Chapter 18: The White Witch
As the Warden led the trio to her cabin, Lucy tried her best to relax. Unfortunately, the anxiety kept eating at her.
"Just keep calm, Lucy," Sakuzy said. "It'll all be fine."
"We're dead. We're so very dead..." Stanley murmured, "Yelnats curse is gonna kill us all..."
"Stanley, we don't know we're dead. YET," Sakuzy said. "Just stay calm, like me."
The Warden led them back to camp and to a house...in sharp contrast, it was nice, green, and well-tended. She opened the door and looked at them.
"Inside," she said.
"I DIDN'T DO IT, I SWEAR!" Sakuzy shouted, tears in his eyes. "I'M INNOCENT!"
"Smooth," Lucy said with a flat expression
"Guilty conscience? Not surprisin'," the warden said. The three were pushed in. "So, what do ya think of my camp?"
"I've...been in better," Sakuzy said. Given his frame of reference, it wasn't an inaccurate statement.
"It's..." Stanley paused. "Dry. Rugged?"
Lucy looked up at the Warden's bright red haired head and felt a twinge of fear, but managed to keep her composure before managing, "It's… nice!"
"Hm, interestin'," the Warden said, walking to the couch before applying nail polish. "Make this myself. I use a special ingredient for it...rattlesnake venom. I just love the colors it makes. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe...when it's DRY."
"V-very comforting," Sakuzy gulped.
"D...did we do something...else wrong? Miss Warden, ma'am?" Stanley asked, his voice little more than a murmur. For one so large, it was striking just how... small he truly made himself, the way his body even seemed to try and curl in on itself.
"Just wanted to talk," the Warden said. "Need to get a feel for newer inmates. Especially since...those ones you're palling around with, Yelnats? No paperwork."
"Really? News to me," Sakuzy said, panicked.
"Because you, you, and those three friends of yours? Just show up and just go along with the boys here?" The Warden asked. "And that starts makin' me wonder...why?"
Stanley turned to Sakuzy in surprise, now curious himself. It... said a lot that Mr. Pedanskii getting punched halfway across a desert was the least of the Warden's concerns, even now. And that only unnerved him even more.
Lucy slowly looked around the warden's cabin, the walls were decorated with old west memorabilia from old wanted posters to newspaper clippings. All of it however bared one name: Kissin' Kate Barlow. And right next to them was...a very familiar-looking wardrobe. Like the one she saw in Traverse Town that led her to the fawn, Tumnus. Lucy looked up and down at the wardrobe, the resemblance was uncanny!
"So, have an explanation for that?" the Warden asked.
"W-well, I..." Sakuzy stammered, trying to come up with something. However, he was coming up short.
"Never seen that in my life!" Lucy quickly jumped in!
"Did she just jump in that?" Warden asked.
"ONE SECOND!" Sakuzy shouted, running at the wardrobe. He opened it up. "Luce...LUKE, I said 'Luke'! Come on out!"
He got no response. Quickly, he climbed in. "Lucy, c'mon! It's a situation here, no time to play hide and seek! We're in big trouble here!"
The wardrobe seemed much deeper than it seemed. Sakuzy climbed through it, fighting through the coats...only to realize that they became fir branches.
"What the-?!" he yelped as he stumbled out.
Immediately, he felt a sudden shift from unbearably hot to ice cold as he looked around, finding himself in the middle of a snowy wood rather than the middle of a desert. With a shudder, he began massaging his arms, staggering up and taking in his surroundings. He was in the middle of a path with lamp posts running across it.
"Wait...do those have roots?" he asked, looking down the lamp posts. Less important. He cupped his hands around his mouth and called. "LUCY! HEY, LUCY! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
Distantly, he heard a jingling noise. Something was coming through the white veil of snow. He turned around and jumped out of the way, narrowly missing a sled being pulled by pure white reindeer. Two people were onboard it, one he barely made out, but the other was a dwarf. The sled came to a halt as the dwarf lashed out a whip, catching at Sakuzy, who summoned his Keyblade on instinct, knocking it aside. Then the dwarf got out and drew a dagger.
"L-look, I don't want any trouble, I just-" Sakuzy's answer was cut off as the dwarf whipped him across the face, sending him to the ground before pointing a dagger at his throat.
"How dare you address the Queen of Narnia!" he shouted.
"Th-the what?!" Sakuzy shouted.
"You shall know her better hereafter!" the dwarf said, raising the dagger up. Sakuzy braced himself, ready to fight, but at that point, the other passenger intervened.
"Ginarrbrik, halt." A stern female voice broke trough. Sakuzy looked at the sleigh's other passenger. It was a slender woman wearing a white coat and a crystal crown, her skin almost as pale as the snow. In her hand was a silver pointed staff that looked like it was made of ice. "Tell me Son of Adam, what is your name?"
"Uh...Sakuzy," Sakuzy said as he slowly got up.
"Sakuzy? Hm..." The woman said, glancing off to the side in thought before turning back to Sakuzy. "What brings you to my kingdom?"
"Uh, I was just looking through..." he glanced at the den of trees not far away, but then remembered the world order. So, quickly, he invented, "This...place to find a friend. She's lost and we really need to get back!"
"A friend? Tell me, are there others?" She asked, slightly leaning forward in anticipation!
"Why?" Sakuzy asked.
"I always get so excited when guests arrive in Narnia! The more the merrier... why Sakuzy, you look so cold!" The woman said as she sat back in her sleigh and opened up her coat, revealing a white dress underneath. "Come, let me warm you up."
"I...I could use something, I guess," Sakuzy said as he sidled up to her.
The woman smiled and wrapped her arm around him. "Here, have a drink." She said before pulling a small vial out of her dresses inner pocket. She poured a small drop onto the snow and right before his eyes, Sakuzy watched as a warm drink, which looked like hot chocolate, took form in a silver chalice.
He took a drink and found it was...quite warm and tasty. Immediately, he felt a bit better about everything.
"There you go... would you like something to eat?" The woman asked. "I can make anything you'd like."
"Sea Salt Ice Cream?" Sakuzy asked. Despite the cold weather, he felt the urge for that treat...and he didn't even know what that was.
"As you wish." The woman said, dropping another drop of her potion onto the snow. It took the form of a blue ice pop on a wooden stick.
Sakuzy took it and gave it a lick. It was...salty? No, sweet. He then began licking it, happily. Why was he even suspicious? This lady was one of the nicest people he'd met.
"Tell me Sakuzy, that large key you have... where did you get it?" The woman asked as Sakuzy kept nibbling away at his munchies.
"I just...always had it, I guess," Sakuzy. "I don't really know...in fact, there's a lot I don't know."
"What a pity... you know Sakuzy, when I asked about your friend and the others? I'd love to meet them!" The woman said, gently stroking Sakuzy's hair, the corners of his mouth covered in ice cream residue.
"Right, there's uh," Sakuzy said. "Me, Lucy, but also Becca, Joyex, and Yozora. So, five of us? Right now, anyway, we're gonna be dropping Yozora off somewhere on the way we're going."
"And where are you going?" The woman asked, gently wiping Sakuzy's mouth as if she were his mother.
"Uh...somewhere very far away? We're looking for...something very, very important. And kinda secret, Joyex was kinda vague on the details," Sakuzy replied.
"So I see. You know Sakuzy, I never had children of my own. But I see a lot of possibilities in you." The woman said. "I could see you be the prince of Narnia... maybe even the king."
"I'm flattered, but...I don't really want to BE anything particularly royal," Sakuzy said.
"And why not? Think about it, everyone in Narnia at your beck and call, you can do whatever you want, whenever you want!"
"I dunno, it just...doesn't really appeal," Sakuzy said. "What I want is...to remember. For everyone to remember what happened before all of this. We all just woke up near each other, no idea how we got there..."
He looked up at her and simply asked. "Do you think you could help with that?"
"Oh why my child, of course I can!" The woman said, putting her hands on his shoulders. "I can do whatever you desire, but first, you must do something for me."
"What?" Sakuzy asked.
"These friends of yours, I want you to bring them to me." The woman smiled. "Once you do that, I'll help you remember everything."
"Really?" Sakuzy asked, eagerly.
"Of course! It's what I live for, helping poor folk like you is my specialty!" The woman said, playfully ruffling Sakuzy's hair.
"Now, when you come back, you see those two hills?" She asked, pointing off into the distance. Sakuzy noticed two large mountains covered in snow. "My house is between those hills!"
Sakuzy stepped off the sled. "So, all I need to do is get them there?"
"That you must! Do this for me, and you'll have all your memories come flooding back to you!" The woman said with a delighted grin.
"As if it happened yesterday!"
"Thank you," Sakuzy said, feeling nothing but gratitude. "Uh...could I have some sea salt for the road?"
"No!" The woman snapped quickly, before going back to her calm demeanor. "Don't want your perfect teeth to rot. Besides, you and I are going to see each other again soon."
"We will, I know it!" Sakuzy beamed. "Thanks again, though."
"Anytime!" The woman said, her dwarf servant gave her reindeer a quick smack and off they went, the two vanishing into the snow, "Next time!"
Sakuzy couldn't help but wave back. He was afraid for a second, but turned out, she was the nicest person he ever met. And to think, just a minute ago, he was afraid that the Warden...
Wait, Warden? RIGHT! She was still waiting for them! Especially since Lucy just disappeared!
"LUCY!" he shouted, remembering why he was in a panic in the first place.
"Sakuzy?" Asked someone from right behind him.
He turned to find Lucy. Immediately, he ran up. "LUCE, WHERE'VE YOU BEEN? I WAS FREAKING OUT!"
"Uh... well, I was visiting a friend!" Lucy replied.
"A friend?" Sakuzy asked. "What friend?"
"Mr. Tumnus, the faun! I was worried that he was in trouble so I wanted to check on him!" Said Lucy. "He's FINE!"
"You...wait, you've been here before?" Sakuzy asked.
"Oh... I guess I forgot to say... I have! Back in Traverse Town!"
Sakuzy remembered that. He thought he might have seen that wardrobe before. Then he shook his head. "Doesn't matter. We gotta get outta here. The Warden's still waiting for us."
"Right..." Lucy visibly cringed at the thought of returning to her
"Now, come on," Sakuzy said as he took her hand and led her away.
Lucy gasped a bit, clenched his hand back and followed him.
When they came out of the wardrobe, they found that nothing had changed. Warden and Stanley were still standing there, waiting for them...
"Uh, found him," Sakuzy said, pushing Lucy to the front.
"Good. Now get out," the Warden said.
"But what about..."
"Got sand in your ears? Get outta here," the Warden ordered.
"Y-yes ma'am!" Lucy nervously squeaked, dragging the others out of the Warden's cabin
"Keep forgetting how strong you are," Sakuzy yelped in surprise. Stanley just awkwardly followed them out.
When the three were out the door, the Warden just waited and sighed in annoyance. She then looked over, "Those the two you were lookin' for?"
That was when two figures came out of hiding, hooded and cloaked. One was in red while the other was in pink. They had distinctly feminine figures, the one in red seemed a little taller and better-endowed than her counterpart.
"They sure are… you did good!" The red one said, rubbing her chin deviously.
"He is. He's the one we're looking for," the pink one said, nodding eagerly.
"So, you get him, you help me with what I'm looking for?" the Warden asked. "What about the others who just showed up?"
"None of your concern, leave the rest of the heavy lifting to us." The red one says with a light wave of her hand.
"Fine, feel free. Go after 'em," the Warden said, gesturing to the door.
Unseen by anyone was ADHD, who had followed them just in case.
"Hoo boy, this is trouble, BIG trouble," he said, taking off...at an unusually high speed.
Hitchhiker's Entries:
The Warden:
The woman who runs Camp Green Lake with an iron fist. The boys interned at her camp say that she owns the shade while they keep digging. She may say it's for rehabilitation purposes, but she is clearly looking for something. Many would say she should try finding a "better attitude", but they quickly end up on the receiving end of her rattlesnake venom nail polish. She began flexing her power in Holes (2003).
White Witch:
The self-styled Queen of Narnia. She gave Sakuzy snacks and promised to return their memories, so she has to be on the up-and-up, right? Kindly mail your complaints to one C.S. Lewis, please. Her reign began in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe (2005).
Ginarrbrik:
A dwarf in the employ of the White Witch. Runs her sleigh, acts as her bodyguard, honestly what DOESN'T he do for her? He deserves a raise. He first appeared in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe (2005).