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𝐏𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐂𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖𝐍 𝐆𝐈𝐑𝐋 in an instinct when she fell towards the frozen over courtyard in exhaustion. Her eyes rolled back in their sockets and her lips were blue from the cold whereas her skin resembled the snow all around them in an eerily pale manner.

Peter clenched his jaw in effort as he put one of his hands under her legs and the other around her waist, slowly lifting her up. Her body radiated with cold, the icy temperature even traveling through his own clothes and he suppressed a shiver. She had to get out of the cold, and fast.

'Noelle,' Peter said, calling the female archenlander who stood on the lowest step of the stone stairs.

Noelle averted her eyes from Caolán who sped over the courtyard with a line of several horses behind him.

'With me,' Peter ordered and Noelle quickly followed the High King up the stairs.

The chart room lay across the throne room and the fire in the hearth crackled as it danced over the burned wood between the stones. The flames spread a pleasant heat throughout the area and Peter laid the unknown girl in front of the fire.

'Try to get her to open her eyes again, but don't let her drink or eat anything warm until she's fully conscious, alright?' he said to Noelle, and she curtsied.

'Understood, Your Majesty.'

Peter nodded curtly at Noelle, though he did not take his eyes off the passed out girl. He adjusted the blanket around her a bit before standing up and hurrying out of the chart room, back towards the courtyard.

'How exactly are we going to carry fifteen people out of the forest?' June wondered out loud, handing Peter the reins of an auburn stallion while she herself led a black mare.

'We have to try,' Caspian answered and he mounted his horse Destrier.

The others followed his example and the hooves of the horses clattered on the stones as they shot out of the gate in the direction of the twilight forest.

The branches of the pine trees bend downwards under the weight of the snow ─ rather sorrowfully looking, in a way ─ and the wind whistled around the group while they ushered their horses to go as fast as possible. (Caolán was quite glad he had added the snow spikes under the iron horse shoes earlier this day when he had given them some exercise.)

'She must have come through here,' Darkan shouted when he spotted some turned over snow at his side. The tracks lead up a small hill that marked the beginning of the tree line. Darkan jumped off Sunfire, strengthening his grasp on the edge of the saddle when his feet threatened to slip away but he quickly found his balance again.

'The horses cannot follow through there, though,' Caolán said with a worried look.

'There's a wild path not much farther up ahead,' Caspian said, observing the tracks the girl had made for as far as he could. 'I think it runs mostly parallel with these tracks, for now at least. We'll go that way while Darkan follows the trail. Let's hope the girl's friends aren't too far away from the path.'

Peter dismounted his horse as well. 'I'll go with Darkan.' He didn't think it would be very wise for Darkan to trudge through the snow between the trees alone. What if a branch snapped under the weight of the snow and he got trapped underneath it?

Peter gave the reins to Edmund while Darkan handed his horse over to June.

The group on the horses hurried towards the path made by the animals whereas Peter and Darkan climbed up the hill, using both their hands and feet since the shifting snow made it so much harder.

Once they were up the hill, Peter peered between the dense trees on his left to see if the others were already in the forest as well. He spotted five dark silhouettes and seven horses not much farther away, and though the snow slowed down their movements greatly, he and Darkan started to run; following the girl's tracks.

The branches creaked ominously above their heads when a harsh wind howled through the forest, and Peter ran even faster when some snow and pine needles rained down on the ground not far away from his heels.

With a loud crack, one of the branches snapped and it thundered downwards, colliding with other branches and hitting the trunk several times as well. The branch landed with a muted clap on the snow but the sound still echoed far throughout the forest.

'Peter?!' June's shrill voice traveled faintly with the air.

Peter crossed eyes with Darkan in relief before answering. The collapsed branch hadn't hit them, luckily, but it had been close.

'We're alright,' Peter shouted back and both of the boys started to run again.

'They can't be much further, right?' Darkan wondered while panting heavily, his legs burning as he forced himself to take one step after another. 'That girl was already on the brink of exhaustion when she reached us, and I already feel like collap─,' his voice was cut short when he stumbled over something in the snow.

Peter grabbed the collar of Darkan's woolen jerkin before he could fall over, and realization dawned over their faces.

Fifteen people lay in front of them, their clothes frozen as the snowflakes decorated their hairs. Just like the unknown girl, their lips were blue and their pale skin seemed almost translucent as the blue veins shot in maze-like figures over their bare body parts.

'We found them,' Darkan shouted. 'Over here. Quickly!'

The group on the horses that had trotted parallel with them on the path stopped and they dismounted. The snow crunched under their boots as they carefully led the horses through the narrow spaces between the pine trees.

'Another snow storm and this forest will become impassable,' Edmund said when his horse whinnied as one of its legs slid away.

June hummed in agreement, carefully searching for a safe way through, and she breathed out in relief when they reached her twin brother and Darkan. Her breath got stuck in her throat, though, when her eyes landed upon the fifteen strangers.

'Are ─ are they still alive?' she dared to ask, they reminded her a bit too much of corpses.

'Barely,' Peter answered with a grim expression, hauling up one of the red-haired guys and Edmund shot to his side as he had trouble with the weight. Together they laid the boy on his stomach over the horse's back while the others worked together as well to get everyone on the horses.

June scanned the area one last time but there was no one left in the snow. They had gathered all fifteen.

'Let's go, quickly,' Caspian said, grabbing Destrier's reins and leading the group back to the wild path.

They hurried through the forest, running next to their horses as they kept a close eye on the strangers; afraid they might glide off.

Time seemed to slow down and speed up simultaneously. Seconds slipped through their fingers, but their movements were strained while the horses snorted in a staccato rhythm due to the heavy weight on their backs.

The castle gates doomed up in front of them and as fast as they could they brought the strangers inside, back into the warmth.

Only time could tell, though, if they would still wake up. . .

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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐈𝐂𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐁𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒 sang like bells as the figure seemed to float over snow. Cold mist swirled in mystical strings around their body and their eyes glowed in an unnatural blue light as the ice crystals on their arms, neck and face glistened with an invisible power.

The snow rumbled and shifted out of their way as they glided between the trees as if they had all the time of the world.

However, the figure roared in anger when they found out the wizards and witches were no longer under the trees they had persuaded to sing their cursed lullaby.

They had been too late.

Their icy blue eyes shot in the direction of Cair Paravel, hidden behind the many trees.

But, no matter, they thought; not even the castle could stop them from getting what they wanted.

The otherworldly magic of the wizards and witches would be theirs, sooner or later. . .

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𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓:

𝑬𝒍𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒆 𝑩𝒆𝒍𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒕 (𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒍𝒚) 𝒃𝒚 @ 𝒎𝒆
𝑵𝒐𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆 𝑶𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒃𝒚 Detective_Pevensie
𝑪𝒂𝒐𝒍𝒂𝒏 𝒃𝒚 zukkkas
𝑱𝒖𝒏𝒆 𝑷𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒆 𝒃𝒚 IRIS-123roosje
𝒂𝒏𝒅
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