Chapter 4- horrific murder at the Great River
Quaoar's community continued their usual activities for the next few months, continuing to keep the belief and faith in Aslan alive as well as dealing with any challenges that rose. However, some odd and disturbing reports were about to alert the Kitsumiho leader and he may be called to do something about it. Quaoar was visiting Bucktooth the blind Beaver's den workshop where he crafted his sculptures both with his teeth and his tools. As the Kitsumiho picked up a sculpture of the broken Stone Table in a front paw and examined it with an admiring smile, Bucktooth's father came in. Nearby, his blind son was chiselling away at a piece of wood, using the sense of touch to shape it for he could not see. Bucktooth had been born blind but his parents had taught him how to do things like sculpting and cooking by using his other senses, especially smell and touch.
"That's to be sold as an ornament and a reminder of what Aslan did on the Stone Table for one of the Pevensie Monarchs and also for all of us," said the older male Beaver Boar with a proud smile, "That monument now under hidden and protected under a special shelter called Aslan's How."
"It was a VERY serious sacrifice he undertook," said Quaoar as he put the broken Stone Table sculpture down, "And a once-and-for-all one at that. He has permanently appeased the Deep Magic and has established a new era of the Post-Sacrifice times."
"It's important that Aslan's death on the Stone Table and resurrection be taught in these history lessons to our children," said Bucktooth's father, "Otherwise it would fade into the fog of the past and future generations of Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures would never know about Aslan's activities, especially his Stone Table sacrifice."
"That has actually happened throughout most of the country of Narnia throughout this Dark Age, actually, Chiptooth" said Quaoar sadly, "Despite our best efforts in keeping the knowledge going, more and more Narnians are slowly forgetting the true history of our world with some even forsaking it altogether, either through resentment of our four original Monarchs leaving in 1015, or to follow the more-appealing but false doctrines bought in by the heretics, or both."
"Not to mention disturbing things happening as of late," said Bucktooth's father, Chiptooth, "Recently, we've been hearing reports of humans getting attacked and killed by savage animals while they were out on trips such as hunting or a general journey."
"Our country has not only lost its educational integrity," said Quaoar sadly, "but also its sense of law, order and social structure. In fact, many places have become anarchic despite us having a king sitting on the throne at Cair Paravel and supposed to be ruling wisely over us like the Pevensies and some other kings we had chosen before him did."
"You've pretty seen it all throughout your extremely long life, haven't you?" asked Chiptooth.
"Yes, and Aslan himself has appointed me to be the current main Chronicler of this time period," said Quaoar, "But the original Chronicler was supposed to have been another Magical Fox, a full-blooded Kitsune named Kurama but he had refused to perform his job and mysteriously went missing one day."
"Kurama?" asked Chiptooth, "I've met that Fox once before. He had been very handsome and talented but he also sported questionable personality traits and seemed to have been manipulative and conniving."
"He was born about a decade before me and Siveth," said Quaoar, "So if he is still alive, he'd be in his Nine-Tailed stage now."
Chiptooth nodded in agreement as Quaoar then picked up a satchel he had brought with him.
"Well, I'd better continue my daily task," said he, "I'll leave you and your son to your work and we'll talk again later."
"I sure hope that Alyssum would change her attitude towards Bucthooth and the other disabled Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures as well," said Chiptooth, a glance at his son as he felt a sculpture he had just carved to check its dimensions and shape with his sense of touch, a skill his dad and mum had taught him as he was growing up.
"I did give her a stern warning to do just that or she will be packing up and leaving our community," said Quaoar, his gaze also on Bucktooth, "if that happens, I'm afraid you're going to have to find another female Beaver for him to marry. Bad attitudes towards disability are NOT tolerated in this community or anywhere else."
"Certainly not," said Chiptooth in agreement.
"I mean, your son may have been born blind," added Quaoar, "But that's not to say that he cannot do anything. Disabled individuals DO have potential if sought right."
Chiptooth nodded to this in agreement as well. Then Quaoar put his satchel's strap around his shoulder and left after saying goodbye to Chiptooth and his son. He then left the workshop and moved to somewhere else, a makeshift school where a class was currently taking place.
Somewhere else in the country
In the countryside near the Great River, a royal carriage was travelling, two dumb horses pulling it and some guards walking around it and a charioteer on top of the carriage driving the horses. In the carriage was a member of the royal family, the king's son and he was on an outing to take a break from the stresses occurring at Cair Paravel. This son was the king's only son for his mother had died giving birth to him so he had no brothers and sisters and was the only heir to the throne after his father. Throughout the Dark Age, the line of kings and queens had been very dodgy and because the country Narnians had been seeking a monarch without seeking Aslan's guidance much, some of the kings had not been very wise or good on the throne and the current king was one of them. He was relatively lazy and did not know how to rule a country very well. Because of this, Narnia was at a severe disadvantage from any enemy invasion if one were to happen suddenly and to add more cracks to the crumbling structure, the social and intellectual decay of much of the country itself were rife and that was not all.
The king's son continued travelling by the Great River in his carriage and his guards, some of them armed with swords and shields and their eyes scouring the surroundings for any trouble that would dare threaten the prince. In fact there was something about to do just that and it was hiding amongst the surrounding trees or a nearby hill, and they had their eyes on the group. As the prince and his group continued their trip, they suddenly heard the sound of trees rustling. The guards immediately shot alerted glares in the direction of the rustling tree in a nearby thicket, their swords pointing there. However, they saw nothing between the trees in the thicket but still the guards kept alert. Then another sound yanked their alerted attention another way but as they guards looked THAT way, they also saw nothing. They then discussed among themselves that they must get the prince out of this area as they felt it wasn't safe here. But before they could turn to the charioteer to command him to get the horses to pick up the pace to make the carriage containing a prince go faster, a few large shadows suddenly crept over them. The guards immediately turned and when they saw the shadows' owners, they froze in fear, their swords pointing to them defensively.
Back in the forest where Quaoar's community had set up home, Quaoar went over to the makeshift outdoor school set up for teaching Talking Bird and part-Bird (such as Griffin and Hippogriff) children to check on how things were going there but he was in for a shock. As Quaoar continued his approach, a Peryton met him and told him about something. In the classroom area, an audience of young Talking Birds and part-Birds sat listening to a teacher while the main teacher, a female Talking Heron, stood aside to watch on. The teacher was a visitor and was a floating pile of bone-white snake-like tendrils and four large brown spheres resembling balls of meat tucked under them. It had eyes on stalks, similar to a snail and two of its white tendrils snaked from the rest of the tendrils forming its body and functioned as arms. This was a Noodle-and-Meatball Monster and a visitor from the Sky Domain and he was teaching the class of Talking Birds and part-Birds but he was not teaching them about Aslan. Behind the Noodle-and-Meatball Monster was a large black slab nailed to a tree trunk, a blackboard, and the Monster was holding a piece of chalk in one tentacle and a pointing pole in the other. He wrote and drew pictures on the blackboard with the chalk as he gave his lesson.
"...Then after the meteor exploded above the primitive Narnian land, it sent fragments packed with microbes, our ancestors, raining into the primordial oceans and seeded Narnia with the first life forms," the Noodle-and-Meatball Monster continued, his pointing pole aimed at a crude drawing of an explosion above a crudely drawn land. From the explosion were circles representing the supposed fragments of the meteor, and arrows snaking from them to waves, representing the supposed primitive oceans of Narnia, their heads, represented by V's, pointing to these waves. The Noodle-and-Meatball Monster then withdrew the pointing pole and held it in his tentacle, "And over the next millions of years, those microbes flourished, competed with each other for resources and became forced to evolve and adapt and over the next millions of years, they gave rise to..." suddenly, Quaoar and the Peryton's voices drew the group including the Noodle-and-Meatball Monster's attention to the pair as they entered the scene. When Quaoar saw the Noodle-and-Meatball Monster teaching the class of Birds and half-Birds, he immediately ignited with rage but he released it in a controlled manner.
"What is that Noodle-and-Meatball Monster doing here teaching that anti-Aslan trash to those chicks!?" the Kitsumiho demanded. He then stormed over to the Noodle-and-Meatball Monster, seized a bucket of water and immediately splashed al its contents onto the blackboard to wash the drawing of the exploding meteorite and the 'primitive' landscape and ocean off of it. Some of the water splashed onto the Noodle-and-Meatball Monster to his annoyance but before he could protest, Quaoar barked at him to leave.
"Get out of this school area and GET BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM, NOW!" the Kitsumiho yelled and tackled into the Monster to get him moving. The Heron teacher tried to intervene but the Peryton stopped her while the chicks looked on in confusion and startle, some of them huddling together at the sight of the angry white, ivory and metallic ice blue, yellow and silver Nine-Tailed Fox as he continued to drive away the Noodle-and-Meatball Monster. The Monster continued fleeing from Quaoar until the Fox stopped chasing him to make him continue his journey.
"We shall NOT have ANY Aslan-denying stuff taught to ANY of our kids, ESPECIALLY during these difficult Dark Age times," Quaoar continued.
"Evolution is the ONLY scientifically valid and accurate theory in explaining the history of our world with PLENTY of evidence to back it up. The creation story involving some CAT with a messy mane..." the Flying Spaghetti Creature retorted but Quaoar barked at him louder to leave and to NEVER return or there will be DIRE consequences, startling the Noodle-and-Meatball Monster into complying. Angrily and in disgruntle admitting defeat, the Spaghetti Flying Monster handed Quaoar the pointing pole and the chalk and went on his way, grumbling on the go. Then Quaoar turned, returned to the class area and began to give the Heron a SERIOUS lecture about letting heretics into the classroom to deceive young Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures and then fired her from her job as teacher on the spot to the Heron's chagrin. After this, Quaoar had the Peryton take over the rest of the class and teach the class of chicks the RIGHT history of Aslan creating the world and to tell them that what the Noodle-and-Meatball Monster attempted to teach them was NOT true and that it was anti-Aslan and puts natural processes in his place, something that was offensive to the Lion.
The naturalistic theory that ALL the creatures of Narnia including the Elemental Sprites like the Dryads and Kodama (earth, associated with plants), Sylphs (air Beings), Naiads, Nereids and other Undines (associated with water), Fire Sprites such as Pyros, Hitodama, Will-O-The-Wisps and the Aether Sprites like the Aurora Sprites in the Celestial Domain, descended from a bunch of various microbes travelling on a meteor, exploding and then seeding the primitive ocean over millions of years taught a lot of things that went against Aslan's Word. One thing was that the theory taught Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures that they were just regular animals that had evolved the ability to speak and think as they evolved from regular dumb creatures, leading some to believe that they were just animals no different from the dumb animals. This was NOT what Aslan had said when he bestowed the power of speech and human-like brain functions into the selected animals to become Talking Beasts (with the Talking Dinosaurs being part of the second group. The first group was what Digory Kirke and the others had seen Aslan form from a selection of initially-dumb animals shortly after the Lion sung the world into existence). Furthermore, Aslan had commanded the Talking Beasts to never return to the ways of their dumb counterparts lest they revert to dumb beasts if they did. This fact disproved the theory that Talking Beasts were no different from dumb beasts based on the evolution-from-meteorite-microbe theory. However, during the Dark Age, this heresy had taken strong root and had spread like an easily-spreadable disease throughout the country of Narnia and possibly beyond its boundaries. Individuals like Quaoar had been working hard to keep this heresy and other heresies in check but had been struggling, but I digress.
After dealing with the Noodle-and-Meatball Monster and firing the Heron teacher from her position, Quaoar returned to his den which was in Seresute's Cave to take a short break. Following him was Caesium the Chroma Cat and he, too, had been forced to drive away a Noodle-and-Meatball Monster.
"That was the fifth Noodle-and-Meatball Monster I had to deal with, Quaoar," the blue and yellow Macaw-like Feline complained, "She was trying to teach a group of young Talking Primates and Apes that they were just ordinary animals..."
"These heretics clearly loathe the Lion, Caesium," Quaoar replied in annoyance, "I, too, had to drive away a Noodle-and-Meatball Monster that foolish Heron had hired to teach that class of chicks."
"It's clear that the subject around Aslan has become less and less popular, even here," said Caesium, "The subject's become less and less popular everywhere in our country," said Quaoar, "Not just here. It's been doing so sometime after the Pevensies had left the world centuries ago. We just have to do what we can to keep the subject alive as much as possible, that's all."
"Easier said than done," said Caesium, equally frustrated and exasperated at the way things were, "I think the resentment many of the Narnians may have against the Golden Cat with the Mane of Fire (the Chroma Cats' name for Aslan) for allowing the Pevensies to just disappear from our world might be a contributing factor..."
Quaoar was about to reply when Naihanchi's voice shouted his and Caesium's name. Immediately, the Kitsumiho left the mouth of Seresute's Cave and gazed at a very colourful She-Nekomata with long white hair tied into ponytails and braids come tailspin-flying down towards them. Like her ancestor Kushanku as mentioned before, Naihanchi could fly by spinning her tails. As she touched down, Quaoar and Caesium came in and noticed the look of dread on the colourful two-tailed Cat's face.
"What is it, Naihanchi?" asked Quaoar.
"You'd better come quickly," said Naihanchi, "Something AWFUL has happened by the Great River."
Quaoar and Caesium exchanged worried looks and followed the Nekomata to the destination.
Sometime later, a gathering of Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures had assembled at a certain area by the Great River, the massive ribbon of water flowing by in the direction of the Eastern Ocean. Murmurs of horror rolled through the crowd as they gazed at the horrific sight and some of them were looking away. Among the gathered Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures, Quaoar, Naihanchi, Caesium and some of the other members of their community's Justice Enforcement team including Morla the Black Tortoise, Crimsonandil the Vermillion Bird, Moana the Azure Dragon, Aang the White Tiger, Adamans and Iridia the Fenghuang couple, Thunderbolt the Raiju, Spock the Pegasus and Jumba the Elephant and a few Dinosaur members such as a Stegasaur and a T-Rex, made their way through the crowd to the scene but the moment they arrived, all of them flinched harshly. Naihanchi stifled a scream of horror but Iridia and Moana released them. Morla withdrew his head in to his shell while Spock, Adamans and Caesium looked away, the middle one covering his wife's face with a colourful wing. Quaoar and the others, however, just stood there in UTMOST horror, too frozen to speak a single word as they gazed at the sight of carnage. It was too gruesome to describe what the scene looked like but to give a short, toned down summary, there were several bodies, ten of them human and two of them horses, strewn along the River's bank. Pierces of a colourful wheeled vehicle, a carriage also lay scattered like pieces of bark from a mangled tree with them. The bodies of both the humans and the horses were severely damaged and it was clear that none of them were alive.
As the onlookers continued to look over the sight of mini massacre, Thunderbolt, despite the gruesome scene threatening to make his stomach lurch, began to examine the carcasses, one of them having caught the Raiju's attention. Nearby, a Talking Crocodile spoke.
"We believe a pack of dumb animals may have ambushed this group of humans and their carriage and mauled them," the Big Jawed Water Reptile spoke to Quaoar.
"Yes, only something like a group of dumb bears could have done this," a Triceratops added.
"We've seen dumb bears maul their prey or anything that threatens them," put in a Ropen, a Magical type of Pterosaur that had bioluminescent patches on its body and magical abilities like telekinesis, nearby. Quaoar just gazed at the three Reptiles and said nothing. He had seen carnage before in his long life but each and every time, they always horrified him. Then after examining the bodies, particularly one of them among the rubble of the carriage, Thunderbolt returned with the report. The look on his face was sombre and his ears were lowered.
"I've just identified the mangled body of the Son of Adam that wore the royal clothes," the Electric Wolf-Cat said, "It's the prince, the king's only son."
"Who in NARNIA would DO THIS to the ONLY heir to the Cair Paravel throne!?" Caesium demanded.
"Peace, Caesium," Quaoar finally found the courage to speak, calming the Chroma Cat. He then turned to some Talking Gorillas, a Bear, an Elaphocentaur and some Dwarfs specialised in transporting dead bodies for investigation nearby and ordered, "Get some special carrying beds, carefully pack these bodies onto them and take them back to Seresute's Cave."
The group obediently left to do the gruelling task and as they left and as Thunderbolt returned to examining the bodies, this time with some Talking Rats and Mice helping, Quaoar turned to two Talking Owls and said, "You two send this report to the king at Cair Paravel right away. It is important that he knows about his son's demise."
The two Owls nodded and lofted into the air to do just that. Then Spock came in, visibly shaken at the carnage.
"His Majesty's not gonna like what had happened to his son, I can tell you," the shining white Pegasus said in a low voice laced with dread.
"I know, I know but it's important that he knows," Quaoar replied. Then Thunderbolt returned again after examining the bodies closer, this time to check over the wounds marking them, with the Talking Rats and Mice.
"These Sons of Adam and their dumb horses have DEFINITELY been mauled by some animals," the Raiju said, "But we can't tell if the maulers have been dumb animals, which I can only hope so, or..." he trailed off, not wanting to say the other possibility, that is the other type of animal.
"We'll look into this when we get those bodies back to Seresute's Cave for a proper examination, Thunder," Quaoar replied, "In the meantime; you help gather the pieces of the carriage as they will be evidence as well."
Thunderbolt nodded and passed the command to the Talking Rats and Mice and the group set to gathering the smashed carriage. Moments later, the Gorillas and the other with them returned with some special carrying beds (built like stretchers in our world) and began the gristly task of lifting the dead bodies onto them, being careful not to damage them further as they will be an importance source of the investigation back at the Cave.
Soon, the bodies of the prince and his guards were transported on the carrying beds through the forest and back to Seresute's Cave. Large woven leaf blankets were draped over their bodies to prevent any curious onlookers from seeing the disturbing sight and any onlooker who asked the carriers were told that the prince and his guards had been attacked by animals and that was that as well as not to touch the bodies. The askers obediently avoided doing so and stood back. Along with the bodies, the pieces of the carriage were also carried. Once the bodies and the carriage pieces were in Seresute's Cave, they were carefully placed in a compartment out of the sight of the other community members under a set of flaming torches for examination. Once the examination was done, the bodies will be carefully packed and carried away to be buried with the prince having a special funeral once his body was carried to the king so that he could have one last look at his son before burial. However, it was important that their bodies be examined first to see for sure if the theory that the killers had indeed been a group of Talking Beasts. Back at the site where they had been found, large locks were placed in the exact spots the bodies lay so that re-enactment as to how the prince and his guards ended up dying can be carried out. To carry out the re-enactment, eyewitnesses will give directions and descriptions based on what they saw. Additionally, the king received the message about the demise of his only son and his guards from the two Talking Owls but when he had heard this, he was UTTERLY heartbroken but the Owls assured him that an investigation will be carried out and results drawn as soon as possible. The king then had them send word to Quaoar to proceed with the investigation and the two Owls returned to the Kitsumiho with this message. Then the news regarding the death of the king's son spread like wildfire throughout the country of Narnia, shaking the entire country like an earthquake.
At the Great River, a group of Centaurs, Talking Horses and Thunderbolt carried out the re-enactment of the prince and his guards' last moments under the directions of some of the eyewitness while Morla and Aang questioned any more eyewitnesses to the incident. The White Tiger was interviewing three Dryads and a Kodama, the four Plant Sprites hovering outside their tree bodies to talk to the Cardinal Cat directly, with the Kodama resembling a glowing sprite surrounded by bioluminescent plant material.
"Did any of you four get a glimpse of the princes and his group's attackers when they jumped them?" asked the White Tiger, "If so, how did they attack the prince and his guards including his carriage?"
"We probably did," replied one of the Dryads, "But it happened so fast we didn't get a clear view of the attackers."
"But we did see the following," the Kodama said, "The royal carriage was travelling by the Great River's banks, presumably on an outing or a hunt or something. Then suddenly, a few forms snuck out from some trees among our thicket or from behind a hill and crept towards them like predatory animals."
"Did you get a glimpse of what they looked like, such as their shape or how they walked?" asked Aang.
"Several of them were large which lead me to believe that they were either Bears or Elephants or even Dinosaurs," said the Kodama, "and there were a few smaller creatures alongside them."
"They appeared to be four-footed like Wolves but they were so far that we couldn't get a clear glimpse of them," said another of the three Dryads. As Aang continued to interview the four Plant Sprites, Naihanchi walked in and gazed at Thunderbolt's re-enactment team as they posed as the carriage and the guards walking along. Some Talking Bears, an Elephant, a Mokele-Mbembe (Magical Water Dinosaur with magical abilities like hydrokinesis), a Rhino and a Ceratopsid posed as the large forms and a group of Talking Foxes, Cats and Wolves portrayed the smaller forms that attacked the group of humans. Both groups followed the eyewitnesses' descriptive directions to the letter as they re-enacted the scene. Nearby, Morla was interviewing a few Talking Squirrels and a Naiad who had apparently been there when the attack on and the death of the prince happened.
"I just cannot believe that someone would attack and kill the king's only son like that," said the Nekomata in dismay. As she said this, Moana the Azure Dragon walked in.
"There had been other reports of animal attacks on the humans travelling about the country but this on the prince is a turning point," said the brilliant sea-blue Reptile, "Further, it's been the final scale."
Naihanchi nodded in agreement. Then the pair left Thunderbolt's team, Morla and Aang to their tasks and turned to take a walk.
"But this aside, I've been thinking about my ex-husband and my three kits lately," Naihanchi sadly spoke, "They have been missing for quite a while and I'm especially worried for my children. I just hope they are alright."
"Quaoar's twin sister Siveth has also been missing for some time," said Moana, "And Quaoar is REALY worried about her. I just hope she is alright like your former husband and three kits."
"It's my kits I am mostly worried about," said Naihanchi, "I mean, I don't want to see them raised in a false, anti-Aslan doctrine."
"These heretics are ABSOLUTELY everywhere, I can tell you," said Moana, "But they're not just here on the Land Domain, but also in the domains of the Sky, the Sun, Moon sand possibly the other Narnia domains as well."
Naihanchi nodded in agreement before the pair resumed their walk before eventually returning to work.