Chapter 2: Friend and Foe
Edmund suddenly emerged from the trees dragging a very slight girl that looked about Lucy's age. She was so filthy that they could barely make out her features. Her rust red dress was faded, frayed, and torn in so many places it looked as though she had worn nothing else for months. She had long, red-brown hair that was unkempt and positively wild-looking, yet this was not what stood out to the Kings and Queens of Narnia. The first feature they noticed was her eyes: dark gray and almost violet, the color of storm clouds. The other thing that drew their notice was the long, ugly, jagged scar that ran from her left ear to her jaw.
"Caught her," Edmund said proudly, shoving the girl roughly away from him. She stumbled but maintained her balance, turning and giving him a glare that could make flowers whither.
"But…who is this?" Susan stammered in disbelief, wrinkling her nose a little at the girl's appearance.
"This is our mystery archer," said Edmund. "See?" He pointed to the quiver strapped to her back. Lucy tugged the arrow that had missed Susan out of the tree and held it up to compare it to the mystery girl's. They were identical. Peter let out a low whistle.
"You have some explaining to do," he told the girl. "Why were you shooting at us?"
The girl coughed. Her eyes swiveled around, looking for a way to escape. Her shoulders sagged when she found none. "I did not want to hurt anyone," she said. "I only wanted to scare you away."
"But why?" Peter pressed.
The girl sighed and brushed some hair behind her ears. "I thought you were a threat," she said. "I thought you had come to harm me."
"Well, that is unlikely," said Susan, "as we do not even know where we are and had no idea you were here."
"That much is obvious."
Edmund scowled. "And what is that supposed to mean?" he demanded. The girl turned and met his gaze without flinching.
"It means that I have known you were in the woods for the better part of an hour and you were unaware of me until you came too close to my home," she said coolly.
"Home?" said Lucy. She looked around. "Do you…live here?"
The girl didn't answer right away. She gently tugged her arrow from Lucy's grasp and retrieved the other two before she even acknowledged the question. "I do," she said. "And I have for a year now. Or at least I think it has been a year. It is difficult to mark the passage of time here after more than a few weeks."
"Goodness!" Susan exclaimed. "No wonder you look such a fright."
"Why thank you." The girl's voice dripped with irony. "You look lovely, yourself."
Susan blushed. "I only meant…what I mean to say is…"
"It does not matter," the girl cut in. "I have not had much opportunity to take care of my appearance."
"What is your name?" Peter asked. The girl looked surprised that he had asked such a personal question.
"Lydia," she said. "My name is Lydia."
"And where are you from, Lydia?"
Her expression darkened. "That, I will not say."
Peter, Susan, and Lucy exchanged knowing looks, but Edmund refused to tear his eyes away from Lydia. His distrust was obvious, but whether the feeling was mutual remained to be seen.
"What do you eat?" Susan asked, sounding very much like a mother as she took a step toward the forest girl.
"Whatever I can get," Lydia said with a shrug. "Meat, usually, when the hunting is good, and I am good at finding herbs and other plants to eat." She indicated a small gray pouch at her hip, at the same time unconsciously drawing attention to the knife she also wore there. "I get by."
"You are thinner than a willow!" cried Susan. "Peter, can we take her – ?"
"No," Edmund interrupted. "She shot at us, remember? She tried to kill us?"
"Scare us," Lucy corrected. "She tried to scare us. There is a difference."
"Still, we can't trust her!"
"Speak for yourself," said Susan. "The poor girl was terrified. What would you have done?" She turned to her older brother. "What do you think, Peter?"
Peter scratched his chin and looked from Edmund, who was frantically shaking his head, to Susan and Lucy, who were silently begging him with their eyes, to Lydia, who was surveying the whole scene with a certain amount of uneasiness. At last, he opened his mouth to reply, but what he said was not what they were expecting.
"Do you know where we are?" he asked, addressing Lydia. The girl arched her eyebrows.
"You are in the Border Forest," she said. "The forest that leads to the pass on the border between Narnia and Archenland. The border is about three miles to the west."
Susan breathed a sigh of relief and beamed at Edmund, who continued to scowl. Peter nodded, clearly impressed.
"Very well," he said. "Lydia, lady of the forest, we wish for you to serve as our guide. We are lost and need to find our way to the Hunter's Clearing. Do you know it?"
"Vaguely."
"Then you will guide us and then you will accompany us home, where you will be welcome to stay for as long as you would like."
Lydia took a step back. "No," she said. "I will guide you to the Hunter's Lawn but I will not go further. This is my home and I do not know if I can trust you. I do not even know your names!"
"That is easily rectified," said Lucy. "My name is Lucy, and this is my sister Susan and my brother Peter. Edmund is the unfriendly one. Sadly, he is also my brother."
Edmund made a face but said nothing, not even responding to Lydia's cool nod.
"It is a pleasure to meet you," Lydia said, turning back to Lucy, "but I cannot go with you."
"You can, and you will," said Peter, "by order of the High King."
"Oh, and he just hands out authority, does he?" Lydia scoffed. "Tell me, why has the High King taken such an interest in a forest wench?"
"He does not hand out authority," said Peter. "I am High King Peter of Narnia and you are in my realm."
Lydia gasped and sputtered. She looked like she was about to choke. She finally gained control of herself and dropped into a surprisingly graceful curtsy. "Your highness," she said. "Forgive me; I had no idea."
"Oh, call me Peter. Just know that I can pull rank if I have to."