Wow, I'm going to break 10K today!

This story has gone in a little weird direction, and certainly not what I intended; hopefully, though, you still enjoy it! I'm enjoying writing it, that's for sure.

And on that note, I'm not sure whether I'll run out of story, or prompts, or neither... it could go either way.

I appreciate all your reviews! You're spoiling me, because after this I'll post something and as usual the review page will remain barren for a while, and I shall be sad... alas!

Anyway, on to the prompt. I rather like this one, even though my automatic reaction was to simply answer 'no' and get on with the story. ;)

Prompt #5: Do Animals keep animals as pets?

Sometimes I wish I had never discovered that truth, and that happy lies could have cloaked my existence.

It surprised Taira how easily she settled into the routine of trailing the rowdy little group.

They stopped irregularly; sometimes she would get a couple of hours to sleep during the day, uncomfortable still above ground, before they at length continued on, but sometimes she wouldn't get any time to pause at all, as they marched and chanted Paddy's chant, "To Cair!"

In which Paddy was conspicuous.

Far ahead, during blazing noon—she never quite remembered which day it was—the first signs of Cair Paravel became visible. Several sentries, in what looked like uniforms (Animals, wearing uniforms? It was strange), were avoided successfully by the alyen, who managed to creep almost as quietly as a drunk Rabbit. Taira had no idea how they were not apprehended.

Then someone sprang out from behind a tree and gave chase. Taira ducked, dodging this way and that as the alyen fled past her. A Dwarf's boot kicked her in the side and winded her for a moment.

Not sure what else to do, she scurried after the group.

As she caught up to them, she watched the zealous young tairen—another Fox who bore a strong resemblance to Paddy—be overpowered and trapped by the alyen. He did not make a sound, but his gaze met that of Paddy, who looked horrified for a second before composing himself.

A Cat shot Paddy a sideways look. "He needs knocking out, Paddy. Why don't you prove your allegiance?" There was suspicion in his tone, and everyone turned to stare at Paddy. Dread coiled in Taira's stomach and she froze.

Paddy stared at the Fox.

The Fox stared at Paddy.

Then the Fox's eyes narrowed and he said, "Go on, Paddy. Hit me... alyen." It seemed difficult to say, and Taira guessed they already knew each other.

Paddy glanced around desperately, and bolted.

The Dogs gave chase. Someone else hit the unnamed Fox, who was screaming for help, until he lay silent, blood slowly pooling beside him.

Torn over what to do, Taira lingered for a moment too long. Dragging Paddy kicking and struggling, the Dogs returned, and she knew she couldn't leave now, not before she saw what happened with Paddy.

Paddy uttered a cry of "Eric!" as he saw the other Fox lying on the ground. He turned fiercely on his captors. "What have you done?"

"Taken care of him," said the Cat coolly. "As you wouldn't, traitor."

"Trying to hitch a free ride to Cair Paravel?" jeered one of the Dwarfs, pulling out some rope. "Well, here... you've trespassed on our hospitality long enough."

Paddy's eyes widened in horror. "The guards will be coming soon!" he said, words tumbling over each other in his haste. "You—you can't do that!"

"Now what, little Fox, are you expecting me to do?" sneered the Dwarf, taking a step nearer. Paddy snarled and glanced around, but there appeared to be no escape. "I have several options, you know."

"If we work quickly," suggested the Cat, "they can find him with his eyes all bugged out gasping for air."

Taira suppressed a gasp of her own, flinching. They were going to hang him?

"Or we can just tie him up." The Dwarf took out a wicked-looking knife. "No shrieks, tairo, or this is going between your ribs."

They were so close to Cair Paravel that Taira found it difficult to believe that the alyen could get away with any of this. But they worked rapidly, tugging the rope cruelly tight on him.

"He was trying to trick us," said another Dwarf, putting the final knot in place. "He had some reason to come back here. Let's take him back again!"

Several seized an end and began to drag him, the Fox bouncing unhappily across the rough ground.

"Tairen—run!" hissed a Snake who had been curled up around one of the Dwarfs' necks.

They ran, Paddy emitting squeaks of pain. Taira hesitated. On the one hand, she wanted to join the tairen rather than putting herself in danger once again, being so close to alyen. On the other hand, Paddy had been good to her, and had protected her until his own downfall in joining with the alyen.

She followed them, running away from the tairen she had spent so long planning to join.

The alyen still outnumbered the tairen two to one, but the proximity to Cair Paravel was risky for the alyen, as many tairen could swarm on them the moment they realised it was not just an isolated incident.

A couple of tairen, she observed with a fleeting glance behind, had stopped to tend to Eric, Paddy's friend, leaving them still more outnumbered.

Inwardly, she wished Rabbits were not so gentle, so little liking war that she had no idea how to fight. It was the bucks who always fought, not the does, otherwise she could have been some help in the fight a few moments later.

The tairen were routed, the alyen bold enough to leave Paddy completely alone as they gave chase.

Taira saw her chance, and dashed towards him, hoping to release him while they were gone; a faint chance, because the rope was thick and the knots many. Paddy's gaze fell on her as he squirmed, and his eyes widened.

"Taira?"

"Paddy—Paddy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said before getting a mouthful of rope. The harsh fibres were painful to the tender inside of her mouth, but she gnawed as quickly as possible, going for the next rope as soon as the first was thin enough that he could break it.

He got one paw free, shaking it vigorously, and then they heard the alyen crashing back towards them. With a mighty heave Paddy fought his way out of the tangling rope, apart from one knot holding his hind legs together. Taira chewed frantically at it, taking Paddy's accidental kicks in the face without a whimper. It snapped and he fled.

Taira stayed a moment, struggling to get the painful stuff out of her mouth, and in that moment a quick-thinking Cat grabbed her. She had only exchanged Paddy's captivity for her own, and it was bitter to once again be in the power of the alyen.

All that Paddy had done for her had been thrown away.

She didn't think it could get any worse (unless they decided to hang her) until one of the Dogs looked intently at her and said, "It's the little white Rabbit who used to live over in the Rabbits' spot! What's your name, little Rabbit?"

Taira was still trying to swallow harsh fibres, and so there was a momentary pause until she managed, "Taira."

A Cat picked her up by the scruff of the neck and shook her, quickly and hard, so that the world seemed to rattle around for a good while longer even after she had been dumped back onto solid ground.

"That's no name to be had," said the Dog. "But we can use you. And luckily I remember your name now, Alya."

The painful strictures of her past life, which she had just begun thinking was over for good, closed tightly again, like the jaws of a steel trap.

They allowed her to run free.

Within the group, at the very centre, in fact: but she had to get herself along on her own four paws, and they were going to make no concessions for her. It was good not to be tied up as Paddy had been; but every step she took with the alyen felt like a betrayal to Paddy, to the tairen, and most of all to Aslan.

She wondered, as they retraced their steps, if Paddy was trailing her as she had trailed him. But she never had a chance to go into the night alone, and so she did not know. If he had called her then, though, she would have called back, never minding the consequences.

At some point they came across a small dumb cat, and one of the Cats seemed delighted, calling it by name; but it scented the Rabbit in their midst and tried to get at her. For the rest of the journey Taira had that Cat by her side, protecting her from its dumb pet cat, who remained with them.

They crossed the ill-fated spot where Paddy had first scented the alyen, and in a way it felt like there the journey really began; like his apparent betrayal and brief lapse had never happened. And when they passed the place where she met Paddy for the first time, accusing her of being alyen and nearly killing her, Taira felt drearily that all this had been a dream—the illusion of freedom. She was alyen from her birth, and perhaps that couldn't change.

Maybe the whispered tales and fragments of information she had gleaned had been wrong. Maybe Aslan hadn't been there as a kindly and beneficial redeemer. And maybe the Stone Table, which nobody had seen above ground in lifetimes, had never cracked signaling the Lion's rule.

Maybe it was all dreams.

They were passing more and more familiar places. Rabbit holes loomed nearby, inciting a dread she had not known when it was her home. It was both wonderful and dreadful to have returned.

Then she spotted her father grazing.

In the darkness of memory she saw him lunge, heard the hiss of Get out. Saw his quick anger and scented the poison of that plant on his breath.

Next to her, two Cats closed in, their furry sides pressing against her own in a manner that was a fleeting reminder of home and family: everything she had thrown away to declare her allegiance as tairen.

They marched her straight to her burrow, and one called in an authoritarian manner, "Anyone inside that burrow, come out at once."

First came one of her littermates, who stopped short. "Alya?"

She was silent, grief striking her like a physical force. It was all back to where it had started. Nothing had changed. How could she have thought it would do so, magically? Taira. It was no longer a beacon of hope, but something that taunted her, infused with wistfulness. Her brief freedom had made the captivity seem still more loathsome, but had somehow quenched almost all of her defiance.

Then she came face to face with her mother, who came and nosed her gently, hesitantly. "Alya," she said. "You're home."

She longed to throw the name back in her mother's face, but she found her voice didn't work.

Why had she been returned home? What was she there for?

They need a white animal, whispered Paddy's voice in the back of her mind, and she knew that was the reason. Even worse than being trapped in the alyen community was the dreadful knowledge that soon, they would use her to further the plan the tairen had been working against ever since the great battle after the Stone Table.

And she had no one to turn to.

I'm afraid this is a rather poor chapter. It does cover the essentials—yep, one paragraph covers the prompt—but not particularly well. I was most of the way done, planning to revise it because I didn't like the wording, early this morning, but then had to go and get tested for mild symptoms, and a large part of the rest of the day I was feeling rotten for some reason.

Oh well.

What do you think? Do tell me. In as excruciating detail as you possibly are willing to! I'll read any length of review!

Any more ideas on the words' meaning (there was at least one clue dropped here), and the quote inspiring this?