#and sometimes you find that the Calormenes are felling the Trees and that the world is at its end

[queenlucythevaliant]

This parallel brutally guts me:

“And so say I,” said King Edmund. “And I have such desire to find satisfaction of this thing that I would not by my good will turn back for the richest jewel in all Narnia and all the islands.”

“Then in the name of Aslan,” said Queen Susan, “if ye will have it so, let us go on and take the adventure that shall fall to us.”

--The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, “The Hunting of the White Stag”

"Aslan," said the King at last, in a very low voice. "Aslan. Could it be true? Could he be felling the holy trees and murdering the Dryads?"

"Unless the Dryads have all done something dreadfully wrong — " murmured Jewel.

"But selling them to Calormenes!" said the King. "Is it possible?"

"I don't know," said Jewel miserably. "He's not a tame Lion."

"Well," said the King at last, "we must go on and take the adventure that comes to us."

--The Last Battle, “The Rashness of the King”

[valeptraglia]

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Battle of Calormen

All rights to C. S. Lewis

Chapter 1: "Again?"

It was a cold and raining, typical autumnal day in Finchley. In a comfortable couch sat a young man with many books around him, a soft light illuminated his handsome face, and blond locks fell over his blue eyes.

His name was Peter Pevensie, also known as High King Peter the Magnificent, but that was a long time ago, when he and his siblings, Susan, Lucy and Edmund, had found themselves in a completely different world, called Narnia, where they ruled for fifteen years as monarchs. They had entered Narnia through a wardrobe in an old house of a certain Professor Kirke, when they spent some months there in the war time.

Now Peter was sitting in the studio at their parents house, the family had gathered for a family weekend after the news that his sister Susan was dating a guy called Robert, apparently it was a very serious relationship. He decided to take the opportunity to look in the library some books he was sure would come in hand for his research.

As he was picking up a book to look further into the cover of it suddenly the door of the room opened and a tall, dark haired young man came in talking loudly followed by a young woman, a little shorter with chestnut curls bouncing on her back. King Edmund The Just and Queen Lucy The Valiant.

They were talking animatedly and plopped down on the couch besides him dropping in the process some books to the floor. Peter sighed and put down the book on his hand, realising that he wouldn't get much done with those two in the same room.

"Fancy a chess game?" asked Edmund to Peter.

"I'll win this time" answer Peter with a determined look on his face.

"Yes sure, maybe someday, don't lose hope" retorted Edmund with a wink earning a pillow to his face.

Lucy laughed as a tall and gracious young woman enter the room rolling her eyes at the display in front of her. Susan The Gentle, sat on an armchair across from her siblings.

Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie were out picking some groceries so they spent the next hour in comfortable silence.. The two brothers decided to take the chess game to the floor in front of the fireplace, while Lucy sprawled on the couch looking out the window and occasionally throwing some witty remarks and snickering at the boys. Susan sat silently on the armchair reading a magazine shaking her head and trying to hide the smile that tugged at her lips when her elder brother threw a fit each and every time Edmund won the game.

These four people sitting in the room were no longer the children that had come into Narnia all those years ago, neither they were the grown ups that stood on the woods of Narnia after fifteen long years of reign. They were in the middle now. Strange thing time. They had grown up as monarchs in Narnia, they ruled for many years, they were adults, yet as they came out of the wardrobe they were children again, and not a minute had passed in this world. It was hard, being children again, and be treated like it, beginning again, it was really hard. They all had an old spirit.

To grow up again, in Finchley, was challenging, although pretty normal life there.

The hour went by and Peter let himself fall to the floor with a growl.

"You are a sore loser, you know? One would think that after all this time you'd be used to losing, apparently not." said Edmund with smirk plastered on his face.

"Shut up" said Peter lifting his head from the ground just an inch to throw his brother a nasty look.

Susan, who was long finished with her magazine, stood up with a yawn. "Well I could use a cup of tea" she said smoothing her skirt "Anyone?" she asked looking up to her siblings.

"Sounds nice" agreed Peter standing up too. "I'll help you. You two want some tea?"

Edmund and Lucy nod their heads. As the last two were left alone in the room Edmund looked at Lucy, studying her face quitely. She was looking out the window intently.

"What?" she asked with a knowing smile on her face, her eyes never leaving the window,

Edmund laughed. "You are oddly quiet today little sister. What's on your mind?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "I guess I am feeling nostalgic. All of us together, it's been quite some time, you know?"

"Aaaaaawwwwwwww" said Edmund with a mocking face getting up from his spot on the floor and giving her sister a big bear hug "you've missed me! I knew it!" and he started tickling her sides.

"Stop it! Get off me you fool!" she exclaimed laughing and trying to push his brother away.

Edmund sat beside her on the couch laughing soundly, and soon Peter came in carrying a tray with Susan on his heels.

They sipped their tea chatting, Susan was telling them about the numerous parties she had been invited, apparently her social life was very active,she was trying to convince Lucy to tag along to a party the next week with her and Robert, now considered to be old enough to assist, so they could introduce her to interesting personalities. Lucy was throwing excuses all over the place to not go and both brothers share a glance and smiled quickly covering it with the cup of tea.

Susan was not convinced with her excuses but let go the subject, and Lucy took the chance quickly to asked Peter about his studies before Susan could keep talking about parties.

Suddenly Susan dropped her cup spilling tea all over the floor startling everybody. She was looking behind Edmund and Lucy, straight out the window, her face pale.

Quickly Edmund turned around while Lucy looked at her sister with concern "Susan? Are you alright?" she asked.

"Pete, come see this" Edmund had an amused look on his face, the corner of his lips starting to form a smile.

As Peter moved closely to the window leaning over the couch and screwed his eyes to see through the pouring rain outside "Oh my…"

Soon enough Lucy was hanging from the back of the couch watching out the window too, mouth slightly open in amazement.

Outside where they should be looking at the front yard, the street and some of the houses on the other side of the street, was standing a full forest.

"Do you think…" started asking Edmund but was cut off by Susan, who was still sitting on her armchair across from the window.

"No" she said shaking her head and standing up "it is nothing, the glass must be dirty. It can not be."

"Dirty?! Are you saying that dirty window is making us see a full forest where the front yard should be?!" exclaimed Edmund looking annoyingly at her.

"Shhhhhh!" she shushed him nervously looking around her as if someone could hear them.

"What are you so afraid of Susan?" asked Edmund starting to get angry at her.

"Stop it you two" said Peter with severe voice "Susan it is there don't deny it" he add looking at Susan who threw her hands over her head as if giving up and turned around facing the wall."What do we do?" asked Peter looking nervously at the forest.

"Let's get in! Of course!" said Lucy as if it was the most stupid question she had ever heard and she started to walked towards the door of the room but before she could go any further Susan grabbed her from the arm stopping her.

"We are not supposed to go back, he said we wouldn't go back" she said putting aside her hair out of her face.

"But it is here! Aslan wouldn't do this to us if he didn't want us back in Narnia!" Lucy said yanking away from her sister.

"She is right" intervened Edmund "I think we should get in and find out what's going on" he said firmly.

Soon all four of them were standing on the front door of the house. Peter had his hand on the door knob, unsure he looked back to his sibling, Lucy was nodding intently, Edmund was looking alert and Susan looked as if she was battling with herself. Slowly he turned the knob and opened the door.

In the other side the sun illuminated the branches of the trees and the smell of fresh grass could be smelt from where they were standing. He took a tempting step towards the forest and then stopped, he took a deep breath and went completely into the forest, Lucy followed with Edmund stick on her heels and finally Susan.

As soon as the four siblings stood on the forest they looked back and there was nothing left of the rainy Finchley. They could feel the warm weather, the sun passing through the trees, fresh air hit them in the face as they stood still looking at each other and started to form huge smiles on their faces, Susan's was a more insecure one and soon the smiles were replaced with loud laughter that seemed to resound in every corner of the forest.

When the laughter subsided Edmund asked "Now what?".

"Now… we walk" answered Peter shrugging his shoulders.

They started walking in the forest between the trees until they found a path and followed it. Maybe, with some luck they would come across someone in the way.

"It is very silent" observed Susan looking to the sides.

"The trees" said Lucy caressing a big willow. "Again? Is it possible?" she asked looking to her siblings.

"No" answered Edmund looking carefully around him "we are not still in Narnia" he said starting to walk again.

They kept walking for more than an hour in complete silence until they reach the end of the path and they found themselves being dragged again into the depths of the forest. Sometimes they had to stop and help the one who had got caught in the strong brunches of the trees, or the one who had tripped with a rock or a root.

"Look!" exclaimed Susan all of sudden.

And they all looked were she was pointing. Between the trees, a little far away from them a gang of centaurs passed galloping very fast to the south.

"Hey!"

"Wait!"

"Over here!"

But the centaurs continue galloping and they didn't listen to their shouts and calls.

"Come on!" said Edmund starting to run fast behind the centaurs.

"Edmund!" shouted Lucy behind him with Susan and Peter.

They run and shouted to the centaurs until they couldn't see them anymore and they couldn't hear their heavy hoofs against the forest's ground.

"They didn't even look back!" said Susan very irritated and exhausted.

"We should keep walking; maybe we find them farther on" advised Lucy taking her hand.

And so they did; they walked for a quarter of an hour until Susan stopped them again.

"Did you hear that?" she asked quietly.

"Now what?" said Edmund tiredly.

She shot him a nasty look and then the answer came to his ears. Rustling.

"The trees!" exclaimed Lucy excitedly.

That's when they realized the trees were moving slowly, like dancing in step with the wind. They were like whispering, talking to each other, the voices quietly reach the siblings ears but they couldn't really understand what they were saying.

As they were intently trying to catch what the trees were saying, they missed some forms moving between the trees until it was too late…

[readbookywooks]

THE RASHNESS OF THE KING

About three weeks later the last of the Kings of Narnia sat under the great oak which grew beside the door of his little hunting lodge, where he often stayed for ten days or so in the pleasant spring weather. It was a low, thatched building not far from the Eastern end of Lantern Waste and some way above the meeting of the two rivers. He loved to live there simply and at ease, away from the state and pomp of Cair Paravel, the royal city. His name was King Tirian, and he was between twenty and twenty-five years old; his shoulders were already broad and strong and his limbs full of hard muscle, but his beard was still scanty. He had blue eyes and a fearless, honest face. There was no one with him that spring morning except his dearest friend, Jewel the Unicorn. They loved each other like brothers and each had saved the other's life in the wars. The lordly beast stood close beside the King's chair, with its neck bent round polishing its blue horn against the creamy whiteness of its flank. "I cannot set myself to any work or sport today, Jewel," said the King. "I can think of nothing but this wonderful news. Think you we shall hear any more of it today?" "They are the most wonderful tidings ever heard in our days or our fathers' or our grandfathers' days, Sire," said Jewel, "if they are true." "How can they choose but be true?" said the King. "It is more than a week ago that the first birds came flying over us saying, Aslan is here, Aslan has come to Narnia again. And after that it was the squirrels. They had not seen him, but they said it was certain he was in the woods. Then came the Stag. He said he had seen him with his own eyes, a great way off, by moonlight, in Lantern Waste. Then came that dark Man with the beard, the merchant from Calormen. The Calormenes care nothing for Aslan as we do; but the man spoke of it as a thing beyond doubt. And there was the Badger last night; he too had seen Aslan." "Indeed, Sire," answered Jewel, "I believe it all. If I seem not to, it is only that my joy is too great to let my belief settle itself. It is almost too beautiful to believe." "Yes," said the King with a great sigh, almost a shiver, of delight. "It is beyond all that I ever hoped for in all my life." "Listen!" said Jewel, putting his head on one side and cocking his ears forward. "What is it?" asked the King. "Hoofs, Sire," said Jewel. "A galloping horse. A very heavy horse. It must be one of the Centaurs. And look, there he is." A great, golden bearded Centaur, with man's sweat on his forehead and horse's sweat on his chestnut flanks, dashed up to the King, stopped, and bowed low. "Hail, King," it cried in a voice as deep as a bull's. "Ho, there!" said the King, looking over his shoulder towards the door of the hunting lodge. "A bowl of wine for the noble Centaur. Welcome, Roonwit. When you have found your breath you shall tell us your errand." A page came out of the house carrying a great wooden bowl, curiously carved, and handed it to the Centaur. The Centaur raised the bowl and said, "I drink first to Aslan and truth, Sire, and secondly to your Majesty." He finished the wine (enough for six strong men) at one draught and handed the empty bowl back to the page. "Now, Roonwit," said the King. "Do you bring us more news of Aslan?" Roonwit looked very grave, frowning a little. "Sire," he said. "You know how long I have lived and studied the stars; for we Centaurs live longer than you Men, and even longer than your kind, Unicorn. Never in all my days have I seen such terrible things written in the skies as there have been nightly since this year began. The stars say nothing of the coming of Aslan, nor of peace, nor of joy. I know by my art that there have not been such disastrous conjunctions of the planets for five hundred years. It was already in my mind to come and warn your Majesty that some great evil hangs over Narnia. But last night the rumour reached me that Aslan is abroad in Narnia. Sire, do not believe this tale. It cannot be. The stars never lie, but Men and Beasts do. If Aslan were really coming to Narnia the sky would have foretold it. If he were really come, all the most gracious stars would be assembled in his honour. It is all a lie." "A lie!" said the King fiercely. "What creature in Narnia or all the world would dare to lie on such a matter?" And, without knowing it, he laid his hand on his sword hilt. "That I know not, Lord King," said the Centaur. "But I know there are liars on earth; there are none among the stars." "I wonder," said Jewel, "whether Aslan might not come though all the stars foretold otherwise. He is not the slave of the stars but their Maker. Is it not said in all the old stories that He is not a tame lion." "Well said, well said, Jewel," cried the King. "Those are the very words: not a tame lion. It comes in many tales." Roonwit had just raised his hand and was leaning forward to say something very earnestly to the King when all three of them turned their heads to listen to a wailing sound that was quickly drawing nearer. The wood was so thick to the West of them that they could not see the newcomer yet. But they could soon hear the words. "Woe, woe, woe!" called the voice. "Woe for my brothers and sisters! Woe for the holy trees! The woods are laid waste. The axe is loosed against us. We are being felled. Great trees are falling, falling, falling." With the last "falling" the speaker came in sight. She was like a woman but so tall that her head was on a level with the Centaur's yet she was like a tree too. It is hard to explain if you have never seen a Dryad but quite unmistakable once you have - something different in the colour, the voice, and the hair. King Tirian and the two Beasts knew at once that she was the nymph of a beech tree. "Justice, Lord King!" she cried. "Come to our aid. Protect your people. They are felling us in Lantern Waste. Forty great trunks of my brothers and sisters are already on the ground." "What, Lady! Felling Lantern Waste? Murdering the talking trees?" cried the King, leaping to his feet and drawing his sword. "How dare they? And who dares it? Now by the Mane of Aslan-" "A-a-a-h," gasped the Dryad shuddering as if in pain - shuddering time after time as if under repeated blows. Then all at once she fell sideways as suddenly as if both her feet had been cut from under her. For a second they saw her lying dead on the grass and then she vanished. They knew what had happened. Her tree, miles away, had been cut down. For a moment the King's grief and anger were so great that he could not speak. Then he said: "Come, friends. We must go up river and find the villains who have done this, with all the speed we may. I will leave not one of them alive." "Sire, with a good will," said Jewel. But Roonwit said, "Sire, be wary in your just wrath. There are strange doings on foot. If there should be rebels in arms further up the valley, we three are too few to meet them. If it would please you to wait while - " "I will not wait the tenth part of a second," said the King. "But while Jewel and I go forward, do you gallop as hard as you may to Cair Paravel. Here is my ring for your token. Get me a score of men-at-arms, all well mounted, and a score of Talking Dogs, and ten Dwarfs (let them all be fell archers), and a Leopard or so, and Stonefoot the Giant. Bring all these after us as quickly as may be." "With a good will, Sire," said Roonwit. And at once he turned and galloped Eastward down the valley. The King strode on at a great pace, sometimes muttering to himself and sometimes clenching his fists. Jewel walked beside him, saying nothing; so there was no sound between them but the faint jingle of a rich gold chain that hung round the Unicorn's neck and the noise of two feet and four hoofs. They soon reached the River and turned up it where there was a grassy road: they had the water on their left and the forest on their right. Soon after that they came to the place where the ground grew rougher and thick wood came down to the water's edge. The road, what there was of it, now ran on the Southern bank and they had to ford the River to reach it. It was up to Tirian's arm-pits, but Jewel (who had four legs and was therefore steadier) kept on his right so as to break the force of the current, and Tirian put his strong arm round the Unicorn's strong neck and they both got safely over. The King was still so angry that he hardly noticed the cold of the water. But of course he dried his sword very carefully on the shoulder of his cloak, which was the only dry part of him, as soon as they came to shore. They were now going Westward with the River on their right and Lantern Waste straight ahead of them. They had not gone more than a mile when they both stopped and both spoke at the same moment. The King said "What have we here?" and Jewel said "Look!" "It is a raft," said King Tirian. And so it was. Half a dozen splendid tree-trunks, all newly cut and newly lopped of their branches, had been lashed together to make a raft, and were gliding swiftly down the river. On the front of the raft there was a water rat with a pole to steer it. "Hey! Water-Rat! What are you about?" cried the King. "Taking logs down to sell to the Calormenes, Sire," said the Rat, touching his ear as he might have touched his cap if he had had one. "Calormenes!" thundered Tirian. "What do you mean? Who gave order for these trees to be felled?" The River flows so swiftly at that time of the year that the raft had already glided past the King and Jewel. But the Water-Rat looked back over its shoulder and shouted out: "The Lion's orders, Sire. Aslan himself." He added something more but they couldn't hear it. The King and the Unicorn stared at one another and both looked more frightened than they had ever been in any battle. "Aslan," said the King at last, in a very low voice. "Aslan. Could it be true? Could he be felling the holy trees and murdering the Dryads?" "Unless the Dryads have all done something dreadfully wrong-" murmured Jewel. "But selling them to Calormenes!" said the King. "Is it possible?" "I don't know," said Jewel miserably. "He's not a tame lion." "Well," said the King at last, "we must go on and take the adventure that comes to us." "It is the only thing left for us to do, Sire," said the Unicorn. He did not see at the moment how foolish it was for two of them to go on alone; nor did the King. They were too angry to think clearly. But much evil came of their rashness in the end. Suddenly the King leaned hard on his friend's neck and bowed his head. "Jewel," he said, "what lies before us? Horrible thoughts arise in my heart. If we had died before today we should have been happy." "Yes," said Jewel. "We have lived too long. The worst thing in the world has come upon us." They stood like that for a minute or two and then went on. Before long they could hear the hack-hack-hack of axes falling on timber, though they could see nothing yet because there was a rise of the ground in front of them. When they had reached the top of it they could see right into Lantern Waste itself. And the King's face turned white when he saw it. Right through the middle of that ancient forest - that forest where the trees of gold and of silver had once grown and where a child from our world had once planted the Tree of Protection - a broad lane had already been opened. It was a hideous lane like a raw gash in the land, full of muddy ruts where felled trees had been dragged down to the river. There was a great crowd of people at work, and a cracking of whips, and horses tugging and straining as they dragged at the logs. The first thing that struck the King and the Unicorn was that about half the people in the crowd were not Talking Beasts but Men. The next thing was that these men were not the fair-haired men of Narnia: they were dark, bearded men from Calormen, that great and cruel country that lies beyond Archenland across the desert to the south. There was no reason, of course, why one should not meet a Calormene or two in Narnia - a merchant or an ambassador - for there was peace between Narnia and Calormen in those days. But Tirian could not understand why there were so many of them: nor why they were cutting down a Narnian forest. He grasped his sword tighter and rolled his cloak round his left arm. They came quickly down among the men. Two Calormenes were driving a horse which was harnessed to a log. Just as the King reached them the log had got stuck in a bad muddy place. "Get on, son of sloth! Pull, you lazy pig!" cried the Calormenes, cracking their whips. The horse was already straining himself as hard as he could; his eyes were red and he was covered with foam. "Work, lazy brute," shouted one of the Calormenes: and as he spoke he struck the horse savagely with his whip. It was then that the really dreadful thing happened. Up till now Tirian had taken it for granted that the horses which the Calormenes were driving were their own horses; dumb, witless animals like the horses of our own world. And though he hated to see even a dumb horse overdriven, he was of course thinking more about the murder of the Trees. It had never crossed his mind that anyone would dare to harness one of the free Talking Horses of Narnia, much less to use a whip on it. But as that savage blow fell the horse reared up and said, half screaming: "Fool and tyrant! Do you not see I am doing all I can?" When Tirian knew that the Horse was one of his own Narnians, there came over him and over Jewel such a rage that they did not know what they were doing. The King's sword went up, the Unicorn's horn went down. They rushed forward together. Next moment both the Calormenes lay dead, the one beheaded by Tirian's sword and the other gored through the heart by Jewel's horn.