The usual disclaimer: Somebody by the name of C.S. Lewis owns the wonderful world of Narnia, not us.
Gladly, we do own Chloe, Aidan, Icis, Ellamae, Fritz, Einar, and the colonel.
Chapter 4: Rescuing Ellamae and the Results Thereof
By now, the children had stumbled out of the wardrobe and into Narnia. Aidan tried, but unsuccessfully, to stifle his laugh at the looks on Peter's and Susan's faces. Though they now were aware of its existence, actually seeing it was a different matter.
"Don't worry," Lucy told them, grinning from ear to ear. "I'm sure it's only your imagination."
"Yeah, the only wood here is the back of the wardrobe, remember?" Chloe added with a giggle.
Peter looked at the two with probably the most ashamed-of-himself face Aidan had ever seen. "I doubt a simple apology would cut it."
Susan slowly stood up, staring up at the tall trees around them, and glanced back at the wardrobe entrance behind them. She then looked at Chloe and Lucy again and sighed. "Well, Peter," she said, "I don't think you're the only one who owes them an apology. I'm sorry too, Lucy." Turning on Edmund, glaring, she added, "And what about you, Ed? Lucy said you were with her and you said it was only part of her 'little game.' Well, what have you to say for yourself now?"
Peter turned to Edmund and smacked him before he could answer. "Apologize. Now!"
Edmund rubbed his arm where Peter had hit him harder than usual and glared up at him before, hardly even looking at Lucy and Chloe, he muttered, "Sorry."
"It's alright," Lucy said right away, known for being quite forgiving.
Chloe, on the other hand, hesitated for a few awkward moments before she finally told Edmund, "I wish you actually meant it, but okay." She managed a wistful smile. "We'll probably all be laughing about this someday anyway." She then turned to Aidan. "That snow princess, was she the White Witch?"
Aidan's eyes widened at the thought of it and shook his head immediately. "No no, the White Witch would've been worse—lots worse—though she doesn't always look it. She's good at putting on a good face, sweet talk…" He added in a quick mutter and a glance towards Edmund, "Emphasis on the sweet…" Now, of course, he was feeling a twinge of guilt at leaving Icis behind in the World of Men and wondered if he should go back to talk to her and explain his actions. "You know. We shouldn't be talking about this—the trees do listen. You all should find somewhere out of sight…"
Chloe and Lucy looked at each other before Lucy piped up. "We should go see Mr. Tumnus!"
Susan and Peter glanced at each other, then at Aidan, and looked to Lucy again. "Well, I figure we owe you, Lu," she said, smiling, "so lead the way."
Aidan nodded to Lucy and the others, and continued to follow them, though he wondered if Jadis had realized Tumnus was the Faun mentioned earlier. He hoped not, for Tumnus' sake and for the sake of these children and himself who were about to walk into a possible trap.
Tumnus had, in fact, been arrested as the Pevensies, Chloe, and Aidan discovered upon reaching his home. The children then met the Beavers, and Aidan, figuring they were in relatively safe hands now, left them to return to Icis and see if she still wanted to kill him, and, if so, perhaps remedy the situation.
Icis sneaked out of the house before anyone else would see her and looked around. Ahead of her was miles of forested mountains, and since she was desperately searching for a place to hide, she ran in that direction. She kept her wand out just in case she came across any other danger.
As she was nearing the edge of the trees, she thought she felt another presence somewhere, which was very familiar, even friendly. She entered the forest, walking in the direction in which the sense of the familiar presence was felt strongest. It then occurred to her again: when she escaped Narnia and she and Aidan found themselves in the World of Men, she lost Ellamae.
I wonder if she's nearby then? she thought. Because besides Aidan, I don't know anyone else in this world...so it HAS to be her! She then started bolting up the mountain, scanning the trees and bushes for any signs of her little Fairy friend. "Ellie! Ellamae! Where are you? It's me, Icis!" she called.
Suddenly she stopped when she spotted a tree stump. She stared at it for a few moments, sensing the presence very near now, and as she was about to touch it, the tree stump started to lift and tilt with somewhat of a creak, like a trapdoor. Icis sprang away from it and sprinted behind a clump of bushes to see what it was.
It lifted and then fell back, and poking out of the hole was the head of a dog whose face was mostly black but with a partially yellow throat, and resembled a Wolf. It was sniffing the air as it was climbing out of the hole, followed by a Son of Adam in mostly camouflage uniform and a matching hat, holding the dog on a leash.
Out of the hole following the boy and the dog was a man in mostly gray uniform with a matching gray cap, black gloves, and black combat boots. Unlike the soft blue eyes of the boy, the man had cold, black eyes and a hard frown as he observed their new surroundings.
I couldn't have sensed their presences, thought Icis, I sensed Ellamae's...unless one of them has her captive.
She then noticed a little sort of backpack on the boy's back and wondered. Still sensing her friend's presence around these men, Icis stepped out from behind the bushes and in front of them.
As the two men froze in their tracks and the dog growled—much to her bewilderment—she pointed her wand at the boy and snarled, "Stay where you are, Son of Adam, I have my wand pointed right between the eyes."
The man behind the boy came forward and took out what looked like his own weapon, a handheld object with one barrel pointed right at Icis' heart. "I doubt zat vill be necessary for us to stop," he said, glaring at her.
Icis stopped, stared at the man strangely, and glanced at his weapon. She then laughed. "That doesn't look too threatening, really," she replied. "I know, from first glance at you, you are not a sorcerer, so I believe I have the upper hand. Drop your silly little weapon now, I'm not afraid of you."
The man froze again and now stared at her, as if she were insane. "Do you have any idea vhat I can do to you, Frauline?"
Icis' brows raised. Who does this fool think he is? she thought. The king of Charn? She finally shook her head. "Nothing," she answered confidently. "Except return to me my friend, Ellamae Kyandi the Fairy, whom you have kidnapped, and then you may cooperate with me so you can tell me the ways of this World of Men, so I may be able to start a new life here. By the way, my name isn't 'Frauline' or whatever you called me, my name is Icis, Princess of Charn and I have recently escaped from the world of Narnia ruled by my hated aunt, whom I want nothing more to do with. But I'll provide more details about that later. Right now, sir, as Princess of Charn, I command you to release my Fairy friend, or you will pay."
The boy was looking nervous as he kept glancing over his shoulder and reaching back for his backpack, and the man's frown was turning into a smirk as he chuckled a little. "I see," he said. "Vell, perhaps you can provide more details about yourself back at my headquarters—ahem—Your Highness."
Icis glared at the man, realizing he was mocking her, and now pointed her wand at him. "I'm not ready to go with you anywhere, you two-faced dog!" she snapped. "Now are you going to release my friend or not?"
"Vait!" said the boy at last. "I have her right here."
Icis and the man looked at the boy as he was taking off his backpack and opened it. Out came a small explosion of sparkling pink dust, as Ellamae burst out of the bag, frantically flapping her wings and noticing the man's weapon. Apparently she sensed Icis, too, and the danger she was in.
"Icis, look out!" she cried. With that, she lifted her hand and zapped the colonel's gun into a million colorful pieces like a shower of fireworks. She then flitted over onto Icis' shoulder and buried her face in her friend's hair, shaking.
The man jumped back a few feet and shook off all the sparks from his leather glove and cursed under his breath in a foreign tongue that Icis had never heard before as the boy's speechless dog barked.
"I thought I'd never see you again," whimpered Ellamae from under Icis' hair.
Icis then looked to the boy. "Did he hurt you?"
"No," she said, "he saved my life."
"I can explain--" started the boy but he was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a Wolf.
Aidan growled, both at the man and at the dog. "Why don't you take a hike and leave these ladies alone, eh?" he said aloud, figuring this move was reckless but he was dying to see the colonel's reaction to a talking Wolf, so he didn't care. One thing was for sure: he was glad Ellamae had already taken care of the gun.
Both of the men looked puzzled, especially the man, who even looked a little alarmed. The boy seemed a little calmer, since he had already apparently met Ellamae, a Fairy.
The boy's dog then growled and barked at Aidan as Icis' eyes widened.
"You!" she cried. "You came back to--"
Unlike Icis' dismay of seeing Aidan again, Ellamae seemed a little happier to see someone else familiar come to their rescue.
"Aidan!" cried Ellamae. "How did you find us?"
"Now vait a minute," said the boy, holding the dog back, "I can explain, I helped Ellamae--"
"Vhat do you zink you are meddling viz, Fritz?" snapped the colonel.
"I found her, sir," said the boy named Fritz, "and she vas lost--"
"Ve don't know vhat zey can do to us!" snapped the colonel. "Pull out your gun and kill zem all, vhile ve have ze chance and no English citizens can spot us!"
Fritz backed away a few steps. "I vas not trained to murder--"
"Good boy," Aidan nodded approvingly to Fritz and glared at the colonel. "Hey, you. Shut up before I bite your face off—you have no idea how tempting that prospect is." He then grinned to Icis and Ellamae. "Easy enough to find you, just follow the chaos, you know how it goes…"
"Well, I'm not getting any further into this chaos here," snarled Icis, "with you, Aidan, or you"--she frowned at the colonel--"or anyone else here, besides Ellamae!" With that, she turned to leave, saying, "Come on, Ellie, we're better off alone."
Ellamae glanced back at Aidan. "Are you sure?"
"Of course I am! Now let's go!" snapped Icis.
Aidan nodded to Fritz with a "Thanks," and stuck his tongue out at the dog before hurrying after Icis and Ellamae. "Icis, listen, I'm sorry for knocking you down earlier, but I had to, let me explain—" His next word was a simple bark and he cut himself off, his eyes widening. Trying to speak again only resulted in another bark.
Icis, at first, didn't want to listen to Aidan and barked, "Shut up!"
Ellamae looked down at Aidan from Icis' shoulder and asked, "Icis, what is he talking about?"
"Nothing important," answered Icis. She then froze in her tracks when Aidan responded with a bark instead of intelligible speech and looked down at him with wide eyes.
"He's losing his speech in this world!" cried Ellamae, her wings fluttering as she became more afraid.
Icis was a little afraid, too, not for Aidan's well being, but simply because it usually disturbed her when she saw these kinds of things happen to talking creatures back in Narnia. "That's it, Ellamae, we're getting out of here," said Icis, her voice starting to quiver with fear and she turned away from Aidan.
"No!" cried Ellamae, flying off of Icis' shoulder and flitting towards Aidan. "We've got to help him!"
Fritz was looking a little disturbed in noticing Aidan's problem and so was the colonel. The colonel then pulled out a pocket knife and started storming up to Aidan. "Now zis vill give me a reason to put zis smart-talking mongrel out of his misery."
Aidan growled at the colonel and snapped his jaws at him, though he was not foolish enough to try and charge him, seeing as that would guarantee a quick death for himself, but he wasn't going to run like a coward either. He glanced at Ellamae as if to say, "Could you zap that knife like before?" but, of course, he couldn't actually say it.
As Ellamae was about to land on Aidan's snout to get his attention, she was knocked off as Aidan snapped his jaws at the colonel. She then shook her head as she sat up and saw that she was between Aidan and the colonel, backing away from the Wolf but still brandishing his knife.
Icis sighed, frustrated, and ran back to get Ellamae. "Ellamae! Get out of there at once!" Finally she rolled her eyes. Oh, fine, just to keep her quiet, she thought. She then whipped her wand out and was about to zap the colonel's knife, but Fritz and his dog tackled him.
Aidan howled with delight and pounced on the colonel, ripping the knife out of his grasp. He then backed off, smirking at the colonel's new plight.
Fritz got off of the colonel but his dog, Einar, was still wrestling the colonel at his master's command. He then ran between the struggling colonel and Aidan and scooped up Ellamae out of harm's way. As Fritz did this, Icis grabbed Fritz's shoulder and punched him in the jaw. Before Fritz fell back, Icis snatched Ellamae out of his hands.
As the colonel was still fighting off Einar, Fritz fell back, accidentally knocking the colonel and the dog into the open secret tunnel. Just then, Aidan noticed something sparkle in the tunnel…like a flash of something gold. In almost an instant, the colonel and the dog were engulfed in golden light.
Ellamae looked at the light. "I can feel home again!" she cried, smiling.
Fritz sat up, holding his jaw, and saw his dog in the light and went to pull it out, but he fell in, too.
Aidan, seeing the light, barked gleefully and dove into it.
"Wait!" cried Ellamae, escaping Icis' hold. "Wait, Aidan, let me help you!" With that, she flew after Aidan into the light.
"Ellamae!" shouted Icis as she frantically grasped at the air, trying to pull the Fairy back, but to no avail. As she was chasing after Ellamae, she tripped and was the last to fall into the tunnel.
Squirming and fighting in the tangle of bodies stuck in the now magically lit tunnel, Icis was desperately trying to claw her way out as the light was spreading and engulfing everyone, her included. Suddenly they could see nothing but light and they were all floating.
The light then vanished, and they found themselves tumbling down a snowy hill covered in evergreen trees, and they landed in a small clearing.
Ellamae was tending to Aidan once they came to a stop, Fritz was trying to figure out where they were while tending to his dog, and the colonel had hit his head against one of the trees' hard, thick trunks and was unconscious. Icis sat up with a mouthful of snow, spat it out and coughed, and looked around.
"Ellamae!" called Fritz. "Vhere are ve?"
The Fairy glanced at Fritz and looked around, amazed. "Maybe he's called us back for a reason…"
Fritz took off his hat and shook his head to cool off his head and short, blonde hair. "Who has called us back to vhere?"
"Aslan, I think," answered Ellamae, smiling at Fritz. "He has called us back to Narnia."
Icis whirled on Ellamae. "What?!" she spat, her eyes burning.
Ellamae flinched, her antennae twitching and her wings fluttering nervously as she found herself clinging to Aidan's paw. Fritz kept glancing between Ellamae and Icis, just as the colonel was coming to.
Aidan sat up, shaking the snow out of his fur and snickering to himself, as if debating whether he should say a certain thing. "You heard it right—Aslan. Called us back to Narnia, where, of course, you don't want to be, but now you're gonna have to just deal with it like you're gonna have to deal with me speaking again. Speaking of speech, or lack thereof, I am never leaving this place again!! The World of Men is a horrible place, I have to say—and I can, so I just did."
Icis' eyes widened and her jaw dropped, but was silent and dumbfounded. Several thoughts were running through her mind—Aidan following her through the wardrobe and stopping her from following the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve; Fritz, the colonel and their dog, Einar, grappling with her over Ellamae, and now Ellamae—one of her best friends—had taken Aidan's side, by taking him back to Narnia in order for him to get his speech back. She scanned her eyes over all of them, disgusted and frustrated, and her face was getting hot.
"So," she growled, locking her eyes on Aidan and Ellamae, "you two"—she pointed at them with her wand—"wanted to come 'home,' and you, Ellamae Kyandi, convinced that boy"—she glared at Fritz and Einar—"to foolishly leave his world to come with you. And Aidan, you follow me, completely uninvited, into the World of Men solely to ruin my chance of a new life there by letting all five of those humans get away—when all I wanted was information from them, and the oldest boy was just not cooperating because he was simply a fool—and, what was a really stupid way to handle your own safety, you come after me and almost lose your ability to speak to make sure I'm back in this frozen wasteland! And as for you"—she turned to the colonel—"you are like a humanized, male version of my hated, cursed, wretched Aunt Jadis!" When she finished, she was out of breath and panting, until at last she resheathed her wand and threw up her hands. "So you know what? I'm going my own way! I don't need a single one of you idiots! I'm out of here!"
Aidan growled. "That's it! Now you listen, you bitch, you deserved every word that boy said, and what's more, you'll thank me for intervening since their deaths are exactly what your hated aunt wants! Maybe you should try looking in the mirror if you want someone to blame for your own miserable life, and I'm sorry I ever came back to make sure you were alright—I'm surprised you even have Ellamae for a friend, because she is the kindest soul I have ever known and—look at you, for crying out loud! Well, fine, you want to be on your own, so be it. I'm not ever coming after you ever again, and I hope your aunt catches you and turns you into a Wolf—it's about time there was some poetic justice around here. Have a fun life without any friends—I'm going to find those Pevensies who at least showed some amount of decency!" And with that, he turned and left in a huff.
Ellamae glanced from Icis to Aidan, watching them go their separate ways, and blinked a few times in hopes of drying her eyes.
"Icis, stop, please!" she called, her voice quivering slightly. "Please don't go away! Just listen to Aidan! And you were wrong, I wasn't plotting anything! None of us have to fight or say any of these hurtful things to each other!"
Icis turned to Ellamae again. "No, save it!" she snapped. "I've already heard enough from that mutt"—she shot a look at Aidan—"and I'm NOT gonna listen to you, after you've betrayed me and made all the foolish mistakes you've made already! And if you try to follow me with your excuse, I'll whip out my wand and turn you into stone!" With an angry toss of her hair, she turned and stormed away.
Fritz watched her leave and Einar whined a little as he watched Ellamae with pity.
"Let her go," growled the colonel. "Vith an attitude like zat, ve do not need her around. I blame her for zis. And ze Fairy!"
Ellamae glanced back at the colonel, but quickly looked away, his stinging last words making her face hot, tingling chills run down her spine and through her wings, and for her to finally release her tears. She hung her head and sobbed as Fritz was stroking her hair between her antennae and Einar whined a little more as he tried to nuzzle his nose into her tiny arm.
Aidan, at the sound of Ellamae's crying, stopped and came back. "Hey, I'm sorry, Elles, I forgot to say you could come with me if you want. You, as well," he added with a nod to Fritz, Einar, and even the colonel. "It's a bad idea for a human to be wandering alone in Narnia, you know."
Ellamae sniffed and looked up at Aidan. "Yeah," she said, glancing at Fritz and Einar, and beyond them she could still see Icis leaving down the other path. "I'm sorry, too."