If I had to guess, I would say it was about 3:30 in the morning by the time I entered my tent back at camp. I was so tired and glad that I could sleep as long as I wanted. Before I went to my cot though, I walked over the sleeping Lucy as I un-strapped her dagger from my hip, briefly remembering the closeness of Peter when he put it on me. I placed it at the end of her bed and then walked to my cot to lay down.
"Avery?" I heard Lucy tiredly mumble, "You're back?" She asked.
"Yes, I'm back. Now go to sleep, you shouldn't be up at this time of night." I told her.
"Okay," She whispered, "goodnight."
"Goodnight." I replied. As soon as I could hear Lucy's light breathing, I fell asleep as well.
I was sleeping soundly when Peter arrived back at camp at around 6 in the morning. He stood outside Lucy, Susan, and my tent, debating on whether to go in or not. He finally went in to wake Lucy and Susan up to tell them the news but stopped in his tracks when he noticed me in my cot. He let out a sigh of relief at the sight of me and left the tent, deciding on dealing with me at lunch; assuming that we both wouldn't be up until then.
He was right too, because it was the smell of lunch that woke me up and I immediately left my tent to join the others. I smiled slightly as I took my seat beside Lucy and Susan, there was no sign of Peter yet.
"How was your trip Avery?" Susan asked me.
"There were a few mishaps but everything turned out fine." I replied as I took a bite of my apple.
"Mishaps?" Edmund asked from across the table.
"Yes, it turns out Nazar expected someone to come in and retrieve your weapons." I told him, "It was a trap but we got out with no one getting hurt….on our side anyway." I added as an after thought. I remembered the man who fell out the window and the men Peter fought through to get us up the wall.
"It was a long walk back though. I was so tired when I got back last night." I said.
"You mean Peter wasn't with you?" Lucy asked worried.
"Oh, he decided to stop and catch a bit of sleep before walking the extra hour to sleep in a bed. I decided to come back though." I answered.
"Thanks for telling me that by the way." Said an angry voice from behind me.
I turned and looked back at Peter. He was wearing fresh clothes and scowl on his face. I held in a laugh at the sight of him. Okay, now he has a reason to be cross with me, I thought while giving him a smug smirk.
"I'm sorry, it's just you were already fast asleep when I decided to go back. I didn't want to disturb you." I said innocently and then took another bite of my apple.
"It disturbed me to see you weren't there when I woke up!" He shouted, causing the creatures around us to stop what they were doing and look at what was going on.
I stood up and looked at him through my narrowed eyes, "I don't have to answer to you! How many times do you want me to tell you that!" I snapped as I crossed my arms.
"It would have been smart if you at least left me a note or something, telling where you ran off too so I didn't have to wake up and think the worst!"
"Wait a moment…" I said and then eyed him, "Were you worried about me?"
"Of course I was!" He exclaimed without thought and then everyone went silent. "You are obviously an asset to our side. What good would you be, back in the hands of Nazar?" He quickly recovered.
I got really angry at that, "You insensitive, ignorant man!" I shouted as I walked closer and poked him in the chest repeatedly as I spoke, "I am a human being! Don't treat me like I. Am. Some. Kind. Of. OBJECT!"
I then turned on my heel and went back to my tent, leaving everyone - even the bewildered Peter - to stare at me as I went. When I entered, I noticed another beautiful dress laid out for that the nymph must have made. I took it and then grabbed some soap before leaving the tent and stomping my way toward the stream. Everyone was still watching me as I went. It was Susan that I faintly heard speak first.
"Now look what you've done." She said.
I set down the beautiful forest green dress on a rock and then started taking off the one I was wearing to take a bath. I was in the middle of pulling down the dress when I heard ruffling and crunching and waited for the person to reveal themselves. Lucy then came into view and I resumed taking my dress off.
"Avery?" She asked concerned, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Just need a nice cool bath to cool me down a bit." I said as I took the soap and stepped into the stream.
"He's never usually like this you know." She said.
"That may be so but I have yet to see another side to that prat." I said as I continued to wash. "Until he starts to see that I am not his enemy, I refuse to be nice to him."
"I really wish you would see reason." Lucy said, "He usually is a nice and kind person. I don't know what's wrong with him now though. He's usually so happy to be in Narnia but then again, that might just be the problem." She explained.
"What do you mean?" I asked curiously as I looked at her.
"Well, last time he left Narnia he didn't have a problem with it because he accepted that he wasn't coming back." She said. "But now that he's brought back, he's going to have a harder time coming to terms with leaving it all behind again."
When I felt that I was clean enough I stepped from the stream and dried myself with my old dress before putting on my old one.
"None of us were supposed to come back after mine and Edmunds last visit but here we are." Lucy said as she stepped over to me to help lace up the back of my dress. "I don't know why, but Peter has always taken leaving the hardest. It's like every time he comes here, he leaves a peace of himself here. He's never quite whole when we return back to England each time."
When she finished lacing the back up, I turned and looked at her with a calculating gaze. Is that why he's so bitter with me? I asked myself but unable to voice it to Lucy.
"Then he needs to get over himself." I finally said and then grabbed the old dress and soap, before heading back with Lucy. She just shook her head slightly as she followed me.
I went back in my tent as soon as I arrived back in the clearing and put the dress and soap away. I sat on my cot and pondered to myself for awhile. I was trying to think up some answers but the more I thought, the more questions I came up with. For instance, why was I chosen to come here? Why did Narnia's only hope at survival lie with the Kings and Queens? Why does Peter feel so strongly for Narnia? Actually, I think I figured out that last one because I'm starting to feel strongly for Narnia and it's inhabitants. It's a place unlike any other. My eyes widened at the thought, am I actually relating to Peter Pevensie?
I shook my head to clear it at least a little and left my tent only to see the occupants of Safe Haven in a riot. Well this is odd, I thought as I looked around at everyone. It looked like they were tidying up and trying to make things more presentable. They were even starting to put up a bigger tent. Maybe they decided to give me my own, I hoped and then scoffed at my own thought, not likely.
I saw Cornhunter scurry by and quickly scooped him up. "What is going on?" I asked.
"You mean no one has told you?" He asked and I shook my head, "Aslan is on his way." He seemed in awe just at the thought of soon being in this guys presence.
"Is he that important?" I asked.
The little chipmunk nodded his head vigorously, "Aslan is the King of all Kings."
I then let Cornhunter go. He hurried off saying something about organizing his nuts. I just shook my head and looked around a little more. The only other people not doing anything was the Kings and Queens so I walked up to them.
"Why aren't you guys helping out?" I asked them.
"We offered, but they wont let us." Edmund said.
Peter sighed, "It's always like this."
"What do you mean?" I asked, forgetting who I'm being civil to.
"Watch this…" He said as a fawn carrying a basket was walking by, "Would you like me to carry that for you?" He asked.
"Oh, no your majesty. You and the other humans just relax. Everything is taken care of." He said, "Would you like anything though?"
"No thank you." Peter said, shaking his head.
"I see." I said as the fawn raced away.
"There isn't much now we can do but wait. Aslan will be here soon enough." Lucy said.
"You four know who Aslan is as well?" I asked.
"Of course we do, he's been there since the beginning." Susan said.
"He's the reason why we first came to Narnia." Edmund said, "Actually, he's the reason that anyone has come to Narnia."
I looked up at the sky in thought. Judging by the sun, it was getting to be about two-o-clock. "So I'm here, because Aslan wants me here?" I asked no one particular, "I have no special power." I said.
I heard Lucy giggle and looked over at her. "He didn't bring you here because you have special power, none of us do." She said, "You're here because of who you are."
I sighed and looked up to the sky through the tree's again, "I'm no one important."
Later that night I was walking through the woods. It was late evening, about 9:00 I think; the sun set not to long ago. It was peaceful and I felt happy. It was nice that I didn't have to worry about someone following me or hunting me down for a change. I knew I was well protected in this area. Peter, Edmund, and a few Centaurs were out patrolling the area earlier.
However peaceful this walk was though, it did have a purpose. I was looking for a certain blonde High King. I thought a lot about what Lucy said earlier at the stream and me and Peter should have a truce. We're acting like children, arguing like we are and it reminded me how Ms. McCready treated me back at my uncles house. I realised she was right to treat me like a child because I was one and that more than anything irritated me; I really don't like that woman.
When I finally found Peter he was sitting in the grass at a base of a tree, leaning back and staring up at the sky much like I was earlier. It made me wonder if we were more alike than I originally thought. He had a look of wonder on his face but at the same time he seemed contented to just be. I looked at him awhile longer before walking over to him and sitting beside him. He didn't seem to acknowledge my existence but I knew he knew I was there, he stiffened just the slightest when I made myself known. It was silent for a long while before one of us decided to speak.
"What are you doing out here?" He asked quietly.
"I could ask you the same thing. Edmund and the Centaurs are already back at camp."
"I needed some time alone."
"To what?" I asked.
"Think…" He said, "With no one there to talk and disrupt the silence." He hinted.
"Oh, well that's going to be kind of hard with me here now isn't it." I said and he nodded thinking I was going to leave, "I guess that means you'll just have to think some other time." He turned to glare at me, only to see me smile. "You've finally taken your eyes from the sky I see."
"What do you want?" He said, he seemed tired. To tell you the truth, I was too.
"I want to talk with you. I'm tired of all the arguments." I said.
"Then don't start them." He said as if it was that simple.
"I don't!"
"You do."
"Don't!"
"Do!"
"Don- would you just listen to us? We sound like children!" I said exasperated. "I don't want to sound like that anymore. We're both adults and we need to act like it."
There was silence.
"Lucy told me something and I think I figured out why you're so bitter and angry toward me." I said.
Peter looked at me after that, "I don't know what you're talking about." He knew very well what I was talking about.
"I think it's because I was the one that brought you back to Narnia." I said and he did nothing so I assumed I was right. "Narnia is beautiful and wonderful and anyone would want to stay here forever if they had the chance and Nazar was gone. I understand why you love it so much and I'm sorry I brought you back here when it's just going to be taken away from you again." I finished.
Peter spoke up after a few more minutes of silence, "I lived a life time here once and it was great. I had everything I ever wanted and I could share it with my brother and sisters; I felt like I belonged. We didn't mean to go back the first time but we did and we were gone for a year. I yearned to come back and when we did, everything was different. I didn't know it anymore and I felt horrible. A King that didn't know his own land." He laughed bitterly.
"But we left again. That time we left, Susan and I weren't supposed to come back. Aslan told us that we learned everything we could from this world and that it was time to learn in our own. I accepted that we weren't coming back that time but I wanted to come back so bad. Over time though, I got used to living in England and accepted a little more each day that I wouldn't see Narnia again.
"It wasn't until I finally figured out a life for myself that I was thrown back into this world. I was angry at you at first but you were only doing what you were brought here to do. It was Aslan who is the one that brought us all here and I can't figure out why." He told me his story in a nutshell and I kind of felt for him.
"Maybe he thought you needed to come back here." I said and looked up to the starry sky through the tree's with Peter, "Maybe you've forgotten what you've learned." I remembered what Lucy told me at the stream, "and maybe he brought you back here to collect yourself too."
"To collect myself?" Peter asked, turning to look me in the eyes.
I smiled softly at him, not breaking eye contact until I started speaking, "Lucy told me that every time you left Narnia, you left a little of yourself behind. She said that each time you returned to England it's like you weren't whole." I explained, "Maybe you were brought back here, not only to relearn what you've forgotten, but to also take those pieces back to England with you, so that you can be whole again. Like closure."
I didn't give him much time to think about what I said before I stood up and grabbed his arms. I then proceeded to heave him up but it didn't seem to be working out so well. He just stayed sitting, looking up at me with a raised eyebrow.
"What are you trying to do?" He asked.
"I'm trying to pull you up so we can head back to camp. Your selfish time is over, it's time to help the Narnians." I said and then pulled on his arms again, "Aslan will be here tomorrow and the least we can do is have some sort of battle plan put into the works."
Peter stood up and looked down at me; he was taller than me after all, "Did you just call me selfish?" He asked.
"Considering all you've been doing since you got here is moping like a child, yes you're selfish. There are more pressing matters to deal with besides your feelings." I said and then turned to walk away…or I would have if Peter didn't grab my arm.
"I thought you said you didn't want to argue with me anymore?" He asked.
I noticed his face was quite close to mine but kept my calm, "We're not arguing are we? I'm just stating a fact. Now let's go back." His scent was running through my nose and I tried very hard to stay focused.
"It's you saying stuff like that, that starts the arguments in the first place." He said, his eyes narrowing now.
"Actually, it's your arrogant and insensitive pratness that starts all the arguing." I replied and then pulled my arm from his grasp when he loosened it. "I don't know what Lucy was talking about, you don't have a kind bone in your body whatsoever. I can't believe I actually thought that she might be right."
I then realised I was talking to air. I looked to my left and saw Peter already headed back to camp and ran after him. How dare he not listen to me when I'm insulting him!
"Why are you walking away! I was talking to you!" I shouted, finally catching up to him and walking by his side.
"Actually, you were more insulting me than anything." He said, "But to answer your question I decided to give you what you wanted." I'm lost. "I walked away instead of arguing with you, that is what you wanted isn't it?" He said it without even taking a glance at me.
"NO!" I exclaimed and then furrowed my eyebrows as Peter stopped walking and looked at me. "I mean yes. That is what I wanted." I said but I was still confused, "I don't know." I finally decided.
"Then what do you know?" He asked me.
I looked up at him, "I…I…I know I want to get back to camp! Let's go and stop dawdling!" I snapped and walked passed him to go back. I completely missed the smirk that formed on Peters lips as he followed me.
When Peter and I arrived back at the clearing, I stomped over to my tent and went inside while Peter walked over to sit with his brother.
"What did you do now?" Edmund asked, taking his eyes off the entrance of my tent to look at his brother, "She went to apologise to you and she come back angry?"
"Let's just say that we're just fine with the level of our communication." Peter said, causing me to open the flap to my tent and throw a bar of soap at his head. "Ow." I heard him mutter and could picture him rubbing the back of his head with a frown on his face.
"Serves him right." I murmured, smiling a little.
Everyone was assembled for a meeting within a half hour of our return. It's been 20 minutes and so far unproductive. We couldn't come up with a proper strategy. That is until Peter opened his big mouth.
"Alright! I've got it!" He said. He seemed to be in a chipper mood and I had no idea why when everyone else was nearly falling asleep. "We'll infiltrate the castle. We'll have a bunch of us flown in and quietly move through the castle, taking out as many guards as we can until we're caught. We'll get the gate open and then signal the rest of our army in for the battle." He said.
"Isn't that what we-" Edmund was cut by me.
"No, that wont work." I said, stepping into the centre of the clearing, "You're forgetting about the prisoners. They'll be killed as soon as Nazar hears that his castle is being invaded."
"Look, I get that you're trying to help but I have this sorted. I've done this before." Peter said.
"And you remember how well it turned out the last time you went with this plan." Lucy said, stepping up beside me. "The past is there so that we may learn from our mistakes, not remake them." She said.
"This time there wont be a glitch in our plan." Peter said, "Nazar isn't going to kill them. He would have no one left to work for him."
"He'll kill them and capture more! He'll have the chance, especially if we'll be within his walls." I pleaded, "Please, let's think up another plan."
"There are no other plans!" Peter snapped, his good mood gone, "The prisoners will be fine!"
"Stop acting like you know of the situation when you don't! You don't know what it's like within those walls!"
"And you do!" He shouted, glaring at me.
"I lived it!" I glared right back at him, "For three days I was one of his slaves. I was only fed bread, rice soup, and water when I behaved. That wasn't very often. They would even withhold water with the slightest mishap, like tripping. I was beaten at least once a day, sometimes more. I got so weak, so fast and I was still made to do the harshest chores. You saw the condition I was in when you found me."
"We thought that was from your escape." Edmund said. I looked over to him and the girls. Lucy was near tears and Susan looked on with sympathy.
"I wish that's all it was but no." I said and then looked to Peter, "Just think, I was only there for three days. The prisoners were there for much longer. So please, can we make our first priority them?" I asked.
He looked away for a moment to look at all the Narnians that were surrounding us at the edge of the clearing and then looked back at me. "If we sneak in, can you lead us to the dungeons without being caught?" He asked and I nodded. "Alright, we'll leave tomorrow night. We'll let Aslan know of our plan tomorrow and until then, the meeting's over."
As Peter walked passed me I whispered a thank you to him. He stopped and faced me then. Looking at me as if he was studying me. We just stood there staring at each other as the others departed. 'Let's leave them be.' I could hear Susan whisper to Lucy and Edmund.
"What?" I finally asked. His staring was unnerving.
"It's admirable how you can feel the need to protect those you met not even a week ago. From what I was told, you spent only an evening with them before heading off to the castle and risking your life." He said.
I smiled, "They grow on you. It's so easy to make friends with these people." I replied. As if on queue, Cornhunter rushed up to me and crawled up my dress to sit on my shoulder.
"Hello Cornhunter." I said, my smile widening.
"Hello Lady Avery." He said back, "Is it true that you're going to help free the prisoners tomorrow night?" He asked excited.
"Yes, I promised them I would set them free as soon as I could." I replied.
"So my father is going to come home then?" He asked.
"It's always good to have hope." I replied, "It's Peter who should be the one receiving your gratitude though." I said and looked at Peter, "He's the one that's going to lead the troops and he's the one who made the decision to go."
"Could you walk a little closer to him then?" Cornhunter whispered in my ear. I nodded and stepped closer to Peter. "A little more." I stepped even closer. "A few more steps should do it." He said, not even bothering to whisper this time. When I was just under a foot away from Peter, Cornhunter looked at him. "Thank you, your majesty. For helping the Narnians win back their land and trying to help our family come back to us."
"It's a little early for your thanks. Come again after the plan has been successful." Peter said, shaking the chipmunks little paw. Cornhunter nodded and then ran back down my dress and scurried away.
Peter looked at me smiling. His scent once again put me in a sort of daze and I didn't feel like snapping myself out of it until, "Avery? Are you alright?"
My eyes focused on his face after he spoke. "You called me by my name." I said quietly.
"Aren't I allowed?" He asked.
I nodded, "It's just that, that was the first time you said my name." I said, "I feel like you see me as an equal now."
"But you're alright?" He asked me again.
I nodded again and smiled at him, "Perfectly fine."
"Then would you like to go for a walk with me?" He asked.
"I would but not tonight, I'm tired." I answered, "How about tomorrow morning after breakfast?"
"Sounds good." He said and leaned in to kiss me lightly on the cheek, "Goodnight." He then walked to his tent and went inside.
"Goodnight." I whispered.
