Chapter 51- Kushanku and his group's confrontation with the Man with the Upside Down Face part two
The creature, the Man with the Upside Down Face then turned his scornful inverted gaze from Kushanku to the group as a whole, "Had a nice trip to the Sky Domain? I sure hope ya didn't have too much trouble up there."
None of the members in Kushanku's group, however, responded as they did not find this sarcastic question at all funny. They were completely enraged by this delay to this important journey back to Cair Paravel with the ultra-important rainbowberries. However, they knew that Upside Down Face was NOT going to let them go without a FIGHT for he was after the VERY thing they had in their possession. Then the small crowd of Neko-Cabbits, Mimicbirds and Xenojaws, after recovering from Athos' piercing scream surrounded their ally as he continued to speak.
"You know, when our Angel of Salvation, Her Majesty, was alive, I was one of her highest ranking soldiers an' servants an' I have dedicated my ENTIRE life to servin' her an' gettin' everyone else into livin' an' rejoicin' in her an' her heroic efforts," he then gestured an emaciated, skeletal hand to the dark lands, "These lands are her rightful property an' she is their goddess."
"The White Witch is NO angel, Upside Down Face; much less an 'Angel of Salvation'," snapped Kushanku, "and NEITHER are these lands hers. And ANYONE who KNEW of her TRUE nature as the Devil Woman and false queen that she was KNEW FULL WELL that it would be wrong and OFFENSIVE to the Great Lion Aslan to bow to her, rejoice in her and follow her corrupt decrees."
Sordward, Shielbert, the now temporarily-voiceless Athos, Porthos, Aramis and Squea'tagnan gazed at the white head haired Nekomata as he said this. During their settling into Narnia following the vanquishing of the White Witch and the Pevensies' crowning, they had helped to destroy any object or tree where words devoted to the White Witch were etched into their surfaces, those words being things like 'We live to serve our Angel of Salvation' or 'The Goddess saved us, we rejoice in her'. These etchings were obviously referencing the White Witch and a form of propaganda and some of these had been the work of the Man with the Upside Down Face. One of the jobs of doing away ANY reference to the White Witch found was destroying ANYTHING that had such propaganda messages scrawled into them and unfortunately, some of the objects had been trees including those of Dryads and Kodama, the messages being scrawled into their bark. The loyal Dryads and Kodama that had these messages etched into their tree's bark had to have those areas cut off and they had to accept this 'operation' no matter how painful it was. After all, ANYTHING to do with the White Witch or ANY reference to her whatsoever, even something as small as etchings had to be done away with. The Man with the Upside Down Face often referred to his Mistress the White Witch as 'the Angel of Salvation' and had forced many of the Narnians who had chosen to, or been forced to stay to recite this as their forced-devotion to the Witch. Thankfully the Mice hadn't been around during this dreadful Eternal Winter time (they had been formed from the dumb Mice by Aslan after they released him as a carcass from his binds on the Stone Table) but what they had been told this by Hagrid and Alestomeria as part of their education, they had reacted with severe disgust to this but I digress.
The Man with the Upside Down Face glared straight at Kushanku with an upside down scowl, "You sure as lost as a little kitty in a dark forest, ain't ya, two-tailed Cat, you AN' your companions. But enough o' this insignificant riffraff an' STRAIGHT to th' chase. I believe you have something that rightly belongs to us. Our Angel of Salvation's apprentice Dimitrescu Dokuringu has alerted and sent us to meet ya based on this."
Kushanku and company hardened their stance. They KNEW what the Man with the Upside Down Face and his comrades were after and Kushanku protectively hid the capsule containing the precious rainbowberries behind him and kept his GC Sword aimed at the inversed-faced monster.
"Who is Dimitrescu Dokuringu!?" demanded Alexandrite.
"She is a Kistune-Mochi who had been working with Her Majesty as her apprentice an' testing a variety of new weapons an' potions for possible future uses," Uspide Down Face replied, "She an' many of the minions were commanded by her to NOT participate in th' battle an' instead stay behind an' work on their crucial tasks an' serve as backup in the unlikely event of our Angel's death," the hideous beast's inverted glare then hardened, "However, now that our Angel HAS passed thanks to the lousy overgrown messy-haired furball you call your King an' Great Lion resultin' in our loss of this country to YOU lowdown worms, it is time for that backup to take action and get back what we have LOST!"
His minions released screeches and snarls to show their agreement to this statement. Kushanku and company, however, refused to flinch. Then Kushanku secretly handed the capsule containing the precious rainbowberries to one of the Horses and boldly stepped from his group towards the Man with the Upside Down Face for a direct one-on-one confrontation, his paws clutching his sword-within-a-sword weapon.
"I'm afraid the Golden Age Prophecy has finally come to pass, Upside Down Face," he retorted, "Aslan's word ALWAYS comes true."
"And it will STAY THAT WAY for as LONG as it lasts," added Alexandrite. The others nodded in agreement to this. Upside Down Face, however, released a mocking chuckle while his Neko-Cabbit, Mimicbird and Xenojaw minions released titters.
"What a VIVID imagination you've got, the lot of you," he crooned but then he showed his true threatening colours, melting away the sarcastic front and he got prepared for battle, "But enough of this stuff about that lousy kitty. I've heard enough of that messy-aired furball who calls itself a Lion. It is time to relinquish what Nine-Realms Potion ingredient you have managed to harvest from the Sky Domain an' DON'T try to deny it 'cos we know FULL WELL that you have it in your possession."
His minions uttered snarls and hostile chirps in agreement and also got prepared to fight as the Man continued, "Now I shall give ya two options: either you give us those rainbowberries without any fuss or..." the Man with the Upside Down Face paused dramatically, "Le's say that if you don't, th' consequences will not be very pleasant."
However, Kushanku and company refused to budge and the former hardened his stance and aimed his sword's tip threateningly at the inverted-faced beast. Then one of the Neko-Cabbits stood out from the Man's group and advanced towards Kushanku, its teeth bared and its claws protracted ready to do their damage but as it neared the Nekomata, Sordward and Shielbert darted from Kushanku's group and over to the white and neon green half-Cat, half-Rabbit like creature with a split tail and prepared to confront it, their swords prepared. However, as they neared the Neko-Cabbit, the creature turned to them, knocked the pair down and put its teeth straight to Sordward's neck and pinned him with its forepaws while a Xenojaw rushed in and seized the other one in its clutches and raised him to its mouth to the ALARM of Kushanku and the others.
"SORDWARD, SHIELBERT!" cried Porthos while Athos tried to shout their names as well only to croak squeakily. Alexandrite, Rattus and Paddy tried to step forward but the Neko-Cabbit who had Sordward clutched like a cat glared at them.
"STAY BACK or these two MICE will MEET OUR STOMACHS!" it snarled. Alexandrite, Paddy and Rattus stopped DEAD in alarm as Sordward writhed under the Neko-Cabbit's paws and mouth, the creature's teeth dangerously close to the vital areas of his neck while Shielbert struggled in the Xenojaw's hand, that creature dangling him over the deathtrap of its mouth which contained two sets of jaws, the normal jaws and pharyngeal jaws like a moray eel or its parasitoid counterpart in another universe. Kushanku also looked on in alarm and was about to lash his sword at the Neko-Cabbit but it reinforced its threat by preparing to bite into Sordward's neck to kill him, making him stop. The Man with the Upside Down Face then stepped forward.
"We're warnin' ya, you messy haired furball followers," he said threateningly, "It's those two Mice's lives or those rainbowberries," his upside-down mouth then creased into a wicked, sadistic smile, "An' boy does THIS remind me of those wonderful times with tha' Fighting League to honour our Angel of Salvation," he then went on to describe how much he relished the gory scenes of those poor Narnians slaying each other like dumb animals in that HORRIBLE arena in such graphic detail that I will NOT put down in writing, and the Man with the Upside Down Face went on to describe how he LOVED the cheering of the crowd to the violence. As he struggled in the Xenojaw's grasp above its two-jawed mouth, Shielbert launched into a begging plea.
"NO, DON'T LISTEN TO HIM!" he cried, "THINK OF HIGH KING..." he cut off his plea when the Xenojaw lashed at him with its pharyngeal jaws threateningly snapping those jaws at the Mouse's feet and tail, making Shielbert flinch. Sordward also struggled in the Neko-Cabbit's death grip of its maw but he daren't say or do anything or the hideous creature's teeth will be meeting his neck and he will meet his end. The Man with the Upside Down Face then went on.
"I've been goin' up an' down our Mistress' country an' lands an' spyin' on your search-an'-destroy groups to interfere wi' their efforts while at the same time helpin' my comrades in the kidnappin' of your kiddies (and in one case, an adult Longma from the village of tha TRAITOROUS Manticore) to be shipped off to the Pleasure Dome where its second-in-command, Dolores the Spider Hag, had kept in constant touch with Dimitrescu. Your worm-brained High King has been poisoned by Dimitrescu by a cake one of your foolish Three-Legged Crow servants had purchased and brought into your Monarchs' castle..."
When Kushanku and company heard this, immense horror flashed within them.
"Is this Dimitrescu still around right NOW!?" Kushanku demanded. The Upside Down Face Man's inverted mouth widened its devilish grin.
"She had been in her Fox form an' playin' YOU lot like cute harps th' whole time, two-tailed Cat," he crooned, "Too bad ya didn't see that ya had a Kitsune-Mochi an' our Angel of Salvation's apprentice hidden among ya sooner!" a giggle then followed his statement as Kushanku and company remained rooted to the spot in disbelief. However, Kushanku recovered.
"Well this Dimitrescu character will be dealt with when we get back, Upside Down Face," he snapped and aimed his sword directly at the creature's face, "an' don't you EVER think that the White Witch is gonna return. Aslan has already dealt with her and has PURPOSELY given our kingdom back and the throne to four preselected Humans, two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve who will rule over us with fairness and wisdom unlike YOUR tyrannical so-called 'angel' who was nothing more than a Devil Woman with evil on her mind. Now LEAVE, Upside Down Face or WE WILL TAKE SERIOUS ACTION!" the Nekomata uttered these final threatening words gutturally. At this, the Man with the Upside Down Face exploded into a volcanic rage, making some of Kushanku's group including Alexandrite, Paddy and some of the Horse escorts flinch.
"I'M AN ENEMY OF THIS STUPID LION," the bone white-skinned creature snarled, "I DETEST WHO HE IS AN' HIS LAWS AN' EVERYTHING ABOUT HIM!"
"Then you should have left this AREA when your MISTRESS MET HER END at the LION KING'S JAWS!" screeched Porthos angrily. Athos, Squea'tagnan, Aramis, Rattus and his Rat underlings and Mjölnir wore agreement faces and got prepared for combat. The Lightning Pika prepared his electrically charged war hammer and aimed it at the Neko-Cabbit and the Xenojaw holding Sordward and Sheilbert hostage as they struggled in their death grasps. Then the Man with the Upside Down Face glared volcanically and rancorously at Kushanku and prepared to engage the Nekomata in combat.
"ENOUGH ABOUT THIS STUPID LION," he screamed in a voice sounding like a rabid wolf, "PREPARE T' DIE AN' HAND OVER THOSE RAINBOWBERRIES! I SWEAR BY MY ANGEL OF SALVATION THAT YOU WILL NENVER RETURN TO YOUR DESTINATION WITH THAT NINE-REALMS POTION INGREDIENT!"
And with that he lunged at Kushanku, raised a skeletal-like hand and prepared to inflict the first blow. However, Kushanku twisted his tails and launched himself into the air, dodging the strike. Then he twisted midair and swung his spinning tails right into the Man's inverted face, striking him. At the same time, the Man with the Upside Down Face's minions launched into battle as did Kushanku's group. Mjölnir swung his electrically charged war hammer forward and fired a blast of electricity at the Neko-Cabbit and brutally zapped it before it could proceed with the fatal bite to Sordward's jugular. With his enemy distracted from the lightning bolt, Sordward ran the creature through the heart area with his little sword, fatally disposing of it. Then Mjölnir zapped the Xenojaw holding Shielbert and the Mouse and twin brother of Sordward fled as soon as he was dropped. However, the Xenojaw, a snarl sounding like a rabid animal, leaped at the Lightning Pika and began to engage him in battle. Soon, the sounds of weapons clashing, animal noises and battle cries exploded volcanically into the dark air as Kushanku's group engaged Upside Down Face's in a fierce fight. This was a fight for their High King and his life and some were even willing to die to protect the precious rainbowberries, one of the nine exclusive ingredients for the High King's ONLY antidote, from the clutches of these evil creatures.
Kushanku looked on at his face-inverted foe as he recovered from his spinning tail-strike to the face but to his surprise, he saw Upside Down Face glare menacingly at him as though nothing had happened, albeit the creature was stunned.
"I don't understand," the hovering Nekomata cried out, "That attack should have been painful."
The Man with the Upside Down Face widened his inverted smile of sadism and flashed his eyes white. Then before Kushanku could wonder what he was doing, he suddenly felt his body begin to shake and convulse violently. Immediately, the Nekomata dropped out of the air and began to violently and painfully thrash and writhe on the ground, his GC Sword dropping out of his paws and clattering to one side. Then the Man with the Upside Down Face vanished as he employed another of his other powers, invisibility. Kushanku cried out in immense agony as his body continued to violently convulse and thrash. It was like being zapped with foxfire from a young Nogitsune and Kushanku remembered a certain Nogitsune who tortured her victims this way for her sadistic pleasure back in Gandalf and Seresute's base during the Age of Winter. As Kushanku continued thrashing and convulsing violently and howling in pain, Alexandrite, after cutting down some Mimicbirds with her sword when they tried to torment her by imitating the sounds of one of her granddaughters, Malachite, in distress, shot her husband a horrified gaze.
"KUSHANKU!" she cried and darted over to him to help him. However, as she approached Kushanku, an invisible force seized her, lifted her off the ground and sent her flying violently into a nearby tree nape first in nearly an instant. Kushanku cried out his wife's name as he continued to convulse and as he watched his wife flop limply into the grass. Padparadscha, who also saw her sister collapse into the grass, also screamed her name and rushed over to her. Then a demonic cackle flooded the air as the invisible Man with the Upside Down Face uttered a maniacal laughter at the sight of Kushanku thrashing, Alexandrite smashing into the tree and falling like a soft toy Cat into the grass and the anguish of her sister flooding the air in the form of cries. He had utilised a powerful burst of telekinesis on Alexandrite as she ran in to help her husband and was now absorbing pleasure from the sight of Paddy crying out to Alexandrite, two of the Horses running over to see if they could help. Then suddenly, a burst of lightning appeared and accidentally zapped the Man with the Upside Down Face, pulling him out of his invisibility. Mjölnir had accidentally zapped the creature with a bolt of lightning from his hammer as he tried to strike down some Mimicbirds only for them to dodge. However, as with the strike from Kushanku's tail-spinning attack, the Man felt no pain but he was stunned enough to de-cloak himself. However, Mjölnir was engrossed in dealing with the evil Mimicbirds who imitated the cries of his biological family, his most SENSITIVE nerve, as they were tortured and killed at the clutches of the Cartoon Shadow Cat and he, fuelled by UTMOST rage, continued to pursue the wicked black birds. As soon as the Man was visible again thanks to Mjölnir's accidental attack, Kushanku seized his dropped GC sword nearby in a telekinetic grasp with his eyes flashing neon blue and an aura appearing around his weapon, pulled it mentally to his paws and seized it once it was within reach. Then he swung his sword at the Man and slashed the creature's left torso side under his left arm. The Man was thrusted back from the sword swipe's force but to Kushanku's surprise once again, the Man was unfazed, no pain ripping through him whatsoever. Further, the slash wound Kushanku had managed to inflict on his torso also instantly closed, the gash in the jacket the Man wore also fixing itself, and the Man smirked at him, his smile inverted.
"Is that th' best ya can do, Nekomata?" he taunted, "A lil' sword strike?"
Kushanku looked on in utmost stun at the inverted faced creature but then he remembered another of the Man with the Upside Down Face's powers: the inability to feel ANY physical pain whatsoever, granting him immunity to incapacitation via pain and a quick recovery from being stunned from an attack, either physical such as from a sword swipe, or elemental such as from a lightning bolt as with Mjölnir's accidental attack. Further, he was immune to damage from foxfire from a Kitsune, even Nine-Tailed Kitsune which was normally EXTREMELY deadly. In fact, the Man with the Upside Down Face was one of the VERY few creatures to be immune to the foxfire from a Nine-Tailed Fox but the potent fire-lightning is still powerful enough to severely stun him. Suddenly, Rattus appeared aerially behind the Man, having launched himself at the creature from behind and below; flew towards the creature's head and back with his sword poised and as soon as he landed on the creature, he rammed his sword into the Man's nape. However, even THAT didn't send pain exploding through the Man and he shot the stunned Rat a sadistic upside down grin. He then seized the Rat in a telekinetic grasp (which unlike most telekinesis users when they utilised their ability, their eyes and their target of choice glowed a colour, such as neon blue, red or white in Jadis' case, the Man with the Upside Down Face's eyes and target remained normal), making Rattus levitate off his nape and before Rattus could react, he was flung powerfully backwards and at one of the Horses dealing with some of the Xenojaws and Neko-Cabbits, smacking into his side and knocking the Horse over. Kushanku immediately rose to his feet, twisted his tails and took off and began to engage the Man with the Upside Down Face aerially. The pair lunged at each other with roars and clashed in midair and began a fierce midair wresting match.
While Kushanku and the Man with the Upside Down Face had their wrestling competition in the air, the other group members continued to deal with the Man's minions. Athos cut down some Mimicbirds when they tried to torture him by imitating the sounds of his wife in distress while Porthos, Aramis, Squea'tagnan, Sordward and Shielbert charged towards more Mimicbirds with a stick held in front of them. They rammed into the group of evil birds and mowed them down, allowing Rattus' Rat underlings to finish them off with their weapons. Then Rattus' underlings turned and engaged some Neko-Cabbits in battle. However, three were immediately seized and eaten by two of the evil white and neon green Nekomata-Rabbit-like creatures but the Rats continued to valiantly fight them, regardless of whether their lives were in danger or not. The Horses continued dealing with the other minions and began to knock them down as well, often by rearing up and slamming his body onto them. Some also charged into some other minions, mowed them down and fatally trampled them underfoot. The Horse who had the capsule containing the precious rainbowberries found himself confronted by three Xenojaws and a Neko-Cabbit and they prepared to seize the capsule. However, Mjölnir surged in and knocked two of the Xenojaws and the Neko-Cabbit down with a bolt strike from his war hammer. Then he fatally struck them on the head with the hammer itself. The third Xenojaw, however, dodged the Lightning Pika's lightning strike and launched itself at the Horse with the capsule on his back. The Horse neighed in horror as the evil creature threw its wicked hands on the capsule containing the rainbowberries and tried to force it off of him. The Horse thrashed and bucked but the Xenojaw refused to budge. Mjölnir launched himself into the air and onto the Xenojaw's back. He then proceeded to force the Xenojaw from the capsule on the Horse's back by shocking it with his electricity and striking it with its hammer. The attack was a success but the Xenojaw, enraged, threw Mjölnir off its back and onto the grass, sending the Lightning Pika into a tumble until he stopped. Then the Xenojaw advanced towards him and was about to pounce onto him to kill him but the Horse holding the capsule rushed in, knocked it down and brutally trampled it to death. This done, Mjölnir gave the Horse a grateful and thankful nod before the Horse came in, allowed him to climb his back and the pair darted off somewhere to protect the rainbowberries.
Kushanku and the Man with the Upside Down Face continued their fierce wrestling match until finally, the Man seized Kushanku in an invisible telekinetic grasp and thrusted him violently and speedily towards the ground where he crashed, HARD, the momentum sending him into a few-metres tumble until he stopped. Kushanku tried to move to stand up but felt EXTREME agony surge from his right shoulder and right hip. A Cat screech exploded from his mouth and he seized his shoulder with his left paw. Kushanku's face contorted from the pain with the teeth gritting. The force of the impact from his crash caused by the Man with the Upside Down Face's telekinesis had shattered his right shoulder and hip as they had struck the ground first and now, Kushanku was hopelessly crippled. The Man with the Upside Down Face certainly did possess such powerful telekinesis. In fact it was on par with an Eight or even a Nine-Tailed Kitsune's as Kushanku remembered how Gandalf had managed to kill some of Jadis' minions just by flinging them mentally into an object such as a tree, the force of the impact being enough to snap their necks. THAT what the Man's telekinesis felt like but Kushanku was in too much pain to even care. As he grasped his shoulder and continued to grunt from the agony of his shattered pectoral girdle and pelvis, the Man hovered towards him.
"NOW I'VE GOT YA, YOU USELESS NEKOMATA!" the creature gloated manically and with that, he seized Kushanku's GC Sword telekinetically, that sword moving quickly through the night air indicative of the aforementioned telekinetic power of the Man, and prepared it to finish off the Nekomata, "Are you PREPARED T'O DIE!? THE ANGEL OF SALVATION WILL RISE AGAIN!"
Kushanku, despite the agony screaming from his damaged shoulder and pelvis and thus being unable to move, shot his nemesis a glare, turned that glare to a nearby log he had somehow spotted, and immediately seized it in a telekinetic grasp; his eyes flaring a neon blue and the log becoming enclosed in an aura of the same colour and levitating off the ground. This done, Kushanku shot the Man with the Upside Down Face a VOLCANIC glare, his rage-filled eyes glowing neon blue.
"DON'T THINK YOU'VE WON, MY ENEMY!" the Nekomata gutturally screamed, "YOU MAY HAVE BEEN THERE AT ASLAN'S DEATH ON THE STONE TABLE WITH THE WHITE WITCH AND MOST OF HER OTHER CRONIES BUT HE HAS RISEN AND NOW HE LIVES!" and with that he powerfully thrusted the log with all his mental might at the Man with the Upside Down Face, the most POWERFUL burst of telekinesis he had EVER mustered, and an impressive one at that since Kushanku rarely used this ability. The log's end smashed POWERFULLY into the Man's inverted head and sent him into a chaotic flight path for a good few metres. Though he felt absolutely no pain from the strike, the force of the blow was enough to seriously stun him. Kushanku then slammed the log onto a Xenojaw battling two of Rattus' underlings nearby and knocked it out, allowing one of Rattus' underlings to finish the job by killing it with his sword. Then Kushanku telekinetically seized his sword which had fallen out of the Man's telekinetic grasp and, as soon as the ENRAGED Man with the Upside Down Face, FURY at being outwitted and after recovering from the log attack, surged towards him in a rabid snarl, the Nekomata gave the Monstrosity a BRUTAL sword slash to deal him more (painless) damage, hitting him in the inverted face. A rabid screech of stun, not pain, exploded from the Man as he was hit.
"ASLAN SAID IT IS FINISHED! HE HAS TRIUMPHED OVER THE WHITE WITCH AND HER CRONIES AND HE HAS TRIUMPHED OVER YOU ALSO!" Kushanku bellowed and he then added two more sword swipes by telekinetically pulling the smaller sword out of its larger blade scabbard and had it do the job. Then the Man with the Upside Down Face's behaviour changed instantly after the second blow. Rather than continue his battle with Kushanku, he immediately rocketed off into the darkness screaming in terror. Memories of seeing Aslan fatally kill Jadis in the battlefield flashed in his mind as he darted away (he had been there in the Battle of Beruna when it happened). Though he DETESTED the Lion MORE than ANYTHING ELSE, there was nothing that struck the GREATEST terror in the Man with the Upside Down Face than him and even the VERY mentioning of him can send him fleeing like an UTMOST coward. As the Man fled, the rest of Kushanku's comrades finished off the rest of the minions by either driving them off or killing them.
As soon as the Man with the Upside Down Face and his group had been dealt with, the quest-goer group began to see to the casualties including Kushanku who could barely move due to his painfully damaged shoulder and pelvis. Kushanku looked around but then he collapsed as exhaustion and shock from the whole ordeal took him over, especially the agony from his damaged shoulder and hip. He gazed wearily around at his surroundings as his vision began to blur. He only had time to look at the motionless body of his wife Alexandrite before finally; unconsciousness seized him and pulled him into it and he fainted just as some of Rattus and his remaining gang arrived with a Horse Medic. While Rattus and company sought to Kushanku; Athos, Porthos, Jack, the lead Horse and Padparadscha stood over Alexandrite's motionless body, the final one listed having tried to revive her with tears in her eyes. Nearby, the Horse that had kept the rainbowberries in their capsule safe from the minions also came in with Mjölnir who had helped him to guard the precious Nine-Realms Potion ingredient. Then a sad dawning consumed them regarding Kushanku's wife and Paddy's sister.
"Alexandrite," whispered Porthos sadly.
Later
Kushanku's vision melted out of the blackness of unconsciousness as he came to. However, to his surprise, he saw that he was in a room and hovering above him were several familiar faces. One was a vivid ivory yellow face with a pointed snout and several more were smaller faces with rounded ears. Another was brown furred. As Kushanku finally emerged fully out of the unconscious depths fully, he realised that he was gazing into the faces of Porthos, Aramis, Sordward, Shielbert and to his further surprise, Alestomeria and Mrs Beaver, Beaver's wife. To add again, Kushanku felt no explosive pain in his hip or shoulder but then he saw a vial of red liquid clutched in Mrs Beaver's paws.
"Brilliant, you're awake," said Alestomeria with a smile. Immediately, Kushanku sat up, now able to move without pain that his shoulder and hip were operational once again.
"Wh-wh-where am I?" he stammered in confusion, his gaze darting about the room and at the six Talking Beasts gazing at him, "What happened!? Where are the rainbowberries? My dear wife Alexandrite? Everyone else in my group?"
"You're back in Cair Paravel and you are in its medical wing," explained Alestomeria.
"You were carried on Jack's back for the rest of the way, Kushanku," said Porthos.
"When Rattus and the others with him saw that you weren't moving but you were breathing," Aramis continued, "We carefully put you on Jack's back, secured you to his saddle so that you wouldn't fall off during the hasty return and as soon as we arrived back here, you were immediately admitted to here and treated with fire-flower cordial from Mrs Beaver here."
"Queen Lucy kindly gave me a few drops of her cordial before she left on her trip to the Garden of Youth with Eosinophil, Basophil and the others who had chosen to go there," Mrs Beaver said and with that, she showed Kushanku her vial containing some of the red liquid. Kushanku looked on in wonder and checked his right shoulder and right hip and found that he could move his arm and leg without agony. It was clear that his fractures had been treated by the cordial. Kushanku then gazed at the group with the next question but Alestomeria answered it immediately before he could ask it again, "The rainbowberries have been put in a special safe in Hagrid's lab to wait for the arrival of the other eight ingredients. After that, the potion will immediately be made and administered straight to our High King," Alestomeria did not state High King Peter's current condition but his poisoning was now in its critical stages.
"What became of the other members of my group?" asked Kushanku. He had high hopes that Alexandrite was alright.
"Athos has had his damaged vocal cords treated with fire flower cordial as well," Sordward said but then his face and ears fell. The faces and ears of the other five also lowered and sad looks formed on them. Kushanku looked on and demanded to know, "How is Alexandrite? Is she alright? I MUST know."
At first, none of the six replied but then Porthos and Aramis turned to him, tears running down their cheeks. However, based on the looks on their faces and these tears, Kushanku had already drawn the answer before the two Mice could give it.
"I'm... I'm afraid Alexandrite... didn't make it," the muscular Mouse spoke very sadly. The moment these words were absorbed by Kushanku's brain, it was though a fissure had violently opened within his heart but it didn't explode all at once on the outside. It began in small stages such as tears welling in Kushanku's eyes and running down his cheeks. At first, Kushanku didn't want to believe it but the looks on the two Mice's faces, and those of the Kitsune, the other two Mice and the Beaver Sow (female Beaver) remained, confirming it to be true. Then Kushanku's emotions reached critical and the initial sobs sounded in his throat. Finally, he bent over, buried his tearful face into his paws and began to severely break down, his sobs becoming more intense. Mrs Beaver, Sordward and Shielbert sadly left the medical room while Alestomeria, Porthos and Aramis remained to comfort the distressed Nekomata as he continued to sob loudly over his wife's demise.
It had been found that Alexandrite had had her neck snapped when the Man with the Upside Down Face had telekinetically flung her into that tree. The impact had been so forceful that it caused her to meet her end in an instant.