The first thing I should probably get straight is that my name is not Fenris. Nor is it Morgrim, or any other variations I have heard, and you have certainly also heard. My name is Rashakan. I took the name Fenris when I went into the Witch's service.

Hold the torches until I can explain a bit more. You might change your mind. I belonged to a pack in Ettinsmoor, just to the east of the lake that would become the witch's castle. It was a small pack, struggling to survive. We learned to be harsh during the winters, showing no mercy to any beast, talking or not. We used to live further south, in the Western Wood, but we were driven north by the angry fauns and creatures that we preyed on. It was not a good life in Ettinsmoor. Several of us were killed by hunting giants, and more by fauns that preyed on us even there, seeking vengeance for those we had killed in hunger.

We learned to kill anything that approached us, for survival. We drew closer and closer to being killing beasts with no empathy or compassion, only the need to kill to survive, as our pack dwindled. I suppose it was that that gave us to the White Witch – how she found us.

She had been hunting for us wolves and other creatures that could be brought to see her way, and though I have suspicions, I am not sure of anything. Maybe the White Witch had something to do with the deaths of my pack mates. If so, she deserves the death she got a hundred times over. By the time she found my pack, it was only me and my brother, and his mate, and we were all starving, on the verge of death. Just to the south of us lay a land of bounty and rich food, but we could not touch it for fear of dying on the faun's arrows. The first warning we had of her approach was the ringing of sleigh bells, but we were too weak to fight. We lay down in the snow and hoped that they would not see us, but the sleigh stopped, and we heard footsteps.

"Her Majesty, Queen of Narnia and Empress of the Lone Islands, wishes an audience with you." The voice was gravely and rough, the voice of a dwarf. I looked up and glared him in the eyes without blinking. Finally he looked down.

"Queen? I have heard of no queen," said my brother sharply. He was still proud, even with his ribs jutting from his sides and his coat hanging off his bones. "What does she wish to speak about?"

The dwarf opened his mouth, but a voice, both quiet and silky and at once very icy, spoke from the sleigh. "I will speak now." There was a rustle of cloth and footsteps on snow, and I looked up to see the tallest human I had ever seen. Her face was cold and hard, beautiful, in an icy sort of human way. She wore a dress that trailed behind her in the snow and was cut to show an expanse of white skin. Not pale, but white.

"Greetings, wolves," she said. "I am Queen of Narnia, though my creed has not spread north…yet. I wish to enlist your aid as my guards – for, Queens have many enemies, and wolves would be powerful allies to have with me if someone were to attack me."

"Why would you want us?" my brother snarled. I glared at him – this woman was offering us a chance at life – why was he refusing that offer? "We are dying, starving, and have been for years. Why have you not approached us before now? Why have you let us die out, let fauns kill us by the hundreds, if you wanted us as allies?"

A look of icy anger crossed the Queen's face and was gone so quickly that I was sure I had imagined it. My hackles raised involuntarily. I forced myself to relax. When she spoke again, her voice was utterly calm, so much so that I was sure I had imagined the anger.

"I have only recently heard about this unfortunate destruction of your kind. I offer you not only a place to live and eat, but safety from your enemies. What do you say? All you have to do is guard me from attack, and I will keep you and your pack mates safe."

My brother opened his mouth, but I beat him to it. "Yes," I said. "We accept your offer gladly, your Majesty. We will serve you, in return for you keeping us safe and well. Will you take us to your palace?"

My brother glared at me, but I ignored him. I was not going to let this chance at life pass.

"Thank you," she said. "I see that you are tired, and weak. You may ride in my sleigh. All of you." Then she swept back to the sleigh and sat down without looking back. As we followed her, my brother trotted up beside me.

"What do you think you're doing? You don't know anything about her! She could be evil, she could be plotting to kill us…she's human, and humans have always hated us. You of all wolves should know that." I had lost a mate to hunting humans only a year ago. It still hurt to think about her, and I hated my brother for bringing it up.

"Would you rather die here?" I hissed angrily. "Whether or not she is evil, if we stay here we will die for certain! At least if we go to her we have a chance, however small. I will not have you ruin that. I will not let you kill all of us because you are afraid to trust one human!" I broke into a run after the witch, but a niggling doubt wormed in my brain that my brother might be right. How bad can she be if she is offering us a chance to live? I thought firmly. How evil can she be?

However, as I leaped into the sleigh, I had a feeling that it could be very bad indeed.