Chapter 4:

"Do it for your people. Do it for your pride. Never gonna know if you never even try. Do it for your country. Do it for you name. Cause there's gonna be a day, when you're standing in the hall of fame." The Script ft Will. .

I woke up and looked around. The sun had just started come up by the look of it. I turned my head and saw Peter lying next to me and smiled. He was still asleep. I had only slept in my shirt last night so I gathered my other clothes and walked over to the stream that was nearby. I walked along it until I found a small pool of water, deep enough to wash in. I pulled my top off and gently and stepped into the water. I was cold to say the least but brought a nice feeling along with it, I felt clean. Once I got used to the water I dived so I could wet my hair. I came back to the surface feeling very much awake by now. The sun was starting to pear through the trees and brought a nice calm heat with it. I got out and pulled my shirt over me again before lying down in the grass to dry off before fully dressing. I don't know how long I stayed like that but when I finally decided I should move, the sun was higher in the sky and the heat was slowly rising. I'm guessing it must be still early morning. Only my hair was still damp the rest of me was dry. I pulled my shirt off and put my underwear on before reputing the shirt over me. This shirt was really starting to annoy be by now. I pulled my trousers on and my velvet overall. I walked back to where Peter and I had slept last night and saw that he had just finished dressing.

"Where have you been?" He asked. "I thought you would have woken me if you decided to head back to the camp."

"I went for a wash that's all." I said. "We should get back to them and hope they didn't notice our absence."

"I don't care if they do." He smirked as he came up to me. "Last night was perfect."

"It was." I smiled as I put my hands around his neck. "I love you so much."

"I love you too." He said gently placing a kiss on my lips.

We smiled and slowly walked back together to wake the others. When we got there something wasn't right.

"Lucy's gone." I said.

"We should get her a bell." Peter grumbled as he shook Edmund awake.

"What?" Ed groaned.

"Lucy." He said simply as he headed away into the woods.

Edmund sat up and began to wake the others as I followed Peter. I saw him begin to crouch down and thought he was being odd. I then saw it a great Minotaur walking in the opposite direction. I lowered myself and walked over to where he was. He had Lucy and indicated her to be quiet as he drew his sword and began to move forward. As he walked up to I got closer to Lucy.

I heard something move to my left but before I could warn Peter, a boy jumped out and attacked him. Their swords clashed and Peter got over the surprise attack quite quickly. When I saw a second boy appear I knew that wouldn't go well so I motioned to Lucy to stay here as I took care of this one. I drew my own sword and launched myself at the dark blond haired boy stopping his blade from getting any closer to Peter. He was shocked to say the least but once he saw that I was a girl, he got over it quickly. Needless to say I attacked first wiping the smirk off his face. I heard Peter stumble but I couldn't let my concentration wander. But it did, as I saw the rest of their army turn up. The boy took this too his advantage and knocked me down.

"No stop!" Lucy yelled as she came out into the open.

Everyone turned to look at her before her own gaze turned to the army around us. Peter who was on his feet turned to Caspian. I looked up at the boy and got up even if his sword was pointing straight at me.

"Prince Caspian?" Peter asked his attacker.

"Yes and who are you?" The tanned boy replied in an accent I couldn't place.

Peter was interrupted by Susan calling his name and coming into view. There was a moment's silence as everyone looked at the newcomers back to Caspian.

"High King Peter." Caspian said as he inspected Peter's sword's hilt.

"I believe you called." I could hear the slight smirk in Peter's voice.

"Well, yes, but I thought you'd be older." The prince was confused.

"Well, if you like, we could come back in a few years." Peter gestured towards his family.

"No!" Caspian stopped him. "No, it's alright. You're just, not exactly what I expected." His gaze landed on Susan.

I gave Lucy a knowing look making us both smile at Susan's confused expression when she saw us.

"Neither are you." Ed said as he eyed one of the Minautaurs.

"A common enemy unites even the oldest of foes." A badger said calmly

"We have waited anxiously for your return my liege." A small mouse came forward with a feather on a gold ring around his ear. "Our hearts and swords are at your service."

"Oh, my gosh, he is so cute." I heard Lucy tell Susan.

"Who said that?" The mouse snapped.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Lucy apologised.

"Oh your majesty, with the greatest respect." He bowed. "But I do believe courageous, courteous or chivalrous is more suited for a knight of Narnia."

"A knight of Narnia can be many things, and cute can be one of them." I interrupted.

"I'm sure my lady but it is not a fierce attribute you can use in battle." He disagreed.

"You'd be surprised, what is the name of this fierce mouse then?" I asked.

"Reepicheep, your majesty."

"Well, at least we know some of you can handle a blade." Peter continued.

"Yes, I have indeed." He declared. "And I have recently put it to good use, securing weapons for your army, sire."

I saw the disappointed look on Caspian's face. We've only been here two minutes and it's already Peter's army. I felt sorry for the boy.

"Good, because we'll need every sword we can get." Peter said.

"Well then, you'll probably be wanting yours back." Caspian held out Peter's sword to him.

He took it. And I couldn't believe the harsh look he had on his face. He didn't utter one word to Caspian before turning and walking after the already moving army. He took my hand as he walked by and I unceremoniously pulled along. I sighed at this already rising tension between the pair. I managed to get out of Peter's grip not too long after and began walking along freely next to him. I noticed that the boy who had attacked me earlier was walking behind us so I slowed down to talk to him.

"You've never fought a girl before have you?" I said as I came up beside him.

"It's not very common in Narnia for women to fight."

To say his accent shocked me would be an understatement. It was so unlike Caspian's. It held the tone of the Narnians.

"Where are you from?" I asked with wide eyes.

"Archenland." He said rather hastily. "But I ran away from home when I was very young, we stumbled across the Narnians and they took us in."

"You said we."

"My sister and I." He replied looking down.

His reaction bothered me. As if he couldn't look me in the eyes.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"It doesn't matter." He replied still looking down.

"Very well, I'm-"

"I know who you are, High Queen Rebecca, the Radiant." That was the first time he looked up at me.

I could see anger and hurt in those light green eyes. What had I ever done to cross him?

"Please, call me Rebecca or Becca, there is no need for a title." It was my turn to look away.

"Then why have it?" He asked. "If titles mean nothing then why do we give them to people who do not deserve them? Caspian's uncle Miraz is a tyrant and yet he is a lord. The first Telmarines to invade this land took control and declared their superiority over the other races that lived here. They drove the survivors into the woods after they had slaughtered the rest. What makes them so better than others? Why should they have power over those who never asked for it?"

"I'm not quite sure I know where this is going." I admitted.

"What I'm saying is that none of you with titles deserve them. You don't fight for the people who follow you. You fight for glory and the title you will earn."

"How do you know we are all like that?" I asked.

"If you look at history, leaders surrender when they cannot win, even if they knew it from the start they'll send people in to get killed first."

"And what about me?" I looked back up at him. "I did not fight for myself, I fought for my people. I could have refused to help in the rebellion against the White Witch. But I took a liking to this weird and wonderful country the moment I stepped through that wardrobe. I fought for love."

"Love? Is it love that made you leave then? Where were you when the Telmarines invaded? Where were your husband and your sword then when your people got ambushed and Cair Paravel was under siege? You disappeared, you abandoned those you loved and fled back to your own world and re-found youth."

"I didn't mean to leave." I snapped. "You have no idea how hard it was for me. I left everything behind. I lost Peter that day, not to mention my kids. I lost more than you've ever had. So before judging me and pretending to know who I am, you should re-read those history books and look at what I did for this country before being ripped from it."

With that I speeded up and re-joined Peter who was in a deep conversation with Caspian about battle tactics. I slipped my hand into Peter's who squeezed mine back giving me a soft smile. I relaxed at his sign of affection but I still couldn't get the words that boy had said to me out of my mind.

Is that what everyone thought? That we had deserted and left them on purpose? What have people been saying behind our backs? Maybe I don't deserve to be called a queen. I failed when it mattered most. And here we were again, youth given back, a second shot at life. Only six of us can say that. I started to listen in to Peter and Caspian's conversation to try and get my mind off of things.

"It's great that you have troops but we need some fortifications. Somewhere to train."

"We have somewhere but it might not be what you expect." Caspian replied.

"We have little time to find somewhere better, I'm sure the place you speak of Caspian will be fine." I gave him a kind smile.

"And in that small space of time we need to train." Peter reminded me. "We are both out of shape."

"I wouldn't say out of shape, I would say just a little rusty." I grinned.

"All the same a few hours practice won't hurt." Peter shrugged.

"If that is your ability out of form you must be deadly when trained. I sure wouldn't want to cross you." Caspian interjected.

"Trust me, you wouldn't." I laughed.

"We've never lost a war." Peter sighed. "I remember every single one of them. I would be away for weeks, months at times."

"I remember the first time I rode to war without you." I looked up at him.

"You did well, from what the soldiers had to say." Peter said.

"My professor told me many stories of the Golden Age as I grew up." Caspian said.

"Your professor?" I repeated. "I thought with this regime the tales of old would have been forbidden?"

"They are but my professor told me them in secret." Caspian told us.

"He seems like a good man." Peter said.

"He is."

We fell into a comfortable silence and soon began to go up a hill. Once we reached the top, I saw something I was positive did not exist last time we had been here. It looked like a fortress from where I stood. We descended again and began to walk over to it. Centaurs and other creatures had gathered for our arrival.