A/N: I've always wanted to write an Edmund-centric thing, so here it is. I think I tried a little too hard with this one, and it didn't come out exactly the way I would have liked it. Oh well. Hope you guys enjoy it.
Disclaimer- I do not own the Chronicles of Narnia or it's characters. They belong to the amazing C.S. Lewis
In England, people liked Peter. He was friendly, attractive, and caring. He was admired by many people, and girls would hide behind their hair when he passed, giggling uncontrollably. He would do well in school, and the teachers doted on him, liking his polite and kind personality.
Edmund was quite the opposite. He picked fights, got in trouble, and swore at teachers. While Peter would be asked over to his friends house's often, Edmund barely had any friends. Their mother thought that it had something to do with their father leaving them for the war. If only.
Edmund wished he was like Peter. He wished he was well liked and that people would smile when they saw him. He wished he could be as confident as Peter too. In fact, sometimes he wished he was Peter. He hated Peter for that. He hated how golden Peter was. He hated that Peter was perfect. He hated that Peter tried to take over as the man of the household. He hated that Peter tried to replace their father. He hated that Peter did it almost perfectly. And then they found the Wardrobe.
Even in Narnia, Peter was the Golden Boy.
He was the one that everybody adored. The one that they looked up to. The one that they felt was a true king of Narnia. Yes, it was true that Peter was a great leader. He was magnificent, even. He'd lead the army on many conquests and returned home victorious. He'd form alliances with other lands that would last for decades. He had even managed to keep his own kingdom in a Golden Age that lasted longer than any other.
Still, Edmund found it unfair that the High King got all the credit. Surely, somewhere in those thick volumes about Peter's achievements, there would be at least some paragraph about his younger brother, King Edmund the Just, and how he helped Peter accomplish these feats. Edmund had searched in those books (mind you, they took quite a long time for him to even read a section of one chapter), and yet, all he found was one small paragraph:
'The future High King of Narnia was faced with a most perilous situation when he led the army against the terrible White Witch, Jadis. He was to fight without the wise Aslan's help, but he would have his younger brother, who would later become King Edmund the Just, to stand beside him.'
Of course, after that one mention of him in that paragraph, it went on to describe how Peter fought 'ever so valiantly' against 'the cruel Witch and her army of dim-witted minions', and how Peter 'kept the Witch distracted so that the mighty Aslan could finish her off'. There was no word of Edmund's near death, or how he had shattered the staff so that Peter didn't become a statue in her twisted garden. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Even in foreign affairs Edmund didn't get the credit he deserved. Peter's involvement consisted of choosing the country and guaranteeing Edmund a ship and a crew. He never went out to go and meet those lands across the sea. No. That was Edmund's job. Edmund was to meet with the King, be sickeningly polite, and agree on some form of alliance that Peter had forced Edmund to offer. And when it was time for him to leave, he would hear the King murmur something about the High King of Narnia sending messenges through a most delightful young man.
It was infuriating. He was a King and definitely not a messenger boy for his older brother. To have other foriegn rulers think of him that way filled him with a feeling torn between ripping off their heads and break into sobs right there.
His own people thought of him as a secondary to Peter and the rest. It was always "Peter, Susan and Lucy" and only then when they spoke Lucy's name, they would remember the third born.
He expected in England, where he was a Nobody. But he never expected it in Narnia, where he thought he was loved as equally as his brother and sisters.