it away. Dashiell continued to gaze at his son and adopted siblings.
"Now you four go with the others to Archenland," he continued, before moving his eyes from Sandstorm to Satoshi, "My son... my two adopted sons... and my... adopted daughter. Stay there until this horrible Eternal Winter thaws. Also, look after Amberpaw who has also survived the savage attack from Jadis because of me... she may not believe in Aslan like you four but she needs you. Also... look after Nyarth and the others and make sure you obey your new carer Thundersparx and Trotterhoof... a-a-and I hope you can forgive me..."
"We will, Father," said Kushanku in a strangled voice and tearful gaze, "And we do forgive you."
Sandstorm, Satoshi and Ryn nodded in agreement while Thundersparx and Trotterhoof came in and gently put a paw or hoof on the shoulders of two of them. Then soon, Dashiell breathed his last and became still as the last of his strength ebbed away. The Adlet checked the Cheetah's pulse and gazed at Kushanku and the others."
"That's it, I'm afraid," he told the others. Kushanku, Satoshi, Sandstorm and Ryn gazed over their father/adopted father's still body and finally broke down. They buried their faces into Dashielll's dead body and sobbed hard. Trotterhoof, Thundersparx, Cedrus and the others looked on sympathetically before finally persuading Kushanku and the other three gently to leave Dashiell's body to the Adlet, Bursyamo and the Satyr as they lifted the Cheetah's body and carried him away to bury somewhere. Sobbing, the quartet left with Thundersparx and the others and joined the crowd with Ryn applying her fire flower cordial to the remaining dying casualties and pulling them from the brink of death. However, she had been unable to save one or two of them, one of them being Koga and Janine's brother who had passed away before Ryn could make it to him with the cordial. Then while grieving the loss of those that had died during Jadis and company's attack after disobeying Aslan's guidance, including Gandalf the Kitsune who had bravely sacrificed himself to allow Kushanku and company to escape but also everyone else, the evacuee crowd continued their journey, this time being extremely careful to follow Aslan's guiding Lion faced fireball that glowed clearly and brilliantly in the fog and at night for the sun was now set.
Meanwhile
Kyukon and company were preparing to turn in for the night. Kyukon's helpers checked over the salvaged flora and fauna of Narnia as well as the crops and food before retreating to bed and nest. Worry for Gandalf's little group was gnawing at them and they had hoped they were okay, especially since the communication between them had been interrupted when Gandalf had charged off from his hiding place with some of his helpers after watching the migrating evacuees on the magic Narnia map run into trouble with Jadis. And while Gandalf was gone, Perseus and the others with him had taken over the watching of the evacuees on the magic Narnia map while a Faun, two Brownies and a Satyr remained to continue to talk with Kyukon and her group on the communicator screen. However, neither group was aware of the harrowing news that was about to reach their ears.
While Kyukon and company continued their tasks, Alstroemeria who was not far from gaining her ninth tail and transforming into a truly mature Kitsune, and was the wife of Hagrid who was already a nine-tailed Fox (much like Adam and Eve's first descendants and generation of humans who could only marry brothers and sisters and reproduce, the first few generations of Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures had only brothers and sisters to marry and have offspring, but this was because of stronger genes within the individuals unlike nowadays where inbreeding increased the risk of passing harmful genes and genetic diseases onto the children), continued to talk with the Faun, the two Brownies and the Satyr, a very worried look on her face. Alstroemeria, along with her husband Hagrid were to be the next Kitsune Chronicler couple once Gandalf and Kyukon had retired after spending more than 900 years collecting and recording the key events of Narnia's timeline, and the books of Narnia's historical events and prophecies, along with every other book the Kitsune parents had also written during their lifetime of studying and researching, were also safely in the possession of Kyukon's group. However, worry for Gandalf's wellbeing was plaguing the group at the moment, especially Kyukon and her descendants; that is all the members of the Kitsune species including those that had joined Jadis's side and became Nogitsune, such as Belladonna and Amanita.
While Alstroemeria remained occupied in conversation with the remaining members of Gandalf's little group, now led by Perseus, on the crystalline communicator screen, just close to the mouth of the cave where Kyukon and company had retreated, Kyukon was talking with a Basan who had volunteered to go with Kyukon's group rather than the rest of her flock under Bursyamo's command, and also a Thunderbird, a female Komainu and a Phoenix (not Cumulonimbus and Blaze). This quartet and the rest of Kyuon's group had established a communication link with the dwellers of the Narnian Moon community, among them the Moon Viscacha, the dream cloud eating Baku, the Dream Sylphs, a population of strange neon green Humanoids called Little Green Men who resembled our common depiction of Martians in our world, and Grey Moon-Men who resembled the common grey alien also in our world, but also had silvery markings patching their bodies. These two species were close friends with the Star people and often observed the patterns and constellations the glowing Beings made in the Narnian sky though these Alien-like Humanoids cannot interpret future events based on their patterns. THAT was exclusively the Centaurs' gift. Like some of the species of the land dwellers, the Little Green Men and Grey Moon-Men had a few magical abilities like telekinesis and the ability to fly on clouds though they had their own mode of transportation, the Flying Saucers (called UFOs in our world). These Moon Men, along with the other Moon dwellers and the Stars, had formed an aerial observation group high above the land of Narnia and had been tasked with helping Kyukon's group to monitor any changes in the snowy land and the strength of the Witch's spell locking it in the Eternal Winter, but they were NOT allowed to set foot on the ground until the Golden Age Prophecy for obvious safety reasons. And before the Baku, the Viscacha and the Dream Sylphs that had been rescued from captivity by Jadis and her cronies and had been transported via the Bifrost Transporter to Asgard Sky City (which was a city in the domain of the sky and made of shiny solid clouds and inhabited mostly by cloud beings, such as Cloudbirds) and then transported to the Moon, they had been given several crystalline communicators to remain in touch with their friends on the ground to provide updates on their aerial observations of the Eternally Winter-locked Narnian land, and also to provide a communicatory link with the Asgard Sky Citizens.
"It's excellent news that Asgard and his clan of Grey Moon-Men and Martian and his clan of Little Green Men had dispatched a few Flying Saucers from the Moon to observe and monitor Narnia's condition until the Golden Age Prophecy with the aid of Stratus' Cloudbird spies," said Kyukon with a smile at the good news, "at least we have some aerial assistance without us having to exit our cave and examine our winter-locked land and endanger ourselves with the Witch's spies."
"Yes, Kyukon," said the Basan, who was a Hen, "And furthermore, Martian, Stratus and Asgard, who are also experts in magic, have also rigged our communicators to prevent the Witch from accessing the magical transmission between the communicators and interfering with our updates. That way we can communicate safely without any interference from that Devil Woman and her cronies like before when we were just leaving our base behind."
While the Hen was talking, a gust of wind appeared and with that wind was a pile of plant material consisting of bark and leafless branches. The woody tree pieces were riding with the wind through the dark and frigid night air towards Kyukon, the female Lion-Dog and the three Birds just at the entrance of the cave's mouth which had a large boulder partially covering it to allow fresh air to enter the group's new home for the rest of the Eternal Winter hopefully, and when Kyukon and her group turned in for the night, that boulder was moved over the whole entrance to block out any trouble from the outside.
As the pieces of tree bark and branches swept upward and began to take the form of a Humanoid at the entrance of the cave by the boulder, Kyukon, alerted by the small gust of wind, immediately seized a large rock telekinetically, her eyes flashing a neon blue and that rock with the neon blue aura enclosing it and levitating into the air, and glared defensively at the possible intruder while the Basan Hen, the female Komainu, the Thunderbird and the Phoenix looked on in confusion before following Kyukon's defensive gaze to the cave entrance.
"WHO GOES THERE!" barked Gandalf's mate gutturally as she telekinetically held the rock and poised to throw it full force at the intruder, just as Hagrid, Alstroemeria's husband, walked in, his full set of nine ivory and metallic yellow tails sweeping out behind him like Gandalf's tails often did. As the tree bark pieces, branches and twigs took the form of a Humanoid, that Humanoid, an Earth Sprite called a Dryad, spoke.
"Be still, my nine-tailed Kitsune friend," said the Dryad in a Woman's voice, prompting Kyukon to lower her telekinetically hovering rock and her defensive hostility carefully for this Dryad was on her, her group's and Aslan's side, "I bring grave news about Gandalf your mate."
Worry and dread at this report from the Dryad welled within Kyukon and she released her mental grip on the rock, sending it clattering to the floor while Hagrid exchanged worried glances with the Basan Hen, the She-Komainu, the Thunderbird and the Phoenix.