Guests were flooding in and out, shaking hands in greetings and hugging and waving in farewell. Susan was speaking to a gorup of guests, laughing merrily at jokes and comments. Edmund, however, was forced (by Susan) to greet the guests one by one with a smile on his face. Which was a fairly hard thing for him to do. He was dragged into conversations he wasn't too interested in, and kept hearing "Happy birthday, King Edmund!" and "What a wonderful day for you, my king." It was very bothersome to all four of the Pevensie siblings to be called by their royal titles. It mostly bothered Edmund, though.

Yet, he survived through the first half of the party. Well, for the most part. I can tell you he was probably seething by the time Susan finally came up to him during the time he was leaning on the wall in the far corner by himself. One half because he wanted to be alone and Susan came to have a conversation with him. The other half just the fact that he hated others in general at this moment.

"Hullo, Edmund," his sister said, striding up beside him with a glass filled with some kind of beverage.

"Hi." That was all he said. He didn't want to be bothered. I should've snuck up to my room somehow. He thought. Then he glanced around the room to all the exits. They were all being guarded by a soldier or annoying party guests. No escape here. It was pure torture, the whole of it.

"So, how's your birthday going?" Susan questioned. She made a movement with the glass, stirring it around before taking a sip. "And tell me if you like the costume."

"The costume's fine. Today is not," Edmund replied. He could say that for a few reasons. One, it was his birthday. Everybody was in a craze about it. Two, he just liked to be left alone on these big events. And three, something didn't feel right about it. And Susan noticed that. She could see him fiddling with his sword grip (she had allowed him to have that on him as long as he didn't mutilate any of the visitors he didn't like) and tapping his foot on the ground, glancing around a bit too occasionally to be casual.

"What's wrong? And don't deny you don't feel sketchy, Ed."

"Something doesn't feel.." Edmund bit his lip for a moment, searching for the correct word. "It just doesn't feel right," he admitted, shaking his head as he said this.

"Come on, Edmund. It's your birthday. There's no need to feel all skeptical today!" Susan said, nudging him with her elbow. "Plus, I'm sure I could find someone for you to dance with," she added.

"I'd much rather doubt the whole day than dance with one of them," he said in a disgusted tone. "Not with one of those brats that have dresses that make them look like a half-drunken upside-down cockatoo that was thrown into a turbo-windmill." Susan seemed to agree.

"True."

They stood in silence for a moment before someone walked by. An Archenlander, by the looks of it. He had short, chestnut colored hair, along with a pair of green eyes. Susan saw him nudge Edmund on the shoulder, and her brother looked up. The stranger had an urgent look in his eyes.

"Excuse me, Susan," Edmund said, following the stranger to a far off corner in the room where nobody stood. Susan watched curiously, along with a bold suspicion. The two talked for a while, but it wasn't a light and carefree talk. It looked very much as if both of them meant business. Many emotions seemed mixed into it too. Confusion, anger, horror, disgust, regret, disbelief; this must be an important conversation. As if on cue, they both simultaneously nodded and turned, walking their opposite ways. It seemed like only a few seconds before Edmund was standing in front of her, though it was in reality quite a few minutes.

"We need to-"

Screaming and cries of horror from all the guests filled the air as creatures and beasts of all sorts leaped out from the shadows (and some supposedly out of nowhere) and started rampaging through the ballroom. It was a pandemonium as everybody ran, panicked. Edmund drew his sword with the ringing of metal in his ears, scanning over the scene for a quick moment. Two soldiers came up to him. A faun and a satyr. "Ollus, Achelius, take Susan out of here. Now!" he commanded, bolting forward into the chaos.

"No!" Susan begged, but eventually gave in to being escorted out of the raid.


"What is it, Trodri?" Edmund asked, standing in front of his friend. He was an Archenlander, and you could tell. He had the right skin tone and structure. He had chestnut hair and green eyes. Trodri's appearance was fairly sentimental to him.

"You need to get everyone out of here. And quick," he urged, a look of seriousness in his eyes. Edmund immediately looked confused.

"What? Why?"

"I was on my way here when I heard some creatures speaking. I think it was a Hag, a Minotaur, and maybe a Black Dwarf by the voice. They were speaking of raiding the kingdom when the moon is at its highest."

"Where was this?"

"I think I was somewhere near the Stone Table when I heard it," Trodri replied after some thought. Edmund simply looked disgusted and outrage.

"Why would they be trying to attack us?"

"They want to kill you, Ed. They're coming for your blood." Now the dark-haired king looked horrified. There was also a strange look of regret and faint dubiousness in his eyes. There was a moment of silence before he put on an emotionless mask and made up his mind.

"I will tell Susan we're ending the party." They both nodded and walked away from each other. Trodri was going to gather the guests and try to get them into a safe spot without them having any suspicion, while Edmund went and, as he said, told Susan the party couldn't go on any longer. I knew something was wrong! he thought. He remembered seeing shadowy figures moving within crevices and unguarded arches and windows and whatnot.

He finally made his way to a confused and worried Susan. "We need to-" he started, but was cut off as the shadows poured down from everywhere. There were battle cries and feared wails ringing throughout the room, echoing loudly. Two guards came and he ordered them to take Susan away, who struggled to get away.

And with that, he rushed into the turmoil.


A/N: Sorry if this was really short! It's my first fanfiction, but get ready- the next chapter will probably (but not likely) get good. Keep checking back for the next chapter!