As Brian and Stewie wandered through the snowy woods of Narnia, they came upon an old creepy castle. It seemed to be all towers; little towers with long pointed spires on them, sharp as needles. Their long shadows looked strange on the snow.
Stewie whistled appreciatively. "This is just the sort of house I want to have when I'm older!"
"I don't like the look of this place," Brian said nervously. "I think we should turn back."
Stewie was not to be daunted. "Where's your sense of adventure, Brian? Come on, let's see who lives here!"
The castle was surrounded by a high stone wall. Stewie and Brian had to walk nearly all the way around before they found the entrance gate, which was locked.
"Okay, guess no one's home," said Brian. "Time to go…"
"Rubbish!" said Stewie. "Look, if we climb this big tree here, we can walk across that branch that sticks over the wall and drop down into the courtyard from there."
"We can't do that," said Brian. "That would be trespassing."
But Stewie was already climbing the tree. "Come on, Brian!" he said. "Get your ass over the damn fence!"
No sooner had he spoken those words than he dropped down from the overhanging branch and was lost to Brian's sight. Brian didn't want to go in there, but he couldn't let Stewie go in alone. Sighing, he climbed up the tree himself, walked over the wall, and dropped down beside Stewie.
"I say, would you look at this!" Stewie exclaimed. He pointed at a statue of a lion a few feet away.
Brian examined the stone lion. "It looks so lifelike. Wonder why he's got such a scared expression on his face, though?"
"Look, there's a whole bunch of statues all around us!" said Stewie.
It was true. Stone representations of all sorts of creatures dotted the courtyard. Fauns, dwarves, wolves, bears, foxes, centaurs, winged horses, a dragon, and even a giant.
"I wonder who carved them all," said Brian. He didn't realize that they were real people who had been turned to stone by the evil White Witch.
"If we go inside maybe we can find out," said Stewie. He started towards the main building and Brian reluctantly followed.
The front door of the castle was locked, just as the gate had been, but when Stewie went around the side he found a smaller door that opened when he pushed on it.
"I have a bad feeling about this," said Brian. But Stewie ignored him and headed on inside.
In the castle it was dark, only lighted up by candles. There were more statues lining the halls. Stewie and Brian tiptoed through the halls, peeking into the rooms they passed.
"Hey, this room is filled with books!" Brian said, looking into a chamber.
"Never mind that." Stewie pulled Brian into the room across the hall. "Check this room out."
Brian squinted. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light, he was able to make out the shapes of swords, spears, bows, axes, and maces lining the walls. "I've never seen so many weapons in one place before," he whispered.
"I know, isn't it great?" Stewie was beaming. "The owner of this castle has even more weapons than I do! 'Course, there's no guns or lasers, it's all medieval, but still cool."
"Jeez, what's this person trying to do, start World War III?" Brian breathed.
They kept walking around the castle until they came to a throne room. On a white throne sat a woman whose skin and hair were pale as marble. At first, Brian and Stewie took her for yet another statue.
"Wow, she's beautiful," Brian murmured. He was peering intently at the woman when suddenly she moved!
"Yikes!" Brian jumped back, taken by surprise. Abruptly, a bunch of torches on the walls all lit up at once, seemingly of their own accord, and the room became much brighter.
As the woman stood up from her chair, Brian backed away. "Sorry we bothered you, Stewie and I didn't know anyone lived here. We'll be on our way now…"
"Pray, don't alarm yourselves, friends," the woman said in a sweet voice. "Who may you be? I have never seen you in Narnia before."
"That's because we're not from Narnia," said Stewie. "We come from Quahog, Rhode Island. This is a pretty sweet crib you've got. Was it you who carved those statues?"
The woman laughed. Her laugh sounded like a cat walking across a piano. "You could say that. I'm glad you like my work. What are your names?"
"I'm Stewie Griffin and this is Brian," said Stewie.
"And my name is Jadis," the woman said. "I'm the queen of this country."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, your highness," said Stewie.
Something about her felt off to Brian. "Yeah, it's real nice to meet you," he said, "but Stewie and I really should be going. The rest of the family will be wondering where we are."
"Oh, you have more family?" Queen Jadis said pleasantly.
"That's right," said Stewie. "My parents are Peter and Lois, and I have a brother named Chris and a sister named Meg. Meg's been in Narnia before."
"Is that so?" said Jadis. Her voice still sounded honeyed, and she was smiling, but Brian really didn't like the look he was seeing in her eyes. He wished Stewie hadn't been so quick to tell her about the family. He didn't know why, but it seemed like a bad idea to him.
Brian took Stewie's hand. "Come on, Stewie. We're getting out of here."
"Wouldn't you like a bite to eat before you go?" Jadis wheedled.
"Do you have ice cream?" Stewie asked.
"I have something better. It's called Turkish Delight."
Next to Jadis's throne, there was a statue of a faun. He was Mr. Tumnus, but Brian and Stewie hadn't met Tumnus yet so they didn't know that. Jadis had found out about him letting Meg escape, and she had been so furious that she turned him to stone. She had balanced a tray on top of his horns, turning his body into a makeshift table of sorts. Now she snapped her fingers, and a brimming bowl of something appeared on the table.
"How did you do that?" Stewie exclaimed. "It was just like… magic." He was beginning to be suspicious himself now. He remembered that Meg had mentioned something about a witch when she had told them about Narnia.
"You know, I don't think I fancy any Turkish Delight after all," Stewie said.
Jadis's eyes flashed. "It would be rude not to partake of my hospitality."
"No, I think Brian's quite right. We need to be getting home posthaste."
Jadis reached into the pocket of her dress and pulled out a wand!
"Stewie, run!" Brian yelled.
Jadis shot a spell at them, but they moved out of the way just in time to avoid being turned to stone. They turned on their heels and started running, with Jadis the White Witch in hot pursuit.
She chased Stewie and Brian through the halls of the castle, until they reached the door they'd entered by. They hurtled out the door and into the courtyard.
When they were halfway across, Brian looked back over his shoulder. He saw that the queen, or the witch, whatever you want to call her, was not following them anymore. She was just standing in the doorway. Brian watched her put her fingers to her lips and give a low whistle.
A moment later, a pack of wolves came loping around the side of the castle. They took up the chase where the witch had left off, running toward Stewie and Brian.
"You were right, Brian," Stewie moaned. "This was a terrible idea."
"How are we gonna escape?" Brian cried. "We got over the wall in the first place by climbing a tree, but there are no trees on this side of the wall!"
"Maybe we can unlock the gate from this side," Stewie panted.
They bolted toward the gate as fast as they could. Unfortunately, it was bolted shut by a padlock.
"A combination lock," Stewie groaned.
"It looks like you need three numbers to open the door," said Brian.
"Lift me up on your shoulders and I'll see if I can figure it out!" said Stewie. Brian did so, but Stewie quickly realized that the symbols on the lock weren't ordinary numbers. They were some kind of weird hieroglyphics. Meanwhile, the wolves were getting closer every second.
Stewie twisted the dials frantically, trying to find the combination that would open the gate. At last, just before the wolves reached them, Stewie managed to get them all in the right position by sheer luck. The gate swung upon, and Stewie and Brian fell forward, landing outside.
They pulled themselves to their feet and started running through the snow, with the wolves still pursuing them. Then a thing happened that was bad and not good. Stewie tripped and fell on his face! A pair of jaws closed around his shirt, and Stewie felt himself being lifted by the lead wolf. He could smell the wolf's hot breath on his face and it was not nice at all.
"Brian, help!" he screamed.
The wolf who held Stewie turned tail and headed back toward the witch's castle, and oddly, the other wolves followed him instead of continuing to chase after Brian. Brian watched the wolves carrying his best friend away. What could he possibly do? He couldn't take on an entire wolfpack by himself. He probably wouldn't even be a match for one wolf, to say nothing of their mistress the witch!
Brian decided the only thing he could do was go back home and get the rest of the family to help him rescue Stewie. He hoped nothing too terrible would happen to Stewie in the meantime.