queen of narnia

[charning]

Jadis is enraged. Aslan, back! Confirmed by the deputy of her own Maugrim, who died on the sword of the very child she thought she'd caught! Maugrim, dead. She paces. She comes too close to Winter for her liking on one of her passes through her throne room and rather than turn an instant before she means to she backhands him out of her way into the nearest wall. She paces and fumes and roars.

Finally she spins on her toe to face Winter, who may still be on the floor in his careless way but has surely recovered from the blow by now. "You," she says, "must go to the lion, and tell him that I desire safe conduct to treat with him on a matter of as much importance to him as to me. Go peacefully, I do not mind if you alarm the pitiful creatures who side with him but do not harm them while I seek parley. Do you understand, my Winter?" She bends to crook her first two fingers under his chin to turn his head up for frigid eye contact, inspecting him, thinking furious thoughts to which he's only an accessory. "I think the lion may be unnerved to see you. We will see."

Comments

[neverbeatme]

"The Witch's house," says James to Bella.

She remembers.

[alicornucopia]

"Yes," says Aslan.

[deepest_magic]

"Are you just going to - go for her directly without having to have the entire battle at all?"

[alicornucopia]

"Not quite. Hold tight, children."

And with a flying leap he is over the outer wall surrounding the Witch's castle, and in a courtyard, full of statues.

[neverbeatme]

"—Those are people," says James, almost as soon as she glances at one.

[alicornucopia]

"They were and they will be again," says Aslan, kneeling to let the girls off of his back, and he breathes on a stone lion, then whirls around to see to a naiad, and then continues bounding about the courtyard attending to each statue great and small.

[deepest_magic]

"Oh - look," says Bella, peering at his first subject, where color is bleeding into him from nose onward.

[pythbox]

The stone lion is becoming an un-stone lion, in a gradual process reminiscent of fire spreading over a lit page. As soon as his head is free, he shakes it vigorously, restoring golden life to the stone fringe of his mane. He pauses for a yawn and a stretch as living colour works its way down his back, then shakes himself all over and bounds after Aslan to jump and dance and lick him with gratitude and happiness.

[neverbeatme]

"Wow," breathes James.

[alicornucopia]

Aslan is never still, though he acknowledges this and other gestures of gratitude with evident joy. Soon the courtyard is full of romping delighted creatures, colorful and madly traipsing, unicorns and dryads and one good-natured giant.

When the courtyard's statues have all been released, Aslan calls, "Now, look alive, everyone, inside the house, search every corner! You never know where some poor prisoner might be concealed!"

And everyone bursts into the Witch's house, which is quite empty of live occupants while she prepares elsewhere for war.

[neverbeatme]

James goes looking - and of course she reports whoever she finds - but there's a particular person she's looking for. And when she locates him, she runs to find Aslan immediately.

"I found Tumnus!"

[alicornucopia]

"Show me, then," says Aslan, and he follows her.

[neverbeatme]

She shows him directly to the faun-statue, tucked away in a corner.

[alicornucopia]

And presently that Faun is awake and alive again, patting himself down in amazement.

[neverbeatme]

"Are you okay?"

[alicornucopia]

"I - I do believe I am!" says Tumnus, as Aslan bounds off again.

[neverbeatme]

"Oh good," she says, and hugs him.

[alicornucopia]

Hugs!

Eventually the entire house has been ransacked of statues, and the giant has clubbed into oblivion the wall that Aslan leapt over to reveal the spring landscape beyond, and Aslan says:

"Our day's work is not yet over, and if the Witch is to be defeated before nightfall we must join the battle at once. And now! Those who can't keep up - children, dwarves, small animals - must ride on those who can. Those of us with good noses must come out front with us lions to sniff out where the battle is and the rest must follow us. Look lively and sort yourselves."

[neverbeatme]

James heads for Aslan, figuring that if he's willing to let her ride him again, he'll be the fastest and she'll be needed at the battle as a visibly human commander with a magic sword.

[deepest_magic]

Bella goes, too, and presently they are Aslan-mounted again while everyone else piles onto the larger creatures and the sniffers range out ahead to find a trail. A hound gives a loud bay and everyone's off in that direction.

[alicornucopia]

"Off my back, children," says Aslan, and when they have dismounted he roars to shake the whole of Narnia end to end, distracting the witch as she is just about to knife some poor animal and rallying the portion of the army she has been, till this moment, soundly trouncing. All the statues she has made in the battle so far are restored to life and rejoin the fight.

[deepest_magic]

The roar would probably be quite enough to inspire the troops, but Bella lifts her staff and lights it brightly and finds that it disagrees very much with some of the insubstantial Specters and such on the Witch's side who might have been difficult for James to run through.

[neverbeatme]

James takes in the lay of the battlefield at a glance, and perceives immediately where she will be most useful. She heads for Eternal Winter at a dead run.

[jackfrostbite]

Winter is the only one of Jadis's army, Jadis included, who is not in the least bit shaken by Aslan's roar. The area immediately surrounding him is littered not with statues but with bodies. He laughs when he sees James coming; she, for her part, is the only one of Aslan's army who is nearly that eager to approach him.

[deepest_magic]

Bella, meanwhile, has no offensive capacity; she speaks through her brilliantly glowing staff to a unicorn who's limping enough to have trouble running, but not immobilized nor prevented from using his fantastic horn, and calls him over to her to guard her back while she does battlefield triage and administers cordial to hurt creatures. They throw themselves at the Witches' army as soon as Bella has them up again; she is to start very careful with the cordial, as the bottle is small, but presently finds that the level isn't dropping at all, heals the unicorn too, and drips a bit into the mouth of any injured creature on their side she can reach.