Categories > Cartoons > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles > The Lion, the Cat and the Turtles
Pledge of Allegiance
0 reviewsWho is this elusive "Red Lady"? Nobody in Narnia seems to know... but Leo is determined to find out.
0Unrated
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THE LION, THE CAT AND THE TURTLES
Chapter Five:
Pledge of Allegiance
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"Well," said king Rilian after having heard Leonardo's story. "It appears that I owe the two of you a great deal."
Moorwin bowed. Just as it had when she bowed to Leo, it looked a little clumsily -- but all in all, it looked better for a centaur to bow than try any sort of curtsey. "We did nothing more than what was the duty of all right-thinking Narnians, your majesty."
To Leo's great relief, he and Moorwin had been granted an audience almost immediately after reaching the castle. The two knights that had arrived a little too late to help out with the werewolves had escorted both Turtle and centaur to Cair Paravel, seemingly recognizing that what they had to say was important (and it probably helped, Leo supposed, that they saw that he had killed two hostile werewolves).
King Rilian turned out to be a fair-haired man, probably in his thirties, with an open, honest face and, thankfully, far less stuffy and formal than Leo had expected a king of a fantasy land to be. He had welcomed them warmly and listened to their story with interest as they told it, as had the assorted people gathered in the throne room -- only a rough third of which were humans, the rest being made up of talking animals, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs and a few other creatures Leo had never seen anything like before. A Ninja Turtle didn't stick out in a crowd in any way here.
"I must admit," said the king thoughtfully, "that I have never heard of this Red Lady."
"Begging your pardon, sire," said one of the stranger creatures present -- the one who stood the closest to the king's throne, looked like a peculiar mix of human and frog, with much-too-long limbs and dreadlock-like hair, and had been introduced by the king as 'Puddleglum, one of my most trusted advisors.' "but we both once knew a Lady in Green."
At this, a whispering and muttering rose in the crowd, and the king nodded, looking at Puddleglum with a grim expression. "This is true," he said. "And I forever curse the day I met her."
"If this Red Lady is of the same sort," Puddleglum went on, "and I don't doubt for a moment that she is, then it spells dark tidings ahead, for us and for all of Narnia, especially if she seeks revenge for her kinswoman, which is almost certainly what she does, I shouldn't wonder. And she apparently commands werewolves as well, which means even more trouble, especially since she has the power to make them invisible, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if she was around making other creatures invisible as well. She sounds the type."
"Easy, Puddleglum," said the king, holding up a hand and very clearly repressing a smile. "Things are rarely as black as you like to paint them. However, you do bring up several good points. If we're looking at another witch, then it could indeed mean trouble."
"Most things do, sire, sooner or later," said Puddleglum. "But we mustn't let it get us down. Keep a brave face in all things, that's what I always say. Even though we're all very likely to get horribly killed by werewolves and other nasty things before long, I'm sure we'll all fight bravely 'till the bitter end, and that's what's really important."
It would be inaccurate to say that this cheerful little speech was what made Leonardo's mind up completely -- in truth, his mind had been made up ever since he first drew his swords to fight the werewolves. Still, you could hardly ask for a better set-up.
He knelt before king Rilian, drawing both his swords to place them at the monarch's feet. "In that case," he said in the formal voice he used for solemn occasions, "I offer to you my swords and my skills, such as they are, for as long as it takes to deal with the threat of this Red Lady. If you take my offer, your majesty, I'll swear upon my honor to do all I can to aid you against this enemy until she is dead, defeated, or otherwise rendered harmless."
King Rilian's eyes widened slightly, but he smiled nonetheless. "Rise, master Leonardo. Anyone who could single-handedly face down three werewolves at the same time, and walk away alive and unharmed, would be an honor to have on my side. And what do you ask in return?"
Leonardo picked up his swords and sheathed them again, raising himself to look up on the king again. "Help to find back to my own world and my family," he said. "Don't misunderstand me, your majesty: I have no doubt that Narnia is a good country, but I'm a stranger here. I have a father and three brothers who need me, back in my own world."
King Rilian nodded solemnly. "Then by the Lion's mane," he said, "I accept your services and swear that in return, I'll do everything in my power to get you safely back to your own world." Then, he smiled again and became much less formal. "But before that time, I invite the both of you to be the guests of honor at the royal banquet tonight! Sit with me and Puddleglum here, and we shall talk more!" He cast a glance at Moorwin. "And I'm sure the horses and other centaurs won't mind if you join them for some oats and grass afterwards."
For a moment, Leo thought this had to be a joke about the centaur's "half-horse" status, but then he remembered how he'd seen Moorwin take a mouthful of grass earlier that day, and decided that this had to be yet another of these Narnian things -- especially since nobody laughed and Moorwin didn't appear amused or insulted.
(Later, Leo found out that all Narnian centaurs, having both the stomach of a human and of a horse, always eat double meals whenever they can: One "human" meal, consisting of normal, human food -- and one "horse" meal, consisting of oats, grass and other things that horses like to eat.)
"I would be delighted, your majesty," was all Moorwin said.
"Good," said king Rilian with a big smile. "Perhaps you would care to freshen up a little first, though." He waved a hand, looking over at the crowd, who were still following the conversation with interest. "Masters Durbin and Brinkle, if you would please show our honored guests to where they can wash and perhaps get a change of clothes while they're at it?"
Two elegantly-dressed dwarfs stepped forward and bowed, before motioning to Leo and Moorwin to follow them.
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The royal banquet was spectacular -- easily one of the most impressive meals Leo had even been at. There were all kinds of food; fowl and fish and game of every sorts; pies that were impressively shaped like ships in sail, or like fantasy (but for Narnia, probably highly real) creatures like dragons and unicorns; ice puddings and all possible sorts of fruits, not to mention drinks and beverages of every kind.
Even in the spectacularity and grandness of it all, it didn't feel overly formal. There was music and laughter and merriment, in which the king himself took an active part, and every so often, someone would cheerfully propose a toast to someone or something. Glasses were raised for Aslan, for the health of the king, for Leonardo and Moorwin, for Narnia, for piece and prosperity, for the king's excellent wine (this last one was proposed by a faun, who looked like he'd had a bit too much of said excellent wine even before the meal started).
For the occasion, Leo had elected to not wear his mask or belt at the table; instead wearing a gold-embroidered black vest that Durbin the dwarf had eagerly picked out for him, and that fit surprisingly well over his shell. He felt almost overdressed in it, but had reasoned that he had to wear something if he was going to sit at a king's table.
Even Moorwin had dressed up slightly, with some kind of fancy-looking green tunic, and her hair had been meticulously washed and braided. Since sitting on a chair would have been an impossibility for a centaur, she was simply lying on her horse stomach next to the table, which made her human torso the exact right height for the table.
King Rilian was a most gracious host, and seemed genuinely interested in them both -- though he did seem to spend a little more time talking to Leo. Which was hardly odd, Leo surmised, given that his story was the oddest.
"I have always been fond of stories of other worlds," said king Rilian. "My father, Caspian the Seafarer, often told me of one world in particular, namely the one the High King Peter and his royal siblings hailed from. He said he often spoke of all the times during the long sea voyage with king Edmund and queen Lucy, and their cousin Eustace, and how they would tell him of their own world. He had always wished that he could see it for himself, he said." He smiled. "He told me that theirs was a round world, like a globe -- and that people could walk quite easily on its surface without ever falling off, not even when they travelled to the places where they walked upside-down! It's a wonder to me how they managed!"
Leo blinked. Then he remembered that Narnia was a medieval society, and probably hadn't gotten very far in astronomy yet. "Well," he said slowly, "if my brother Donatello had been here, he would probably have been more than happy to explain it to you. It's all about the force of gravity and how a globe spins fast enough --"
"Oh, Aslan help them," muttered Puddleglum, who was sitting right by the king and was the only one who didn't seem the least bit cheerful. "If it spins, they'll be thrown right off, I shouldn't wonder, and what then? I always did say we would never see Scrubb or Pole again after they left for their own world, and no wonder, too, because if they haven't been run over by one of those horseless carriages they told me about, or drowned, or killed in a horrible war, they're likely to have been thrown off the world and floated into space."
Leo had already been told, discreetly, by Durbin the dwarf, that Puddleglum was a marsh-wiggle, and as such he would always take the blackest possible view on everything. ("But you'll never find a truer soul among Narnians," the dwarf had hastened to add. "They say he saved the king's life once, and the king is always glad of his company. You do get used to him. But if you have never met a marsh-wiggle before, I though it was better you were forewarned.") Now that he knew what a marsh-wiggle was, the Turtle wasn't quite sure whether he should be insulted that Portly had compared him to one or not, because Puddleglum did not only look extremely odd, but was also so gloomy and constantly harping on about dreadful things that might happen that it was a wonder there was anyone left in the castle that hadn't gone crazy. But nobody, strangely enough, seemed to mind him in the slightest.
"You say your brother knows about such things," said king Rilian. "Does this mean that you hail from one of those round worlds as well? That is interesting. You'll have to tell me more about... I wonder," he suddenly interrupted himself, "if it could possibly be the same one that's home to our friends, Eustace Scrubb and Jill pole -- and the High King Peter himself? As well as my own ancestors, the Telmarines? You would not, by any chance, have heard of these people before?"
"I can't say I have, your majesty," said Leo. "But it's a large world, so I suppose it could be the same."
"It would make sense, since that is the world where most our, shall we say, otherworldly visitors have come from." King Rilian stroked his beard thoughtfully. "But if it is, I must say that I had no idea that creatures such as you even existed there. Certainly my friends, of my father's friends, never gave any impression that their world were home to any race but the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve."
"They probably wouldn't," said Leo, wondering for a brief moment just where these Narnians' obsession with Adam and Eve came from. "My people... well, my family... we live in hiding, mostly. There aren't many who know that we exist."
"Like the old Narnians back in the days of Miraz the Usurper?" said Moorwin, nodding in understanding.
"Kind of, I guess," Leo agreed. (Although from the stories Portly had told him, the old Narnians probably didn't live in sewers.)
"Well," said the king. "If it is the same world, it might be a little easier to find out just how to send you back there. I do wish I had paid better attention to all the stories. We might have known more about whether it was the same world or not."
"Begging your pardon, sire," said Puddleglum, "but I travelled together with the two children for many a week, and they told me many things about their world and how it was. I shan't say I could be of much help, having probably forgotten most of the important details in the ten years that have passed since I heard the stories, and what I do remember I've probably misunderstood, or got all wrong, but that's no reason not to try and see if I can't be of enough help to determine whether it was the same world. We mustn't give up before we've tried, at least, there'll be plenty of time for that later, when it's all turned out to be hopeless."
"Right," said Leo, not sure how to react to this. "If you're willing, I'll be glad for anything you can help me with, uh, mister Puddleglum."
"Well, I don't know about help," said Puddleglum. "I don't know if what I remember from my old friends' stories will be of any help at all, but we might as well give it a go. It can't do any harm, or at least it can't do any more harm than not doing it."
Moorwin snorted and tried to look serious and dignified, but didn't quite manage to hide the look of mirth and repressed laughter. To compensate, she took a big gulp of wine from her goblet and spent the next half-minute or so coughing while Puddleglum helpfully pounded her .
King Rilian politely waited until the coughing fit was over before continuing. "It's true... we don't know any more about how to get to that world than we do about how to get to any others. It was always people from there who came to Narnia, never the other way around. Still, better the world you know than the world you don't. And if the Lion is with us all, we shall find a way."
"I propose we drink to that," said Moorwin, raising her goblet.
"Yes, let us drink to that!" king Rilian eagerly announced, raising his own goblet and standing up. "My friends," he called out over the hall, causing everyone to stop talking and turn to him. "Let us all raise our glasses to the Lion -- may he aid us in helping those who have lost their way home!"
"To the Lion!" the crowd roared, everybody raising themselves and lifting their glasses.
"And to the health of the king!" Moorwin called, lifting her glass higher than everyone else.
"We already drank to that!" someone shouted from across the room.
"Let's drink to it again! That way he'll be extra healthy!" another suggested, to general laughter.
Leo joined in on what ended up as three toasts after one another -- one for the Lion, one for the health of the king, and then, just to make sure, another for the health of the king. He made sure to take small sips; the wine they had given him was good, but he generally wasn't too fond of drinking too much alcohol.
"Your subjects are certainly enthusiastic about your health, your majesty," he said after everyone had sat down again and the chatter started up again.
"Well, I am the only king they have," king Rilian answered with a smile.
"Yes, and we have to take very good care of him," said Puddleglum solemnly. "We almost lost him once, you know, and we aren't all that eager to lose him again! Not to mention, he still hasn't married, and he has no close relatives, so if something happens to him, Narnia will be without a king -- and then there'll be wars and power struggles and probably black magic too, I shouldn't wonder, and..."
"I know, Puddleglum," said the king. "You all keep telling me that I need to find a wife. I will, it's just that... I think I've just gone slightly off the idea of marrying after that entire affair with the Lady in the Green Kirtle. But don't worry, my friend -- I've already made it a royal decree that if I haven't met someone before my thirty-fifth birthday, I will make arrangements to find a queen. Narnia shall not be without a ruler."
"We shall all hope that you survive for so long, then," Puddleglum muttered. "Though I shouldn't wonder if there was a famine or a plague long before that time, and the entire country fell into ruin and poverty, or that Red Lady showed up and turned you into something beastly, but that's no reason to give up hope, of course."
King Rilian just smiled again and drank some more wine, but Leo's thoughts turned back to this Red Lady. There really wasn't a lot they knew about her, but that she wasn't friendly seemed to be a given. Of course, there could be, and probably were, factors that he didn't know about --things that might complicate the situation. Was the Red Lady a witch, like Puddleglum thought, or was she something else? Or maybe, he pondered, she didn't even really exist, and the "Red Lady" was just some kind of code name for an organization or society?
But he would get to the bottom of this situation, he decided. Even if he hadn't gotten that suspicious feeling that he had somehow been brought to Narnia in order to aid the king... well, the wisest choice of action would still be to help the king, really. By swearing to aid king Rilian against this potential threat, Leo had effectively made allies out of most of the country of Narnia, and somewhere out there, there had to be someone who knew how to get him back home.
Besides; now he had a task, a goal to work towards. If he was going to be stuck in this world for some time, it would help to have something to do. Researching a mystery about a possible villain sounded right up his alley, even if it was in surroundings very different to the ones he were used to -- but that just made it more of a challenge, really.
He'd manage somehow, he'd find the Red Lady, and he'd find his way back to his own world and his family. Already, he felt that tiny hint of a thrill that always came to him whenever he had some big task to conquer.
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Miles away, and at approximately the same time, two men with a certain, savage wolf-like appearance -- one bigger and fiercer-looking than the other, and quite obviously pushing his smaller and somewhat unwilling comrade along -- made their way into a throne room far away from Cair Paravel.
The rugged wild appearance of the two werewolves could not have contrasted more with the elegant, grandiose beauty of the throne room. It wasn't a big as the throne room in Cair Paravel, but just as impressive -- though for slightly different reasons. The room itself looked like it had been shaped out of gold and silver; and jewels and gems of all colors, shapes and sizes decorated the walls, ceiling and the few, select pieces of furniture. Huge mirrors hung on all four walls, reflecting the shining and glittering of the precious metals and thousands of gems.
In the exact center of this room stood an elegant silver throne, upon which sat a woman clad all in red, a form-fitting dress with all sorts of jewels adorned to it, and a necklace with a ruby the size of a small apple hung around her neck. She was -- there's no other way to put it -- almost impossibly beautiful, but in an unearthly way, as if she couldn't be quite human.
As the two werewolves approached her throne, she looked up from the handheld mirror she had been busily admiring herself in, and said, in an almost bored tone of voice: "Oh. You're back. Earlier than I expected, too."
"M'lady." Both werewolves bowed, the smaller one wincing as he did so, as if he was still sore from a thorough beating.
"Well?" The woman put the mirror down and straightened herself. "Was the mission carried out?"
The larger of the two werewolves shoved his smaller companion hard. "Tell her," he snarled.
"Tell me what?" said the woman, suddenly suspicious. "Don't tell me that what you're going to tell me is that you failed in your mission?" She raised herself from her throne, her eyes narrowing in anger. "Don't tell me that that is what you're going to tell me?!"
"M'lady," the smaller werewolf repeated, unable to hide his nervousness. "I'm afraid that we did fail in our mission. We never reached Cair Paravel."
The woman slumped. "Oh, why did you have to tell me that?" Her voice was suddenly dangerously close to a whine. "Now I have no other choice than to hurt you." She grabbed the ruby on her necklace and held it out as much as the thin gold chain would allow, clenching her fist.
At once, the werewolf gave a gasp of pain and sank down to the floor, twitching uncontrollably.
"Oh, stop being so dramatic," said the woman, squeezing the ruby tighter and watching the werewolf twitch and gasp with the pain. "Tell me why you failed."
"We were -- seen," the werewolf managed to gasp. "Too close to -- Cair Paravel. Could not --- risk -- aaaagh!"
"Who saw you? How? My spell was supposed to make you invisible!"
"Don't -- know! Green -- creature! Warrior! Looked like -- turtle!"
The woman paused for a while, then let go of the ruby, which swung back to finally come to rest on her breast. The werewolf went limp and collapsed, ending up on the floor and panting heavily, occasionally twitching as aftershocks of the pain soared through his body.
She paid him no more heed. "What is this nonsense?" she demanded, turning to the larger werewolf, who had been standing passively and watching all the time. "Green creature, warrior, looked like turtle? What's that supposed to mean?"
"To be perfectly frank, M'lady, I'm not sure what it all means," said the larger werewolf calmly. "I only know that as we had Cair Paravel in sight, we were stopped by this strange-looking green creature. It looked vaguely like a turtle, but stood on two legs like a man, and carried two swords. It was riding on a centaur."
"Riding a centaur?"
"And apparently able to see through your spell, M'lady. It called us out and told us it knew we were there. Soon after, the centaur was able to see us as well, so we knew your spell had to be broken somehow. Since we could not get to Cair Paravel undetected without your spell --"
"No, that's impossible, my spell cannot be broken," said the woman, and then sighed. "And so on, and so on, let's pretend I've already said all that usual rot about how great my powers are. What else happened? What happened to the green creature?"
"Well, it killed two of us," said the larger werewolf. "And wounded one. Him, as a matter of fact." He pointed at his comrade, who was still lying motionless on the floor.
"I see." The woman took a deep breath and let it out again. "Isn't that always the way? Your honor demands something of you, so you lay plans, you think of some way to get to the king of Narnia, and then something completely unexpected happens that ruins everything, and all of a sudden you're disgraced. What an awful bore."
"Does this mean we are abandoning the plan, M'lady?" said the werewolf, looking surprised.
"No, of course not," said the woman, an annoyed tone in her voice. "We'll just have to change it. But now we're going to have to find out what this creature is and how it could see through my spell and how to deal with it." She sighed. "Most likely it's some big and powerful wizard or something. How I hate big and powerful wizards."
"It could be an agent of... you know... him," said the werewolf carefully.
"Aslan, you mean;" the woman snapped, angry again. "Say the word! I will not have a captain of the werewolf force who's too much of a coward to speak the name of the enemy!" She reached for the ruby again, but didn't actually grab it, just looked at the werewolf with eyes that said try me. "I was with Jadis, the White Witch, on the night when she bound and killed that wretched Lion on the Stone Table! The fact that he came back to life afterwards and defeated our entire army so that only a few of us survived by fleeing like cowards has absolutely nothing to do with it. As long as you work for me, you do not hesitate to speak the accursed name!"
"Aslan, then," the werewolf growled.
"And don't growl. You'll ruin your voice." The woman sat down on her throne again, rolling her eyes. "Fine. Aslan or no Aslan, we'll just have to find some way to kill the stupid green creature in order to get to the stupid king so I can pull off my plan." She grabbed the mirror and gazed into it, immediately cheering up at the sight of her own beautiful face.
After a while, she glanced at the werewolf, who was still standing there. "You're dismissed, by the way," she said casually. Then, as the werewolf bowed and hurried out of the throne room, the woman's eyes turned to the one who was still lying on the floor, still unable to do anything but breathe and occasionally twitch.
"You do realize how silly you look lying there, don't you?" was all she said before returning to her reflection.
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To be continued....
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Author's Notes: More canon Narnia characters in this chapter! I couldn't write a Narnia story set it in the time of king Rilian and not include my all-time favorite Narnian character, Puddleglum, in at least a minor role, now could I?! Like Portly, Puddleglum proved to be a little too much fun to write dialogue for, and I ended up having to put him on a short leash, or else the entire chapter might have ended up as nothing but Puddleglum bugging the hell out of Leo with his pessimistic optimism, or optimistic pessimism, whatever you wish to call it.
This chapter was mostly a "transaction" chapter; not much happening, but it was necessary to include it to at least lay some groundwork to the upcoming plot. I realized that since both king Rilian and the Red Lady (yes, that was her in the final scene, but you guessed that, didn't you?), who are going to play important parts in the story, needed some proper introduction scenes. Not to mention, the king and Leonardo needed at least one scene where they got to talk a little with each other, so that when Leo ends up working for the king, the king is a character in his own right and not just a faceless employer.
Now Leo has a definite job, and a definite mission, and the next few chapters should see a lot more action and plot as Leo really gets workin'. We'll also find out more about the Red Lady and what exactly she's planning.
Before that, though, we'll return to the other Turtles, Splinter, April and Klunk, and see how they're getting on with Susan. (It's not long before things start to happen there either, by the way!)
THE LION, THE CAT AND THE TURTLES
Chapter Five:
Pledge of Allegiance
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"Well," said king Rilian after having heard Leonardo's story. "It appears that I owe the two of you a great deal."
Moorwin bowed. Just as it had when she bowed to Leo, it looked a little clumsily -- but all in all, it looked better for a centaur to bow than try any sort of curtsey. "We did nothing more than what was the duty of all right-thinking Narnians, your majesty."
To Leo's great relief, he and Moorwin had been granted an audience almost immediately after reaching the castle. The two knights that had arrived a little too late to help out with the werewolves had escorted both Turtle and centaur to Cair Paravel, seemingly recognizing that what they had to say was important (and it probably helped, Leo supposed, that they saw that he had killed two hostile werewolves).
King Rilian turned out to be a fair-haired man, probably in his thirties, with an open, honest face and, thankfully, far less stuffy and formal than Leo had expected a king of a fantasy land to be. He had welcomed them warmly and listened to their story with interest as they told it, as had the assorted people gathered in the throne room -- only a rough third of which were humans, the rest being made up of talking animals, dwarfs, fauns, centaurs and a few other creatures Leo had never seen anything like before. A Ninja Turtle didn't stick out in a crowd in any way here.
"I must admit," said the king thoughtfully, "that I have never heard of this Red Lady."
"Begging your pardon, sire," said one of the stranger creatures present -- the one who stood the closest to the king's throne, looked like a peculiar mix of human and frog, with much-too-long limbs and dreadlock-like hair, and had been introduced by the king as 'Puddleglum, one of my most trusted advisors.' "but we both once knew a Lady in Green."
At this, a whispering and muttering rose in the crowd, and the king nodded, looking at Puddleglum with a grim expression. "This is true," he said. "And I forever curse the day I met her."
"If this Red Lady is of the same sort," Puddleglum went on, "and I don't doubt for a moment that she is, then it spells dark tidings ahead, for us and for all of Narnia, especially if she seeks revenge for her kinswoman, which is almost certainly what she does, I shouldn't wonder. And she apparently commands werewolves as well, which means even more trouble, especially since she has the power to make them invisible, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if she was around making other creatures invisible as well. She sounds the type."
"Easy, Puddleglum," said the king, holding up a hand and very clearly repressing a smile. "Things are rarely as black as you like to paint them. However, you do bring up several good points. If we're looking at another witch, then it could indeed mean trouble."
"Most things do, sire, sooner or later," said Puddleglum. "But we mustn't let it get us down. Keep a brave face in all things, that's what I always say. Even though we're all very likely to get horribly killed by werewolves and other nasty things before long, I'm sure we'll all fight bravely 'till the bitter end, and that's what's really important."
It would be inaccurate to say that this cheerful little speech was what made Leonardo's mind up completely -- in truth, his mind had been made up ever since he first drew his swords to fight the werewolves. Still, you could hardly ask for a better set-up.
He knelt before king Rilian, drawing both his swords to place them at the monarch's feet. "In that case," he said in the formal voice he used for solemn occasions, "I offer to you my swords and my skills, such as they are, for as long as it takes to deal with the threat of this Red Lady. If you take my offer, your majesty, I'll swear upon my honor to do all I can to aid you against this enemy until she is dead, defeated, or otherwise rendered harmless."
King Rilian's eyes widened slightly, but he smiled nonetheless. "Rise, master Leonardo. Anyone who could single-handedly face down three werewolves at the same time, and walk away alive and unharmed, would be an honor to have on my side. And what do you ask in return?"
Leonardo picked up his swords and sheathed them again, raising himself to look up on the king again. "Help to find back to my own world and my family," he said. "Don't misunderstand me, your majesty: I have no doubt that Narnia is a good country, but I'm a stranger here. I have a father and three brothers who need me, back in my own world."
King Rilian nodded solemnly. "Then by the Lion's mane," he said, "I accept your services and swear that in return, I'll do everything in my power to get you safely back to your own world." Then, he smiled again and became much less formal. "But before that time, I invite the both of you to be the guests of honor at the royal banquet tonight! Sit with me and Puddleglum here, and we shall talk more!" He cast a glance at Moorwin. "And I'm sure the horses and other centaurs won't mind if you join them for some oats and grass afterwards."
For a moment, Leo thought this had to be a joke about the centaur's "half-horse" status, but then he remembered how he'd seen Moorwin take a mouthful of grass earlier that day, and decided that this had to be yet another of these Narnian things -- especially since nobody laughed and Moorwin didn't appear amused or insulted.
(Later, Leo found out that all Narnian centaurs, having both the stomach of a human and of a horse, always eat double meals whenever they can: One "human" meal, consisting of normal, human food -- and one "horse" meal, consisting of oats, grass and other things that horses like to eat.)
"I would be delighted, your majesty," was all Moorwin said.
"Good," said king Rilian with a big smile. "Perhaps you would care to freshen up a little first, though." He waved a hand, looking over at the crowd, who were still following the conversation with interest. "Masters Durbin and Brinkle, if you would please show our honored guests to where they can wash and perhaps get a change of clothes while they're at it?"
Two elegantly-dressed dwarfs stepped forward and bowed, before motioning to Leo and Moorwin to follow them.
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The royal banquet was spectacular -- easily one of the most impressive meals Leo had even been at. There were all kinds of food; fowl and fish and game of every sorts; pies that were impressively shaped like ships in sail, or like fantasy (but for Narnia, probably highly real) creatures like dragons and unicorns; ice puddings and all possible sorts of fruits, not to mention drinks and beverages of every kind.
Even in the spectacularity and grandness of it all, it didn't feel overly formal. There was music and laughter and merriment, in which the king himself took an active part, and every so often, someone would cheerfully propose a toast to someone or something. Glasses were raised for Aslan, for the health of the king, for Leonardo and Moorwin, for Narnia, for piece and prosperity, for the king's excellent wine (this last one was proposed by a faun, who looked like he'd had a bit too much of said excellent wine even before the meal started).
For the occasion, Leo had elected to not wear his mask or belt at the table; instead wearing a gold-embroidered black vest that Durbin the dwarf had eagerly picked out for him, and that fit surprisingly well over his shell. He felt almost overdressed in it, but had reasoned that he had to wear something if he was going to sit at a king's table.
Even Moorwin had dressed up slightly, with some kind of fancy-looking green tunic, and her hair had been meticulously washed and braided. Since sitting on a chair would have been an impossibility for a centaur, she was simply lying on her horse stomach next to the table, which made her human torso the exact right height for the table.
King Rilian was a most gracious host, and seemed genuinely interested in them both -- though he did seem to spend a little more time talking to Leo. Which was hardly odd, Leo surmised, given that his story was the oddest.
"I have always been fond of stories of other worlds," said king Rilian. "My father, Caspian the Seafarer, often told me of one world in particular, namely the one the High King Peter and his royal siblings hailed from. He said he often spoke of all the times during the long sea voyage with king Edmund and queen Lucy, and their cousin Eustace, and how they would tell him of their own world. He had always wished that he could see it for himself, he said." He smiled. "He told me that theirs was a round world, like a globe -- and that people could walk quite easily on its surface without ever falling off, not even when they travelled to the places where they walked upside-down! It's a wonder to me how they managed!"
Leo blinked. Then he remembered that Narnia was a medieval society, and probably hadn't gotten very far in astronomy yet. "Well," he said slowly, "if my brother Donatello had been here, he would probably have been more than happy to explain it to you. It's all about the force of gravity and how a globe spins fast enough --"
"Oh, Aslan help them," muttered Puddleglum, who was sitting right by the king and was the only one who didn't seem the least bit cheerful. "If it spins, they'll be thrown right off, I shouldn't wonder, and what then? I always did say we would never see Scrubb or Pole again after they left for their own world, and no wonder, too, because if they haven't been run over by one of those horseless carriages they told me about, or drowned, or killed in a horrible war, they're likely to have been thrown off the world and floated into space."
Leo had already been told, discreetly, by Durbin the dwarf, that Puddleglum was a marsh-wiggle, and as such he would always take the blackest possible view on everything. ("But you'll never find a truer soul among Narnians," the dwarf had hastened to add. "They say he saved the king's life once, and the king is always glad of his company. You do get used to him. But if you have never met a marsh-wiggle before, I though it was better you were forewarned.") Now that he knew what a marsh-wiggle was, the Turtle wasn't quite sure whether he should be insulted that Portly had compared him to one or not, because Puddleglum did not only look extremely odd, but was also so gloomy and constantly harping on about dreadful things that might happen that it was a wonder there was anyone left in the castle that hadn't gone crazy. But nobody, strangely enough, seemed to mind him in the slightest.
"You say your brother knows about such things," said king Rilian. "Does this mean that you hail from one of those round worlds as well? That is interesting. You'll have to tell me more about... I wonder," he suddenly interrupted himself, "if it could possibly be the same one that's home to our friends, Eustace Scrubb and Jill pole -- and the High King Peter himself? As well as my own ancestors, the Telmarines? You would not, by any chance, have heard of these people before?"
"I can't say I have, your majesty," said Leo. "But it's a large world, so I suppose it could be the same."
"It would make sense, since that is the world where most our, shall we say, otherworldly visitors have come from." King Rilian stroked his beard thoughtfully. "But if it is, I must say that I had no idea that creatures such as you even existed there. Certainly my friends, of my father's friends, never gave any impression that their world were home to any race but the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve."
"They probably wouldn't," said Leo, wondering for a brief moment just where these Narnians' obsession with Adam and Eve came from. "My people... well, my family... we live in hiding, mostly. There aren't many who know that we exist."
"Like the old Narnians back in the days of Miraz the Usurper?" said Moorwin, nodding in understanding.
"Kind of, I guess," Leo agreed. (Although from the stories Portly had told him, the old Narnians probably didn't live in sewers.)
"Well," said the king. "If it is the same world, it might be a little easier to find out just how to send you back there. I do wish I had paid better attention to all the stories. We might have known more about whether it was the same world or not."
"Begging your pardon, sire," said Puddleglum, "but I travelled together with the two children for many a week, and they told me many things about their world and how it was. I shan't say I could be of much help, having probably forgotten most of the important details in the ten years that have passed since I heard the stories, and what I do remember I've probably misunderstood, or got all wrong, but that's no reason not to try and see if I can't be of enough help to determine whether it was the same world. We mustn't give up before we've tried, at least, there'll be plenty of time for that later, when it's all turned out to be hopeless."
"Right," said Leo, not sure how to react to this. "If you're willing, I'll be glad for anything you can help me with, uh, mister Puddleglum."
"Well, I don't know about help," said Puddleglum. "I don't know if what I remember from my old friends' stories will be of any help at all, but we might as well give it a go. It can't do any harm, or at least it can't do any more harm than not doing it."
Moorwin snorted and tried to look serious and dignified, but didn't quite manage to hide the look of mirth and repressed laughter. To compensate, she took a big gulp of wine from her goblet and spent the next half-minute or so coughing while Puddleglum helpfully pounded her .
King Rilian politely waited until the coughing fit was over before continuing. "It's true... we don't know any more about how to get to that world than we do about how to get to any others. It was always people from there who came to Narnia, never the other way around. Still, better the world you know than the world you don't. And if the Lion is with us all, we shall find a way."
"I propose we drink to that," said Moorwin, raising her goblet.
"Yes, let us drink to that!" king Rilian eagerly announced, raising his own goblet and standing up. "My friends," he called out over the hall, causing everyone to stop talking and turn to him. "Let us all raise our glasses to the Lion -- may he aid us in helping those who have lost their way home!"
"To the Lion!" the crowd roared, everybody raising themselves and lifting their glasses.
"And to the health of the king!" Moorwin called, lifting her glass higher than everyone else.
"We already drank to that!" someone shouted from across the room.
"Let's drink to it again! That way he'll be extra healthy!" another suggested, to general laughter.
Leo joined in on what ended up as three toasts after one another -- one for the Lion, one for the health of the king, and then, just to make sure, another for the health of the king. He made sure to take small sips; the wine they had given him was good, but he generally wasn't too fond of drinking too much alcohol.
"Your subjects are certainly enthusiastic about your health, your majesty," he said after everyone had sat down again and the chatter started up again.
"Well, I am the only king they have," king Rilian answered with a smile.
"Yes, and we have to take very good care of him," said Puddleglum solemnly. "We almost lost him once, you know, and we aren't all that eager to lose him again! Not to mention, he still hasn't married, and he has no close relatives, so if something happens to him, Narnia will be without a king -- and then there'll be wars and power struggles and probably black magic too, I shouldn't wonder, and..."
"I know, Puddleglum," said the king. "You all keep telling me that I need to find a wife. I will, it's just that... I think I've just gone slightly off the idea of marrying after that entire affair with the Lady in the Green Kirtle. But don't worry, my friend -- I've already made it a royal decree that if I haven't met someone before my thirty-fifth birthday, I will make arrangements to find a queen. Narnia shall not be without a ruler."
"We shall all hope that you survive for so long, then," Puddleglum muttered. "Though I shouldn't wonder if there was a famine or a plague long before that time, and the entire country fell into ruin and poverty, or that Red Lady showed up and turned you into something beastly, but that's no reason to give up hope, of course."
King Rilian just smiled again and drank some more wine, but Leo's thoughts turned back to this Red Lady. There really wasn't a lot they knew about her, but that she wasn't friendly seemed to be a given. Of course, there could be, and probably were, factors that he didn't know about --things that might complicate the situation. Was the Red Lady a witch, like Puddleglum thought, or was she something else? Or maybe, he pondered, she didn't even really exist, and the "Red Lady" was just some kind of code name for an organization or society?
But he would get to the bottom of this situation, he decided. Even if he hadn't gotten that suspicious feeling that he had somehow been brought to Narnia in order to aid the king... well, the wisest choice of action would still be to help the king, really. By swearing to aid king Rilian against this potential threat, Leo had effectively made allies out of most of the country of Narnia, and somewhere out there, there had to be someone who knew how to get him back home.
Besides; now he had a task, a goal to work towards. If he was going to be stuck in this world for some time, it would help to have something to do. Researching a mystery about a possible villain sounded right up his alley, even if it was in surroundings very different to the ones he were used to -- but that just made it more of a challenge, really.
He'd manage somehow, he'd find the Red Lady, and he'd find his way back to his own world and his family. Already, he felt that tiny hint of a thrill that always came to him whenever he had some big task to conquer.
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Miles away, and at approximately the same time, two men with a certain, savage wolf-like appearance -- one bigger and fiercer-looking than the other, and quite obviously pushing his smaller and somewhat unwilling comrade along -- made their way into a throne room far away from Cair Paravel.
The rugged wild appearance of the two werewolves could not have contrasted more with the elegant, grandiose beauty of the throne room. It wasn't a big as the throne room in Cair Paravel, but just as impressive -- though for slightly different reasons. The room itself looked like it had been shaped out of gold and silver; and jewels and gems of all colors, shapes and sizes decorated the walls, ceiling and the few, select pieces of furniture. Huge mirrors hung on all four walls, reflecting the shining and glittering of the precious metals and thousands of gems.
In the exact center of this room stood an elegant silver throne, upon which sat a woman clad all in red, a form-fitting dress with all sorts of jewels adorned to it, and a necklace with a ruby the size of a small apple hung around her neck. She was -- there's no other way to put it -- almost impossibly beautiful, but in an unearthly way, as if she couldn't be quite human.
As the two werewolves approached her throne, she looked up from the handheld mirror she had been busily admiring herself in, and said, in an almost bored tone of voice: "Oh. You're back. Earlier than I expected, too."
"M'lady." Both werewolves bowed, the smaller one wincing as he did so, as if he was still sore from a thorough beating.
"Well?" The woman put the mirror down and straightened herself. "Was the mission carried out?"
The larger of the two werewolves shoved his smaller companion hard. "Tell her," he snarled.
"Tell me what?" said the woman, suddenly suspicious. "Don't tell me that what you're going to tell me is that you failed in your mission?" She raised herself from her throne, her eyes narrowing in anger. "Don't tell me that that is what you're going to tell me?!"
"M'lady," the smaller werewolf repeated, unable to hide his nervousness. "I'm afraid that we did fail in our mission. We never reached Cair Paravel."
The woman slumped. "Oh, why did you have to tell me that?" Her voice was suddenly dangerously close to a whine. "Now I have no other choice than to hurt you." She grabbed the ruby on her necklace and held it out as much as the thin gold chain would allow, clenching her fist.
At once, the werewolf gave a gasp of pain and sank down to the floor, twitching uncontrollably.
"Oh, stop being so dramatic," said the woman, squeezing the ruby tighter and watching the werewolf twitch and gasp with the pain. "Tell me why you failed."
"We were -- seen," the werewolf managed to gasp. "Too close to -- Cair Paravel. Could not --- risk -- aaaagh!"
"Who saw you? How? My spell was supposed to make you invisible!"
"Don't -- know! Green -- creature! Warrior! Looked like -- turtle!"
The woman paused for a while, then let go of the ruby, which swung back to finally come to rest on her breast. The werewolf went limp and collapsed, ending up on the floor and panting heavily, occasionally twitching as aftershocks of the pain soared through his body.
She paid him no more heed. "What is this nonsense?" she demanded, turning to the larger werewolf, who had been standing passively and watching all the time. "Green creature, warrior, looked like turtle? What's that supposed to mean?"
"To be perfectly frank, M'lady, I'm not sure what it all means," said the larger werewolf calmly. "I only know that as we had Cair Paravel in sight, we were stopped by this strange-looking green creature. It looked vaguely like a turtle, but stood on two legs like a man, and carried two swords. It was riding on a centaur."
"Riding a centaur?"
"And apparently able to see through your spell, M'lady. It called us out and told us it knew we were there. Soon after, the centaur was able to see us as well, so we knew your spell had to be broken somehow. Since we could not get to Cair Paravel undetected without your spell --"
"No, that's impossible, my spell cannot be broken," said the woman, and then sighed. "And so on, and so on, let's pretend I've already said all that usual rot about how great my powers are. What else happened? What happened to the green creature?"
"Well, it killed two of us," said the larger werewolf. "And wounded one. Him, as a matter of fact." He pointed at his comrade, who was still lying motionless on the floor.
"I see." The woman took a deep breath and let it out again. "Isn't that always the way? Your honor demands something of you, so you lay plans, you think of some way to get to the king of Narnia, and then something completely unexpected happens that ruins everything, and all of a sudden you're disgraced. What an awful bore."
"Does this mean we are abandoning the plan, M'lady?" said the werewolf, looking surprised.
"No, of course not," said the woman, an annoyed tone in her voice. "We'll just have to change it. But now we're going to have to find out what this creature is and how it could see through my spell and how to deal with it." She sighed. "Most likely it's some big and powerful wizard or something. How I hate big and powerful wizards."
"It could be an agent of... you know... him," said the werewolf carefully.
"Aslan, you mean;" the woman snapped, angry again. "Say the word! I will not have a captain of the werewolf force who's too much of a coward to speak the name of the enemy!" She reached for the ruby again, but didn't actually grab it, just looked at the werewolf with eyes that said try me. "I was with Jadis, the White Witch, on the night when she bound and killed that wretched Lion on the Stone Table! The fact that he came back to life afterwards and defeated our entire army so that only a few of us survived by fleeing like cowards has absolutely nothing to do with it. As long as you work for me, you do not hesitate to speak the accursed name!"
"Aslan, then," the werewolf growled.
"And don't growl. You'll ruin your voice." The woman sat down on her throne again, rolling her eyes. "Fine. Aslan or no Aslan, we'll just have to find some way to kill the stupid green creature in order to get to the stupid king so I can pull off my plan." She grabbed the mirror and gazed into it, immediately cheering up at the sight of her own beautiful face.
After a while, she glanced at the werewolf, who was still standing there. "You're dismissed, by the way," she said casually. Then, as the werewolf bowed and hurried out of the throne room, the woman's eyes turned to the one who was still lying on the floor, still unable to do anything but breathe and occasionally twitch.
"You do realize how silly you look lying there, don't you?" was all she said before returning to her reflection.
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To be continued....
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Author's Notes: More canon Narnia characters in this chapter! I couldn't write a Narnia story set it in the time of king Rilian and not include my all-time favorite Narnian character, Puddleglum, in at least a minor role, now could I?! Like Portly, Puddleglum proved to be a little too much fun to write dialogue for, and I ended up having to put him on a short leash, or else the entire chapter might have ended up as nothing but Puddleglum bugging the hell out of Leo with his pessimistic optimism, or optimistic pessimism, whatever you wish to call it.
This chapter was mostly a "transaction" chapter; not much happening, but it was necessary to include it to at least lay some groundwork to the upcoming plot. I realized that since both king Rilian and the Red Lady (yes, that was her in the final scene, but you guessed that, didn't you?), who are going to play important parts in the story, needed some proper introduction scenes. Not to mention, the king and Leonardo needed at least one scene where they got to talk a little with each other, so that when Leo ends up working for the king, the king is a character in his own right and not just a faceless employer.
Now Leo has a definite job, and a definite mission, and the next few chapters should see a lot more action and plot as Leo really gets workin'. We'll also find out more about the Red Lady and what exactly she's planning.
Before that, though, we'll return to the other Turtles, Splinter, April and Klunk, and see how they're getting on with Susan. (It's not long before things start to happen there either, by the way!)
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