Chapter 25- the Garden of Youth Quest Goers' rest stop
The day continued to go by and back in Narnia, the quest goers continued their journeys to their destinations to retrieve the exclusive ingredients for the Nine-Realms Potion, the only antidote to High King Peter's poisoning which could not be cured by fire flower cordial or any other rare form of potion capable of healing almost any injury and ailment. The group headed to the Garden of Youth or Aslan's Orchard on the group of Sleipnir or Eight-Legged Horses and flying transporters like Pegasi had stopped for a rest and to eat. Among them were Queen Lucy, Tumnus and his cousin Guinan, and Neutrophil and his brother Basophil and sister Eosinophil and one of his cousins Monocyte. As the group had their meal and rest with the Magical Equines eating grass, Eosinophil gazed off into the distance, a certain cousin on her mind.
"I hope Lymphocyte and the others kidnapped with him such as Malachite are okay," she said, "I'm still wondering where in the Eastern Ocean they had been taken by those boatmen."
As she said this Neutrophil came in munching on a lump of meat taken from a dumb wild pig.
"Those back at Cair Paravel have that covered, sis," he said with assurance, "but in the meantime, we need to focus on getting an apple from the Garden of Youth."
Then Monocyte came in; worry for his still-missing brother gnawing at him as indicated by the sad look on his fearsome Bird-of-Prey's face.
"I just hope that my little brother Lymphocyte and the others haven't been taken to anywhere sinister," he said worriedly, before his gaze turned to the other Terror Bird as he talked with some strange lithe ferret-like cats called Slugcats and a Pegasus, a ginger coloured Mare with Tumnus and Guinan, "I mean, we lost Basophil when he rebelled against us during the Age of Winter and ad several brushes with death including at the clutches of the Cartoon Shadow Cat and we thought the worst of him until a herd of Sleipnir returned us to him. The last thing I want is Lymphocyte facing the same possible fate..."
"We're ALL worried about Lymphocyte and the others including Sisu, Malachite, Seishan, Elsa, Yardang and Rainbow Quartz and everyone else kidnapped with them," said Neutrophil, "but as I've said, those back at Cair Paravel have the search-and-rescue plans for them covered. Our main job is focussing on getting an apple from the Great Terror Cat's Orchard Garden for the 9-Realms Potion for High King Peter."
"That's another worry on our minds, especially Queen Lucy over there," said Monocyte with a nod to a certain member. The other two Terror Birds turned and eyed Queen Lucy as she talked with another Sleipnir about her older brother, the Sleipnir assuring her that he was in good hands and that they will be as fast as they could in getting the ingredients for his antidote before his poisoning got worse. Sighing, the three Terror Birds sat down to eat their meals though Eosinophil wasn't really very hungry but she knew she had to eat as it was a long journey.
While Neutrophil, his sister and cousin ate, Basophil, Tumnus and Guinan talked with the ginger-coloured Mare Pegasus and some Slugcats, those having volunteered to go on one of the quests and had been allocated into this group by Martian.
"How far have we still got before we arrive at the Garden of Youth, Vermillion?" Basophil asked.
"According to Gonggong the lead Sleipnir over there," the Mare named Vermillion said, her gaze on a Sleipnir stallion whose coat was coloured white, brown and a bit of vivid yellow grazing on a large cluster of grass, "More than a day."
Like regular Horses, the coat of Sleipnir and also Pegasi and Allicorns and to a small degree, Unicorns as well, had a colour palette range similar to those Horses. However, exotic colours not present in Regular Talking Horses like blue existed in these Magical Horses though these colours were FAR rarer. Rainbow Quartz, Milky Way's granddaughter, was an example individual Pegasus who had a range of exotic colours not present in the colour palette of Regular Talking Horses, having a literal rainbow colour thrown into her coat, especially her feathered wings. The lead Sleipnir, Gonggong, had vivid yellow in his white and brown coat and some members of his herd had yellow, blue and even red, violet and green in their coats. Other than these colours, the colour palette of a Sleipnir was like that of a Regular Talking Horse. Then Gonggong walked over to Basophil's group.
"Indeed it may," said the Eight Legged Stallion, "The Garden of Youth is right in those mountains over there," he nodded to a mountain range in the distance.
"What is this Garden of Youth, anyway?" asked Basophil.
"You should know, Basophil," said Tumnus with a slightly irritated frown, "You've read about the place in a book."
"It's Aslan's garden," said Guinan.
"Indeed it is," said Gonggong, "And the fruit that grows within it are mostly magical apples. NOT ordinary apples, magical."
"They're not like our regular apples, are they?" asked Guinan.
"They are ABOLUSTELY not," said Vermillion the Pegasus Mare, "Unlike regular apples or other fruit which you can simply pick at your own leisure, the Garden of Youth fruit were meant to be picked ONLY when necessary and with special permission."
"It has rarely been visited, hasn't it?" said one of the Slugcats, a pale red one who carried a spear on his back, the other Slugcats surrounding him. Some were white, a few were yellow and one was aqua blue. As we'll discuss later, these were different Slugcat breeds, each with a unique set of talents and traits, especially when it came to gathering food.
"Indeed, Tigris," said Gonggong, "The first group to EVER visit the Garden were Son of Adam Digory Kirke, Daughter of Eve Polly and the father of the Pegasus species, Fledge, formed from an extra-Narnian Earth horse transported to Narnia along with the six extra-Narnians including the former two, shortly after Aslan created this world and the first set of Talking Animals and Magical Creatures."
"Digressing from the subject here a bit," said Basophil, "While that trio was away to the Garden, Aslan created more Talking Creatures such as the Dinosaurs, didn't he? He formed them the same way he formed the first group: out of the earth and then selected a pair or a few of each kind and species and gave them the power of speech. The unselected went off into the countryside. Aslan also formed some Magical Beasts from Regular Talking Beasts, such as Gandalf and Seresute the Kitsune from Ordinary Talking Foxes whom Aslan appointed to not only be the parents of the Kitsune species but also the first Chroniclers."
"That's correct," said Gonggong, "and he chose some Ordinary Horses to become Unicorns, Sleipnir such as me, and other kinds of Equine creatures. The Centaurs, however, are an entirely separate species from the Equines despite having the body of one."
"Then Alsan formed the Sea Creatures such as the Merfolk from the sea bed," said Guinan with Tumnus and the other Slugcats behind Tigris, their leader, nodding in agreement.
"That's correct as well," said Gonggong.
"But anyway, coming back to the Garden of Youth, it is important to NEVER take and eat the Garden's apples or other fruit for your own selfish gains, isn't it?" asked Basophil, "You may get what you want but you will also reap dreadful consequences along with your selfish desires."
"That's correct as well," said Gonggong, "Those fruit strictly belong to Aslan and they must NEVER be misused like how you've mentioned. As you'll see when you arrive at the Garden's outskirts, there are special rules written at the gates to abide by while visiting the Garden."
"To ensure those rules are obeyed by any visitors to the Garden," said Vermillion, "Aslan has appointed special guardians to look after the Garden, chosen from one of four Cardinal Creatures who live in the domain of the Four Cardinal Kingdoms accessible only via the Bifrost Transporter: the Vermillion Phoenix Birds of the South, the White Tigers of the West, the Azure Dragons of the East and the Black Tortoises of the North. The Guardian, which is always a male selected from any of those four Cardinal Creatures always move to the Garden's outskirts where he will live. Due to the demands of the role, the Guardian must be chaste and celibate to carry out his special duties without distraction."
"The first guardian had been a Vermillion Bird and he had witnessed the events involving Digory's visit to the Garden as well as Jadis' thievery of the fruit," said Gonggong, "And after that individual, a series of Guardians had been from one of the Four Cardinal Beasts selected in turn by the Great Lion."
"Gandalf has written all those events in what we now have as the Narnia Book, isn't it?" asked Basophil, "Specifically the book of The Beginning of Narnia."
Gonggong nodded with a smile to confirm the correctness of this statement. Then Tigris the Slugcat came forward to explain the Slugcats' difficulties during the Age of Winter.
Slugcats were a strange kind of creature resembling a cross between a cat and a ferret. They had lithe bodies like a ferret, stubby limbs, thick tails that tapered to a point at the tip, stubby catlike ears on their heads and large black eyes that gave them a somewhat cute appearance. The Slugcats of Narnia were basically no different from the Slugcats from another world where MASSIVE downpours were a constant life-threatening problem. Slugcats came in a variety of forms with the white-furred variant being the most common and well-known. However, other variants of other colours were present and each had their own traits, skills and ways of life. The common white Slugcats were simply 'average' creatures with a variety of skills. They were known to be skilled survivors in various environments (except the Eternal Winter where they especially struggled under the Witch's tyrannical rule as Tigris will explain in a bit) and had a general, omnivorous diet ranging from the meat of dumb beasts to fruit. The other Slugcat variants were more specialized in their diets and ways of life. Pale red slugcats were the hunter variant and were larger, stronger and faster than the common white form. They were near-obligate carnivores and hunted dumb beasts of various types, their speed and agility being the most important tools alongside hunting weapons such as spears, daggers made from wood and stone, bows and arrows to shoot down flying game, and slingshots made from plant material, blowpipes with spines sometimes laced with poison, and stones. However, some Hunter Slugcats sometimes ate fruit and smaller morsels like insects. Some hunter Slugcats also kept a form of livestock, often of the small dumb beasts like rabbits. Yellow Slugcats were more vegetarian and were expert farmers and orchard keepers and gatherers. Their diet was mostly plant material like fruit and vegetables which they farmed and gathered though they sometimes ate insects such as batflies, a strange insect with batlike wings that was common and a staple in the diet of some Slugcat variants and other creatures like the Cryptile, a Lizard-like Reptile that had a frill, dined mostly on brine flies and lived on a salt flat somewhere in Narnia. One Slugcat dish was batfly pies, bun like desserts that were like humans' mince pies but with batfly meat replacing animal meat as the filling. Aqua blue slugcats were sea dwellers and expert fishers. These Slugcats' way of life and diet revolved around fishing and seafood and underwater farming, either from rivers and lakes inland or out in the Eastern Sea. Because of this way of life and diet, light blue Slugcats were expert divers and swimmers and were capable of holding their breath for far longer than other Slugcat variants. One essential skill a blue Slugcat MUST learn as Slugpups (Slugcat babies) was learning how to free dive which was the blue Slugcats' preferred method of hunting for fish and caring for underwater crops. Some clans of blue Slugcats lived with the Sea Creatures such as the Merfolk out at Sea while a few inland clans of blue Slugcats lived with other creatures that were expert fishers such as Babookari troupes. Finally, the violet Slugcats or Nightcats were a nocturnal variant of Slugcat who prewerred the nocturnal way of life. Like the common White Slugcat, these Slugcats had a varied diet but hunted nocturnal prey. These Slugcats were useful in night roles such as nightwatchers and there were few of these individuals on the night patrol teams of the Four Monarchs of Narnia who helped to keep watch for any trouble at night. They almost always slept during the day; few Nightcats were seen awake when the sun was up but it was normally seen as out of character by other creatures including their own species as they were NIGHT creatures like the Nighttime Akuri-Inu, a Magical Wolf-like Beast that was adapted to the nocturnal lifestyle but as a pup, the other two variants of these Wolves being the Daytime and Dusk variants. Like every other creature that lived in Narnia during the Age of Winter, any Slugcat clan suffered SEVERE difficulties at the hands of the Witch and her cronies and Tigris, a Hunter Slugcat indicated by his pale red fur and larger size, was about to explain how in the next paragraph.
Tigris then began to speak to Basophil, Tumnus and Guinan. "The time period from Narnia's genesis to the Narnian Year 900 was known as the Age of Conquest," said the pale red Slugcat, "But it was also a time period when all the Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures were reproducing and spreading throughout the Narnian Land and other domains such as the Sea to populate them at Aslan's command and when Jadis the White Witch was away due to the Tree of Protection planted by young Son of Adam Digory Kirke keeping her out of Narnia," the red Slugcat's face then darkened with a frown, "But by the time Year 900 came around and the Tree of Protection had withered, Jadis returned with an army, conquered Narnia and locked it in the 100-year Winter, ruling over it with a blood-soaked fist of diamond ice."
"As you guys will know," said another red Slugcat, "Jadis' winter curse over our lands made growing and hunting food EXTREMELY difficult such that starvation was a constant threat to everyone, but it wasn't just her ice and snow. It was her corrupt law system that compounded the difficulties on the oppressed."
"A secret market had been installed to import food into our country by mostly a group of Beavers but also some Slugcats," said a yellow Slugcat, one of the farmer and gatherer type, "And they, together with some other Talking Beasts such as Snowstalkers and Wolves still loyal to Aslan helped to distribute the imported food up and down the country but still, Jadis' minions demanded that 90 percent of it and any other food grown or gathered by the oppressed be given to them so that it could be taken to the White Witch and her cronies to wastefully gorge on during their feasts, such as the sanguinary Massacre Event for example."
"Queen Lucy likened the Massacre Event to what a nation of people in her world called Romans had in some sort of similar arena," said Tumnus.
"The Colo-something or other," said Basophil.
"Oh, the Massacre Event, deceptively called by Jadis and her minions the 'Fighting League', was often FAR gorier than what that people group in Her Majesty's homeworld of Earth held, you two," said Tigris with a dark frown before continuing, "But the oppressed were not the only Narnians to have so much food forcibly taken from them by the food collectors sent by Jadis. The importers and also hunters of game also had their food taken by Jadis' minions, often members of her police force and her patrollers."
"But some of us, such as us Slugcats, suffered most at the hideous hands of those servants of the Witch," said another Slugcat, a white common one, "especially the Hunter groups who helped to hunt for game to provide meat for some of their allies and friends. When they were caught by Jadis' patrol groups, often made up of Wolves and Snowstalkers, they had to hand over their catch there and then under the threat of death."
"My grandfather, an expert hunter, was one of the poor victims who actually died at the jaws of a Snowstalker loyal to Jadis," said Tigris sadly, "He and his hunting party had caught a dumb deer which they intended to supply a nearby village with its meat but they were immediately confronted by one of the Witch's patrol groups led by a Snowstalker. That group demanded that the deer be relinquished to them without question but my grandfather resisted and said to the Snowstalker leader that there was a town of starving Talking Creatures whose food supplies were dangerously low and that they needed the meat. That resistive behaviour earned Grandfather with a fatal sabre-tooth bite to the shoulder from the Snowstalker and him and his group were forced to abandon the deer which the Snowstalker and its group took. Grandfather died shortly after that from the loss of blood and my uncle was forced to take over as leader of the hunting party," the red Slugcat then took some time to mourn the loss of his grandfather while his comrades comforted him.
"Snowstalkers are EXTREMELY well adapted to life in the ice and snow, aren't they?" said Basophil.
"They certainly are," said a female white Slugcat, "Their white fur makes them particularly hard to see in the snowy background, they have an EXCELLENT sense of smell, far more so than a Wolf in fact, and are armed with a deadly bite weapon in the form of sabre teeth like a Sabre-Toothed Cat which was why many of the Snowstalkers who turned to the Witch's side were placed into her search-and-destroy branch of her secret police with the Wolves who had also turned to Jadis' side. They can use their smell to track down targets in hiding including camouflaged targets like white Slugcats and Talking Ferrets in their white winter coat form. And once they locate their targets, they can give the fatal sabre tooth bite that can kill their victims via blood loss."
"In fact, apart from certain TRULY hideous Horrors like Slender-Men, Siren-Heads and Neko-Cabbits and black magic practitioners like the Hags, evil Nekomata and Bakeneko and Nogitsune," said another Slugcat, another yellow one, "Snowstalkers are among the most terrifying Talking Beasts loyal to the Witch, alongside the Wolves and the Drop Bears, hideous Koala-like creatures who hide in the trees and literally drop onto their targets to attack."
"There were some Snowstalkers that were still loyal to Aslan even during the Eternal Winter, weren't they?" asked Basophil.
"There were, yes," said Tigris after regaining his composure from grieving for his grandfather's death, "Some of them worked as double agents for the Witch much like Dionaea and her group did and helped to give food to the oppressed and even spared the lives of innocent victims, often giving bottles of blood of dumb beasts to them (obtained from some of their hunts) and strictly commanding them to smear some of it onto their necks or shoulders and leave behind drips of more of it to make it look as though they had been fatally bitten by the double agent Snowstalkers. That life-sparing strategy was invented by an Aslan-loyal Snowstalker named Sai and frequently, the double agent Snowstalkers' 'comrades' or truly-loyal-to-the-Witch members that worked alongside them in the patrol and search-and-destroy groups, had been fooled into thinking that the targets had been dispatched when in fact, they haven't. Sadly, the Snowstalker that killed Grandfather wasn't one of those Snowstalkers."
"We're sorry for the loss of your grandfather," said Basophil wit sympathy, before admiration for the brave Snowstalkers who used the blood trick bloomed within him, "But those Snowstalkers who worked as part of the Witch's secret police but remained loyal to Aslan certainly were brave in utilising the blood trick to help spare so many lives."
"A family member of ours was confronted by a patrol group of the Witch which had two Snowstalkers," said Tumnus, "This was after our clan split up after that bloody incident involving some wood killed a lot of our clan members and our leader..."
"Caused by Belladonna with some creepy teddy bear toy of hers and her illusion powers as revealed to me by Kobaruto who actually witnessed the incident," interjected Guinan to which Tumnus nodded before continuing. While the Fauns, Basophil and the Slugcats talked, Gonggong the lead Sleipnir and Vermillion were gathering the rest of the group to resume the journey, the break time over. Vermillion shouted to the group.
"Don't be too long, you lot," the Pegasus Mare called, "The resumption of the journey to the Garden of Youth is imminent."
Tumnus and company nodded to show that they got the message before continuing as quickly as they could.
"And that family member of ours was accused of uttering the word 'Aslan' by the patrol group and the two Snowstalkers were tasked with killing him with the fatal sabre tooth bite," said Tumnus, "But both Snowstalkers were loyal to Alsan and knew that if they did that to the Faun, it would be murder of an innocent victim, so while their 'groupmates' were interrogating some other creatures, one of the Snowstalkers gave the family member a bottle of blood he had taken and collected from a dumb horse and strictly commanded the Faun to smear some of it onto his neck and shoulder and leave behind a trail of the blood to make it look as though he and his comrade have bitten him fatally, alongside a limp o add to the illusion. Of course the two Snowstalkers had smeared some more of the dumb horse blood onto their mouths to add to the illusion and the Faun obeyed and applied the blood to his shoulder and left a few drips of it behind him as he fled into the woods, feigning injury from them as instructed. The Faun survived as the two Snowstalkers' 'groupmates' were taken in by the illusion and thus spared."
"That trick, gruesome though it was, had save countless lives indeed," said Tigris. Just then Gonggong's loud neigh rattled the air, the signal that it was time to remount the assistant transporter group including his Sleipnir herd and resume the journey. Tumnus' group flashed the Eight-Legged Stallion as he released the loud cry a look.
"It's time we returned to our mounts to continue this journey," said Tigris, "We'll speak to you next time. Let's go."
With that, the group of Slugcats left for some Alicorns while Tumnus, Guinan and Basophil who exchanged smiles, returned to their mounts.