deepest_magic | the golden age

When the party has died down, Isabella, for one, is well and truly exhausted. She explores the palace until she finds a room with a bed in it, and into this bed she flops, still in her clothes and holding her staff and carrying the cordial in her pocket. She sleeps late, because the party kept her up so late and she hadn't really slept the night before; but around noon, she stirs, and gets up, and goes looking for James and wherever her backpack may have got to. The backpack she finds in the great hall where the principal mass of the party was; some enterprising creature took both bags from the battlefield at Beruna up to the castle for them, and she only wishes she knew who it was. She takes her bag to her room and carries James's with her and continues looking for her friend.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

alicornucopia

The dwarves agree, none too clear on the current dimensions of either the King or the Queen, and get to work on his request while the other creatures solicit his assistance in their plan of attack.

From:

jackfrostbite

He gives it. Reluctantly, but he gives it. It is foolish to attack Cair Paravel in the first place, but if they are determined to do it, they may as well do it as directly as possible from the most advantageous position he can suggest, and get there along a route that will offer minimal delays and minimal chance to be spotted too early.

In hardly a day, the plan takes shape. Over the course of a few more, he gets them moving, sending the most careful and stealthy scouts ahead to check their path.

And he appoints Bristle leader - because, he explains, he has a secret errand to run. He does not expect it to take very long, but he can't put it off another day. If he has not returned by the time they arrive, they must go ahead without him.

He takes the smiths' contraption with him when he goes.

From:

alicornucopia

Well then.

They will go on ahead.

From:

jackfrostbite

And Winter—will abandon them, to find somewhere even more remote to see if this time he can finally die. Probably they'll all be killed or captured. Probably a lot of creatures will die or be hurt. But he can't really think of a way to avoid that. And he would rather go back to failing at suicide than stay with these creatures who expect things from him that he doesn't want to give - who expect him to be someone he's not sure he is anymore. It's been painfully obvious since Bristle first showed him to their camp. He can't keep on like this, not even if these are the only creatures in all the world he can keep company with.

From:

alicornucopia

The creatures wait until the appointed time, and then, obedient to Winter's instructions, proceed in his absence.

From:

pythbox

High above, a mere speck in the sky at this distance, Flit is out for an afternoon flight.

He circles closer, curious about this odd arrangement of creatures.

From:

alicornucopia

There are some dwarves, and some dryads, and a variety of animals - rats, wolves, one vulture - a small but definitely unpromising assortment of creatures.

From:

pythbox

That's... odd.

"Pin-I-mean-James-I-mean-your-majesty," he says, "there's some creatures coming toward Cair Paravel and they look sort of unfriendly, they have weapons and things and none of them is a knight."

From:

neverbeatme

James is practicing with her sword. She pauses when she hears Flit's worried voice, then sheathes her sword entirely and goes to look for Bella.

"Thanks for telling me," she says. "How far away are they? How many of what kinds of creature? Can you see the weapons clearly?"

From:

pythbox

He provides the requested information, circling lower still to get a good look at the weapons so he can list how many of what kinds of those. A sizeable little band - especially with so few fighting knights of Narnia in the vicinity to meet them - but nowhere near an army.

From:

alicornucopia

When he gets close enough the vulture spots him and the creatures become alarmed. A dryad with a slingshot aims a rock straight at his eye.

From:

deepest_magic

Isabella is on her balcony playing a board game with a hedgehog who has been visiting the castle.

From:

pythbox

He yelps and flaps frantically for altitude; the rock hits a flailing hoof.

From:

neverbeatme

James doesn't wait for him to tell her what he's yelping about; she can guess from the tone and the sound of sudden wingbeats. "Head for Cair Paravel," she says as she reaches the balcony, and then she finds all the knight-pins and focuses on the ones close enough to either help fight or warn innocent creatures out of the way.

"A band of about thirty of the Witch's creatures is attacking Cair Paravel from the northwest. They're about three miles from the palace, about two and a half from the knight-hall. Stay out of their way, warn any creatures you can, get the innocent and vulnerable to safety." And then, to only the subset who are fighting knights - "Come to Cair Paravel. We'll meet them here."

Edited Date: 2014-07-02 08:17 pm (UTC)

From:

deepest_magic

A chorus of acknowledgments come in from the knights.

"Another time," Isabella says to the hedgehog, and she gets up to sweep into her room and pluck her cloak from its hook and swirl it on around her shoulders. "What's the composition of the band?" she asks James.

From:

alicornucopia

The vulture seizes two sword-bearing rat comrades and flies up after Flit, intending to drop them on his back where they can attack and he'll be unable to kick at them.

From:

neverbeatme

"One vulture, one ogre, two raccoons, three hyenas, a few rats, five dryads, seven wolves, eight dwarves," she says.

From:

pythbox

Flit beats his wings harder, straining to his absolute limit for as long as he can. He's big and heavy, but his wings are strong. He keeps ahead of the vulture.

From:

alicornucopia

The dryad with the slingshot aims at one of the winged horse's wings as the vulture gives chase.

From:

deepest_magic

"Besides you and me and the household noncombatants what've we got in range?" asks Isabella, picking up her bow and arrows.

From:

pythbox

The stone falls short, tumbling in the mighty downdraft from Flit's wingbeats. He whinnies nervously anyway.

From:

neverbeatme

"Flit found them. He's bolting for Cair Paravel as fast as he can, but I think he's being pursued and he hasn't said by what or how fast they are. Fighting knights who can get here in time - one unicorn, one griffin, one leopard, one fox, one badger, two centaurs, five dwarves. More on their way, but that's going to be the first wave. I'm going out on the ground; depending how close they are to the castle when we engage, you might want to be up on the walls, or out where you can get at the wounded."