Chapter 5: Tea with Dryads and Hamadryads

The Dryads and Hamadryads led the children through the lifeless forest. Anne was expecting a lively trek where the Dryads and Hamadryads would tell them stories or jokes in the very least but they had been cautioned not to even breathe a word. As if that was not enough, they insisted on grouping around the children so that they could be hidden by their height. At first William and John protested most vehemently at this but Laura, as was in her nature, was quick to spot the rationale behind this seemingly idiotic notion and told the boys to hold their tongue.

"But Laura!" hissed William.

"Boys and their mentally-deformed egos," she shot back and Anne had to snigger, which earned her a frown from William.

"A little nearer," said the leader Dryad, whose name was Mapha. Laura folded her arms and looked a little worried. Anne reached up and touched her sister's hand and smiled. "It'll be all right, Laura."

Laura smiled back at her, but the worry did not go. "Anne, these people could be anybody."

"But they're good people," she insisted, "I know they are. Do stop worrying a bit."

Laura laughed a little. "I suppose I should." She sounded defeated.

"I'm sorry, Laura," said William suddenly. Laura gave him a surprised look. "Whatever for?"

He shrugged. "I dunno, I just felt like saying it," he grinned. Laura laughed again, and that laughter seemed almost music to Anne's ears, now that she had time to listen and appreciate it. It was happy, and glad, but also sad and noble and forgiving. William laughed too, and his was a deep and warm and rich sound that shivered and calmed her senses.

"Oh, will you two stop it?" said John crossly. "Giggling as if we're on our way to a picnic. I hope that you've had sense enough to realise that we're in a very sticky mess."

"Look at it this way, John," said Laura with as much kindness, Anne suspected, as she could muster, "they saved our lives. Goodness knows, if they hadn't come, we'd be as good as dead."

John seemed to sober up. "You're right, I suppose. But still, they might be up to something you know. Just a possibility."

William nodded. "We've got to be on our guard. Plus, this isn't England either." If Mapha, or any of the Dryad or Hamadryad had heard their conversation, they did not show any sign of it.

Finally they came to what it seemed like the dead end of a giant rock formation when Mapha went forward and stood alone before a thick, tangled curtain of hanging, dead money-plant whose leaves were shrivelled and almost black with age. Its ends disappeared into a thick cluster of thicket that grew up to about Laura's knees. Anne was curious as to what he was doing, and what was about to happen.

The curtain of leaves suddenly twitched. Anne gasped in surprise. A few tense seconds ensued, then the curtain parted and a black, white-striped head poked out and peered at the Dryad.

"Why! It's a Badger!" exclaimed John.

The Badger turned to look at him at once and gave a little scream that startled the children greatly. Mapha quickly put a finger to his lips to silence him. "Hush! Hush, Padtail! Hush, or the servants of Gurd will hear us!"

"The servant of – what?" said William blankly.

"Of Gurd!" said Mapha. "But of course you don't know about him. We'll tell you all about him later."

"Mapha!" gasped the Badger, Padtail. "Are they really – are they? I am old, I can't see properly – and I don't want to hope – oh, Mapha! Mapha!"

"Not so much fuss, will you, dear Padtail? Let us in so we can have a nice tea, then everything will be sorted out."

"Sorted out! Sorted out!" said the Badger, thinking it over, and then he nodded furiously. "Yes! Yes! Come in now, come in! The others will be glad to see you, all of you!" He disappeared into the thicket. Mapha beckoned for the other Dryads and Hamadryads to enter, and then to the children. Before they entered, Mapha noticed the hesitant looks on their faces and said assuringly, "All will be explained."

Laura nodded, but she still looked suspicious. "I certainly hope so."

"No fear, Laura!" said Anne, grinning.

Laura laughed and said, "No fear indeed." She went in first, followed by William, then John, and Anne went in after him. Mapha brought up the rear. She pushed her way through the thick brush, but it proved extremely difficult for her as every time she pushed some apart, more snapped back at her and stung her in the face. Evil bushes, she thought sourly, but Mapha who seemed to sense her discomfort, whispered a string of incomprehensible words and the thicket gave her no more trouble after that.

Suddenly, she stumbled out into a small grotto that looked to be even smaller than the room she shared with Laura in their house in London, and that was saying something. A feeble fire with a simple arrangement of sticks over it burnt dimly in the middle of the grotto. The Dryads, the Hamadryads and the boys sat around the fire while Padtail and the girls prepared tea for them. A teapot was set to boil over that small fire. William had some sense to throw pieces of brush into the fire to make it the flame bigger. Laura cut some bread and spread some butter on them while Anne distributed them. When the tea had boiled, they drank from the teapot as it was passed around.

Soon the tea and the bread had disappeared and they got to business.

"Gurd," said Mapha, "is the lord of this land; the King. But that is a self-proclaimed title. Even then, had he been a good and kind King, we would have accepted his reign, but he was cruel."

"Heartless, to be exact," said Padtail. "Never cared about anyone except himself."

"And he kills at will," said a Dryad named Rathan.

"True," said Mapha. "However so, some of the animals here fear him, and therefore they accept him and adhere to the laws he had made, and these are called the servants of Gurd. We call them servants because they are willing to do whatever he orders them to do."

"If an innocent foal is ordered to be killed, it will be killed," said Rathan glumly.

"And who has not heard of stories of the Old Country, the stories that had been passed down from father to son through the tests of time?"

"Why?" said Laura, back to her worried self again. Anne could tell that she had sensed something amiss, but she didn't know what. "What do they say?"

"In every story that has been passed down from our ancestors," said Mapha slowly, "the Sons of Adam and the Daughters of Eve are the Kings and Queens of Narnia."

"Beloved of the Lord Lion and bringers of peace and justice!" exclaimed Padtail.

"Heroes!" said one Hamadryad.

"Saviours!" exclaimed another.

"Most importantly," said Rathan, "they were beloved and favoured by the Lord Lion himself!"

"Who's that?" asked Anne.

"A great Lion," murmured Padtail in a dreamy voice, "a Lion so great and magnificent that all bow before him and take comfort in his presence. A Lion whose words are law and whose movements are almost of Magic itself." Suddenly, everything was hushed. Anne could feel the slightest tremor in the air shivering off the walls of the grotto, and she shook a bit and gathered her knees to her chin.

"Yes," said Mapha slowly, "did you feel it? Magic! It always feels like this when we speak of the Lord Lion."

"As if he hears," added Rathan, "and approves."

"But where is he?" said William. "Is he – er, dead?"

"Dead!" exclaimed Padtail, "or alive? We don't know now, do we?" The Dryads and Hamadryads shook their heads and muttered words like, "No, we don't."

Laura frowned. "But how – then you've only heard of him – in stories?"

"Why, yes!" said Padtail again.

"Then I'm sorry to say that this is absolute bosh!" said John crossly, standing up, "I'm not going to be taken in by this any further. Do you really think you can make me stay by telling a made-up story about a magical lion and a few kid heroes? You're all up to something, I know, so I'm not staying here any longer. Let's go, Laura!"

"John, what the heck are you doing?" said Laura, and she did not bother to keep her voice down. "Sit down now!"

"Laura – surely you don't believe them?" he asked back, wide-eyed.

"I – I - " she glanced at their despairing faces and back to him, "I do. I believe them."

"What?" he yelled.

"You're being a most frightful ass, John. Sit. Now," said William with a hint of restrained anger in his voice.

"Oh, John," said Anne quietly, "We can sort all this out later. I promise we can. And it's not nice of you to yell so."

"SHUT UP!" exploded John. His face turned extremely scarlet and his blazing eyes fixed themselves on Anne. "If you want to stay here and, I dunno, get yourselves killed: fine with me! But I'm going! I'm going home, and I'll tell Miss Pevensie what you've been up to – then when all of you decide to come home, there'll be a nice caning for all of you."

They were all stunned. As hot-tempered as John may be, they had never seen him lose his temper this way before. William, however, seemed to be even more infuriated by this outburst.

"All right," he said coldly, getting to his feet, "If you think you're so clever then go on! Be a tattletale! Get yourself lost! See if you can find your way out of this place without any help!"

"William," said Laura. Her voice was quiet, but decidedly steely. "William, sit and keep your mouth zipped. John – please – you don't know this place. Stay, and then we'll decide what to do." William obeyed, his cheeks burning.

"No," said John bitterly. "I don't want to be here, or anywhere near all of you. You make me sick." He turned abruptly and pushed his way through the thicket.

Anne's jaw dropped. "John!"

"John!" shouted William. He jumped to his feet and went after him.

"Will! Get back here!" yelled Laura, getting to her feet also.

"We've got to go after him – he doesn't know what he's doing!"

"I say – STAY!" she turned to the Dryads. "I'm terribly sorry about this. Can you – you know – help us find our brother? I mean, you do know your way around this place, don't you?"

Mapha nodded. "We will most definitely help as we are the cause of the rift between all of you."

"No," Laura shook her head. "It's not your fault." On her way to the mouth of the grotto, she stepped on something soft, and picked it up. It was John's coat.

Now that the anger had dissipated somewhat, John was beginning to feel the first flutter of panic. Not only had he left his coat back in the horrible, stuffy grotto and the cold was biting into his skin, there was not a sign of anyone whom he could ask for help.

'Get yourself lost! See if you can find your way out of this place without any help!'

His temper flared up again and he unleashed it on some brambles standing in his path, kicking at it as hard as he could. "Damn you, Will!" he cursed under his breath. Now he was lost. Definitely lost. No thanks to his nosy brother!

Suddenly he heard a snap and crackle of branches. He whirled around, his heart stopping, but all he found was a raccoon, looking timidly up at him. He had to let out a laugh, and he couldn't help but say, "Oh, it's only you."

The raccoon lowered his head, as if respectfully and said, "Indeed, aye, it is only me, Son of Adam."

John gave a yelp and took a step back but tripped and landed on the brambles. "You – you talk!"

The raccoon laughed gently and nodded. "Aye, sir, some of us, the animals here, do talk. Talking here shows our level of intelligence, you know."

John snorted. "Yeah, I guess."

"Pray tell what is your name?"

"I'm John," he replied, and on second thought, "You?"

"Meridian," said the raccoon.

Like the time zone-thingy, thought John as he refrained a giggle. A light-bulb went off in his head. "Say, Meridian, do you know the way out of here?"

The raccoon's head shot up. His bright, black eyes stared back at him for a few seconds, then he said, "I do."

"Goody," said John, breaking into a grin, "because I've got to go back at once. I don't want to keep my, er, guardian waiting. Can you show me the way?"

The raccoon smiled and lowered his head respectfully again. "Of course, sir. Anything for the Son of Adam."