In her heart of hearts, Lucy always knew she would be going back to Narnia. It wasn't always easy to have faith that Aslan would bring her and her siblings home one day, especially since she had been foolish enough to lead them out of the wardrobe and back to a war-torn England, but she never gave up hope.
It happened when they least expected it. One minute they were "pretend talking" to Susan so she could avoid some boy, the next they were standing on a beach. Lucy turned, a wide smile on her sister but Susan was frozen, her mouth open in shock.
"What is it?" Lucy asked in confusion. "It's pretty obvious what's happened."
"It's not that … it's just …"
"Did you really think He would bring us back as children again?" she laughed. "We're the Kings and Queens. It would be horribly confusing for everyone if we were just … young. Though … I don't think we're as old as we were when we left."
"I was just getting used to being a teenager again," Susan frowned.
"And scaring off potential suitors!" Edmund interjected with a laugh.
Susan swatted at her younger brother but he artfully dodged her, a grin on his face. "Edmund!" But he wasn't listening. He shoved at Peter and then ran towards the Bight of Calormen that his sister loved so much.
"C'mon, Sue! We haven't been here in a year. Let's go!"
Susan stood stoically for a moment, fighting back a smile, before grabbing Lucy by the hand and running after her brothers.
After several moments of playing in the Bight, Edmund froze and looked up, confusion crossing his features and distracting him enough to fall victim to a huge splash in the face from Lucy. "Hold on. Wait."
"What is it?" she asked, stopping and following his stare. "Wait."
"I don't understand. What is that? I don't remember any ruins in Narnia," Edmund said, his eyes turning to Peter. "Do you?"
Peter's eyes narrowed as he looked up, his hand coming up to shield his vision from the sun. "No. We should go check it out."
Slowly, the four stepped out of the water and headed towards a path that would lead up the cliff side. Lucy felt a familiarity in the land but she pushed it down, unwilling to acknowledge what she thought it meant.
It took nearly an hour to get through the brush and over the obstacles in their path. Lucy, taking up the rear, paused every few feet to brush her hand against a fallen tree, a frown on her face. "Where have you gone?" she whispered to a large tree, standing and sturdy, but dreadfully still.
Susan called out to her and she waited a beat before scurrying after her elder siblings. They were all atop the cliff, staring at the ruins before them. No one said a word before they each broke off in different directions. Lucy, as always, was drawn towards the sea.
From there, it didn't take long before Susan found a piece of Edmund's old chess set and they all realized, perhaps at once, that they were standing in their former home.
Lucy felt a deep sadness wrap around her heart as the four Kings and Queens of Narnia stood in the place where they once sat, listening to the problems of their subjects, passing down judgment on those who wrong Narnia, and watching their friends dance the night away at any number of balls.
Looking to his left, Edmund frowned at giant boulders that littered their former hall. "I think Cair Paravel was attacked."
Stepping forward, Peter turned to look at his brother and sisters. "I think it's about time we find out what's going on here," he told them before marching determinately towards where their vault had once been.
"Dramatic," Edmund muttered before following after, glancing only briefly at his sisters to silently urge them to follow.
Susan rolled her eyes, desperate to remind her brothers that they weren't the same children who had been in London mere hours ago, but instead the adult rulers who had accidentally fallen out of the wardrobe.
Lucy felt the vie on her heart give way a bit once they were inside and she could see her chest. Her dagger and cordial had to be in there since she hadn't brought them with her when they'd gone after the white stag. Smiling brightly, Lucy ran down the stairs, easily maneuvering around her older siblings as she made her way to the chest that held so many treasures.
As a young woman of 17, or thereabouts, she figured, Lucy could remember what it was like to come down here, to place her weapons in her chest and gaily join her friends and family for a meal or a dance.
"This is curious," Peter said to them as he opened his chest and pulled out and unsheathed Rhindon. "We're not the age we were when we left, but we're also not the age we were when we came in."
"Aslan must have a reason for that. Maybe we're back in time? Or, well, back in time in the past?" Lucy suggested.
"Then Cair Paravel would still be standing, wouldn't it?" Susan asked. "If we were back in our own time."
"Maybe we're not … in our own time, I mean," Edmund pondered out loud. "There has to be a reason why we're this particular age."
"We're younger than the Calormen Wars," Lucy told them with surety. "They were shortly before we went back." She cleared her throat and pulled out a dress. "Do you think this'll fit?"
"Looks a bit big," Susan noted, walking over to her sister and taking the dress from her. "You grew a bit more than you are now."
Frowning, Lucy rummaged through the chest a little deeper and came out with another dress. "This looks better," she commented. "Have you got a dress too?"
Susan nodded and pulled one out of her chest. "Though I do wish I had the one I was wearing when we left. It was my favorite."
"I think we should get moving," Peter suggested, his voice strong. "We had to have been brought back for a reason and I'm keen to find out what it is."
"Hopefully Aslan will get here soon," Lucy said quietly as she took the dress and headed behind half a wall. "He'll be able to explain everything."
Aslan didn't arrive, though, so the Kings and Queens gathered their belongings and left the familiarity of their former home and out along the river to the north
After walking for some time, Edmund stopped them, his hand in the air. "Shh. Do you hear that?" They all stood quietly for a moment before Edmund frowned and started forward. "Girls, stay back a moment."
"Not likely," Lucy intoned as she hiked up her skirt and followed. "We're not children."
"And I'm older than you," Susan added, following suit. "And I'm the one with the bow."
The four crept slowly up a sand bank and saw two men – they looked like human men – holding a dwarf between them on a small boat in the river.
Boldly, Susan yelled, "Drop him!" before firing off an arrow in their direction.
Unfortunately for the dwarf, the men did just that, tossing him into the river. Susan fired again, hitting one of the men and chasing the other into the river. He swam away while Lucy charged after him and the kings dove into the water. Peter swam down to grab the struggling dwarf while Edmund retrieved the boat.
After being reprimanded by the dwarf, Peter straightened to his full high, which brought the hilt of Rhindon level with the angry dwarf.
"Oh you've got to be kidding me," the dwarf groused. "You're it? You're the ones who was sent to save us?"
"Save you from what?" Lucy asked, stepping in front of her siblings. "What's happened?"
"No time for that. We've got to get moving. Every moment here is a moment too long."
"We're not going anywhere until you tell us why those men were trying to kill you," Susan demanded.
"They're Telmarines. It's what they do."
"Telmarines? In Narnia?" Edmund asked in confusion, sure he'd misheard.
"Showed up not long after you lot abandoned us," the dwarf sniped in confirmation.
"We didn't mean to," Lucy told him quietly, the sadness and shame for being the one who led her family away from their country welling up within her once more. "It was an accident."
"No matter. We best get a move on. We've got a long journey ahead," he told them before turning and heading towards the boat. "At least a full day."
"Wait," Lucy called as she hurried after him. "What's your name?"
"Trumpkin," he answered. "Now let's go."
The party of five all clamored into the boat, Peter taking the oars and moving them towards the cover of the woods. Susan and Lucy sat silently, eyes roaming the beautiful trees that were gently moving with the breeze.
"I don't understand," Lucy said softly. "Why are they so still?"
No one answered her, all of them staying silent for a moment before Trumpkin told Peter where he had to land the boat. "We've got a long walk ahead, Your Majesty," Trumpkin told Lucy. "You may want to return your shoes to your feet before we begin."
Reluctantly, Lucy took his advice and put her shoes back on. Silently, she followed the others as they headed towards the Dancing Lawn and the Fords of Beruna.
"Are you sure this is the way we're supposed to be going?" Susan asked, something inside of her tugging her in a different direction. "I don't think …"
"All due respect, Majesty, you haven't been here in a thousand years. I think I know where we're going seeing as how I've been there before."
"How much could things have possibly changed?" Peter asked as he carefully gripped the handle of Rhindon.
"More than you could possibly imagine," the dwarf answered. "We have to go down this way in order to cross safely."
"Nonsense," Peter disagreed. "I know these lands. There should be a crossing not far from here. This way." He turned in the opposite direction, Susan following him after a moment, then Edmund and Lucy falling in line after. The dwarf muttered something about stubbornness and Lucy couldn't help but agree.
When the five reached the edge of a steep cliff, everyone except Trumpkin turned to look at Peter with a frown. The dwarf gave the High King a superior look. "Are you ready to …"
"Aslan!" Lucy called, her voice happy and bright for the first time since they left Cair Paravel.
The other four turned and looked but could see nothing. Lucy turned to them. "Don't you see him? He's right over …" She turned back to where she had seen her dear friend. "… there."
After a long pause, Trumpkin asked, "Do you see him now?"
Huffing, Lucy turned her back on the place where she'd seen the Great Lion and addressed her companions. "I'm not crazy. He was just over there."
"Maybe it was just another lion, Luce," Susan said in what she considered a calming tone. "There have always been lions in this wood."
"I know what I saw," she told them defiantly. "And I saw Aslan."
"We can cross at the Beruna," Trumpkin told them. "If you remember where that is."
Silently, Peter gripped his sword and headed back into the forest. A beat later, Susan and Trumpkin followed leaving Lucy and Edmund alone.
"I saw him, Ed," she told him seriously. "He was just over there."
Edmund nodded, his eyes flitting to where Lucy claimed to have seen Aslan, and then turned back to her. "We'd better go. Maybe we'll see him along the way."
Edmund put his hand on her shoulder briefly before following behind his older brother and sister. Lucy stayed put another moment, eyes where she'd seen the lion. "Help show us the way, Aslan," she whispered before ducking her head and following after the rest of her party.
When they arrived at the Ford, the Kings and Queens were stunned. "A bridge?" Peter whispered harshly. "They're building a bridge?"
"I don't think we can cross here," Susan responded, her voice equally quiet. "If the Telmarines are as dangerous as Trumpkin says …"
"Worse," the dwarf interjected. "Worse than the White Witch."
Edmund shuttered and turned a grateful look on Lucy when she placed her hand on his. Jadis had been nothing but purse evil in the form of a charming seductress. He'd been a child, sick of living in his brother's shadow, and he'd nearly gotten everyone killed. If not for Aslan …
"We should go back the other way," Susan said, interrupting her brother's thoughts. "Find another place to cross."
Quickly and quietly, the companions retreated back behind the tree line and headed to the cliff they'd vacated not too long before. Sheepishly, Peter turned to his youngest sister. "Where, exactly, is it you thought you saw Aslan?"
"I don't think, I saw him," Lucy retorted tartly, "I did see him. Right … over …"
Lucy screamed as the ground beneath her gave way. In the brief second she was falling, she wondered why Aslan would bring them back, bring her back, just to have her fall off a cliff. But she landed just as she heard her brothers scream her name and her sister shriek in fear.
"Here," she grinned, looking up.
Her siblings and Trumpkin lowered themselves onto the path that was forged in the side of the cliff, Lucy leading the way with a smile on her face. She'd been so sure she'd seen Aslan and this path was proof that she had. He'd led her here, shown her how to safely cross the river so that she and the other Kings and Queen could return to the Narnians and find out what, exactly, brought them back.
A/N: Firstly, thanks to everyone who stuck with me to get to the end of this chapter. The next chapter will introduce Caspian and the Old Narnians and bring everyone together.
I'm really bad at author's notes and I'm sorry about that. Any feedback that you have is greatly appreciated. Thanks!