03

WILD WOLVES

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"Edmund!" Lucy screamed out just as Alexandra covered the girl's mouth with her hand to stop the noise.

"Shush Lucy," she remarked and removed her hand, "She will hear you."

Alexandra watched at Peter lunged forward as if to start running, but he didn't make it far before Mr Beaver jumped up and pulled him backwards - it was humorous to watch such a small creature bring the boy to a halt. The two seemed to struggle before the animal eventually fell backwards, "You are playing into her hands!"

"Peter, listen to him!" Alex stepped towards the boy who took two backwards.

"We can't just let him go!" Susan shouted at Lexi and used her arms to wave around frantically.

Alexa took a few steps around Peter whilst he was distracted by his sisters so that she stood between him and the castle, she knew deep down that she could most likely take him down if she needed to.

"He's our brother!" Lucy sadly replied with tears almost in her eyes at the thought of losing Edmund.

"He's the bait," Beaver corrected her, "The Witch want's all four of you to stop the prophecy coming true! To kill you."

They all turned to hear the gates shut with a lock. It was then that Alexandra felt it in her heart, the ice solidifying within her chest and almost summoning her to Jadis. She even felt the familiar tugging that seemed to pull her to the castle walls. Everything else around her faded; it was just her and the beaming ice stuck in her heart.

"Alexandra?" Beaver called out to her and joined her side, making the girl turn to him with a glimmer of blue forming in her eyes that alerted him, "She's summoning you, isn't she?"

"I can fight it off. But the closer we are to the castle, the stronger the bond is," she groaned out; a hand over her heart where it was already starting to throb, "We need to go, if she is calling me then she is calling the wolves too."

That was all the others needed before they started to run back to the cabin, though she could almost sense the reluctance from the siblings but she understood why. She didn't have any siblings, but she had loved before. Losing people that you love was never easy and she could only guess how they felt about having to leave a brother behind.

The four children, followed by the beaver, left footprints in the snow as they dodged through the forest with the wolves now on their trail. Alexandra could only assume that she would also be a target to their attack, but she would rather die trying than live knowing that she could have tried.

"Hurry, mother! They're after us!" Mr Beaver shouted at his wife as they all filed into the small cabin and shut the door behind them, Alexandra and Peter being the ones to keep their backs on the door to block it.

"Oh, right then," she simply remarked with a paw going to her fur in fright and started to fumble around.

"What's she doing?" Peter coughed out in shock at her lack of hysteria or fear.

"Oh, you'll be thanking me later," she teased and continued to pull jars from cupboards, "Its a long journey and Beaver gets pretty cranky when he's hungry."

"I'm cranky now!" he shouted back at her as Peter and Alex continued to lean on the door.

The familiar blizzard in her chest appeared, the girl almost winced at the intensity of it all, "They're close, I can feel it," her eyes shifted to Mrs Beaver who put the jars on the table, "Do you really think we need jam?"

"Only if the Witch serves toast!" Peter scoffed outwards and rubbed his face.

There was barking outside the thin, wooden walls that definitely wouldn't hold the wolves out for long, not long enough for them to get out anyway. Suddenly, the wolves started to dig from all directions to try and get into the hut.

But as soon as the wolves were in, the Narnians and humans were missing. The beasts sniffed around the room to look for the way that they had escaped so silently and quickly.

"Badger and me dug this. Comes out right near his place," Beaver informed the others as they all ran through a secret tunnel underneath the house at full speed, Peter right at the front with fire to lighten the way.

"You told me it was to your mum's!" his wife scorned as Lucy tripped over the roots of a tree that stretched under the tunnel, Alex almost went flying over the girl but barged into Susan instead.

Her hand went to her chest where she felt the storm, "They're here," she whispered.

"Quick! This way!" Badger whispered over as Susan and Lexi pulled the youngest girl up and they all continued to run off.

Pants left their lips as they ran into a dead-end in the mine, they could only see the dirt and tree roots. "You should've brought a map!" Mrs Beaver smacked the sid of his head lightly."

"There wasn't room next to the jam!" he replied and jumped up, revealing that the pathway was through the top of the tunnel and not the side where they thought it was.

They all climbed out of the ground and back onto the snow with Alexandra still in the tunnel, Peter's hand went to her which she thankfully took as he pulled her up and onto the snow. But she didn't stop there, she quickly rolled a nearby wooden barrel and blocked the tunnel entrance with it.

They heard a gasp behind them followed by a thump as Lucy fell backwards in the snow and onto something made of rock, Alexandra's eyes widened at the sight of the badger family turned to stone. Her heart went out to Mr Beaver who reluctantly neared his friend and let his own paw touch the stone one of the badger with tears in his eyes.

"I'm so sorry dear," his wife hugged him from behind to comfort him gently, her heart also going out in sympathy.

"He was my best mate," he replied solemnly as Alex also looked out around her to see a few more creatures also turned to stone in the middle of what looked like a town with houses circling around the statues of the Narnians.

"What happened here?" Peter asked with his hand tightening around Lucy's as if protecting her from losing her like Mr Beaver had lost his friends.

"This is what becomes of those who cross the Witch," an unknown voice appeared as an animal, no a fox, jumped down onto the snow near them with his paws indenting the ice, "All but one, I suppose."

Lexi felt her cheeks redden at the subtle hint to her from the creature, she wanted to retaliate but she knew that it was the truth. In all one hundred years of the White Witch's reign, only one creature had survived the power of her wand. And that was Alex. When she should have turned to stone, Alexandra escaped with nothing but a part of ice in her soul. Ice that tethered her to the Witch; obligating her to a lifetime of servitude. 

Alex, along with the three other children, could feel the anger radiating from Mr Beaver, "Take one more step, traitor, and I'll chew you to splinters!"

"Relax, I'm one of the good guys."

"Yeah? Well, you look an awful lot like one of the bad ones," the Beaver sneered in his wife's grasp, she was the only thing keeping him from attacking the fox.

"An unfortunate family resemblance," the fox sneered and circled around them threateningly, "But we can argue breeding later. Right now, we've got to move."

"What did you have in mind?" Lexi asked desperately as the wolves howled in the distance and began to near them.

The group of six ran off to hide and watch as the events started to unfold. The wolves jumped out of the tunnel and knocked the barrel aside as if it was nothing, they all began to circle the defenceless fox.

"Greetings, gents," the fox's tail stuck between its legs as the beasts threatened him, "Lost something, have we?"

"Don't patronise me!" Maurgim the wolf spat at the fox with a glare in his eyes, "I know where your allegiance lies. We're looking for some humans."

"Humans? Here in Narnia? That's a valuable bit of information, don't you think?" he replied with a dry chuckle, "Doesn't the Queen keep one within her icy walls?"

One wolf jumped forward and caught the fox with its teeth sinking into the scruff of his neck, the animal released a loud wince of pain.

"Your reward is your life," the leader of the pack stated and got closer to the victim, "It's not much, but still. Where are the fugitives?"

There was a second where Alexandra doubted if the fox would keep their secret or would betray them. Peter felt it, Susan felt it, they all did. Her heartbeat picked up to the pace of a hummingbird with anticipation.

"North. They ran north," the fox wheezed out as his head dropped weakly as if to convey a sense of shame.

Maurgim waited to see if his façade fell, but it didn't. The fox held up the act just long enough for Maugrim to sneer one more time, "Smell them out."

Mr Fox was thrown aside like a piece of meat with a whine leaving his lips again. The wolves ran away.

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The children and three Narnians all sat around a fire as Mrs Beaver tried to help the fox that had saved them. Every once in a while a gasp of pain would cut through his words, "They were helping Tumnus. The Witch got there before I did."

"Are you alright?" Lucy asked from where she sat on a bench that they had borrowed from the houses, some bread in her hands.

"Well, I wish I could say their bark was worse than their bite," he grimaced.

A pained yelp cut him off again as Mrs Beaver grew agitated, "Stop squirming! You're worse than Beaver on bath day!"

"Worst day of the year," her husband whispered to the kids, making each and every one of them smile. All but Lexi.

"Thank you for your kindness, but that's all the cure that I have time for," Mr Fox finally stood up to his four paws.

Lucy ripped a piece of her bread off and chucked it into her mouth before finishing it, "You're leaving?"

"It has been a pleasure, My Queen, and an honour, but time is short and Aslan himself has asked me to gather more troops."

Alexandra didn't know who was more excited, her or the Beavers. "You've seen him?" Mrs Beaver gasped out with a claw coming to her lips in shock.

"Like everything we've ever heard," he replied with a satisfied smile on his lips, "You'll be glad to have him by your side in the battle against the Witch."

Alexandra always thought about what Aslan would have to say to her about everything she had done in the past. With the pain of the ice in her chest came the consequences of what she had to do to please the Queen, regardless of how brutal one may think that it may be.

"But we're not planning on fighting any Witch," Susan pointed out.

"But surely, King Peter, the prophecy?" he turned to the boy that decided to keep quiet for the conversation, his hand rubbing his arms despite the thick, fur coat on his body.

There was a silence as they waited for Peter to answer. But he didn't.

"We can't go to war without you," Mr Beaver added to what the fox had said.

Peter glanced up to his sisters, more importantly, Susan who looked as if she was willing him what to say yet she didn't give him any words. "We just want our brother back," he settled on and continued to fumble with the coat sleeves.

"And there is only one way to do that, Peter," Alexandra spoke up and pushed her white curls behind her shoulders where only the thin material of her shirt was present, where there was no thick coat to keep her warm. Lucy, along with her sisters, thought that the girl would freeze to death. "War isn't always the best option, but sometimes its the only option."

"That's easy for you to say, you've lived here for many years and we've only been here a day. All we want is our brother and then we will be on our way," Susan replied which only angered Alex more.

Alexandra stood to her feet, "You would leave Narnia under a Witch's reign? Jadis isn't just any Witch, she is the White Witch. She stole the throne and now rules unfairly over us. She has killed plenty and you want to leave knowing that you let her get away with that?"

"If it meant getting Edmund and going home, then yes," she replied with a shrug.

A scoff left Alex's lips, "I'll go get some more wood for the fire so you feel comfortable, seeing as that's the only thing you care about."

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I love adding my own minor lore to already existing lore