CHAPTER ONE
"Eighty-Eight, Eighty-Nine." The seeker's voice rang through the house, and you could hear the footsteps of three girls running through the door. Their squeals mixed with the stomping of their feet as they ran towards the woods. Breathless, they stopped at a bright clearing, looking around for a decent hiding spot.
"Hannah! I cannot believe you! You nearly ripped my arm out of its socket for this ridiculous game!" said one girl angrily.
"Well I'm sorry DELINA, but I don't want to be caught by little Wilke of all people!" said the brown-haired Hannah, grabbing her knees for support.
"Don't call me DELINA." Said the girl, her eyes flaming.
"Are we going to hide, or just stand here and let Wilke catch ALL of us?" laughed Natalie as she pulled her windswept black hair away from her face. The other two snapped out of their petty argument and joined their friend in the universal search for the perfect hiding spot. The first two creeped ahead of the third carefully surveying the landscape. Natalie and Hannah crept forward when Hannah gasped,
"Woah." she simply said, as she stared down into a deep crevice that split the earth of the forest.
"Lina?" Called a young male voice from behind the trees. Hannah and Natalie just gawked at the ditch, as Delina raced towards them.
"We have to try and fin-" Lina lost her footing and fell down into the ditch, and ended up dragging Natalie and Hannah down with her. They shut their eyes tight, and waited for the impact of the ground as darkness closed in around them.
Hannah blinked repeatedly as she opened her eyes. Her heart raced as she sat up wondering where her friends were. Seeing Natalie and Lina knocked out on either side of her calmed her, and she relaxed a bit.
"They're not dead. That's a relief. Now I just have to wake them up. Shouldn't be too hard." Hannah shook Natalie lightly, who just mumbled and rolled over. Sighing and rolling her eyes, Hannah tried the same with Lina who swatted her hand away. " Time to try something different." She was near to screaming in their ears when she heard male voices and stopped cold.
"Pete, I swear I heard something over here! Just come and look!"
Hannah froze, trying to keep her breathing as quiet as possible. The voices grew louder and louder, but eventually faded into silence. Hannah let out a sigh of relief , and turned to see her friends still lying on the ground. She reached out both her hands and squeezed their noses. The two shot up and slapped her hands away from their faces. Hannah made a sign for the two to remain silent. The girls got up and dusted leaves off of themselves. They were in a forest, but it wasn't familiar to them at all. It looked different than before. This new forest held a prestige that made the girls' hearts flutter with wonder. Looking around, they saw a vast lake, glimmering against the sun. It was surrounded by hills which at some points flattened out into meadows. On top of a hill, through a clearing of the trees, they could make out the image of a castle,which at first they thought they were hallucinating but then realized it was actually there. A grand castle that you would picture from a fairytale . The girls looked at each other, not believing their eyes, but heard a voice from behind them which snapped them back into reality.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" The girls whipped around, catching a view of a strong dark face and a slim form covered in chain-mail. The boy, who looked about nineteen, quickly dropped his dazed smile as the girls stared at him with wide eyes.
"Now please don't r-" before the boy could finish his sentence, the three girls sprinted off into three different directions. Not caring where they were going, they passed several trees and burrows until they found themselves bumping into each other in the same clearing that the dark haired boy had appeared from. Breathless, they were about to sit down, when the boy appeared again. The girls, still thoroughly frightened, backed up into a clump together.
"Now, in all seriousness," the boy huffed with an interesting Spanish accent, "please don't run." The girls simply did not listen and took off in a mad dash. The girls continued to run, swerving through trees as they went; They were running at full speed until Lina came to a dead stop. Natalie stopped, practically running her over, and looked at her as if she had lost her mind.
"What are you doing? He's going to catch us!" Lina pointed to something below her and snapped,
"Well I didn't really want to fall again. Especially not down that hil-" Hannah crashed into the two of them, not realizing they had stopped running. They tumbled down the hill ,but before they hit the ground again, the girls felt a pair of strong arms around each of them stopping their fall, except for Hannah. She landed smack on her face again.
Hannah rolled over and grumbled, "If I fall on my face on more time I'm really gonna-". The boy with shoulder length dark hair and dark brown eyes waked over towards her,
"Sorry about that, I tried to catch you but, obviously, it didn't really work out. Here, let me help you." he said extending his hand to help her. "I'm Caspian, and I think you have a leaf in your hair." Hannah gave him a quizzical and slightly irritated glance and replied shortly.
"Hannah. Hannah Marborough, and I think I'm a little better off without your help." The boy helping Lina set her on her two feet, and laughed. He had messy blond hair and sparkling grey-blue eyes.
"I think she's right. You've been a lot of help to the dear girl already, Cas. We don't want you to break her. I'm Peter, by the way. That's my brother, Edmund." he said gesturing to a dark haired boy who was standing behind their horses. "That is our friend, Caspian." He gestured to the boy who dropped Hannah on her face. "And I really have no idea where my dear sisters have wandered off to." The girls all stepped towards each other again Hannah and Natalie behind Lina, who put her arms in front of the two, for whatever protection she could possibly offer. The three jumped with a start as they heard horses coming towards them.
"Peter! We missed the stag again! Honestly it's been one-thousand years and we still can't even- Oh my!" The three girls raised their eyebrows as two girls on a large unicorn approached. The older girl, who looked about seventeen, drew an arrow from the pouch slung across her back and readied her bow.
"Who are you?" She asked in a steely dark voice, "And why have you come here?" The blonde haired boy stared at her in disbelief.
"Honestly, Su! They're scared senseless of us, and you go and draw a weapon on them! What kind of Gentle Queen are you?" Susan lowered her bow and grumbled,
"Alright, alright, brother dearest. But we still have no idea who they are, they could be criminals for all we know!" Edmund stepped out from behind the horses and sighed.
"I'm with Susan. They could be supporters of Miraz, of all things." Peter gave him an irritated look.
"Really, Ed? They don't even look like Telmarines." Lina grew tired of listening to their arguments.
"You talk about us as if we aren't even here." She said with a huff, "Well, here's a lovely break in the weather, WE ARE." She snapped stepping forward. Natalie looked at her with disbelief and whispered,
"Lina would it kill you to be nice? We don't want one of those swords in our backs." Hannah simply stared with her mouth open. The pale skinned boy stared at Lina in utter offense.
"Is that any way you address a King?" He asked in a smirking voice. Lina took a daring step forward.
"Aren't you all a bit young to be kings and queens?" asked Hannah rather bluntly. She was ignored.
"No, perhaps it isn't, but it certainly is the way you address a little boy with a head too big for his brain." Lina retorted, laughing. The silence was broken by the younger of the two sisters sliding off the unicorn's back, which snapped the quarreling twosome out of their deathly staring contest.
"What has gotten into all of you?" she demanded with furious eyes. "They're obviously not from anywhere around here!" She turned to the three girls and softened her glance into a questioning frown. "I'm Lucy, and this is my sister Susan. Where did you say you all are you from?" Natalie spoke first, hoping to silence Lina, who would have said something sharp and sarcastic.
"We're from America, New York specifically." The four kings and queens looked at each other with happy recognition lighting up their eyes, until the youngest girl, looking about 15 years old spoke up.
"So how did you get here?" Hannah looked around, then back at the girl.
"Where exactly is here?" she asked completely confused.
"Narnia of course." Said Caspian.
"Well we we're playing a game of hide in seek, until we fell down a ditch and ended up in... Narnia," Natalie concluded, the foreign name rolling off her tongue. She shook her head at the ridiculousness of her statement, whispering to herself "That sounds absolutely idiotic." Caspian laughed and sarcastically stated.
"Falling seems to be a favorite past time of yours." Hannah glared at him and stated.
"Well at least I don't drop people on their faces!" Caspian blushed and looked down ashamedly.
"You were falling too fast." he mumbled to himself. He immediately calmed down and asked to no one in particular. "What are we going to do with you damsels?" There was a silence as everyone began to think. A low rumble alerted the group to another's presence.
"They are to remain at Cair Paravel, as my esteemed guests." Hannah, Natalie, and Lina's eyes widened as they saw a large lion walk towards the group, while the five kings and queens dropped to their knees. They heard Lucy gasp the word Alsan creeping softly out of her mouth.
"There's a talking lion." Stated Hannah dumbfounded, "What kind of sick dream is this?" Natalie glanced back at the kings and queens, then back at Lina and Hannah and whispered.
"Do you think we should kneel too?" Lina dismissed the idea, and daringly took a step toward the lion.
"Please send us back home." The lion gave her a long grave look.
"Unfortunately, my child, there is nothing I can do to send any of you back home, Narnia has called you to help you find who you are, and until you do, the choice of the matter remains with Narnia." Aslan stared deep into Lina's eyes. There was a silence until Edmund spoke up
"You won't be much missed at home." This immediately started an uproar between the monarchs.
"How can you say that?" Demanded Peter.
"What's wrong with you? How can you say something like that?" Susan was furious. Edmund held up his hands in surrender and yelled over the shocked protests.
"I MEANT! I meant..." He said lowering his voice. "Time on Earth stops for Narnia, so when they return, if they return, no one will realize they had left. It's the same as when we left during the Golden Age." Aslan nodded.
"Now I do believe that these introductions have gone far longer than necessary, and your guests must be rather tired." Aslan chuckled as Hannah yawned rather loudly. He smiled at the girls, then proclaimed. "The kings and queens will escort you to Cair Paravel. Soon you will discover your purposes in Narnia, but for now a well deserved rest awaits you."He shook his mane and let out a roar that rang through the clear skies, and then he disappeared along with his echoing voice that faded in the breeze of the wind.
The girls turned around to face the others, and then Caspian spoke up. "Well I guess we better get moving. We have a long ride ahead of us."
As the kings and queens mounted their horses, the girls looked at each other.
"I'm not so sure about this. How do we know that this is a good idea?"Whispered Lina with concern. Natalie spoke, glancing back at them.
"We have no choice but to trust them." Hannah and Lina nodded in agreement, but not really sure about the idea. Then Caspian rode over on his horse and gave his hand to Hannah, telling her to get on. She laughed and sarcastically concluded.
"No. There is no way I'm riding with you. For all I know your horse would probably knock me on my face too." Caspian smirked.
"That was an accident, and I'm sure you would rather ride with me than walk all the way there." Hannah laughed and mumbled.
"I'm not so sure about that." Edmund came over and interrupted them, giving Caspian a glare that made it clear he was tired of him making things difficult, he looked back at Hannah and said,
"Why don't you just ride with me?" She agreed and climbed onto his horse. Peter walked over to Natalie and politely asked.
"Would you do me the pleasure of riding with me?" He bowed elaborately for effect, and then leaned towards her and whispered in her ear, "I promise I won't let my horse drop you." Natalie laughed, then simply stated "Alright, " as she climbed on his horse.
Caspian walked over to Lina and bluntly stated, "It looks like your with me."Lina rolled her eyes, and as she mounted his horse, murmured,
"It would seem so."
Well, that's the end of Chapter One! :)
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