Chronicles Of Narnia Fan Fiction / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fan Fiction ❯ The Lion, the Cat and the Turtles ❯ In the Forest ( Chapter 1 )

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The Lion, the Cat and the Turtles
PART ONE:
In the Forest

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Based on
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird
and
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

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Contains some spoilers for the Narnia books. Don't say I didn't warn you.

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Leonardo blinked and squinted against the sudden bright sunlight that filled his eyes, drawing his swords as he carefully raised himself.

Okay, he thought. I definitely didn't see this coming.

He'd just been on a standard sewer patrol to check up on Donatello's security system. Pure routine, really, but this time it had taken an unexpected turn: Just as he had entered a particularly dark part of the sewers, he had all of a sudden slipped on something and fallen down...

...but instead of landing in the raw sewage that he'd expected, he had landed on hard and firm ground, parts of which was covered in grass.

It was then he realized that he was no longer in the sewers of New York, but found himself in the middle of a lush, green forest. The sun was shining down on him between the trees, and all around him, birds were singing just as if nothing weird had happened.

Either this was a very strange dream, or something had happened that had teleported him to someplace else.

This last thought was rather disconcerting: he had experienced such things before -- being around dimension-travelling beings like the ones he and his brothers had encountered over the years tended to land you in quite a few strange situations -- and he had seldom, or never, ended up anyplace he'd really wanted to go.

Now, where was this place, he wondered, and was there anyone around who would immediately attack him for trespassing, or looking like a demon, or any of the other things that usually happened in these situations?

"Hello, neighbor," came a jovial voice from behind him, before he could continue his line of thought. "I say, is there a battle around that I haven't been told of?"

Leo spun around, looking for the speaker. His eyes widened behind his mask as they fell upon the form of a badger. But it wasn't a normal badger -- it was abnormally large and was standing upright on its hind legs, and was looking at him with eyes that were much too intelligent for a normal animal.

"Did you just... say something?" said Leo, a little uncertainly. One moment, he wondered if he was back in his friend Usagi's world, but since the creature in front of him was definitely more animal than human, he doubted it (while standing upright, it still had the basic proportions of a badger rather than a human, and it wore no clothes -- the biggest sign that this couldn't be Usagi's world, unless Leo had somehow ended up in a nudist colony).

"Why, of course I did," said the badger. "I was asking if there was a battle somewhere near here, what with you going around with swords drawn and all. And two of them as well." It gazed at him with near-sighted eyes. "I say, you are a funny looking one, aren't you? No offense, no offense," it added hurriedly, as if it suddenly realized that insulting the looks of someone carrying around two very sharp swords wasn't exactly the smartest thing to do. "I've just never seen anything quite like you, that's all. You look a bit like a turtle, but you're built more like a man than any turtle I've ever seen. Come from the North, I expect? Related to the marsh-wiggles of Ettinsmoor, perhaps?"

Slowly, Leo sheathed his swords. The creature was obviously no threat, whatever it was. "I'm afraid I don't quite know what you mean," he said politely. "I don't know anything about these things you mention... I just suddenly found myself here without knowing how, or even where 'here' is."

"Well, you're in the forest, of course," said the badger. "That's obvious, innit?"

"Yes," said Leo, "but where is the forest? What's this..." (he was about to say 'world,' but changed his mind about it at the last moment) "...country?"

To his surprise, the badger chuckled. "Oh, dear me, that's a good 'un," it said. "Look at me! I'm a talking badger, ain't I? Of course you're in Narnia! Where else would you find talking beasts such as me?"

"Narnia?" said Leo, trying and failing to think of anytime he might have heard that name before. "Excuse me, but I'm not from around here. Narnia, that's the name of this country?"

The badger stopped laughing and instead stared at him. "Well, I daresay you're from a far way off if you ain't never heard of Narnia! Of course that's the name of this country! Why, wherever have you come from if you didn't know that?"

Leo shook his head. He wasn't quite sure how much he ought to tell this badger about himself -- even if it seemed friendly enough, he had learned never to take things at face value -- but he supposed that some basic information wouldn't hurt. "I'm from a place called New York," he said. "Don't know if you've ever heard of it."

"Can't say I ever have," the badger replied after having thought for a bit. "Newyork? Is it over the sea? Does everyone there look like you, begging your pardon?"

"Not exactly," said Leo, and left it at that. "And I'm not exactly sure where it is, from here. Like I said, I just kinda suddenly found myself here, with no idea as to how... That's why I had my swords drawn," he added as means of an explanation. "I'd just suddenly appeared in a place I didn't know, and wasn't sure if there was someone waiting to attack me or not."

"Hmmm." The badger, strangely, didn't seem to doubt this story (which even to Leo sounded rather unlikely). It just rubbed its chin and said thoughtfully: "Just suddenly appeared, eh? Sounds like magic to me."

"Magic?" said Leo, feeling his heart sink. The few experiences he'd had with magic had not been pleasant ones -- even less so than the ones he'd had with other types of dimension travelling.

"Yeah, sounds like it. Not that I should call myself an authority on the subject, of course, being just a humble talking beast... If it's them who knows magic you're seeking out, you'd be better off talking with the dwarfs. They don't practice it much, of course, but I daresay they know about it."

"Excuse me... I'd be better off talking to the what?!"

"Dwarfs! You don't have them in this Newyork of yours? Decent chaps on the whole, although occasionally you run into some of them who... well." The badger shrugged. "The less said of that, the better, in my opinion. But I could take you to meet the dwarf brothers who live 'round here, if you want. Maybe they could tell you more."

"That would be very kind of you," said Leo. He meant to sound grateful and found that he was, really, it was just that all this about magic and dwarfs and talking animals kinda made him feel like he'd inadvertedly stepped into some kind of B-graded fantasy story for children. Still, it would be better to follow the badger than standing around and not doing anything. There was always the possibility that this entire thing was a trap of some sort, but if it was, he reckoned he could probably fight his way out of it. "It would be good to talk to someone who might be able to explain things... I really don't know what I'm doing here... or how to get home, for that matter."

"We'll find a way, of course we will, never you worry," said the badger cheerfully. "By the way, my name's Portly. You got a name?"

"Leonardo," said Leonardo. "Most people call me 'Leo,' though."

"Leo?" The badger seemed pleased by this. "That's a lion's name, that is! Well, even if it weren't for nothing else, that makes you all right in my book! C'mon, then!"

"Uh... lead the way," said Leo, wondering just what it was about lions that appealed to Portly. Wouldn't it have made more sense for the badger to be afraid of a predator like a lion? But, he reminded himself, he was definitely not in his own world anymore -- things might very well be different here in Narnia. Maybe lions and badgers were natural allies or something.

"So," said Portly as they set down the path, "You're a warrior of some kind in this New York of yours, that right?"

"You could say that," said Leo. "It was the swords that tipped you off, wasn't it?"

"Well, partly that, but something about the way you carry yourself as well," said Portly. "I've seen warriors carry themselves like that. Something about the way they always seem ready for trouble, even if they're not necessarily looking for trouble. There's something else about you, though, something that's different from the warriors I've seen. You seem like you'd be more at home lurking in the shadows than walking out in the open... now, normally I'd say that was a sign that a person was no good, but your face is much too honest for it, even with that strange mask you're wearing."

"That's... pretty perceptive." Leo was baffled, and a little impressed. It seemed like this badger was more insightful than he seemed at first glance. Kinda like Raphael or Michelangelo, Leo thought. You wouldn't think either of them has two brain cells to rub together sometimes, but then they go ahead and surprise you with some really profound insights or brilliant ideas. "You have my word of honor that I'm not after stirring up trouble, though," he added, out loud. "I really just want to go home."

"Oh, never occurred to me for a minute that it was anything else," said Portly. "Now, if you really never heard of Narnia before, I expect you must be mighty curious about what sort of country we are. Let me fill you in on it as we walk along..."

Leo nodded, but internally he hoped that the fill-in wouldn't take as long as he suspected it would. Interesting as the country's history no doubt was, and insightful though this badger may be, Portly did seem to love the sound of his own voice just a little too much for Leo's tastes.




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As Portly's story developed, Leo's feeling that he had wandered into some lowbrow children's fantasy story increased.

Apparently, Narnia was a country that contained many creatures he had only thought belonged in fairytales -- dwarfs, fauns, giants, dryads and of course a multitude of talking animals -- but it was nevertheless ruled by a human (or a "Son of Adam," as Portly for some reason insisted on calling it), who apparently was descended from some humans that had come into Narnia from another world long ago.

This thing about humans coming from other worlds, through some kind of magic, seemed to be something that had happened more than once, and Leo thought that this at least explained Portly's immediate acceptance of Leo's own story; the badger had probably heard about visitors from other worlds for his entire life.

While humans were now numerous in Narnia, they hadn't always been; in fact, the stories told that once, the humans had been banished from Narnia by a witch or something, and had been gone so long that many of Narnia's creatures (though not the talking beasts, Portly assured him) had forgotten that there ever was such thing as humans. And while the humans were gone, Narnia hadn't been "quite right," and there had been a winter that lasted for a hundred years before four other humans had come to Narnia from another world, defeated the witch and made everything "right" again by taking up the rule of Narnia with the help and blessing of someone named "Aslan" (who, as far as Leo could make out, was the highest authority in this place; the one even the mightiest kings bowed to).

"King Peter, the High King, it was," said Portly. "And his brother, king Edmund, and his sisters, Queen Susan and Queen Lucy. They ruled Narnia for many a year before they simply vanished, all four of them. Turned out later they'd gone back to their own world, but nobody knew, of course, until they returned a thousand years later and could tell us what had happened."

"They sound like very long-lived humans," said Leo.

"No, it was a whatchamacallit," said Portly, waving his paw around as he tried thinking of the word. "Blast, I know there's a name for it. Something about time running differently in our two worlds. A human could stay here for ages and still return to his own world after a few seconds -- and then, if he returned here after a week in his own world, he might find that a year had passed in Narnia, or a thousand years, or just a few minutes. You can never know for sure what it's going to be. 'Least, that's how I've always had it told to me."

Leo frowned. "Does this mean that no matter how long I stay here, no time at all is going to pass in New York?"

"Could be. Or could be that years will pass. Like I said, you can never know for sure." Portly must have noticed the look of horror on Leo's face, because he hurried to add: "But I'm certain that time in your world won't get too out of hand! It's Narnian time that acts the most unpredictably, see? At least, that's what all the stories say!"

Leo tried to calm down (after all, the flow of time wasn't something he could control, so it would be useless to panic about it now) and listen to the rest of Portly's story, which took a drastic turn after the disappearance of the Four Great Kings and Queens, as the badger referred to them as.

Some decades after they had vanished, humans had once again entered Narnia, but this time they had come from another country in this world, a place called Telmar. They had conquered Narnia through war, and done it so completely, it seemed, that all the non-humans were forced to go underground and live in hiding. And in an ironic turnaround, after some time many of the humans forgot that there had ever been such things as dwarfs and fauns and talking animals and thought of them only as legends -- just as dwarfs and fauns and other non-humans (though not the talking beasts, as Portly repeatedly assured him) had come to view humans as legends during the time they were scarce in Narnia.

However, some humans remembered and honored the stories, and one such human was Prince Caspian, direct descendant of Caspian the Conqueror (the man who had crowned himself king of Narnia after the Telmarin humans had conquered Narnia). The prince had chanced to come upon the remains of the old Narnian civilization while on the run from his uncle, Miraz the Usurper, and had eventually managed to befriend dwarfs and giants and fauns and centaurs and talking animals alike.

It was around this time when the High King Peter and his royal siblings had returned to Narnia after their thousand-year-long absence, and again with the aid of this "Aslan," they helped Caspian defeat Miraz and regain his throne before once again returning to their own world. Caspian proved to be a good king for all of Narnia's creatures, all of whom could now live out in the open again -- and even though the humans were now slightly more numerous than the other creatures save the animals (their numbers had dwindled considerably during their many centuries of living in hiding), everyone were more or less getting along and had done so for several decades.

"The good king Caspian died about ten years ago," Portly finished, "and the throne has gone to his son, King Rilian -- long may he reign -- who's generally agreed upon to have shaped up to be a fine king and --"

"Wait," Leo suddenly interrupted him, stopping dead in his tracks. "Did you hear that?" he said in a whisper.

"Hear what?" said Portly, stopping as well.

Leo motioned for him to be silent and concentrated. As a ninja, and more importantly as a mutant turtle, you were trained to always be aware of your surroundings, to pick up and recognize potential danger at a moment's notice. Of course, it worked better when you were on familiar ground, and Leo was more a Turtle of the city than of the forest, but prolonged stays up at Casey's farmhouse and many nature walks had nevertheless given him a general feel of what a forest should feel like.

And there was something about it right now that felt... off, like a sour note in an otherwise pleasant-sounding song. He wasn't sure if he had heard it, or felt it, or just imagined it, or if whatever he'd heard or felt (or imagined) was something that was perfectly normal for Narnia but just felt off-putting to him because it wasn't what he was used to.

Focus. Don't look for what you think is going to be there, look for what is really there. Don't listen only with your ears, because those very ears might be deceiving you. Listen with your heart, your soul, your mind.

And even though he didn't see or hear anything, he was aware of someone, or something</> -- several someones or somethings -- that were moving past him in rapid succession. Just a slight wavering in the air next to him, and then it was gone again, and he had the feeling that it was moving down the path, away from him.

He had a distinct feeling that there had been a party of unseen, unheard creatures hurrying past him and Portly. It was hard to say just how many there had been (but more than a few, he was certain of that) or just what sort of creatures they had been, but that they had been there was certain.

"Maybe a badger can be so bold as to ask what you're doing?" said Portly after a while, looking up at him with an expression that was made up, in roughly equal parts, by curiosity, confusion and mild annoyance.

"Portly," said Leo. "You've told me about centaurs and dwarfs and fauns and satyrs and dryads and a whole lot of other creatures, so I'm willing to accept that this might be a perfectly normal occurrence... but there were just a group of invisible creatures walking right past us."

"Invisible?"

"Yeah. Is that something that happens a lot around here?"

"Well, I ain't never seen anyone invisible around here, if that's what you mean," said Portly. "Are you certain that's what it was?"

"As certain as I am of anything right now," said Leo. "They walked right past us, pretty fast too, in that direction." As he pointed, he realized just how stupid it must sound to the badger -- a group of invisible creatures?

But once again, Portly surprised him. "That's Eastward, that is," he said thoughtfully. "In that direction lies Cair Paravel, the Royal castle. Why would a group of invisible beings be heading in that direction? I'm not sure I like the implications of that."

Leo took a deep breath. "You mean to say you believe it? Just like that?"

"Of course," said Portly, looking surprised that Leo would have thought otherwise. "I told you before, you have an honest face. I'm a talking beast, I am, and a badger besides -- we can recognize liars and cheaters and traitors better than most, not that I'm one to brag, mind you. I don't believe you would lie about something like this, though I must admit I'm baffled as to what it all might mean, what with invisible creatures heading for Cair Paravel and all. We'd better get you to the dwarfs and see what they think." He started walking again, going down on all fours this time and picking up pace.

"It... might be a coincidence, though," said Leo as he followed, trying to keep at least some level of sensibility to this conversation. (The way Portly kept completely accepting his every word was a little unnerving -- not that he particularly wanted him to start laughing at him or refuse to believe him or tell him he was crazy, but he couldn't quite shake the feeling that the badger was either very clever or extremely gullible.) "I mean, unless this Cair Paravel lies just behind those trees, it's not certain that that was where they were headed. They could be going another place that just happened to lie in that direction."

"That could be, of course," said Portly. "But it would be a mighty strange coincidence at that. Them what sneaks around invisibly seldom have honest motivations, as my old father would say. If they were going to see the king, then I should think they would have travelled openly unless they were planning on doing any harm."

They didn't speak any more for the rest of the walk; Portly seeming suddenly -- and as far as Leo could see, rather uncharacteristically -- to think that they should focus more on hurrying than talking.

(Now, badgers aren't exactly creatures built for speed, so his idea of "hurrying" was little more than a brisk walking pace as far as Leo was concerned, but it was probably the thought that counted.)

They had, however, managed to go most of the way during Portly's story, and only a few minutes' brisk walk later, the trees parted to reveal a clearing in the forest, in the middle of which stood small, sturdy-looking house -- looking considerably less like one out of a fairytale than Leo might have expected and more like a sensible log cabin.

Just outside it, and this was what caught Leo's attention first of all, were three figures, sitting about in the grass. Two of them were obviously dwarfs -- with their short, stocky figures and long beards there was no mistaking them for anything else -- but the third one stood out, and would have stood out in a crowd fifty times as large. The upper body was that of a young woman, reasonably attractive as far as Leo could judge (though he could hardly call himself an expert on human feminine beauty), with straight blonde hair and tan skin -- but the lower body, slumped in the grass in a most undignified manner, was that of a sandy-yellow-coated horse. What was even more eye-catching was that she had just lowered her human torso and taken a big mouthful of grass.

It was, of course, a centaur, as Leo realized after the first fleeting second of confusion at actually seeing such a creature.

The trio looked up as Leo and Portly entered the clearing, the centaur quickly raising herself and hastily swallowing the grass.

"Why, it's Portly," said one of the dwarfs, who seemed to be slightly older than the other and had red hair that looked not entirely unlike the fur of a fox, and contrasted quite marvellously with the black hair of the other, younger dwarf. "What's the hurry, Portly? Come for a spot of luncheon? I'm afraid we've finished most of it by now, but --"

"Who is your friend, Portly?" the centaur interrupted him in a stern voice that would have been that much more impressive if she hadn't still had some grass in her mouth. "I don't believe I've seen any creature such as this before."

"Hello, Moorwin, didn't realize you were here as well," Portly panted. "This here's Leo, he's a Newyorker."

Leonardo, who unlike Portly wasn't even slightly out of breath, bowed politely to the three. It wasn't often he met people who didn't at first back away from him, or worse, attack him on sight, and he was determined to make as good a first impression as he could, time permitting. "A Ninja Turtle, actually. My full name is Leonardo, but as I already told Portly, most people just call me Leo. It's an honor to meet you all."

The centaur, whose name was apparently Moorwin, seemed to measure him before returning the bow (which did look slightly odd on a centaur). "Well, you're polite, whatever else you are. The honor is all ours, I'm sure."

The red-haired dwarf bowed too, making it look slightly better, and then the black-haired dwarf, apparently not wanting to be left out, gave a very small bow.

"Welcome to our house then, master Leo," said the red-haired dwarf. My name is Dorin, and this here is one of my housemates, Brink -- and, of course, our neighbor Moorwin, who just joined us for luncheon. Would you care for some --"

"I'm afraid I don't have the time right now, but thanks anyway," said Leo hurriedly. Making a good first impression was all well and good, but if he was going to sit down to eat as well, it would be ages before he got to the point. "Look, Portly here says that you dwarfs know a bit about magic..:"

"I daresay we do, I daresay we do," said Dorin with poorly-hidden pride in his voice.

"I might need some help from you later, then -- but, well, I'm new to these parts and there are a lot of things I don't know about here. Do you know of any creature, or person, who can turn invisible and travel the country unnoticed?"

"Leo says he saw a number of them heading down for Cair Paravel," Portly added helpfully, having regained his breath.

"How could he have seen them if they were invisible?" said Brink.

"I didn't actually see them, but... Oh, it's too long a story to go into now," Leo sighed. "I know how to sense them, in a way, but I don't know what they are. If they were headed for this Cair Paravel, then --"

"Then it's only the duty of any free Narnian to travel to Cair Paravel and make sure that these invisible creatures do not intend harm against good king Rilian, or to sullen the ancient home of the High King," said Moorwin. "And since I am the fastest of us..." She trotted up to Leo. "Do you know how to ride?"

"What?" said Leo, a little surprised.

"Well, you'll be going down to Cair Paravel, won't you? If I understood you correctly, you're in a hurry. Normally I wouldn't allow just anyone to ride me, but if it's a matter of investigating a possible threat to Cair Paravel, and to the king, I'm willing to make an exception. Do you know how to ride?"

"A little," said Leo, thinking about the few times he'd been on horseback in his life. Riding had come more easily to him than to his brothers, but he wouldn't actually call himself experienced. "But not that much. And never on a centaur."

"That goes without saying," said Moorwin. "But you'll do all right. Come on, up you get."

"I'll stay here, if you don't mind," said Portly as Leo somewhat uncertainly mounted the centaur. "I'd just slow you down, and of course it ain't natural for a badger to travel in any fashion but on his own two, or four, feet. How about I just talk your other situation over with the dwarfs here and see if there's any magic they might know of that can help you?"

"That would be great, Portly," said Leo. "Thank you."

"Well, my friends," said Moorwin, turning to the dwarfs. "I'm sorry to leave you in such a hurry, but the safety of the king might be at stake here! Now... Leonardo, was it? I'm going to run very fast here, so I suggest you hold onto me so you don't fall off." She paused. "But not just there. A little lower, please."

"Sorry."

"That's quite all right. Now you've got it." Without further ado, the centaur turned again and galloped out of the clearing, heading to the East, with Leonardo hanging on for dear life, discovering very quickly that riding a centaur was anything but comfortable.

Next time, Leo thought between the hoofbeats, I'm going to stay home and send Mike out on patrol instead.





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To be continued....
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Author's Notes: Narnian fans should recognize the epoch in Narnian time Leo has been sent to; namely the period taking place between The Silver Chair and The Last Battle (but closer to the former than the latter, given that king Rilian is alive and well still). Of course (as Portly might say), this timeline isn't a hundred percent dependable, because if Susan is an old lady in our world, the fic must logically take place after The Last Battle, right? So it appears that Leo has not only been sent to another world, but back in time as well!

Quick note here about the OCs we meet in this chapter: Portly is not related to Trufflehunter, the badger from Prince Caspian, even if he does display a similar opinion about badgers and talking beasts and how they don't forget things from the past. (Even if Portly does go a bit further and claims that badgers can recognize honesty... which is probably a bit of an exaggeration, but they do seem to be fairly good judges of character even in canon.)

And as for Moorwin: There isn't a single female centaur described in the Narnia books, but that doesn't necessarily mean they don't exist. Most centaurs we meet in Narnian canon are old, stern and wise, so I thought it would be fun to introduce a young, impulsive centaur who thinks she is stern and wise, but hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet.

In the next chapter, we'll be returning to New York to see the other Turtles and Splinter, and their reaction to a talking Klunk.