DISCLAIMER: I only own the stuffs I created my own.

Lucy couldn't believe what she was seeing. Susan had thrown her hand to her mouth. Peter froze with his mouth agape. The two badgers inside the room reacted the same. And the color on the centaurs' faces faded. For what was on the girl's back was...

A big, hideous, greenish and purple bruise surrounded with protruding thick veins that seemed to be throbbing undernearth the skin. Lucy swore they were moving that she feared they were going to explode. What's worse was, it was outlined with protruding little holes that formed a circle and in the middle of it was the biggest of them all, like a tiny low volcano breathing blood and thick yellow liquid. The little holes that encircled it were starting to exhale bubbling blood on its surface.

Lucy's eyes were wide in shock. She hadn't seen anything so gruesome as this before. Nor did anyone in the room. And she felt horrified and sorry for the girl and scared and... terrified how much it must had hurt.

Peter felt worse. They had given Ranien a really hard time down in the courtyard when she happened to be severely injured. Add up Edmund's downright rudeness.

The king and queens all looked at each other, as though silently asking one another if they recognized this kind of bite. Or whatever that was. When none of them seemed to know, they looked back at the horrible wound.

"What did that?" Lucy choked, almost in tears. Then she turned to the centaurs who brought the girl to the castle. "Did you see...?"

The centaurs, who had seem to lost their voices, barely shook their heads.

"They said they just found her unconscious on the ground," Peter explained, having told by the centaurs what happened when they were in the courtyard. "When they tried to carry her to bring her here, she awoke and started screaming and running."

Lucy cried in sympathy. "Oh! What kind of monster would do this?" Then she remembered she had a healing cordial she always kept on her belt, a little bottle given by the Father of Christmas when they first came here in Narnia holding a magical liquid that could heal any injury. She began fumbling for it but before she could even take the bottle out, one of the centaurs had let out a loud "No!"

Everybody's head swung to look where the voice came from.

"Your Majesty." The centaur bowed, redeeming himself. "I politely suggest to have Glenstorm see that before you cure it. He might have a say on that."

Susan looked at Lucy worriedly. "He's right."

"But what if she can't hold it for long?"

"Then that's the time you give her a drop. How are you feeling, Ranien? How much does it hurt?" asked Susan.

Ranien shook her head. And her quiet reply confused almost everyone. "That's the thing. It doesn't hurt at all."

There was a long moment of silence before Susan broke it with a quiet "What?" whereas the other centaur looked alarmed. "That's not good. That's more dangerous. She could die any second without a warning. I'll go find Glenstorm now." Then he headed out.

But Lucy was scared of the thought of the girl dying in a snap and demanded to heal her this instant.

"Lucy, we have to know the thing that did this so we'll know how to stop it before it gets more victims. She'll get a drop right after we figure this out," Peter told her.

Although Peter was right, Lucy still didn't like the idea of having to wait for answers before she could heal the girl. But since she was completely outnumbered, there was no point arguing in that matter.

"Mr. Trufflehunter, kindly bring Mr. Trumpkin here, please," Susan addressed to one of the badgers.

"Yes, your Majesty." The badger bowed and got out of the room.

"Mr. Cornellius might know what this is, too," Peter said, studying the girl's back. He turned to the single centaur left. "If you please, go to Caspian's castle and inform the doctor about this. Tell him it's urgent and his presence is needed."

The centaur obeyed.

"Can I see?" Ranien asked a minute or two later, her voice hoarse from her screamings.

The siblings all looked at each other, worried how she might react if she'd see what lied on her back. When they asked her if she was sure, she nodded and Peter got up to find a mirror. He faced the mirror on the girl's back and Ranien twisted around to see. She then let out a short cry of horror and turned away so quickly, closing her eyes shut. Peter closed the ripped area of her nightgown to cover the wound back and so the girl could sit properly again.

"I'm sorry this happened to you," Susan sincerely said, stroking the girl's hair with her fingers.

"Did you happen to see what did that?" asked Peter as gently as he could.

Ranien was staring at the floor again. "It was dark and...it was ugly. I didn't properly see it but it was wearing a hood and its mouth had...slits around it and when it opened it, it stretched out so wide like the lips were made of tentacles... Only worse. I don't know." She buried her hands on her face and cried again.

The siblings just looked at each other, unable to say anything.

When nobody spoke, Ranien slid her hands all the way up to her head in frustration, clearing her face with all the hair that covered it. Confused, scared and desperate, she finally asked what she really needed to know in the first place. "Look, why am I here?" Her voice was commanding and no longer quiet, looking at everyone with blue watery eyes hungry for answers.

But the moment they all saw the face behind the blonde hair, they could've sworn this shocked them more than the gruesome bite she carried.

"Oh my God," Susan breathed.

Peter drew his head back, staring at the girl's face in utter disbelief. "Impossible..." he muttered.

That was when the doors flew open revealing Trufflehunter with Trumpkin now.

"Your Majesties. I believe I was —" The dwarf stopped dead at his tracks upon seeing the girl. Then his eyebrows furrowed, confused. He stared intently at the girl with narrowed eyes and was about to say something when Peter beat him to it.

"Get Princess Jamie here. Quick." The king's voice was urgent and Trufflehunter with the other badger immediately moved.

"Supposing we caught the White Stag, what would you wish, Reep?" Jamie asked the mouse mounted on her brown horse in front of her. They were in the forest with Edmund on his own horse which was now moving in a slow pace along with Jamie's. It was believed that if you caught the stag, it would give you wishes and many times it had been gone for hundreds of years and fled to farther places but now it had come back to Western Woods at last. They sighted it today, actually, but lost it right after they galloped to catch it.

"There's nothing more that I want, Your Highness, but to see Aslan's country," the mouse replied with a heaved chest upon talking about the High King of all Kings.

The princess' green eyes sparkled with interest. "That's a really good wish. I never thought of that... Now you have me thinking." Her face was thoughtful. "How about you, Ed?" She whipped her head to the side to look at Edmund.

The king just smiled cheekily. "I have dark wishes. You wouldn't wanna know a single of it."

Jamie just rolled her eyes. "Right."

Jamie Lu Montague was Calormen's princess who had been frequently visiting Narnia to fool her parents she was working on making either one of the kings fall for her. At first, she found it completely rubbish with all these princesses competing whom the kings would marry but after knowing Narnia had become the richest country in just a year after taking the land back from the Telmarines, not to mention the kings that ruled it were beyond handsome, it easily all made sense to her. And she was aware she was bound to marry by arrangement one day but she never thought her parents would actually want her to go after these kings and make them fall in love with her because apparently, Narnia wasn't in a desperate need for more lands and treasures to arrange a marriage with a royalty from another country so the only way to have their kings actually marry somebody was to have them fall in love. It was reasonable but ridiculous, considering Calormen was a rich country itself and could stand alone without any help. But Jaime's parents starved for more wealth.

Now, imagining Peter falling in love wasn't that hard, but Edmund... She wasn't sure if the scumbag was capable of falling in love at all. And anyway, she had been friends with them for so long now that the idea of having them fall in love with her had turned out hilarious.

The memory of the first time she met them, though, still painted a smile on her face. It was two years ago when these young kings set sail to Calormen in search for the seven lords in Telmar. Of course, since Narnia wasn't yet the richest then, her parents had no interest in the kings whatsoever. However, the moment she saw fauns, centaurs, minotaurs, and talking animals (especially Reepicheep which she instantly liked), she immediately died to go to Narnia that she sneaked her way through their ship. Edmund wasn't so happy when she saw her hiding in his cabin. Peter didn't approve of it either but he was nice to her and offered her food. The annoyance on Edmund's face, though, when Peter said they had to turn back and return her to Calormen before their King and Queen would notice her disappearance and accuse them for kidnapping, was priceless. The Just King had strongly suggested to throw her to the sea so she could swim her way back home but nobody agreed.

A year later, Narnia's wealth impressively boomed. Poverty rate dramatically decreased. Everything was going well that when Cair Paravel's reconstruction was finally done, Queens Susan and Lucy were so happy that they decided to have a celebration ball and invited different kingdoms to attend it. And the Pevensies' fame highly increased.

When it was time for the Calormenes to return home, Jamie, once again, sneaked. But this time, out of their ship and into the village. She had fallen in love with Narnia straight-up. It was like living in her own fantasy. She had always dreamt of this — magical land and talking animals — ever since she was a kid and never in her wildest dreams had she thought it could all be possible. It was just too good to be true. If she had to abandon Calormen forever to live in Narnia, she would. She never liked it there, anyway. She never had freedom and was tired living under her parents' rules. But a day later, her parents had come back to inquire for her whereabouts. Nobody in the castle saw her since the royal ship of Calormen had left but her disappearance didn't surprise Kings Peter and Edmund having witnessed she had done almost the same thing before. They made a search party, though, and was successful enough to find her. Of course, her parents were worried so much and scolded her for what she had done. But she manipulated them into thinking she wanted to stay and make either of the kings fall in love with her so a marriage would be done after. It was a stupid thing to say but she was almost desperate at that time. She was already expecting to be scolded for such lunacy but to her surprise, the queen did no such and instead, widened her eyes as though she had just heard the smartest idea in the world ever. Her mother thought it was brilliant but argued she should've told them about it before pulling a stunt of sneaking out and having them all freaked out. Jamie was overwhelmed. She couldn't believe her parents were actually being supportive about this. All her life, they'd been trying to teach her how to be a proper lady and she saw nothing proper about deceiving men and going after them. She decided not to pay much mind about it, though. The important thing was, she'd get to stay in Narnia.

Queen Lucy was more than happy to have Jamie as a guest. Everybody was so glad she loved Narnia and they all welcomed her warmly. Edmund, however, didn't care much. Not until he noticed Jamie had had been staying there for almost two months.

"Aren't you going home or something?" he had asked with his eyebrows furrowed one time during breakfast.

Susan threw him a reprimanding look. "Edmund!"

Though Edmund's bluntness had surprised everyone at the table, what he said had them all thinking the same until they were all looking at the princess for an answer.

"Err..." The atmosphere had gone uncomfortable for Jamie, mind racking for excuses she could tell them. There was a long moment of silence as everybody started to look at one another, wondering why she seemed to have trouble speaking up. But then she dropped her spoon and fork on her plate and took a deep sigh. "Alright, I gotta be honest." And she told them everything.

"...trust me, I don't wanna marry either of you. I just really wanna be here in Narnia," she finished after five minutes of explaining.

She looked at everybody. They were all silent for a minute as they continued to look at her, too. Then the silence was interrupted by a laugh. Edmund's laugh.

Followed by Peter. And soon the rest in the room was laughing altogether while she just sat there thinking they were all nuts.

"Make us fall in love..." Edmund was shaking his head, still laughing. "That is so ambitious and girly."

"I know," she agreed.

Either way, she was glad they took her situation hilarious for they never minded now how long she stayed in Narnia. And how she and Edmund became friends, she didn't know. One time, they were just insulting each other and next, Edmund was coming along with her to Calormen and was staying there as a guest for a week. Of course, this had everybody thinking she got the younger king and when her parents asked her about it, she just simply said, "We're still friends at the moment. He likes me but still in denial about it." She'd get the same questions everytime she'd come back home but she made sure to make up some improvements in her relationship with Edmund each time she had to feed them an update. She'd already told them, "He confessed." "He kissed me." "He's frustrated with his feelings" and "He's overly jealous now." Of course, none of those were true but she had to keep her parents thinking she was doing her job well. Sometimes, they'd complain about how this whole thing was going on too slow but Jamie would just tell them, "Love takes time. And don't worry, he's already in love with me. He's just still shy to propose yet." In fact, the next time she'd go home, she would tell them Edmund had gone obsessed with her now. The thought made her laugh, forgetting Edmund was just four feet away from her.

"What are you laughing about?" the young king asked, bringing her back to reality.

Jamie stopped for a moment but when she looked at him, she only continued laughing, trying to imagine him being obsessed with her. "Nothing. Just thought of something funny."

Edmund wore a blank face though he was worried about her sanity. "You are forever strange." Then looked away, shaking his head.

"Speaking of thoughts!" Jamie suddenly exclaimed. "I completely forgot to tell you. Didn't it ever occur to you how all the girls that had come here are all blondes?" This was the question she was going to ask him when she had abruptly turned around causing their noses to touch. Of course, because of that, the whole question was wiped out of her head.

"'Course it did. The others and I talked about it," Edmund simply replied.

"Well? What do you reckon it means?"

"Pure coincidence or..." He thought for a moment. "We don't really know. See, every human that magically lands in Narnia has a purpose, we believe. Like we, for example. You all know we got here because of the prophecy. Those girls, however, seemed...err, useless, so maybe there was some kind of mistake and Narnia realized that so they take them back home."

"You can't be saying Narnia has been making the same mistakes four times now in two years," said Jamie. "All blonde, Ed. And they don't last for a month. Like you said, they just vanish. Isn't that all suspicious?"

"It sure is, Milady," Reepicheep suddenly agreed, sounding thoughtful. "Maybe they're summoned here by some evil force as a sacrifice."

"That's actually possible," Edmund said. "Maybe by that monster the girl was saying that attacked her. Maybe it's into blondes!" He and Reepicheep laughed.

But Jamie wasn't amused. When Edmund noticed this, he said, "Look, everything's fine in Narnia. As long as my siblings and I are here. Nobody really knows what happened to those girls but that didn't really affect the condition in this place so we think their appearance and vanishing is just a random phase."

"Yeah. Cos four blondes in a row is random," Jamie pointed out.

Edmund was about to say more when they heard a noise from behind. They stopped and saw two badgers running towards them.

"Your Majesty," one of them, whose name was Iskuposh, breathed and bowed to Jamie. "You're summoned by the High King."

By the looks on their faces, their news seemed urgent that the two majesties had creased their eyebrows and looked at each other wondering what was going on.

Then Trufflehunter added, "It's the girl."

"Why? What's with the girl? And what does it have to do with me?" Jamie demanded as they quickly walked the hall towards the guest room where the girl was in.

"You have to see it for yourself, Your Highness," Iskopush said, trailing behind her and Edmund.

As soon as they reached the room, she pushed the door open and everybody inside had stopped what they were doing to look her. She scanned the place. King Peter, Trumpkin, two centaurs, Queens Susan and Lucy seated on each side of...

No way.

She wasn't sure if her eyes were deceiving her but, apart from the hair and the color of the eyes, the girl seated in between the queens...

Looked exactly just like her.