The four remaining Pevesnie children had run out of the Dam as soon as they could, hugging their coats tightly and forcing Mr Beaver to lead them to the White Witch's castle. Up ahead, they can see him walking alone, they try to catch up, but Anne falls as they reach the top of the hill.

"Hurry!" Peter yells, they can just see Edmund enter the gates.

"Edmund!" Lucy screams, and Mr. Beaver 'Shhs' her

"They'll hear ya!"

Peter starts to run after Edmund but Mr. Beaver grabs him by the sleeve of his coat - Anne is still struggling to stand up.

"No!"

"Get off me!"

"You're playing into her hands!"

"We just can't let him go!"

"He's our brother!"

"He's the bait!" Mr Beaver explains, helping the eldest daughter up "The Witch wants all four of ya!"

"Why?"

"To stop the prophecy from coming true! To kill ya!" The three children stare horrified.

"This is all your fault," Susan glares at Peter

"My fault?"

"None of this would have happened if you had just listened to me in the first place!"

"Oh, so you knew this would happen?!"

"I didn't know what would happen. Which is why we should have left while we still could!"

"Stop it!" Lucy exclaims

"Blaming each other isn't going to help anyone," Anne says rather matter of factly "Especially not Edmund,"

"She's right. Only Aslan can save your brother now,"

"Then take us to him," They turn and watch as the gates shut behind Edmund.

Begrudgingly, the siblings follow Mr Beaver back to the dam, in the distance, they hear a howl.

"Oh Blimming heck," Mr Beaver mutters "Run!"

"What?"

"Run!" they listen to him, sledging down the hill and back towards the dam "She's sent the hounds after us!" he explains, and they burst through the little door to his home at top speed "Hurry, Mama! They're after us!"

"Oh, right then..." Mrs. Beaver springs into action, grabbing things from various cupboards.

"What's she doing?" Peter asks, and Mr Beaver indicates she's lost it.

"Oh, you'll be thanking me later. It's a long journey and Beaver gets pretty cranky when he's hungry,"

"I'm cranky now!"

Susan starts to help Mrs. Beaver, and Anne reluctantly sighs, if she helped, they'd move faster.

"Do you think we'll need jam?"

"Only if the Witch serves toast!" Peter exclaims

"Can she even make toast?" Anne wonders - if she lived in an ice palace, do they have toasters?

Mr Beaver opens up a wooden panel in the floor and ushes the children inside, Peter is given a torch, and Anne shuts the board behind them. They run through a small tunnel, and hear wolves attacking the dam.

"Badger and me dug this. Comes out right near his place-"

"You told me it led to your mum's!"

Lucy falls over a root in the ground, Susan calls out for her, and helps her stand, howling can be heard "They're in the tunnel,"

"Quick! This way!"

"Hurry!"

"Run!"

They continue to run further but come to a dead end "You should have brought a map!" Mrs Beaver exclaims

"There wasn't room next to the jam!" he jumps up and into a small hole, and the children follow. Up on ground level, Lucy backs away as the others emerge, and trips and falls flat on her back, Peter and Mr. Beaver roll a barrel in front of the hole, Mr. Beaver turns and his face drops when he sees what Lucy tripped over – little woodland creatures turned to stone.

Mr. Beaver walks up to a stone Badger and touches its paw

"I'm so sorry, dear..."

"He was my best mate,"

"What happened here?" as Peter asks, a fox appears on a little ledge above the Badger

"This is what becomes of those who cross the Witch,"

"You take one more step, traitor, and I'll chew you to splinters!" Mr Badger shouts

"Relax. I'm one of the good guys," the fox says calmly

"Yeah? Well, you look an awful lot like one of the bad ones,"

"An unfortunate family resemblance. But we can argue about breeding later. Right now we've got to move,"

"What did you have in mind?" the oldest brother questions.

What he had in mind, was them hiding in a tree. Anne had struggled up it first, Peter giving her a lift up. Wolves burst out of the barreled-up hole and encircled the Fox who was in the process of covering the tracks with his tail before they came.

"Greetings, gents. Lost something, have we?"

"Don't patronize me! I know where your allegiance lies. We're looking for some humans,"

Fox laughs "Humans? Here in Narnia? That's a valuable bit of information, don't you think?" One of the other wolves pounces on the fox and grabs him harshly in his jaws, he whines and Lucy gasps, Peter slapping her mouth shut. Anne's brows furrow, and she hides in Susan's shoulder

"Your reward is your life. It's not much, but still. Where were the fugitives?"

"North. They ran north," the fox says breathlessly

"Smell them out," the lead wolf orders and Mr Fox is thrown aside.

✵⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✵⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✵

Once the wolves were gone, the Pevensies set up a small camp, a fire centre. Mrs Beaver is attempting to fix up Fox's wounds, he yelps, and Anne scratches his head gently, he looks at her gratefully.

"Thank you, my Princess," he gestures to the stone animals "They were helping Tumnus. The Witch got here before I did. Ow! Oh!"

"Are you all right?"

"Well, I wish I could say their bark was worse than their bite. Ow!"

"Stop squirming! You're worse than Beaver on bath day!"

"Worst day of the year," he grumbles

"Thank you for your kindness, but that's all the cure I have time for," he stands

"You're leaving?" Lucy asks quietly

"It has been a pleasure, My Queen, and an honour, but time is short and Aslan himself has asked me to gather more troops,"

"You've seen Aslan?"

"What's he like?" Mrs Beaver gasps

"Like everything we've ever heard," he looks at the Pevensie's "You'll be glad to have him by your side in the battle against the Witch,"

"But we're not planning to fight any witch," Susan stresses

"But surely, King Peter, the prophecy!"

"We can't go to war without you," Mr Beaver grumbles, Peter looks at his siblings, then throws a stone into the fire

"We just want our brother back,".

When dawn came, they set off again, and once at a stone bridge, Mr. Beaver stopped, pointing out the path ahead.

"Now, Aslan's camp is near the Stone Table just across the frozen river,"

"River?"

"Oh, the river's been frozen solid for a hundred years,"

"It's so far!"

"It's the world, dear. Did you expect it to be small?" Mrs Beaver says warmly, Anne smiles

"Smaller,"

"At least we'd hoped," Anne mutters.

✵⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✵⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✵

They ventured further into Narnia, and Anne often had to take a moment to look around, she hated winter, yet in Narnia, she could somehow see the beauty in it. They'd reached the frozen lake now, and Lucy had lagged behind. Whilst the beavers were happily walking along, the Pevensie's had jelly legs, and were getting rather grumpy about it.

"Come on, humans! While we're still young,"

Peter bends down to give Lucy a piggyback ride "If he tells us to hurry one more time, I'm gonna turn him into a big, fluffy hat," the others laugh

"We might need one, my hair's starting to get frost in it," Anne demonstrates by stretching out a corkscrew curl.

"Hurry up! Come on!"

"He is getting a little bossy," Lucy pouts

"No! Behind you! It's her!" they turn, and a large sleigh is advancing towards them, Peter drops Lucy, and he and Anne take each hand, running forward. They run into the forest on the other end of the lake, Mrs Beaver finds a small cave and dives in, the children follow.

"Hurry!"

"Inside!"

"Quick!"

They dive down into the cave and go very still, watching the shadow on the mound of snow in front of them. Anne hits her head on the stone behind them, breathing heavily, her chest hurt from the cold air in her lungs. Snow drops down as someone moves about over them and walks away, Anne covers her mouth with her hands, breathing in warm air.

"Maybe she's gone," Lucy mutters

"I suppose I'll go look,"

"No!" Mr Beaver stops Peter and climbs out "You're worth nothing to Narnia dead!"

"Well, neither are you, Beaver,"

Mr. Beaver takes his wife's paws in his "Thanks sweetheart," he scrambles up top as the others wait nervously.

A beat passes, then another.

"Come out!" Mr Beaver suddenly pops his head down, and Lucy shrieks! "Come out! I hope you've all been good 'cause there's someone here to see ya!"

They look at each other curiously before emerging and seeing a large man with long white hair and a beard... wearing red leather. Anne raises an eyebrow, seeing the reindeer at the end of his sleigh, Lucy grins and he laughs happily

"Merry Christmas, sir,"

"It certainly is, Lucy, since you have arrived,"

"Look, I've put up with a lot since I got here, but this..." Susan looked like she was about to lose her mind - Anne understood.

"We thought you were the Witch," Peter cuts off his sister

"Yes, yes, I'm sorry about that, but in my defence, I have been driving one of these longer than the Witch,"

"I thought there was no Christmas in Narnia,"

"No. Not for a long time. But the hope that you have brought, Your Majesties-" he turns to Anne "You Highness - is finally starting to weaken the Witch's power," Anne sighs quietly, she didn't understand this prophecy, or how everyone knew she would never be 'equal'. Whilst her siblings were referred to as Kings and Queens, everyone they'd met, had called her 'Princess' "Still, I dare say you could do with these," he reached into his sleigh and pulled out a huge brown sack

"Presents!" Lucy runs up to him, and Anne can't help the small 'ooo' that leaves her lips, Susan and Peter glance at her.

"What? I love presents,"

Father Christmas leans down to Lucy's height and passes over a small glass bottle with red liquid in it "The juice of the fire-flower. One drop will cure any injury. And though I hope you never have to use it..." he presents her with a little dagger.

"Thank you, sir, but I think I could be brave enough,"

"I'm sure you could. But battles are ugly affairs," he stands back up, and reaches for a bow with a quiver of arrows "Susan," she steps forward "Trust in this bow and it will not easily miss,"

"What happened to 'battles are ugly affairs'?" she grumbles, Father Christmas laughs

"Though you don't seem to have a problem making yourself heard," he presents her with an ivory horn "Blow on this horn and wherever you are, help will come,"

"Thanks," she steps back and Father Christmas looks at Anne expectantly, she shyly steps up.

"Anne," he says slowly before passing her a small golden hairpin, a lion sits at the end of it.

"A hair accessory?" she questions - her siblings had been given weapons.

"Look closer," Anne takes it from the old man, and inspects it, she notices a small line, and pulls on the metal, a silver dagger emerges from it, she grins

"Nice,"

As Father Christmas goes back to his sack, Anne reconstructs the pin, and creates a loose bun with her hand, slipping the pin through her hair. He turns, holding a book.

"This, will detail every plant you can find in Narnia, and what effects it can have," he hands it over, Anne runs her hand down the large spine "You never know when you may need a potion - or something to eat," he laughs and Anne giggles, she reaches into her fur coat, finding a large pocket to slip it into. Peter steps forward. Father Christmas gives him a bright silver shield and a sword in its scabbard. Peter draws the sword out "Peter. The time to use these may be near at hand,"

"Thank you, sir,"

"These are tools, not toys. Bear them well and wisely. Now, I must be off. Winter is almost over, and things do pile up when you've been gone a hundred years. Long live Aslan!" he climbs into his sleigh "And Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas!" the children reply

"See you next year!"

"Goodbye!"

Mrs Beaver laughs, as Lucy turns to Susan "Told you he was real,"

"He said winter was almost over. You know what that means," they turn to Peter in confusion, he and Anne speak at the same time "No more ice,"

"The lake!"

✵⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✵⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆✵

They run towards the lake, they reach the edge of a cliff and look down the banks of the river which is breaking into chunks of ice that are floating away on the fast current. A frozen waterfall looms on their left. Peter assesses the situation, holding Lucy's hand

"We need to cross, now!"

"Don't beavers make dams?" Lucy turns to their animal companions

"I'm not that fast, dear,"

"Come on!" Peter grabs Anne's hand as well and starts to walk down the bank, Susan grabs Anne, stopping Peter

"Wait! Will you just think about this for a minute?"

"We don't have a minute!"

"I'm just trying to be realistic,"

"No, you're trying to be smart. As usual," he starts climbing down. Susan looks like she might stay but the howling of the wolves in the distance changes her mind.

Down by the shore, Peter goes to walk across the remaining ice, but water spurts from under it, and he jumps back quickly.

"Wait. Maybe I should go first," Mr Beaver suggests

"Yeah," Anne breaths out, "Smart"

Mr Beaver tests out the ice with his feet and tail, trying to find the strongest passage

"You've been sneaking second helpings, haven't you?!" Mrs Beaver shouts over to him

"Well, you never know which meal's gonna be your last. Especially with your cooking,"

The children start to follow him, Mrs. Beaver at the back of them.

"If Mum knew what we were doing... "

"Mum's not here!" Peter snaps at Susan

Lucy notices the wolves from earlier, running across the top of the frozen waterfall to the other side of the river

"Oh no!"

"Run!" Anne commands, and they slide across the unsteady ice, the wolves leap in front of them on the frozen river. Turning they see they are trapped by the rest of the wolves. Mr Beaver tries to threaten them but is pounced on and pinned to the ground.

Mrs. Beaver shouts for her husband "No!"

"Peter!" he draws his sword

"Put that down, boy. Someone could get hurt," the lead wolf teases

"Don't worry about me! Run him through!" Mr Beaver shouts

"Leave now while you can, and your brother goes with you,"

"Stop, Peter! Maybe we should listen to him!"

"Smart girl," The wolf nods at Susan

"Don't listen to him! Kill him! Kill him now!" Mr Beaver is getting very aggressive, trapped under one of the wolfs

"Do something, Peter!" Anne exclaims

"Oh, come on. This isn't your war. All my Queen wants is for you to take your family and go,"

"Look, just because some man in a red coat hands you a sword, it doesn't make you a hero! Just drop it!" Susan urges

"No, Peter! Narnia needs ya! Gut him while you still have a chance!"

"What's it gonna be, Son of Adam? I won't wait forever. And neither will the river,"

Lucy looks up at the waterfall, slowly melting and breaking away, spurts of water coming out at full force "Peter!"

"Peter!" different voices are calling out to the boy, telling him different things.

"Do something or I will!" Anne shouts.

Peter pushes his sword down.