Working through some of Narnia's finest pieces, Naomi plays on her piano. The sun shines on the back of her neck and she smiles at the sight of the pretty black notes on her page. Music is her everything. She had planned to major in it, yet with her being in a completely new universe, those dreams were shattered.
Taking a break from Narnia lullabies, she begins to play a symphony she knows like the back of her hand. She had played the piece to audition to University of Oregon's music program. It was Peter Glass's "Metamorphosis" and her favorite to play.
Pressing her fingers on the keys, she closes her eyes, picturing herself playing it in front of sold out audiences across the world. The music moves with her and she remembers the better days, the days of Rachmaninoff and Chopin, the days of waiting earnestly for a new record to come in from the local music shop. All that has been taken away.
Suddenly, her thoughts turn to lanterns in the middle of woods, and swans, and castles and fauns carrying packages. Narnia has changed everything within Naomi. It has stripped her of everything she once knew possible and added a whole new layer to her. Even if this is a coma, this experience has changed her whole being.
Clapping sounds from the entrance of the music room. Turning around, Naomi's eyes look vacant and lost.
A beautiful woman stands before her, leaning against the door frame. Her ice blue eyes sparkle with appreciation.
"That was marvelous!" The voice of the woman sounds gentle and soft, like a swan or a flute.
Naomi clears her throat, the vacant look disappearing from her eyes. "Thank you..."
The woman smiles. "Lady Jade of Archenland. And you are..."
Naomi smiles. "Lady Naomi of Telmar."
Stretching her hand out, Jade shake's Naomi's hand. "Pleased to meet you, Lady Naomi of Telmar. Telmar must be so pleased to be blessed with such a wonderful musical prodigee."
Naomi's cheeks blossom red. "Oh, I wouldn't call myself a musical prodigee. Just a musician in training."
Jade laughs a wonderful laugh that seems to fill up the whole room. "Well, whatever you are, your music is quite extraordinary."
Jade continues. "My friend, Lady Elizabeth, is staying here and I wanted to visit her. I had never been to Narnia and I must say, it is beautiful here. So much life, so much kindness. Nobody would want to ruin it." The lady's lips curl into a devious grin then reverts back to a kind, pleasing smile. Naomi doesn't notice.
"The kings and queens take much pride in their country. It is all due to them Narnia is running as smoothly as it is."
Jade grits her teeth. "Of course."
Shaking her head as if to get rid of the thought, Jade takes Naomi's hand. "Come. We have much catching up to do. And you can introduce me to the kings and queens."
The four sit around the grand table, feasting on lunch. Elizabeth and Ariel laugh to a joke Peter had said, while Edmund, Lucy, and Susan discuss matters with some squirrel dispute.
"I tell you. Vinican said his brother hoarded the acorns, and the family believed he was planning to starve them. When I came to see them, they were barely able to hold back the two brothers from biting each other's heads off," Edmund describes.
Susan sighs, taking a nimble bite of her chicken. "Those squirrels will be the death of me."
Looking over to the entrance of the Grand Hall, Lucy's lips break into a smile. "Why, look! Naomi has brought a visitor."
All eyes turn to the two women entering. Susan grits her teeth at her beauty, Lucy frowns at the thought she has not ever seen this woman, and both Peter and Edmund take notice of her sheer white gown. Ariel sighs at the fact yet another woman is going to disrupt her fitting in at the Cair. Elizabeth nervously takes a sip of wine.
The blonde woman curtseys before the nobles. "Good afternoon, your Majesties. I hope I am not disrupting your meal. I am Lady Jade of Archenland and I was on my way to Telmar when suddenly my horse ran wild. The closest place of safety I could find was Cair Paravel."
You can tell a liar by the amount of information they give you and Ariel had a gnawing feeling at the back of her mind that this woman cannot be trusted.
Peter clears his throat, not taking his eyes off of Jade's breasts clearly seen through the see through dress. "You must stay here then. We have plenty of guest rooms, and we cannot leave a beautiful woman in the streets."
Naomi frowns at his words. "I was thinking the same thing, Peter."
He turns his attention to the girl and realizes why she had looked a shade of green at breakfast. He sighs sadly. How stupid is he?
Looking over at Elizabeth who is gnawing a chicken bone, Peter smiles. "Elizabeth, Jade is from Archenland. I do believe you two know each other."
Elizabeth takes a sip of her wine.
Jade speaks for her. "We know each other quite well," she says with a glare.
Not taking notice of the fatal look the lady sent Elizabeth, Peter grins. "Elizabeth, may you please show Lady Jade a room? We will try to make arrangements for you to get to Telmar as soon as possible."
Elizabeth's eyes widen in shock. "Oh King Peter, I couldn't. I'm merely a -", but Jade interrupts her.
"Lady Elizabeth, it would be an honor for you to show me my room. We have much catching up to do, don't we, love?" Jade sneers.
Gulping, Elizabeth stands. "Of course." Taking Jade's hand gingerly, she leads her out of the Grand Hall.
Naomi sits down in a chair and begins to pile her plate with lunch. "Jade's quite nice."
Glancing at Peter, she pours herself some wine.
"She's nothing special."
Edmund snorts. "Bugger off. I saw the way you were watching her every move. You couldn't take your eyes off of her."
Gulping down some salad, Peter shrugs. "I like her dress."
Edmund grumbles something underneath his breath.
Susan smiles at Naomi. "I heard you found the music room. Do you enjoy it?"
Naomi beams. "Oh yes! I adore it! How did you know?"
Su grins into her plate. "I was looking for someone and I heard someone playing piano. I looked into the room, and I saw you."
Ariel smiles. "I showed her the room. I thought it would be a nice surprise."
Peter takes a sip of his wine. "The music room actually used to be a storage room, but when we moved in, Ed decided to change it into a music room. He was in his piano faze due to him trying to impress Princess Arianna of Telmar. Ever since she turned him down, that room hasn't been in use."
Lucy closes her eyes, sighing. "Oh I remember when the halls of Cair Paravel used to be filled with HORRIBLE music. Whenever we heard something off tune, we always assumed it was Edmund practicing piano. It was a joke for many years. It's wonderful they're filled with music again. GOOD music." She smirks.
Naomi stabs her fork into her fish. "Well, I will try to make sure I don't fail you. If anything, music is my one passion."
Ariel grins at her friend. "One day, I walked to her house and heard her playing piano. I started make up some random song to go with it, and ever since, we were a duo."
Naomi smiles at Ariel. "Do you remember that one time when Clyde asked if you wanted to see a movie, and then you said, 'Sorry. Me and Naomi are in the middle of a signing a recording contract.' He actually BELIEVED us! The next day he asked, 'Hey. How'd your deal go?'"
Ariel laughs, wiping away imaginary tears. "Good times, good times."
The four siblings look at them with equal expressions of mixed confusion and amusement.
Edmund shakes his head. "You two are something."
Ariel snorts. "Like you haven't had a best friend you could do anything with."
"Nope." Edmund pops the p.
Naomi gasps. "No. That's not possible."
Lucy smiles. "For him it is. All he did was shut himself up and read all day. He occasionally came out of his den to mope and eat."
Ariel gapes. "That's a sad life."
Edmund smirks at her. "Like you had a more interesting one."
"Actually I do. For one, I got transported to a different world I didn't even know existed. I was quite wild when I was younger."
Naomi shovels some more pasta in her mouth. "One time, she decided she would jump off a house."
Ariel nods. "True. I was nine and I wanted to fly. So I decided to jump off the roof. I ended up breaking my arm and foot. I was the most popular girl in school with my sparkly purple cast. Everyone signed it."
Edmund thinks for a moment. "I once…. Well I don't really remember much of my life. It really only started in Narnia."
Ariel slams her hand on the table. "Then that's done. Someday I'm going to make you do something so wild nobody would even believe you did it."
He snorts. "Like what? Jump off a cliff?"
Ariel wiggles her eyebrows deviously. "Even worse."
Lucy laughs. "Well, as much as this conversation entertained me, I must be off. I promised Wendy we would go for a walk." Standing, she exits.
Naomi frowns. "Who's Wendy?"
Susan smiles. "Her horse."
Ariel chokes on her drink.
Su frowns. "What? What did I say?"
Peter chuckles. "Nothing. I just don't believe the two ever encountered a talking horse before."
"What a surprise," Ed says into his goblet.
Naomi rolls her eyes. "I'm going to go too. Ariel, come with?"
Her friend nods. "Yep. Coming." Waving to the three, Ariel leaves as well.
Susan turns to her younger brother. "Are you really going to jump off a cliff?"
Peter laughs. "As if."
"Here's your room," Elizabeth says before scurrying off.
"Wait!" Jade yells then grins. Holding out her hand, she twists it and pulls it closer towards her chest. Elizabeth feels something pulling her, and she is pulled back to Jade, as if to a magnet.
"Tsk, tsk. Elizabeth, do you really want to play this game. You know who I am. You know what I can do. So then why do you keep running away?"
Elizabeth grits her teeth. "Leave me alone, Jade. I know what I am doing. They already don't trust me. If I do anything now, all fingers will be pointed at ME first. And if they aren't, Naomi and Ariel sure will."
Jade snorts. "You know I don't need you. I could easily do without. But you know things that can be fatal. You may play the good girl act well, but that doesn't make you one. I see now why Jadis wanted you. I also see why she got rid of you before it was too late."
"Do not say her name!" Elizabeth spits out.
"Or what?" Jade sneers in the brunette's face. "Or what? Will you do away with me? Will you bring wittle Edmund on me? You know that no matter how much you want him he is an obstacle. And obstacles are meant to be destroyed."
Playing with the tips of her hair, Jade sighs. "Little child. You know nothing. You may have been close with her, yet you know I have power you do not. I can bring monsters that cannot die. And what can you do?"
Elizabeth gapes at the Vila. "You are a MONSTER."
Jade snorts. "You just realized that?"
Jade grasps Elizabeth's chin and forces her to stare into the Vila's ice blue eyes. "I see you have grown weak over the eight years she has been gone. You know, I have been in slumber for quite a long time. And I just realized how much I missed being awake. For you humans, eight years is a while, and I believed you had the power to do SOMETHING in Jadis' absence. And yet I see no change. Just more peace, more happiness, more love. How disgusting."
She continues. "Now, listen. And you better listen hard, Elizabeth," Jade sneers. "For some unknown reason the damn lion brought two Daughters of Eve onto this land. They are weak, more weak that you are. Aslan keeps going on over how much hope they have to save Narnia from the Dark Ages yet both you and I know hope goes nowhere. They have no hope. Yet Aslan is protecting them. And the first key to victory is to destroy them. You do that, and I will take care of the rest. Do you understand?"
Elizabeth nods obediently.
Letting go of her chin, Jade grins. "Good." She starts to walk into her suite but at the last minute turns around and faces Elizabeth again.
"And make your love for Edmund more believable. It is quite boring." Yawning, the Vila winks and closes the door.
Your fingertips across my skin
The palm trees swaying in the wind
Images
You sang me Spanish lullabies
The sweetest sadness in your eyes
Clever trick
I never want to see you unhappy
I thought you'd want the same for me
Goodbye, my almost lover
Goodbye, my hopeless dream
I'm trying not to think about you
Can't you just let me be?
So long, my luckless romance
My back is turned on you
I should've known you'd bring me heartache
Almost lovers always do
Ariel sings at the top of the cliff, clutching her knees. Her voice echoes across the ocean below her, a slice of clear, teal glass. The sun shines down on her head and the patch of flowers she is sitting on is blowing back and forth.
Ariel is reminiscing. Sometimes it happened, sometimes it didn't. But almost everyday ever since the breakup she felt broken. She could feel the jagged tears in her heart.
Putting her books in her locker, Ariel turns around to see sympathetic glances being sent her way. Josh Broman stops and pats her back. "I'm sorry, Ariel."
Many thoughts run through her head. Did her mom get in an accident? Or is it her dad's birthday? No, it's in three weeks. Then what is it?
Clyde passes her, Michelle Denman on his arm. She is giggling at some joke he had just said, and as the couple passes Ariel, she sees her whisper something to him. Clyde's green eyes meet Ariel's and a look of guilt passes in them.
He mouths, "I'm sorry," then continues on listening to Michelle.
As they leave, Ariel notices a purple bruise on Michelle's neck. And right there, in the middle of the hallway, before 3rd period, Ariel breaks down and starts to sob.
A warm hand rubs Ariel's back. Looking up, she sees Edmund beside her. Ariel realizes she is crying.
"Oh my god. This is so embarrassing." Wiping away her tears, she grins at the king.
He smiles sadly. "It's alright. You can cry. I'm not embarrassed."
Ariel laughs, a shaky sort of sound. "Wow. First guy I heard who said that."
Sitting down next to her, Edmund nods. "It's true. Four years ago, a princess came here with her father. I was infatuated with her, and I thought she was too. I guess she wasn't."
Ariel frowns. "What happened?"
He stares in front of him not looking at Ariel. "She kissed Peter."
Edmund continues. "Ever since then, Peter and I made a pact to not let a girl come between us. That we had to get the permission of the other to be with someone."
Ariel clears her throat. "Did you get Peter's permission?"
His brows furrow. "For who?"
She laughs. "For Elizabeth."
He shrugs. "I didn't ask."
A moment of silence passes between them, both immersed in their own thoughts.
"She's an airhead."
Edmund turns to Ariel, confused. "Excuse me?"
She clarifies. "Elizabeth is a snob. She could care less about someone. I've met plenty of girls like her. Makeup and clothes are all they seem to know about. It's kinda sad."
"Susan likes makeup and clothes."
Ariel shrugs. "Yes, but she has a sense of right and wrong. She knows who she is and what man she wants to stand by her side. Susan wants to meet someone and fall in love, deal with the bumps in the road, and live a life with no regrets. She's wise. Elizabeth… she wants the fairytale wedding where the prince is charming, handsome, and wealthy."
Edmund chuckles. "Are you calling me charming, handsome, and wealthy?"
Ariel punches his arm. "Well, for one, you're a king which makes you wealthy. And by the way I notice the maids and ladies staring after you, I assume they think you're charming and handsome."
"And what do you think?"
"I think beauty is not everything." Looking over at Edmund, Ariel meets his dark, brooding gaze.
She laughs awkwardly. "Stop it. Please."
"Stop what?"
"Stop staring at me like that. It's like you are looking at me through the eyes of an admirer or a lover, not an acquaintance or enemy."
"When were we enemies?"
Ariel snorts. "Please. Don't you remember promising me that you're just getting started."
"And how did that suddenly make me an enemy?"
She pauses to think, then purses her lips. "Just… stop. Stop staring at me like that."
Edmund cocks his head. "And what if I don't want to?"
Ariel notices the close proximity between them and she gulps, feeling his warm breath on her.
"Then you should remember about Elizabeth. And the fact I will never look at you the way you just did." Hitching her skirts up, she takes one last look at the king on the ground and runs back into the castle.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm kind of disappointed with you guys. Listen, I know I have many followers. I do get emails on when someone favorites or follows me or my story. Clearly, none of you want to review though because you're all lazy. So now I'm not writing this story for you guys anymore. I'm writing it for myself and the few that actually do review like MythicalGirl17. I don't want to end this story because I love to write, and I'm not planning on giving up because others hate it. So I will still be updating but not for you guys. For myself and the three reviewers I got last chapter.
For those that reviewed, Hope you liked this chapter! And who exactly is Elizabeth? And what does Jade have to do with it?
And then there's the wonderful Pevensies as always having fun. And Ariel brooding over lost love. And Edmund brooding over... Ariel? Lots of drama coming up!
The song Ariel sang in this chapter is "Almost Lover" by A fine Frenzy. It's only a part of it, but a part nonetheless.
For all you Peomi (or Nater?) fans, yes there is no sparks between them but it'll come. All in good time my lovelies.
And as always, REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!
Love,
Rita
