Chapter 58- battle begins and Queen Lucy in DIRE trouble
Meanwhile
Around the grounds of the castle, the battlers and patrollers continued to carry out their tasks, searching for any surviving minion of Jadis afoot and either putting them to death on the spot or questioning them about Alcina, who they now know as Dimitrescu Dokuringu the Scarlet Fox-Witch. Some of the Talking Beasts and other creatures and also Hagrid, Alestomeria, King Edmund, Queen Susan and Queen Lucy could NOT believe that they had such a dangerous individual amidst them and now the hunt was on. However, they were unaware that Dimitrescu and her minions were sneaking under their magical radars and noses to establish an ambush attack, and Dimitrescu had several key priority targets in mind to deal with first.
Queen Lucy stood on patrol with some of her friends, among them Betelgeuse and Rigel, her dagger prepared in case a minion jumped out at her. Though violence was NOT to her liking and she preferred to keep her distance from the fires of serious battles, she will at times launch herself into battle and without hesitation use her dagger to attack foes. After all, Father Christmas had gifted her with this small knife in the event that she needed to either assist or defend herself. When Queen Lucy had arrived back with her group after their trip to the Garden of Youth to get an apple for the Nine-Realms Potion, she had shared a reunion with her older brother and sister. But reunion with her other brother, High King Peter, would have to wait for he was now deteriorating faster. To prevent SERIOUS distress crashing on the young sensitive Queen, the medics have only given her a euphemistic report regarding her oldest brother's health that 'he is still not in good shape but will be treated with the Nine-Realms Potion ASAP now that all nine of the exclusive ingredients were together' but still, Queen Lucy was DEARLY worried for her oldest brother whom she looked up like a father figure. Being the oldest of the four Pevensies, Peter was like the head of the family after all like a Son of Adam should be. This was why Aslan had appointed Peter to be High King of the monarchy.
Queen Lucy continued scanning the trees of a nearby thicket, Betelgeuse and Rigel talking with some Dryads, some Flower Mandrakes and an Ent nearby. These Plant Beings were UTTERLY gutted and upset over the fact that Alcina the Fox was an imposter and a false friend, not to mention Dimitrescu Dokuringu, the White Witch's APPRENTICE being that same person in addition.
"Summer and the other two Dryads that agreed to go along with you and Cilan had been right all along, you two Wolves, as were you three," Queen Lucy heard one of the Dryads say. She turned round and saw a pink blossom Being hover in Humanoid form before a dark blue Wolf and her dark red sister. Then a White Flower Mandrake came forward, a scowl on her face.
"I guess her help in restoring our garden had been a mere sham," said the white Humanoid Root creature with a flower stem atop her head, "In fact some of us felt sick after you told us."
"Fox-Witches or Kitsune-Mochi are known to be EXTREMELY sly, Dryads, Mandrakes and Brute-Root," Betelgeuse said sternly, "Even more so than Nogitsune I'd say."
"I just hope that Hag gets what she TRULY deserves," another Dryad, a White Blossom One, snarled with rage and the desire to see justice, "Maybe death through beheading or a blast from Hagrid or Alestomeria's foxfire. I'd say the former if it's best."
Some of the other Dryads and the Mandrakes all murmured in agreement to this though the Ent, Brute-Root thought this was going too far. Another Dryad also wished that she would be able to kill Dimitrescu via strangulation with the roots of her tree. If she were here right now, she told the others, she would immediately send out a root at her neck and trap her fatally in a tight noose with it. Clearly, the rage at Alcina/Dimitrescu's deception was present in these Plant Beings and they UTTERLY despised Dimitrescu as much as they did the White Witch.
As these Plant Beings continued to talk with Betelgeuse and Rigel, Queen Lucy took a few steps further from the group, her dagger ready to strike when suddenly; a familiar voice rang out from the thicket, alerting her. That voice sounded like Tumnus, her Faun friend, or Kushanku. Flashing a look at Betelgeuse, Rigel and the Plant Beings as they continued to converse, Queen Lucy left them and headed for the thicket to investigate the voices. As she entered the thicket, she began to look around, her dagger ready for action.
"Kushanku?" she called, "Tumnus?"
No answer to the worry of the young Queen to begin with when suddenly, the voices belonging to the Faun and the Nekomata exploded together to her alarm and she snapped her attention to the sounds' sources.
"You GOOD FOR NOTHING GOAT-LEGGED SLIMEBALL!" Kushanku's voice rang out, "I'M GONNA TEAR YA LIMB FROM LIMB FOR THAT!"
"THEN GIVE IT A TRY, TWO-TAILED MOGGY INFESTED WITH FLEAS!" Tumnus' voice retorted and following this, the sounds of a struggle ensued. Queen Lucy snapped to attention. THIS was NOT at all normal and it CERTAINLY wasn't like Kushanku and Tumnus to pick a fight like this. The pair was FRIENDS and they would NEVER get into such an altercation but Queen Lucy's instincts to use her authority and discipline as one of the Wise Queens sprung into action. Rage propelling her, Queen Lucy charged into the forest to reprimand the Nekomata and the Faun.
"Kushanku, Tumnus," she barked, "You two STOP THAT FIGHT AT ONCE..." she ran for a few more meters until she finally came to the spot where Kushanku and Tumnus' voices were at their loudest. However, to her UTMOST surprise, there was no-one here, not even Tumnus and Kushanku. Then Queen Lucy remembered the pair being somewhere else and NOT here and as she realised this, suspicion began to well within her. However, the young Queen was unaware that she was being lured into a TRAP and that a vocally-talented minion was imitating the voices of Kushanku and Tumnus fighting. As Queen Lucy continued to investigate, shooting gazes around her at the motionless foliage and undergrowth among the wooden legs of the tree trunks, something sliced through the air like an arrow and headed RIGHT in her direction. It was small and its tail was decorated with some white and icy blue feathers for flight stability. However, despite these feathers being pretty, the projectile was NOTHING of the sort as these feathers were intending to reference someone who had dominated the Age of Winter for 100 Narnian years. The nose of the projectile was silver and pointed, like a needle. That was because it WAS a needle and it was made from a Narnian world-exclusive metal. The projectile continued slashing through the air towards Queen Lucy and before she could register was headed to her, a PIERCING stabbing pain exploded from her dagger arm as the projectile, a dart, hit home and went deep into her forearm. Screams exploded from the Queen and she dropped her dagger and seized her darted arm. Queen Lucy stumbled and clutched her jabbed arm and began to look at what at hit her. To her horror, it was a small arrow-like piece; its tail decorated with white and ice blue feathers and its nose stuck deep into her arm like a quill. Horror sweeping through her, Queen Lucy turned to call to Betelgeuse and Rigel and the Plant Beings for help but then a pair of large skeletal hands appeared, seized her and lifted her off the ground. Queen Lucy released screams but then one of the skeletal hands of the tall creature whose head was a pair of lampshade-like appendages concealing a pair of nasty mouths characteristic of a Siren-Head, clasped over her mouth to prevent her from screaming and alerting the Wolves and Plant Beings outside the forest. Then a few more ugly creatures, among them two shadowy black Beasts walking on two legs and their heads decorated sinisterly with a pair of gleaming eyes and also a Woman dressed in a red kimono-like outfit and a golden mask concealing her face and with a waterfall of silver hair running from her head down to the floor, appeared. Queen Lucy, her darted arm continuing to send searing pain through her arm, continued to writhe in the Siren-Head's grasp and tried to scream for help but the Siren-Head ABSOLUTELY refused to release her. If anything, it tightened its grip on the young Queen and the only sounds Queen Lucy could make were muffled cries. Then Queen Lucy heard the Woman speak.
"Well done, my minions, especially you, Sound-Fangs," she said, her golden mask's eyeholes aimed at the Siren-Head as it restrained Queen Lucy and held her mouth closed with its hand, "for imitating some of that puny 'Queen's friends and luring her into this trap."
Queen Lucy then glared with a pained face, the Siren-Head's emaciated bony hand over her mouth, down at the other minions and saw one of the black furry Beasts, a Hidebehind, clutch some sort of tube in its hand and wear a satchel around its shoulder. Then it all crashed down upon her. The Siren-Head had been imitating the sounds of Kushanku and Tumnus getting into a fight to lure her here and the Hidebehind was the one who shot her with the dart, that tube being a blowpipe. Its satchel contained more of the darts like the one it had shot Queen Lucy in the arm. However, before her rage could boil further, something began to happen to Queen Lucy's senses and perception of the environment. Then the Woman, Dimitrescu, and her group retreated deeper into the forest with their victim in tow. A few moments later, Queen Lucy was flung onto some grass and a Lemon Rabbit, one of the Candy Woodland Creatures, stood before her. Queen Lucy looked up with a pained and dazed face but as she saw the cute-but-bloodthirsty Yellow Rabbit's face begin to distort into a frightening form, she released a scream of fright and jerked her head away. A sadistic smile formed on the Lemon Rabbit's face.
"The phobo-fluid is working, Mistress," it spoke in a squeaky voice which sounded in Queen Lucy's ears as Banshee screams and she clasped her ears with her hands in fright. Dimitrescu then came in and looked over the cowering Queen.
"Excellent," the Fox-Witch spoke in a wicked voice, her TRUE voice and not the sugar coated honeyed voice she falsely spoke in while in her alter ego form, Alcina the Fox. Then as Queen Lucy nervously looked up at the Fox-Witch's golden mask, Dimitrescu added in a smooth but sinister voice, "We've been expectin' your return, little girl. Had a nice trip to the Garden of Youth?"
Dimitrescu's words sounded louder than they were and they echoed in Queen Lucy's ears as though she was in a large hall. Queen Lucy didn't answer but then Dimitrescu lurched at her and released a short scream into her face. From Queen Lucy's perspective, Dimitrescu resembled a deformed monster from her worst nightmares and her scream sounded several times louder than it actually was. A MASSIVE scream of UTMOST fright exploded from Queen Lucy's mouth and she curled up into a ball, trembling, her hands going to her ears to block out the torturous sound. Dimitrescu sniggered while her minions also took some moments to scoff at her as well.
"So much for your name being 'Queen Lucy the Valiant', little girl," Dimitrescu crooned, "You sure do remind me of a lost lil' kid in the dark forest late at night."
"With some Hidebehinds, Slender-Men and Drop Bears on the lookout," added the dart and blowpipe-armed Hidebehind sneeringly, "I was surprised she didn't get lost in the snowy forest when she took her first steps into our land."
Queen Lucy only responded with trembling in a ball and frightened whimpers escaping her mouth. It was clear that the chemical surging through her veins from the dart, called by Dimitrescu and her minions 'phobo-fluid' which caused frightful hallucinations and warped perception of the environment, was taking effect on the poor Queen and the Hidebehind had darted her with quite a large and concentrated dose. Plus the other darts it had in its satchel were as concentrated. Phobo-fluid was a potent poison such that even small amounts of it had a dramatic effect on a victim's environmental perception but larger concentrations and doses were deadlier and the Hidebehind had darted Queen Lucy with a particularly concentrated dose. Then Dimitrescu moved on. Seeing her fire-flower cordial bottle hanging from her robes which Queen Lucy had forgotten she had had due to the agony of the dart in her arm and the poison affecting her system and her environmental perception, the Fox-Witch wickedly seized it and put it in one of the pockets of her kimono to prevent Queen Lucy or anyone else from using it to reverse the effects of the phobo-fluid poison and to develop it into another poison later.
"Two Monarchs down, two to go, you lot," the Fox-Witch told her underlings, "Time to move on to our next task: attacking Cair Paravel, seizing the Nine-Realms Potion to resurrect our TRUE Queen, obtaining a sample of blood from the other King and disposing of him and the other Queen, and taking back what we lost. NOW LET'S GO!"
With that, most of the group of monstrosities left the forest, leaving Queen Lucy to continue to suffer the effects of the phobo-fluid as it began to poison her and continue to warp her perception of the environment. Dimitrescu commanded her last few minions to stay behind with Queen Lucy to ensure that the phobo-fluid poison ensured fatality and these sadistic minions gladly obeyed as they looked forward to torturing Queen Lucy as she deteriorated. Then Dimitrescu left after her other minions. However, shortly after this, a small group of Queen Lucy's allies came by and when they saw what had happened to their youngest of the Four Monarchs, they immediately left to get help. They didn't want to risk taking on the minions preparing to torture Queen Lucy as they could easily kill them.
Meanwhile
"We're gonna leave our trees and search for that rotting Fox carcass," growled one of the Pink Blossom Dryads angrily, "and once we find her, we're gonna lure her to our garden and then entangle her in our roots and crush her to death. Merriweather's idea of doing that to that Fox-Witch is a good one."
Then another Pink Blossomed Dryad named Merriweather, the one who had stated that she would kill Dimitrescu via strangulation nodded. However, Betelgeuse and Rigel put on disagreeing and disapproving faces.
"She's WAY too powerful, Dryads," said the former.
"She could uproot your trees in an instant," said the latter. As she spoke, one of the Blue Flower Mandrakes looked around for a certain Daughter of Eve. Merriweather glared back at the Wolves.
"How about THIS method then?" the angry and vengeful Pink Blossom Dryad snarled and with that, she described a more gruesome death for Dimitrescu to Betelgeuse and Rigel's UTMOST disgust and that of some of the other Plant Beings including the Ent.
"Merriweather," the Ent rebuked, "THAT is overstepping the tree root line."
"Where's Queen Lucy gone?" asked the Blue Flower Mandrake as Merriweather glared back at the Ent. Soon she noticed Queen Lucy's absence and that travelled through the rest of the Plant Being group.
"I don't see Queen Lucy anywhere," said Merriweather, her rage against Dimitrescu put aside for now. Murmurs rolled through the other Dryads, Mandrakes and the Ent but then Betelgeuse and Rigel, worry for the Queen flaring within them, sprung their legs into action and darted off to look for her. However, they need not get far as a small group of more Talking Beasts came rushing towards them from the nearby thicket. Immediately, the Wolves stopped as the group of newcomers braked to a halt before them. In their faces were looks of UTMOST horror and alarm and Betelgeuse and Rigel immediately drew one conclusion but they did NOT like it one bit.
"Have you found Queen Lucy, Acorn?" the dark red Wolf asked the one at the front, a Quokka. Then the Quokka named Acorn replied.
"Yes," he said, "She's in that forest at the mercy of some minions of Jadis, among them a few Blue Mice."
"She looks dazed and EXTREMELY frightened and that bunch of sadistic monsters is rubbing it in by torturing her," said a Squirrel. Horror tore through Betelgeuse, Rigel and the Plant Beings.
"I think it's time to take action," said Merriweather but Betelgeuse cut her off with the command to the Quokka and company, "GO AND FIND QUEEN SUSAN, KING EDMUND, HAGRID, ALESTOMERIA AND MARTIAN RIGHT AWAY and PREPARE FOR BATTLE!"
Acorn the Quokka and his group nodded and darted off. Betelgeuse turned to the Plant Being group, "And YOU lot, we're gonna need your help. You either come with us into the forest to help Queen Lucy or follow Acorn and the others to find the Kitsune Chroniclers, our other two Monarchs and Martian."
Without hesitation or debating, each Dryad, Mandrake and the Ent immediately made their decisions. Some decided to go with Betelgeuse and Rigel into the forest while the others decided to help Acorn and company to find Queen Susan and the others. This done, the Plant Being group split up and the two groups went their ways. Merriweather went with Betelgeuse and Rigel while the Ent went with the group to follow Acorn and the others.
Back in the forest, the last remaining minions of Dimitrescu continued to torture and abuse Queen Lucy as the phobo-fluid continued to mess up her perception of the environment. The poor Queen was in UTMOST hysterics as everything around her including her torturers was distorted into terrifying forms. It was though she was locked in a waking nightmare, a nightmare she could not wake from. As she gazed hysterically and flooded with UTMOST terror at her torturers, one of them, a Blue Mouse, an INCREDIBLY sadistic glare on its face, lunged at the Queen and screamed LOUDLY into her face, its own face contorted in to the most FRIGHTENING look it could make its face for added effect. From Queen Lucy's distorted perspective, the vile Rodent resembled a nightmarish blue monster of the worst kind and its screams sounded like someone in UTMOST agony. A LOUD scream of terror exploded from Queen Lucy and she curled herself up into a ball with her hands clasping her ears and face buried in the grass to block out the nightmarish forms and sounds to the insane laughter of her torturers especially the Blue Mouse.
"You should have stayed back in your pretty world, lil' girl," it crooned and with that, it lashed at Queen Lucy and kicked her in the side to inflict pain on her. The other minions picked up forest floor dirt and sticks and began to throw them at Queen Lucy as part of their mocking of her. Then the Blue Mouse took Queen Lucy's crown from her head and out it on its own head. After this, it planted a foot on the cowering Queen's back and posed as a Monarch itself as an insult to the Four Monarchs appointed by the Great Lion.
"Look at me, I'm a king Blue Mouse," it cackled to the laughter of its comrades. Suddenly, a rock flew through the air in its direction and before the Blue Mouse could notice it, it was struck square in the forehead by the flying projectile. The Blue Mouse released a pained squeak and was knocked away from Queen Lucy, her crown falling from its head in the process. The other minions looked on when a voice yelled, "GET AWAY FROM OUR YOUNG QUEEN, you VILE WHITE WITCH SERVIN' RATS!"
Moments later, a dark red Canid with eyes blazing orange fire galloped in, launched herself like a Cat at the minions and landed SQUARE onto the Blue Mouse. The Blue Mouse was knocked further away from Queen Lucy as the Wolf, Betelgeuse, then knocked it onto its back with her on top of it. The Blue Mouse glared remorselessly at the ENRAGED dark red Wolf as she returned the caustic glare.
"It sure was fun torturin' ya lil' girl Queen," the deceptively cute and violence and blood-loving Mouse crooned in a bloodthirsty whisper but Betelgeuse glared at it, opened her mouth wide to expose her sharp teeth and plunged those spikes into its face. The other minions looked on and flinched as the dark red Wolf then proceeded to savagely maul the creature's face, AGONISED squeaks exploding from it. However, they soon came under attack from another Wolf, a dark blue one, and some blossom Humanoids. Rigel pounced onto a Hidebehind and landed a fatal bite to the jugular while the Dryads including Merriweather threw more stones at the other minions to drive them away. As they did that, Betelgeuse and Rigel, after dealing with two of the foes, rushed to the cowering and frightened Queen Lucy. Rigel saw Queen Lucy's crown and seized it to place it back onto its rightful owner's head.
"Your Majesty," Betelgeuse said with a light paw tap to Queen Lucy's head to get her attention, "Your Majesty."
Queen Lucy looked up but when she saw Betelgeuse and Rigel, she released a PETRIFIED scream and scrabbled back from them to their confusion. From her perspective, Betelgeuse and Rigel looked like deformed Hellhounds with bulbous eyes and oversized fangs.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" she screamed, "GET AWAY FROM MEEEE!"
"Your Majesty, it's US!" demanded Betelgeuse, "It's ME as you KNOW me from my dark red fur and my sister Rigel based on her dark blue fur!"
"Why are you SO scared of us!?" demanded Rigel. However, the only response they got from Queen Lucy was hysterical screaming, crying and her covering her face to block out their distorted images. The Wolves exchanged looks. This was NOT at all right as Queen Lucy NEVER saw them as monsters in ANY way whatsoever.
"This is bad, sis," said Rigel.
"I wonder if she's been poisoned or something," said Betelgeuse.
Somewhere else
The vast majority of the other battlers had assembled battle ready not too far away from Cair Paravel castle. Among them were Sordward, Sheilbert, Athos, Porthos, Aramis and Squea'tagnan the Warrior Mice; Tumnus and Guinan, Beaver, Kushanku, Puss, Kobaruto, Miidori, Merida, Sunstone, Moonstone, Paddy, Monocyte, Neutrophil, Basophil, Eosinophil, Chrystós, Rattus and his Rat troupe, Mjölnir and many others. Some of the servants who could not fight due to their age such as Milky Way and Amethyst, were leading the vulnerable away from the castle to a safe spot and with the battle ready group were some Flying Rods. Everyone had their weapons prepared as a group of ugly creatures, also armed, encroached towards the castle. Within moments, that group of ugly creatures, all of them minions of DImitrescu and the late Jadis, stopped and a brief stare down between the two groups began. Chrystós glared boldly at the crowd and broke the silence with a simple command.
"Last chance, Jadis' minions," the Gold-Fleeced Ram yelled, his sword aimed at the group of ugly creatures, "Turn yourselves in and surrender... or face the sword."
"Gold-Fleeced Rat-face," a Black Dwarf at the front of the crowd retorted wickedly, "YOU lot surrender or face the sword."
"Our Angel of Salvation's backup plans are now in progress and there's NOTHING you lot can do about it," added a Xenojaw.
"And soon, what we lost to you lot will be taken back," put in another creature, a Stinger-Rat, its stinger-armed tail curved towards its head like a scorpion. Then one of the ugly creatures sounded the signal to charge and within moments, the crowd did just that and surged towards Chrystós' group, battle cries screeching from their mouths. Chrystós' group surged towards them as well, battle cries also escaping their mouths and within moments, the two groups clashed and the battle began.
Some Stinger-Rats pursued some of Rattus' underlings, their daggers' blades swiping at them and their stingers lashing at them like whips in an attempt to jab then but the Rats dodged by jumping and darting about. Suddenly, another Rat, a Lightning Pika and some Mice appeared and jumped right on them. Then they proceeded to mercilessly attack them, making screeches explode from the ugly Mouse-like creatures armed with a tail stinger as they began to writhe to angrily dislodge the counter group, Rattus, Athos and company and Mjölnir from their faces and backs. Athos, with a scream and his paw clutching his rapier, jumped onto the nape of his Stinger-Rat foe and rammed his rapier into the nape of the Rodent creature. Screeches of agony exploded from the Stinger-Rat and it thrashed about violently from the agony of having its nape pierced by the Mouse's rapier. Athos jumped off onto a nearby fern and watched on without mercy as the creature continued to screech and writhe. Nearby, Mjölnir was electrocuting another Stinger-Rat with his electricity and bashing it on the head with his war hammer while Rattus fought another Stinger-Rat, engaging it in a vicious rapier duel. Claps of long thin swords jumped into the air whenever the two weapons struck as the foes attempted to skewer each other with their swords. A few seconds after this, the Stinger-Rat attempted to run Rattus through with its stinger tail; it got down on all fours, raised its dagger like stinger and shot it forward at the Rat. However, the Rat dove to one side, sending the stinger jabbing into the earth instead. Then Rattus whirled round and hacked off the creature's stinger with one swipe of his rapier, essentially disarming the Stinger-Rat to its agonised horror.
"Try stingin' people wi'THAT useless tail NOW, you filthy Lab Rat MONSTROSITY," snarled the Talking Rat scornfully as the Stinger-Rat glared horrified at its now stingless tail. Then the Stinger-Rat shpt the Rat a VOLCANIC glare and lunged at him, forcing Rattus to dodge and continue his fight with it.
Nearby, Athos, Porthos, Aramis, Sordward, Shielbert and Squea'tagnan dealt with a few more Stinger-Rats with Rattus' underlings when suddenly, three Terror Birds appeared and immediately cut them down with their Axe Beak technique while one of them, a female with the pink-red spots, also skewered another with her little trident, killing it. Once this was done, Squea'tagnan looked over the now-dead Stinger-Rats.
"These abominations HONESTLY look like the products of some VILE science splicing experiment," he growled in disgust at the chimeric looks of the Stinger-Rats. The three Terror Birds, Neutrophil, Basophil and Eosinophil nodded in agreement to this statement. Just then, Tumnus and Kushanku appeared.
"Have any of you seen Queen Lucy anywhere?" asked the former, the Faun.
"We cannot find her ANYWHERE among those minions of Jadis," said the latter, the Nekomata. As he spoke, Acorn the Quokka came in with a few other Talking Beasts and opposite them in the distance, Hagrid and Alestomeria.
Somewhere else in the battlefield, Monocyte, Sunstone and Moonstone were herding more minions of Jadis, some of them Drop Bears and Candy Woodland Creatures, towards a group of Serleopards and three Toraton where they will be trampled to death by the three latter Turtle-like creatures and the others, dealt with by the Snake-Necked Leopards. Sunstone and Moonstone fired small projectiles of fire and ice balls at the ugly monsters to get them moving when one of the Lime Squrirrels jumped at them, a spear in its paw. The Nekomata sisters froze as the lime green Critter flew towards them with a scream gushing out of its mouth and its face twisted into a maniacal, bloodlust-flooded grimace, the tip of its weapon aimed at Sunstone's chest. Sunstone, alarmed, ducked but then the screaming of the Squirrel was cut off. Sunstone, perplexed, looked up and saw the Lime Green Squirrel laying a couple of metres from her, dead with an arrow embedded in its back.
"Vile brightly coloured ROADKILL CREATURES and a MOCKERY TO ASLAN'S TALKING BEASTS!" a female voice snarled in disgust. Queen Susan came in on her horse, a DISGUSTED a glare on the Lime Squirrel's carcass. She had been the one to shoot the Squirrel down with her arrow before it could skewer Sunstone. Sunstone was about to thank the older Queen when suddenly, Queen Susan heard her name get called.
"Sorry, I'm needed," she said and with that, she galloped off on her horse. Sunstone, Moonstone and Monocyte looked on, exchanged looks and left to help deal with more of Jadis' minions. Nearby, the other Candy Woodland Creaturees had already been dealt with by the Toraton and the Serleopards.
While the battle occurred, another group of evil servants of the White Witch snuck past, using the trees as cover to head to Cair Paravel castle. Dimitrescu, together with a few Hags, Neko-Cabbits and two Black Dwarfs glared at the battle and darted for the entrance of the castle, one destination and thing in mind. Somewhere else in the battle, King Edmund helped to cut down some more minions, also on horseback. He swung the Rhindon sword at the incoming minions and fatally slashed them before turning to help Beni, Brick and Cyllene who were also participating in the battle, to deal with some Yowies. After cutting down the ugly Talking Ape-like creatures, Beni turned to King Edmund.
"Who's gonna combine the ingredients into the Nine-Realms Potion, Your Majesty?" asked he. Nearby, a Red Flying Rod tackled into a Black Dwarf and enabled to Cyllene to land the fatal blow on it with her sword.
"Teal'c and some assistants among them Rosa will, Beni," King Edmund replied before he turned to a Drop Bear and struck it down with Rhindon when it leaped at him to attack him. However, as he did that, a platinum white and neon green creature appeared behind the King, jumped onto Brick and flattened him and onto the rump of King Edmund's horse. Then the creature rammed something into King Edmund's leg. A MASSIVE scream of agony exploded from King Edmund as a literal stab of pain ripped through his right leg to the alarm of Cyllene and Beni. Then the creature, the Neko-Cabbit, withdrew something in its paws and darted away before any of the young Centaurs or anyone else could attack it. Immediately, Cyllene, Beni and Brick (who was wondering what had jumped onto his back and flattened him), came to King Edmund and saw that he was grasping his right thigh. The King's face was contorted from the pain and his teeth were gritted.
"Let's see the injury, Your Majesty," said Cyllene and reluctantly, the King removed his hand from his thigh. As his hand came away, Cyllene lifted the armour covering Kind Edmund's leg to get a proper look at the wound. A hole was present in his clothing under his lower body armour and a red splotch was forming on the fabric. Alarm tore through Cyllene.
"He's been STABBED!" she cried, "GET SOMEONE WITH FIRE FLOWER CORDIAL HERE, QUICKLY!"
Brick and Beni were about to leave when suddenly, a Cat-like cackle of scorn sounded nearby. Immediately, the four turned and saw a white and neon green creature with a partially split tail releasing the giggles, its blood-red eyes staring sadistically at them. Then it held up a small bottle topped with a spike. Both the spike's tip and the interior of the bottle bore red. When the quartet including King Edmund deduced what the Neko-Cabbit had done, ANGER tore through them, especially at what the Neko-Cabbit said next.
"Did you three think I stabbed your cutesy King with a dagger, Horse Trolls and Swine?" the white and neon green creature with an insatiable appetite for blood and violence crooned wickedly, "I was merely droppin' by to collect a lil' of his blood for a VERY important process. An' BOY will your Son of Adam friend be HONOURED in bein' so kind to give me a lil' of his blood for it."
King Edmund, Brick, Cyllene and Beni looked on in confusion at first as the Neko-Cabbit released EVIL cackles and darted away but then it crashed upon them, ESPECIALLY King Edmund. Beni launched into a gallop after the creature.
"WE'D BETTER STOP THAT NEKO-CABBIT BEFORE IT USES HIS MAJESTY'S BLOOD FOR SOMETHING HORRIBLE!" he cried but then two Hags appeared and blocked off the young Centaur's pursuit of the Neko-Cabbit. The other three resumed fighting with King Edmund and Brick rushing in to deal with the pair of dark magic-using mini-Witches.
"Let's deal with these minions of Jadis first," King Edmund ordered as he cut down one of the Hags despite the stabbing pain where the Neko-Cabbit had rammed the needled bottle into his leg to collect some blood from him while Brick snapped the neck of the other. Beni and Cyllene obeyed and continued the battle.
King Edmund was CLEARLY enraged at the Neko-Cabbit's statement in 'being honoured to give a little of his blood for the process', that process he deduced was something to do with you-know-who but the EXTREME rage will have to be set aside for now for he had other matters to deal with.
