- Chapter 1 -

I woke with a foggy head. I usually do, though. I have for the past five years, actually. Sleeping on the hard grass with only your arm to use as a pillow tends to do that to people.

"Good morning, princess," Trumpkin said when he saw I was awake. "I hope you had a good sleep."

Don't let his words fool you. There was sarcasm all over his face. The dwarf came into the lives of me and my cousin just a few days ago. The Telmarines came down the river and dumped him out of their boat. He hasn't told us why and I haven't asked.

"Hi," I whispered back, careful not to wake Caspian.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when a young man's voice said, "Good morning!" from behind me. I turned around to see my cousin standing there, eating an apple.

I looked back to where Caspian's blanket lays. It was abandoned. Then, I looked back to him.

"I thought you were still sleeping," I said to explain my jumpy response.

Caspian laughed. "I figured as much. But I brought breakfast."

He passes me two shiny, red apples and passes Trumpkin the other one.

"Thanks," the dwarf said gruffly.

We ate in quiet for a few minutes, enjoying the chirping of the birds and the early morning sunshine that always seemed to look happier than at any other time of day.

When Trumpkin finished eating, he placed the apple core on the ground and stood. "Well, I'm off."

He began to walk toward the woods. Caspian and I exchanged glances before jumping to a standing position.

"Where are you going?" I called out to him.

I could hear him sigh from where I was standing, even though he was a good distance away. He started coming back towards us.

"Not to be disrespectful or anything," he said sarcastically as he continued walking, "but I don't have to tell you everywhere I'm going. I'm not a child."

He saw the look I gave Caspian - I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing - and rolled his eyes.

"I may be a dwarf, but I'm easily a good fifty years older than either of you. Don't start with the insulting short jokes."

Caspian coughed through his laughter. "I'm sorry. Back on subject, we do need to know where you're going. There's no way to be sure that you won't turn us in to-"

He stopped talking after my furious look that shouted, "Shut up!"

Trumpkin crossed his arms. "Look, I get it. We just met, I'm a Narnian, you didn't know I existed until now. But I'm not the bad guy here. They are."

Caspian and Trumpkin watched each other for several moments, judging the level of trust they should put in. I couldn't help but feel bad because of it. I was the reason they were arguing now.

When Trumpkin first found us, we didn't know anything about him, and vice versa. He could tell that we were Telmarines, though. We explained our situation to him, that we had been running from the Telmarines for nearly six years.

Eventually, Trumpkin began to trust us a little more. We still knew practically nothing about him, but Caspian has never been a suspicious man. I put the doubt in his mind.

"Fine," Caspian finally said. "Are you using the boat?"

"Yes."

And then he left, leaving Caspian and I alone with only the ruins of what was once Cair Paravel on our side.

We found the ruins a few months into our escape from Telmar. I had never heard of the place, but Caspian told me a few things about it. We've been staying here ever since.

When we were younger (I was ten and Caspian was thirteen), we would pretend to be prince and princess again. Once I turned eleven, I changed from playing princess to playing queen. I found it to be much more fun. In hindsight, I assume it was having that extra bit of power over Caspian. (He asked if he could be king, and I turned him down. Since he was just playing along to keep me entertained, he wasn't too disappointed.)

We haven't been in contact with anyone other than Trumpkin since we ran away. The only thing we have is a bag of clothes we brought with us, and each other.

So when we ate our dinner of more apples and some potatoes we found recently, the silence wasn't strange at all. Trumpkin hadn't returned from his trip, which didn't worry us. We assumed he was on his way back.

But when we went to sleep a few hours later, he still wasn't back.

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It was late in the night when I woke suddenly from a deep sleep. The ruins around me were in pitch darkness; I couldn't see anything.

I quietly crawled over to where Caspian was sleeping and shook his shoulder gently.

"Caspian," I whispered. "Caspian!"

He woke with a start. On instinct, he pulled his sword out of the sheath that he kept next to him at night. He raised the sword and pointed it into the darkness. When he saw me next to him, he lowered the sword. His expression went from one of fright to one of serenity.

"Why are you awake?" he asked.

"I heard a noise," I said.

"It was probably just a wolf. Go back to sleep. We still have an hour or two before dawn."

So I let him lay back down and I went back to my blanket and covered up. I tried to do as he said, but I was too shaken to relax. There were no wolves here. Maybe dwarves were still out there, but animals? Most animals had been extinct for thousands of years, and Caspian knows that better than anyone.

Not ten minutes later, I heard another noise. It was a noise that sounded a lot like a noise I used to know pretty well. The sound of running horses.

"Caspian, did you hear that?" I asked in a loud whisper. He didn't answer. I looked to where he was sleeping not five minutes ago. He was gone.

"Caspian, wh-"

I felt a hand clamp over my mouth. I didn't try to escape it, though. It was my cousin's hand. He removed a hand from my mouth to put a finger to his lips.

"What-"

"Shh!" he said. "Follow me!"

He grabbed my hand and led me behind the ruins of Cair Paravel and into the woods beyond. I realized he was pulling me to the small fenced-in area behind the palace where we kept our horse. (We escaped from Telmar on our horse and have kept him ever since. You never know when you need a quick method of transportation.)

"Here, get on quickly!"

I slid my feet into the stirrups and swung my leg over the horse's body. Caspian was right behind me and soon we began riding off through the woods. I gripped the reigns tightly, afraid I'd fall if I let go.

"Would you like to tell me what's going on?" I asked, shouting over the wind we were creating.

"Just ride," he yelled back.

This confirmed my worst fears: the Telmarines were after us. I could still hear their horses, only louder than before. The sound of the hooves continued to grow louder. It took me a few minutes to realize why. The horse beneath me was beginning to slow down until it was nearly to a gallop.

"Caspian, can't he go any faster?"

"We pushed him too far."

Our asailants were getting closer and closer by the second. I made the mistake of looking behind me.

In the split second I had my back turned, a tree branch caught the reigns in my hands. The reigns got stuck around the branch and the horse kicked back on its back legs. Caspian was the first to fall off the back of the horse, then me.

I must have blacked out for a few seconds because there's a gap in my memory between me landing on the leaf-covered earth and Caspian pulling out a horn I'd never seen before and blowing into it as hard as he could.

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A/N: I went back (three years after originally writing this) and decided to rewrite this chapter, as well as the prologue. It just needed to flow better. If I have time, I might rewrite more of this story. Of course the plot won't change but I think it needs a lot of work. I've matured since I first wrote thus and my writing style has changed significantly. Compare this chapter to the next chapter. You'll be amazed.

As usual, please review! Even if you've reviewed this before or have read the story before, please review and tell me if you think I should continue rewriting the rest of this story. Love all of you!