"Oh, Ell- Um, I mean Lady Elaine, please sit down!" Susan shot Lucy a look when she was going to call me by my nickname. I smiled kindly down at Lucy and tried to gracefully slide in the chair next to her.

"Please, Ella is fine. Lady Elaine seems like a mouthful. This goes for you all as well!" I exclaim, pointing out to the rest of her siblings. Susan seemed to be thinking about something but nodded, "If it makes you feel more at ease…"

I bobbed my head up and down so fast it hurt, and awkwardly rubbed the back of my neck to the amusement of Edmund, who was trying to hide a smirk behind his hand. The glare I sent him would have worked and he should have been cowering in fear by now… except for the fact that I can't glare to save my life. And that's what finally set him off.

"What are you trying to do?" he said in between his laughs, "You're about as scary as a baby mouse!"

Ignoring him, I turned back to the rest of the royals. "So," I drew out as nonchalant as I possibly could, "Where's the food?"

"Oh yes, breakfast!" Lucy was looking strangely at her brother when he was laughing, but she looked away at my question and exclaimed as loudly as she could. I saw Susan rolling her eyes, but the fresh smells of baked goods reached my nose and I turned towards the door. My eyes widened when I saw a beaver wearing an apron bring a tray of that delicious smelling food into the room and gently placing it on the table. I swallowed when more animals entered with trays, and one particular goat-person hybrid sit down opposite from me greeting the royals in a friendly manner. The chatting around me grew louder as Lucy, Edmund and Peter all chatted vividly with the faun about adventures in the forests and fun times in taverns, and Susan helped the beaver (whose name is Mrs Beaver) set up al the dishes and trays in front of everyone. I felt like I was intruding in a family only event, and I pretended to set up the plate in front of me like Mrs Beaver and Susan were doing. Of course, my awkwardness shined through when all I could do was re-fold the napkin and move everything around about an inch from where they had been originally placed. Mrs Beaver noticed and smiled kindly at me, in how I assume a beaver can smile. She walked over to my side of the table and lowered her voice slightly to tell me what's in each dish.

"You must be the new guest. So young, and only a girl as well! I am Mrs Beaver, and if you have any questions at all, if you have any problems you come to see me." She patted my hand with her...paw? Furry hand? I don't know much about a beaver's anatomy. I blinked when Mrs Beaver poured me a mug of tea, while she continued to talk. "Ever since the coronation, I've been keeping myself busy in the kitchens, of course Mr Beaver is very happy about that."

She piled on food upon food onto my plate, telling me what everything is. I looked around to see everyone else digging in as well, so I enjoyed my omelette when Mrs Beaver left after ensuring that I was comfortable enough. Everything was delicious, so much better than anything I've ever eaten back at home. The omelette was fantastic, and I also ate sausages, marmalade bread roll, white pudding, english muffins, and strangely enough, toffee.

Conversation flowed all around me from giants declaring war to designs for new gowns. Taking a sip of apple juice, a small smirk found its way to the corner of my mouth when I remembered how I used to hate apple juice back home, but this tasted so much sweeter and fresh.

My reveries stopped when Peter cleared his throat, and everyone stopped talking and looked up at him. He was staring at me in a way my parents would when introducing me to their friends. I slowly put down the goblet and folded my hands across my lap, fingers twiddling anxiously.

"Ella, there is a matter we need to discuss concerning your business here. We can't have you sitting around doing nothing all day. I mean, we already have Lucy filling in that position."

"Hey!" Lucy stuck out her tongue at her older brother. The left corner of my mouth lifted at their antics, they may be royals but family always comes first.

Peter smiled at Lucy but otherwise ignored her. "I've decided that since you will most likely be staying at Cair Paravel indefinitely, you may as well learn more about Narnia; its history, geography, and other such schoolings. You shall have lessons alongside Lucy and her tutor, if you don't mind."

"Yeah, of course I'd like that."

"Lessons shouldn't be the only duty taking up your time. Do you have any skills that may benefit Narnia? It could be something like… knitting, or cooking or something."

Great, things I'm good at. Let's see, I can watch entire seasons of a show within a week, read novels, eat my weight worth of junk food in one day and fast the next, and I can hibernate for hours. I wonder which of these things is the useful skill Peter wants me to use?

Curse you Peter for putting me on the spot!

"If you don't have an answer to that at this moment, then that's fine," Susan said gently, probably realising I wasn't going to respond anytime soon. "We could always spend time going through different areas of work and seeing if any is a favourable skill to have. Actually, tomorrow I will be spending most of my time with the seamstress and helping to put together gowns for a future ball. You are welcome to join us and at the same time fill your own wardrobe as well?"

Joy. Fashion. I smiled as warmly as I could and nodded with what I hope was enthusiasm. Don't get me wrong, I love looking through pictures of dresses and putting together ideal outfits for any occasion as much as the next girl, but it gets tedious. And tiring. And man, all I want to do is sleep, eat, and explore.


Breakfast ended immediately after and everyone separated to do stuff. Peter and Edmund were going off to discuss with Tumnus about peace offerings with some distant land and Susan was preparing the guest list for the future ball. I stood up from my seat all but ready to go back to the guest room to get some proper sleep, but a hard tug of my left arm thought otherwise. I almost tripped when Lucy set off in an excited skip through the castle, her hand still wrapped tightly around my arm.

"Oh, I simply must show you the horses! They are the loveliest creatures and have such interesting conversations. Then we could ride them and I can show you my favourite places in Narnia!"

"Conversations?" I gulped, but Lucy paid no mind to what I was saying and opened a heavy door, pulling me along outside like an excited child. I shook my head, as if warding away negative and adult-ish thoughts, and began to laugh as we both skipped to the stables.


I stepped out of the tub after my quick bath and dried off, putting on the nightgown Susan had made specifically for me. Sitting on the edge of the bed, I let my hair dry naturally while brushing with my fingers, and reflected back to the afternoon. Lucy introduced me to most of the horses in the stable. We ended up not riding any of them because they felt extremely moody at the time, but it was fun talking to them and hearing them communicate with each other. We took a walk through town, stopping to chat with fellow Narnians. Our walk led us to the beach where we found the stable boy playing in the water with two of the horses that were missing at the stable. He was very kind and chummy, making jokes about everything and getting whacked in the face by a tail whose owner got very offended.

Then we came inside to have dinner, and the Great Hall was filled with people and creatures of all ages taking their seats at two long rows of tables. Lucy and I sat near the middle with the rest of the siblings were seated, and I had a wonderful time chatting with my neighbour (who was a young faun) about the fun games that teens play in their free time. Before I knew it, my stomach was filled up with so much food I could barely talk, and I was glad I was not the first one to leave the table.

Hushed voices disrupted my thoughts, and being the curious person I was, I crept silently to the door and leaned my head up against the warm wood. It sounded like two men, but I still couldn't hear what they were saying.

"Because I'm King, dammit, and she's… Well, she's…" I started when Edmund's voice rang clear out, and pressed myself further up against the door to hear more.

"Oh, shut up. Get to bed, we have to be up early for training tomorrow anyways," and with that swift and heavy footsteps started coming towards me. My heart started pounding as I backed up quickly, and just in time. Three consecutive knocks sounded on my door immediately after and in a frenzy I fell down again in a massive crash. I winced as my butt felt the pain. The door creaked open slightly and a cautious voice called out my name.

"Elaine? Are you alright?"

Despite my bruising butt and ego, I couldn't help but smile at his concern, and a hot flash erupted at the base of my neck. "I'm fine, just had a bit of an accident, that's all."

The door opened wider and a mop of dark hair poked through, a twinkle in his eyes and a smirk when he saw me sitting on the ground with my legs in the pretzel position.

"I just came to say that my siblings and I wish to say good night, and that Susan recommends you to get some sleep and to be up and ready early for whatever you'll be doing tomorrow." I rolled my eyes at the carelessness in the way he spoke and I could feel my throat beginning to clog up.

"Thank you, and good night."

I shut my eyes after Edmund closed the door, and let out a sigh as I stood up. Sliding under the covers, I thought back to this entire day, and how it had gone by so fast. I hoped that the rest of my time here would not be like that. I want to spend as long as possible in this magical land that I hope one day I can call home.


A/N: Sorry this took so long, I hope this length satisfies you guys.