Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia, just my characters and plot line.
Hey readers! Welcome to my new story! Not the sequel to TKATS, I want to make that extremely clear now, this is a brand new one. Basically it's one I wrote a while ago and just never got around to posting, so I figured while I'm writing the sequel to my other story, I'd upload this one! May as well considering I put so much time and effort into it. Updates will be on a weekly basis, either Friday or Saturday (whenever I remember in other words. ;) )
Special shout out to lost-in-elysium for being amazing beta's throughout the whole story! I really do appreciate it!
One quick thing, the main characters name is pronounced A - th - a - leah just to be annoying or a - leah when it's shortened. I preferred the way I spelt it, but just recently realised that people have a million way of pronouncing it, so just wanted to clear up any confusion.
Anyway, um, I think that's all, so enjoy and see you at the bottom!
Chapter 1: Protector
Athalia POV
It turns to me with fiery, black eyes; it's stare delving straight into my soul as it takes a few steps forward. It's fur is as black as midnight and has tinges of red to it; obviously blood from the sure prey he has stalked. His massive body outweighs my small one by at least ten kilograms, but I am not frightened. Minotaurs used to terrify me, but that was a long time ago. Now they've just become part of my daily routine.
He roars at me, the sound reverberating through the whole town of Meteor Hole Village, before he begins running straight at me. I swing my steel sword up in defence to block the blow that he gives me with his curved, silver scimitar. I'm vaguely aware of the crowd that gathers as I block blow after blow. I hear him roar again as he hits me with a large, powerful knock right to the head. I stumble back a few metres before I feel the back of my ankles knock against what feels like a rock. I shut my eyes tightly as I fall back first onto the path.
I hear a loud gasp followed by a whispered murmur come from the crowd whilst I lay still for a second or so. I groan in pain as I reach up and touch my forehead slightly, feeling the stickiness of the blood that has started oozing out of the cut stain my hand. The Minotaur roars unexpectedly again as the loud stamping of his feet running along the hard ground rings throughout the air and ground. I open my eyes and look quickly towards my right hand which is, thankfully, still holding my sword. I smile at the fact that it's even still here before I jump up eagerly. I can feel my heart hammering in my chest as I hold it back up, ready to fight him. I take a slight step back to steady myself; it wouldn't do for me to trip over again just because I'm unbalanced. The creature runs at me eagerly whilst I smirk wickedly at it, waiting for the slash of his scimitar. It comes a second later as I block the attack. I manage to get my sword under the curve of his then before flicking it out of his hands, with quite a bit of pressure I might add. It falls to the ground and lands on a rock with a hard clanging sound. I smile at him.
"Bye," I say simply. I take his second of shock to swipe his head clean off of his body with a hard swing of my sword. His body falls to the ground with a loud crash before it becomes completely silent; I could have heard a pin drop. I walk forward and kick its body slightly. "None of you have to worry, he is definitely dead," I re-assure them all. There are cheers all around me suddenly as I pick up its head and throw it away effortlessly. I continue to walk over to the side of the path where there is a visible patch of bright, green grass. I clean my sword on it to get the blood off of it – I hate having dirty swords – before standing again and looking back over to the crowd that has gathered.
"Thank you, for saving me, Athalia," the small, blond-haired faun tells me. His freckled face looks up to me in awe and I smile in return.
"You're very welcome, just remember; if a minotaur ever attacks you at a food stand again, make sure to try and escape the stand before he hurts you, got it?"
"Absolutely!" he exclaims just as his mother comes running up to him. She pulls him into a hug tight enough to almost suck the air out of him. I smile brightly at the nurturing exchange before I tap into the sound of someone running up behind me.
"Are you okay, Alia? That was a massive blow you got to your head," my best friend, Keziah says as she takes her place in front of me. In her hands she's holding a wet cloth for the blood that I can feel is dripping down my head. She gently pats it down. Ouch! I can't help, but cringe. "I'm sorry, I am well aware of the fact that it probably hurts like crazy."
"You're not wrong about that. I feel like this is worse than the cut I got from that giant last year," I say through gritted teeth.
"It is; much worse. I wish I would've taken a healing remedy when I left home," she responds, mostly to herself mind you. Keziah is, unlike most of the creatures in Narnia, a Calormene. She has a lanky build with dark, tanned skin and green eyes. Her hair is jet black and is almost always tied back in the most intricate of designs. She's also an amazing storyteller. I constantly ask her to tell me stories about Calormen and her life there because the way she puts them is just so entertaining. I feel her wipe the blood away for a few more minutes, myself in pain, before she frowns. Oh no…
"Is it deep?" I ask her. I do not want to have to try and hide it again from the ever protective Miss Fink. She takes the cloth away to examine the slice for a second.
"It's not too bad, just bleeding badly. Katerane – I mean Miss Fink – will probably have a heart attack when she sees it though. I would probably try and hide it from her for as long as possible if I was you." I groan at her comment while she just laughs it off. Kez knows exactly what it takes to annoy me.
"I will take that into consideration. Thanks, Kez," I reply as she hands me the wet cloth. I hold it up against my forehead tightly knowing that the only thing that is going to stop the bleeding is pressure on the cut; I know this from experience. I hear the loud clanging of the large bell from the gate start then, instantly alerting the town to the fact that all the men are about to get home.
This village is the place where the majority of the guards of Cair Paravel live, or their families anyway, so, in other words, all our strong, brave, muscular men are off protecting the new Kings and Queens at the castle during the day while this place is left completely defenceless; hence the reason why I just killed a minotaur. It isn't a big deal for me though, I do this almost daily and have since I was around ten; the scars that cover my body from head to toe are definite proof of that. This village seems to be a target for anything that's naturally on the evil side. Yesterday we had five ghouls come in, the day before that was a group of black dwarves, the day before that was a raid of sprites, the day before that – well, you get the point. Everyone in the village calls me 'The Protector'. Any time something enters the village without approval I'm called forward to kill it; not that I'm complaining in the slightest. It keeps me entertained rather than just leaving me to sit around bored in the orphanage while I wait for the others to finish their schooling for the day.
Keziah and I both take a look at the wooden entrance to our town before we both take a seat on the dusty ground, our usual routine for this time of the night. I lean forward a little as I eagerly watch on. I have always wanted to work in the castle as a guard and so, therefore, am a little envious of all the creatures that get to. I'm sure most of you are saying, "well that's easily solved, just get a job there," but the problem is that there is no way in a million years that anyone in the castle would ever consider hiring me as a guard, so I'm stuck here, wishing and dreaming.
Most of the guards walk in through the main entrance slowly then; obviously tired as can be seen by all the drowsy steps and slouched heads. As each of them enters, they instantly say bye to each other before splitting off into different directions. I spy a familiar face among the crowd and quickly tap Keziah on the shoulder before pointing over to him.
"Oh, father's home! That means mother will be home soon too. I'd better go and get ready so that I can give her a hand with dinner. I will see you tomorrow, Alia." She gives me a quick, tight hug before quickly standing and running up to her centaur 'father' and giving him a huge hug too. As you probably can tell, Enolite isn't her real father at all. You see Keziah snuck away from her home in Calormen when she was twelve. She couldn't stand the place, or her family for that matter, so when she came to Narnia she had no one, until Enolite and his wife, Grassweed, found her. They took her in instantly and have raised her as their own daughter ever since. They're both centaurs too which makes for quite a funny family.
I smile up at them as they walk past me together, along with a few other guards who all live around the same area. I sigh and look out to the colourful forest. Will I ever be allowed to travel out of this imprisonment by myself? I'm the kind of girl that craves adventure. I want to be able to run around and battle evil forces and explore the country, but I'm not allowed to do any of that type of stuff which is why I love fighting the evil creatures when they enter the village. I would die a happy woman if I could just go on one adventure. I sigh at the thoughts that drift through my mind and turn my head a little so that I can look out to the calm, peaceful ocean.
A soft breeze is blowing gently through the air and I happily notice a few, jolly mermaids playing in the tumbling, blue and green waves. As I watch the pretty scene in front of me, it changes wistfully. The sky, that was a gleaming blue, is now swapping casually from yellow to orange, then from orange to pink, and from pink to red before finally settling on black. Slowly one by one the stars start to appear, each of them joyfully getting into their usual places for the night. I can almost hear all of their terrestrial voices singing gleefully in the heavens. I try to spot the three main constellations of this area once I can see most of the stars and quickly find 'The Hammer'. I spot 'The Ship' next and then, finally, my eyes land on 'The Leopard'. I sigh happily at the familiar stars before I hear the light ringing of the orphanage bell for dinner; a very different noise from the deep base of the town bell.
I get up slowly from my position on the ground before I start to wander down the now quiet town while looking at all the different houses as I pass. The dirt path is illuminated by the light glow of the moon as I presently arrive at the old orphanage. I can hear the peeling laughter of the younger girls coming from inside as I watch their vague shadows move around from behind the torn, tattered, cream-coloured curtains that are covering the small windows. Miss Fink's voice shouts out over the noise quickly before all goes quiet. I walk over to the front, wonky gate only to realise that it was left open. I hide my sudden annoyance at whoever forgot to close it as I look at the dark weeds that cover the fence and pathway. Someone should really tidy that up. I add it to my to-do list as I slowly drift inside the enclosure and close the gate.
I walk up to the old, front door, bracing myself for the sure attack that I'm about to receive, before I open it. Instead of an attack though, I instantly get flooded by the delicious aroma of cooked bear meat – which is extremely scarce. I killed this one yesterday though – and before you ask, no, it was not a talking bear, we checked, believe me – while I was out hunting with Keziah and happily skinned it and took it home for Miss Fink. Bear meat is extremely expensive and so is their skin – which I sold to a dwarf blacksmith for ten gold crescents – so Miss Fink was pretty happy with my catch in the end. I smile at the brief image of her happy, smiling face as I hang up my sword and belt at the front door.
My feet lead me effortlessly into the front, sitting room, as I glance around the room. Our orphanage used to be an old horse stable; hence the reason why centaurs are able to live in it. Its ceilings are high and windows in the house vary in sizes and shapes. The stable itself is surrounded by forest and has a great view of Glasswater. This particular room is made of a very light wood. In it we have an old, stone fireplace, a large, beaten-up, brown lounge, and some large, hay piles for the centaurs to sit on. We also have a few bookshelves, all made of the same wood as the walls, and a large burgundy rug lying across the floor. On the wall, above one of the various mantelpieces that are scattered around the room, is a gorgeous painting of Aslan. All of us girls love it. It's a painting of his face and he looks very fierce and majestic indeed. It isn't frightening though, more of a reminder of his power and strength. I smile at it before taking the wet cloth off of my head and putting it in the hole in the kitchen. The once white cloth is now stained with bright, red blood. I look at it worriedly. The bleeding better have stopped by now. I grab a new one all the same though and quickly hold it to the cut.
"Alright, girls, dinner time!" I hear Miss Fink chime right before the sound of ten, hungry, little, orphan girls running excitedly into the dining room sounds. I stroll in slowly afterwards before sitting casually down in my usual spot at the ancient, wooden, dining table. I hear the clunk of each stone plate as Miss Fink places them down in front of each of us.
"What happened to your forehead?" That didn't take long. I look up at Harrena's horrified expression and grimace.
"A minotaur hit me," I state simply like it's nothing out of the ordinary, which, for me, it isn't. I pick my fork up slowly and carefully take a bite out of my bear meat. I can feel Miss Fink's eyes on me as I take another bite.
"I'll clean it up after dinner for you," she says. I nod slowly and move some tendrils of my long, copper hair away from my face. Stupid ribbons; aren't you supposed to hold back my hair? "Golly, you would think I haven't fed them in a week," Miss Fink murmurs a few minutes later. I look up at her curiously. Her gentle face contains a small frown as she watches each of the girls eat. I should also probably tell you that she is a centaur which, if you don't understand Narnian creatures, is half horse and half human. Her hair is black and long and is always kept up in her signature bun. She has sparkling, wise, grey eyes and a pleasant comforting smile. I smirk at her.
"Well, Miss Fink, they haven't eaten for three whole hours. In their world, that is weeks." She gives me a reproachful glance in reply. I do notice her lips tug up the tiniest bit at the corners though.
"Don't make fun of your sisters," she says as I just sit there with my mouth full of potato, smiling happily at her. She shakes her head at me, wondering I'm sure about where she went wrong, before taking a bite of her meat. I hear a scream come from miss melodramatic – oh, sorry! I mean Serenity – causing me to jump a little before Miss Fink and I look over to her. Her blue eyes are wide as she looks down at her plate of food. I can't help the small laugh – it's more of a snort actually – that comes out of me as I see the white rat sitting happily on her plate, gnawing eagerly down on her vegetables.
"Brigetta! This is not funny! Get Tootels away from me!" she screams at the little, eleven-year-old while Brigetta just sits there and laughs her head off, causing her already messy, light-brown hair to fly around in all directions. The other girls, except for Harrena and Katrina, are also laughing at her. Bri finally decides to end the torture though and grabs her pet rat, which has a cabbage leaf hanging out of its mouth and looks sort of confused. She cradles it gently in her hands as her laughter dies down considerably.
"Girls, enough!" Miss Fink orders us all at once. We all shut up in an instant, knowing that if we continue we will probably be forced to do dish wash duty, which none of us wants to do. I am waiting for a smart remark from Abigail when I suddenly realise that it's too quiet for Abigail to be here. I look at the seat beside me precariously. It's empty. What a shame, the smart mouth is missing.
"Where's Abigail?" I ask Miss Fink as I turn to face her. She frowns.
"I'm not too sure." I can see her mouth moving slightly as she counts all the girls to see if any more are missing when the dining room door suddenly slams shut. I twirl around in my seat only to see none other than Abigail running eagerly up to me. Well it was nice while it lasted. Abby practically pounces onto the seat next to mine as she looks up at me. Her wavy, brown hair is in one messy entanglement hanging down to her waist while her small hands are clutching onto a small piece of parchment like it's the meaning of life.
"I worked it out! I worked it out! I worked it out! Seriously, Athalia, look!" she squeals excitedly as she shoves the piece of parchment in my face. I take it from her shaky hands before reading it, or trying to read it anyway. All that is on it is a bunch of numbers that have no meaning to me whatsoever.
"Abby, I mean no offence, but what is it?" I ask incredulously as I look at her. She gives me a hopeless look before snatching the parchment out of my left hand again (my right one is still holding the cloth to my head).
"Well, do you remember how we were talking about the new Kings and Queens the other day?" I mentally roll my eyes at the mention of the Kings and Queens. It's not that I don't like the people themselves, I just don't like the fact that they're able to get anything they want whenever they want at the click of their fingers. I suppose you can say that I'm jealous; especially of the High King, who got an entire country handed to him after being here for a total of two months and doesn't even realise what's going on in this so called 'country' because he's too busy learning about the history of it. I huff slightly as I nod my head at Abby.
"Well I decided to try and work out how long they are going to reign for by averaging the usual amount of years royalty tend to reign for before multiplying the outcome by four, since there are two kings and two queens. So I did and I worked out that our new Kings and Queens are going to rule Narnia for eighty years!" she explains to me extremely fast without even taking a breath. Afterwards she has to take quite a few deep breaths. I look at her with a smirk.
"Yep, sure they are," I reply sarcastically while having a sip of the orange juice that just got put in front of me.
"Athalia, that's not even the best part! The High King needs a wife in the future which means that I can add another twenty years on top of that eighty which means that they're actually going to reign for one-hundred years!" she exclaims hurriedly like it's the most important thing in the world. I shake my head slightly at the easily occupied mind of a nine year old before turning back to her.
"Abigail, you did well trying to work it out, but I don't think they could physically rule for one-hundred years."
"The White Witch did," she says simply with wide, pure-brown eyes. You mean the White female dog. You are talking to a nine year old, don't you dare say that out loud! I smile inwardly.
"Yes, but she used dark magic. Our Kings and Queens don't use magic to stop themselves from aging like she did, so, in retrospect, it's impossible for them to rule for that long," I say with a smirk. She sighs and suddenly looks very sad.
"You're right, Alia. I guess I should probably just stick to ancient history and learning about quantum mathematical equations," she agrees as she looks sadly down at the dinner that Miss Fink has just placed in front of her. I've made her upset. Great.
"I'm sorry, Abby. We do have to be slightly realistic while thinking about these things though. Perhaps you should reconsider your equations." She smiles up at me.
"Okay, Alia, apology accepted. I'm going to start rethinking right now!" she exclaims while jumping up.
"You are not going anywhere until you finish the food on your plate. Now sit down and eat please," Miss Fink interjects. She frowns.
"Okay then."
"Abigail! You should've just seen the prank I pulled on Serenity…" Brigetta starts to say as I tune out the bland conversation.
After dinner, we quickly stack our plates before all of us head into the sitting room for Miss Fink's daily update on each of us (after the centaurs have had their daily graze outside of course). As it turns out, there are some fauns looking to adopt our cute, little, brown eyed, caramel headed, six-year-old Malia and some satyrs looking to adopt our green-eyed, blond haired, fourteen-year-old musical genius Samillara, or Lara; besides that though, nothing else is really happening. Miss Fink sends us all off to bed after that with a smile; of course she lets me stay up for a while longer though, since I am older than the closest child to me by almost three years. I am now sitting on one of the living room chairs in front of the fireplace, enjoying the heat radiating off of it like the sun which I had, up until a few months ago, thought was a myth.
"Miss Fink?" I ask as she nurses the cut on my forehead. I know it had been bleeding more during dinner, but I had no idea how badly until she just started cleaning me up; the water's already beet red from her wiping it five times. She smiles at me, showing me that she's listening. I hesitate for a second. How should I phrase this? "Do you think I still live here for a reason?" The question has been eating at my insides for months now, but I have never really brought up the subject in fear of what the answer may be. I bite the inside of my cheek, waiting for her response, as she thinks over my question for a moment.
"Yes, I do think you are still here for a reason. For one, you have been here since birth and no one has adopted you; that has got to mean something. And another thing, what is the chance of your parents dropping you off here when they left for Calormen? They could've dropped you off anywhere, but no, they put you on my front porch, which, if you have forgotten, is the whole reason I even started the orphanage in the first place. And besides, all the girls in here really look up to you for guidance. There's only so much I can tell them and I think it's good for them to have such a beautiful role-model in the orphanage." I smile at her reply.
"I guess so. I never thought of it that way," I murmur slightly while thinking over her answer. "A role model to the younger orphans though? Miss Fink, I battle creatures every day, how is that a good role model exactly?" She laughs at my obviously bewildered expression.
"It will be fine. I actually meant that you encourage them in their skills and that's a good thing, Alia," she says, obviously reading all of the emotions on my face. I nod and stand up slowly while stretching, my mind still trying to process her genuine response.
"If you're sure," I answer with a grimace. "I'm going to go to bed. I'll see you in the morning and thank you for patching up my cut," I say before I kiss her cheek.
"You are very welcome," she replies.
Whilst strolling tiredly down the large corridor that runs the length of the stable, I can't help but think back to our conversation. One thing that I've always been a little confused about is the reason why I became an orphan in the first place. Miss Fink has always told me that it was because my parents couldn't handle the endless winter in Narnia and so they moved to Calormen, but that doesn't really explain why they left me here. Surely they could've taken me to Calormen with them. If they really had loved me then they would've, right? I've always thought there's more to the story than what Miss Fink has told me all these years. As I reach the last door on the corridor, I open it up to reveal our massive bedroom. All of us are housed in the same room. There are twelve beds lined up against the wooden walls, each one made up of comfortable heather. There is one massive window at the end of the room that overlooks the calm and peaceful Glasswater creek which, if you don't know Narnian geography, isn't really a creek at this part of it at all, but a very pretty river. There is also a tiny compartment of clothes in the corner of the room, all grey and pale blue. I trudge into the room slowly before softly closing the door and stripping off my old, beaten-up dress. I throw on my night attire before gently walking down to my bed, which is up against the window at the back of the room. The soft snores of the girls is sign enough that they are all asleep. I jump in eagerly before I pull the sheets up to my chin, the cold sheets slowly warming up to my body temperature. I sigh before closing my eyes and falling into a deep slumber.
Please drop me a review if you enjoyed it, I really love to get feedback, whether it's good or bad I don't mind. Don't forget to drop me a favourite if you did like it! :)
Anyway, like I said earlier, updates will be weekly so put an alert on if you enjoyed it.
Thanks everyone for reading!
Until next time,
narnia and beareject fan 1 xoxo