FicWad

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THE LION, THE CAT AND THE TURTLES
Chapter Eleven:
And You've Got Them Under Your Control


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When Moorwin turned to face Leonardo again, it was with an oddly blank look on her face. Without a word, she raised herself up on two legs, her front legs kicking wildly out at him.

Completely unprepared for this, Leo had just time to twist aside enough to avoid the main brunt of the powerful kick, but the grazing of the hoof against his cheek was easily as hard as a full-fledged punch to the face from anyone else. His cheek exploded in pain, and he twirled around, landing on his back in the grass.

His vision cleared just in time to see Moorwin rise to her hind legs again and coming down upon him in an even more powerful stomp.

If he had been just a tiny bit slower, his head would most likely have been crushed -- but Leo had fought for his life more than once and had in addition been under the powerful influence of Narnian air for several days. He rolled out of the way just as her hooves came crashing down, being back on his feet again long before she could raise up again for another stomp.

I think I lost a tooth, he thought fleetingly before having to jump out of the way of another powerful kick from the centauress's hind legs.

"Moorwin! Quit that! What are you doing?!" he yelled.

"Merely what I am ordering her to, Leonardo," said the Red Lady with a voice filled with glee, as she clutched her ruby, and Moorwin launched out with another kick. "Hypnosis, my dear green creature. One of the oldest forms of magic."

Leo jumped out of the way again, drawing his swords. "Moorwin! Snap out of it!"

"Oooh yes, fight her!" the Red Lady squealed. "Let's see how you fare against a woman that you're expecting to be good at fighting!"

There were some chuckles from some of the werewolves, who were still, along with the hags, gathered around them in a circle and would make it very hard for Leo to get too far out of the way of Moorwin. Leo's mind worked at full speed as he once again dodged the centauress's kick: She's stronger than me, and faster, and since she's hypnotized, she's not afraid of getting hurt herself. I'm more agile than her, but I can't dodge her forever, and I don't want to hurt her... only one thing left to do then!

Leo jumped out of the way of another of Moorwin's charges, and at top speed, he charged at the Red Lady with drawn swords.

Just as he'd expected, she instinctively took a step back from him as his swords slashed in the air in front of her, cutting over the thin golden necklace that her ruby hung on, and with a quick flick of the sword, the red gem was sent flying.

The hag and the werewolf on each side of the Red Lady were already halfway on the move to grab Leo, but he darted out of the way just in time to avoid them, coming to a halt just next to Moorwin.

Just as he had expected, the centauress had stopped trying to attack him, and was now simply standing there with limp arms, staring blankly at the world.

The reasoning had been simple: He couldn't hurt Moorwin, so the simplest way of dealing with the situation was to remove the influence over her -- and any fool could have seen that the influence was in the red gem.

"No!" the Red Lady shrieked. "Stay away from the ruby! None may touch my ruby!"

For a millisecond, Leo thought she was talking to him, but then he saw that one of the hags was running over to the ruby that was now lying in the grass a few feet away and reaching out to grab it.

Whether the hag had wanted the ruby for herself or was just seeking to bring it to the Red Lady, Leo never found out, because the moment her hand touched the stone, she burst into flame. With a horrible scream, she rose up and stumbled to her knees as the fire engulfed her completely.

Leo spent five precious seconds gawking at this unexpected sight, but then managed to come back to himself and turned to Moorwin instead, hissing: "Snap out of it! We've gotta get out of here now before anyone gets their act together!"

Moorwin blinked, the blankness vanishing from her face. "What --" she began in an uncertain voice.

"No time!" Leo hissed, hoping that the screams of the burning hag would drown out his voice to everyone but her. "Just come on!" He didn't like running out on a foe like this, but something told him that directly attacking someone who could take over your mind with a mere gesture would be a bad idea -- they probably had all sorts of defenses and tricks up their sleeves as well. Better to make a strategic retreat and take the time to come up with a better plan.

And then, out of the blue, three werewolves, all in their wolf shapes, sprang at him at once. One of them immediately fell back after the blow Leo had time to deal out with his sword, but the two others were on him and toppled him to the ground.

And then they were both sent flying off him by two powerful kicks from a centauress who had just snapped completely out of her trance and was once again alert and aware of her surroundings.

"Get up!" she yelled, raising herself on two legs to trample a fourth werewolf ready for the attack.

Leo rolled to his feet and had just about enough time to slash at a fifth werewolf who was coming at him, jumping over a sixth and sending it colliding with a seventh. Almost all the werewolves were in a battle frenzy by now; Leo recognized the wild and manic gleam in their eyes and knew that they were consumed by their own bloodlust at this point, completely unable to stop themselves even if they had wanted to. They all charged at Leo and Moorwin all at once, ignoring the barked orders of their leader, the cries of the Red Lady and the shrieks of the still-burning hag.

Fangs and claws were tearing at them, and though both of Leo's swords went so fast that they were only a blur, there were too many wolves, and he was soon overpowered and forced to the ground again, only vaguely aware that the same was happening to Moorwin beside him.

But all of a sudden, a cacophony of new voices, roars and yells and shrieks, mixed in with everything else, and the weight of the werewolves was suddenly lifted off him as, of all things, a bear stood over him, roaring loudly and swatting away four werewolves at once, as if they were flies.

Quickly getting to his feet, Leo saw that the entire clearing was now swarming with animals and woodland creatures: Bears and centaurs and boars and foxes and fauns and centaurs and dwarfs and hedgehogs and apes and cheetahs and stags and unicorns and squirrels and even a large griffin, all attacking the werewolves and hags with loud battle cries.

And in the middle of it all, Portly, standing on two legs and shaking his front paws in the air as he shouted: "For the king and the Lion!"

From there, the battle quickly turned tides, as there seemed to be no end to the woodland creatures. Unicorns and boars charged at the hangs with lowered horns and tusks, dwarfs and fauns went at werewolves with swords and axes, bears rose on two legs and felled enemies left and right with slow, but immensely powerful blows with their front paws.

The attack was so sudden, and so unexpectedly forceful that only minutes later, the Red Lady's crew had vanished completely -- though whether it was by magic or simply by running, Leo never found out -- leaving behind only a couple of dead werewolves and a badly-burned hag.

And then, both he and Moorwin were crowded by friendly, if somewhat overwhelming creatures: "Support them -- No, let them lie down! -- Are you hurt? -- Those werewolves are brutes! -- Is there anyone here who knows how to properly tend to a wound? -- Don't look at me, I don't even have any hands!"

"If you would just give me some space!" Leo said, managing to sit up despite at least three creatures trying to get him to lie down. "Thank you, but I'm fine...!"

And he discovered, to his relief, that he was. He'd had a few bites and scratches, and a couple of wounds were bleeding, but they were minor -- it seemed the werewolves hadn't had the time to dish out any more lasting damage before they were driven away. He ran his tongue over his teeth to check if he still had all of them intact, and was relieved to find that he'd been wrong when he'd thought earlier that he'd lost a tooth -- they were all still there, even though (and the relief dampened a little upon this discovery) one of his side teeth seemed to have gotten rather badly chipped when Moorwin had kicked him. Great. And it's not as if a turtle can afford dental surgery...

"Moorwin," he remembered, forgetting his tooth for now and turning to the centauress. "Are you okay?"

"As well as can be expected, thank you," she grumbled, straightening herself. She was, like Leo, bleeding from a few wounds, but luckily seemed no worse for the wear. "I don't remember much from after that Red Lady enchanted me, but... Other than that, I'm fine. A few scratches and bites, nothing serious."

"Scratches and..." Something in Leo's mind clicked as his feeble knowledge on werewolves (mostly acquired through watching of horror movies with his brothers when he was a little younger) kicked in. "They bit you? They bit us?"

Moorwin nodded, wincing a little. "A wolf's primary weapon is its teeth, after all..."

"The wounds will heal," said an older-looking centaur, looking at their wounds with an expert gaze. "They are little more than scratches. You were indeed fortunate, my friends. Aslan himself must have watched over you for you to escape in such a good condition."

But I thought that if a werewolf bit you, you became a werewolf yourself, Leo thought feebly, but watching the expressions of all the others there, it seemed that this wasn't so. These Narnians would know more about werewolves than he did, and if the tales of lycantropy had been true, they wouldn't have looked so relieved that Leo and Moorwin had escaped with a few bites.

Just to make sure, though, he asked the centaur (who seemed to know about such things): "You don't happen to know if werewolf bites are, uh, poisonous or anything like that, do you?"

"Poisonous?" This comment drew up a bit of laughter from several of the Narnians.

"I think you've got werewolves confused with snakes, master Leo!" one of them commented -- Leo recognized him as Dorin, one of the dwarfs Portly had taken him to see on his very first day in Narnia.

"I told you he was a good chap," said Portly from the edge of the crowd, chuckling. "I say, you've got to respect a person who can still make jokes after having nearly been mauled by werewolves."

All right, the tales of lycantropy are definitely not true, Leo decided, turning to the badger. "You've got to respect a person who can drum together a small army on such short notice as well," he said. "I'm guessing it was you who got all these guys here?"

"Of course it was!" Portly replied smugly. "I saw the werewolves taking the two of you off, so I ran to get a few friends. Got here just in time too, by the looks of it -- that lady, she must've been this Red Lady that you told me about, I take it?"

"Sure seems that way," said Leo, getting to his feet. His wounds stung as he did so, but all in all, he'd had worse battle wounds, and it seemed like the air of Narnia was already working its wonders on his scrapes, making them easy enough to ignore. "Anyone see where she went? Or the others?"

The reply came in the form of shakings of heads, mutterings of "no," "sorry," and "'fraid I wasn't looking." However, the griffin raised its head and looked at Leo with a thoughtful expression.

"But I might have something else to tell that could be of interest," it said in a soft, dignified voice that stood in sharp contrast to its fierce appearance.

Everyone fell silent and turned to the griffin.

"As you may know, we griffins fly far and see much," it said matter-of-factly. "And it wasn't even half a day ago when I was flying above the southern parts of the woods, when I happened to see this, this Red Lady right here in the forest, talking to a squirrel..."

"You never told me that!" said Portly.

"I never saw you between then and now," said the griffin apologetically. "And how was I supposed to know she was a witch and up to no good? I never saw her before, and from that distance she looked like a regular Daughter of Eve! But I remember finding it a little odd that after they'd talked, the squirrel set off and headed straight east."

Leo and Moorwin exchanged looks. "Cair Paravel," they said in unison.

"Has to be," said Leo. "She sent a pack of werewolves there before, but by now it's too closely guarded, so she's sending someone a little less...obvious."

"The king must be warned!" said Moorwin, looking alarmed.

"But why a squirrel? I never heard of any of them being traitorous," said Portly, to general cheer and agreement from the squirrels present. "And what threat could a squirrel pose to the king? What with his being an accomplished swordsman, and having knights and dwarfs and talking beasts to protect him..."

"Maybe the squirrel is just going to act as a spy or something," said Leo. "Or maybe there's some other target we don't know about. Whatever it is, I just had an excellent demonstration of the Red Lady's abilities to hypnotize someone... I don't think she'd have much problem enchanting a squirrel into doing her bidding. Moorwin is right, the king must be warned, at once."

"If the squirrel hasn't already reached Cair Paravel," said the griffin. "It's been several hours, and squirrels are quick on their feet."

"We'd better be quick about it, then," said Leo, for a moment finding himself wishing that Narnians had heard of telephones. "Who's the fastest here?"

After a dozen voices had called out "I am!" all at once -- squirrels, cheetahs, stags and even one of the bears (although this last one was probably stretching the truth a little) -- the griffin raised its voice again and said: "Since I'm the only flying beast here, I rather think it would be me."

"Right," said Leo. "You fly as fast as you can to Cair Paravel, then. Tell the king what you saw. Moorwin, if your wounds will allow you to run, then take the fastest runners and follow the griffin, in case they should need help here. The rest of you -- help me search the woods for the Red Lady. She can't have gone far." He made sure to use his most authoritative voice, the one he always used when commanding his brothers to get ready for battle.

"Leonardo," said Moorwin anxiously, even as the griffin took to its wings. "Is this wise? You saw how easily the Red Lady enchanted me... what makes you think she couldn't do the same to you if she wanted to? And even disregarding that, she probably has even more hags and werewolves on her side to protect her. Even you can't fight against all that!"

"Who said I was planning to fight?" said Leo. "I'm just aiming to find out a little more about our mysterious foe."

Because there's definitely something that's not right here, he added mentally as Moorwin finally gave up arguing and, accompanied by stags and foxes and centaurs and unicorns and cheetahs (and one bear, who looked determined, if not particularly able, to keep up with them) went galloping down the forest path in the direction of Cair Paravel. Yes, the Red Lady could probably have hypnotized me as easily as she did Moorwin -- or that squirrel, if my theory about that is right. So why didn't she?! And why bother with that meeting at all, if it's Cair Paravel she's after? And what the heck was with that ruby?! There's a lot more to this than meets the eye... and I'm going to find out what it is.




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Not too far away, in the thick of the woods, the woman currently on Leo's mind stopped the flight for a short moment, in order to count her surviving troops.

"I see what you mean, Captain," she was forced to admit, looking mournfully at the broken golden chain that her ruby had until recently been securely hanging from. -- and allowing herself a moment of sadness over the lost werewolves and the burned hag; soldiers and servants she couldn't really afford to lose. "That green creature is definitely a dangerous foe."

"Regrettably, M'Lady," said the Captain of the werewolves, with an angry glare at the other werewolves, clearly angry that they had succumbed to bloodlust when he had specifically told them not to. "And we did not even get that small piece of him that you wanted."

"Don't remind me," said the Red Lady, disgusted. "Ylgameth, this is all your fault! It was your stupid idea that -- Wait, where did Ylgameth go?" she interrupted herself as she suddenly realized the suspicious absence of the eldest of the hags.

The hags and werewolves all looked around, confused. "She was here a moment ago," said one of the hags.

"I'm not interested in where she was a moment ago, you idiot, I want to know where she is now!" the Red Lady snapped, a little more harshly than she had intended. "I know she was with us when we escaped that clearing..."

"If you had only let her keep her voice, M'Lady...!" the hag said, visibly upset. "She could have enchanted all those woodland creatures with her voice easier than -- Aaaagh!" she shrieked and sank to the ground.

"You do not say that again!" said the Red Lady, once again clutching her ruby and feeling a certain satisfaction in seeing the hag convulsing in pain. "You do not tell me that I should have let her keep her voice! The next one who even begins to say it will first have his -- or her -- own voicebox ripped out, and then be put on guard duty for the next ten years! Is that clear?!"

"Yes!" everyone answered as one.

"Good. I'm so glad we had this little talk," said the Red Lady, loosening her grip on the ruby and freeing the poor hag from her agony. "I'm really happy you all escaped unharmed, though," she continued in a much friendlier tone. "Too bad about... the losses..." (she could never keep the werewolves' names straight) "And, of course, Yareth, but she really only had herself to blame. I've told you all, time and time again that none save myself may touch my ruby -- and what does she do, the fool? Tries to grab it as soon as she has the chance, and gets burned to death for all her trouble. Tragic. Well, now you all know why you're not supposed to touch the ruby."

"All due respect, M'Lady," said the Captain of the werewolves, while two hags helped the recovering loose-tongued one get back on her feet, "what do we do now? Ylgameth's plan must be said to be a failure..."

"I know," the Red Lady sighed. "Oh, it was a stupid idea and a waste of time anyway. Let's just hope that our little friend reaches Cair Paravel and manages to get that part of the plan away..."

Her line of thought was interrupted by a rustling in the bushes behind her.

She immediately twirled around to face whatever was coming up behind her, sensing all the werewolves and most of the hags tensing up and getting ready to defend her if need be...

...and then they all saw that it was Ylgameth, coming strolling into their midst with a frustratingly smug look on her face. .

"So there you are!" the Red Lady exclaimed, trying to pretend that she'd known all along that it was Ylgameth. "Where have you been?! Didn't I give the order to retreat? Are you that eager to have this green creature, this Leonardo, skewer you with those swords of his? Because that's what would have happened if you had ran into him all on your own, you know, it's not as if you can speak, so you wouldn't be any use for interrogation, and... What's so funny?!"

Ylgameth was laughing voicelessly as she held up her hand, opening it and revealing that she was holding a tiny splinter of some hard, whitish material.

"Are you mocking our Lady, Ylgameth?!" said the Captain furiously, but the hag simply kept up her silent laughing and pointing to her mouth.

And all of a sudden, the Red Lady understood. "This... this is a piece of a tooth?!" she said.

Ylgameth nodded.

"One of... Leonardo's teeth?!"

Another nod.

"And you're absolutely sure it's his?"

And another nod.

"But that means..." The Red Lady felt the smile well up in her as she reached out and grabbed the tiny tooth chip, holding it up as if it was the most valuable thing ever. "The plan might succeed after all!"

And yet another nod.

"Thank you, Ylgameth," said the Red Lady. "Just for this service I'll completely forget that you ignored my orders. Oh, I'm sorry," she giggled as she saw the hag's face fall slightly, "were you expecting some great reward? Old hag, I haven't forgotten that you tried to enchant me earlier on. Praise yourself lucky that I've let you live at all! And now I'm even going to let you out of being punished for disobeying my orders -- that should be more than enough reward for you!"

There was a distinct sound of sniggering from a few of the werewolves as Ylgameth bowed stiffly and went to stand among the other hags.

"Now now, children," said the Red Lady with a gentle scold in her voice. "It's not nice to laugh at others' misfortune while they can still hear you. If you must laugh, kindly do it out of Ylgameth's earshot."

She found it horribly difficult not to start laughing herself at the dirty look Ylgameth was sending her, and in order to get a bit more control over herself, she concentrated on the tooth chip in her hand.

So small it was... and yet, more than big enough for her purposes.

Yes... It was old magic. Get a small piece of someone -- a strand of hair, a tooth, a fingernail... why, even a piece of a tooth would be sufficient -- and you've got them under your control.

It wasn't short, brief hypnosis like, say, the one she had put the centauress under. That kind of mind-control could be resisted too easily and wore off after a while anyway. She was certain that if she had tried hitting Leonardo with it, he would just have shrugged it off the way he could see through her invisibility spells. Even the centauress, while having fallen under the spell quite easily, had been able to break it after only a little prompting from him.

But /this/... this would be impossible, even for someone like him, to fight.

He's mine, she thought gleefully. And as soon as I get that piece of the king I sent my, heh, friend out for... he will be mine too. And then... She grinned cutely... fregretting briefly that she hadn't brought a mirror, or at the very least caught the sight of her reflection in her ruby while the grin had lasted, because it had certainly felt like a particularly adorable one, and she was genuinely sorry that she'd missed it.




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To be continued....
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Chapter Notes:Fun little chapter, huh? Will Leo really end up under the control of the Red Lady, or will he manage to somehow escape it? Well, you won't find out until the chapter after the next, because in the next chapter, of course, we'll return to Calormen and see how Splinter, Raph, Don and April are getting on. And there is also, of course, the question of Mike, Klunk and Susan, and what's happened to them...

Yeah, I know, there weren't any griffins in the Narnia books... but there were a couple of them in the 2005 movie, and I they didn't seem particularly out of place. After all, there must be quite a few Narnian creatures that didn't make it into the books (marsh-wiggles, for instance, only appear in one of the books, but there's no denying that they're genuine Narnian creatures even if no mention is made of them elsewhere.)

As for the part about the werewolf bites... There is nothing to suggest that Narnian werewolves are lycantropy carriers -- in fact, looking at the one identified Narnian werewolf and his memorable speech in Prince Caspian (/"Where I bite, I hold till I die, and even after death they must cut out my mouthful from my enemy's body and bury it with me."/), it seems pretty likely that they don't. Neither is their change from man to wolf triggered by the full moon -- and as stated earlier, they can be killed by other means than silver -- so most of the traditional werewolf lore wouldn't fit with them anyway. I don't blame Leo for being on his guard there, though... he didn't know.