THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA
THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE BBC

PART 14
THE HAMADRYAD

PREVIOUSLY: Soon after the children, Chirp and the beavers had left the party, they're stumbled upon by the White Witch herself, along with Edmund. Peter and Lucy are determined to go back to do something to help their friends but are prevented from doing so by the beavers, Chirp and Susan. The Witch demands for the meaning of the animals' "gluttony, waste, self-indulgence and "repugnant" merriment", to which Mr. Fox fearfully answers that they were given them by Father Christmas. The Witch doesn't take this well and demands to know if they're lying. When one of the squirrels confirms this, and accidentally lets the indirect clue of the beavers and the children having been there to slip, the Witch, despite Edmund's best and desperate efforts to save the animals, proceeds to turn the whole party into stone. Edmund is physically abused by the Witch for standing up for "asking favors for the spies and traitors", before the Witch resumes her hunt of the humans, and delivers the message to Snowstorm and her Secret Police, who had been fooled and misled to the south by Mr. Fox earlier, via the Trees that are on her side, ordering them to head to the east to cut the humans' escape across the Great River.

NOTE: This chapter is based on the scene in the original script of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe named "One Hundred Year Winter", where Peter meets next morning a recently from the icy slumber awakened cherry blossom Dryad at the Allies Enclave, who thanks Peter for freeing her and the other spirits of the Trees and warns about the Witch's coming. Ironically, in the same script, as well as briefly seen in the unused footage of Cair Paravel dancing scene that are briefly seen in the behind the scenes, in LWW trailers and Bloopers & Gags, Peter is seen dancing with the woman who is in the script said to be the said Dryad. Both scenes, however, sadly never made it to the final cut of the Disney Film.

Meanwhile, a little further to the southeast, Peter, Susan, Lucy, the beavers and Chirp were in such a hurry that they almost ran across the snowy woods, hoping to put as much of distance between them and the Witch as possible while she was busy with other matters.

As they ran, Peter held Lucy's hand to make sure she kept up with them, while Susan ran ahead of her siblings as fast as she could, only to be outran by the beavers, who had changed into their normal beaver forms so they could run faster on all fours, and Chirp, in her normal robin form, still kept watch above them, making sure the Witch was out of sight behind them and that they weren't surprised by any of the Witch's minions.

With the good luck, they would be able to get across of the Great River before they'd be caught by the Witch or her minions.

In their haste, they didn't know how far and how long they had already ran and how far they still had to go to get to the river, but they almost didn't care about that but kept running.

They also didn't dare stop to rest - except for a very brief moment to catch their breath before continuing - for fear of losing precious time and distance between them and the Witch, if by this point she had already figured out where they had gone and was already in full pursuit.

Then, all of the sudden, Peter's right ear happened to catch some noise that came from the woods on his right.

Fearing it to be the Witch's wolves and Snowstorm having already found them and closing on them, Peter turned his gaze to the right while reaching with his free hand for his sword, expecting to see the whole pack of wolves running amongst the trees towards them and Snowstorm flying above of them amongst the tree branches.

However, to his surprise and confusion, he saw no one there! Not a single wolf running through the trees, and there was no sign of the snow-white owl either.

But there was still that strange noise in the air.

And as Peter listened to it closely, he was left confused that the noise sounded more like a soft moaning along with the light creaking and groaning of the wood.

And after moment of thinking of the reason for the noise, Peter sudenly recalled of what both Mr. Beaver and Chirp had earlier told them about the trees upon their meeting... which made his eyes go wide when the realization hit him.

It was the Trees! That strange noise was coming from the Trees that were watching and listening to them!

However, this did nothing to ease his growing dread and worry, because he thought that these Trees were most likely the ones that sided with the Witch and were likely spying on them and reporting their every move back to the Witch and her minions.

Peter cursed under his breath and eyes the trees, both the normal trees and the Trees amongst them, with wary and suspicious glare.

Suddenly, there was a loud sound of cracking ice, that came from slightly to the right from the direction they were running.

There, amongst of the black and white trunks of the snowy forest, there stood a strange-looking mound of solid thick ice, which was small though it slightly towered over the children and was covered and partially burried in the snow.

If the children and the animals had had time to look at it closer, and actually stopped to look inside the ice mound through of its non-covered parts, they would've seen that there was something frozen inside the mound like in the cocoon.

However, the ice mound seemed to be cracking open pretty fast, as if there really was someone or something moving inside there, that was trying to break out of the ice mound like the chick breaking out of the egg upon hatching.

Then happened something that the children didn't expect when they were just about to run past the ice mound.

The right side of the mound was suddenly bursted forcibly and loudly open, tossing multiple shards of ice away, before a long tree branch stuck out of the mound, which resembled strongly a long-fingered hand.

"AHHH!" Susan screamed in surprise upon noticing this and stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes locked on the ice mound and the tree branch-like hand that was sticking out of it. However, this also caused both Peter and Lucy to accidentally bump into her before they could stop.

With them all having stopped, all of them - including Chirp and the beavers who had stopped/landed next to the children and turned into their anthropomorphic forms - turned their gazes to the ice mound and the wooden hand.

Then the left side of the ice mound started to crack open, and before long, another tree branch-like arm broke out of it in a similiar manner, making the children and the animals to jump back in surprise and fright.

And then, the whole snow-covered top part of the ice mound was bursted off, opening it and revealing the mound being hollow from inside, before some creature that the cocoon had kept concealed inside of it rose compleyely out of it and towered over the children, beavers and the robin similarly to a bear rearing up on its hind legs from behind the bush.

Instinctively, Peter went in front of his sisters protectively and grabbed his sword, ready to pull it out to defend them. Behind him, Lucy reached for her dagger and Mr. Beaver held up his spear. All three of them were ready to fight if needed be. Only Susan hesitated to grab on her bow and arrows to defend herself with it.

The creature standing before them looked like the cherry blossom tree, only without any flowers in it, but its appearance resembled strongly a human-like woman. It had a human-shaped head in top of the tree-trunk that resembled somewhat of the simple gown and its woman-like face were beautiful and it had several long and thin branches hung from the back of its head like a hair.

A Hamadryad!

The Hamadryad's body was black and frozen and its face were peacefully still and empty like the statue's. And as it stood there still like any tree, its body, branch-like arms, hair-like branches and head swayed slightly like in the wind, though there was not any gust of wind today, so the creature was probably feeling little drowsy after waking up from the ice.

Then, more ice that was still attached to the Hamadryad started to go loose, allowing it to move its body, arms and a head a little more bit by bit. Even its face started to shift from the calm expression to a groggy frown.

And then... the Hamadryad's empty eyes, or at least its frozen wooden eyelids... opened to reveal perfectly human-like eyes beneath them. Hamadryad blinked its eyes several times and shook its head to get the sleep out of its head, before it looked down at the children, beavers and Chirp.

And as more and more of ice came off of its body, simething else happened that made the children gasp.

The Hamadryad's body, despite its trunk remaining black like all the other trees around them, started to slowly but certainly burst into the living color of red.

A cherry blossoms began to grow out of nowhere on Hamadryad's body, to its branches and around its head with the rapid pace. And they kept coming, coming and coming, until the Hamadryad's entire body and branches were covered in thousands of cherry blossoms, which gave the Hamadryad a lovely cherry blossom gown and beautiful long hair made of cherry blossoms. The flowers were pink in color at first, but as they bloomed rather quickly, their color changed quickly into the rich colors of pink and red, and it seemed like the cold of the winter had no effect in them anymore.

The children, the beavers and Chirp were so astonished by this Hamadryad's rapid change from the threatening appearance into something so beautiful as this, that they almost dropped their guard as they kept looking at the Hamadryad, who returned to their gazes in kind.

Then, the Hamadryad moved from its spot into the path of the children and animals, blocking their way before it began to move towards them. It did not seem to be walking in the snow or on the ground under the snow at all, but sliding along the ground or rather wading like in the shallows.

This caused the children to instantly to snap out of their astonishment and back away from it, with Peter even drawing out his sword and pointing it out at the Hamadryad, warning it to stay back.

The Hamadryad, however, stopped right in front of them and held her branch-like arm up in manner of calming them down.

"Be still, my prince." the Hamadryad said with soft, calm and almost motherly voice. "Don't be afraid of me. I mean you no harm."

The Hamadryad's voice soothed the girls, beavers and Chirp's tensed nerves, but Peter remained stoic and wary at the creature.

"How do we know?" he asked, not lowering his sword. "How do we know you're not in the league with the Witch?"

"You have all the right to remain suspicious, Son of Adam and Daughters of Eve, and I understand." the Hamadryad said. "My name is Blossom. And I am one of the Talking Trees of Narnia, but I am not one of those you'd consider as the Witch's spies and enemies." she added with the serious and somewhat bitter tone.

"Then what do you want from us?" Peter asked.

"I am here to both thank you and warn you." Blossom said.

"Thank us for what?" Susan asked.

"Long ago, when the Witch put an eternal winter over Narnia, she tried to subjugate all of us Trees to her service. Although many chose to side with her either willingly or out of fear, many of us, like me, refused to serve the cruel ussurper. The Witch wouldn't tolerate it, so she imprisoned me for a hundred years into that solid ice mound as punishment, while subjucating and enslaving the rest of my brothers and sisters, if not imprisoning some of them into ice too just like she did to me." Blossom explained.

"Oh, you poor souls." Lucy said, feeling sorry for the torment the Hamadryad had gone through because of the Witch.

"But now, our ice prisons and chains have begun to weaken around us, freeing us at long last. And for that..." Blossom continued, before she bowed down at the children. "I want to thank you, Son of Adam and the Daughters of Eve, for freeing me and my brothers and sisters from our eternal imprisonment."

Peter, Susan and Lucy exchanged looks with each other, confused of Blossom thanking them for "freeing her", even though they hadn't even done anything for her.

"Uhh... Look. We haven't done anything. We just thought you were just an ice mound in the middle of the forest. We never even tried to free you." Peter explained honestly.

Blossom, however, didn't take this as an offense. "You didn't need to, Son of Adam, because you've already done so. With your foretold arrival, your majesties, the Witch's hold over Narnia is starting to finally weaken, and so are her evil spells too."

"That's exactly what the Father Christmas told us earlier." Lucy told her. "And yes! He's back! Father Christmas has returned to Narnia!"

Blossom nodded in agreement with the kind motherly smile. "Indeed, Daughter of Eve. And with Aslan on the move, soon there will be no more cold, snow and ice, but the spring at long last." she said as she looked into the still snowy and frozen forest around of them.

"Well, as much as I like the idea about having a spring here at last, it won't do us anything good if the ice goes away from the Great River before we can get across of it." Mr. Beaver told to the Hamadryad as he stepped forward, lowering his spear.

"Chirp, chirp! True, true! And we need to get to the other side of the river before the Witch catches us! Chirp, chirp! Chirp added.

Blossom's kind smile then switched into a serious frown. "And that's why my freedom came at the most perfect timing, because I bring you the message from my brothers and sisters with great urgency."

The children, the beavers, and the Chirp were all ears, with Peter finally lowering his sword down, listening to what message Blossom had for them.

"My brothers and sisters, the good Trees, have picked the message from the Trees on the Witch's side. She has become aware of where you are heading and is already on her way with her Secret Police and Snowstorm... and your brother." Blossom said. "You must hurry! Hurry if you want to save him!"

"Then we must make a haste and get to the river!" Peter said to his siblings, beavers and Chirp, sheathing his sword, before turning back to the Hamadryad. "Thank you. You're welcome for your freedom, but we must keep going."

"Word of warning, though." Blossom said, holding her hand up to stop them. "The weakening of the Witch's power has already begun to take its toll on Telmar River in the south and the Great River in the east. The ice is already leaving with rapid pace, releasing the waters. And besides, its no use to go southeast anymore, because the Secret Police are following along the river to the east and will soon take over this side of the river, cutting off your escape from here."

"With the Witch coming from behind us and the Wolves coming from the west, and with the rivers' ice already melting away..." Mr. Beaver said as he put two and two together.

"They're going to box us between of them and the river?!" Susan gasped as it dawned to her.

"What are we going to do?!" Lucy said, starting to panic despite Mrs. Beaver's attempts to calm her down.

Peter turned back to Blossom in desperate need of help. "If you really are on our side like you claimed, Blossom, can you help us out of here?! Please!" he pleaded, face contorted with fear for his sisters' safety and his voice crippled with growing anxiety.

Blossom wasted no time and stood tall, turning her gaze to the direction of east, before she raised her right arm and pointed her finger that way.

"Head east to the Great Lake! The ice should be there still strong enough to carry you to the other side before they will go too." Blossom said.

"The Great Lake! It's not far from here!" Mr. Beaver said.

"Then hurry! Hurry, hurry!" Mrs. Beaver urged.

"Chirp, chirp! I'll check ahead!" Chirp, chirp!" Chirp said, before the robin turned back to its regular robin form and flew off to the east.

"Go, go!" Peter urged as he ushered his sisters to move towards the east, taking Lucy by her hand again.

However, as Peter dragged Lucy away with him, she turned to look bvack at Blossom, who just stood there watching them go and made no move to escape and save herself.

"What about you?! She'd turn you into stone once she realizes that you helped us!" she said, worried and already feeling awfully guilty that yet another innocent Narnian had to suffer such of grim fate like Mr. Tumnus and their friends at the party because of them.

"Don't worry about me, Daughter of Eve! Go!" Blossom called after them. "Me and my brothers and sisters will hold them off as long as we can."

With that, Blossom turned to face the direction the children had come from and where the Witch herself was most likely coming from, before she closed her eyes and calmly spread her arms wide. After the moment, the same soft moaning and light creaking and groaning from earlier started to ring amongst the trees around her, as if Blossom was telepathically communicating with the other Talking Trees amongst the regular ones.

Then, much to the children's surprise as they turned to look behind them one more time, several Trees around of them began to move on their own, slowly wading through the snow and ground, passing them and heading towards Blossom.

The moving Trees gathered together into a long lines on either side of Blossom, forming almost an impenetrable wall - although the Trees still stood quite apart from each other, leaving gaps between them to pass through - with Blossom standing in middle of the doorway-like gap, guarding it with her own body.

"They're forming the wall between of us and the Witch! Brilliant!" Lucy gasped as she marveled the good Trees' work.

"That's not gonna hold the Secret Police for long, if not at all." Susan said worriedly as she eyed the gaps between of the Trees, through of which the wolves could still fit through, and not the mention about Snowstorm flying over the wall nonetheless.

"True, but maybe that's just to keep the real threat off our heels." Mr. Beaver said, referring the Witch. "Maybe we could handle off a couple of wolves with your gifts, but the Witch herself is another matter unless we get to Aslan."

"Then let's not give neither the wolves, Snowstorm nor the Witch a chance to catch us! Let's go!" Peter said.

The children and the beavers hurriedly continued on their way, heading across the forest to the Great Lake as Blossom had instructed them and as far away from the wall the Trees had made before the Witch arrived on the other side.

Their departure was the most perfect timing, because not long after they had disappeared from sight into the woods, the Witch's sleigh arrived from the woods in the other side of the wall, following the children's and the beavers trail. However, Ginarrbrik was forced to pull the horses to stop in front of the Trees, especially in front of Blossom.

"What is the meaning of this?!" the Witch shrieked in shock upon seeing the long wall done by the Trees, and Blossom herself standing in front of the doorway in middle of it, blocking their way through, while looking down at the Witch defiantly.

Edmund, however, initially ignoring the blockade made by the Trees and Blossom standing in their way, followed the tracks of his siblings and the beavers, which led in the snow through of the Trees to the other side of the blockade.

This made Edmund somewhat relieved that these Trees and Blossom, who obviously were on their and Aslan's side, were holding the Witch off long enough for his family to escape to the other side of the river.

The Witch then stood up from her sleigh and held her wand pointed up at the Hamadryad blocking her way through the Trees' blockade.

"YOU!" The Witch snarled as she stared wide-eyed at Blossom, whom she recognized as the very same Hamadryad who had long ago defied her rule over Narnia and whom she had thus imprisoned within the solid ice for one hundred years. She was left surprised that the Hamadryad had managed to escape from her captivity, and furious over it.

However, the Witch decided to go straight to the point instead of wasting her precious time in interrogating the Hamadryad for her escape - as she already knew that it must have something to do with Aslan's return.

"What is the meaning of this?!" the Witch's questioned rather impatiently.

However, neither did Blossom or the Trees by her side said anything. They just stood where they were, looking down on the Witch with defiance and contempt.

"Step aside, all of you, and let us through! Your queen commands you!" the Witch's commanded, waving her wand at the defiant Trees.

"You're not our queen, Witch." Blossom said defiantly, refusing to move. "We do not take orders from you."

The Trees agreed tp this by moaning softly while swinging their branches and top parts.

The Witch glared angrily up at blossom with such of the sharp and piercing ice-cold glare that could have made anyone feel like they have just been stabbed through the heart with the ice-cold steel-knife. Anyone could have backed away from her cowering in fear under such of gaze, but unfazed Blossom refused to move out of her way.

"How dare you defy me! You... You... You insolent fools! Traitors!" the Witch roared in fury, almost unable to gain her composure.

"This isn't about any of you! I'm hunting the humans who are dangerous outlaws to the crown of Narnia! If you stand between me and them, you are all found guilty of aiding and abetting outlaws and traitors and a high treason in this instant! So one last time! Get out of my way or the punishment of the further insubordination shall be death!" the Witch declared.

However, Blossom and the Trees remained still unfazed and defiant even in the face of the death penalty.

"Then may Aslan keep us safe between his paws." Blossom declared. "And no matter what happens, whether we'll be turned into stone or not, you'll shall never get pass us, Witch, ever. Not with your sleigh at least."

A horribly angry look on her face, the Witch snarled ferociously between her clenched teeth and her hands were shaking with uncontrollable rage.

"AAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH! the Witch bursted into a horrible shriek that made both Edmund and Ginarrbrik to cover their ears.

And then, blinded by the fury over Blossom's and the Trees' insubordination, defiance as well as her mention of Aslan, she whipped her wand towards Blossom.

And with a crack of thunder another blinding beam of light shot out from the tip of the Witch's wand, making Edmund and Ginarrbrik to cover their eyes as the beam hit Blossom in the chest.

Her entire tree-trunk body, her branch-like arms, her head, and every single cherry blossom in her gown and hair was swiftly engulfed by the bright white light, which quickly spread from her to the other Trees until they were all completely sillhouetted by the bright light.

And as the light faded away, Blossom and all the Trees were turned into the lifeless stone statues.

Uncovering his eyes, Edmund looked up at Blossom's lifeless form, her gown's and hair's stony cherry blossoms, her stoned face - which was petrified into a defiant expression without the trace of fear - and finally her empty stone.

Edmund also stared at the petrified Trees standing on either side of Blossom and could've sworn seeing the middle parts of their trunks turning to either bravely defiant or miserably wailing faces of the spirits that lived in them.

Edmund felt miserable and outright helpless again - to both himself and to the others: to Mr. Tumnus, to that party of animals and to Blossom and all of these Trees - after having to witness once again the Witch's cruel work with all to those poor animals and creatures who had given their own lives to protect his family from the Witch's wrath.

After turning Blossom and the Trees into stone, it took a moment from heavily breathing Witch to regain his composure, during of which even Ginarrbrik didn't dare to say anything in fear of his mistress' wrath.

However, after somewhat calming down and thinking more clearly again, the Witch quickly realized something.

She looked down into the snow and followed with her eyes the trail of tracks of the children and beavers to the other side of the Trees' blockade and then looked at the statues of both Blossom and the other Trees that still stood in her way and blocked her way to the Great River... and quickly recalled Blossom's words how she'll "never get pass of her and her fellow Trees whether or not she'll turn them to stone, not at least with her sleigh".

With that, it quickly dawned on the Witch that Blossom had purposely allowed herself and her fellow Trees to turn to stone to ensure that their now petrified blockade would prevent her from chasing the children and beavers this way on the sleigh, and that Blossom had prevented her from seeing that by defying and purposely provoking her into this action to keep her from realizing her ruse, until it was too late.

And now she had done it! She had turned Blossom and the Trees to stone and thus unintentionally helped them to keep her from getting to the children and beavers, as there was no way she could get through of them with the sleigh!

Furious over the fact that she had been fooled without her even seeing it before it was too late, the Witch shrieked with fury that it made both Ginarrbrik, Edmund and even the horses to jump from startlement and fear!

"AAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH! She tricked us! Now we will never pass them and after those brats and rodents, at least not on a sleigh!" the Witch shrieked.

"Well, at least that won't stop your wolves and Snowstorm to get through of the gaps between the Trees, your Majesty." Ginarrbrik hesitatingly pointed out. "Despite this, they can still continue chasing them even if we'll fall behind ourselves. They'll cut them off the river and keep them trapped long enough til we get there ourselves."

However, the Witch knew better than that and peered through the stoned Trees' blockade, noting that the Telmar River was in the south and the Great River further to the Southeast. It would be easy for her wolves to take over this sides of both rivers and thus cut off the children's escape to the other side.

However, the Witch's attention was drawn more by the Great Lake right at the edge of the forest in the east.

The children and the beavers have already managed to elude them twice, and they might manage to do so even a third time if they have changed direction from southeast to east and were heading towards the Great Lake to cross the Great River from there.

Well, if that was the case, this would do well not just for them but also for her. Even if the number of her Secret Police wasn't enough to surround the entire lake to trap them there, they would still be able to catch them easily on the open ice without anything stopping them.

"They're heading for the Great Lake!" the Witch said as she sat back down. "We'll catch them there easily with nothing to stop us!" she added with the wicked sneer she gave to stoned Blossom and the Trees for their now apparent futile attempt to stop her from getting the children and the beavers.

The Witch's then turned to Ginarrbrik. "Turn us around! We much go around of this ridiculous obstacle made by these fools! And make haste!"

"Yes, your Majesty." Ginarbrik nodded and proceeded to turn the sleigh and the horses around to go back the same way they had came from to find another easy route for the sleigh to go, that would take them around the Trees' blockade to the other side.

However, despite Ginarrbrik's best efforts to make haste, turning around in the dense woods on a sleigh was easier said than done, and it would take some time before they'll be on their way again.

The Witch knew this all too well, which made her growl in exasperation and impatience.

However, as Ginarrbrik worked to turn them around, the Witch stood up and raised her arms high in the air and gazed around to the forest, once again summoning the Trees that were on her side and commanding them to deliver another message to Snowstorm and the Secret Police, instructing them to make haste and head for the Great Lake and round the humans and the beavers up there and wait for her arrival.

And while all this was happening, Edmund, whose relief at his family's temporary escape from the Witch's clutches was quickly drained out of him upon hearing that she intended to capture them at the Great Lake, looked at the Witch with a scowl that was a mixture of his own wretched helplessness and hatred and fear for the Witch.

After some time of struggling to make the horses and the sleigh to turn around in the narrow snow path while watching for the trees that were in their way, Ginarrbrik finally managed to adjust the sleigh so that they could return the same way back.

Cracking the whip on the animals' back, Ginarrbrik drove the sleigh away from the stoned Blossom and the Trees, leaving them for their grim fate as the Witch resumed her hunt for the children and the beavers.

TO BE CONTINUED...