Relocation and Restoration
Hey guys! I adopted this story (originally titled "The Pevensies Show Their Stuff") from IAmAFantasyFan. It is a Lord of the Rings/Narnia/Ranger's Apprentice crossover, though you don't need to have read Ranger's Apprentice to read this crossover. Hope you enjoy!
Also, please PM or review if you want any pairings. And I have combined FantasyFan's first two chapters into one, and a little bit of writing at the end is mine.
Disclaimer: I do not own LotR, RA, or Narnia.
Chapter One
Peter's POV
"Peter! Hey, Peter!" Mother called up from downstairs. "Come see this!"
"Just a sec, Mum!" I called back, hurriedly shoving the broad sword that I had been practicing with under my bed. Mother and Dad knew that I had it, but to actually be seen practicing with a sword (espically with skill) could cause some uncomfortable and preferably avoided questions. Glancing around my room, I picked up a school book that I was supposed to be reading for English. I flipped it open and randomly inserted my finger in one of the pages, making it look like I had just been reading it, and jumped down from the loft into the kitchen skipping the ladder entirely.
"Nice!" Edmund commented from the kitchen table, shooting me an approving look. This week in our cottage, we had a dare going: don't touch the ladder for the entire week. Of course, it caused some problems going back up, but creativity had it's perks.
"And while we're on the topic," Mother said from in front of the old wood stove. "Please refrain from climbing on the couch again. I don't mind the table, but the couch is absolutely off limits."
"Sure, Mum," Edmund said, winking at me. The couch wasn't bad. We were just lucky she hadn't noticed what we did to the floor when we fell off the rocking chair that had been balanced on the table. That was bad. And I never even dreamed of mentioning the plan that we had thought up (but were not brave enough to carry out) concerning the kitchen knives. Specifically the butcher's knife.
"So Edmund, Peter, wait– where are the girls?"
"They're off in the woods somewhere," I said. "What were you going to tell us?"
"Well, I was going to tell all of you, but can you two ask the girls when they get back?"
"Depends on what the question is," Edmund said cheekily. "Do I want to ask them?"
"Probably." Mother frowned. "Oh, well, you four have been interested in medieval stuff lately, right?" At our nods, she continued. "Well, look at this flyer."
She handed us a little colorful brochure with a picture of a young boy dressed as a knight. I took it, and Edmund read over my shoulder. I scanned the front, and then flipped it open. Quickly looking it over, I turned it over to the back.
"Hey!" Edmund complained, "I wasn't done with that page!" I ignored him, and continued to read the flyer.
"That sounds cool," I said,
"Can we go?" Edmund jumped in, having read enough of the flyer to know what it was about.
"Do you want to?" Mother asked. We nodded vigorously. "Okay then," she laughed, "but you'd better ask the girls."
"Oh, they'll say yes," I said. "Sign us up!"
I walked out of the cottage after Edmund, who had dashed off to tell the girls. Looking around, I saw them walking out of the woods with Edmund chattering excitedly.
"And it's a camp of some sorts, and I think it has to do with swords!"
"Really Edmund?" I laughed, "is that all you got out of it? You get to swing a sword around?" Turning apologetically to Susan and Lucy, I explained.
"You see, Mother got this flyer for a camp somewhere in the country near where Professor Kirk lives. The great thing is, it is a two month long camp in an old castle. Everyone is assigned a role, and we basically live as medieval times/fantasy! Kings, Queens, Knights, Pesants, the whole lot! Do you guys want to do it?"
"It would be just like Narnia!" Lucy said excitedly. "We could pretend it IS Narnia!"
"I doubt it would be just like Narnia, but I'm up for it." Susan said.
"Great!" Edmund said, "I'll go tell Mother! Hopefully we can be Kings and Queens!"
Edmund raced off ahead of the other three.
"Honestly!" Susan sighed. "I don't see where he gets all his energy from! King Edmund the Just acts like an over excited two year old sometimes!"
I grinned. "Well, Edmund is twelve again and twelve still is pretty young. And you're just going to have to take it for granted that he is always going to act ten years less mature than he really is. So, yeah. He's two."
Lucy giggled. "Remember that time when he got into a pranking war with Corin? The castle was a battle zone for days!"
"Still, our brother is pretty mature, even if he knows how to have fun." Susan frowned in thought. "So what's making him act obsessive/compulsive all of a sudden?"
"I guess he's just excited," I said, "and to be honest, I am too. Like Lucy said, it's almost like going back to Narnia."
Susan scoffed. "This is going to be nothing compared to Narnia. They'll probably botch everything." An odd expression came over her face, and she added, "Still. I'm pretty excited!"
"So am I!" Lucy squealed, and they did a dance on the lawn.
"Oh yes," I said sarcastically. "Let's all act immature, why don't we?" And we all started rolling on the ground in unreasonable but extremely contagious laughter. Edmund came out of the house a few minutes later, looking extremely confused as to what we were doing. Soon enough, though, he started giggling. Then laughing. And the five of us (Mother got drawn into our trap too) indulged in hysterical laughter.
~oOo~
"Are you ready to go?" Dad asked
"Yep!" Lucy said. "I'm so excited!"
"Have fun, dears!" Mother called, after we boarded the bus that would take us to camp. I led the way to an empty seat, and Edmund sat with me while Susan and Lucy chose a seat ahead of us.
"Ugh!" Susan said. "I'd forgotten how cramped these seats are."
"Forgotten?" a boy across the aisle who looked about Lucy's age asked. "How did you forget?"
"Mother has been homeschooling us ever since the war," Edmund explained. "We just haven't been on a bus recently. Is there a specific place to put our bags?"
"I don't think they thought of that," the boy said apolegetically, and grinned. "Try sitting on them. By the way, my name is Neal."
"It's nice to meet you, Neal," I said. "I'm Peter, that's Susan, Edmund, and Lucy."
Susan smiled and waved at him, and then dug around in her suitcase that was at her feet (Susan preferred not to sit on it). She pulled out a notebook and a pen, and wrote something quickly on one of the pages. Then she handed it to me. Curious, I read it:
Methinks we should not speak among ourselves of our great secrets within the hearing of other children.
-Queen Susan the Gentle
Smiling, I wrote a reply and passed it to Edmund:
Good idea Su,
-High King Peter the Magnificent
Hey you two. Get rid of the fancy titles. We're in this world now.
Ed.
Once a king or Queen of Narnia, always a King or Queen of narnia. But I agree. No fancy titles.
-Su
Hey! You started it, Queen Susan the Gentle!
Hey guys, what if someone found this paper?
-Lucy
Never fear, Me'lady, I shall guard this sacrid object with my life!
The day you guard any such object with your life I will personally challenge your royal highness to an eating contest. Oh, and it's 'sacred', Ed.
Seriously? That's a dangerous promise. His appetite just keeps getting bigger and bigger!
I resent that!
But it's true!
That doesn't matter. Do not make fun of a king's healthy appetite or you may not live to challenge him to another eating contest.
I bet I could eat more than you any day! You're only 12, kid.
How dare you refer to me in that term! I will let thou knowest that I, King Edmund the Just, have fought many perilous battles!
We're off topic children.
We were never on a topic to begin with.
Did I not just make a point about referring to your superiors in deregatory terms?
Superiors my foot.
Can you put this away, Susan? We're here. And I'm still worried about someone noticing it.
Of course! I'm glad you're showing sense, Lucy, I was a bit worried that I was the only mature one among us. *Sigh* Boys will be boys.
Iresent that!
Hey! Gimme that paper – I need to put it away!
You have (sorry, had) it, silly. Here it is – put it away before Peter gets hold of it again.
That's mean!
Told you, Susan!
...
Susan smiled and then put the notebook back in her bag. We were the last to file off the bus.
"Okay, everyone! Line up over here please!" a councellor dressed as a medieval lady called. We all lined up, and she led us into the castle that the camp was taking place in.
We sat in the banquet hall, around the long tables. At the head table, where the nobility would have sat, were the teachers. A man dressed as some sort of councellor stood up.
"Welcome, everybody!" He said. "You are here to learn all about living as the medieval people would."
"No, we're here to have fun," Ed whispered.
"Shut up!" Su reprimanded him, "and listen!"
"And so," the councellor continued, "we have evaluated your forms and now will be telling everyone what your positions are. To start with, our master of the hounds is..."
I listened, excited. We had put a great deal of effort into our entrance forms, by which they would juge who would be best suited to what role. All four of us tried out as Kings and Queens. Naturally. The only problem was, there would only be one King and one Queen. I glared at Edmund. He returned my stare with vigor. Competition.
"Lucy Pevensie will be the queen's Lady-in-Waiting." he continued, about halfway down his list. I shot a sympethatic smile at Lucy, but she didn't seem to mind too much. Lucy did love helping others, after all. From then on, Susan sat up straight at the edge of her chair, shooting nasty glances at other eligible girls.
"Edmund Pevensie will be the Captain of the Guard."
I smirked at Edmund, who looked crestfallen. We waited patiently until it was time to learn who the new King and Queen were.
"Susan Pevensie..." He said, and I grinned at Susan, "and Peter Pevensie!"
Edmund glared at me. I smirked. Ah, how sweet the taste of victory!
Edmund's POV:
Peter seemed pretty happy as he grinned at me across the table. I wonder what he would do if I told him that I wasn't actually mad about it? But hey, that's brotherly love.
Really, Peter would be a much better king than me. I guess that's why he's 'High King' and I'm just 'King'. I'm more of the sit-in-the-backround-and-plot-treason type. Not that I would try to overthrow my brother. The only time I did that was for a joke.
"Ed!" Susan hissed at me. "Cut out the fake anger- you're pretty obviously fake, by the way - and listen to what the guy's saying!"
That's the problem with Susan. While I can easily fool Peter and Lucy, Su knows me too well. And is way more responsible than is reasonable for her age. I couldn't escape it even as King.
"What?" I asked her, pretending to refocus.
She rolled her eyes. "Too late," she whispered, "but you're the Captain of the Guard. I think you're supposed to line up over there."
Okay. Maybe she could be useful. Sometimes.
I got off the bench and walked over to the rest of the kids that were guards. Half of them were taller than me, so I would just have to show them that I was truly bigger and stronger then them.
Figuratively, of course.
"Come this way, guards, and I will show you the way to your barracks," a guy dressed as a light infantry man said.
"Barracks?" I shivered to myself in anticipation, "What happened to fine silk sheets? Oh yeah. Peter got those. Maybe I am jealous of him."
We followed the guard to a low building outside the keep.
"Okay guys," he said, leading the way into the barracks. "Here it is. I will be sleeping in that room over there," he pointed at a closed door, "choose a bunk and I want to here no noise from you. We will be waking up at 6 am sharp tomorrow."
Everyone looked kinda shocked at that.
"Six?" one of the older boys hissed.
"Six," the leader confimed. "No talking."
Will's POV:
My arm hurt, almost unbearably. How could such a simple mission go so wrong?
Horace and I raced through the forest as if our lives depended on it. I thought back to all of my lessons with Halt, my mentor, but nothing had come up that fit this situation. After all, who would expect to run to a bunch of Scotti passing from one fief to another? I stopped running for a moment and looked back at the ground, and Horace plowed on, clearing debris from our path. The Pict warriors ran after us. They were like a bunch of demons intent on killing us.
Edmund's POV:
The leader (Luke) lied.
I had to wake up at 5:58.
I've always been told that I wasn't a morning person, though I was surprised that even our councellor backed off when I growled at him. My mood improved, however, when all the other boys couldn't figure out how to put on their uniforms. I laughed at them as I put on my chainmail. This was going to be a fun week, I could tell.
Will's POV:
My arm throbbed, but I kept on running. We were slowly pulling ahead of the warriors, thank god. Suddenly, Horace and I both tripped. Well wire, I thought. I heard my friend hit the ground with a thud. I felt myself falling. When I landed, however, it wasn't on the crunchy fallen leaves that I expected.
That was the last thing I thought before I lost consciousness.
Edmund's POV:
Breakfast was a subdued affair. I waved at Peter and Susan sitting at the high table, and dug in. The Narnian like substance brought a smile to my lips as it brought back memories of sitting in a hall very like the one I was in. Of course, then I was sitting at the high table.
One of the boys from my barracks who was sitting across from me introduced himself as Mark."I'm Edmund Pevensie," I introduced myself, and I couldn't help but add "Captain of the Guard."
"You look pretty young, how'd you get a posistion like that?" Mark asked.
"Oh, I've had a lot of experience with stuff like that." I tried not to hold his 'young' comment against him. Of course he wouldn't know, but I couldn't help but be offended.
"Really?" he asked, "like what?"
"Um..." I said, realizing that we really hadn't come up with a cover story. Good job, Ed. I mentally smacked myself. You really messed up this time. "Well.. I … uh... I practise with my brother every day, and my siblings and I came up with a make-believe kingdom when we were little. It helped us practice what we learned in the history books." Sleek! I thought, now we can explain any refrences to 'Narnia'.
"That's a neat idea!" Mark said, "I wish I had siblings who were interested in the same things as me." I smiled sympatheticly at him, and he grinned back. I returned to my breakfast, and had only just begun devouring the bacon when a horn sounded out.
"Guards!" Luke hollered, "Follow me to the training grounds!" Mark groaned, and looked longingly at his plate of breakfast still half full. We all lined up at the door to outside the hall, and I waved at Peter and Susan still enjoying their luxurious breakfast. Lucy sat beside Susan, patiently spooning out food and refilling drinks.
We followed Luke out the door, and he led us across the courtyard and out the front gate. The Castle was sitting on a hill, and before me spread a pretty sight worthy of Narnia itself. The hills streched out a few hundred meters, before soaking into the pretty pine forest beyond. Little yellow flowers (buttercups, I think?) dotted the emrald green grass. We walked around the castle wall to a training ring and hut on the left side of the castle.
"Okay, men!" Luke shouted, sounding dangerously similar to all those coaches you hear about that are known as 'torturers'. "There's swords there," he pointed at a pile of dull (color-wise and tip-wise) blades stacked against the fence at one side of the dirt area. "-and sheilds next to them. I want you to grab one and stand in a line against the fence." I ran over to the swords and picked one that seemed not to have as bad balance as the others. Not that it was very good, but I supposed it couldn't be helped.
(Here's where my writing starts. It's still Edmund's POV)
I quickly grabbed a shield and stood at the front of the line at attention, patiently waiting for the other boys to scramble their supplies together, my shield slung on my left arm and my sword held loosely in my right hand.
Eventually, we were able to form a scraggly line in front of the fence. Luke walked in front of us, noting how each boy handled their weapons. Some were letting the point of their sword dangle in the dust, and others were trying to manhandle their shields into position. Luke paused once he got to me.
I saw his eyes take in my ready stance and easy grip. "You there. What's your name?"
I took a small step forward. "Edmund Pevensie," I responded confidently.
A flash of understanding passed through his eyes. I saw something else too. I'm not sure what it was. Recognition? Respect? Maybe both, but either way, it left me confused. It passed so quickly, I might have imagined it. "Position?"
"Captain of the Guard, sir."
He raised an eyebrow. "Let's see if you deserve that position. Wait here." He stepped into the small shed.
We waited there in silence until Luke returned, holding a wooden dummy and dragging it out to the center of the training ring. "Well, Captain," he huffed. Th dummy must be heavier than it looked. "Let's see what you've got. Strokes on my cadence." I nodded and went to stand before the dummy, sword held ready.
Once again I saw that strange glimmer in Luke's eyes, and then he was barking commands. "Overhand! Left feint! Underhand crosscut! Middle thrust!" I performed each strike with blinding speed, my dull sword biting into the wood. I heard a brief murmur of amazement from the boys behind me as I whirled through the first block of strikes. I stood ready for the next set.
Once again, Luke called out commands. "Right slash! Feint up, thrust down! Overhanded reverse!" He stopped as the quick sound of metal on wood echoed throughout the grounds. He surveyed the dummy. If it hand been alive, it would now be dead.
Luke look me square in the eyes. "Well Captain, I think you need to get your guards whipped into shape."
"You mean..."
"I mean, you need to teach this lad here the difference between holding a sword and holding a croquet mallet."
~oOo~
I spent the next few hours teaching the other boys the basics of swordplay. I say teaching. Really, I should say telling them something that goes out the other ear. Some of them still struggled with holding their sword correctly, even after nearly six hours of work.
"Battle stance!" I called out. Immediately, fifteen boys raised their shield, bent their knees, and held their sword loosely. I walked among them, correcting things when it was needed. I noticed Mark, the boy from breakfast held his sword loosely, and was careful to watch how I did things. I nodded approvingly. This boy could do good.
I noticed some swords were wobbling and mentally cursed myself. The guards must exhausted. "Take a break!" I yelled.
Sighs of relief echoed around the courtyard as the guys clumsily slipped their swords into leather sheaths and went to collapse in the shade.
I stood and watched them, thinking back to the golden days in Narnia, and Luke sidled up to stand beside me. "Well done, sir," he told me.
I looked closely at him. "Do I know you from somewhere?"
He hesitated, but before he could respond, a voice called out behind us, "Ho, Captain! Getting the guard whipped into shape?" I turned to see a grinning Peter walking towards me. He was accompanied by Susan and Lucy, who was carrying a picnic basket and a blanket.
I grinned back at Peter. "Aye, highness. They've been doing an awful lot of holding their blades up today. Poor men are tired." I heard movement behind me as my men rushed to stand and bow to their king and queen.
Peter gave a hearty laugh. "Can't say I blame them. Training under you must be torture." Smiles appeared on Susan's and Lucy's faces.
"Well," I drawled. "I am the best swordsman there is."
Peter's eye's narrowed. "Oh really?"
I smirked. "Yep. Unless you wish to challenge that claim, your majesty?"
He started undoing the many buttons on his ornate tunic. "I think I do, captain. Even the odds, would you?"
I nodded and turned to my men. "Seth!" I barked, startling the boy in question. He ran forward. "Give the king your leather merlin, chain mail, sword, and shield, would you?" Seth gently set down weapons and started to remove his armor.
Peter nodded his thanks to the boy. "Much appreciated." He pulled on the armor, set his shield on his arm, and picked up the sword.
I looked over his shoulder. "Would the Queen Susan and Lady Lucy like to watch?" I sent my sisters a wink. They both giggled.
"We would love too, Captain," Susan replied, and she and Lucy went to go watch from the shade.
The rest of the Guard gathered around me and Peter as we started to analyze each other's movement. "You know," Peter remarked. "These swords are atrocious."
I nodded. "Tell me about it. I've been working with this one all morning." With that, I lunged for him. The second my sword hit Peter's shield though, my world turned to black.
Lucy's POV:
I spread the blanket out in the shade, watching the boys prepare to fight. Susan and I made to sit down just as Edmund lunged for Peter. My vision turned black the second that I hit the ground.
So, did you like it? Here's some background info for those not familiar with Ranger's Apprentice:
In the kingdom of Araluen, the Ranger Corps helps to maintain the peace. They are the king's eyes and ears throughout the kingdom. They are extremely skilled with the bow and arrow, and carry two knives with them. They are also masters of unseen movement, and can move silently and stealthily. They are uncannily good at strategy, and are trusted advisors to the king and his barons, particularly in times of war.
Will is an apprentice Ranger to one of most famous Ranger's in the Corps, Halt. Horace, his best friend, is a knight of Castle Araluen and is the Oakenleaf Knight.
So there you go! Hope you enjoyed it! Please review!
Love y'all!
~Boogalee