Links to Chapter One and Chapter Two
Edmund slipped and shivered through the snow until he eventually found the Witch’s castle. It looked quite creepy, but bolstered by thoughts of Turkish Delight (oh, his Saracens – and the Scarlets were his favourite Welsh side), he crept through the imposing main gate.
He found himself in a courtyard filled with statues. They had snow settling on them, and they all looked very sad. Near the gate, there were a couple of magnificent Lions, and then he spotted a statue that looked very like Lucy’s description of Mr Iknus. There was a collection of stone rugby balls, and what looked like a few referees. (“Those referees probably deserved it,” thought Edmund.)
Suddenly, Edmund was rooted to the spot by a chilling low growl. He turned his head to find himself staring into the eyes of Maugrim, chief of the Witch’s Very Secret Police.
“Come,” said Maugrim, “Her Majesty is expecting you.”
* * *
“What!” said the Witch, not at all friendly like the last time, “Have you come alone? I told you to bring the Daughters of Maeve and the other Son of George.”
“B – b – but,” stammered Edmund, afraid of her icy stare and stern manner, “I couldn’t get them away from the Beavers. They were all talking about the return of Paulan to Narnia.”
The Queen turned even paler, if that were possible.
“Paulan!” she muttered to herself, “No, it cannot be possible. My spells are strong.”
Before Edmund knew what had happened, she had crossed the room and spear-tackled him with one strong arm. “Tell me all,” she said, preparing to drive his head into the ground.
Edmund, quaking with fear, told her all that he knew.
The Witch released him with a thump on the floor, and clapped her hands to summon her minions.
“Harness the springboks and prepare my sledge immediately! Get my dwarf! Maugrim: take the swiftest of your wolves, go to the Lodge, and kill the children and the Beavers. If they have already gone, then proceed to the Stone Stadium.”
In the twinkling of a drop goal, the sledge pulled up, driven by a dwarf who looked suspiciously like a scrum-half. Edmund was bound, and unceremoniously dumped into the bottom of the sledge. There wasn’t even any Turkish Delight.
* * *
“Susan,” said Peter, “Where’s Edmund?”
“I – I don’t know. Now that you mention it, I haven’t noticed him for a while.”
“Ah, children,” said Mr Beaver, “I’m afraid he’s gone to see the Witch. We must be on our way quickly.”
“What?”, said Lucy, “No, surely Edmund would never betray us.”
“Daughter, I’m afraid he has the look of one who is in the Witch’s favour. How long that favour lasts is another matter.
“Did anyone notice when he left? Did he hear that Paulan is on the move?”
Nobody was quite sure.
“Then we must be off at once. Mrs Beaver, please pack us up as quickly as you can.”
Mrs Beaver – for of course it’s always the females who are prepared for anything – had already got nearly everything ready for travelling. She had a pack ready for everyone, and they were off in less time than it takes to reset a scrum.
* * *
They had a long, cold and weary journey, and stopped after some hours at a safe hiding place, where they cast themselves down on the floor, covered themselves with the blankets kindly provided by Mrs Beaver, and fell asleep immediately.
They were awakened at dawn by some faint voices, which became clearer as they drew closer.
“Ho, ho ho! Go left! It’s on!”
“I’m straighter than that throw-in.”
The children rubbed the sleep from their eyes and looked in confusion at the Beavers.
“It’s Father Jiffy and Father Nige,” beamed Mr Beaver. “The Witch’s magic has kept them from Narnia for so long, but her enchantment is fading. The voices of rugby have returned to the land.” They rushed outside to find a volley of rugby balls flying through the air, and the snow at last melting.
Ovally Balls 
Or even Poptastic Prog Songs.
LikeLike
keep posting BB
LikeLike
In another life BB would have been a Radio 1 DJ going the 7.30pm slot in the early 90s.
LikeLike
Nah, Tommy Vance and the Friday Night Rock Show.
BB on the radio!
LikeLike
Apparently we all have to ‘Stay Alert’ now. Wonder what we’ve been doing these last 8 weeks?
LikeLike
Ah. Just seen the ‘official’ tweet about it. So it is basically giving the same message as before, but with a SHINY NEW SLOGAN!
LikeLike
Poptastic prog song ?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Pop banger.
LikeLike
Refit gone to the top of THE LIST for that.
LikeLiked by 2 people
SBT – Oh Yes!
LikeLike
To both the Poptastic Prog Song and Refit being on THE LIST.
LikeLike
Need something to wash the taste from my ears.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lordy, look wot u dun, BB.
LikeLike
Better stop there before I naturally move on to Chumbawumba.
Oh, go on then.
LikeLike
You were doing so well, too…..
LikeLike
Prog pop here
LikeLike
yeah, sorry BB, something about the timeframe of listening and the poppy sound over crunching guitars that makes me thing of Here and Now and the Chumbas in the same bracket. The other direction would have been to move towards Gong, Steve Hillage, and possibly The Enid.
LikeLike
Yes. Good idea, relevant to lots of things.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/may/10/bring-drug-manufacturing-to-uk-nhs-mps
LikeLike
Oh dog, The Enid. I think I’ve got an Enid album somewhere. Not listened to it in years. The only Hillage albums I’ve really heard are For To Next and And Not Or, one of which is instrumental (can’t remember which) and were a bit more electronic in nature (while still using the guitar). Probably more to Iks liking than his Gong stuff. Never really got into Gong.
LikeLike
@sbt
I saw that. It really is hilarious the way the pharma industry has gone. 70% of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) in our drugs is made in China. The API is the medicine bit of a medicinal product yet Big Pharma outsources its manufacture to the cheapest bidder.
There’s a guy called Hedley Rees who’s really hot on this topic. Been banging on about it for years.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nice to see that everyone’s on board with BoJo’s new message. That’s Scotland, Wales and Norn Iron that have complained about it now.
LikeLike
BoJo’s speech has been released on youtube
LikeLiked by 1 person
Quick video to remind you that there are right ways and wrong ways to Stay Alert:
LikeLike
OT – just had a flyer delivered for home delivered frozen (‘Kentish Mayde’) pies, suet puddings, sausages, minging looking desserts and other ‘lockdown specials’.
I thought of you immediately.
LikeLiked by 2 people
OT
re comments a few days ago on aviation and RR – just come across his about GE:
https://www.seattletimes.com/business/boeing-aerospace/ge-to-slash-13000-jobs-in-aviation-amid-air-travel-plunge/
LikeLike
OT – totally insane – just like all the other manufacturing we’ve allowed to be outsourced overseas.
One thing this crisis has highlighted is that some production can be quickly turned around in this country for essential items like PPE. But the likes of Branson and Dyson can go and fuck themselves.
(To me, API means application programming interface, or possibly something to do with bees.)
LikeLike
@thauma
Dyson are in a great position. They’ve spent £20m (of their own money) or so learning how to make a medical device and are 80% of the way there, probably just need a few clinical trials. There will now be a big push to get UK-originated medical device design IP into the market to avoid some of the risks we have faced in a future pandemic.
A whole new sector has been opened up for them.
LikeLike
@slade
Aircraft companies were promising a rosy future a few months ago with all the projected growth in demand from the Far East. Looks a bit doubtful now, even with the low oil price.
LikeLike
Steve Hillage….
LikeLike
I’ve learnt that BB is popster at heart, hiding underneath an extremely overstuffed Prog quilt.
LikeLike
And from the other album released at the same time (first one was instrumental)
LikeLike
My Prog quilt is never knowingly understuffed.
LikeLike
The US seems wedded to the Boeing 737 MAX approach to managing a pandemic.
Get it out there, and we’ll mop up the mistakes and tweak design until everyone forgets how profit-oriented, individualistic and cynical we were when we abdicated responsibility for quality, safety, and due diligence.
Or as Trump said more succinctly, ‘rebrand the planes!’
LikeLike
I keep reading quilt as kilt.
LikeLike
That diatribe was in response to OT mentioning aircraft companies
LikeLike
Seems CMW’s lockdown fever is manifesting itself in kilt yearnings and sporran throbs.
Hopefully it’ll all end in tears on the terraces of Murrayfield, when the next Ryan Jones runs amok.
Meanwhile ‘stay alert’, CMW!
LikeLike
@Iks – I’ve mostly been growing a beard. Though that’s only in sympathy for the genuine lockdownees, me being a key worker and all that. Now if we can’t get this key work closed down so the company don’t have to pay another month’s rent on the building they sold two years ago for a price negotiated on the basis that they would build a factory to replace it in York then something really terrible could happen.
LikeLike
Aerfer, Air-Fouga, Antonov, Auster, Aviation Traders, Avro.
That’s just the A’s from the 1958 Observer’s Book of Aircraft. The B’s will follow at a time of my choosing so stay alert Mr Iks.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I will CMW, but not tonight as it is past midnight. My alertness might not be the best; since I read about beavers in the river here I still haven’t seen one, even though I spend Sunday afternoons sat wandering the riverbank near where they are meant to be.
LikeLike
Arf. ‘sat wandering’ is a typo, but it sort of sums up the effort I’m capable of.
Night all.
LikeLiked by 1 person
@Iks – Sit wandering at dawn or dusk rather than on a Sunday afternoon and you may have some luck. As long as you’re alert of course.
LikeLike
Sunday afternoons are perfect for finding gnawed logs and beaver shit. Then all you have to do is bide your time.
LikeLike
Hello all. Haven’t been around here much – think about you daily.
LikeLiked by 3 people
This woman I could fall in love with
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or, for the pedants out there, I could fall in love with this woman.
LikeLike
I blame the APA, and the G&T.
LikeLike
Good morning all! Day 45 or 46 of lockdown here. Lost track. Sun still shining though and it’s Mrs Deebee’s birthday! We were supposed to be down in the Wild Coast with her older brother as Mrs Deebee and her twin brother share a birthday with their sister-in-law. Not allowed to travel though so have to wait a while for that.
LikeLike
“Or, for the pedants out there, I could fall in love with this woman.”
Don’t do it just for the pedants Avs.
LikeLiked by 3 people
HB Mrs Deebee!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Happy Birthday Mrs DeeBee!
LikeLiked by 1 person