THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE BBC
PART 16
...WE SHALL HAVE SPRING AGAIN.
PREVIOUSLY: Peter, Susan, Lucy, the beavers and Chir's escape trip has let them to the Great Lake, which was already weakening and melting away due to the rapidly increasing warm temperatures, but they have no choice but to cross the lake to get to the other side of the Great River. However, they're under attack of the Witch's Secret Police who capture Lucy, Mr. Beaver and Chirp and hold them hostage, threatening Peter, Susan and Mrs. Beaver to surrender, falsely promising that the children are free to go home. Peter, however, using Rhindon's newfound magical abilities to create the tidal wave that destroys the ice and washes Snow Storm, Maugrim and the Secret Police away while the children and their friends barely manage to make it to the eastern shore. The Witch is cut off them but angrily vows that "with one way or another" she'll make sure that the prophecy will never come true before departing with Edmund.
A little further downstream south of the Great Lake, The tidal wave caused by Peter's Rhindon had by this point dispersed into a strong currents that flowed down the river to the south, carrying along with the current drifting chunks and rafts of ice with it.
And the chunks of ice weren't the only ones drifting along with the river.
Snowstorm, who had managed to survive from the tidal wave after being tossed into the water by Mr. Beaver and washed away by the torrents, was drifting along the river as well, desperately trying to keep his head above the water while flapping his wings against the water to try to "swim" towards the shore... but in vain.
However, the snow owl spotted the ice raft drifting past him, but close enough for him to try to get onto it if he just would try.
Taking this chance to get out of the water, and straining with all his might he still had left, Snowstorm managed to just barely catch up with the raft and to dragged himself onto it.
Once safely on the ice raft that kept carrying him down the river to the south, Snowstorm shivered from the cold water and panted breathlessly from the exhaustion, and feebly flapped his soaking wet and water-heavy wings to get the excess water off them and off his feathers.
However, despite being exhausted from his clumsy swimming and shivering from the coldness of the water, the burning hatred he held for the children and their friends still remained there... and that hatred burned in his heart even more fiercely for them having escaped from their clutches at the Great Lake.
His hatred empowered his strength enough for him to spread his wings up - which were now mostly dried from water - and he started to flap them frantically, before the snowy owl took off the raft and into the air.
Snowstorm set his course towards the eastern river bank and the direction of the Stone Table where the children, the beavers and that accursed robin were heading.
However, as he made his way across the river, he found out that his flying was quickly turning into more laborous despite his strength empowered by his hate for the fugitives and the firm determination to caught up with them.
He realized that he hadn't recovered enough to resume the hunting and was forced to acknowledge that he needed a little more time to recover to his full strength.
That's why Snowstorm made a landing to the snowy river bank, where the currents of the river had piled up the chunks of ice as an ice cover next to the bank.
Catching his breath, Snowstorm then remained there to rest and gather his strength in peace and quiet, until...
CRASH!
A huge clawed paw bursted all of the sudden through the ice behind the snowy owl.
"AGH!" Snowstorm cried in alarm and jumped away from the river, before he turned around to see who had attacked him from behind.
The clawed paw then fell on the snow of riverbank, grasping the ground as if for the dear life of its owner.
The clawed paw slowly but certainly pulled its owner out from under the floating blocks of ice and out of the water onto the riverbank, quickly revealing the owner of the paw to be a drenched wolf, and not just any wolf but himself...
"MAUGRIM?!" Snowstorm gasped.
Maugrim didn't reply to the snowy owl, little alone even acknowledged his presence. He just stood bowed on his knees in the snow, supporting himself with his paws and growled softly and breathlessly from exhaustion and cold.
Shortly after Maugrim had finally managed to drag himself out of the water and onto the riverbank, another clawed paw quickly bursted through the ice next to the spot where Maugrim had came through the ice.
This one was revealed to be another wolf, the wolf lieutenant, that slowly dragged himself out of the water onto the river bank and collapsed over his stomach onto the snow, soaking wet and exhausted.
"Lieutenant!" Snowstorm exclaimed.
The snowy owl quickly retained his authoritative manner and went over the wolves to address them.
"Captain! Lieutenant! Report! Where are the others?!" Snowstorm ordered.
"Gone! All gone, Sir! They're all gone!" the lieutenant reported breathlessly. "We're all that's left now."
As the lieutenant feebly stood up from the snow and shook his wet and matted fur to get it dry, Snowstorm moved closer to the waterline and looked over the river.
But even with his keen eyesight, he didn't see any other survivors climbing out of the ice and water onto the riverbank, not in their side of the river and neither in the western shore.
All he could see before him was only the riverfull of water and the drifting blocks of ice.
With no sign of the other wolves anywhere, Snowstorm could only confirm the lieutenant's words that the other members of the pack had drowned when the Great Lake's ice broke under them and taken away in the torrents of the tidal waves.
"That Son of Adam... and that sword...!" Snowstorm growled angrily, knowing that this was all of Peter's and his sword's doings.
However, the mention of Peter and his sword and them having caused all of this set something loose in Maugrim.
The Wolf began to growl louder as he got a flashback of both Peter and Lucy being on that raft with him before that tidal wave hit
*They were right there! They were right there! Right there right at my claws! I was SO close in catching and killing them! At least the two of them! So close!*
Over the years of serving the White Witch, he had built his perfect career and his fearsome reputation amongst the low subjects of the Queen that he had taken a full pride of it in the heart. And now it was all ruined, destroyed, crumbled like the ice because of failing to capture and kill some... some... SOME HUMAN CHILDREN... AND THE HUMAN BOY WHO DARED TO OPPOSE HIM WITH THE SWORD THAT DESTROYED HIS SECRET POLICE!
The failure of capture the children and with it the heavy blow to his career and pride sparked the savage rage inside of Maugrim.
Puffing and huffing furiously, and letting out a loud growls between of his bared and angrily gritted teeth, Maugrim shook-off all the feeling of exhaustion from his limbs and stood up on his feet. He turned his from a seething fury ablazing eyes to the direction of the Stone Table where the children were heading.
The wolf captain bared even more teeth and clutched his from the fury violently shaking paws into a fists as his rage reached to its critical lever, before Maugrim opened his large mouth and let out the loudest outburst of rage ever.
"RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Maugrim's outburst of rage echoed over a wide area around the Great River, scaring off nearly all nearby birds and animals and even the Trees - the good Trees - let out the muffled screams of terror within their trunks.
After having gotted that out of his system, Maugrim hung his head down and panted breathlessly.
"When I get my claws on those humans, I'm going to rip them all apart piece by piece... starting from that boy!" Maugrim growled.
"But they have a huge start, Captain!" lieutenant pointed out. "We'll never get them before they reach the Stone Table in time!"
"Then, as per the Queen's orders, we must head to the Stone Table and reach there first before they do!" Snowstorm said.
"Then we'll leave for the Table as soon as we have recovered enough to travel." Maugrim growled rather impatiently. "I'll give us five minutes! No more than five minutes!"
However, the lieutenant was instantly hesitant of that plan, knowing that exactly who was waiting for the humans at the Stone Table. "But... what about him?! Him and the rebels are already at the Stone Table!"
"We won't go straight to the Stone Table, you fool!. We'll wait for the humans in hiding in the outskirts of that place where we won't be seen." Snowstorm explained.
"Yes! We'll capture them there... and when we do, we'll make them wish they'd never set on foot on Narnia!" Maugrim growled, clutching his clawed paw into a fist again.
###
Elsewhere, after leaving the Great Lake, the Witch, Ginarrbrik and Edmund were steadily racing on again down the Telmar River to the southwest to find a safe crossing point. They had to go quite far because the Great Lake's tidal wave had destroyed the ice from a long way down the river.
Following the river to southwest, to the opposite direction where the children were heading, and finding the suitable crossing point cost them so much of their precious time, which greatly frustrated and infuriated the Witch.
They finally found a suitable crossing point where the most powerful and ice-breaking water currents pushed by the tidal wave had not reached, and from there they turned around and continued their journey east and northeast towards the Stone Table.
"FASTER! DRIVE FASTER, FOOL!" the Witch's barked to Ginarrbrik, desperate to get back to the children's and their allies' trail to make up all the time they've lost.
Ginarrbrik obeyed and kept whipping the horses to make them go faster.
After a long journey, they finally arrived at another woodlands located in the very heart of Narnia, known as the Shuddering Woods.
However, once they got there, Edmund began to see changes in both the weather and the snowy surroundings.
The snow had become much wetter and slushier than what it had been all yesterday, the last night and this morning, that is splashed under their sleigh and against them as they rushed through it.
At the same time Edmund began to notice that he was feeling much less cold, and that the air was also becoming foggier.
And as they passed under the branches of the trees, Edmund could feel a small drops of water dripping down from icicles in the branches of all the trees.
And everywhere where Edmund looked on, he could see a great loads of snow sliding off from the branches of the nearby fir trees, and slowly but certainly the endlessly white world of snow he had been seeing all of time ever since the first time he entered Narnia, was quickly turning dark green from the snow-free fir trees.
In fact, as each minute passed, the air began to get foggier and warmer. So warmer that Edmund, who was smiling for the first time since yesterday due to the pleasant warmth, was starting to sweat under his coat and was about to take it off so he wouldn't get too hot.
However, once he had taken the coat off his shoulders, Edmund glanced at the Witch and was startled when the Witch gave him fiercely disapproving and piercing icy glare. She too had taken a notice of the air getting warmed and didn't like it one bit, so she silently but sternly warned Edmund not to take any notice of it either.
Not wishing to anger the Witch, Edmund quickly put the coat back on and wrapped it tightly around himself, before meekly looking up at the Witch if she was satisfied. The Witch, however, didn't say anything but looked away from Edmund. And afterwards, Edmund didn't dare to take his coat off, no matter how sweaty and hot he was starting to get in it.
And because of the slush snow, the sleigh was not running nearly as well and as faster as it had been running up till now.
At first Edmund thought it to be because of the horses were exhausted, which they practically were after Ginarrbrik had whipped them to their limits and beyond, but when he looked down to the snowy ground, he realized that that alone wasn't the reason.
The snowdrifts all around of them were really melting in earnest and patches of brown earth and even earnestly growing green grass were beginning to appear under the snow in every direction.
And because of that, the sleigh began to jerk and skid, and it kept jolting as if it had struck against every stone that peeked under the snow.
This was rapidly slowing them down, and it didn't suit well for the Witch.
"FASTER! GET THIS SLEIGH GOING, FOOL! FASTER! FASTER!" the Witch barked.
Ginarrbrik kept whipping the poor horses to go faster, but no matter what he did, the sleigh just kept going slower and slower.
And then, before long, the sleigh came to a stop so fast that it wouldn't go on at all.
"Why are we stopping?!" the Witch demanded to know.
"The sleigh seems to be stuck on something, your Majesty." Ginarrbrik told her.
Edmund looked out of the sleigh below them, and noticed that the sleigh was indeed stuck in the muddy ground that had just been exposed from under the snow.
"Then don't just sit there like a fool and get us loose so that we can keep going! AND MAKE IT FASTER!" the Witch demanded.
Ginarrbrik nodded and then turned back to the horses and whipped them again to make them move.
However, the horses were already so exhausted from the constant running that they refused to take a single step forward. Blowing and snorting out of breath, the poor horses' heads were hanging very low above the ground, and their legs were trembling violently from overexertion.
Despite this, Ginarrbrik was not going to let the horses rest and began mercilessly both whipping them with his whip and slapping the reins again and again and again to get the horses moving. The poor animals neighed in pain from the whipping and wobbled restlessly left and right.
And when Ginarrbrik finally got the horses to move forward, their attempts to pull the sleigh behind them were feeble, and they couldn't get the sleigh to move much in the muddy ground anyway.
Seething from rage and, hissing, spitting, shouting and cursing the horses as a lazy useless nags, Ginarrbrik kept heartlessly tormenting the poor animals but the sleigh just wouldn't move. Eventually Ginarrbrik finally stopped yelling at the horses and sat down to catch his breath, bringing in a moment of silence over them.
But in that silence, Edmund's attention was caught by the curious noise he heard all round them.
Listening carefully, he could hear a familiar sweet, rustling and chattering noise of running water. All round them, though out of sight, were streams chattering, murmuring, bubbling and splashing and he could even hear roaring in some distance from them.
Edmund's heart gave a great leap of joy when he finally realised that the frost was over and that it was a thaw.
But what further brought Edmund the joy was that a bird suddenly began chirping from the branch of a nearby tree, which was soon answered by the chuckle of another bird a little further off. And then, as if that had been a signal, there was chattering and chirruping in every direction, and then a moment of full song, and within five minutes the whole wood was ringing with birds' music.
Listening to all of that made Peter smile happily, because until now he never had heard any chattering and chirping of the bird in Narnia during this winter.
"What... is that awful noise?!" the Witch's said, hearing the rustling of the water and the singing of the birds everywhere, and she didn't like it a one bit.
"That's birdsong, and that's the rustling of the water! The frost is over!" Edmund said happily.
"SILENCE!" the Witch demanded angrily.
Edmund immediately shrunk in his seat, fearing the Witch's wrath, but all those sweet, soothing, and happy sounds of the thaw captured him again and all the fear disappeared again. With a smile on his face, Edmund looked at the free streams of rustling water, and each new tune of that wonderful choir of bird songs made Edmund to look up in the tree branches and the directions where the sound of the new tune had came from.
But he hadn't time to listen or watch any longer when the Witch noticed this and, getting even more impatient and frustrated with their lack of motion, furiously snapped at him.
"Don't sit staring, fool! Get out and help." the Witch roared with another terribly angry look on her pale face.
Immediately, Edmund obeyed and hastily jumped up from her seat and stepped out of the sleigh to help Ginarrbrik to get the sleigh out of the mud and back to the snowy ground.
Edmund moved behind of the sleigh and began to push it forward with all his might - though all the slush and mud in the ground made it slippery and thus made pushing the heavy sleigh forward difficult without his slegs slipping from under - while Ginarrbrik kept cruelly whipping the horses.
They moved feebly and laboriously forward only for a couple steps before they stopped again and lied down to the ground, refusing to get up even if Ginarrbrik kept whipping them to make them to get back up.
"It's no good, your Majesty." Ginarrbrik said finally. "We can't sledge in this thaw."
"Then we must walk." the Witch concluded and get out of the sleigh.
"But we shall never overtake them walking." Ginarrbrik pointed out. "Not with the start they've got."
The Witch, however, held her wand threateningly pointed at the Dwarf, who instantly shrunk to his seat with terror. "Are you my councillor, OR MY SLAVE? DO AS YOU'RE TOLD!" she demanded before pulling her wand away.
"Very well, your Majesty." Ginarrbrik said, trembling with terror and relief for a moment, before he stepped out of the sleigh. "And the horses? Shall I cut the harness and let them to find their own way home?"
However, the witch didn't think about it for more than a few seconds before she turned to the horses, who were still lying exhausted on the ground in front of the now useless sleigh.
"No time for the horses!" the Witch declared,
And then, without warning, the Witch swung her wand down at the horses and a bright beam of light shot out from the tip of it towards the animals and engulfed them. Edmund turned his head away, not only because of the bright light but also because he already knew from the last time's experience what will happen to the horses and he didn't really want to see that horror again. As the light faded away, the horses were left turned into the stone statues lying on the ground.
"Now..." the Witch said, turning around raising her wand at Edmund, whose heart jumped into her throat when he saw that she was pointing that thing directly at him! "Tie the hands of the human creature behind it, and the rope around its neck, and drive it ahead of us. And take your whip." she added with the cruel smile.
Edmund stared at them both in disbelief that they were going to tie a rope around his neck like he was a mule.
Chuckling wickedly, Ginarrbrik took his whip and rope out of the sleigh and walked up to Edmund. Edmund backed away from the ugly vile Dwarf, before his instincts screamed him to run for his life! Almost without the second thought, Edmund quickly whipped around and took off running towards the woods.
"STOP HIM!" the Witch screamed.
Ginarrbrik ran after Edmund, before he swung his whip back and then towards Edmund's legs. the Dwarf's whip wrapped around of Edmund's legs and caused him to trip onto his stomach to the slushy and muddy ground.
With Edmund down and incapacitated, Ginarrbrik ran to him and sat on top of him, pinning him to the ground, before he roughly pulled Edmund's hands behind his back and tied them up with an awfully tight and chafing knots.
Ginarrbrik then roughly pulled the bound and soaking wet and muddy Edmund back to his feet, before the Dwarf proceeded to tie the rope tightly around of his neck, making Edmund feel even more uncomfortable.
And once it was done, Ginarrbrik took the rope's other end and rather painfully tugged by it to make Edmund follow him back to the Witch.
The Witch shot Edmund another icy glare for his attempted escape, causing Edmund to stop and try to back away from her, but Ginarrbrik tugged even harder from the rope around of Edmund's neck to make him move, causing Edmund to let out a hoarse groan.
But as they came over to the Witch, she immediately grabbed from Edmund's left ear and twisted it painfully, making Edmund to grimace.
"Do that again, and mark my words, you'll be VERY SORRY!" the Witch snarled, before roughly shoving Edmund away from her and over to the muddy and slushy ground, before she held out her wand to the direction of the east. "NOW GET UP AND GET MOVING! We are going to overtake them or I'll know the reason why not!"
Edmund quickly got up off the ground, or at least as fast as he could with his hands tied behind his back and with Ginarrbrik constantly tugging from the rope around his neck.
"Walk ahead of me, mule! Move!" Ginarrbrik ordered, cracking the whip at Edmund's feet to make him move.
And from then on they walked in row across the Shuddering Woods. A bound Edmund walked ahead, forced to walk as fast as he could and even faster than that. Ginarrbrik walked behind him, a rope in one hand and a whip in the other, with which he whipped Edmund on the back whenever he slowed down to make him walk faster, or else he did that just for his own fun. And the witch walked last behind the dwarf, constantly urging them to move faster.
"FASTER! FASTER!" the Witch yelled impatiently.
On their way, Edmund kept accidentally slipping in the slush and mud and wet grass, and every time he did, Ginarrbrik cursed his clumsiness, kicked him up and gave him a flick with the whip in the back to make him move faster.
Every moment as they go, the patches of green grew bigger and the patches of snow grew smaller. Even more and more of the trees shook off their robes of snow, revealing from under of the previously white shapes the dark green of firs, the black prickly branches of bare oaks, beeches and elms and the only welcomed color of white amidst of all the dark green, a silver birch trees. Soon the mist turned from white to gold and presently cleared away altogether as the shafts of deliciously warm sunlight struck down onto the forest floor and overhead the clouds of winter cleared off that you could see a blue sky between the tree-tops.
Soon there were more wonderful things happening. Looking down, Edmund could see that the ground was covered in all directions before his eyes rapidly growing little yellow celandines, white snowdrops and gold and purple and white crocuses.
Edmund was also distracted from his current situation by the birds' chattering and chirruping, and wherever he turned his eyes could see the birds alighting on branches of the nearby trees or sailing overhead in the air.
Edmund slowed down and looked down at the bunch of purple crocuses with the happy smile.
However, Ginarrbrik saw that Edmund had stopped to look at them, before the Dwarf walked over them and stomped his foot onto the flowers, runing and flattening them, much to Edmund's dismay.
"Mind your own business!" Ginarrbrik said harshly before the Dwarf gave the rope a vicious jerk to poull Edmund out of these distractions.
"On with you! Onward!" Ginarrbrik snarled, viciously kicking Edmund on the move before giving him yet another flick with the whip in the back.
"FASTER! FASTER!" the Witch yelled. "FASTER, YOU FOOLS! FASTEEEEEEEER!"
As they walked onward, the Witch looked around and her face contorted in horror and disgust at everything she was both seeing and hearing: The fog was now gone. The sky was now bluer with the small clouds hurrying across it from time to time. The wide glades were covered with the beds of primroses. She could feel the light but warm breeze springing up, scattering drops of moisture from the swaying branches and carried cool, delicious scents against their faces, which the Witch found repulsive. The trees became fully alive in their eyes, as the larches and birches were quickly covered with green, the laburnums with gold. The beech trees put forth their delicate, transparent leaves. A couple of bees began buzzing across their path, with a couple of beautiful butterflies flapping past her face and a couple of swallows were chirping and dancing overhead.
"Something is wrong. Something has gone badly wrong!" the Witch said to herself as she felt her spells which had produced the endless winter upon Narnia being destroyed, though she already had an idea of why and because of whom this was happening.
They soon stopped by a stream with the small rustling waterfall nearby, where the Witch kept looking at all the growing and increasing green and beautiful all around of them with the repulsed look on her face while Edmund sat nearby with Ginarrbrik guarding him.
"This is no an ordinary thaw." Ginarrbrik said as it finally dawned to him too. "This is spring! Your winter has been destroyed! This is Aslan's doing!"
However, the very mention of Aslan's name stiffened the Witch with the seething rage, that her head twitched towards every sound she heard around of her, whether it was the swallows' chirping, bees' buzzing, rustling of the river or leaves of the trees in the shoft breeze or even the nearby frog's croaking.
"If... either of you... mention that name... again..." the Witch said with the dangerously slow pace, before it slowly turned into a terrible scream as she turned around to face the two with the murderous look on her face. "will be INSTANTLY KILLED!"
Both Ginarrbrik and Edmund flinched back in terror in the face of such of threat, that neither of them wanted to mention Aslan's name in the Witch's presence ever again least they wanted to end up into stone statues.
But when the couple of butterflies again swooped past her face again, the Witch finally snapped. She waved her wand at the butterflies, hitting them with the beam of light that turned the little insects into stone, making them drop off the air and into the stream bank with the thud.
However, the Witch didn't stop there! In her murderous rage, she turned towards every sound she heard around them, before swinging her wand left and right at every source of sound. The entire area flashed again and again from the bright white light that came out from the Witch's wand as she shot beams of light everywhere.
Edmund and even Ginarrbrik watched in horror as the Witch turned those couple of bees, those two swallows in the air and a family of frogs on the bank of the stream - the latter two revealed themselves to be Narnian Talking Swallows and Frogs as they quickly changed into their anthropomorphic forms and tried to run for their lives - on the other side of the stream an unfortunate couple of squirrels gathering nuts and even a small a school of carp in the water to a stone.
Then all three's attention was drawn by a horrified squeal that made them all turn towards it. They saw an eldery otter couple and the family of two adult and four little otters staring at them, especially at the Witch with surprised and horrified looks on their faces.
The Witch, still under of her murderous rampage, turned towards the animals and raised her wand high up.
"NO!" Edmund cried, before he turned towards the animals and tried to warn them. "QUICKLY! RUN! ALL OF YOU, RUN!"
But it was too late. As soon as the Witch swung his wand at the otters, all that was left of them were bunch of lifeless stone statues.
After her killing spree, everything went almost dead quiet not including the rustling of the stream and the leaves. Hissing and spitting in her rage, the Witch looked around for more animals to be turned into stone, while Edmund and Ginarrbrik stood there in dead silence, not daring to give the Witch any reason to turn them into stone as well.
###
While all of this was happening, elsewhere, miles away in the northeast...
After the events of the Lake, Peter, Susan and Lucy, the beavers and Chirp continued for a moment towards the southeast, until after an hour of walk they found a suitable place near the stream with the small waterfall, where they could rest a little and warm up with the cup of hot tea - at least in the case of Peter and Lucy, who were still shivering from the cold - and heal their wounds - at least in the case of Mr. Beaver and Chirp after their fights with the wolf lieutenant and Snowstorm. Their wounds were quickly patched up by Mrs. Beaver.
But while they rested there, they soon began to notice the similiar changes both in the weather and their surroundings as Edmund did far away in the southwest, must to their surprise and joy.
The air began to warm up such of fast rate that Peter, Susan and Lucy soon noticed that they didn't need their coats as much as before. The snow and ice were melting at such a fast rate that you could even see it with the naked eye, and here and there more and more green and brown patches appeared on the still white ground. The winter clouds scattered in the sky, allowing a warm sunshine to shine through the ground, which increased the melting of the snow and ice. The stream also began to flow from the meltwaters more stronger and enough up to the flooding point and the small waterfall let out a roaring sound.
And as their resumed their journey, with the children feeling warm enough that they left their coats behind, their surroundings still kept rapidly changing from the january's wintery world into the one of the may's.
"Oh! Look! Bluebells!" Lucy gasped, making others to stop, as she looked down at the spot where the ground had came from under the snow and and saw a bunch of purplish blue bluebells began to grow of it with impossibly fast rate before her eyes, and they instantly started to bloom.
Peter and Susan looked on and were both delighted to see something so beautiful for the first time since arriving in Narnia. Beavers and Chirp were also happy to see flowers for the first time in their lives, because they had never seen anything like that since they were born under the Witch's winter.
"Now, now! We must be on our way." Mr. Beaver as he gently ushered them onward.
"One thing for sure," Mr. Beaver told them soon. "The Witch won't be able to use her sleigh now that there's no enough of snow, so we can take it a bit easier the rest of the way."
That was true. The more of snow and ice melting away, the more it revealed the hard and bumpy ground on which the sleigh won't go, meaning that the Witch can no longer follow them on her sleigh.
"Chirp, chirp! true! There's nothing to fear now that she's fallen far behind and Snowstorm and the Secret Police have been vanquished. Chirp, chirp!" Chirp added.
These words brought a great relief and comfort to the children, as they no longer had to hurry so much or be afraid of their pursuers,
As they continued onward, they did as Mr. Beaver said: They were now going much more calmly and at a slower pace, allowing themselves longer periods of rest now.
And as they walked hour after hour through the woodlands, they looked around of them in pure wonderment.
Everything around of them was like they were walking on deeper and deeper into something what seemed a delicious dream.
The feeling was pleasantly familiar for Lucy, for it was like in her dream which she had seen back in Mr. Tumnus' Cave.
With the snow and ice now completely gone and all the white was replaced with the colors of dark brown and green, the forest began to rapidly regain its vibrant colors as the warm sunlight filtered through their bare trunks and branches: the green grass began to grow and cover the forest floor rapidly, along with the countless colorful flowers of many different species. The trees and bushes soon started to regain their leaves and much richer colors of green and brown, and some of them began to bloom with either flowers or berries. The air was soon full of strong, fresh and sweet scents of spring from flowers, trees and berries, and it was crowned by the delightful sound of birdsong, starting first from one bird's chirping, continuing on the second one's chuckling and moving on to the third one's chattering before even more birds everywhere above the children joined in the one big and beautiful chour.
Even Chirp, who until now had walked on the ground in his anthropomorphic form alongside his friends now that there was no longer need for him to fly to scout ahead or watch their backs for the pursuers, and that he was still recovering from the wounds he'd suffered from the battle with Snowstorm, joined the other birds in chorus with his own singing-like chirping and chattering to pass some time.
Looking around while walking on in silence, the children drank with their eyes literally everything they saw around them.
Susan smiled as she looked at a blooming dense reddish masses of flowering currants and the white flowers of the hawthorn trees.
She took in a deep breath of the sweet smell of hawthorn berries which was almost overpowering.
Peter smiled as he looked at the blooming beautiful purplish violets and yellow buttercups.
He also let out a chuckle as a couple of beautiful butterflies flew dancingly around of his head, with one of them even playfully touching his left cheek with its wing.
Lucy smiled as she looked at a beautiful blooming white daisies and variantly colored yarrow flowers.
Her smile grew even broader than her siblings' when she spotted a small flock of brown thrushes chirping and chattering up on the branches and looking down at them.
The thrushes then swooped down from the trees towards the children, beavers and Chirp and greeted them by circling them twice around, before they rose above their heads, split into several pairs and began to fly in arching, each other circling and even in the line motions as if giving the impressed children, beavers and Chirp a well-honed dance performance.
After watching the thrushes' performance as long as they could, the children, the beavers and Chirp were soon on their way again.
After hours of travel, the day began to turn to afternoon, and the sun began to set and the shadows to lengthen and/or darken in underneath of the leafy roofs of the tall elm trees, under which the children, the beavers, and Chirp were now walking.
At this point, the children were starting to feel themselves pretty tired after the hours-long journey and the whole hard day.
"Oh!" Lucy moaned as she stopped, feeling her tired legs already going numb by now. "Are we ever going to get there?" she asked, wondering whether she can really go any further without another long rest.
Peter stopped and turned around, before walking over to his little sister and putting his arm comfortingly over her shoulder.
"Come on, Lu." Peter said encouragingly before he gently tugged Lucy onward, walking side by side with her.
"Not long now." said Mr. Beaver said as he and Chirp began leading them uphill.
Mr. Beaver and Chirp went ahead on top of the hill, where only two tall tree grew very wide apart in the manner of the arc gateway, while the others followed after them, though the climbing uphill at the end of the long day made them all pant and blow.
They eventually made it to the top and stood all together in between of the two trees, panting tiredly and leaning on their knees.
"Look!" Mr. Beaver called, before he pointed his clawed finger far to the east. "There!"
From up here, the children could see that the forest continued down the high hill and spread from its foot as far as it could go in every direction - except right ahead to the east, where they saw something twinkling and moving.
"By gum! It's the sea!" Peter gasped with delight.
"Chirp, chirp! The Glistening Eastern Sea! Chirp, chirp!" Chirp said.
Then a soft breeze came from the direction of the sea, blowing the smell of the sea into their faces.
"And look! There's To the right!" Mr. Beaver said and turned his clawed finger far to the southeast.
There was an open hilltop in middle of the woods, on top of it was standing the Stone Table itself. Though it was still some distance away, they could see it clearly even from here. The Stone Table was a great grim slab of grey stone held up by two great stones blocks. And around the Table stood at least four tall stone pillars at each corner of it.
The next thing they saw was a encampment: a number of tents in various shades of red, yellow, green and orange standing at the foot of the hill the Table was on and in the woods surrounding the hill. Looking closely and listening carefully, the children could see shapes of people bustling here and there around the camp and the breeze that blew in their faces from the far-off sea carried in their ears a soft and gentle music from the camp.
"Look! Stone Table!" Peter said, pointing at the table.
"Chirp, chirp! And Aslan's camp! Chirp, chirp!" Chirp chirped enthusiastically.
"We made it!" Lucy cried happily and relieved.
"How wonderful!" both Susan and Mrs. Beaver said with one voice, the former leaping up and down like a child and the latter clapping her clawed paws together.
However, shortly after, Susan and Mrs. Beaver exchanged surprised glances with one another after hearing each other saying the exact same words at the same time. They quickly though let the matter pass with shrugs and shared laughs.
"Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!" Mr. Beaver laughed heartedly, before he beckoned everyone to follow. "Come. We're almost there."
Then they continued from there down the wooded slope towards the Stone Table and Aslan's camp, making no haste.
But by the time they arrived to the foot of the hill and continued onward, Snowstorm, Maugrim and the wolf lieutenant arrived at the foot of the hill from the direction the children, beavers and Chirp came from.
Snowstorm, in his normal owl form, flew ahead to scout the area to find the fugitives and to see what they were up against, leaving behind Maugrim and his lieutenant, who were also in their normal wolf forms, before the wolves ran uphill to the top of the hill.
On the top, Both wolves then started to look for tracks and sniffed the springy moss that grew around the two trees standing on top of the hill, until Maugrim let out the growl as he caught and recognized the scents of a beaver, robin and a human.
Then the two wolves changed into their anthropomorphic forms and, standing between the two trees, looked down from the hill into the forest and the Stone Table surrounded by the camp.
"They were here. Not long ago." Maugrim growled.
Snowstorm, meanwhile, flew circles high above the camp around of the Stone Table, and looked very disturbed by what he saw.
He remembered Edmund telling his Queen back in her House that Aslan was at the stone table "with the rest of her enemies". Although Aslan's return had been startling news then, neither he nor his Queen couldn't expect that instead of a small band of rebels as usual, it was actually an army Aslan was mustering for the revolution, which soon would become a very severe threat if the humans ally themselves with all of them!
Snowstorm flew back to Maugrim and the lieutenant, changing back to his anthropomorphic form, and pointed his wing towards the camp.
"Hoo-hoo! We need to do this quickly before those humans can ally themselves with Aslan and that host! Hoo-hoo!" Snowstorm told them. "And we have to be careful down there. The woods surroinding the camp and the table are swarming with guards. Hoo-hoo!"
"If they make it to the camp, they'll be well-protected and won't be allowed out of the camp without guards." the lieutenant pointed out.
"No matter! Fugitives and traitors all the same!" Maugrim growled, determined. "We'll strike at the moment they leave the camp's safety."
With that, the three minions of the White Witch changed into their normal forms and proceeded down the slope and towards the Stone Table.
###
A little further away stood a tall tree, and in the tree was a wooden platform built high above the ground, hidden among the branches and leaves.
On a platform stood a Dwarf with a dark brown beard and a red cap. He had a small bow in his hand and he carried a leather quiver full of red-feathered arrows on his back and a short one-handed sword that rested in a leather sheath on his left hip. He also had a horn hanging from a leather belt on his right side.
The Dwarf was leaning against the tree and looking up in his thoughs, admiring all the greenery and beauty of spring and enjoying listening to the birdsong.
However, the Dwarf was soon snapped out of his thoughts when he heard footsteps below and turned to peek from behind the tree to see what it was.
The Dwarf saw figures approaching from under the trees' leafy roofs, but the darkened shadows prevented him from seeing clearly that who they were.
Deciding to be safe than sorry, the Dwarf grabbed the horn and put it on his lips before blowing into it. A high-pitched sound rang out of it.
"TOOT-TOOOOOOOT! TOOT-TOOOOOOOT! TOOT-TOOOOOOOT!"
The children, the beavers and Chirp immediately halted still upon hearing the horn and, warily, Peter reached for Rhindon while Lucy reached for her dagger. Susan took her bow in her hand, but did not take out the arrow to put it in her bow.
"What was that?" Susan asked nervously.
Mr. Beaver, who along with Mrs. Beaver and Chirp, did not go into defensive position but remained quietly in their places while staring up at the trees where the sound of the horn came from.
"We have been seen!" Mr. Beaver said, before he beckoned the children to remain calm. "Be calm and don't do anything rash! Everything will be fine."
Despite that, the children remained alert and ready to grab their weapons if things went badly. After the events at the lake, they weren't going to take any chances if their own lives were at stake.
Then, after waiting for a while in silence, the bushes around them began to shake as if there was someone hiding in them.
"Who's there?" Peter called, stepping towards one of the shaking bushes while grabbing his sword and starting to slowly draw it out. "Show yourself!"
"Peter! Don't move!" Mr. Beaver warned.
Suddenly, a red-feathered arrow hit the ground near Peter's feet, making Peter to jump away from the bush in alarm.
"Hold it right where you are!" a commanding voice (of the same Dwarf on the platform, who was the one who had shot the arrow in Peter's feet) told him from above.
Peter reacted to this by pulling Rhindon completely out of its sheath while taking his shield from his back in his other hand, and braced himself for whatever they were up against.
Suddenly, a small group of people, provoked by Peter's stand most likely, jumped out of the bushes everywhere and quickly surrounded the children, the beavers and Chirp, forcing them to go back to back with each other while facing their assailants.
Lucy took a closer look at their assailants, and realized that four of them had the goat-like legs, hoofs and tails and short horns. The traits very similiar to those of Mr. Tumnus'.
They were Fauns!
The four other assailants were shorter than Fauns and they had a long and pointed or short, rounded and full beards and red caps over their heads.
They're unmistakably Dwarfs!
Along with the Fauns and Dwarfs, two leopards and two great dogs jumped out of the bushes, and soon after they'd appeared, they swiftly changed into their more anthropomorphic forms.
They were Bullmastiffs by breed, one black and one brown.
Only one of the assailants stood out from the rest, and that was a huge and muscular anthropomorphic black bull with the brown muzzle and upwards curved horns. The stern-faced bull blew and snorted aloud as he held in his hand a broadsword.
(Author's note: Nope! No! No, no, no, no! In my story, there's no Minotaurs fighting for Aslan! Only Narnian Talking Bulls capable to shapeshift between the normal and anthropomorphic forms.)
And to crown the whole situation, the very source of the galloping hooves came right through the bushes into the view, and despite the situation, and even after everything they've seen till now ever since entering Narnia, Peter, Susan and Lucy stared at it with wide-eyed looks and mouths agape, unable to believe what they were seeing.
It was a Centaur, a living Centaur! A reddish-brown coated horse part of it was like huge English farm horse, and the man part was like stern-faced but beautiful giant. The man part had a slender and muscular build and he had a short well-kept red beard and long red hair, and in his hand he had a long spear.
After revealing themselves to the children, beavers and Chirp, the Fauns lowered their spears and swords at them, while the Dwarfs, mostly armed with short bows and arrows, aimed their arrows at them, while the dogs and leopards bared their teeth and let out a soft but menacing growl, and lastly the bull reared his sword's tip towards Peter, who returned it in kind by crossing Rhindon together with the bull's blade. The Centaur stopped right next to the bull before it reared up on its hind legs and flailed its fore hooves threateningly at Peter, while holding his spear up and ready to strike it down at him.
"CHIRP, CHIRP, CHIRP!" Chirp chirped frantically as the things were getting out of their hands.
"Wait! Wait! Calm down! This is an misunderstanding!" Mr. Beaver called in desperate hope of de-escalating the situation before the things would go too far gone.
"NO! NO, NO, NO! WAIT! STOP!" Lucy cried aloud as she quickly stepped in, holding her hands up as a sign of peace. "WE COME IN PEACE! WE MEAN NO HARM!"
However, before Lucy could even say those words...
The creatures and anthropomorphic animals them took then a second look at the newcomers. And then, the Fauns and Dwarfs instantly stepped back and stared wide-eyed at the children before them in utterly surprised if not even shocked looks on their faces. The dogs and leopards ceased growling immediately and became more calmer and the bull too lowered his sword down and stared at Peter with shock wrapped over his stern face. The Centaur, dropping on his legs, immediately calmed down and lowred down his spear, staring down at the children not only with surprise but confusion as well.
"STAND DOWN!" the Centaur ordered sternly the other creatures and animals, and as a result, Fauns withdrew their swords and spears, the Dwarfs lowered their bows, the dogs and leopards backed off and the bull sheathed his own sword. Peter and Susan looked around in confusion, while the beavers, Chirp and Lucy sighed in relief.
The Centaur then turned towards Peter and briefly pointed his spear at him before lowering it down again. "You! Who are you? Identify yourself!" the Centaur demanded to know.
Peter turned to face the Centaur, realizing that he has been addressed by such of majestic creature. Peter then turned to Susan and the beavers on his right side and then to Lucy and Chirp on his left for advise, or someone (mainly Mr. Beaver) to take over, but all he got was all of them beckoning him to step forward and say something, as the Centaur had addressed him only.
Swallowing his slight nervousness, Peter stiffened himself and stepped forward to meet the Centaur, before he raised his sword high up for the Centaur and everyone else to see it.
The Centaur stared at the sword in Peter's hand with the look of surprise, as he too seemed to recognize it.
"Rhindon?!" the Centaur gasped aloud, before he looked down at Peter again. "The Golden Age Prophecy."
"My name is Peter, and I am Son of Adam." Peter said, deeming it wise to reveal his title from the prophecy, earning a surprised gasps from the creatures around. "These are my sisters, Susan and Lucy, the Daughters of Eve, and our friends the beavers and Chirp the robin. We have come from afar to see Aslan, and we're here to seek his audience."
The creatures and animals gasped even more upon hearing that they were here to see Aslan.
The Centaur looked at Peter and others with much somewhat softer look and appeared to be pondering over their request to see Aslan.
"Please! We need to see him. We're in need of his help. Please! Can you take us to him? Please!" Lucy pleaded as she stepped in, even if she hadn't been addressed.
The Centaur stared at them in silence for a moment longer, before raising a hand to his bare chest and humbly lowering his head.
"Son of Adam, Daughters of Eve, please forgive us our rashness." the Centaur said with gentle, smooth and humble voice.
The other creatures and animals lowered their heads humbly and apologetically down at the children, until the Centaur looked back up at them.
"We've been tasked to guard the outskirts of the camp and the Stone Table against the spies of the enemy we've seen wandering near our camp of late... and keep an eye for the ones whose arrival has been long foretold." the Centaur explained.
"The apology accepted." Peter said as he put both Rhindon and his shield away. "The feeling is mutual, for we ourselves have been on the run from the enemy for an entire day."
The Centaur nodded in understandment, before he turned to the other creatures and animals. "BACK TO YOUR POSITIONS!"
As the Fauns, Dwarfs, the dogs, the leopards and bull withdrew back into the bushes, quickly vanishing without the trace like they weren't even there, the Centaur turned back to the children and their friends.
"Come. Follow me." the Centaur said, beckoning them to follow as he himself turned around. "He's waiting."
The Centaur then began walking back the way he had came from, and Peter, Susan, Lucy, the beavers and Chirp followed him closely behind.
The excitement was building up within them at the fast rate, because this is it! They were soon going to meet the one whom they had traveled a long and trying journey all the way from the beavers' dam to here to meet.
###
The Centaur led the children and the beavers to the edge of the open hilltop, where they came upon a two large stone pillars standing side by side but wide apart with one large stone block on top of them, forming a gateway, through of which the Centaur walked with the children, beavers and Chirp in his wake.
Once stepping through of the gateway, they were able to see the Stone Table on top of the hill up close now. It looked very old and worn by time, and the sides of the table had been cut with strange lines and figures that might be the letters of an unknown language. The children looked at them curiously, pondering if these strange runes and the whole table itself bore some sort of importance in something.
The children were then caught by surprise by the loud screeching on their left and turned to look there. There they saw a small bunch of large rocks, on top of which was perched a group of creatures. There was a white great pelican, a brown great eagle owl, two majestic great eagles; a golden eagle and bald eagle, a dark-brown Winged Panther, a magnificent Phoenix, a scarlet-feathered peacock-resembling firebird that was larger than an eagle, with a saffron chest and a head crest and a long tail that resembled the flames, Griffin, a magnificent beast with the body and hind legs of a lion, but the wings, gold-feathered and donkey-eared head and forelegs of an eagle, and on top of the tallest rock stood Pegasus, a majestic chestnut-colored Winged Horse with with tan-colored mane. The eagles, owl and pelican, of course, were in their anthropomorphic forms.
They were the first ones in the whole camp to acknowledge the children's arrival and greeted them each with their own way. The Winger Panther made the soft growls, the eagles and Griffin made a whistling and calling sounds, the Phoenix made a soft singing screech, and Pegasus neighed while flapping its huge wings.
The Centaur then led them across the camp, past the Stone Table, and in front of the tent that stood out of the rest: a much larger pavilion tent that was pitched on the corner of the open place. It was a beautiful pavilion with sides of crimson silk and cords of yellow and tent-pegs of ivory. And high above it on a three poles stood a three blue banners, which bore a red rampant lion in the middle of the yellow circle.
And as they passed through the camp, Peter, Susan and Lucy smiled as they were greeted by the sight of their wildest imaginations.
The camp was full of the most wonderful creatures of Earth's mythologies and anthropomorphic animals of various species, and all of them were either sitting around the tables, preparing the weapons for the war or just chilling around.
But as soon as they saw the children arrive at the camp, they all stopped their current chores and stared at them, eyes wide and mouths agape in surprise and wonderment. A hush settled and the the air was filled with the quiet whispers and murmurs as the creatures and animals gathered around the pavilion.
The gathered crowd consisted of a great number of Fauns, Dwarves, Satyrs, Dryads of cherry blossoms, birches, beeches, and larch trees, Wood Gods of oaks, elms, hollies, and rowan trees (unlike with the Dryads, the Wood Gods skins were greenish, brownish or grayish-blue like the bark of their respective trees and they wore leaves around their heads), at least eight Hamadryads of all the eight earlier said types of trees mentioned, and Naiads of streams, rivers, and pools. There were seven other male Centaurs and four female Centaurs, whose hair (and for the males the beards if they had one) and the fur on the horse parts varied in color between reddish brown, light brown/blonde, and black/dark brown. There were two beautiful pearly white unicorns with silver manes and shiny blue horns on their foreheads. There was a large tiger-like creature with a unicorn-like horn in the center of its forehead. There was a red fox, four great dogs: a couple of salukis and a couple of pointed-eared and brown Great Danes, five bears (two black and three brown), one red-brown bull, four horses, three goats, four stags, and a group of badgers, rabbits, squirrels and hedgehogs and so on. And there were thrushes, kingfishers, sparrows, swallows, and even Chirp's own kind, robins, perched on the branches of the trees around the camp.
They then stopped in front of the golden flaps of the pavilion, on either side of which stood two Satyrs, considerably darker than the other Satyrs in the camp. Both Satyrs wore a sky blue collars and checkered blue and white capes, which blue squares bore the image of the yellow shining sun and the white squares bore red lion, and they both carried the banners of the lion in their hands.
"Wait here." the Centaur said, before he entered slowly into the pavilion, leaving the children, the beavers and Chirp outside.
And while they waited outside, Peter, Susan and Lucy began to notice that everyone's eyes were on them, and they began to feel a little awkward being at the center of attention.
"Why are they all staring at us?" Susan asked shyly.
"Chirp, chirp! Most of them have never seen a human before. Seeing you is a miracle to them. Chirp, chirp!" Chirp explained.
"Like seeing them would be a miracle in our world." Peter said, still dealing with everything he was seeing.
As Lucy looked, she saw that a group of children of various creatures and animals had stepped in front of the crowd to look at them more closer, before sharing their thoughts about them with one another and let out low-pitched giggles as if they found something funny about them.
"Or... maybe they just think you look funny." Lucy jokingly told to Susan, letting out a giggle.
Peter chuckled, amused by Lucy's joke, while Susan, blushing a bit from embarrassment, simply shrugged.
Mr. Beaver turned to look at his mate, and was baffled to see Mrs. Beaver hurriedly grooming her fur to make herself look good in front of Aslan.
"Oi. Stop your fussing. You look lovely, honey." Mr. Beaver said flirtingly, making Mrs. Beaver smile.
The Centaur then stepped out of the tent and moved aside to the children, the beavers and Chirp's left.
"ALL HAIL! ALL HAIL, ASLAN! THE GREAT LION! LORD OF THE WOODS! HIGH KING OF THE KINGS! SON OF THE EMPEROR-BEYOND-THE-SEA! ALL HAIL!" the Centaur announced.
Everybody then turned towards the flaps of the pavilion, and stood in silence and anticipation.
And then, all the gathered creatures and animals fell on their knees and bowed their heads down in reverence, even the creatures on top of the boulders and the birds on the trees. The Centaur's horse part fell on one knee to the ground as his man part bowed his head down.
Only the children, beavers and Robin stayed up, still staring at the flaps of the pavilion.
The flaps opened, and two anthropomorphic leopards stepped out of the pavilion first, dressed in the collars and capes similar to the Satyrs' own. One of the leopards carried in his paws a red pillow, on which was resting a gorgeous golden jewel-encrusted crown, while another leopard carried Aslan's standard: a great red banner with a golden rampant lion surmounted by a golden sun with the lion's face. The leopards lined up side by side to the children, beavers and Chirp's right.
And then, Peter, Susan and Lucy could only hold their breath when...
First a large paw stepped out from under the flaps of the pavilion, then another and then a large head stuck out from between the flaps, and then stepped out the rest of the most biggest lion the children had ever seen.
"Aslan!" Lucy whispered aloud and she looked on with her smiling mouth wide open.
Aslan, the Great Lion, stood before them higher than all lions could, and he was the noblest, the most wonderful, the most terrifying and the most terrible than any creature imaginable. When the rays of the setting sun hit him, his huge golden mane shone brightly like the sun. And when the children looked at Aslan's beautiful faces, his shimmering mane and his great, royal, solemn, overwhelming golden eyes, they really didn't know what to do or say. All they could do was just stand there still, staring in silence at the magnificent beast with eyes welling in tears and tremble from fear.
TO BE CONTINUED.