A/N: I'm so so so so so sorry it took me so long to get this up. Things have been beyond hectic lately but they're starting to slow down so hopefully I'll have the next chapter out soon. Anyway here it is enjoy!

Disclaimer: It isn't mine.

Chapter 3

The children reached the witch's house just in time to see Edmund walk in the front doors.

"Edmund!" Lucy yelled.

"SHHH she'll hear you." Mr. Beaver. He saw Peter move forward and he lunged while shouting, "NOO you can't go in there. That's what she wants."

"But he's my brother!" Peter said still struggling.

"Don't you get that's what she wants, he's the bait. She needs all four of you." Mr. Beaver said. Peter stopped struggling and was trying to work through something when all of a sudden he rounded on Meg.

"This is all your fault! If you had just stopped him while he was leaving this never would have happened." Peter yelled.

"And like I told you before if I had stopped him he would have gone at a different time and none of would have known." Meg yelled back.

"You still should have done something. How could you just let him leave? To her place esspically." Peter shouted

"I'm not going to get into this with you Peter. I did what I thought was right." Meg said her voice going to a normal tone but you could still see the anger in her eyes lurking beneath the surface. Peter opened his mouth to respond when Lucy spoke up.

"This isn't helping Edmund." She quietly murmured.

"She's right the only ope for him now is Aslan." Mr. Beaver said.

"Then take us to him." Peter said with a determined look on his face.

Mr. Beaver and the children quickly rushed back to the damn. Mrs. Beaver coming and seeing the hurried and panicked expressions went inside and started rushing around packing things she thought they might need.

"We have the secret police after us, what are you doing?" Mr. Beaver asked.

"You'll thank me later, Beaver gets cranky when he doesn't have anything to eat." Mrs.Beaver calmly explained,



"I'm cranky now!" Mr. Beaver shouted. Suddenly there were scratching noises outside and pounding on the door.

Mr. Beaver led the group to a secret passage and ushered them inside. As he led the way through the twists and turns he explained what it was for.

"My mate badger built this it leads straight to his place." He called over his shoulder.

"You told me it led to your mothers." Mrs. Beaver called sounding annoyed. Mr. Beaver shrugged before picking up the pace. All of a sudden Lucy tripped and they all stopped. In the sudden silence they heard rushing paws coming closer.

"They're in the tunnel."Lucy whispered terrified. Everyone else exchanged worried looks before Mr. Badger hurried off again. Rounding a corner they came to what appeared to be a dead end. Mr. Beaver hurriedly scurried up a little ramp and out into the open.

The children followed as quickly as possible. Once they had all cleared the hole Mr. Beaver and Peter rolled a barrel in front of the opening. As the sounds of the wolves grew Lucy got more and more scared. She started backing away slowly until she tripped over what looked like a stone sculpture of little animals. She quietly gasped drawing the attention of the others they quickly noticed the small stone animals. Mr. Beaver glanced around before slowly walking up to a stone badger.

"He was my best mate," Mr. Beaver said hoarsely. Mrs. Beaver patted his back sympathetically, offering her silent support.

The quit was disturbed by the sudden appearance of a fox. Mr. Beaver set on him angrily while Peter and Meg tried to hold him back.

"Why I ought to…" Mr. Beaver started trying to break free of the children's' grip.

"Easy, easy I'm one of the good guys." The fox said trying to placate the beaver.

"Yea well you look in awful lot like one of the bad guys." Mr. Beaver responded sill trying to break free.

"In unfortunate family resemblance, we need to get away from here." The fox replied. Everyone's head whipped around at the sound of scratching on the barrel blocking the exit from the tunnel. Peter's head flashed back to the fox with a slightly startled look on his face.

"What did you have in mind?" He asked. The fox quickly led them to a tall tree before ushering them up it. The Beavers went first followed by Susan. Meg was next; when she had gotten up she reached back down to help get Lucy up. A glance at Peter as she took Lucy from him showed that he was still extremely angry at her. She looked away and focused on getting Lucy up the tree.



As soon as they were settled a good distance up the tree they heard the barrel break apart and the sound of the wolves approaching. The wolves crashed into the clearing below them to the sight of the fox.

"Good evening gents." The fox said glancing around nervously as the wolves circled him.

"Tell us where the humans are." Morgrium demanded.

"Humans in Narnia, well that's a valuable bit of information." The fox commented. One of the wolves leapt and caught the fox in his mouth.

"Don't toy with us traitor. We have no problems tearing you apart." Morgrium told the captured fox.

The fox let out a little whimper before responding, "North, they went North."

"Good, smell them out!" Morgrium ordered. The fox was thrown aside and the pack went tearing to the North in search of the children.

Up above the children had witnessed everything that had happened and once they were sure the coast was clear they quickly climbed down the tree. As soon as Meg touched the ground she rushed over to the injured fox.

"Are you alright?" She asked him while carefully inspecting his wound. She heard the quite thumps behind her as the others climbed down the tree.

The fox gave her a gentle smile in response to her question but before he could answer her Peter did.

"It's not like you care anyway, you don't care about anyone's safety or about anyone." He growled at her. She quickly turned to look at him, mouth open to respond, when his words truly sunk in. Instead of responding she went back to inspecting the wound trying to mask the hurt in her eyes.

Mrs. Beaver rushed forward to help Meg and Mr. Beaver urged Peter to help him find some fire wood. The sudden tension of Peter's statement eased slightly as he left and Meg focused on the fox but Susan and Lucy still gave each other worried looks.

Once the fire was started and Mrs. Beaver had better light to see by she began to fix the fox up. The fox whimpered and squirmed as she cleaned the wound.

"Oh hold still, you're worse than Beaver on bath day." Mrs. Beaver finally exclaimed exasperated. Mr. Beaver let out a shiver before giving the children a look, "worse day of the year." He whispered to them. They let out a giggle and the fox managed to chuckle before looking at Mrs. Beaver.

"Thank you but I'm afraid that's all the cure I can afford to receive. I must be on my way." The fox said easing himself up.



"But why can't you stay with us." Lucy cried.

"I'm sorry your majesty but I'm on very important business for Aslan himself." The fox replied. The beaver's got excited at the sound of Aslan's name.

"You've seen Aslan? What's he like?" Mr. Beaver questioned in awe.

"Like everything we've ever whished for." The fox replied with a smile. "He is gathering his army at the stone table and I have been given the task of rallying his troops." The fox glanced around one more time before rushing off.

The rest of the night was spent in silence, the normal chatter that the children would have had was stopped by the building tension between Meg and Peter. The sullen group talked of little that night around the fire with Meg being the first one to go to bed.

The next day dawned and with the dawn the children were on the move again. Mr. Beaver kept a steady pace leading the group. The group made a stop on top of a mountain bridge that over looked a good distance. Mrs. Beaver pointed out where they were headed off in the distance.

"We'll have to cross the river in order to get there." Mr. Beaver said.

"It's so far." Susan said.

"Well it's the world dear, did you expect it to be small?" Mrs. Beaver questioned with a laugh.

"Smaller." Susan replied throwing a sullen look at Peter, which he ignored.

"River? How are we going to cross the river?" Peter asked.

"O don't worry that river's been frozen solid for 100 years." Mr. Beaver said calmly.

The group set off again with Mrs. And Mr. Beaver slowly getting ahead of the children, especially Lucy. Mr. Beaver kept calling back for them to hurry up. The group had finally broken through the woods and was crossing a snowy plain when Mr. Beaver called for them to hurry again.

"If he tells us to hurry one more time, I'm going to turn him into a big, fluffy hat." Peter said while helping Lucy climb on his shoulders. Not five steps latter Mr. Beaver called for them to hurry again.

"He is getting a little bossy." Lucy said glad to be off her feet.

"No it's the witch behind you hurry!!" Mr. Beaver exclaimed. The children quickly looked behind them to see a sleigh closing in on them. The children glanced at each other worriedly before breaking into a run.

They cleared the plain and hid in a small alcove in the wooded area. Everyone was breathing quietly and trying to be as small as possible. They hear the sleigh stop and footsteps of someone walking around. A shadow fell over the ground in front of their hiding place and the all shrunk back even more. Then the shadow disappeared and the footsteps stopped. A few tense and silent minutes later Peter moved forward.

"I'll go see if the coast is clear." He whispered. He tried to move forward but was restrained by his sisters' and Mr. Beaver.



"You're who she wants and you need to get to Aslan. You're important to Narnia, I'll go." Mr. Beaver said. Mrs. Beaver opened her mouth to protest but Meg beat her to it.

"You're just as important Mr. Beaver and Mrs. Beaver would be lost without you, I'll go." And before anyone could protest or object Meg was out of their hiding space and looking around.

The next few minutes were spent in a tense worried silence as the group waited for Meg to return. Suddenly Meg came rushing back with a huge smile on her face.

"Lu you are going to love this, come on." She said ushering everyone out. The rest of the group climbed out of their space and gathered where Meg was standing. Lucy's face lit up in a huge smile upon seeing who was standing by the sleigh.

"Merry Christmas sir." She said stepping forward.

"Merry Christmas indeed." He answered with a smile.

"Now I've put up with a lot but this?" Susan said with a disbelieving look on her face. Peter just shrugged before turning back to Father Christmas."We thought you were the witch sir" Peter said.

"Yes well in my defense I've been using one of these a lot longer than she has. Now let's see what we have here." With that said he reached into his sleigh and pulled out a big red bag.

"Presents!" Lucy exclaimed stepping forward. Father Christmas laughed before reaching into his sack. He pulled out a small glass vile on a belt.

"The juice of the fire flower is rare and powerful. One drop will cure almost any ailment. And though I hope you never have to use it, a dagger for your protection." He finished handing her a small regally designed dagger.

"I think I could be brave enough." Lucy said starring at the weapon in her hand.

"I'm sure you could small one, but battles are ugly affairs." Father Christmas responded. With that Lucy nodded and stepped back."Susan, daughter of Eve. "He said calling her forward. She stepped forward and glanced nervously at the sack.

"Trust in this bow and you will not easily miss." Father

"What happened to battles are an ugly affair?" she asked. Christmas said handing Susan a beautifully carved bow.

"Though you don't seem to have or problem being heard one blow of this horn and help will always come." He replied with a chuckle handing her a majestic horn. She stepped back. "Peter, son of Adam." He called. Peter stepped forward with a nervous air.

"The times for these are close at hand I fear." Father Christmas said handing Peter a kingly sword and matching shield. Peter had a calm look on his face as he drew his sword.



"Thank you sir." Peter said sheathing his sword. He stepped back to join the others. Before anything else could happen Meg stepped forward.

"I have not forgotten you Meg. Daughter of Eve. You are next." Father Christmas said. Meg looked shocked before shaking her head.

"No that's not it, I wasn't excreting anything, I'm asking about Edmund. I mean I know he's not here now but he deserves something too." Meg said to Father Christmas.

"You are right. Normally I only give presents directly to the person they are intended for but in this case I'll make an exception. I shall give you yours and Edmund's gifts." Father Christmas said joyfully. Meg stepped forward even more.

"For Edmund to protect him from harm a mighty shield and to defend others when needed a powerful axe," Father Christmas said handing her each item. "And for you, daughter of Eve sword as sharp as your wit and a pendant to protect your mind from outside influence."

Meg took the gifts carefully. Noticing as she did that her sword was a sister sword to the one Peter currently had strapped around his waist. Meg stepped book admiring her gifts not noticing the look Peter had sent her.

With the gifts out of the way Father Christmas got back in his sleigh before turning to them. "Well I have much to do, things tend to pile up when you've been gone 100 years and winter is almost over. Merry Christmas and long Live Aslant" He cried before setting off.

"Told you he was real." Lucy said with a smirk towards Susan.

"You heard what he said right, winter is almost over. That means no more ice!" Peter said in dismay.

A/N: There you go. I wasn't planning on doing the santa scene in this chapter but I did anyway it was only fair. Please REVIEW!!