Merlin could not help staring at the townsfolk around him. The town they arrived in was as bustling as the town outside the castle of Camelot. Although, instead of just people, there were also centaurs, dwarves and talking animals mingling amongst the crowd. Gold coins exchanged hands for wares and some, usually the talking animals, bartered with their own belongings for something someone else has.

The stall that Merlin veered towards looked like a small apothecary manned by a centaur and soon he was busy trading knowledge with the half-man, half animal about medicine and finding out that their treatment to most ails were mostly similar to what he has learnt from Gaius. As he was talking with his new acquaintance and perusing the bottles of powder and ointments, there came a bump at his leg and upon looking down saw a young girl huddled at his feet. The centaur leaned over the counter and when he saw the girl, opened his mouth to speak but was stopped by a frantic shushing noise from the girl.

"I'm playing hide-and-seek," she whispered, giggling.

The centaur rolled his eyes good naturedly before turning back to his wares while Merlin continued looking down at the girl, smiling.

"You know, it won't be a good hiding place the moment I move away," Merlin told her.

The girl, well young woman actually, who looked like she is at an age where young people would start looking at the opposite sex rather than playing some childish game, twisted her lips in thought before grinning at Merlin playfully. "Then I'll move when you do!"

Merlin gave her a mock look of surprise. "Oh! Clever!"

The young woman giggled again, when she suddenly gave a gasp and quickly delved under the folds of Merlin's coat before the sorcerer realised what was happening.

"Be still!" she hissed, "Or he'll know where I am!" Merlin immediately stopped his scrambling and stood stock still, trying to look normal as a half-man, half-goat clopped by, twisting his head from side to side, muttering to himself in anxiety, "By the Lion's mane! Why did I let her talk me into playing this wretched game?"

As soon as the creature was out of earshot, Merlin said to the girl hiding behind him, "Your friend looks really worried. Shouldn't you-"

"Merlin!" Merlin's body automatically froze again, hoping that maybe like before, he wouldn't look like someone who should be given any interest, especially by an irate king who was making his way towards him. Alas, it was not to be, because as soon as Arthur was in front of him, the blonde demanded, "Where have you been? I specifically told you not to wander off alone! And just before we're about to reach the castle! What do you think it would look like when he finds out that I've lost my counsellor and sorcerer because said idiot would rather be gawking like a simpleton in town than meeting the king of this land? Have you no sense of propriety? I should-"

Arthur suddenly stopped his tirade when he found himself staring into a pair of eyes from a girl who was looking at him in amazement.

"Goodness! You sound like my brother when he's angry!" she commented before slipping out from under Merlin's cloak. "Well, thank you, kind sir," she said to Merlin with a smile, "Now that you said it, I do feel horrible for making my friend worry. Goodbye, then. I'll be seeing you again!"

"Uh... goodbye..." Merlin said, but she was already too far away, easily flitting through the crowd, lost in the sea of bodies.

"Merlin," Arthur said, making Merlin turn towards him again, "Why was there a girl hiding under your cloak?"

...

Arthur, Merlin and the Knights of Camelot finally reached Cair Paravel. The castle looked aglow in the distance and when they came nearer it was because the stones were burnished nearly white in colour and there were motifs on the archways of the entrance made from what Arthur was amazed to note, ivory. There were bright flags fluttering from the turrets and as soon as they neared the gate, trumpets sounded to herald their coming.

Standing at the entrance of the gate was a man, a crown on top of his golden head and a welcoming smile behind his neatly cut beard. Beside him was a woman, also golden haired with a crown on her and although Arthur could not see it, Merlin thought there was a radiance within her besides an ethereal beauty he sees in only a few women.

"Welcome, King Arthur of Camelot, to Cair Paravel," the man said, coming forward to shake Arthur's hand as soon as the Camelot King, Merlin and the Knights dismounted from their horses, "I hope the journey from Camelot was not difficult. I am King Caspian the Tenth and this is my Queen, Lilliandil. We came from to greet you on behalf of the High King and our royal brother and sisters who awaits inside for reasons I will explain to Your Majesty as soon as I can. Come! Come inside!"

Arthur, Merlin and the knights were escorted into the castle and while he and King Caspian exchanged some light talk and pleasantries, the Camelot King noted that the castle felt airer and brighter than his home in Albion and he was amused to see, less sombre and fancier.
His late father, Uther, had not taken importance of beautifying the castle as long as it was comfortable and looked majestic and intimidating enough for any guests invited to Camelot. Like most lord's home, swords and shields hung on the walls as well as tapestries with the Camelot's coat of arms and colours.
In Cair Paravel, the tapestries were more colourful, and other than Narnia's coat of arms, there were tapestries depicting figures, animals and landscapes as if there was a story behind every scene. The weaponries on display were also more eclectic than the standard spears, shields and swords, each weapons seeming to have come from different cultures and time.
The more interesting the displays, the slower Arthur walked, and King Caspian explained the more interesting ones, whether they originated from Telmar or Narnia. Merlin was more interested in the tapestries and one in particular where he sees four people with crowns on their heads, riding horses and chasing after a white stag in a wooded area. Other tapestries, if not depicting wars and battles, showed only one ruler with a King and Queen, but this one has four because neither of them looked more superior than the other as if they were all on equal standing.

"Ah," the Narnia King said, "it must be fate that your eye has caught this one in particular Lord Emrys. They are the ancient kings and queens or Narnia who broke the Witch's spell of a hundred years of winter more than a thousand years ago. They are brothers and sisters and the eldest brother was crowned the High King who rules all the Kings and Queens in Narnia. However, fiften years later, just as Narnia has came into its golden age they disappeared chasing a white stag in the woods."

"They are the ones that King Peter has told us about - their namesake, the Magnificent, the Just, the Gentle and the Valiant?" Arthur asked.

"That is correct, your Majesty," said Caspian, "but not quite."

Caspian gestured that they all keep walking before he continued, "The High King, his brother and sisters did disappear but they returned to Narnia after an impassioned call for aid from the crown prince of Telmar when his throne was unlawfully seized by the regent, by using the magic Horn of the Queen Gentle. After the War of Deliverance has been fought and won, the rightful heir of Telmar became King and the kingdom united with Narnia with the will of its kings and queens."

"History has repeated itself," Arthur stated, remembering Peter's tale of Caspian's plight before he became king.

Caspian smiled. "Oh, no. It has only been fifteen years since the kings and queens of old saved Narnia from descent and helped this King to gain back his throne from the usurper."

Arthur stared at Caspian in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"The High King Peter, his royal brother and sisters are the true Ancient rulers of Narnia," Caspian replied.

At that moment, they have reached the end of the hallway and two guards pushed open the doors in the front of them that led them to a beautiful hall where the walls and floor were made of coloured stone and marble. At the end of the hall were two thrones and a step above behind the thrones were four more. The light filtering from the stained glass behind the thrones threw a myriad of colours to the hall, lending an air of magic and beauty.

On the four thrones sat four people and as Arthur stepped over the threshold of the room, the man in the middle stood up and gave the Camelot King a warm smile. He was Peter, Arthur realised with a start. Where Arthur could definitely feel his own age lined under his beard, Peter's face sill looked smooth as if he barely aged more than five years since Arthur last saw him. The other three also stood up and he saw that the one at Peter's left was Edmund and on the King's right was Susan, both looking majestic in their royal fineries, and just as young as the High King. The young woman beside Susan looked suspiciously familiar but when he heard Merlin behind him give a strangled sound, he instantly knew that she was the girl he saw hiding under Merlin's cloak in the market not more than an hour before, her gay smile recognisable even with a crown on her head and her form resplendently dressed in silk and damask.

"Let me present to you, your Majesty, High King Peter the Magnificent, Queen Susan the Gentle, King Edmund the Just and Queen Lucy the Valiant," King Caspian announced, "the Kings and Queens of old from the golden age of Narnia. Your Majesties, King Arthur Pendragon of Camelot."

"Welcome, Arthur!" Peter said, "Welcome to Narnia!"