A Daughter of Aslan

XVIII : Finding the Pevensies

Malaki stood firm with his nose and ears pointed in the direction of the sound. After the first cry, the woods went back to silence. He stood like this for a couple of seconds thinking maybe he was imagining things until there were a shout and a loud clash of wood against wood and grunts of something pushing something hard. That was certainly not his imagination. After that, the woods went back to its original silence but Malaki was already making his way over to the sounds. He was careful to tread lightly in the snow, even though he was in a hurry, so as not to attract attention. Instead, he crept silently into the woods towards the sight into the dark.

The quiet treads must have worked because Malaki came upon the sight undetected, or at least Malaki thought he had. Sure enough, Two Daughter's of Eve and a Son of Adam stood observing the statues while two beavers stood looking at one of the Badgers. He knew they were indeed human because they looked similar to Elizabeth. The older girl looked to be a little taller that Elizabeth, they must have been around the same age.

Malaki laid in silence in front of Badger's house door with his shoulders hunched and head low behind a rock, parallel with the rest of his body and laid staring at the scene laid out in front of him. The loud sound of wood against wood from earlier must have been the barrel wedged between the tree roots covering up a tunnel Malaki recalled seeing earlier. He guessed the grunting sound must have been the boy pushing the barrel into the tunnel. From the way the children were acting towards the Beavers they must have trusted them. The only issue was Malaki wasn't sure if the Beavers were on Aslan's side or the Witch's side. Of course, there was only one way to find out.

"What happened here?" The boy asked in utter dismay at the view in front of them. As dreadful as the sight was it wasn't as dreadful as the fox now above them.

Malaki stood up in front of Badger's house facing everyone below him. "This is what becomes of those who cross the Witch," he said with a slight snarl towards the beavers in a warning.

Beaver, however, took this as a direct threat and sign that the fox was on the Witch's side. "You take one more step traitor, and I'll chew you to splinters!" Beaver spat at him as he tried to get close to Malaki in a threat but Mrs. Beaver was quick to grab his arm and hold him back.

Instead of being alarmed, Malaki let out a small laugh hopping down from the ledge the house was on. At least from the beaver's threat, he knew for sure that they were not on the side of the Witch. "Relax, I'm one of the good guys. My names Malaki," he tried to convince them with a sly smile and giving them a closer look as his feet touched the ground.

The children all stared curiously at Malaki trying to figure out if they should believe him and Malaki flicked his tail as he watched them. But Beaver didn't like how close he seemed to be coming towards them and didn't recognize the name. "Yeah? Well, you look an awful lot like one of the bad ones," he continued to spit at Malaki not trusting him one bit.

Malaki just rolled his eyes before stepping closer, tired of this arguing. "An unfortunate family resemblance," he said while Peter pulled Susan and Lucy closer to him as Malaki came closer, still not sure whether to trust the fox or not. "But we can argue breeding later," Malaki continued. "Right now we've got to move," he urged and the sound of barking and howling echoed through the tunnels and was heard by the small crew.

Peter knew they were running out of options and sooner or later they wouldn't have anywhere else to hide. As of right now, this fox was their only hope. They could only trust he was telling the truth and not on the Witch's side. "What did you have in mind?" He asked as Lucy squirmed in his arms with the wolves howls.

A sly smile was evident across Malaki's face and the next moment the Pevensie's and the beavers found themselves at the top of a tree as the wolves pushed the barrel away and began dashing out of the tunnel. Sadly for Malaki, he was left at the bottom of the tree defenseless.