Chapter 6- the missions start and are underway

As the morning progressed after breakfast, the activities of most of Dionaea's village's populace were in full tilt. A group of some of them who were part of High King Peter's officials and forces had gathered to depart for Cair Paravel to meet with the four Monarchs and then depart the castle to start the hunt of the remaining of Jadis' minions and demolish Jadis' buildings such as the castle and the Massacre Event 'victors' village'. Among the group was Tityus the oldest son of Dionaea. As he said goodbye to his mother, his Manti-cubs and his mate, Chloroplast the Longma stood by Rivier the Mokele-Mbembe. The Pegaus-Dragon and the Water Sauropod watched on as Tityus then left to join the group bound for Cair Paravel consisting of several warrior Curupira, Badgers, Beavers, Theropods, Aardvarks and the other creatures of the village.

"I reckon Neutrophil's group will be preparing to go to Cair Paravel to prepare to implement the tasks His Majesty has set up, Rivier," said Chloroplast with a stern look.

"Yes, Chlo-o-oroplast," said Rivier, the long 'O' in Chloroplast's name stretched as he pronounced it, "And ho-o-opefully the pu-urging of our land of the White Witch's rema-a-aining cro-o-onies can begin."

Chloroplast nodded to this. As the group prepared to depart to Cair Paravel with the Faun leader taking their register and doing a headcount, Tityus whose fur colour was reddish like his mother Dionaea but his Bat-like wings and Scorpion's tail were pale orange fading to black rather than green and pinkish, spotted something pinned up on a nearby tree out the corner of his eye. The young male Manticore turned his gaze in the direction of that tree and spotted a white sheet of paper pinned up on the tree's trunk. Curiosity overtaking him, Tityus broke away from the rest of his group, approached the tree, reached out a Lion's paw and took hold of the sheet of paper to examine it closely. As he held it in his paw, he saw a picture of an upside-down bowl-like object. The bowl seemed to be encrusted with some type of crystalline decorations and spiking from its top was some type of stick. Tityus continued to examine the picture when he heard his name penetrate his attention, pulling it to the caller.

"Tityus, come on, it's time to go!" shouted the caller, the lead Faun, his reddish hair and Goat-like pelage wavering like grass in a brief breeze, "Let's not wait for His Majesty the High King to lose his patience and then start bombarding us with demands for an explanation for lateness!"

Tityus tossed aside the sheet of paper and immediately rejoined the group. Dionaea then came by, a frown on her face.

"Seriously, son," she said firmly, "You're the eldest of my children, so you should know better and how to prioritise important tasks above insignificant things..."

"I was looking at a sheet of paper of some kind of upturned bowl with gems on its rim," said Tityus but his colourful mother barked at him to join the other officials, which he did. As Tityus joined the group, an Aardvark told the lead Faun, "Okay, General Capra, everyone's here."

The lead Faun, named Capra who was of general rank, smiled and prepared to take the lead for the departure to Cair Paravel Castle. Dionaea stood with some of the other villagers as they watched on. As the colourful aged Manticore stood with the youngest members of her biological family, her green and pink-red Bat wings folded neatly over her back like a Talking Dragon's, Chloroplast came in with a sheet of paper, that same one Tityus tossed aside. She had seen the young male Manticore throw it away at Capra's call.

"Dionaea, look at this," said the green Longma, her front reptile-hooves grasping the sheet, "Looks like some kind of ad to a resort that is shaped like a dome."

Dionaea took the sheet of paper, gazed at it and then tore it into pieces.

"It's not important, Chloroplast," said she as she handed the pieces to one of the younger female Manticores, a daughter-in-law, to dispose of the pieces, "What's more important is helping to deal with the remains of Jadis' cronies and things."

Chloroplast breathed a sigh and turned to watch the soldier group depart and within moments, they did after saying one final goodbye to the villagers. After they had gone, the other villagers resumed their activities, some going to the orchard to tend to the crop. As Dionaea, Chloroplast and the rest of the Manticore family returned to their shack, Nepenthes, one of the grandsons of the former and a son of Tityus, came by, a curious look on his face. Like his mother, he sported green wings but his wing membrane undersides were pale green, his Scorpion's tail was brown like his father's and his fur was brown.

"Why can't you go with them, Grandma?" asked he.

"Nepenthes," hissed Chloroplast making the young Manti-cub flinch, "What an impolite question to ask your grandmother!"

However, a smile formed on the aging Manticore's Humanoid-face mouth.

"When I was young and vibrant like your father and your aunts and uncles," said she, "I used to be a real fighter, literally, but now that I'm becoming old and grey, those days are pretty much long gone."

"Your grandmother helped in rescuing a group of kidnapped Merfolk and Talking Sea Beasts and the mighty Rainbow Serpent with her friends when she 'served' under the White Witch when she was roughly a teen Manticore, remember?" said Chloroplast to which Nepenthes smiled.

"You still sometimes fight, don't you, Grandma?" asked Nepenthes. Chloroplast went to rebuke the Manti-cub but Dionaea intervened.

"Yes, but only and ONLY... when it's necessary," said she, "For example if you were in a life-threatening situation. Otherwise, combat like in a war are gone with my days with youth. The tasks I carry out now is sharing stories of the Eternal Winter and helping to revive and re-establish the life and customs that were lost to the Witch's corrupt rule, such as the annual festivals to celebrate the Great Lion."

As she spoke, a red, violet and magenta Fox with three tails walked in.

"Especially after dealing with that Cartoon Shadow Cat beast who took the life of her husband Scorpi and left her with that MASSIVE scar on her left side," said Chloroplast. Nepenthes flinched as an image of that terrifying black Cat-like creature flashed in his mind. Chloroplast's Reptilian eyes then picked out a quadrupedal form with three tails. Turning to the Fox, the Longma smiled.

"Morning, Alcina," she said.

"Morning, folks," said the three-tailed Fox, a Kitsune named Alcina. The Fox's gaze then picked out the receding group of soldiers of the village as they continued their journey to Cair Paravel.

"I can see your soldiers are departing for the castle," said she, "Off to deal with some roaming cronies of the White Witch still at large with Their Majesties, I presume?"

"Yes," snapped Chloroplast in irritation, clearly disliking Alcina's curiosity about Tityus' group's departure, "You should know that by now!"

"Chloroplast!" rebuked Dionaea before the Longma rolled her Reptilian eyes and led Nepenthes back to the shack with the other Manti-cubs.

"Sorry about our Longma house assistant and nurse, Alcina, but she can be VERY feisty at times," said Dionaea as Alcina gazed at the green Kirin-like creature with Dragon-like wings, "especially when she has so much to do like housekeeping duties and helping to raise the Manti-cubs and her own Longma-foals."

"Heavy schedule then," said Alcina, her three red, magenta and violet tails waving like thick willow tufts in the wind. "By the way, I heard that a set of memorial monuments is being erected in the area that the Witch had used as the Arena of Blood for her sickening Massacre Events, am I right?"

"Yes," said Dionaea, shudders rolling through her as the IMMENSE and sanguinary violence of that barbaric event set up by the White Witch during her diamond-ice fist reign over the land flashed in her mind. Like some of the other rebels of the Witch, Dionaea, back then a younger Manticore, had seen those poor Narnians fight each other like dumb, feral beasts in that dreaded arena and after one look, she had been sick and sleepless for days. The same was true for the other onsite rebels like Kobaruto the Bakeneko, Kushanku's sister Ryn's husband and a brother-in-law of Kushanku the Nekomata, when they saw that over-the-top splatter show. Even now, Dionaea was still disturbed by the memories. Pushing aside these thoughts, she formed a frown.

"It was good of that Cerotopsid (Rhino-like Dinosaurs with frills and horns like Tricerotops) to suggest that," said the colourful, old Manticore, "It's underway now."

"I might pay a visit over there to pay my respects to those that had died in that dreadful arena," said Alcina. The Vixen then gazed at the morning sky.

"Welp, I have to leave and tend to my own duties," she said, "So I'll see you later."

And with that, the three-tailed Fox turned and wandered away. Dionaea just flashed her a look, breathed a sigh and left for her shack to join her family.

And so

After the officials and forces appointed by High King Peter to be such gathered to meet the four Monarchs at Cair Paravel Castle, among them two of the grandchildren of Jessie, the human rescued by the Terror Bird Goroth before the Eternal Winter and of course Neutrophil and Tityus' groups, the lot exited the castle like floodwater and galloped, ran or flew along the countryside scenery. The small army continued until they finally split apart to go to their assigned destinations to carry out the search-and-destroy tasks High King Peter had allocated them. Before departure, High King Peter had given the search-and-destroyers very strict instructions when they found any wandering cronies of Jadis and had captured them: first give them a chance to surrender. If they do, let them live and have them imprisoned. If they refuse, kill them on the spot without hesitation or mercy, and certainly without any sympathy as these creatures were, after all, the remnants of the Evillest Being to have EVER entered and existed in Narnia's history since its creation by Aslan the Great Lion. Some of the officials were also tasked with tearing down Jadis' castle, the 'victors' village' and the slaughterhouse to start the sanctuary for the latter area. And so the search-and-destroyers continued into the Narnian landscape to carry out these instructions and commands.

Meanwhile

In another area, a VERY infamous one with a VERY dark past as an infamous purpose during the White Witch's bloodthirsty reign, construction work was underway, another major task set up by High King Peter being carried out. Large animals such as T-Rexes, Sauropods, Cerotopsids, Stegosaurs, Rhinos and Magical Creatures like Giants and Stone Giants set up the components of large monuments while smaller creatures like Dwarves and Fauns carried out tasks requiring smaller hands and paws such as carrying the smaller pieces or blacksmith tasks. Large fire spots had been built using heatproof rocks and containers, kilns, mounted on them with supports keeping them erected to prevent a HIGHLY dangerous spillage. In the kilns was glowing yellow-orange liquid like magma, except this wasn't molten rock, but molten metal, and the kilns were EXTREMELY hot, like mini-furnaces. One or two of the kilns were tilted, carefully with their struts holding them, and their glowing liquid was poured into hollow blocks, moulds, to shape the molten metal for the monuments. Sparks flew and clanging exploded into the air as hammers and other tools struck more solid but still molten objects, and steam erupted from special cooling water buckets as these finished products were dunked to quickly finish off the cooling process. The process of the moulding of the molten metal into parts for the monuments was mostly being carried out by creatures that had dextrous hands, like Dwarves, Curupira, and Talking Apes such as Monkeys and Gorillas. The transport of the heavy parts was carried out by the much stronger creatures like the Dinosaurs and the Giants. More delicate work such as engraving pictures onto the monuments and the names of the victims that had died in the Arena of Blood was also being carried out with chisels and other engraving tools being used. While the construction work occurred, a male Nekomata with metallic powder-blue, grey and white fur and amber eyes propeller-tail-flew and overlooked the progress. Kushanku the Nekomata, who had been allocated by High King Peter in the construction work for the memorials, examined the work with a gaze that was mixed with pride and sombreness, the latter being for obvious reasons. However, he knew he had to keep his attention on overlooking the progress of the memorial construction.

Kushanku touched down near a group of Red Dwarves and their assistants, the blacksmith team, as they struck the pieces of molten metal with hammers on anvils to shape them for the monument. The Dwarves and company wore protective clothing with black goggles covering their eyes, obviously to protect their eyes from airborne hazards such as sparks and from the bright light of the glowing metal. Special heatproof gloves and clothes were also worn by these blacksmiths. Passing through the blacksmith team, Kushanku continued to the engravers, some of them also Dwarves. He approached one of them, a male Red Dwarf as he chiselled something into the surface of a metal lump. Like the blacksmiths, the chisellers wore goggles to protect their eyes from flying metal dust and sparks. The metal being processed largely was bronze but silver, gold and rare Narnia-exclusive metals were also being processed.

"How are the engravings of the Lion and the list of names for the monuments coming, Jasper?" asked Kushanku as the Dwarf, Jasper inspected his work.

"Progressin' slowly, Kushanku," replied the Red Dwarf in a deep, stony voice as he brushed some metal dust from his beard and lifted his goggles so that he could talk to Kushanku directly, "There is such a LOT of names to carve," he then gazed sombrely at the surrounding fields and forests and a nearby lake. During the Eternal Winter, this area used to be smothered with white and the lake frozen over and whenever the Massacre Event occurred, that snow was dyed a DEEP red and littered heavily with corpses as countless Narnians, often in the hundreds, fought and killed each other like feral beasts. Now with the Dawn of Spring, a carpet of green grass and colourful flowers decorated the area and the lake was a glistening azure blue. However, this did not wipe away the dark history of this area. Jasper's skin then began to crawl as the memories of this area's purpose. "It's hard to BELIEVE that SO MANY victims were thrown in here like dumb, feral beasts and forced to fight each other like such for the sake of a 'better life' that Devil Woman offered. An ancestor of mine lost his beloved wife in these lands. I've just been carving her name on this piece of metal now."

Kushanku gazed at the Dwarf's work and saw the writing. Also engraved was an image of a Big Cat surrounded with a flame-like mane. Then Kushanku took a moment to mourn those that had died in this Arena of Blood, among them one of his adopted brothers called Gingerfur who had been forcefully thrown in here along with every other victim. A tear oozed from his right eye and ran down his cheek before the Nekomata exited his mourning moment to continue to talk to Jasper.

"Since I'm of a Magical Talking Beast species that can live for more than 200 years, I remember that event all too well," said he in a strangled voice. However, he pushed that aside and perked up as best he could, "But enough on that dark subject. Keep up the good work, Jasper."

Jasper smiled, replaced his goggles over his eyes and resumed chiselling the names and the engraving of Aslan. Kushanku continued to walk through the crowd of workers, eventually reaching the area where the larger and far-stronger workers were erecting a central main piece of the first memorial, which was to be a bronze cuboidal monolith-like structure surrounded by a ring with the engraved names. A team of Stegosaurs, some Elephants and a Giant, all of them with harnesses attached, strained to lift the giant cuboid erect and into a sturdy foundation dug and filled with sturdy concrete-like material (done by the Dwarves and some of the other workers).

"That's it, everyone," shouted the voice of a Talking Giant Ape (which was a massive white Gorilla-like creature similar to Gigantapithicus, an extinct King Kong-like Ape) to which Kushanku turned his attention, "Easy does it..." the white furred Giant Ape then gestured to the workers the direction of the movement of the giant bronze cuboid. The shiny brown-gold-coloured monolith was erected and then guided carefully by more strong Talking Beasts into its foundation. The monolith was engraved with an image of a Lion with a fiery mane, the handiwork of the Dwarves and Curupira, and its metal shone like a giant slab of copper-gold in the sun. Kushanku managed a small smile at the successful erection of the first monument. Soon, that monolith will be surrounded with a rocky and metallic ring listing the names of some of some of the deceased Narnians in the Arena of Blood while talking, hammering, chiselling, and burning of kilns continued to beat the morning air.

The metals were harvested from the 'fossilised' metal-plants that grew in the deep realm of the Underworld, Bism, and that had died and brought up via geological activity from there to the surface. The Bismese visitors such as the Basan and some Gnomes or Earthmen, had returned to the underground area though few had chosen to remain on the surface to continue to live here or help Narnia re-establish itself after the 100-Year Long Winter. Most Bismese inhabitants, however, did not like the surface (which most referred to as Overland) and preferred to be in the darkness of the underground. A type of Fire Lizard called the Fire Salamander lived here and they VERY rarely come to the surface. Their habitat, Kushanku had read, were the lava rivers flowing through Bism. No human had ever been in that extreme-underground area and Kushanku, though he wanted to visit it, had no intentions for he had more important tasks to contend with. He then turned his attention to some visiting creatures from another realm of Narnia, directly opposite to the extreme underground. These creatures were from the Narnian Sky Domain built on clouds with Asgard Sky City being its capital. They were Cloud-Men (the tall, fluffy, white Humanoid men with slender arms and legs like Slender-Men but are not malicious, and came in white, grey, silver, and rarer sunset colours like pink and yellow), Cloud Birds, blue Swan-like birds with cloud cottons for their wings and tail, and Flying Rods, Eel-like creatures that had rod-shaped bodies and undulating sheets on either side of them. They came in colours of green, red, blue, magenta, yellow, cyan and white. Sky-dwellers rarely visited the ground, and almost no record of any visitations from these sky-high dwellers had been recorded from the Eternal Winter chronicles, though one event where some Flying Rods had been caught by the White Witch's cronies when they tried to help provide food for the famine-stricken winter lands was present. Many of these rod-like creatures had managed to escape but two were not so fortunate and had been processed into food by the Witch and her cronies. Since then, not one Sky Domain visitor had ever set foot on the Narnian land, until now.

As Kushanku continued to gaze at the visiting Cloud-Men, Cloud Birds and Flying Rods, the latter hovering above the earth with their transparent fins undulating and glinting in the sun, a device began to flash and emit sounds in the Nekomata's satchel he had brought with him. Upon hearing this, Kushanku took out the device, a crystalline octahedron which flashed white and emitted the beeping sounds (like our world's phones with an incoming call) and set it down on the floor before him. The octahedron ascended into the air and transformed into a diamond-shaped crystal screen and within moments, an image of a Royal Daughter of Eve, one of the Queens, appeared. Kushanku smiled as he gazed at the young Queen.

"Hi, Queen Lucy the Valiant," said he, "How are the search-and-destroy missions coming?"

"We've just started, Kushanku," replied Queen Lucy, her rounded face laced with a smile and sternness at the same time, "The Warrior Mice Sordward, Shielbert, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, together with Neutrophil and Tityus the Manticore, are apprehending some White Witch-loyal Black Dwarves that had managed to escape into a burrow following the White Witch's defeat," as she spoke, a small Humanoid with ashen black hair and beard darted past in the background, a familiar large flightless bird with pink spots chasing after him. The Dwarf tripped and fell forward and within moments, a clawed foot appeared and slammed onto his upper back to keep him still. Then a large beak hovered near his face.

"Surrender or DIE, Black Dwarf," barked Neutrophil thunderously, his short clawed wings clutching a sword but the Terror Bird had no intention of using it. When the Black Dwarf shot the Terror Bird a defiant glare despite his life being on the line, Athos appearing and drawing his rapier to reinforce the threat, Neutrophil prepared the deathblow by raising his head, the tip of his deadly hooked beak aiming for the creature's neck while Athos stood back.

"Long LIVE JADIS, the QUEEN OF..." yelled the Black Dwarf before his defiant sentence was cut off by a massive and brutal STAB as Neutrophil's beak came down on his neck in the Terror Bird-exclusive Axe Beak technique, killing him instantly. Queen Lucy flashed a look back at Neutrophil as he prepared to take the deceased Dwarf's body away and returned her gaze to Kushanku. More ashen dark grey bearded and haired forms continued running around with more officials, one of them a multi-tailed Kitsune, in hot pursuit. Kushanku's Cat's brow creased into a frown.

"That Black Dwarf Neutrophil just killed certainly did show his allegiance to the White Witch didn't he?" he commented.

"These hideaway Black Dwarves are fiercely loyal to the deceased false Queen," replied Queen Lucy, "That is why we are dealing with them. It is important that as many as the White Witch's remnants are dealt with pronto or they could gather together and plot revenge."

Kushanku nodded before nodding to the working memorial constructors in his background. "The first monument has just been erected," said he, "and the team is working full tilt," as he said this, Queen Lucy whipped round, reached into her pocket, seized a small knife and threw it at one of the Black Dwarves armed with a crossbow, an arrow nocked into it and its tip pointing at Tityus as he held another Dwarf down. The Black Dwarf toppled over and threw his crossbow aside as the knife, Queen Lucy's dagger she had received from Father Christmas, plunged into his chest. After dealing with the archer Black Dwarf and saving Tityus' life and requesting one of the Archaeobirds to retrieve and clean her dagger, Queen Lucy continued with her conversation with Kushanku. "Sorry about that, but I had to deal with a Black Dwarf archer preparing his crossbow to shoot Dionaea's son over there as he issuing another Dwarf the surrender-or-die option."

As Queen Lucy spoke, her best friend Faun made his appearance in the background, said "Hi, Kushanku," and waved to Kushanku to the Nekomata's and Queen Lucy's amusement, before resuming the siege on the Black Dwarf's hideout, cutting down a refusing-to-surrender Dwarf with his sword when that Dwarf declared that Jadis will be back.

"So are you planning on coming on one of our search-and-destroy missions?" asked Queen Lucy, "It'll take your mind off overlooking the memorial construction process since, after all, it was where the evil Witch had her VIOLENT 'games' in which so many Narnians died during the Age of Winter..."

"I think that's a good idea, Your Majesty," said Kushanku with a grateful smile. As he said this, a red, purple and magenta Kitsune with three tails walked in. A magenta Flying Rod, when it saw the Fox, flinched and went over to meet her, a Cloud-Man and a Cloud Bird following.

"Excuse me, ma'am, you can't just walk into the construction site," said the magenta Flying Rod, "It's EXTREMELY dangerous."

"Yes, there are a LOT of hazards around with heavy objects being lugged and molten metal being processed," said a Cloud-Man, a female. Kushanku flashed a look at the newcomer and gazed back at Queen Lucy.

"Well, I'll let you resume your mission and I'll talk to you later," said the Nekomata, "A Kitsune's just come."

"Okay, see you Kushanku," said Queen Lucy and with that, she reached for her communicator and the screen cut off in a static-flash, returning to its flat crystalline diamond shape. That flat diamond then collapsed back into a small octahedron which Kushanku took and packed away into his satchel. After this, he went to meet the newcomer, Alcina the Kitsune as the magenta Flying Rod, the two Cloud-Men and the Cloud Bird stonewalled her further approach to the memorial construction site.

"Look, I only wanna visit this place, you four," protested the three-tailed Fox as the four continued to obstruct her, a Stegosaur lumbering in to help with an Ankylosaur, an armoured Dinosaur with a literal club-tail which Ankylosaurs used both as a weapon in combat and as a tool to smash things like hard fruit or, in this case, to help mould more-set metal.

"Only when the memorials are finished," said the large plate-backed Dinosaur, "So can you please leave? It's too dangerous here."

"Yes, carry on with your own tasks," said the Ankylosaur gruffly. These Dinosaurs were known to be grumpy and gruff Talking Reptiles and can sometimes come off as quite brusque and blunt. Kushanku walked in and raised a paw to the group before the Ankylosaur got too harsh. He then turned to Alcina.

"I'm sorry to cut off your attempt to visit here, Alcina," he said firmly, "But there is construction work going on here. There are a LOT of hazards here and it is NOT safe for untrained individuals to walk through..."

"Sorry to suddenly appear and cause a distraction," said Alcina apologetically, wincing slightly at the intimidating looking Ankylosaur as the hulking boulder of scales, hard spikes and a club-tail on four legs hardened his glare, "I-I was just curious about this area and the activities. Memorials, huh? Is it for those that had died in battle?"

"What an insensitive remark to say about this place!" snapped the Ankylosaur, "This AREA... was once the Arena of Blood and we are building memorials to commemorate the unfortunate victims that had been thrown into it by the Witch and her minions to fight to the death like dumb beasts."

"Umpteen thousands of victims have died here," explained the Stegosaur, his spiked tail swinging behind him. When Alcina seemed indifferent about the explanation behind the reasons for building the memorial, Kushanku decided to intervene before the two Dinosaurs, the two Cloud-Men, the Cloud Bird and the Magenta Flying Rod but most especially the Ankylosaur, could take offense.

"Please, Alcina, just leave and tend what you're supposed to do," he said politely, "This is a VERY sensitive area and subject and I don't want anybody, particularly those who have been forced to lose family and friends to this site, DEEPLY offended."

"Okay, and I can see that Ankylosaur is starting to get nagging," said Alcina, "When the memorials are finished, I'll return and pay my respects to those that had died. I have such a lot on, anyway. See you," and with that, she darted off to go somewhere else, her three colourful tails sweeping behind her. The Magenta Flying Rod which was a male, a disapproving glare on his face on a bulbous end, his head, hovered forward, his transparent magenta fins waving and glittering as the simple creature hovered.

"For a 300-year old Kitsune, I thought she should have sufficient knowledge about the Eternal Winter since she'll have lived through it," he told Kushanku and the others gathered, "Either that or she's been in hiding for much of that century of nonstop winter in your land."

"How come she does NOT know much about the Massacre Events that Devil Woman had?" asked the Cloud Bird. The two Cloud-Men exchanged glances and shrugged.

"Let's just get back to work," said Kushanku and with that he, the two tall Cloud Humanoids, the Cloud-winged Bird, the Magenta Rod creature with eel-like fins, the Stegosaur and the Ankylosaur turned and returned to the construction site.

The day goes past

From the morning through midday to the afternoon, the Four Monarch's search-and-destroy groups continued their mission in purging the land of Narnia of any remnant of Jadis' minions still trying to hide. Some, such as Neutrophil, used a magical device called phago-bubble guns to fire phago-bubbles to help trap targets. Phago-bubbles were a type of magical bubble that wrapped around and 'swallowed' their targets and entrapped them within, making the target easier to catch. Once caught, the target within the bubble was given the option of surrender or die. If they chose either option but imprisonment for the former or death on the spot for the latter, they were freed and the materials for the phago-bubble gathered and recycled for reuse. As the day went on, several more groups of the Witch's cronies attempting to hide were found and dealt with. Several Xenojaws were slain by a group of warrior Archaeobirds and Pterosaurs and King Edmund risked receiving a NASTY claw swipe to the face from a Lizard-Man (Humanoid Lizard creatures armed with venomous claws and a prehensile tail) when he cut it down with a sword when it refused to surrender and instead tried to wound him, and several casualties did result in other skirmishes. Nonetheless, the missions continued. During these missions, the search for the Cartoon Shadow Cat was underway but the creature had not been found. That was not to say that it had given up and gone into hiding, however.