Chapter Eighteen
Finding the Pevensies
His paws left tracks in the snow as he pranced along the ground. The last known sighting of the children was where a faun named Tumnus lived. Malaki had never met the faun, only heard stories about him from Elizabeth. No one else really talked about him, almost scared to talk about him like he was long gone in history. The cardinal that saw them delivered this message a mere couple of hours ago, which meant the children must be far away from there now.
Malaki had been gone for almost a week ago still searching for the Son's of Adam and Daughter's of Eve that Aslan told him to find. So far the cardinal's information was his only lead on the children. No one had seen or heard of the children that Malaki had come into contact with except for this Cardinal. He knew he had to find the children, if not at least make sure the Witch didn't.
He couldn't deny how much he missed Elizabeth either. She was his best friend and companion. At one point even his mother, although he didn't consider her his mother anymore but instead as equals. He figured Elizabeth felt the same as well considering she treated him as her equal. As loyal as he was to Aslan, he always hated having to be separated from Elizabeth for a long time. Especially for this mission, he had a strange feeling He couldn't explain that he wasn't going to be coming back to the camp for a while.
For now, he had been trudging through the dark for a good hour and there was still no sign of the children. He let out a sigh that echoed throughout the stillness and silence of the woods. How could four children go unnoticed throughout the woods? Someone had to be with them. The only question was who, and could they be trusted?
Carefully, Malaki started sniffing the ground seeing if he could pick up a funny scent he couldn't quite recognize. Or even a scent somewhat similar to Elizabeth's considering she was a Daughter of Eve than the four children now in Narnia should smell at least a little bit like Elizabeth. Unfortunately for Malaki though, he wasn't picking up anything, actually not any smell that even related to an animal. The snow that had been falling was so heavy that by this point it had covered up any tracks and smells that had been lingering for some time and now Malaki wasn't able to pick up anything.
A loud cry was sent bouncing through the woods and sent the ears on top of Malaki's head shooting skyward. The sound came from the camping spot of some badgers, squirrels, bunnies, and other small creatures Malaki had been to earlier that day. Of course, that was before the Witch came through and turned them all to stone. Malaki was forced to watch from a distance as the creatures helplessly were turned against their wills for doing nothing wrong, just an example of the Witch's rage. Strange that a cry would come from that direction unless someone had stumbled upon that site and seen the wreckage left behind. Only, that sound didn't seem to come from any creature Malaki was aware of. If he didn't know any better, the sound came off as very humanistic, like something Elizabeth would cry out during her battle training. But why was it coming from there?
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.
As the wolves clambered out of the tunnel barking and howling, Malaki was left pacing up and down in the snow with his tail flicking back and forth while he tried to come up with a story as to why he was here. He knew if he didn't come up with something quick and if it wasn't convincing enough that the wolves wouldn't believe him. Then they would find the children and the beavers shortly after, and of course, Malaki would not be left to tell the tale.
"Greetings gents," Malaki said trying to sound confident as the wolves began to walk in a circle around him. "Lost something, have we?"
"Don't patronize me!" One of them snarled at him showing off his fangs. "I know where your allegiance lies." From the authoritative tone and the way the other wolves turned to this one meant that this must have been their leader or Maugrim. If this was the one Elizabeth had told Malaki about, he would have to choose his words very carefully.
"We're looking for some humans," Maugrim said in a grave tone, annoyed that they lost the children again and now were stuck to deal with this ridiculous fox.
The Pevensies and the beavers, sat high up in the tree making no sound they possibly could. Any sound could give them away since wolves have such strong hearing. Instead, they were forced to sit in the tree looking down to watch what went on below them in pure silence.
Malaki let out a laugh at Maugrim, his shoulders shaking. "Humans? Here in Narnia?" He asked looking confused scrunching his face up and as if Maugrim had lost his mind. "That's a valuable bit of information, don't you think?"
Maugrim tilted his head towards Malaki, making a motion towards another wolf that then jumped on Malaki grabbing him in between his jaws. Malaki was then left airborne in-between the wolf's teeth barely able to breathe. It felt as if all the air had been knocked out of him. Lucy gasped in the air about to let out a cry for the fox but Peter was quick to grab her mouth shut with his hand.
Maugrim then took a step towards Malaki, his eyes level with the fox. "Your reward is your life," he sneered at him as Malaki let out a soft whimper, more so from pain than giving Maugrim information. "It's not much," Maugrim said with a harsh laugh before turning serious again. "But still."
Malaki had to come up with something now before it was too late. Otherwise, the wolves would know it was a lie. "Where are the fugitives?" Maugrim demanded to know and Malaki out another whimper before hanging his head.
"North," he said quietly lifting his head back up. "They ran north," he finished with a slight nudge of his paw in the direction he was telling the wolves.
Maugrim watched Malaki for a few seconds before letting out a growl and turning to the wolves. "Smell them out," he ordered before letting out a bark and taking off in that direction, the other wolves hot on his tail. The wolf that held Malaki threw him out of his jaw and took off after the others while leaving Malaki in the snow
Malaki made a slow effort to get up before he fell back onto the snow, his side feeling as if it was on fire from the bite. He had never felt something as bad as this before. The Pevensie's and the beavers watched in horror as Malaki lay stillborn on the snow until they knew for sure they were safe and the wolves were gone before hopping down from the tree and coming to Malaki's rescue. After building a fire, everyone sat gathered around the small flame while Mrs. Beaver sat with Malaki trying to fix his bite.
"They were helping Tumnus. The Witch got here before I did," Malaki said in a grave tone, trying to explain what had happened before he found the children. He let out a sharp cry from the pain in his side where Mrs. Beaver was picking and Lucy's eyes grew huge.
"Are you alright?" She asked him innocently not knowing what else to do.
"Well, I wish I could say their bark was worse than their bite. Ow!" He yelped from the pain and Mrs. Beaver jumped.
"Stop squirming!" She ordered him, giving him a commanding look. "You're worse than Beaver on bath day."
Malaki strongly wished that Elizabeth was here to help him instead of the beavers, although their intentions were kind. She always seemed to know how to fix cuts and wounds and sometimes would even use her magic was painless and a much better option. This effort Mrs. Beaver was trying to perform was only painful and seemed to not even be helping. Malaki squirmed out from underneath her, getting out of her grip, before standing up and backing up from Mrs. Beaver. "Thank you for your kindness, but I'm afraid that's all the time I have time for."
Susan and Lucy both looked at the fox in shock. He had only just gotten here and saved their lives as well. "You're leaving?" Lucy asked with a concerned tone.
"It has been a pleasure My Queen, and an honor," Malaki said bowing low to the ground. "But time is short and Aslan himself has asked me to gather more troops for his army."
The beavers gasped and Mrs. Beaver smiled showing her teeth while Beaver's eyes just grew bigger and bigger in awe. "You've seen Aslan? You must have also met his daughter then?"
"What're they like?" Mrs. Beaver exclaimed in excitement. The children also stopped what they were doing and turned to Malaki, interested in what he had to say about them.
Malaki smiled at all of them his eyes full of warmth just thinking about the two. "Like everything we've ever heard. You'll be glad to have them by your side in the battle against the White Witch," he said as he turned to Peter. "His daughter has trained for many years to fight alongside you."
Instead of looking excited, though, Peter looked like he was about to vomit and Susan looked horrified. "But we're not planning on fighting any Witch," Susan explained looking down at Malaki.
Malaki lost his smile and he looked shocked. "But surely King Peter, the prophecy!"
"We can't go to war without you," Beaver said in a soft voice to Peter who was looking at the ground.
Peter looked over at Susan before looking back at the others and shaking his head with a sigh. "We just want our brother back."
Malaki sighed at Peter's response. He sounded just like Elizabeth, typical. "Sometimes we have to set ourselves aside and think of the greater good of those around us," Malaki said to the Pevensie's before he turned on his foot and was off into the night.
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A/N:
It's moments like this where I just sit quietly and do a few deep breaths.
Why can't Malaki just go with them? Like please, JUST GO WITH THEM CAUSE WE ALL KNOW WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO YOU BECAUSE YOU DON'T.
It's fine. Just a few more breaths and I'll be good.
Let me know what you're thinking and be sure to vote on the chapter!!!