A/N: YAY so longest chapter yet!

Anyway please review and let me know what you think. Thanks!


Chapter 7:

I pulled my cloak closer to me as the cool wind nipped at face. The fall weather was beginning to take the place of the summer, mind you it had not been nearly as humid as Alberta. 'Home' I thought. I was no longer sure what home was anymore. I had been in Narnia for six months, 'Half a year' I inwardly sighed to myself and there seemed to be little hope of getting out of here anytime soon. I didn't think about home much, Mrs Beaver and Lucy usually kept me to busy to stop and think about anything. But when I got a moment alone I often thought of my family, especially my parents.

I shook my head, as Mr Beaver said "no use worrying yourself over things you can not change."

It was surprisingly quiet as I walked along the forest path 'How odd' I thought. Lately the dryads had been very noisy, complaining about how their leaves were changing colour and such. Although the only sounds today were my boots scraping along the ground and my bag colliding with my side. Until a loud 'twang' rang out followed shortly by a 'thwack.' Confused and curious I headed towards the sound. Another 'twang' and 'thwack' sounded and I pushed myself faster towards the sound, my curiosity growing.

As I grew closer to the odd sounds I stopped suddenly, my bag lurching forward over my shoulder and onto the ground. My curiosity tried to push me forward but my instincts held me back. 'I'm rushing towards something that I know nothing of, what am I doing?' I scolded myself.

Angry with my stupidity, I dropped to the ground and roughly collected my bag. Another twang sounded and I looked up, it sounded much closer this time. I waited for the second sound to come but it didn't the forest remained quiet. The wind hissed around me picking up the bright leaves, that seemed to waltz away in the wind.

Brushing the fall dust off of my leggings, that Mrs Beaver had so kindly made for me I stood up.

THWACK.

I jumped back, as an arrow hit the tree directly in-front of me. The arrow was impacted in the tree at eye level and so close to my face that I had to cross my eyes to focus on it. It quivered from the force of impact.

'Run!' my mind screamed but someone I couldn't get my feet to work, they seemed frozen.

"Good shot Lucy" someone cried out.

'Good shot! Good shot, that shot almost got me killed'

"I told you with a bit of practice you would get better" the voice came again along with rustling of the bushes. I slightly turned my head until I saw the figure of a tall girl. A beautiful girl with dark hair that flowed down her back appeared and when she finally caught sight of me she froze. Her eyes slid over to the arrow impacted in the tree and then back to me. Her expression changed in realization, her eyes widen and her hand covered her mouth alarm.

"Susan? Susan where did you go" a familiar voice called.

The bushes behind the frozen girl, 'Susan' the bushes rustled again and another girl appeared, a bright smiling Lucy.

"Mary!" she exclaimed happily until her eyes drifted to the arrow. She gasped and her face change to an expression very similar to Susan's.

"Oh no I didn't hit you did I?" Lucy questioned, distress seeping through her voice. She swung her bow over her shoulder and dashed over to where I stood, frozen in place.

"Are you okay?" she asked, grasping my upper arm and pulling me away from the tree. Susan followed cautiously behind Lucy, her eyes closely examining me. I let Lucy pull me over to a rock, where she forced me to sit. She fumbled at her belt of her dress until she produced a deep red bottle, her cordial.

"No" I choked out.

"But..." she started

"No I'm fine" I said hoarsely.

"Put it away, I don't need it" I said reassuringly.

Lucy slowly slid the cordial back to its pouch and then something I didn't expect happened.

"Are you sure?" the dark haired girl asked gently.

A regal aura radiated off of her and she looked like what Vicki would call a 'Russian model.'

"Um.. yes, I'm sure thank you, the arrow never actually hit me" I muttered.

"Ah, I see" she responded simply.

"I don't mean to be rude or anything but who are you" I asked.

She smiled at me and held out her hand. "Susan, Susan Pevensie, High.."

Lucy cleared her throat loudly and gave Susan a peculiar look as if to say ''be quiet!'. Susan, taken back raised her thin eyebrows at Lucy.

"High?" I asked promoting her to finish her sentence.

"High, um.. sister" she stated nervously, looking back at Lucy for reassurance. Lucy raised a delicate hand to her forehead and gave a light smack before shaking her head in disappointment.

I turned my attention back to Susan who had crossed her arms.

"High Sister?" I asked her confused.

"Yes High Sister to Lucy"she stated confidently.

"I don't understand, what's a high sister" I questioned.

"It's how we say older sister" Lucy said jumping into the conversation.

"It's a Narnia thing" Lucy joked.

"Okay then" I replied hesitantly.

"Mary how many baskets have you got collected" Susan called out through the tall forest trees. Sheepishly, I looked down at my close to empty basket of fresh berries and sighed.

"I almost have one filled" I called back trying to make it sound like a positive. Crossing my fingers I prayed that Susan wouldn't come marching over and give me a disappointed 'I know you have been daydreaming instead of working' look. She had been giving me that look quite a bit lately. Susan was one of those all work and no play types, at least most of the time.

But of course to no such luck, Susan came marching threw the trees with her hands on her hips.

"Your basket is not even half full is it" she said, her voice filled with accusation.

I gave her a guilty smile but she just shook her head and tapped her foot impatiently.

"Come on Mary, we need to get these berries collected so that Lucy and I can take them back to Cair Paravel with us tomorrow" she sighed.

"I know... I'm sorry but there aren't many berries left with the cool weather" I remarked.

"I know, just keep looking" she called walking back to where Lucy was.

I brushed my now long hair out of my eyes, when I had first arrived in Narnia it had been just past my shoulders and now it hung about halfway down my back. Mrs Beaver wouldn't allow me to cut my hair remarking that "Women always had long hair and rarely cut it short."

Giving a huff of annoyance I walked deeper into the forest. It grew slightly darker the farther I walked, only small patches of light dipping in through the trees. I searched the bushes trying to find any surviving berries but to misfortune, I could find none.

Caught up in my thoughts I didn't see where I was going and I soon found myself falling face first into the ground, my foot caught in fallen branch. The rough dirt scrapped my knees through my dress and I groaned as I stood up, feeling the small rocks scrap along my arms.

"Milady, are you are alright?" a deep voice asked.

Whirling around I saw a dark haired boy standing only a few metres away, although I couldn't make out many of his features due to him standing in the long shadow of a tree. I dropped my hand to the belt of my dress and instinctively wrapped my fingers around the dagger Lucy had given me.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"Edmund" his deep voice rumbled. He stepped out of the shadows, letting the spliced light hit his face.

"And you are Milady" Edmund asked, a smile gracing his lips.

I took a sharp intake of breath at his perfect smile, mentally slapping myself afterwards. 'What are you doing! It's just a boy, a boy you don't know and could be dangerous' I scolded.

"Milady" Edmund said, snapping me out of my thoughts.

He took a few more steps slowly towards me and I nervously backed away, dropping the basket of berries as I stumbled into a tree.

I narrowed my eyes at him, the berries toppled out of the fallen basket. He took another few steps towards me and reached down, his dark hair falling over his pale face.

As he bent down I jumped away from him, ripping my dagger from its pouch and holding it to his throat.

"What are you doing?" I demanded.

He stood up, my basket of berries dangling from his fingers.

"I am not going to hurt you, I promise" he chuckled.

'He's laughing at me! I have a dagger to his throat and he's laughing at me like I'm some small, innocent child!' I growled to myself.

Glaring at him, I plucked the basket from his hand and he raised an eyebrow at me.

"Thank you" I said indifferently.

Slowly I backed away from him, dropping my dagger a few centimetres with every step. I turned around, my muscles aching to run away but Edmund's voice stopped me.

"You know we have met before" he said.

"No we haven't, I've never seen you before in my life" I replied coolly, turning around to face him.

"Well I suppose you wouldn't seeing as you were unconscious" he remarked.

"Unconscious?" I asked incredulously.

"Yes unconscious" he replied calmly.

My mouth fell open from shock and I searched his eyes trying to see if I could find a hint of dishonesty. Although the longer I stared into his eyes the more I became consumed by his dark brown gaze. I broke my eyes way from him and pursed my lips 'He's just a boy, he's just a boy' I chanted over and over in my head.

"You don't even know my name, so you can't say we've met before" I snapped.

"Actually, I do know your name" he responded.

"No you don't, you asked me what what my name was less then five minutes ago" I hissed.

"Yes, out of curtsey and I could tell you were nervous of me, you are still nervous of me" he smiled. "Mary" he added, pronouncing my name slowly for emphasis.

"For your information you do not scare me and even if you did I wouldn't be smiling about it" I said with a growl.

"I did not say scared I said nervous, although you did put a dagger to my throat" he said diplomatically.

"Whatever" I responded at a loss of words.

His mouth curved up into a smile again, 'Damnit I've let him win!' I inwardly groaned.

"Come on, my sisters are probably looking for you" he said, walking up to me. "They probably think your off in Wonderland somewhere."

"Hey, just who do you think you are?" I cried placing my hands on my hips.

"As I said before I'm Edmu-" he started

"Wait, who are your sisters?" I asked cutting him off.

He sighed "Lucy and Susan, the ones you have been picking fruit with all afternoon."

I narrowed my eyes at him and took a few steps cautious steps towards him, he had been right I was nervous in his presence. Mind you it was an odd nervous, it felt like he could see right through me as if he knew my every thought. 'Creepy' I shuddered.

I stood now only a few centimetres away from him, carefully examining his facial features.

"You have the same nose" I concluded, timidly tapping my index finger on the end of his nose. I slowly slid my finger down, withdrawing my hand but he reached out a gently grabbed my wrist. Lifting his hand he gently brushed his knuckles along my cheekbone.

"Do we have any other similar features?" he asked, still running his fingers along my cheek.

My eyes flickered down to his lips and then back up to his nose. Taking a thick gulp, I slid my foot along the forest ground and took a step back.

"N-n-n-o" I stuttered.

"No?" he asked amused.

His eyes locked on my mine and I felt helpless in his intense gaze. The butterflies seemed to be turning into bees, buzzing around excitedly in my stomach.

"Yes" I answered, my voice shaking nervously.

"Yes you mean no or yes you mean yes" he asked, sounding slightly confused.

"Yes I mean yes.. er no, yes I mean no" I said exasperated.

Agitated I bite down on my lip, my teeth lightly puncturing the soft skin.

He laughed out loud, a perfect deep chuckle that resonated in his chest. Butterflies fluttered around in my stomach and I could feel my cheeks growing red.

"You are a confusing girl" he joked.

Still biting down on my I rolled my eyes at him.

"Mary there you are!" Susan cried from behind me.

Startled, Edmund and I jumped apart, the basket smacking into my leg causing more berries to fall out. Susan watched more berries tumbled out and she dropped her head into her hand.

Oh Mary, what are we going to... EDMUND!" Susan cried, her gaze finally sweeping over him. "Edmund, what are YOU doing here? Did you follow Lucy and I the whole way?"

"Peter was worried about you two going off alone so he sent me to chaperone," stated Edmund.

Susan taken back placed her hands on her hips "Excuse me Edmund" she sneered.

"but I am older then you and I don't need the watchful eye of my little brother all the time" she emphasized.

Susan glared at Edmund, while he slowly rocked on the back of his heels.

"Susan, have you found Mary" Lucy's voice broke through the tense air surrounding the three of us.

"Yes and I found someone else too." Susan called, fake enthusiasm dripping from her voice.

Lucy's figure came flouncing into the clearing, her hair twirling in the wind and her cheeks flushed red with excitement. Well that was until she saw Edmund. Her jaw dropped open and then closed, her lips pulling into a tight scowl.

"Did Peter send you to spy on us again?" she asked.

"Yes he did" Susan said with a small snap.

Lucy shook her head at her brother. "Why doesn't Peter believe that I can take care of myself?" Lucy remarked.

"Because you are still a child, Lu" Edmund answered.

"A child! I will be fifteen in a few months, which is only two years younger then you and if I remember correctly you were leading war campaigns at my age" she argued.

"Ed, Lu can we not argue about this now" Susan sighed, eyeing me.

"Fine, but when we get home this conversation will be resumed along with Peter" Lucy snapped, a foreign fire alight within her eyes.

"Of course" Edmund approved, a cocky smirk forming on his face.

Silence seemed to fall over us the siblings then and I shifted awkwardly attempting to shuffle away. My foot slid over a twig and a large crack sounded, echoing through the forest. Scared, a large flock of birds began to squawk with fright and fly away.

"Anyway.." I started slowly, the Pevensie's dark gazes drifting over to me. "I should probably get back to Beaver's Dam" I noted, backing away from the group.

Lucy's eyes changed suddenly, her harden eyes softening and turning back into a sea of blue.

"Are you sure you can not stay a bit longer" Lucy asked.

"Mrs Beaver will have dinner ready soon and you know how she hates it when I'm late" I reminded. "I'm sorry" I added, handing her the now empty basket.

"But I'll see you soon" I called running off in the direction of Beaver's Dam.

'Only a few more weeks' I thought with a smile. 'Then I will be living in Cair Paravel!'