Chapter 1- Onward from the Golden Age and a looming threat
The year in the magical world of Narnia was currently 1076, 61 Narnian years since the end of the Golden Age following the disappearance of the Pevensie Monarch siblings in the Western Wood, and 76 years since the Dawn of Spring and the Winter Revolution. Over those 61 years, quite a bit has changed for much of everywhere for the country of Narnia (not the whole world from which the country took its name), but not in a good way. Following Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy the Pevensie siblings' disappearance, the country had been plunged into a period dubbed the Dark Age.
This change was accompanied by the declination of economic prosperity, social structures and learning and education and the search for a suitable leader, a Son of Adam or male human to replace the four Pevensies, had begun. The most effective leader to sit on the throne as king over the Narnian country was a Son of Adam. Even shortly after Aslan sung the Narnian world into existence in the beginning, he appointed a Son of Adam and his wife as first king and queen over Narnia to start the region's monarchy. However, everywhere else in the world of Narnia, such as the Sky Domain, the individuals they had as leaders varied in their species. For Asgard Sky City, the capital of the Skylands, a Cloud-Man king was usually appointed while on the Narnian Moon; the Moon Peoples followed a chieftain-based leadership. For the Realm of the Four Cardinal Kingdoms (The White Tigers of the West, the Black Tortoises of the North, the Vermillion Birds of the South and the Azure Dragons of the East), their monarchy was ALWAYS from the primary clans representing these kingdoms but they still served as offshoots to the central region that was the country of Narnia. No human had EVER ruled as king or queen in these areas for the only quickest and practical way of accessing them was through the Bifrost Transporter, a powerful magical transport rainbow wormhole-type system allowing quick travel between domains but especially the Four Cardinal Kingdoms and Bism, a nation part of the Underground Domain or Underland built deep in the bowels of the Narnian land. Due to the powerful nature of the Bifrost, it was deadly to most extra-Narnians such as humans, even humans who were born in Narnia. Due to how powerful the Bifrost Transporter was, any human that tried to use it would face certain death. Certain extra-Narnians such as Jadis, however, weren't bothered by the powerful nature of the Bifrost and the White Witch could have easily used the Transporter to access and invade places of the other Domains. This was why the Bifrost Transporter pads had to be shut off during the Age of Winter to prevent the most evil being to EVER exist in Narnia's history from invading areas of the other domains with her army, only being used sparingly to help transport creatures native to the other domains that had been kidnapped, such as Baku, back to their rightful areas. Now with the Eternal Winter gone, the Bifrost Transporter system had been reopened and was still in use even now.
Back with the country of Narnia, the inhabitants had been forced to live through a MASSIVE black cloud of the Dark Age with no human king to properly guide them. Some of the inhabitants had been UTTERLY resentful towards the Pevensies for just leaving them without letting them know and some even accused them of purposely abandoning their country and forcing them to fend for themselves. In some areas, anarchy had ignited in which those inhabitants had established their own 'leaders' and they continued life without a particular set of rules to properly guide them. Other inhabitants had also abandoned the country of Narnia to settle elsewhere, some of them migrating to the other Domains, often via the Bifrost Transporter, to start their lives anew and to avoid the dismal clouds of the Dark Age, resulting in the diversity of species, both Talking Beast and Magical Creature, dropping dramatically in the Narnian country. Scouts had also left on trips to find a suitable male human who will be their country's king in place of the vanished Pevensies but so far, they had been fruitless. However, kings from Calormen and Archenland have been considered and scouts have gone there to find suitable candidates to sit on the Narnian throne. After all, not only have the Pevensies disappeared, they have left no descendant (due to not marrying and bearing children) to take them over in the event of something happening to them which was another serious Dark Age problem. It truly was a messy, chaotic, dismal and uncertain time for the country of Narnia but there were also other complications... and additional threats.
Somewhere in the southern area of Narnia
Despite the lack of a Son of Adam king to help guide the entire country of Narnia, many of the inhabitants continued to try and live their lives as normally as they could. Some continued to keep trade businesses going despite the drop in economics, raise their young in the ways of Aslan and provide for their families and communities. In one large Talking Beast village named Goldleaf, the villagers were doing just these things. Unlike a number of other towns and villages in the country whose diversity of Talking Beast species has dropped due to migration, Goldleaf Village has maintained its diversity at a relatively high level. It had quite a number of species of Magical Talking Beasts associated with the Eastern mythologies in our world living within it, alongside some Dinosaurs, Creatures from the mythologies of other human's world cultures, and Talking Beasts of the exotic animal species we know in our world, such as the Talking Spix Macaw. In fact, Goldleaf has become a refuge and breeding home for these creatures with the aim of increasing the endangered species' numbers for they had dropped quite low since the end of the Golden Age with the Pevensies' disappearance. This was especially important for those with a low fertility rate and reproductive output such as the Spix Macaw and the Talking Panda who could only have one or two chicks and cubs respectively in a while. This project had been established shortly after the Golden Age had begun and during the events of the Nine-Realms Potion and the Pleasure Dome where the evil Fox-Witch and the White Witch's apprentice, Dimitrescu Dokuringu, tried to revive the Age of Winter only to be thwarted and vanquished and it was continuing despite the Golden Age having ended 61 years ago. There was the option of sending these Talking Beasts to other Domains to help increase their numbers but this option was unsuitable for some species due to the drastic differences in the environment of those Domains.
For example, the Okuri-Inu, a Wolf-like Magical Beast possessing three different adult forms depending on how the pups matured from developing and living at different times of the day (the Daytime, Nighttime and Dusk forms), required the regular day-night cycle to mature into fertile adults to produce pups. The Narnian Sun and Moon and (especially) Bism and the Abyssal Domain (the very deepest depths of the Eastern Ocean where the sun's light barely penetrates) were NOT suitable places for Okuri-Inu for those Domains naturally lacked the day-night cycle the other Domains had. Bism and the Abyssal Domain were in perpetual darkness with their only light being from alternative sources such as from the lava rivers in the case of Bism and magical star orbs for the Abyssal zone, especially the city of Atlantis. The Narnian Sun and the Moon were biospheres that actually dictate the day-night cycle for the rest of the Narnian world and thus had no technical day-night cycles of their own. If the Okuri-Inu did not mature into fertile adults, they could not produce pups and that was detrimental to their population with extinction being almost certain.
Another creature requiring certain environmental conditions were the Alicanto Birds. These birds' diet was largely made up of metallic things and the source of this food for the metallivores (metal-eaters) was the fruit of metallic object trees, such as coin trees, grown from a metallic object simply planted into the soil like a regular plant seed (for example, planting an English coin into the Narnian soil will cause a metallic tree with English coin 'fruits' to sprout and grow). However, metallic object trees (and any other 'object' trees grown from objects usually originating from other worlds such as Earth, such as toffee sweets) cannot grow in other soils like that on the Narnian Sun, Moon or the Skylands for their soil was completely different to that found on the land. There was a population of Alicanto living in Goldleaf and it had a coin tree garden for these residents to harvest food for their survival. Thus, these conservation projects in Goldleaf were UTTERLY important for the survival of the Talking Beast species that were rare, hard to breed and required certain environmental conditions.
Goldleaf Village was lead by a wise old male Kirin named Shiro. Shiro was a handsome elderly Kirin whose scales were white and silvery. His mane, tail and antlers were snow white and he was of the antlered variety of Kirin (sometimes called Qilin), Magical Beasts resembling a cross between Horses or Unicorns and Dragons, the Unicorn-like ones having a single horn in the centre of their heads like the Magical Horned Horses. Shiro was a very wise and experienced Kirin and had lead Goldleaf Village since its establishment at the beginning of the Golden Age following the White Witch's vanquishing and had lead it for these past 76 years. He was married to a Kiriness and was the father of up to five Kirin children as well as a grandfather to some younger Kirin. He was indeed a proud family Kirin with quite a large number of descendants for his species. Shiro had a second-in-command and chief advisor, a male Kumiho named Branco who was one of the sons of Wan the Kumiho who lived on the Narnian Moon, having been born in the Narnian year 100s just as the Kitsune and Kumiho species were separating and diverging. Branco was thus in his Nine-Tailed form, the characteristics of his subspecies, the Kumiho, being the pure white fur and metallic aqua blue and silvery markings. Before his transformation into his Nine-Tailed form, Branco had been a bluish Fox with metallic blue markings, the pre-Nine-Tailed form of the Kumiho compared to the metallic patched Red Fox-like appearance of pre-Nine-Tailed Kitsune. Like his boss Shiro, Branco was married. However, he was not married to a Kumiho Vixen, but a vixen of the Kitsune subspecies, a beautiful female Kitsune named Leia who was also Nine-Tailed characterised by her ivory gold fur and metallic yellow patches. It was not uncommon for interspecies marriage to occur but still, and it ONLY happened within Talking Beasts that had species families such as the Dog family (a Talking Dog could marry a Talking Wolf) or the Horse family (a Talking Horse could marry a Talking Zebra or Unicorn, but not a Pegasus or Alicorn, or winged Unicorn despite the Pegasi originating from a regular Talking Horse (one of the first human's horses that appeared in Narnia as Aslan was creating it) as they cannot produce viable offspring). The rest of Shiro's inner circle included a Daytime Okuri-Inu, a Wampus Cat, a few Centaurs, two Magical Bears called Onikuma, and a Talking Panda (of the black and white variety). The inner circle was mostly male Talking Beasts though there were a few females in the group as well.
Since the beginning of the Dark Age and with the increasing chaos that came with it, Shiro and his inner circle helpers had been trying to hold Goldleaf and the neighbouring villages and neighbours together, as well as their belief in Aslan (whom Shiro was fiercely loyal like most other Kirin) until a replacement Son of Adam king and perhaps a Daughter of Eve queen alongside was found to take the Pevensies' place on the throne at Cair Paravel. However, this had not been an easy task and sometimes, Shiro and his inner circle had to deal with quarrels that sometimes ignited within the village but this was not the only challenge. Prayers had been uttered and search parties had been sent out to search for a monarch, among them Shiro's oldest son who wanted to help but still, not a suitable king had been found.
As the Goldleaf villagers tried to continue their normal activities as much as they could, the silver and white Kirin walked through the central square called Goldleaf Square, looking on with a small smile. His smiles used to be laced with righteous pride but now, they were filled with dismay, worry and sadness but still, he was glad that the villagers were trying to cope. Shiro turned and gazed at a Silver Spider, grass tree and dumb rodent crop-farm hybrid behind a fence being tended to by a group of Talking Poggles and their assistants. Silver Spiders were social arachnids that followed a social construct and caste system similar to bees, termites, ants and wasps and like those insects, the arachnids had a breeding queen at the very top of the hierarchy that produced eggs and workers that did the variety of nest jobs. These included raising the young spiderlings and gathering food, normally seeds, especially grass tree seeds that flew on the breeze into nets of webbing some workers spun between walls or posts. The seeds Silver Spider workers gathered were food for prey which they raised a livestock, such as dumb Poggles, rodent-like furry animals with large eyes but also rats, mice, shrews and other small rodents and sometimes rodent-like animals like dumb rabbits. The food was fed to these animals to fatten them for the queen to kill and absorb their hormones for her egg production. The Silver Spider's complex caste system and ecology with various small rodents was a good avenue to take advantage of in farming and food production in a number of ways. One way was the growth of certain crops like grass trees, the surplus which can be harvested for selling as grain while the rest was given to the Silver Spiders to give to their furry livestock. Another way was fattening up of the furry livestock to sell to rodent-eating Talking Beasts like Falcons and Griffins though it was important that there were rodents left for the queen spider to use. A third way was harvesting old Silver Spiders themselves for food to sell to consumers such as Great Blue Windrunners who used Silver Spiders as part of their diet and cuisine, one of which was Silver Spider flan. A young queen spider and some rodents can also be harvested and sold to other Silver Spider farmers who wish to establish their own Silver Spider colonies and rodent livestock and spread the business was yet another way. There were indeed a number of avenues in Silver Spider farming to take advantage of and it brought in plenty of money and food (if the farmers wished to use the crops, aged Silver Spiders and rodents themselves). But to raise a Silver Spider colony, massive posts such as rocks and trees were required for the workers to build their webs to catch floating grass tree seeds (or seeds can be directly put into their webs) and a massive mound to house the Silver Spider colony and their rodent livestock. The Goldleaf Silver Spider farm had these required objects with the web posts being large poles and the colony mound being a natural small hill. The natural home of wild Silver Spiders were normally high elevations such as mountains and even the Sky Domain but they can be raised at Narnian sea level just as well. The inventor of Silver Spider farming was a Talking Poggle (ironic considering the fact that a Silver Spider colony's main prey were Poggles, but of the dumb sort).
Shiro gazed at two of the Talking Poggles and a Jackalope assistant as they bagged up some excess grass tree seeds harvested from the crops and then walk away to put the small bag with the other bags of grass tree seeds with a smile and moved on. As he walked past the Silver Spider farm, a Great Blue Windrunner came up to him.
"I sure hope we can find a suitable Son of Adam to be our king soon, with a Daughter of Eve for his queen being a bonus," said the metallic blue-purple four-winged Crane hopefully, "We cannot go on living like this. We NEED an overall leader on the throne and it is sad that the Pevensies didn't marry and leave behind an heir to take them over in case something happened to them."
"Our searchers are doing our best, Blue," Shiro replied, "Ever since the Pevensie quartet disappeared mysteriously in the Western Woods 61 years ago, things have been tumbling downhill for all of us and it is likely to get worse as time goes by."
"The Golden Age certainly didn't last long," said a Poggle and one of the Silver Spider farmers, "Only 15 years."
"We were told that the Golden Age will likely be a short time period," said another Poggle, "And its end just happened in a blip," he clicked a paw as he said this to emphasize the statement.
"The moment that scout group which included Betelgeuse and Rigel, two of the granddaughters and grand-pups of the famous Nanu the Wolf who turned against the White Witch eventually, and their families found the Pevensie Monarchs' horses just standing near the Lantern Tree in Duchy of Lantern Waste along with their key possessions such as Queen Susan's horn and Queen Lucy's fire flower healing cordial and dagger left on their saddles and brought them back to Cair Paravel, the hearts of so many just sank like stones," said Blue the Windrunner, "After all the four Pevensies themselves have been through such as the incident with Dimitrescu Dokuringu and that idiot Rabadash, their reign never lasted long."
As he said this, another Poggle came in, a look of resentment saturating his big-eyed face. Like many of the Narnians, she boiled with resentment at the Pevensies for just leaving Narnia and bringing in the dismal cloud.
"Maybe they decided that they'd had enough of ruling and abandoned us," growled the big-eyed Rodent bitterly.
"I don't think so," replied Shiro calmly, "But as the Great Lion King Aslan once said, all things have their time. Maybe it was Aslan's will that they return to their homeworld. After all, their leaving was no accident I believe..."
"Their leaving was no accident!?" snapped the bitter Poggle, "If Aslan REALLY willed them to leave our world then why did he let them leave in the first place!? Why didn't he just have them return to Cair Paravel where they belonged? And further, why didn't the Lion provide any of those four Monarchs with a husband or wife at LEAST so that an heir may be left to carry on the throne!?"
Alongside resentment against the Pevensies for leaving, some have also begun to doubt Aslan as well with few even turning away from the Lion out of that bitterness. This was another big concern to deal with, Talking Beasts abandoning Aslan and going their own way as a result of the Dark Age coming in with the Pevensies' vanishing and wise Talking Beasts like Shiro and his assistant Branco the Kumiho had been trying to keep everyone's faith up. Education in the Great Lion was one of the things that was deteriorating and it was proving to be a challenge to either prevent this or slow it down. Not to mention the fact that heretics had set foot into the country to bring in heresies about the Lion including the Lion-denying evolution story, and the Noodle-and-Meatball Monsters (also called Spaghetti Flying Monsters), creatures that were notorious for mocking the Lion and Narnia's creation account in particular (with few exceptions as some Noodle-and-Meatball Monsters were Aslan believers and were thus loyal though some believed that Aslan used evolution to bring Narnia into existence) who were infamous for this, were among them. Shiro looked on as the Poggles and Blue the Windrunner left him to return to the Silver Spider farm, a saddened and concerned look on his face as a handsome Fox with snowy white pelage and silver and metallic aqua blue markings and a collection of nine shining white tails fanning from his rump came in.
"The faith in the Great Lion certainly has been severely jarred by the disappearance of our four kings and queens, hasn't it?" said the Kumiho to his boss, "and the doubters have become easy targets for these heretics to turn them away from Aslan's path with their false teachings."
"Indeed, Branco," said Shiro in agreement, "And those pesky Noodle-and-Meatball Monsters that have come down from the Sky Domain and the Narnian Moon with their evolution fairytale of us evolving from some pack of celestial microbes brought here to the Narnian world millions or whatever years ago by some comet and dropped into the ocean aren't helping either."
"Aslan formed the land and flying Talking Beasts out of the earth, the Sea Talking Beasts and creatures from the sediment of the Ocean and the various other creatures in the other Domains either from earth, the Moon dirt, the Sun soil or from the special sky soil in the Sky Domain," said Branco, the Kumiho, "And the Star People and other Celestial Domain creatures like the Aurora Sprites Aslan sung into existence first. NONE of the creatures in this world evolved from some microbe..."
"Wan, your father once told us that High King Peter told him and Martian and some other Talking Beasts that they had a similar anti-creation story back in their world of Earth," said Shiro, "It taught that humans evolved from some creature similar to an ape rather than God creating the first man from the dirt and the first woman from one of his ribs in His image (by the way, that belief that Lilith was Adam's first wife is not true. She was a Charnian like one of her descendants the White Witch was)."
"Such a story is offensive to Aslan as it glorifies natural processes rather than him," said Shiro to which Branco nodded. Then the Kirin and Kumiho continued their stroll through the large village until they eventually came to another building, a medical one like a hospital.
"By the way, how is your Kitsune wife Leia doing with her pregnancy?" asked Shiro, "She's due to give birth soon, isn't she?"
"Indeed," said Branco with pride, "We've been trying for a cub during our fertile years with no success and have prayed to Aslan for a cub. He promised us that we would conceive in our Nine-Tailed stage and here we are."
"Magical Fox pregnancy in the Nine-Tailed stage is EXTREMELY rare," said Shiro with a smile, "I'm just proud to have that happen in my own town."
As he said this, a strange crocodile-like creature with fins and scales like a fish came out of the medical building's main entrance and greeted the Kumiho and the Kirin. This creature was called a Cipactli and they were Crocodilian creatures that had scales and fins like a fish and the vocal sacs similar to an anuran's (frog or toad) which were larger in males. Their colour variations included green, brown, greyish and even metallic sky blue. Being aquatic, Cipactli often made their home in the Northern Marshlands with the Marsh-Wiggles, Ahuizotl, Gillmen and other boggy area-dwelling creatures. Like many other creatures, the Cipactli had a Jadis-loyal counterpart. That sort had additional jaws on each of their joints and a ravenous appetite and had been part of the cleanup crew in the sickening Massacre Event the White Witch had invented during the Age of Winter but I digress.
"Is my wife Leia due to deliver, Sushi?" asked Branco to the nurse Cipactli who was also a midwife for various live-bearing Talking Beasts. The female Cipactli whose colour was a mossy green, formed a smile on her Crocodile-like snout.
"Yes, soon, Branco," she replied, "And once the cubs are delivered, we will need to closely monitor their health and also that of their mother due to her age."
Shock seized Shiro and Branco.
"Cubs?" repeated the latter.
"Your Kitsune wife has been carrying twins," replied Sushi, "An EXTREMELY rare occurrence as Magical Foxes often give birth to one cub at a time rather than a litter of on-average four like Regular Foxes, possibly a balancing mechanism Aslan built into the Magical Foxes to prevent too many being born in a short time due to the Foxes' capabilities like extreme longevity and powers. What makes it even rarer is the fact that she is having twins in her Nine-Tailed stage."
"Few cubs have ever been born to Magical Fox couples in their Nine-Tailed stage in the history of Narnia," said Sushi, "as their fertility decreases as they age.
"We've been trying for a cub for ages during our fertile years," said Branco, "But have been unable to conceive even a single cub to our distress. We have prayed to Aslan for a cub and it seems that he has finally answered our prayers that we will conceive in our Nine-Tailed stage, and here we are."
"Your cubs are going to be hybrid Kitsune and Kumiho, or Kitsumiho," said Sushi with a smile, "It's going to be interesting how their traits, like fur colour, will show when they grow."
"Their traits will be similar to pure-blooded Kitsune and Kumiho unlike the Magical and Regular Talking Fox hybrids whose powers are weaker and longevity, often no longer than an Elemental Bird like a Phoenix or Thunderbird which can live for up to 500 years," said Shiro. Sushi and Branco nodded in agreement and with that, the three entered the building. They then entered the ward room where expectant mothers (both pregnant and having a clutch of eggs in nests) were being looked after and examined. In the far corner was a beautiful ivory yellow and metallic yellow Fox with nine tails, her belly bump obvious. Immediately, Branco and Shiro went over to the Kitsune and the former nuzzled with his wife lovingly. Shiro, Sushi and the nurses looked on with proud smiles as the Nine-Tailed couple then entered into discussion about the excitement of parenthood.
On the outskirts of the village, watchers and patrollers were on duty, keeping an eye out for potential trouble. Among them were Dwarves, Centaurs and Curupira, Humanoid creatures that had reversed feet and knees and brightly coloured hair which was shades of red for males and shades of orange in females. As Goldleaf Village's watchers continued their duty, a male Curupira continued scouring the surroundings with a telescope-like construct made from a cone-shaped bamboo tube fitted with a glass sphere in its wide end to serve as a lens. As the male Curupira continued looking through the telescope-like object he and the others called a distant viewing magnifier, a Red Dwarf came to him.
"Can you see anything suspicious yet, friend?" asked the short male Humanoid indicated by the mat of reddish facial hair cascading down his front like a bib. The Curupira continued looking through the magnifier but saw nothing at the moment.
"No, not yet, but if so, we'll alert Shiro," replied the Curupira. The Dwarf then breathed a sigh.
"There had been reports of these humans called Telmarines roaming our country lately," said the small Humanoid with a reddish beard, "Initially, they had been sporadic and isolated with no sudden attacks, but the most recent incidences have involved such, prompting us to remain on our toes."
"They started shortly after our original kings and queens have left Narnia and we just dismissed them as insignificant," said the Curupira, "but now, we cannot do that pretty much anymore."
"Especially with several Talking Beasts and Magical Creatures disappearing when they went out to investigate those creeping humans which is why we and the other the villages and towns and also those living in clans and herds in the countryside have set up patrol groups to keep a continued eye on the surroundings."
"Under the strict order that we don't approach them for ANY reason," added the Red Dwarf, "But I wonder why they are roaming our country anyway."
"Good question," the Curupira replied, "But rumour has it that they despise certain creatures like Kitsune, Kumiho, Nekomata, Bakeneko and also the Merfolk and Sea-Fish People as the victims that had disappeared when they went to investigate those humans had been mostly these creatures. Anyway, let's resume our duty."
And with that, the Red Dwarf left while the Curupira resumed scanning the surrounds with his magnifier.