A short note on ages although they will be aging-
Peter - 21
Susan - 20
Edmund -
18
Lucy - 14

Haidee - 16
Anya - 12


Peter held the telescope up to his eye.

"The Lone Islands," he said.

"Aye, your majesty," the Captain of the Splendour Hyaline said.

"And, you say that they are ours?" Edmund said, accepting the telescope from his brother. The faun paused.

"By right, the High King is Emperor of the Lone Islands. Whether that still holds true is a different matter. They sent no soldiers to aid in the cleansing of Narnia," he said slowly.

Peter and Edmund exchanged a look.

"Maybe we should have a small scouting expedition before we land. Find out if we are to be welcomed with a banquet or an army," Edmund suggested. Peter nodded.

"Prepare a boat. Ed and I will scull over to the Islands when we get closer and see what the situation is like," he said.

"Isn't that a bit dangerous?" Susan said from behind them. She was looking at a map of the Lone Islands with Lucy. "Where are you even going to go?" she asked. "The main Island is Doorn but according to Mr Tumnus there is a lot of houses on Avra."

"I think if their majesties stay in their boat then no harm will come to them," Tumnus said from his seat next to Lucy.

"But surely they will stick out? They are Sons of Adam; you have to leave Narnia to find others," Lucy pointed out but her old friend shook his head.

"When the Witch conquered Narnia, most of the humans escaped to Archenland but it was said that a few took to the sea and sailed to join their kin on the Islands. The Witch always feared the sea, as Aslan came from beyond it, so she let them endure. They were heavily oppressed by her magic of course, but they were there. Peter and Edmund won't look out of place," he explained.

The four Pevensies looked once more at the Islands.

"Other humans," Lucy said wistfully. "Oh, I do hope they are friendly. It would be awful to have to fight against our own kind.


Not far away, a young girl was lying in the Island sun. Her name was Haidee and she was doing what she did best; hiding. She had come out to one of her two favourite places in Doorn to get away from Papa. Apparently the Kings and Queens of Narnia were finally coming to visit, even though it had been five years since they took the throne, and he was more flustered than she had ever seen him.

More often than not, Haidee had caught Papa staring at her thoughtfully. It was true that she had grown into a young beauty, certainly more beautiful than her younger sister, Anya. She wondered if Papa had started to receive suitors for her. She was slightly too young for marriage but not too young for a betrothal.

The rock she was lying on was the furthest and biggest in a line of rocks that went out into the bay between the three Islands. She would never have dared to come out here in winter. The rock surface would have been as slippery as ice and the water death if she fell. In summer, she had no problems with jumping from one rock to the next and if she misjudged a leap and landed in the water then she merely clambered onto the next rock.

Today she had jumped across with no problems and now she lay stretched out in the sun like a cat. Both her mind and her body were at peace and slowly she felt herself slip into the clutch of sleep.

Next thing she knew, she was tumbling down the rock and into the bay. The sudden shock made her open her mouth and she inhaled a lungful of water. Disorientated, she thrashed about and tried in vain to reach the surface. Suddenly a pair of arms closed around her and she was hauled upwards and into a boat. She screamed and slapped at whoever was holding her and they released her quickly.

"Get away from me, don't touch me!" she yelled and shuffled backwards along the bottom of the boat.

"Calm down, we were only trying to prevent you from drowning. You shouldn't be out on those rocks if you can't swim," her rescuer said. She parted the thick auburn curtain of wet hair that hung over her face and snapped, "I can swim fine!"

There were two of them, both young men. Even though they didn't share hair or eye colour, the elder having sandy-brown and blue whilst the younger dark brown for both, they were clearly brothers. And they were grinning at her in a most irritating fashion. She looked down and then quickly crossed her arms over herself. As it was the height of Island summer, she had only been dressed in a pair of trousers and a thin linen shirt and both were now completely soaked through.

"Are you alright, miss?" the elder asked. He too was soaking wet but she felt no gratitude towards him for the rescue.

"Miss? Miss?" she shrieked, her voice climbing several octaves. "Don't you know who I am, who my father is?"

"No. Should we?" her rescuer replied smoothly.

"Do you know who we are?" his brother added.

Her face reddened. "No, why should I?" she spat.

"There you go. Now let's stop or we will just end up running round in circles of whether or not we know each other," he said with that annoying grin again.

They sat in the boat, her throwing daggers at them from the prow and them exchanging looks and grins of increasing irritation.

"So, have you heard about the High Kings and Queens coming?" her rescuer asked eventually. She snorted.

"Of course! Papa hasn't stopped worrying and fussing since the message arrived. The High King is probably going to be some spotty, leering youth with an oversized crown on his head and I'm the one who is going to have to dance with him while Anya gets the other one, who will probably be the better looking of the two because that is the way the world works and-"

She looked up at the position of the sun in the sky and swore so harshly that the grins were momentarily replaced with shock on the boys' faces.

"I have to go," she said standing up.

"We'll row you back to the shore if you want," the younger one offered.

"I'll swim, if that's alright," she said imperiously. She placed a foot on the side of the boat, ready to dive beautifully into the water as she always did, but the boat rocked dangerously as she pushed off. She hit the water; less of a dive, more of a belly-flop.

Peter and Edmund watched the girl swim quickly towards the shore and clamber out.

"Beauty is wasted on people like her," Edmund muttered.

Peter grinned and took up position by the oars again.

"Do I have spots?" he asked, deliberately leering creepily at his younger brother. Edmund laughed.

"All over your face! King Peter the Spotty is what we call you in Cair Paravel behind your back," he laughed as he lay back in the boat. "My own face is never so pock-marked which is why so many maidens weep in our halls. They see you, the eligible High King so disfigured, and then they lay eyes on me and see my fair features and despair for they can never love me."

Peter laughed with him. "Remind me to make an appointment with the jeweller to have my crown made smaller when we get home as well."

"Why? Then it won't fit round your fat head!"


Haidee ran back through the woods of Doorn. Stupid boys, she thought furiously. She scaled the wall of the Governor's palace and dropped down into the garden with ease. Picking an apple in the orchard to ease the first grumbles of hunger, she made her way through the halls of the palace. She had nearly reached her bedroom and safety when a voice shrieked at her down the corridor.

"Haidee! Where have you been!"

She turned and groaned internally when she saw the one person she didn't want to see bearing down on her.

"Been out swimming again, I see!" Penelope sniffed, fingering one of Haidee's wet locks with disdain. "You girls! You are always off on some part of the Islands and your sister is ruining her eyes in the library. Now, get inside! We only have a few short hours before the High Kings and Queens arrive and you stink of the Sea! Just one more thing to be fixed!"

Haidee was pushed into her bedroom and forced to bathe. Her hair was washed and brutally combed by Penelope before being done up in rags. Then her and Anya, hair similarly bound, were taken to the staircase in the foyer where they would have to make their entrance that evening. Penelope placed books on their heads and they had to descend the staircase gracefully. Anya always struggled but Haidee managed fine. As she moved carefully one from step to the next, her smile fixed glassily in place, her mind moved to the two strange young men in the boat. Maybe she acted a bit rashly. If she could slip away tomorrow, she would see if she could find them and apologise.

It wouldn't do for the Governor's daughter to conduct herself in such a manner.