Chapter 8- getting the young to safety, suspicions

I am SO sorry for the long delay but a lot has been happening and sometimes I didn't have the motivation. I will try and spend more time on this story if I get the chance

Not too far away from the area of Cair Paravel, a busy marketplace was in full tilt. A marketplace had been established near Cair Paravel as soon as Jadis had been vanquished and Peter, Edmund, Lucy and Susan had been crowned Kings and Queens of Narnia by Aslan and for the first time in a Narnian century, trade and economy had returned to Narnia with the Winter Revolution. The currency in Narnia was the Narnian Lion or just Lion, with each Lion being worth 100 Trees. These came in the form of metallic discs, much like our world's currencies in various nations (pennies and pounds for the UK, dollars, nickels and the rest for the US, for example. However, the Narnian Lion did not come in plastic or paper slips), or pieces of metal. During the Eternal Winter, now called the Age of Winter, and Jadis' tyrannical reign, trade and economy was nonexistent along with spring, summer, autumn and Christmas. Food and other essentials had been imported into the frozen country, both literally and figuratively, through a black market, established mostly by Talking Beavers due to it being almost impossible to grow crops in the snow. However, Jadis had soon passed an unfair law of the 90 percent food offering each Narnian group or family received from the smuggled goods and food as part of her oppressive rule on the inhabitants, and that food, along with any indoor grown crops ort hunted game, had been forcibly taken by Jadis' crony patrol groups, resulting in countless Narnians starving while Jadis and company including the traitors and soon-to-be and forcibly-selected and taken Massacre Event participants had a HUGE mountain of food which they wastefully gorged and purged on. However, all that had been vanquished with the tyrant and most of her cronies and since then, markets and trading areas had been established up and down Narnia and this marketplace, Cair Paravel Marketplace, was one of them.

Voltasu the Three-Legged Crow, known technically as a Yatagarasu, strolled through the dividing path flanked by a series of tents and stalls erected along the edges, a wide variety of food and other goods being sold. It was busy in Cair Paravel Marketplace and the path and tents were almost saturated with visitors of various creature types, among them Fauns, Centaurs and Talking Beasts, both Regular and Magical. The stall and tent owners were also of various species, and Voltasu spotted a Magical Lynx in charge of selling avian game (non-Talking pheasants, quail, wild chickens, pigeons and more) and calling out to potential customers to come and buy them. However, purchasing a pheasant or several pigeons for his next meal was not on Voltasu's mind right now. He was looking for a tent or stall that sold a category of products Voltasu DID have on his mind: confections such as cakes for he wanted to purchase one of such for High King Peter and his siblings as a special gift. Hanging from the Three-Legged Crow's neck was a satchel which contained a pouch containing his money for Voltasu had returned to his hollow to fetch this before coming here. After all, you could not buy anything from the stalls without money, could you, or you'd be stealing. As Voltasu continued scanning the different stall and tent types and their products, his eyes landed on the stall selling his target category. Immediately, he walked in his three-legged steps to the stall and began to examine the confectionaries that were on offer. Standing in the centre of the stall were two female Fauns and a female Red Dwarf, indicated by her lack of a large beard though she did have a little bit of facial hair. The confectionaries on offer were a massive diversity of cakes, pies and tarts. Some of the cakes were stacked cakes of three tiers, rather like wedding cakes, while other cakes were single-layered or came in smaller cupcakes. Voltasu also spotted a stacked cake made from a Narnia-exclusive chocolate. All the cakes bore decorations of various types, among them fruit including fruit exclusive to the Narnian world. The pies and tarts were made from a variety of fruit and even vegetables but Voltasu showed no interest in these desserts. He wanted to purchase a cake for the Monarchs and he wanted it to be elaborate. Then after browsing what was on offer, he turned to the stall owners and the lead makers of these confectionaries.

"Excuse me, have you any cake that is elaborate enough to be a gift to our Monarchs?" he asked.

"Um, I don't think we do," replied one of the female Fawns while the other Faun, her sister, went to look for the most elaborate cake on offer to help satisfy Voltasu's request, "The cakes we make or buy from other bakers to sell are mostly casual or for special occasions like weddings and birthdays." (Like in our world, most Narnians celebrated their birthdays with cakes, though for the birthdays of a Yatagarasu, the treat was a massive rice ball-like dessert, while Talking Cats including Nekomata and Bakeneko had special fish pies or equivalent, often with candles for the birthday Cat to blow out, again like in our world). Then the female Dwarf guided Voltasu to some of the most elaborate cakes for sale. All of these cakes had a complex design and were decorated VERY elaborately indeed, as though they were intended for upper class buyers, and all were stacked with up to three tiers. The female Dwarf then led Voltasu to a particularly large cake which unlike the others which had up to three tiers, this one had six. It was white with some pale red mixed in the cream and had a variety of decorations stuck into its tier sides such as candy yellow stars and blue berries. The top was styled after a fairy with a bow and behind the cake, a waterfall of solid cream or fondant cascaded down from behind the fairy to the base. Voltasu admired the design of the cake.

"This is the most expensive cake we have on offer," said the female Dwarf, "It's called the Mega Sugarplum Fairy Cake. I'm sure Their Majesties would love this as a gift..."

Voltasu continued to admire the massive cake but before he could make his decision and select this confection, the first female Faun's sister called out, "Hang on, I think this might be suitable for our Monarchs as a gift."

Voltasu looked up and saw the other Faun walk in with a VERY beautiful cake whose design was much more elaborate than the one Voltasu was about to select. When the Three-Legged Crow's eyes landed on the cake brought in by the Faun, is eyes widened out of their sockets and his beak dropped open in astonishment. This cake was two-layered with the smaller tier placed on top of a larger base. Both tiers were decorated with a glittering edible gold around their rims with bright yellow edible stars dotting them while their tops were pure white and sprinkled with silver and aqua blue edible glitter. In the middle of the upper tier, which appeared to be hollowed out, appeared to be a Narnian chocolate stuffing, some of the powder sprinkled around the lip of the hole. Voltasu continued to smile in amazement at the design of this cake as the second female Faun set it down before him. This gold-rimmed cake had a large base but it was not as tall as the Mega Sugarplum Fairy Cake due to it only having two tiers.

"This cake was recently brought in by an aspiring confection and cake baker," said she, "And like the Mega Sugarplum Fairy Cake, it is expensive even though it is not as big as tat cake, but I'm sure Their Majesties would love this cake."

"Right, I'll take it," said Voltasu with a smile. He had hoped that the four Kings and Queens of Narnia would like this cake gift, especially since this cake had the metallic colours of precious metals like silver and gold which often had royalty symbolism attached to them. Then after purchasing the rather expensive cake and paying the tent owners and the cake packed into a special box with beautiful silver and gold ribbon wrapped around it, Voltasu took the box containing the cake, thanked the owners and left for Cair Paravel Castle, a smile sparkling on his beak as the feeling of accomplishment of purchasing a gift for the Kings and Queens of Narnia sweeping through him.

Meanwhile

Kushanku, Milky Way, Padparadscha "Paddy", Alexandrite, Teal'c, Neutrophil and Monocyte took Malachite, Seishan, Elsa, Rainbow Quartz, Yardang, Sisu, Lymphocyte and the other children and youngsters with them to a certain building where they normally went for school during the school term. As Milky Way led her rainbow winged granddaughter along, a worried look formed on her face.

"I hope that Cartoon Shadow Cat's threat towards King Edmund and his three siblings as it told me when we sought to that group of Blue Mice and Neko-Cabbits is just a bluff," whispered the aging white Winged Horse nervously as she remembered the chilling confrontation with that demonic Cat creature and its apparent assistants during that event.

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised if any of those surviving minions of Jadis are out plotting against us and our four Monarchs," replied Kushanku, a serious look on his face as he, Alexandrite and Paddy led Malachite, Yardang, Seishan and Elsa along, "After all, they had been UTTERLY devastated when Aslan killed their Mistress during the closing moments of the Battle of Beruna..."

"The Cartoon Shadow Cat had been fiercely loyal to that Snow Beast anyway," said Teal'c, "But let's focus on getting these kids to the safety of the school."

The other adults nodded and continued leading the children in that building's direction.

Sometime later, Malachite and company entered Cair Paravel School and were gently shepherded to a classroom where Narnia's history and creation was taught. The walls of the room were decorated with posters, some describing the events of Narnia's early days in pictures, such as Aslan's formation of the first Talking Beasts and assigning two certain Humans with a task, and some about the Eternal Winter but written in age-appropriate content. Bookshelves with books associated also with Narnia's history were also present and a blackboard and a set of desks and seats where classes sat filled the centre of the room where pupils sat and wrote notes while the teacher taught and wrote on the blackboard. The classroom and every other classroom in the school were similar to the old fashioned classes our schools had in our world's history. As soon as the entire group of youngsters was in the safety of the room, Kushanku gave them an EXTREMELY serious glare. It was the look of authority no kid dare disobey when there was especial danger afoot. Then Kushanku began to give the youngsters including Lymphocyte, Basophil and Eosinophil whose older respective brothers Monocyte and Neutrophil were going to help deal with whatever threat was looming near Cair Paravel, some SERIOUS instructions.

"While we sort out whatever is wandering around the castle grounds of our four Kings and Queens, you lot," the metallic powder blue, white and grey furred Nekomata said very sternly, "You are to stay in here until someone comes and gets you. On NO account should you leave this room until then. Understand?"

The kids nodded to confirm this.

"Yes, and you older kids such as you, Basophil and Eosinophil, make sure to look after the younger ones until then," said Neutrophil. Malachite, who was quite sour-faced and didn't like restrictions, especially if they were enforced by the older members of the group, shot the two rather colourful Terror Birds a look as they nodded to this instruction, alongside a teenaged male Jackalope who was another grandchild of Dahlia the Jackalope.

"What!?" the green and neon green striped Nekomata blurted out.

"You heard our brother," said Basophil with eyes narrowed with sternness to which Malachite released a sour huff. The older male Jackalope also smiled to Malachite's miffed glare.

"It's VERY important that you obey these rules, Malachite," said Alexandrite, backing up this instruction and reinforcing the importance of the rules.

"Yes, the last thing we want is ANY of you lot landing into trouble, ESPECIALLY if it is life-threatening," put in Teal'c very seriously. The white Kamaitachi then turned to Paddy, "Paddy and I will go to the market and buy you some food while you keep yourselves occupied with those books."

"Yes, there are plenty of them to share between you," said Paddy with a smile and a nod to the bookshelves to which some of the kids shot a gaze.

"We could do with reminding ourselves on Narnia's history, anyway," said the oldest male Jackalope Buck.

"That's a good idea, Leon," said Kushanku before he handed the Buck named Leon the keys to the door, before the Nekomata returned his gaze to the group of youngsters once again, "And remember, you lot STAY... RIGHT... HERE until someone comes to get you once we have dealt with the threat marauding Cair Paravel's grounds."

"ONLY open the door to me and Paddy when we return with your food," said Teal'c.

"We will signal to you with a password when we arrive to unlock the door and open it," said Paddy and with that, Teal'c seized a sheet of paper and a pen and scribbled the password onto it. He then handed it to Leon for safekeeping so that only HE can open the door. Malachite and several others looked on with sour-faced looks. This done, Kushanku and his group gave the children their final safety instructions, said goodbye and left with Leon shutting the door and locking it.

The moment the adults had left the school building, Teal'c turned to the others.

"Right, Paddy and I will go to the market and get the children some food while the rest of you return to the thicket and raise the alarm of the intruder afoot," the floating Weasel with scythed claws said, "I'm going to call some Flying Rod visitors to help us in this task."

"Right, you two make it so," said Kushanku and with that, the Kamataichi and Alexandrite's sister broke away from the others and left in the direction of said destination, Teal'c pulling out a communicator from his satchel to contact a small group of Flying Rod friends as the pair walked or floated away. Milky Way looked on.

"I hope those two will stay safe while they go to the market," she told the others, "It's a good idea of Teal'c to call for assistance in case those two may run into trouble."

"Indeed, but let's just focus on returning to that thicket where we discovered the dead Forest Flish, Milky Way," replied Kushanku and with that he, Alexandrite, Milky Way, Neutrophil, Monocyte and the others with them continued their return journey.

Back at the thicket, an investigation had begun. Several Cabbit investigators, wearing protective clothing and gloves, slowly and carefully packed three of the Forest Flish carcasses away into special bags to be carried away to a lab for investigation while more Talking Beasts, many of them high officials under the four Pevensie Monarchs, continued to survey the small, dense forest for any signs of trouble. Outside the thicket where Malachite and company had been when they discovered the dead Forest Flish, Alestomeria, Ahhuayo and Rattus talked with Queen Susan who was on horseback while Hagrid talked via magical communicator screen to a Centaur official.

"Can you send out guards to watch over the countryside dwellers such as Neutrophil's Terror Bird and Wolf clan and that village where Dionaea the Manticore lives please, Mestor?" commanded the Nine-Tailed Kitsune and New Chronicler after Gandalf sternly, his shining ivory, metallic yellow-tipped tails sweeping at the air like thick snakes of silk, as he gazed at the dark-skinned Centaur who was one of the Centaur Perseus' sons and trained warrior, "I have a feeling that the number of the remnants of the White Witch may be higher than we initially thought. It is clear that there are many of them still at large, the Cartoon Shadow Cat, which I believe is nearby on the castle grounds, among them."

"I have sent a small group of Komainu and Kirin warriors to Dionaea's village, Hagrid," replied the Centaur, Mestor, "We have just had a report from several Alicanto who live near them of trouble from a small group of around five Slender-Men lurking in the forest near them. I have also commanded them to slay those lanky faceless Monsters if they see them without hesitation as per His Magesty High King Peter's commands..."

"That's good," said Hagrid sternly and with gladness, "And make sure that the other groups you're sending to the other countryside dwelling groups have those same search-and-destroy instructions given to them before they leave as well," the glare on the Kitsune's face then hardened, "The sooner we deal with the last of Jadis' ugly grunts, the better."

Mestor nodded and with that, he closed the communication and the diamond-shaped crystal screen transformed back into its octahedron form. Hagrid took the octahedron and packed it back into his bag as Mjölnir walked in with Rattus, Mouse Warriors Sordward, Shielbert, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, rookie and in-training warrior Squea'tagnan and young Pigs and grandsons of Trotterhoof; Woody, Straw and Brick, and three of Kushanku's nieces, Merida, Sunstone and Moonstone.

"We have just escorted more of the youngsters, among them Ahhuayo's granddaughter Larimar, to our cousin Miidori's house, Hagrid," said one of the Nekomata, Merida.

"Larimar has just told us that she had seen what she has described as a black, blobby insectoid creature with white menacing eyes and a toothy grin like the Cartoon Shadow Cat in another part of the thicket," added Sordward, his brother Shielbert standing near him, his rapier in paw.

"Good, and make sure that she and the other youngsters with her do NOT leave Miidori's house," commanded Hagrid sternly, before his gaze turned to the investigation scene as the Cabbit forensic team prepared to leave for the lab with their Forest Flish specimens, their leader talking with Queen Susan and her Komainu bodyguard, "I have a feeling that Jadis' surviving minions are plotting something, which wouldn't surprise me as the loss of their Mistress has been UTTERLY devastating for them."

"Not only have they lost their Mistress who they saw as a goddess," said Athos who was flanked by Aramis, Porthos and Squea'tagnan, "but also their luxurious way of life their Mistress had bestowed on them for their loyalty to her."

"Yeah, but don't forget, Jadis often saw them as mere tools than living beings, Athos," said Sunstone.

"Especially the traitors to us and those Massacre Event victors," put in Straw, "Who she eventually killed on the Stone Table for their 'carelessness'.

"My wife Alestomeria and I have seen it all with our own eyes," said Hagrid. Then Moonstone began to look around for a certain Three-Legged Crow, technically called a Yatagasaru.

"By the way, where's Voltasu?" asked the white Nekomata with icy colours such as blue and moon markings on her fur, "I haven't seen in him for a while."

"He's gone to the market to buy our four Monarchs a gift," said Mjölnir, "He wants to treat them to a special cake to serve as their congratulations in becoming Kings and Queens of Narnia."

"When we've got work to do regarding the last of Jadis' minions and objects such as her castle?" asked Merida sceptically.

"Look, let's leave Voltasu to get his gift for our Monarchs and concentrate on this, okay?" said Hagrid and with that, the group returned to the scene. As they did, Woody gazed at his brothers.

"I wonder what sort of cake Voltasu will bring back, bros," he said.

"We'll have to see, but I bet it will be something REALLY stylish and royal, fitting for two kings and two queens," said Brick. Woody and Straw flashed brief smiles before returning their attention to the scene.