Disclaimer: I do not own the Chronicles of Narnia or any of its characters or fictional land/lands; I am not C.S. Lewis, sadly. I only own the plot and characters not featured in the original books.
She awoke in a pool of her own blood, her head pounding in her skull, as if it was trying to break free. She looked up at the area around her; tall, thin trees were surrounding her, the burning sun shining through its leaves, warming the girl up. She wondered to herself how she had got here; she couldn't remember anything except the word rider, but not a word, a name, Ryder.
Ryder, as we are assuming it is her name, stumbled up onto her feet, still slightly lightheaded, and took in more of her surroundings. It was a pretty forest, with not only towering trees but a selection of bright, colourful flowers and bushes. The great gust of window flew through the forest, blowing the girls hair out of her face, it was sticky with dried blood and then suddenly, a girl appeared, well more like a girls shape but instead of bones and skin, she was the fallen leaves of the tree.
Suddenly, the wind blew the leaf girl towards her and Ryder shielded herself but the girl merely broke apart into separate leaves this time and blew away with the wind. The lost girl looked around puzzled but walked on. She looked down at her clothes, a pair of brown trousers and a white, now dirty and blood stained, shirt with a set of brown leather boots. They were ripped and torn, but how the girl didn't know. Also, what the girl didn't find strange was that she was dressed in men's clothing, and she was obviously a girl.
Then, far away in the forest came the sound of voices; deep, raspy voices. Ryder looked in the direction of the shouts and saw move meant on the ground. A pack of wolves were running towards her.
"There she is!" Someone not visible shouted.
"I see her!" Another said.
The girl looked worriedly around grabbed the nearest weapon, a fallen branch, large a thick and held her stance, ready for an attack. It was instinct what she did next. The Wolves obviously knew she was 'scared' and stopped running and approached her carefully.
"Get back, dogs!" The girl hissed at the Wolves. "Shoo!"
"Did she just call me a dog?" The wolf she was staring at said.
The girl stared at the pack. They had just spoke, human words, English words. "You can talk?" the girl asked.
A wolf at the back of the pack laughed and then said, "Of course, we can! Are you stupid girl? We're Talking Wolves!"
She was not stupid, as far as she was aware, just lost and confused, lacking any memories of getting here to the forest.
"Come on missy, we got to get you to Cair Paravel. The Kings orders."
The name rang a bell and an image flashed in her mind. An unclear man stood over her, sneering at her, snippets of what the man was saying were branded into her mind. "Cair Paravel… The King…must kill him…and the other one."
"I can't go there!" The girl cried, terrified of what she had seen. "Don't take me there!"
"Do you know Cair Paravel?" A wolf asked.
"No but…" She couldn't see a reason for not going except the memory that was ringing clearly in her head. "I won't go." She refused.
"Now, don't be difficult. You be perfectly safe at Cair Paravel, the monarchs provide the best care possible." The same wolf said.
The girl shook her head. "You have to drag me there then, I'm not moving from here."
"Alright then, be difficult. Get her boys but be careful not to bite too hard."
The girl was ready for it, holding the thick branch across her body. The whole pack attack at once, she used the strong branch to throw three Wolves that had knocked her down off of her and using her back and bum, she jumped back onto her feet bracing herself once again for an attack. One Wolf attacked from the left and another from the right, so as she whacked the Wolf attacking her right across the head, knocking him back into a tree and then the Wolf on her left, attack opened mouth and bit into the strong branch, she used all her strength to ram the Wolf into a nearby tree and loosen the branch. That was 5 out of 10 Wolves down. The other five were obvious more reluctant to just attack they were planning a strategy to disarm her. She watched every move they made then two Wolves attack her middle and she once again fell back to the ground, this time loosing grip of the branch as they starched at her hands. She pushed the one off her body with her feet and elbowed the other in the snout, causing it the cry out in pain.
Now, this was very exciting to watch, but the Wolves were running patient. They had a time to keep to and they hadn't expected such a small girl to be able to fight off the majority of their pack.
As she was disarmed she knew she'd have to fight with bare hands but they were big, strong wolves and she could only do so much to keep them off. She looked up above the heads of the three Wolves and noticed a low, strong branch sticking out from the smooth tree, then she looked at how the Wolves were lined; one at the front and two at the back. And then, suddenly the front Wolf attacked and the girl took her chance. She jumped up onto the one Wolf, stamping down onto his back causing him to buckle under her weight and then she jumped and kicked one of the two back Wolves in the snouted jumped up on the other and stretched up to the single branch grabbed hold of it and with all her strength, bleeding scratched hands, pulled herself up onto the branch.
She watched as the recovered Wolves circled the base of the tree. "She was right about being difficult." A Wolf said to another licking the blood the open wound on another Wolf's head.
The must have waited there for I don't know how long, watching the girl and then, finally, the sound of horses approached and before the poor girl could turn her head and sharp prick hit her neck. She pulled the mysterious stick out of her neck and looked down at it through sleepy eyes and sleeping dart. And then the girl fell back out of the tree and luckily, a man with half a human body and half a horse's body caught her.
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