AN: Okay, so this story is mostly AU even though it contains SOME things from the orignal happenings in the Narnia books (Mostly the Magicians nephew stuff). It is set in Narnia, late in the rule of King Frank (This is where the AU comes in) and the four pevensies are his children. The main plot of this fic is inspired by (and greatly based on) the grimm brothers' fairytale, "The six swans", the H.C. Anderson fairytale, "The wild swans" and The storyteller's verison of what is pretty much the same story, "The three ravens". It is also likely to contain themes and elements from other fairytales I like and think fit into this fic, as well. As for pairings, later on there is going to be some Susan/Caspian in this. I hope you like it.

We are Princes and Princesses, my brothers, my sister, and I.

One day, my eldest brother will be a high king in our father's place.

We have everything we will ever need;

we write on golden slates with diamond-covered quills,

we eat the finest food each day,

we sleep on silken sheets and velvet blankets,

we live in a beautiful castle called Cair Paravel by the Eastern Sea,

we play in that glittering water whenever the weather allows;

sometimes we have even seen Aslan himself coming towards us, pad-padding over to our land of Narnia to visit father.

Yes, by everything, I mean, everything.

Everything that is, except for mother.

She died giving birth to our sister; we three older ones and father miss her dearly, but at least we've finally started smiling again.

I guess for the most part, in spite of our deep loss, we are a happy family.

A happy royal family.


It was a warm, mid-summer's day and Peter, the eldest son of King Frank, was strolling along the castle's many tapestry-covered passageways when he heard a funny little cry coming from the very direction he was headed in.

"What are you doing?" Peter laughed breathlessly, spotting his three squealing siblings running down the gold-and-white marble corridor.

Susan had Lucy's arms and Edmund had her legs. They were swinging her back and forth playfully while she let out pretend squeaks of protest and lightly kicked at the air near Edmund's side as if she was trying to escape although she seemed to be making no real effort to do so.

"We're going to tie Lucy to a pillar!" Susan giggled, gently tightening her grip on her little sister so she didn't drop her by mistake.

"Peter, help!" Lucy managed to blurt out in between bouts of wild laughter. "Don't leave me with these people."

"Aw, Lu, I don't know..." Peter smirked, walking over to them and standing at such an angle that Lucy was basically looking at him upside down. "They seem awful nice, don't you think?"

"They're going to tie me to a pillar." Lucy reminded him, breaking into another round of giggles as her eldest brother wiggled his fingers close to Susan who could be sort of ticklish sometimes.

She let out a squeal as soon as he made contact with her side and accidentally let go of Lucy, who's whole weight was then launched into an unsuspecting Edmund so that they fell to the ground with Lucy's toes going right up his nostrils.

Susan panted for breath and pushed Peter away. "Stop that, it tickles!"

"That's the point!" Peter exclaimed teasingly, almost tackling her before Edmund, finally free of Lucy's feet, raced over to them and jumped onto Peter's back shouting, "Pig pile on Peter!"

"Hey, get off!" He protested in a weak gasp before Lucy jumped onto Edmund's back pushing them all deeper into the floor with another excited squeal of joy.

When they finally all untangled themselves from each other, their eyebrows all went up, way up. The next thing they knew, they were-all four of them-in a desperate race. Through the courtyard full of swan-statue styled fountains and white-gold candle trees, out the curly-patterned ironed gates, down over towards the beach and then into the front of the woods a little ways off until they came to a stream and stopped short.

As they all teetered on the somewhat muddy edge of the brook, Edmund nudged Susan so that she banged into Peter. He fell into the water with a large splash and a surprised, "Oof!"; he moved his damp light hair away from his forehead. Then he glanced at Susan with a, 'you are going to pay for that one' expression on his face.

"Here," Susan tried in vain not to laugh at him as she extended her hand out to help him up. "Let me help you."

A new gleam came into his eyes and the corners of his mouth edged upwards like he was trying to hold back a joke until the moment was just right. He took her hand and waited until she was leaning quite far off the edge, wavering a little because he was heavier than she was, and then slid his grip upwards until he felt his fingers lock firmly around her wrist.

"No thanks," His smile widened, he was ready to share that joke now. With one good yank, he pulled her into the water beside him. As soon as he heard-and felt-the splash at his right side, he added, "I would rather help you, dear sister."

"Edmund," Susan said sweetly, fake-smiling with twinkling eyes at her younger brother, reaching out to grab his hand. "Ed...Eddie-Ed, come here, there's something I want to show you."

Knowing perfectly well that she was simply going to try and pull him into the water with them, he moved a couple of inches away. "How dumb do you think I am?"

Suddenly he felt a light push from behind and fell into the water with an even bigger splash than the other two had made.

"Dumb enough not to see that coming, I guess." Peter laughed, flicking his wet fingers in Edmund's face. He glanced up at Lucy who stood just behind where Edmund had been a mere second ago. "Right, Lu?"

Lucy shrugged her shoulders innocently and giggled into the palm of her hand, looking down at her sopping siblings who were now getting into a rather high-pitched splashing fight.

When Peter and Susan took a break from trying to 'drown' him for a second to fight each other, Edmund fixed his eyes on Lucy and winked at her.

"Lucy...Lucy-Lu..." He tilted his head and wadded close to the edge of the bank to pull her in.

She didn't wait for his hand or his force, she had no reservations about getting her dress wet or about keeping her royal limbs clean. If anyone was usually more worried about that sort of thing, it was Susan, who disliked getting her lily-white fingers stained with residue from freshly-picked berries or her delicate feet covered with mud and even she, at the moment, was simply going along with everything in the pure, honest, lovely pursuit of having fun. Lucy simply jumped into the water herself without even bothering to lift her skirt or call out to warn the other three.

"Way to go, Lucy!" Peter cheered, while trying to ward off the big splashes Edmund and Susan had teamed up to make and aim at him.

Nearly four hours later, the four royal siblings crawled back onto the bank and laid spread out on their backs watching the clouds float slowly by, letting themselves dry off in the last rays of the sun. When evening came, they helped each other up and chased fire-flies. Peter caught one and gave it to Lucy and so she was satisfied and as the others had no real wish to have one themselves, they all went inside.

For some reason their father wasn't back yet but Trumpkin, the red-bearded dwarf who often looked after them in his absence-though Peter was old enough now to take care of the younger ones without being constantly supervised, told them they might take their meals in their chambers and perhaps stay up an extra hour or so if they were very keen on saying good-night to King Frank who would have to come back from hunting in the near-by forest reasonably soon.

After a fine meal of hart with pepper sauce, baked beans, and buttered bread served on silver-handled trays made of sparkling diamonds and plate-glass; with soft vanilla pudding in little golden bowls for dessert and tall glasses of the finest juice made from apples from their very own orchard that the talking moles had planted for them, they started to grow sleepy so Susan took little Lucy to her bedchamber and let her look at an old picture book so lovely that it was worth almost half the castle's treasury until she finally dozed off before falling asleep in a velvet-covered chair in the corner of the room herself.

Edmund and Peter yawned frequently, but as they were wondering what it was that was keeping their father and the rest of the hunting party away for so long, they forced their eyes to stay open and made their minds keep working by playing chess (with a solid-gold chess set with rubies for the pieces' eyes of course) on Peter's bedside table. Finally, when they could fight it no longer, their eyelids closed; Edmund's mouth sagged slightly and he began to snore. The golden chess king slipped out of Peter's uncurling fingers just as he was about to place it down, admitting defeat, checkmate.

At dawn, the hunting party returned but King Frank was not with them. Peter, the first of the children to awaken and enter the royal throne room eager for news of what ever it was that had happened the day before, asked after his father, only to be told they did not know where he was.

"He was with us...at first..." One young hunter with a thin trace of brownish-coloured stubble on his smooth, youthful face explained shakily. "But then...the stag...he...it...ran..." his voice kept trailing off and he seemed unable to finish a single sentence.

The head-hunter, a middle-aged man with a good reputation and a streak of silver-white in his dark hairline, took over. He rubbed his forehead and stood silently for a moment before remembering that Peter wanted to know where his father was.

"He thought he saw the white stag rushing into a thicket in the deepest, darkest, parts of the forest." He told the crown prince gravely. "And it was suddenly as if he had gotten new life in him. Something made him-and his horse for that matter-go so fast. I haven't seen his majesty with that much energy since Queen Helen-may the Lion do well and remember her goodness-passed away."

"What happened?" Peter's brow crinkled; that would have explained father being late, but it did nothing to explain why he had not returned at all.

"He was going so fast that we couldn't keep up with him." The head-hunter continued, his shoulders slumming with sadness and worry. "We didn't think much of it at first, you see, your highness. The trained talking falcons that often ride out on our wrists will keep up with him and alert us to where he is before it is time to go back home to Cair Paravel, we thought." He shook his head and sighed deeply. "We thought a great folly. For soon the falcons lost his track; then the old coon dog that chases the non-talking hares could not find him either-and you know how dearly that poor mutt loves your father. Worse, even our best hounds couldn't locate him again. We called his name-oh, how we called it out! Crying out as if there was no end, and now, we return to you. We return to you with our hats in our hands to beg your understanding and forgiveness, we did not mean to lose your father-he was a good king and we loved him."

Peter noticed that 'our hats in our hands' wasn't only a metaphor, because most of the hunters and traveling companions who had been with the party that day did indeed hold their caps with trembling fingers. Fingers that trembled, not from fear of what might happen to them, but of what might be happening to their dear leader; the one they trusted, the one whom Aslan himself had placed on the throne as king.

And just where was poor desolate King Frank at that very moment? He was lost in the forest, stumbling about the deepest ends, with only his golden-saddled non-talking horse for company. He could find no one and as night had come and gone and dawn itself had passed in the leafy-green shaded sky above him, the poor king began to think he might never find his way out. Perhaps, because of the sting of losing his dear sweet Helen (his beloved queen whom he used to call 'Nellie') he might not have minded the possibility of dying alone in the forest if not for his subjects-and even more so-his four lovely, innocent, good children whom he knew would be at home eagerly awaiting his return.

Then a wicked, albeit very beautiful, face appeared in front of him. Of course King Frank knew and remembered her at once and shuddered at the realization that the evil thing had found her way back into Narnia, somehow over-coming the protection Aslan has always given their kingdom and country. The hair stood up like sharp needles on the back of his neck as he recalled how strong this monstrous lady had always been; how she had flung that lamppost, how her grip was the strongest any poor human had ever been threatened with.

"Hello, Cabby." She said in a chill tone, all seven feet of her towering over this relatively tall king. "Do you remember me?"

He gulped and he knew his eyes were as big as saucers, but he forced a look of bravery and defiance into them.

"Lost are we?" She said, her fishy, perfectly ice-blue eyes locking unwaveringly on his own.

He wanted to cry out, "No, I am not lost! Get away from me, you horrible witch, you!" and swing himself onto his horse and ride, ride, ride deeper still into the forest praying that she would not follow in pursuit. But he could not do that at all, he couldn't look away from her. He could only stand and gap at her, at her might, at her eyes, at his own fear, at his own fast-holding revulsion.

This lady did not expect or need an answer from him. "I will help you get out of this forest alive...I am too good to you, I know...but there is one small condition that you must fulfill."

Still shaking in his boots, the usually very brave king listened to her explain the 'condition' and shook his head. "No, I would rather die here alone with my good beast than make such an unholy alliance with evil itself."

"Then I guess you'll die."

"If Aslan wills it, so be it." A little bit of his bravery and valor were coming back to him and a slight rush of colour returned to his pale white cheeks.

"I suppose your four royal brats will mourn for you soon just as they mourn for their mother now." She showed no mercy.

Those words were like an arrow in Frank's heart; like a knife slashing at his unprotected chest. Oh, how he fought against her reasoning, how he tried desperately to make himself strong from the inside out-thinking of everything from Aslan to goodness and honour themselves, but it was all to no avail in the end. When all was said and done, he had weakened and given into her. The next thing the broken-hearted man who had once been a cabby and was now a weary king and lonely father knew, he was ridding out of the forest back to Cair Paravel with Narnia's greatest enemy seated behind him clinging to his waist.

Looking out from a low tower window while practicing stitching red and orange ribbons into snowy-white parkas and embroidering little daisy-chains onto some spare quilts, trying to distract her mind from the constant worry about her father, Susan heard hoof-beats on the courtyard ground below. And there was also the sound of her younger brother and her little sister crying out, "Father's back! I see him, I see him!"

With that, Susan dropped her work haphazardly off her lap and onto the stone floor and rushed down the staircase where she passed by Peter who was also on his way to the courtyard.

"There you are!" He exclaimed, grabbing onto her wrist and pulling her along with him. "Let's go see what's kept him so long."

"He probably just got lost." Susan panted practically, trying in vain to run along with her brother and to speak clearly at the same time.

It was Lucy who reached her father first-her cheeks rosy and her eyes sparkling with excitement. Then she caught sight of the white-skinned, very tall, glacial beauty he was half-heartedly helping off of the back of his horse.

In one glance, Lucy learned to hate her and-yes, sadly-to fear her; knowing from the start that this woman wasn't a friend at all, but a very wicked, evil, and cruel person indeed.

Edmund reached his father and his father's new companion next and was instantly struck, not at first by the horror that over-came his clever, innocent-minded little sister, but by admiration for how very lovely she was. A prettier lady-with the possible exception of his older sister who grew better-looking with each passing day-he had never before laid eyes on. Her smile was cold but he managed to tell himself that perhaps she didn't mean it to be so and that she might only be a little bit nervous about coming to meet them.

The last to meet her were of course Susan and Peter who arrived a couple of minutes after Edmund and though at first glance they saw only what their brother had seen-the woman's stunning looks, they were wise enough to peer back at her for a second time and to see the evil their little sister had already discovered in that lovely face.

"Children," King Frank announced in a voice that was supposed to sound cheerful but came across as rather dismal and forged. "I have something to tell you all." Blinking back the tears forming in his eyes, unable to fully mask his great sorrow, he clasped the beautiful stranger's hands in his own. "This is Lady Jadis. She and I are going to be wed tomorrow."

Peter and Edmund stood dumb-struck, unable to decide on how to react to the news. Susan, sickened by the idea of anyone-good or bad-trying to take their mother's place, gritted her teeth and took a step back to glare at Jadis, their soon-to-be stepmother.

As for Lucy, she promptly burst into tears and threw her arms around Peter's waist for comfort though there was nothing he could do to make it better.

AN: Whatja think! Tell me! Did you like it? Do you think I should keep going? (I'm really hoping the answer is yes because I have so many ideas for this story!). Anyway, in short, what I mean to say is, PLEASE REVIEW!