Well, this is it!

It may be a disgracefully rushed chapter, because I have approximately half an hour to write it today, unless I stay up terribly late this evening. Which is sub-ideal—but I'll do it if I have to, I suppose! even if it earns my parents' surprise.

My response to the prompt is somewhat inspired by an excellent fanfiction, but I cannot recall whose; Sophia the Scribe, perhaps?

Prompt #7: Tumnus, the Beavers, Aravis, Cor, Corin, someone else—write one or more reactions when they hear that the Pevensies are gone.

I suppose you could say that I have never really known despair; there is always the light at the end of the burrow, and maybe even freedom.

Abruptly the crystals of fire shattered in front of Taira's despairing gaze, and a face she had longed to see popped through the gap.

"We've come!" Paddy grabbed her, none too gently, and dragged her out, shaking with relief. The spectre above her exploded into darkness as the other Fox, Eric, lunged for the Hag, and Taira felt a flash of victory and delight. She hadn't failed.

Then she twisted herself to her feet and looked around. Everywhere there were Animals fighting, alyen and tairen locked in an epic battle. Paddy and Eric were working to break everything connected with the near-resurrection of the Witch, their movements methodical and wary. Paddy ripped the scroll in half, and the Wolf who had assisted the Hag screamed in fury and flung himself at the Fox.

Taira watched, horrified, as Paddy leaped away just in time, shoulder laid open by the Wolf's fangs. Eric came to his aid and together they managed to defeat the Wolf.

She found the fight going on all around her, but was strangely disconnected from it. Her part, what little she could do, was done; for Rabbits, as everyone knew, were not fighters, especially when they had practically no fur left and were shaking with cold.

It ended at last, with the tairen victorious; although they had been victorious, in the manner that mattered most, ever since Paddy shattered the circle and rescued her. All the alyen gathered were either dead or already far, far away—apart from one.

"Please, let me go," begged her father. "I—I never wanted to fight. They made me. Let me go, and I'll never try and get Alya back home, I promise."

Taira limped forward, discovering she had stiffened up significantly as the fight raged. "There is no one named Alya here."

He glared at her, eyes narrowed. "Just let me go."

"You were trying to resurrect the Witch," she whispered. "You were trying to use me to resurrect her."

"It's your—" he started, and stopped again. "I won't bother you again, any of you. I'll just live in my patch, if you only let me go. I have a wife and children to care for."

The rest of the tairen were silent. It was Taira's decision to make.

"Go, then," she said, heaviness weighting her words. "Abide by your words and leave. And... if you want it, Aslan go with you."

He hesitated, glancing around the group. "Goodbye." Another long pause, and she wondered why he did not leave. "Goodbye... Taira."

And her father left, and she unexpectedly found her voice did not work, as she watched the lone Rabbit lope back the way he had come.

Then Paddy's fur became a measure of comfort as he leaned up against her. "Come on," he said softly. "We need to get you back home, to Cair Paravel."

She was vaguely aware that she was dreaming, and yet that it was something of time past.

"Gone!"

The word flashed through the countryside, and some were rejoicing, and some mourning.

"Gone," whispered a Faun, tears running down his face. "Our Kings and Queens, oh, what will we do now?"

"We will continue as we have before," a Beaver reminded him. "Aslan will be with us."

In a dark corner several Wolves rejoiced. "Gone, and we will once more flourish!"

And somewhere else, a milk-white creature bowed his head in mourning for what he had done.

Then Taira awoke; and tomorrow, she remembered, they would reach Cair Paravel, and the rest of her life could begin. Somehow she was no longer afraid.

In the throne room of Cair Paravel stood a single figure.

They all paused, for it was not the figure of the reigning King.

"Aslan," breathed the tairen, his tairen.

"Children," he said gently, his voice warm and rich and just how Taira had imagined it. "You have done well."

They went to him, one by one as he asked for them, and spoke quietly, until only two were left. Paddy was shifting nervously, looking this way and that, and Taira guessed it was something to do with the incident of the plant. "What will I say to him?" he whispered.

"Perhaps you won't have to say anything," suggested Taira softly.

Then Aslan's voice, very gentle and yet terrible, said, "Schilpaddie."

Paddy walked slowly towards him, his legs shaking. "Aslan, I'm sorry."

Aslan spoke to him, and though Taira could not hear the words she knew it was both rebuke and encouragement, and Paddy caught her eye and smiled as he walked away. All was well; and she would have time to talk, time to really get to know him, all the time in the world, and here she had Aslan. She was tairen, and all would be well.

"Taira."

She walked towards him and looked for an instant into his face, then her gaze dropped again, the power and love in his gaze almost too much to bear.

"Well done, Daughter."

"I'm sorry, Aslan." It seemed all she could say.

"I know, and you are forgiven."

All her failures rushed towards her and enveloped her, but Aslan's voice broke through the pain she was remembering.

"You have done well, Daughter, and all Narnia is grateful.

"They will need your strength soon, for dark times are coming. Be sure you do not fail them, or fail me. And I will breathe on you, and I know that you will do well, and one day you will enter my Country, if you remain courageous.

"Be strong, Taira."

And that's that! I'm awfully sorry for the so short chapter; I had very little time to do it today, but I hope it wraps it up nicely! I had so much more I would have liked to add in here, and in the whole story, but that's part of the 'fun' of this challenge, I suppose. Maybe I'll rewrite this sometime, and actually make these characters proper and so forth. If I rewrite it, though, I suspect it'll have a lot more words to it.

Also, in case you were curious about the italicised portions at the start of the chapters, they were single-sentence entries from Taira's diary, written before these events (I made them all up as I went along, but still.).

The quote that originally inspired this was, 'You can always get them back,' from Prince Caspian. I just got to thinking, surely that Hag wasn't the first to try resurrecting her, and what if during the time before the Telmarine invasion, say, there were two camps of animals in uneasy not-so-truce where one was trying to act and the other to prevent them, and it was sort of a ticking time bomb, so to speak? Not sure I presented it very well due to the time constraints, but that was my thought.

Also, fun fact, yes, Paddy's full name has been Schilpaddie this whole time, and also fun fact, if you search up the name you should find where I got it from originally.

Thanks to the Adventures in Narnia organisers, BrokenKestral and trustingHim17. I've had a lot of fun both writing and reading everyone's stuff! I enjoyed it, even though some of these prompts are positively cruel when combined with my own personal challenge to create a single story. On my own head be it, I suppose.

This is, so far, the longest fanfiction I have yet written in its entirety. Despite the many flaws and where it's fallen down badly, I'm surprisingly proud of it. I do expect to come back to it, though; whether as fanfiction, or maybe, I might try filing off the serial numbers, so to speak, and creating my own original story out of it—because after all, a large part of it is set up around a conflict I to some extent dreamt up. If I ever do, though, I will make sure I mention it, either here or on my profile.

One other thing: a song that is basically the theme song of this story, and a song that I love. Please listen to it! It's so beautiful. (And remove the spaces.) www. youtube watch?v=HE 9ImDkscCQ

Thank you, again, for such a fun and hectic week.

Please review. I'll read every review I'm given, no matter how long after this is written, and I'll be happy. :)

Thank you all.