Chapter Three: A tale in the dungeons

"Harry?" Raafxet whispered worriedly once the dwarf had left the dungeon room.

There were once two separate cells but the ice wall had a whole through it allowing the two prisoners to communicate easily. Trying not to make the chains clang too much I joined Raafxet at the whole in the wall.

"Raafxet." I whispered, not willing to talk louder and draw the attention of any guards.

"Are you hurt?" he questioned seriously trying to get a good look at the shuddering human.

"No. What about your injuries? Are they okay?" I whispered, just as worried for his welfare as he was for mine.

"I'll be fine. Your bandages are holding." Raafxet reassured me.

"Raafxet, will you tell me about Narnia? And Aslan? And the White Witch?" I asked hesitantly, not liking that I didn't know anything about this world I had landed in. Especially when I had already drawn the attention of what was most likely to be the only group of people who would wish harm on me without justification.

"It is a very long tale." Raafxet warned.

"We have nothing else to do." I pointed out logically.

"It is not a happy tale," Raafxet still tried to caution me away from the information.

"We're in a dungeon," I reminded him. "I had assumed that the tale of this place wasn't a happy one."

"Very well, then I shall start from the beginning." Raafxet leaned back against the partitioning wall thoughtfully.

"Our law says that the White Queen came from another world, a world known as Charn. She was Jadis, the last Queen of Charn. Much of the knowledge that we received came from Aslan himself and the first daughter of Eve and son of Adam, but that knowledge was incomplete even from the start." Raafex sighed as he thought about the tale and the stories that had been passed down since the creation of their word. At first, the tales had been kept in the line of the first King and Queen but had passed into general knowledge of the Narnians.

"Jadis' sister refused to let her remain on the throne because she was cruel and undeserving. And so, they went to war. It is not said how, but Charn died, leaving only Jadis who fell into an enchanted sleep until she was woken by a Son of Adam and Daughter of Eve who had travelled worlds. You see, they didn't know who this woman was until they had awoken her and, when they realised the danger, they tried to leave her behind. But it was not to be and they ended up in Narnia at its creation. Aslan sang Narnia into existence."

I tilted my head at the phrasing. It made sense that, if this as a different world, they would have a different creation story to the one that I'd read in the bible. Instead of a God creating a world in seven days though his own thought and imagination, this world was formed by another and it was formed through song and words.

"First the stars, then the horizon. As the first dawn touched upon Aslan's golden mane his song changed to bring life to the plants and trees. The witch tried to attack Aslan with a metal pole which did him no harm and was planted like a tree in the ground. That metal pole now marks the beginning of Lantern Waste and the end of Aslan's country."

I blinked in surprise at the image of a lamppost being planted like a tree.

"From the earth, Aslan sang animals into creation. Of each species Aslan picked two which he breathed upon and gave them the gift of speech. He gifted the speaking beasts Narnia as our own, commanding us to be gentle to the wild and wordless beast or we would ourselves cease to be talking beast."

Raafxet seemed to have lost himself in the memories of his youth when he was told these stories by his parents. He had learnt more details from his good friend Tumnus whose father had been interested in the study of history and Narnia's origins. But the base of the story was something that every child of Narnia was told. They were all taught to honour Aslan as their great creator, so that when he someday returned, they knew that he was the one that they owed their existence and their thanks.

"Aslan named the first King and Queen of Narnia of the man who had accompanied the son of Adam and daughter of Eve to Narnia, before he sent the children to fix the evil that they had brought into his land. They were sent to a garden of fruit which could protect and heal but only someone who took the fruit for another would go without consequence. It is said that Jadis had also gone to pick the fruit, but that the Son of Adam ignored her words and fled with just the fruit Aslan had requested.

The apple was planted and grew under Aslan's magic. The tree acted like a border, keeping Jadis trapped to the north. But her magic grew over the centuries that followed, until she was finally strong enough to push against the barrier. You see, Jadis had eaten from the tree which gave her unending life, but that life will be one of evil."

"The first King, Frank, and his wife, Queen Helene ruled in piece and glory. They handed their throne down to their eldest son, while their second eldest son moved to Archenland and became the king of that land.

For 900 hundred years Jadis lived in the Wild Lands of the North, gathering her strength and her forces of evil, waiting to strike against Narnia. Eventually, the Tree of Protection, as it had come to be called, died and Jadis was able to enter Narnia with her army. The rightful King and Queen was killed, our armies killed or turned to stone from her magic. Aslan was kept from Narnia by a magical barrier that she was able to cast over the land when she plunged us into a cursed winter. A winter without end, a winter without Christmas."

Raafxet sighed sadly. "I shall tell you more of Narnia once we have rested."

"Thank you." I said quietly, grateful for his explanation of Narnia and how the White Queen had taken her throne. No other adult had shown such consideration towards me before and I wasn't going to seem ungrateful to him for that.

After hearing the story of this world, and the White Queen, I was sure of one thing: I was no longer in my own world. The tree that had sung such an enchanting song had taken me from my home and dropped me in this place where everything had life and a voice that I could feel, and my very nature seemed to fight against things that should have killed me and offer advice in like a sixth sense or developed survival instinct.

The question was, why and for what purpose?

Updated and edited 10/04/2022