I was led to a cave on a great field. However the cave itself didn't seem to be natural, it seemed to be more built around something.
"What is this place?"
"You don't know?" Reepicheep asked.
I shook my head, "Tell me."
Trufflehunter finished, "Aslan's How. Built around the place where Aslan himself died. Aslan's-."
"-Table." I felt choked up. I was standing in the area of Beruna.
I was led into the cave where I found Narnians working to make weapons. Several stopped what they were doing and stared at me. However the rat and badger kept leading me further into the cave to where a single torch was lit and a man stood alone.
"Caspian!" Trufflehunter called to the prince.
A man with tanned skin and an accent akin to a Spanish one walked over to us, "Who is this?"
Reepicheep gestured to me with reverence, "The Just King's Heart."
I looked down at the mouse, "The Just King's Heart"? What on earth was that? Did they give me some kind of nickname after I disappeared?
I really must have been gone a long time then.
"Lioness of the Battlefield…" he said and got down on one knee, bowing. "You are a legend, a hero in our history."
My eye started to twitch. Lioness? Legend? Bowing? "Alright. First." I grabbed him by the collar and pulled him off his knee, "No bowing. Second, don't call me that. And legend?" I looked around; legends were for old and dead people. I was neither. However a long period of time seemed to have passed. They probably thought I was dead.
"I apologize, Queen Willow," Caspian said.
"Ahem…care to rephrase that?" I cleared my throat from between clenched teeth.
Trufflehunter added quietly to Caspian, "Lady Will was never referred to as a 'queen'. We almost lost all diplomatic relations between Narnia and Calormen when one of the dignitaries refused to stop calling her such. And no one called her by her full name other than her husband, the other queens and king, and Aslan himself."
I gave a small smile at that. "So don't call me that either; Caspian am I right?"
He nodded.
"I'm not a queen, just call me Lady Will or just plain Will for now" I said and looked him up and down. "Telmarine, am I correct?"
"Yes Lady Will."
I looked around and sighed, "How long have I been gone?"
Trufflehunter answered, "Three hundred years, my lady."
Staggering I sat down on a nearby chair, "Wha-what?" I knew time ran different here when I came home from Narnia and absolutely no time had passed. "Three hundred…" Everyone I knew and loved from then was dead. I looked up at Caspian, "Tell me what has happened."
We left to meet speak in more privet quarters. As they led me further into the cave I saw drawings on the walls. They told the story of us. There was Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, and I in coats at a lamp post. Mr. Tumnus, the faun and his red scarf and umbrella. The beavers and their dam. Edmund breaking the witch's wand. The room that held the stone table. However we sat nowhere near the table, it was too sacred to sit at. Instead a wooden table was set up with four chairs.
Reepicheep left to attend to the warriors while Trufflehunter and Caspian filled me in on what I had missed in the last three hundred years.
Telmarines had invaded Narnia and made it their own.
They forced its people into the forests, oppressing them and eventually turning them into little more than a legend. Same with Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. But for some reason not me.
Caspian was being hunted so that his uncle, Miraz, could take the throne.
"That's where I know the name!" I said finally, "Caspian, he gave me a horse."
"You knew my ancestor. Caspian the Conqueror?"
"Must be." I said, "Oh, but he wasn't called Caspian the Conqueror back then. In fact I think he tried to get me to call him by some form of nickname while I stayed in Telmar. Cas…I think it was."
Caspian stared at me trying to piece together what I had said to work out what Caspian I and mine's relationship was, "My ancestor tried to…?"
I finished, "Court me. Of course it didn't work." I mentally chuckled; he was a funny young man. Sort of awkward, followed me around like I was a magnet and even tried to propose after I fought off a group of Telmar's enemies.
Trufflehunter added, "Lady Will spent seven years doing Aslan's bidding. During which she visited Telmar, Calormen, and Archenland. Each has their own name for her."
"They do?"
Caspian nodded, "We call you the "Lioness of the Battlefield" after you helped fight off a large band of thieves that were trying to take over Telmar."
I winced at the name. "I remember that. Killed them all if I remember correctly."
The boy looked like he was talking to George Washington or Benjamin Franklin. Some historical hero thought to be dead for centuries.
"So I'm not a mere myth to you?"
"No," Caspian shook his head, "you are taught in our history. They said that you were sent by some divine being to save us, that you were a woman of great rage and beauty."
I mumbled, "Well the first one of those is true…" Rage, I meant, not the beauty. I remember having a reputation for being a hard warrior to beat. "What about the other names?" I asked Trufflehunter.
He continued, "We call you The Just King's Heart."
I smiled, "Because I married Ed?"
"He was the only one of the four kings and queens to marry. That placed you as the only person to marry into the royal Narnian family." Trufflehunter took a deep breath and smiled.
"Now how do we-?"
We were interrupted by the sound of someone yelling and walking into the room. "Oi…who's she?" A black haired dwarf with a nasty expression looked at me.
I don't have too fond memories of dwarves in my time. Considering the one that attended the witch was particularly nasty. Then there were the ones at the Battle of Beruna that shot down the griffins.
"This," Trufflehunter said walking over to the dwarf, "is Lady Will. The Just King's Heart."
"Really?" he looked at me, still acting sort of suspicious.
"Lady Will, this is Nikabrik."
Out of courtesy I held out my hand, "Nice to meet you."
He didn't shake it, instead scoffed and walked off muttering, "We were doing fine before you came."
"He just needs some time to get used to you," Trufflehunter said. "He didn't take too kindly to Caspian at first either."
"He hit me in the head with a shovel," Caspian muttered.
I smiled. "Well then, let's see what you have so far and then we'll see what we need to do to get you back on the throne where you belong."
Caspian pulled out a map from a pot next to the table.
