With Swords, Claws, and Teeth Bared

Meanwhile, Cerek was slowly returning to his cave after a day of hunting. He had made an ill-aimed pounce at a rabbit and, as a result, had painfully twisted his ankle. It would heal in a few days, but in the mean time, he would not be traveling anywhere fast.

He heard a swishing sound in the snow, and he turned his head. That swishing sound could only be--

And it was. Runners. The Witch. She seemed to see him--he could feel the coldness of her eyes--but she did not stop. It was not until she had passed from sight that he breathed again. She had the wand--the wand--Gwidon....

His throat tightened, and he turned again, limping in the direction of his cave. He did not want to think about Gwidon. Seven years had only dulled his pain, and it could return with a vengeance if he was not careful.

His fear had hardly diminished at all. And fear was something that his brother Agraf could never understand. Cerek envied him at times.
 
~Lava~ said:
Mia thought for a second and was about to say something when her nose picked up a scent. "I smell cat and wolves. Stupid infernal Secret Police. Always sticking their noses where they do not belong. Most of the wolves are pretty far off yet, one isn't. Well, if I couldn't find any scents earlier, they won't either..."
Click to expand...

While still not doing anything to draw attention to the Kitten, Flakefeather decided to take the risk of coming down within Mia's reach. When he stood on the ground close to her, he said quietly, "Today I heard one Wolf officer talking as if the Queen is angry at Narnians making ANY independent efforts to feed themselves. She wasn't always concerned with that. Maybe something has her more agitated now than usually. Do you know of anything going on which would anger or frighten her?"
 
For the first time all day, Mia was able to school her enthusiasm. Birds were not generally on the Witch's side but this direct question out in the open gave Mia pause. In her experience, it was only the creatures who were fishing for information that asked questions directly. Mia was very cautious as to how to phrase her response. "There are rumors of humans. That is enough. This is neither the time nor the place talk about stuff like that. That is best discussed by a cozy fire in a house with a nice book." If this were a spy, she hoped that she had given them enough flippancy to make them doubt that she believed. If it weren't she hoped that she had given enough invitation to get the bird to join her in safer quarters.
 
~ ~ Trying still to give Mozart time to post something if she's going to...


Flakefeather spontaneously brightened. "You can read? I never had the chance to learn, living under these conditions."
 
"Well, yes, my parents were very clear on that point, I was to learn to read because there would come day when reading might become important. They also made me promise that I would teach others when I left home. Really though, there are very few places to find books these days; I have several in my house."
 
"Fascinating! If I had ever gone to Archenland, where life is easier, I might have learned to read. But I've stayed in Narnia because I cling to the hope that I might see Aslan returning here."
 
In a low, almost inaudible whisper, "That very name warms me to the core..." Mia lost some of her newfound cautiousness toward the bird. "That is what I dearly hope is happening now." she said in the same whisper.
 
FLAKEFEATHER: "Even if Aslan Himself is not returning as soon as we could wish, there are signs of hope in the very fact that the White Witch is afraid even of mortal children of Adam and Eve. She has tried to convince Narnians that there ARE NO descendants of Adam and Eve--apart from herself, when she takes it into her head to claim to be one; but I know from my grandfather that there ARE humans in more than one place outside our borders. If Jadis were able to do so, she would surely kill THOSE humans also; if she HAS NOT killed them all, it can only mean that she CANNOT kill them all--that her power does not reach beyond Narnia itself. So she tries to keep us shut away from the rest of our world--perhaps dreading that we who remember Aslan would make common cause with humans."
 
Mia was anxious to talk about humans and the tracks she spent the morning running through but she was still wary especially since they were out in the open and rather close to at least one wolf's den. "One can only hope that one day we will have peace again."
 
Agraf stretched and stepped outside his cave, snow creaking beneath his paws. He had failed to discover any human sign, but he had no choice but to submit the report to Jadis. Quickly he bounded down the path, his eyes scanning the snowy path for footprints. A set caught his eye--prints that were like a wolf's. Yet something about them bothered him. He halted and eyed them closely. Something about them was not right, but he couldn't place what it was about them that made him so uneasy. He hesitated for a moment and then bounded onward, toward the two hills in the east.
 
From where he was with Mia, Flakefeather cast an inconspicuous glance up into the tree where he had perched, wondering whether Susan the Kitten intended to come down any time before dark. "Before dark" might be some while yet. Since the Narnian world was not a globe like Earth, its seasons were not determined by an axial tilt from the plane of ecliptic; rather, Aslan had always caused the Sun of this micro-universe to vary in its heat output on a seasonal schedule, and winter daylight was no shorter than summer daylight.
 
"Why yes, that would be very nice. I have a book called The Songs of the Timber that is quite good and has lovely tales about past encounters with the Great Lion. It has been in the family since before the queen's reign. If you will come with me, it will not take long for us to get there."
 
Mia led Flakefeather toward a house in a clearing not too far from the tree that the kitten was hiding in. It had belonged to a faun before Mia had acquired it so it was well built and cozy. It had the added beauty of being in a clearing surrounded by only Aslan's trees and having neighbors that were also strong Aslan supporters. The faun who built it moved out after deciding that reporting the actions of said neighbors and trees to the secret police was not worth his time and moved on to more controversial neighborhoods near the pass.

"This is home," she said. "If you let me get my key we will be inside by a cozy fire soon."

Mia opened the door and threw some wood upon and then stirred up the banked fire in the fireplace. She went to her room and came out gingerly carrying the book she had spoken about. She set it on the table and and started to flip it open to a well worn page and showed the Bluejay a picture of Aslan with King Frank and Helen. "This a song about the beginning of the world."
 
At the time when Mia unlocked her door, Flakefeather commented, "That's marvellous! The key, I mean. I'm always impressed when four-footed groundwalkers are able to handle small objects with their toes."

Then, when shown the book, Flakefeather moved his wings with excitement. "Yes, oh yes! My grandfather told me that the humans in Archenland remember at least a little of this story. They say that our first human King was a lowly working man on Earth, but Aslan chose him and his wife to rule Narnia because of their good hearts. Please, tell me more of what this book says!"
 
"The book talks of children who came with the 1st King and Queen but left after planting the Tree of Protection. It tells of the great care for the tree and then gives the Death Nell for it when it died a couple of centuries ago. It tells of wild parties when Bacchus and Silenus showed up. It tells of springs and summers. It tells about the great Snow Dance. It tells the prophecies. Four of Adam's children to come and save us from our plight. I don't know if I can trust you, telling you may mean my death but today I got up in earnest. I spent the day trying to track down the scents of two children of Adam that were HERE yesterday. I know they were, my source is too good to doubt. They left footprints but the snow wiped out any traces of where they came from and how they left, if they did leave at all. I might have even caught a glimpse of the Daughter of Eve while she was here. I was walking the one boundary that the Witch has not sealed. The Western Wild, there is not but dumb beasts there these day and there no need to protect herself from them. She was there for brief second then left my field of view. I thought she was a wood nymph for they are not as sleepy along the border."

OOC: Pssst...I always imagine that dogs et cetera might have used their teeth.
 
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Flakefeather now recalled speaking with some of the Talking Beasts in a town called Byron-on-Wells, east of here. Those animals had heard that the reason WHY Jadis was ever ABLE to conquer Narnia was because the last human King, a descendant of Frank and Helen, had neglected his duties. A pessimistic thought came to him: even if children were now being sent to save Narnia, what if they ALSO neglected their duties?

But the Bluejay suppressed this thought, and said nothing about it to Mia. What he did say was: "Despite my spying on the police today, I am confident that I have not been identified by them individually as anyone hostile to them. So I should be able to fly around, scouting, without attracting undue attention. Do you have any particular plan formed with regard to these human children?"
 
"No, I haven't any. They seem to have disappeared as fast they came. A beaver I know though..." Even behind locked doors Mia looked around and then spoke in a hush, "He says that ASLAN is on the Move. Maybe even coming to Narnia. I think that I might head toward Cair Paravel or the Stone Table to see what I find there. I don't know though. I might wait a few days and see what happens here first with the possibility of Alsan from the east and children coming from the west, someone had better see that if they come back they are greeted by friends."
 
"Well, I have no family or obligations in Narnia; I can make myself part of any effort to be ready for Aslan's return. And if it makes you feel any better about the risk of confiding in me, consider that I also took a risk, voluntarily coming inside an enclosed space with a large carnivore."
 
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