I love your stories, and will give a full review soon enough... However, one thing irks me tremendously! You keep using "span" as the past tense of "to spin".

This is an archaic use of the verb (see http://dictionary./browse/spin). The modern declination of to spin is spin - spun - spun.

E.g.
Present tense: She spins to meet her attacker.
Past Tense: She SPUN to meet her attacker. - not: She "span"...
Present Perfect: She has SPUN to meet...
Past Perfect: She had SPUN...

I understand that of course you're not going to edit all your writing after the fact, but you might want to write with this in mind in future.
Of course, if you purposely chose to use the archaic form, more power to you. :-) It just annoys me. ;-)

Otherwise, keep up the great work!
Erika
firedancer@gmx.at

i know that it's been rather long since you've updated this fic, but i really hope you will, it sounds like an aweomse story and i would love to know what happens next ^_^

-_-wow, this chapter was confusing... but it was still SUPER good! :D please update soon!-_-

you should say which is ur first story and its sequal. wat ur writing is VERY confusing

Oh so very wonderful! Very, very, very exciting! I just love the plot! Please oh please oh please update! I'm begging you! Don't leave us hanging!

Oh wow. This is very different from anything I've read before, and I'm wondering where the rest is. I would love to see the story out to the end.

Awesome story so far!

Are you going to do anymore on this one?

I would be so thrilled if you did, so if you can, PLEASE DO!

God BLess!

Signed~

Rathnier Nithvolr

this story is so cool and if you don't finish it i'll hunt you down myself

A vivid fever dream as Edmund faces down his personal demons and, in so doing, is forced to call upon his lupine nature to survive. In his Spirit Quest, he becomes a wolf and runs as a wolf and fights as a wolf. The layers of humanity are stripped from him, reducing him to his core essence. This had been Carrack's intention all along, "It'll make a wolf of him.."

The imagery is fluent, one thing moving into another with casual and disturbing ease. All is chaos, with infinite possibilities, resolving itself into infinite permutations of reality. The world melts around Edmund as his perception of reality blurs and his very definition of self is challenged.

He is back at the Witch's house, cowering before Maugrim, weighed down with chains, re-living his own crime. For too long, this is what has defined him, what he is and what he does.

He is back in that Other Place, in England, as worlds collide and merge and familiar faces seem to mock him.

The imagery is disturbing, especially that of his screaming veins wrapping themselves around the Witch's wand and being ripped out of his chest - gruesomely reminiscent of the old manner of executing a traitor. Above all, there is the Turkish Delight, Edmund's thirty pieces of silver, turning to bile and wormwood within his mouth.

But in his agonies, the Lion is there. And He points Edmund to another path.

In his dream, Edmund is drawn to the West, to something beyond the mountains. One thinks of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" here. He desires to go into the West but, as with a poem by Robert Frost, he has tasks to perform yet and must heed the call of duty.

Edmund is now shown his new destiny as Lord of the Western Wild, to become the Alpha wolf and to lead the wolves of Narnia back to their true allegiance, exorcising the Witch's influence at last. This is what will now define him. It will be the vehicle of his redemption. Yet, he balks at this destiny, seeks to deny what he is and to cling to his individuality. "I'm no wolf, he said to himself, but the presence behind him growled and the one in his heart growled back ..." He realises that as a lone wolf without a pack he cannot survive and the wolves cannot survive without him. A symbiotic relationship, one depending upon the other. In this sense, Edmund truly becomes a wolf, part of their blood and part of their spirit, ready to run with them forever.

The interaction between the wolves is intriguing. Carrack and Hatawatha virtually come to blows, while Lorren's words seem to strike at the beliefs of all. Her atheism directly contrasting with Carrack's faith.

A superb chapter and one that doesn't do weird just for the sake of it. Whatever mind-bending drug it was that Carrack slipped Edmund, it appears to have done the job better than even Carrack intended.

In this chapter Edmund is portrayed very much as a wolf himself, fighting desperately with no quarter asked for or given. Almost careless of their extreme peril in the clutches of the maelstrom of Cauldron Pool, Edmund and the wolf fight on regardless, seemingly determined to kill or be killed.

So, Edmund found the wolves he was looking for. These are wolves who have held true to Aslan and Narnia and who have apparently lived for a century on the western-most periphecy of Narnia in a cave which looks to the hopeful East. In the manner of the Jews they awaited the fulfilment of the prophecy. But, as with the petrified woodland creatures in "King Edmund's Crusade", the prophecy seems to have passed them by, prompting Lorren to snap that it's fulfilment has done them no good. Alpin, however, has more faith.

The thought of wolves being able to set a dislocated arm is rather disconcerting. Perhaps the deep scratches on Edmund's palm and the back of his hand are a by-product of the healing process.

Hatawatha's amber decorations and the braids and plaits in the ruff around her neck sound like strange ornamentation. Edmund seems to recognise them. Could another wolf have done this? If not, perhaps another human? Certainly these wolves are familiar with humans. Lorren speaks of the Hundred Years' Winter as though she at least has lived through it all and can apparently remember a time before the Great Winter because she can access distant memories to announce that Edmund smells like a Son of Adam. If so, she may be basing her doubts about Edmund's status upon personal experience. Yet, there are hints that the wolves' experiences with humans may not have been too far away in the past; Hatawatha refers to their dealings with humans in the present tense.

And, oh yes, the interaction between the wolves, which Edmund mistakes as dissension but which is clearly the way wolves maintain internal order. Very different from the kind of family-interaction that Edmund is used to, both in the literal sense of his own family and in the wider sense of the Narnian family. At least Edmund knows enough not to bare his own teeth. He also recognises the importance of looking Lorren directly in the eyes. Even in his desperately wounded state, and in a very vulnerable position, Edmund cannot show weakness or submission.

I love the emphasis laid upon wolves in this story. To my mind, they are the most magnificent social creatures of all, bound beyond all untying to the land and to the pulsing rhythms of life. Accepting this, the subsequent apostacy of the Narnian wolves in rejecting the path of Aslan and throwing in their lot with the Witch becomes the more shocking. Perhaps this goes far to explaining why wolves are held in such disdain in the reconstituted Narnia. It also says much for Edmund's own personal demons that he show strive to bring redemption to the wolves.

The descriptions of Edmund are superb, "All in Narnia had heard tales of his constant movement, his travels from castle to encampment, from council to battlefield, from library to court ... There was a stillness to Edmund that only came from constant motion." The eye of a hurricane of activity. And later, "Edmund smiled and drained his cup with the effortless skill of a man with problems",

This time, Edmund does not pause at the beavers' house and the opportunity for reconciliation must be delayed until "King Edmund's Crusade".

The image of Hylonome is an absolute treat. She seems utterly flustered by Edmund's unexpected appearance and her behaviour at Captain Kyllaros's tent is great visual comedy. " ... his daughter frantically pointing in a manner she thought was subtle but absolutely was not." "She started and tried to look like she hadn't been listening."

The thought of the Witch's house regenerating itself is interesting. This rather reinforces the view that Jadis's legacy outlives her and that the Golden Age under the Pevensies is not, and cannot be, a straightforward return to the way things were before the Witch took over. The Witch's overthrow in itself was not sufficient to return Narnia's innocence. This is something of a contradiction to Lewis's own rather jaunty and childishly upbeat conclusion to the "Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" but is rather more in keeping with the general tone of the later books in the Chronicles of Narnia.

The description of the land at the westernmost periphery of Narnia accords with with the general gloominess of the King. The land is cold and barren "the black soil was thin here, with stunted, straggly bushes ..." Bleak and unforgiving. The reader wonders why Edmund should have stepped so blithely into almost certain ambush. The land, after all, belongs "body and soul" to the wolves. Perhaps, Edmund wanted the confrontation. We are not told, after all, exactly what he planned to do here, beyond a rather vague intention to put some half-remembered legends to the test. But, perhaps, he wanted to precipitate a violent confrontation with the wolves, to risk his own life, as a test that he still held the Lion's favour? Perhaps.

If masks were the order of the day in chapter 1, the characters wear their true faces now.

Edmund's motives for this seemingly madcap jaunt to the Western Wild at the onset of winter are very clear, and anticipate his reasons for the later crusade to the Lone Islands. His stated reasons are very sensible - for the sake of the security of Western Narnia, he must win over the wolves if he hopes to hold the Lantern Waste - but Susan knows the true reasons. Edmund seeks redemption. He has been forgiven for his treachery, forgiven by his subjects and family, forgiven by Aslan. But he can't forgive himself. In his mind, no matter what he does, no matter how hard he tries, those scales will never balance. So, he drives himself onward, trying to make himself worthy of receiving such forgiveness. "...there is more that I am supposed to do". In the teeth of winter, he dreams of redemption.

Susan is well presented and I, for one, enjoy the closeness between sister and brother. Susan seems to understand their younger brother much better than Peter does. She understands what drives him and gives him her blessing. It's a welcome change from her all-too frequent depiction in fanfiction as an overbearing shrew.

Edmund's own personal demons aside, he seems the most open-minded of people. His very suggestion that he will seek to redeem the wolves excites anger in even the Gentle Queen. Peter, we have been reminded, has to be advised to keep his wolf-killing sword in its sheath whilst dealing with a lupine messenger and apparently can only interact with Rapine because Rapine is a very unwolf-like wolf. Oreius has fought wolves for so long that he can barely trust Rapine. And we've already seen the Narnian reaction to the proximity of wolves. Wolves are beyond the pale. Yet, Edmund will seek to redeem the wolves and return them to their true allegiance, even though all think it a fool's errand. But Edmund, of all people, knows that no-one is beyond redemption.

The leavetaking at the end of the chapter is very touching. Edmund's siblings, obviously, do not approve of his quest but they all possess a sincere wish for his safe return. Obviously, Susan believes that the very attempt is a triumph. ""Say you'll be back", said Susan. "Say you'll be a credit to Narnia", said Peter. "Say thank you", reminded Lucy".

The title, "He who fights with wolves ..." Sounds like Nietzsche and perhaps presages Edmund's coming trial.

Masks. This chapter deals in masks, in disguises shielding one's true self from the world.

The most obvious example of this is Edmund. Exactly what drives him to perpetrate such a grim jest upon his siblings is not immediately clear, although one suspects that he is playing to a specifically lupine audience. At this point, we don't know the precise foundation upon which his authority as Lord of the Western Wild rests but I think it's fairly likely he has to put on a show to impress his followers, even if it's at the expense of his older brother's peace of mind. Such is politics. Certainly, Edmund seems to understand the realities and nature of power and authority. Nonetheless, it was a good jest, well conceived and brilliantly executed.

Masks. We see Peter's as well. No matter his own concerns as a brother, Peter must set aside his own feelings and assume the mask of a High King of Narnia to deal with a potential threat and probable affront to the dignity of the Crown. "I will not appear weak before this wolflord . . " Peter had set his jaw on his clenched fists then and Oreius deemed it wise to not continue"."

The masks worn by the two Queens are less obvious because their official roles are ones of defererence and subservience to their royal brother. However, we are told that Susan has been worked upon since early that day, enhancing "her already formidable beauty to something that could be scaled and stand as a monument", and honing her into the ideal image of what a queen should be.

Yet the masks are lifted with the wolves and the great cats. They show themselves exactly for what they are and, for that reason, are most at ease where everyone else is constrained and inhibited by protocol and procedure. The descriptions given leaves the reader in no doubt of their physical power, or their readiness to employ it if necessary.

Drax is perfectly cast. Fiercely loyal to his Alpha, he shows his throat to the High King to signify his respect and peaceable intentions but it is token submission only - his true allegiance lies with the Lord of the Western Wild alone. He is not contrite in the presence of the High King - his calm demeanor boards upon measured insolence.

There is so much else that can be said about this chapter - the vivid descriptions of winter's last fury, the interaction of Rapine with the monarchs, Peter's hesistancy and uncertainty away from the public view. Suffice it to say that this chapter did a superb job of setting the scene.

You have a magnificent eye for detail. Your rich style imbues your characters with a sense of high purpose, a great quality for a story set in Aslan's domain. Please forgive me for offering one complaint, which has already been well expressed by Smoltenica: that you tend to put one character's dialogue in the same paragraph as the action of the subsequent speaker. This obscures your story in a way that does not add mystery but instead blunts it. That being said, I love your portrayal of the characters, both human and animal. You're also one of the few writers who can make even the details of clothing vitally meaningful to the texture of the story. I think my favorite scene was the meeting of Drax and the cats in the first chapter, but there were many other delightful passages. To me this is the most enjoyable of all your stories, and I hope you will continue and complete it. (Did you get Drax's name from Lord Dunsany's name, by the way? If so, it's a great tribute to one of the fathers of fantasy literature.)

I like it are you going to post more soon?