*Chapter 4*

Hay hay hay! Gabster here, bringing you my bit. Jordi wordi bo bordi says hi :P

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Maria-

Emily and I followed Caspian and the rest of the guard.. team, I suppose you could call us, out of the How and into the early morning light. I opened my mouth in a grand yawn as I slung my bow across my back, causing Emily to yawn in return.

"I'm so tired!" she said, leaning heavily against me as we walked, causing me to trip. "Sorry, lovey." she added, standing up straight and smirking at my clumsiness.

"It's all good. And yeah, I am too. But I've got a feeling-"

"-That tonight's gonna be a good night?"

"..Well, that too, but what I was going to say is that something important is about to happen." I said, giving her a look out of the corner of my eye. Great, now the Black Eyed Peas were chanting about how good of a night they were going to have in my head. Thanks, Em.

"I do too, now that you mention it. Gosh, I wish I could remember what happens next in the books!" she said, stamping her foot in frustration.

"Yeah, me too! I feel helpless." I said.

Not that I wasn't appreciative of the fact that I had been chosen to show Peter Pevensie how to be young again. I mean, just meeting him was an opportunity thousands of girls would die for. But Aslan, the Great Lion himself, had practically told me to make him fall in love with me. What isn't there to be appreciative of?

The fact that I was trudging through an unknown forest in men's clothes that were five times too big with an unfamiliar weapon as my defense and surrounded by a bunch of mythological creatures, maybe? But I'm not complaining.

"I wonder when we're going to meet Edmund and Peter," Emily said with a sly smile, her eyes shining mischievously. I felt an excited blush creep onto my cheeks and I grabbed her hands, grinning madly.

"I can't wait!" I squealed, bouncing up and down on my feet.

"Me neither! I hope it's like, one of those totally romantic, love-at-first-sight moments! You know, where they see us and stop what their doing 'cause their breath is taken away by our beauty?" she said, looking dreamily off into the distance. I snorted.

"You sound like a Mary-Sue." that earned me a smack on the arm. Quickly, I changed the subject. "Well, I don't particularly care what their reactions are, just as long as we don't meet them today. You know, when we're floundering around in men's clothes?"

"Oh yeah, good point. And hopefully we meet them after we've had some training with our weapons, so we can wow them with our awesome skills, instead of just standing there like 'wtf are we supposed to do with these?'" Emily said, glaring pointedly at the two daggers strapped to her sides. I nodded.

"Yeah. I mean, I've used a small bow before, but it was a cheap one I got from the Renaissance Fair that doesn't even pull back all the way, and the arrows were sticks with eraser caps on the end. So, it's pretty safe to say I have no idea what I'm doing with this." I replied, reminiscing on my waste of 15 dollars.

Emily laughed out loud. "Loser." she snickered. I pouted before laughing, also. It was pretty lame.

The sun was fully risen and stretching its rays sleepily by the time we made it to the deep depths of the forest. Caspian stopped walking and motioned for us to gather around him.

"Now then, this is where we are going to patrol, for this is where any Telmarines or other opposing forces would be. I will split you into groups of 5 or so, according to how many troops we have, and you will patrol the areas assigned." he said. He then proceeded to, big shock, split us into groups.

I ended up in a group with a Minotaur named Asterius, Nikabrik the dwarf, Trufflehunter the badger, and Prince Caspian himself. So basically, the main group. We were to patrol the clearing in which we had stopped to split up, not straying too far into the trees. The clearing was small, maybe thirty or forty feet in diameter, with very uneven ground that consisted of moss covered boulders. Where there wasn't a boulder, there was either a wicked crack in the ground-deadly for anyone whose foot slipped-or thousand year old trees springing from the uncovered dirt. All around, not a good place for the coordinately challenged.

Emily was put in a group with a jaguar, Reepicheep the mouse, a minotaur, and a faun. Her group was to go west of the clearing, as far as the River Rush. As her group headed off, she shot Caspian a dirty look and grumbled under her breath.

"What?" I asked, perplexed at her outright display of displeasure toward the prince.

"Stupid princey boy, playing favorites and sending me off to the stupid river.." she grumbled.

"What do you mean?" I asked again.

"Well he's keeping you here with him in his group, but sending me off with a bunch of people I don't know. He's obviously playing favorites here." she said, still glaring at Caspian. I bit my lip to hold in my laughter.

"Is that what he's doing?" I snickered, my eyebrows raised. She turned her glare to me.

"Oh, it's all well and good for you, YOU get to stay here with pretty boy Pwince Cassssssssssspian! Bah! Americans!" and with that, she stormed off after her group, leaving me laughing in her wake.

"Maria," I heard someone say my name, and turned to see Caspian standing behind me, his sword drawn. For a half of a second, I thought he had heard the conversation and was going to go stab Emily in revenge. And then my thoughts went down the trail that that was about as likely as him throwing on a dress and doing the Can-Can with Trufflehunter.

"Uh, hi," I said to Caspian, coming out of my reverie and trying desperately not to burst into hyena-esque laughter.

"Hi," he said, staring at me like I was the one doing a classic dance with a talking badger. "I came to assign you your area to patrol."

"Right." I said, getting over the humor of the situation and going into serious mode.

He took my arm and guided me over to the western edge of the clearing, where Emily had just exited dramatically. "You will stay within this area," he said, indicating from the two large boulders that sat to the left of a natural made path into the clearing and to a particularly huge, moss covered tree. "Lay low and try and keep as quiet as you possibly can. If you see or hear anything, report to me immediately. Do not try and fend yourself off, for I know you cannot use your bow."

"Then what's the point of me having it?" I asked, my voice a slightly higher pitch from the fear that gripped me. What the heck was I doing there if I wasn't even going to pretend like I could defend myself?

Caspian smirked crookedly. "The Telmarines must think we know what we are doing, yes?"

No, Caspian, no. Wrong wrong wrong. But I didn't vocalize these thoughts, merely made some odd squeaking noise as he pushed me into place, telling me I'd be fine and some other empty reassurances before jogging over to his own area.

I looked behind me, to see where everyone was in the clearing. We were pretty well spaced out, Caspian being farthest from me and Asterius being closest. The minotaur nodded at me as he paced back and forth through the area he was assigned. I couldn't bring myself to nod back.

I started walking back and forth, my ears on high alert for any sounds that might tip me off to an ambush. It was after about half an hour I realized that there was nothing coming, and I grew bored and distracted and started trying to find ways to entertain myself.

Eventually, this turned into me climbing the larger of the two boulders I was stationed next to. The first couple of tries were unsuccessful, as the boulders were a lot slicker than I had realized, but I managed to inch my way up to the top very carefully. I reached the top and stood, balancing quite impressively on the uneven terrain of the boulder.

And then, from the vantage point I had, I saw them. Two people, a young girl and a teenage boy, crouching behind another set of boulders ten feet from my own, watching me from over the tops. Well, the girl was. The boy was too busy drawing his sword.

I was so stunned by the sight of Peter and Lucy Pevensie that I slipped on the moss coating of the boulder, falling down the side of the rock with a loud 'oof!' I landed rather painfully on my arm, twisting my wrist. Ouch.

Lucy gasped as I fell, but Peter.. laughed. Great first impression, Maria.

"STRANGER DANGER!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs, wiping the smile from his face.

"Shut up, I'm saving you!" he growled, stepping from around the boulder but staying low to the ground. I felt my brows crease in my confusion.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. Peter was standing right in front of me now, and suddenly I was hyperaware of how grungy I looked. He grabbed my head and twisted it around so I was facing the clearing, where Asterius was storming around my area, clearly looking for me.

"The minotaur was coming at you like you were something it wanted to eat. I was coming to kill it and save you," Peter hissed, still gripping my face and looking at me hardly. I felt my anger flair. Super hot High King or not, he had no right to treat me like a five year old.

"Look, genius, he wasn't-" I began, but was cut off as Caspian sprang from over the top of the boulders with a cry, bringing his sword down at Peter's head. At the last second, Peter threw me behind him and brought his own sword up, blocking Caspian's blow and saving himself from decapitation. The two stood with their swords pressed so hard together a grating noise echoed through the clearing, before Caspian lowered his enough so he could grab Peter's arm and throw him off of him. Peter's arm was down for only a second before, with alarming force, he brought it back up in a backswing, aiming for Caspian's neck. Caspian madly ducked, looking an awful lot like a chicken as he did so, causing Peter's strong blow to go into the tree he had backed Caspian against. The blond king's eyes widened and he struggled fiercely to pull his sword from the bark of the tree, but before he could get it Caspian popped back up and kicked him in the stomach. Peter went flying backwards, landing with a thud on the ground, and while he was down Caspian struggled to pull Rhindon from the tree. Thinking quickly, Peter grabbed a large rock from the ground and jumped back up, preparing to whack Caspian over the head with it just as the Telmarine yanked Rhindon from the tree.

By this time, the rest of the guard patrol had heard the ruckus and made their way back into the clearing, gathering around the dueling teenagers with interested expressions. Lucy, seeing these were Narnians, sprang from her hiding place and cried out,

"No, stop!!!" drawing the attention of Peter and Caspian. Pointedly, she looked from Peter to the army, willing her brother to turn around. He did, and his vice grip on the rock loosened as he saw the many Narnians, standing in full armor watching the two spar.

"Prince Caspian?" he said, turning back to Caspian with a clouded expression. I swear, Caspian held his head a little higher.

"Yes? And who are you?" he asked sneeringly.

"Peter!" a girl's voice shouted sharply, drawing everyone's attention back to where Lucy and I stood. I turned and saw the two middle Pevensie children, Susan and Edmund, followed by a dwarf with a flaming red beard, coming from the forest to stand at the top of the boulders, next to Lucy.

Caspian looked down at the sword he was holding in his hand. "High King Peter," he said as realization dawned on him.

Peter, also, held his head higher. "I believe you called." he said, sounding like someone who thought they were much more important than they actually were. I heard my skeptical snort.

"Well, yes, but I was expecting someone.. older." Caspian replied, giving Peter the up-and-down look high school girls give each other. Peter's expression changed to one that he would have had had he been sucking on a lemon.

"Well if you like, we can leave and just come back in a few years." he said, turning to his siblings and communicating with them silently, his expression bitter. I looked to the others to see them wearing similar expressions, and felt rude having seen the exchange.

"No!" Caspian said, a hint of panic in his voice. "It's just.. You're not exactly what I was expecting." he said, looking over the Pevensie's with guarded eyes. That is, until he came to Susan, when everyone could very easily read what he was thinking through his expression. I saw Peter tense up, his eyes narrowed angrily as he looked between the prince and his blushing sister. Uh oh. Tension is high here in Narnia.

"Neither are you," Edmund said, speaking for the first time. Oh boy, Emily is probably pissing herself right now. Wait a second, Emily…?

"A common enemy unites even the oldest of foes," came the calm voice of Trufflehunter the badger. I only barely heard him, though. I was too busy standing on my tip toes, frantically searching the clearing for any signs of Emily. Curse my shortness. Curse her shortness, too, because even if she was there, she wouldn't be spotable above the heads of the Narnians.

"We have anxiously awaited your return, My Liege. Our hearts and swords are at your service." Reepicheep said, stepping forward and bowing to Peter. I was jumping up and down at this point, desperately searching the crowds for Emily.

"Are you alright, Maria?" Caspian asked, sounding amused. I stopped jumping and looked to see him and everyone else watching me making and idiot of myself, including Peter. He was watching me through curious blue eyes, his head cocked to the side. It was like looking at the sun, that's how blindingly hot he was.

I turned back to Caspian to stop myself from drooling over Peter. "Where's Emily?"

Caspian's eyes widened and he looked around the clearing almost as frantically as I had. From somewhere next to me, I heard Susan ask,

"Who are Maria and Emily?"

"I'm Maria," I said, waving in the general direction I knew her to be in but still looking around the Narnians, feeling could fear wash over me. What happened to Emily?

"Do you know what patrol group she was in?" asked Caspian, turning back to me.

"The one that went west, towards the river," I replied, still looking around.

"Oh, no," Edmund groaned from the other side of Lucy. I rounded on him.

"What?" I demanded.

"Is she kinda short, brownish blondish hair, tan, brown eyes?" he asked, his eyes squeezed shut.

"Yes! You've seen her?"

"Uhh…"

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~Gabby and Jordi