Tranquility (Chronicles of Narnia fan fiction)

Chapter 26

Far away, in another country, a caravan of Telmarine men made their way down an old road through an ancient forest, in the middle of the night. 'Why did I decide to go now? And why come down this way? There are better ways of getting to Archenland... but this road... called to me...' The caravan leader, Rojed, thought anxiously. The trek down the dusty road was silent for the most part, too quiet for Rojed's taste, not even a bird chirped. All of a sudden the caravan stopped and Rojed looked around. "What's going on?" he asked, but none of his guard spoke, they merely stood and stared slack-jawed at something down the road.

Rojed turned and saw what men gaped at. "What in Aslan's green country is that?" An enormous wolf-like creature stood before them, blocking the way, it's body covered in messy black fur and a mouth full of razor sharp teeth grinning at them. "Werewolf!"

"Begone! Beast!" One of Rojed's personal guards suddenly shouted.

"No! Don't provoke it!" Rojed hissed, but his men ignored him and drew their swords, walking over to the monstrosity. The beast launched forward faster than they had ever seen anything move and ripped the guard's throat, tearing his head clean off and splattering the man's blood all over the horses. "Everyone get back!" Rojed screamed, yanking on his horse's reins, trying to get the frozen animal to move, but the poor beast was too terrified to move. All around him, he saw his men try in vain to defend the caravan, trying to fight the monster, but to no avail. By the end of it, the grass was stained red.

Rojed thought he was going to be the next bloody victim when the monster charged at him, but instead, he felt his neck and jaw grabbed. The next thing he knew he felt a vile liquid being poured down his throat. He tried to struggle against the werewolf's vice-like grip, but was unable to do anything. Once all of the liquid was drained from the small vial, the werewolf let him go. Rojed felt his body convulse as he was brought to his knees by the drug he was given. Before long, he felt himself collapse to the floor and lay still. At first nothing happened, but then after a few minutes, his vision blurred and he saw fog all around him.

A figure cloaked in white stepped from the fog and walked over to him. "Greetings to you, noble man... I am Jadis, the rightful Queen of Narnia," the figure said gently, kneeling next to him. Rojed could not move anything but his eyes, and could not speak, so Jadis did the speaking for him. "My position of wrongly taken from me by the, so-called, Kings and Queens of 'Old'... they stole my gentle rule..." she told him, poisoning his mind with her words. Rojed tried to struggle weakly, tried to speak, but his body would not cooperate. He felt confused, felt she spoke lies, but felt his control slipping. "What is your name?"

Rojed suddenly found himself able to speak. "R-Rojed," he answered weakly. "What... what do you... want from me?" he asked in a scratchy voice, as if he hadn't spoken in years.

"Oh you would be a great help to me, noble Rojed! All you have to do is follow my friend and let him take just a single drop of blood from you, that's all I ask. Then you will be free to go, of course," Jadis said, continuing to use her most gentle tone.

"I... I will do so..." Rojed promised, feeling in his heart that this was wrong but unable to go against it.

"Good, very good..." Jadis sneered.

"Where... where are you goin?" Rojed rasped, trying to move closer to her as she faded away. "Come back... my Queen!" He very suddenly felt himself lifted off the ground by the werewolf and carried off. It was several hours until the werewolf stopped and unceremoniously dropped him on a stone table. "What's... what's going on?" Rojed could still not move his limps but was able to look around slightly better. He saw that he was close to Archenland, it's lush forests and rolling hills all around. He lay in the center of what looked like an ancient place of worship, stone statues of a beautiful woman all around him in a circle. In the far end of the monument was an archway of what looked like a pure, thick, sheet of ice.