Chapter 48- HORRIBLE revelations part 1
Outside the communicator room, Tarzan, the three Alicanto Birds and the others with them talked with Martian and some of his accompanying Green Men, reporting the successful rescue of the Pleasure Dome victims and that they have been taken to the nearest island where they will be looked after until it was safe for them to return to the mainland and their families, friends and relatives.
"However," Tarzan continued sadly, "Not all the prisoners had been rescued. Some had to be left behind as they were too comfortable in the room they were in aboard the Pleasure Dome's prison levels to move and it would have cost Chloroplast and the others precious time to get them to leave..."
"It's not gonna be good news for those prisoners' relatives," said one of the Alicanto Birds. Martian breathed a sad sigh at this news but then he recovered.
"Sometimes incredibly difficult and even heartbreaking choices have to be made," said he, "It's where the priority lies in situations like those."
"It's like triage on the battlefield," said a female Green Man or Green Woman, "You have to weigh the number of lives at stake on either side of the dilemma and take the option that will save the most lives."
Tarzan and his group nodded in agreement to this. Then the Oran-Utan asked, "Shall the rescued prisoners come back here yet?"
"No, make sure they stay on their temporary refuge until things have been thoroughly sorted out here," commanded Martian, "and make sure that you stay in touch with the Sea and Sky rescuers and their rescued prisoners and keep them updated on what is going on back here. Keep doing that until either I or Hagrid, Alestomeria, King Edmund and Queen Susan say."
Tarzan and the others with him nodded and obediently returned to the communication room while Martian and his group turned to leave.
The other servants and workers continued their tasks, some of them keeping a close eye on their surroundings for signs of any trouble while they also watched out for each other and monitored each other's behaviour for any changes. Their food and drinks had been strictly regulated to ensure that no more of the workers took a sip or bite of whatever poison or drug had caused the three Flying Rods, Milky Way and Amethyst to go berserk and in a 'trancelike or dreamlike' state. However, a quartet was on its own mission, to get to Martian to tell him about Alcina and her true colours and that SHE was the one the searchers were looking for. In one of the corridors leading to the main hall, four Talking Beasts, a boot-wearing Talking Tom Cat with some Bakeneko DNA in his blood, two female Wolves with unusual fur colours and eyes (dark red fur and orange eyes, and dark blue fur and blue eyes), and a grassy Dog-like creature called a Cù-Sìth skulked the shadows and hid behind the array of decorations and armoury and keeping out of the sight of any passing workers. Puss, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Cilan, the latter whom the first one had managed to bust out of the dungeon unnoticed, were on their way to Martian and they wanted to get there fast. However, they had little trust in anyone for many of the workers believed the two Wolf sisters and the Cù-Sìth to be troublemakers, especially the Cù-Sìth after what he had done to King Edmund. However, Cilan did NOT regret that apparent assault on the King one bit. He knew he had done right for he had suspected the stuff in the tub Alcina had in her paws was what he thought it was. However, the confirmation cat was about to be released from the basket in a few moments as the four neared a doorway to a certain room, a testing lab. In that lab was a team of Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures, among them a certain Nine-Tailed Dog-Fox and a male Cherub indicated by his silvery hair and metallic yellow-gold underwing coverts, and male garments (females had white hair and metallic electric blue underwing coverts and their garments resembled feminine clothes like modest skirts). The four hid behind another large knight armoury and Puss peered into the lab and saw the Nine-Tailed Fox, Hagrid examine something with the male Cherub named Stratus. Then the Kitsune and the Cherub turned to each other and talked. Both of their faces were laced with UTMOST seriousness and dread. Puss continued to gaze at the pair when suddenly; he darted behind the armoury with Betelgeuse, Rigel and Cilan when he saw someone coming. Within moments, a Gold-Fleeced Sheep appeared with two Red Dwarves, a Cockatoo and a Spix macaw. The quartet then began to watch and listen as the arrivals, Chrystós, the Cockatoo, the Dwarves and Mr Spix stood outside the door to the lab, waiting for Hagrid and his assistants to emerge. Within moments, they do, the Dog-Fox walking at the front. He gazed at Chrystós and the other five with him with a VERY serious look on his face. To his right stood Stratus and his face was also awful.
"We have just identified the white stuff that was in the spoon that Cilan had swiped out of our King's hand before he could put it into his mouth," the Nine-Tailed Fox said, his voice dark and severe, "and it is a match to the white creamy stuff I, along with my then-co-student Alestomeria, parents Gandalf and Seresute and a number of other Kitsune came across in a large natural spring-like well during a fieldtrip in the Narnian Desert about a deka away from Harfang Castle, home to the gentle but man and Talking Beast-eating giants. It's Toxo-Cream."
Horror tore through Chrystós' group while Puss flinched. However, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Cilan were unfazed for they had seen a sample of this in you-know-who's secret room under her den. Stratus continued.
"It's a VERY dangerous parasitic living thing that resembles what our Human Monarchs call yoghurt and is EXTREMELY sweet and addictive. In fact, the addictiveness of the creature's creamy texture and flavour is its main weapon of parasitizing its hosts and using them as a means of multiplying itself. Once a tiny sip of the stuff touches the tongue of anyone foolish enough to sample it, they're instantly addicted and they will crave more and MORE of it, leading them to consume the stuff in larger and larger amounts until eventually, it kills them. The Toxo-Cream, once its host is disposed of, will then leave the host and move on to infect another host using its insidious trick of posing as a sweet and attracted substance."
"It's just like Jadis' Turkish delight she gave to King Edmund, and Belladonna's chocolate cake," said one of the Red Dwarfs. Stratus nodded in agreement to this.
"Because of its extremely addictive nature, it was one of the White Witch's weapons as a means of a control method during her evil reign," the Cherub said. Hagrid then spoke.
"Looks like Cilan did ABSOLUTE right in slapping that spoon of that white stuff from His Majesty's hand before that sip could cross his lips and come into contact with his tongue, as well as seize the tub and flee with it to destroy," the Dog-Fox said seriously. "Hadn't it been for his quick reaction, King Edmund would have been... like how he had been when the White Witch fed him that magically conjured Turkish delight but with this white stuff instead."
"Who would do SUCH a WICKED thing to our KING with SUCH an INSIDIOUS 'TREAT'!?" Chrystós yelled. Hagrid, however, replied with a confirmatory look on his face. He and Alestomeria had been there when the tub of the white stuff was brought to King Edmund with the spoon. Then Mr Spix spoke, having deduced the identity of who had brought in that tub and spoon.
"Alcina!?" the Blue Macaw blurted out.
"So Cilan, Betelgeuse, Rigel and those three Dryads may be right about that FOX!?" said the other Red Dwarf incredulously. Alcina had been INCREDIBLY kind to him and his companions and he did not want to believe that she could be a potential assassinator. Hagrid shook his head and sighed.
"It's Belladonna back at our former base during the Eternal Winter ALL OVER again," the male Kitsune growled, "bad things happening... someone getting blamed and accused for things they didn't so... trust getting destroyed..." he then turned to Chrystós and the others, "But I digress. Now that we have unravelled the identity of the imposter among us, we MUST alert Martian and tell him of our findings. Then we need to find that Fox and deal with her QUICK before she continues with the next stage of whatever heinous plans she may have..."
Suddenly, a female voice spoke, pulling the group's attention to a quartet in hiding as they emerged from their hiding place behind the armoury. "We have uncovered Alcina's secrets in a secret room under her den."
Puss then walked up to Hagrid with Rigel, Cilan and Betelgeuse who had spoken the sentence. Instead of an outraged look on Hagrid's face, a smile formed instead. Stratus, Chrystós, Mr Spix and the others just looked on though Mr Spix opened his beak to question only to be stopped by the Cockatoo.
"Brilliant, Puss, you have freed the two Wolves and Cilan, well done," the Nine-Tailed Kitsune said, before his face turned VERY serious, "What have you discovered in this secret room under Alcina's den?"
Betelgeuse, Rigel and Cilan immediately seized the opportunity to explain EVERYTHING they had uncovered with the former going first.
"Alcina may be a minion of Jadis," Betelgeuse continued, "and she has a secret room under her den, a lab of sorts like the lab we have there," she nodded to the room as she said this, "and in it we found two rows of transparent cubes and cylinders containing a variety of different substances, among them the Toxo-Cream which she sometimes calls 'Tasty Cream'."
"And that's not all," said Rigel, "Alcina has a booklet containing plans on assassinating our Four Monarchs and was behind High King Peter's poisoning with that cake. In that booklet were also plans on getting the Nine-Realms Potion and getting the remaining three Monarchs addicted..."
"Like how she very nearly did with King Edmund," said Cilan, "We did bring that booklet with us and we could have showed you but sadly, Alcina slyly seized it from us."
"And furthermore, Alcina has a pack of magical playback discs in her secret room," said Betelgeuse before she began to shudder as she began to describe what she had seen on those discs, "Those discs contained some sort of diary of some HORRIFIC potion experiments carried out on some poor victims like Flying Rods. The apparent leader in those experiments was some Woman-like being dressed in colourful clothes, wearing a golden mask over her face and with silver hair cascading down to her feet. Now I don't know who or what that Woman was but I believe she is another minion of Jadis and she did those INHUMANE experiments with some of Jadis' minions, among them some Manananggal."
Mr Spix flinched when Betelgeuse mentioned those HORRID creatures known for sending their upper winged bodies into flight at night in one of their variations. Cilan then continued.
"And you are not gonna believe this but she also has ties with the Pleasure Dome and was in communication with a pink Spider-like creature whose name was Dolores I think it was, via a magical communicator. That indicated to us that the kidnappings of those victims, most of them young Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures, are connected to Alcina's activities."
Chrystós and the others flinched violently when they heard all this.
"Looks like the mastermind behind all these happenings is right..." began the Gold-Fleeced Ram but Hagrid cut him off, knowing this already.
"I know, Chrystós," the Nine-Tailed Fox said before he turned to the quartet, "Puss, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Cilan, you go and find Martian and tell him EVERYTHING that you have told us," the four nodded and darted off to do just that. Hagrid turned to the others and said, "The rest of you, you start searching up and down the castle for that red, magenta, purple and golden Fox with the three tails while I go and tell King Edmund and Queen Susan. It's important that this information gets to their ears and I want that done ON THE DOUBLE!"
Chrystós and the others nodded and scattered to begin their search for Alcina while Hagrid left to find King Edmund and Queen Susan. And so the reporting of and search for Alcina began. Betelgeuse, Rigel, Cilan and Puss rushed in the direction of the communication room, hoping that Martian was there but when they peered in, they saw only Tarzan and his group and the communicator screen.
"Excuse me, where is Martian?" demanded Puss.
"He's gone outside," said Tarzan while the three Alicanto Birds and the others exchanged looks, "Why, is it urgent?"
"Yes it IS," Rigel barked, "Alcina's the imposter among us and Martian MUST be alerted."
Disbelief tore through Tarzan's group.
"WHAT!?" demanded one of the Metallivore (metal-eating) Birds.
"No time to explain," Puss replied and before any of the others in Tarzan's group could ask any more questions, the quartet had gone. Tarzan and company resumed their task. Betelgeuse, Rigel, Cilan and Puss dashed like they were late for a lesson through the room of the castle until they saw a door leading to outside. They immediately rocketed for that door and exploded to outdoors. Some of the workers nearby looked on and complained about the two Wolves and the Cù-Sìth and that they should be in the dungeon and detention room but the four ignored them as they had a FAR more important task on mind. As soon as the four was outside, they began to look for Martian. On the way, they came across the Minotaur, Tauro whop was on duty.
"Excuse me, Tauro," Puss demanded with a tap on the Minotaur's hip for the Talking Beast was much bigger than he was, "Where is Martian?"
"We have an URGENT report to tell him," said Rigel, her sister and Cilan looking on with the same demanding look. Then the Minotaur moved and looked down at them. However, instead of his usual albeit intimidating gaze for Minotaurs were intimidating creatures, especially the Bulls, Tauro's face was laced with anger and hostility and when Puss looked at his eyes closer, he saw that they were in a trancelike state. The walking Talking Cat with small amount of Bakeneko blood in his veins flinched violently while the two Wolves and the Cù-Sìth drew in gasps. Then Tauro lunged at the four and tried to seize them but they dodged by jumping out of the way. Puss somersaulted and landed near the other three, bent over, one paw on the floor and the other stretched to one side. Then he stood up and gazed at the other three with a look of dread.
"That ain't good," he said to Betelgeuse, Rigel and Cilan as the Bull-Man rose to his feet and lunged at them. The four scattered with two going to either side as Tauro charged at them like an actual Bull. Betelgeuse and Cilan darted to Tauro's right and Puss and Rigel dove to his left. Tauro, however, did not stop at the split of the four into two groups and instead immediately pursued the latter pair. Then before Puss and Rigel could scatter again, the Minotaur immediately reached out his hands and seized both by the tails.
"HEY, release us THIS MINUTE, you BULL-FACED NUMSKULL!" yelled Rigel as she thrashed in the grasp of the Minotaur's right hand like a fish caught by its tail, "YOU'RE ON OUR SIDE, YOU KNOW!"
Puss, his tail also grasped by the Minotaur in his left hand immediately brandished his rapier but before he could jab the tip of his stick-like sword into Tauro's hand to release him and Rigel (and also snap him out of his tranbcelike state), a flock of colourful birds suddenly appeared with some ropes. They were Roachcutters, another type of Flutterbird, and several Budgies and they, too, were exhibiting trancelike behaviours like Tauro. They immediately spiralled rapidly around the walking Talking Cat and the dark blue Wolf and bound them in the ropes to their anger and horror. While Rigel and Puss got bound, Betelgeuse and Cilan continued fleeing when they heard the shouts of the Talking Cat and the former's sister. Immediately, they braked.
"RIGEL, PUSS!" cried the dark red Wolf and she darted off towards Tauro and the Birds as they restrained Rigel and Puss. However, a trunk suddenly appeared and seized Betelgeuse by the body and lifted her off the ground. The dark red Wolf released a bark and shot a glare at the trunk's owner and saw that it was a Talking Elephant, its face laced with aggression and the same glare Betelgeuse had seen on Tauro's face. Betelgeuse then began to writhe in the Elephant's trunk, snarling and snapping her jaws at the Elephant's arm-like nose to get him to release her but the Elephant refused to let her go. Cilan rushed in to help but suddenly, he was surrounded by a neon blue aura and levitated off the ground such that he was running in midair. The Cù-Sìth shot a stunned gaze this way and that until his eyes found a Chimeric Magical Creature with a Humanoid face, Lion-like body and feathered wings, its eyes aglow with neon blue and focussed on Cilan, indicative of a telekinetic grasp and like the Elephant and Tauro, the creature, a Sphinx and a male based on a mane of fur surrounding his neck and the short head hair (females had a smaller mane and longer hair), was in a trancelike state. Suddenly, pained trumpeting bellows exploded from nearby as the Elephant yelled in pain as Betelgeuse's jaws clamped onto his trunk. The Elephant immediately released Betelgeuse from his grasp and the Wolf, wrath blazing in her orange eyes, charged at the male Sphinx restraining Cilan with his telekinesis and was about to pounce onto him to bite him to inflict pain and snap him out of his trancelike state (it seemed that sharp pain was the antidote to the state) but before she could do that, three Monkey-like Babookari and two large-eyed Rodents called Poggles (known for their remarkable ability to raise silver-spiders and grow grass tree farms using the spiders as crop assistants, as well as raise small dumb rodent 'livestock' both for their spider helpers and as food for certain Talking Beasts that ate rodents such as Falcons and other Birds of Prey. The dumb Poggles were simply livestock in the homes of wild silver-spiders), the five also under the influence of a trancelike condition, leaped out of nowhere with more ropes and began to bind Betelgeuse's feet and jaws at breakneck speed while Cilan was seized by the male Sphinx and also bound. The Elephant, his trancelike state dispelled from the agony of Betelgeuse's bite to his trunk, looked around in confusion until finally, his eyes landed on the quartet being subdued. Immediately and despite having a wounded trunk to stop his intervention, he rushed forward to call off the attack but Tauro who was still gripped in his trance, seized a rock and struck the elephant on the head with it, sending the Pachyderm into a stunned and wonky walk. The Elephant's intervention deflected, the other 'traitorous' group members then grouped Betelgeuse, Rigel, Cilan and Puss, their limbs bound by ropes and vines together and began to deal with them. The four writhed and from Betelgeuse's perspective, she glared at the faces of the in-a-trance group such as the Sphinx when suddenly, something struck her HARD on the top of her head, throwing an explosion of stars into her vision. Betelgeuse's balance then began to go out of whack and her vision began to blur, the distinctive shapes of the Talking Beasts and objects in her environment beginning to blur together. She saw a messy dark blue smear of her sister Rigel as she called her name, her voice sounding like Betelgeuse was in a large hall, get struck on the head by a blurry grey ball object, a 'bash' sound erupting as it connected. Then two more 'bash' noises sounded in Betelgeuse's echo-y hearing as Puss and Cilan were struck. Then finally, her brain's communication to the rest of the body began to short out and her four legs buckled under her and she fell flat on her face, her face digging into the dirt. The dazed Wolf then soon felt the depths of unconsciousness set in, her vision going black but not before she looked up and wearily saw a familiar shape, a red, magenta, violet and gold four-legged creature, walk in.
Meanwhile
"You've GOTTA BE KIDDIN' US, Hagrid," shouted Alestomeria in disbelief. With her on their thrones, King Edmund and Queen Susan looked on AGHAST and in PURE OUTRAGE, especially King Edmund. Alestomeria continued, "Are you meaning to say that ALCINA, a TRUSTED worker, is a MINION OF JADIS and POSSIBLY a HELPER IN HER VILE EXPERIMENTS!?"
"As well as have TIES with the PLEASURE DOME!" put in King Edmund.
"I'm NOT kidding, you three," replied Hagrid before his gaze turned to the King, "Alcina was trying to get you hooked onto the deadly Toxo-Cream through that 'gift' in the form of a tub of 'milk-cream' and she has a secret room under her den and has been working behind our backs in masterminding this whole ordeal. Don't believe me? Ask Betelgeuse, Rigel and Cilan the next time they come to you," the Nine-Tailed Dog-Fox then looked in the direction to a door to outside, "Hopefully, they'll have found Martian and reported all their findings to him with Puss by now..."
"What's Toxo-Cream?" asked Queen Susan.
"It's a VERY deadly living substance and a parasite that looks like the stuff you call yoghurt," explained Alestomeria, "There's a natural well of it not too far away from Harfang Castle, home of a group of deadly Giants who disguise their true nature with their gentleness."
"Is this Toxo-Cream sweet and addictive like that Turkish delight the Witch got me hooked on?" asked King Edmund slightly nervously.
"Yes, VERY and JUST like the Turkish delight the Devil Woman 'treated' you to in order to earn your trust and betray your siblings and Narnia," said Hagrid with a VERY serious look on his face, "Its cream is not only attractive looking to the eye, but it is also very creamy and delicious but once your tongue touches even a drop of it, you're hooked."
"Which is the main parasitizing weapon for the creature," continued Alestomeria, "Its addictiveness makes you want to eat more and more of it until in the end, it kills you and it moves on to find a new host to hook and breed within."
Revulsion tore through the two Monarchs and King Edmund felt like his stomach had taken a HARD punch. He could not BELIEVE that Alcina would gift him with something LIKE THAT and the VERY thought of him being addictive to that stuff made his face turn pale. Hagrid turned to him with an understanding face.
"Cilan did right in slapping that spoon of that stuff out of your hand, Your Majesty," he said seriously. Then the King raised a hand to his belly and protruded his tongue.
"You look like you're gonna be sick, your Majesty," said Alestomeria. Kind Edmund didn't reply and soon, nausea reached critical and his other hand flew to his mouth and his cheeks bulged.
"BRO!" cried Queen Susan and with that, she leaped out of her chair and caught her little brother as he stumbled, his legs also going weak.
"We need to take him aside for a little rest," said Hagrid, "We're SO sorry we had to deliver this HORRIFIC news but you MUST know it."
With that, the Dog-Fox gently led the nauseated King away. The whole news about Alcina feeding him a deadly parasite that uses extreme sweetness and addictiveness had been too much for him to handle. However, the King did have the strength to deliver the next order. Turning a commanding eye to his sister and Alestomeria, he barked, "Send some workers out to meet the quest-goers at ONCE. They'll need escorting to here as the last thing we want IS LOSING ANY OF THOSE NINE INGREDIENTS FOR OUR OLDER BROTHER'S ONLY ANTIDOTE!"
Queen Susan and Alestomeria obeyed and went to see to the task. As the Queen and the Vixen departed, the Dog-Fox gently guided the King, his upper body beginning to lurch as he retched, away.