With his arms held behind his back and his brow furrowed like a prune, Edmund paced the length of the tent. "So, you said that you saw a fox in the castle?" He began, half to himself, half to Lucy. She sat on a makeshift chaise lounge, her eyes still wide in fear.

They had finally gotten Lucy to release her vice-like grip on the High King and decided it was best to make camp for the rest of the day outside of the castle's grounds. (Lucy refused to stay another moment within the castle's walls.) Presently, and after much coaxing, the siblings had managed to pry bits and pieces of a tale from their little sister. Susan sat next to the Valiant, her hand never ceasing its pilgrimage down to the tips of her sister's red tresses and back. Mr. Tumnus anxiously offered the younger queen a goblet of warm milk and honey in which Queen Susan took from him to give to the young monarch.

Vitus stood, like an outsider observing, near the exit incase his presence was no longer desired. He cast a look at his best mate, the High King stood near him. Although the outsider never followed his friend onto the battlefield, he could not help but think Peter's expression mirrored that of a man about to go into battle. "But Avril reported the premises void, did you not?" Peter interjected with a pointed look at the lone meerkat.

With out the twenty sum members of her family in her wake, Avril appeared miniscule by comparison. Yet for all this she held her presence proudly and answered evenly, "Aye, your Eminence and I hold to it. We have swept the area twice already and there was nobody there prior to this untimely event and was not a soul there afterwards. " It was a bold thing to say, yet the dominant female was certain that her kin would not tell her fallacies.

"It was no mere fox!" Lucy protested standing up, frustration it had seemed had taken precedence over fear and anxiously Susan tried to coax her sister to sit down again. But Lucy would have none of it. "No!" She half yelled at Susan, " I will not sit back down and I would thank you if you all would cease from treating me like I am but a child unable to think for herself. And I'll have you know that Avril is not at fault here. Twas no ordinary fox, as I've told you and told you!"

The occupants in the room sat in taken aback silence until Susan took hold of her sister's wrist. "I think you should mind your status, sister." She demanded in guise of a suggestion. Her tone was even, like a mother correcting her child at church. "There are others present." She waited for her sister to sit next to her calmly and at length asked Lucy to recount her tale.

Sighing, Lucy covered her face with her hands and rolled her eyes behind them. She had told the story so many times with in the hour, with everyone involved requesting her to recount it. All she wanted to do was to get away from that wretched castle and to forget the vision she saw but if retelling it…yet again…would clear things then she had no choice.

In a shaky voice, Lucy recounted what had scared her so, "In the North wing of the castle, I was peeking into the chambers finding nothing more than broken furniture and overgrowth. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of red and white. So thinking it was one of the foxes in the guard, I-I followed it. The Lion help me, I followed it… But…but it wasn't exactly who-what I expected. When I finally caught up to the fox and called out to him. He was in the shadows so that all that was visible was his tail-I-I had no idea…absolutely no idea…b-but when he heard my call, he t-tu-turned to face me. His… hide had been p-peeled off of his face like a bandage from a bloody wound." The all to real image came to her mind and the young queen squeezed her eyes shut as if to interdict the image from her mind. The image was all too real, as if she were reliving it all over again. At length, she continued, "and it just sat at his shoulders like-like-like the hood of a riding cloak, everything from his throat to his shoulders just…torn b-back. I could see the very meat of his face and-and the bits of… bone that had peeked from his muscles. One eye-oh goodness, what a ghastly- wa-was sewn crudely shut and appeared… infected for puss seeped seeped through the swollen tissue. I could not run-no, wanted t-to but-but couldn't, nor could I sc-scream; only st-stand in place as the… abomination looked at me with a dark eye and croaked, 'W-w-w-w-here is my son?'. By then I found my legs and fled-oh! Did I flee- but the thing took chase after me. It was only when I reached the stair case to the great hall did he relinquish his chase. I know not what it was save the fact that it was not natural."

As Lucy fell silent, so did the rest of the company. Edmund had not ceased his pacing, attempting to make sense of his baby sister's claim for in sooth, he found the tale a little too far fetched. Avril, who was always the picture of composure, squirmed in her spot as Mr. Tumnus gave a nervous twitch as he thought of the tale. Susan cast Peter a helpless look as if to ask him for direction in their course of action. Both of them were unaware of Vitus's lingering gaze on theGentle. It was Oreius who broke the silence several minutes later.

"Your Grace," He began in a soft voice, a voice he had once used when his foals had night terrors ages ago, "You have not been yourself as of late. Perhaps this vision is a product of what is ailing you."

"I know what I saw." Lucy replied as she looked each in the eyes of each face assembled. Her tone was flat with a trace of dismissal but her countenance almost pleaded those around her to not deny her sanity. "I could smell its rotting flesh. I'm not crazy." Susan stroked her sister's hair in an effort to comfort her as she whispered that they knew Lucy was not insane.

At length, Mr. Tumnus spoke up in his light bouncy tone. "You know, it's curious that you mention the smell of rot. For the swamp lands are known to emit such vapors that tend to cause hallucinations."

"And do you believe these vapors are the answer to what frightened Lucy so?" Susan wondered softly as her hand made a soothing circular motion on her sister's back.

"What else could it be, Susan?" Edmund wondered rhetorically, "A ghost?"

"Tis possible, my Leige." Vitus spoke up for the first time in the conversation.

"Ghosts, Master Vitus, are naught but whispers at the hearth and bedside to keep the young ones in place." Edmund announced in an almost haughty tone as he paused in his pilgrimage from the west to east side of the tent to address the political prisoner.

"A young one such as yourself, Ed?" Susan retorted, reminding her brother of his age. Narnians had many ages of which one became an adult. Based off of the nature of the creature, the ages varied but just as in Spare Oom, the human child was considered and adult at the age of eighteen. If Susan's one upping her Edmund bothered him, the only indication was his reddening ears as he resumed his pacing.

The room fell into a silence that told Tumnus, Avril, Oreius and Vitus that they were dismissed and with in moments, the four began to quietly make their way out of the tent. With Oreius telling Peter that he will stand watch outside the tent, the four siblings were left alone to ponder what had transpired.


Night had fallen by the time Peter wearily joined Vitus at the campfire. Looking worn and worried, the High King sat next to his friend. A moment of silence fell between the two young men until Vitus looked up from the embers he was poking and asked, "How is your sister?"

"Calm and finally sleeping." Came the short reply, "Edmund and Susan do the same. I have never been so pleased to be around those with absolutely no relation to me."

"Everyone in a bad mood, I suppose?"

"You understate the matter, Vitus." Came the answer as Peter's gray eyes looked into the fire.

"About the castle?" Vitus pried even further and received a grunt in reply.

"If it were solely up to me, I would disassemble the place with my bare hands." Peter told his friend quietly so not to be over heard. "There is an oppressive air around the grounds of that place. I have no proof, 'tis only a spine tingling feeling. But when these apprehensions surface they're for a reason."

"So what's stopping you from passing the place by?"

"Three words, Vit. Susan and Edmund. They're practically in love with the place. I suspect the wedding invitations will be sent out soon. She's not said a word, but Susan's already planning functions for when we come here for the season. The psychopathic glint in her eyes when she saw the great hall betrayed her and told me everything. And Edmund...he insists that the grounds have the best defenses in the whole of the region with natural features that we can not hope to mimic." Peter explained, taking Vitus' makeshift poker and jabbing the fire with a vengeance.

"Pulled the guilt card on you, eh?" the political prisoner summed up quietly.

The High King jabbed a glowing log in the fire with vehemence, sending bright sparks up in the air. "I care just as much about national safety as he does." The Magnificent told his friend in the tone of one about to set off on a rant. "Of course I want to keep the Ettisnmoor from entering our boarders. What imbecile would not?!"

"Lost your temper with your brother, then?" Vitus inquired casually, taking the make shift poker back. The High King gave him a pointed look and the young man from the Seven Isles felt the need to defend his actions. "If I leave you to tend the fire, you'll knock a log off and set the tents on fire. There'll be mass chaos, there will. Mass chaos and charred hair." It was an understatement and the two could not help but laugh. Silence enveloped them once more until Vitus queried, "And what of Lucy? What is her take on this?"

"Same as mine. She dislikes the place with a passion…but her reason is more concrete than mine."

"So you believe her tale?" Vitus prompted.

"I do not deny that she saw something that frightened her enough to dislike the castle." The Magnificent answered evenly, "She insists that it was no illusion. Yet I am unsure if she denies it as a hallucination for the unpleasant idea that she indeed hallucinated. Nobody wishes to acknowledge that they see things that aren't there."

"And what have you decided?"

Peter paused and heaved a sigh and at length concluded more to himself than to Vitus, "I have no choice but to allow Susan and Edmund what they want." The friends sat in silence for a moment before Maribelle Peahen discovered the location of the High King. As the hen made her way to them, gushing her praises, Peter pushed the entire mirage incident to the back of his mind. There was plenty of time to question his decision while they continued the tour of the Marshlands.

A/n: well there you have it. Chapter 4. not much to say about it in my opinion. Any way, please review and thanks to everyone who read the fic and reviewed.