16/10/2008 15:00:00
My Beta for this is Raine44354. The previous chapter (9) was updated before she could edit it, sorry for the errors in that! Oh, I'm just about done with this part, only 2 chps left. So, I've decided to tease you with the first epic chapter. Luv y'all!Twi
Part Two (The Reunion):
Night was cast across the sky, stars shone even in this dark time. Miraz, the brother to the Telmarine King that had died a little while ago, was standing on the balcony outside of his chamber; inside, his wife, Prunaprismia, was giving birth to his child and he hoped that it was a boy. In his mind he was plotting, plotting to kill the son of his brother and take the throne for himself, but it would only work if his wife gave him a son. The screaming ceased in the chamber, his wife had successfully given birth to his child. He turned and walked into the room, looking upon his wife and his new child. His eyes lit up as the finale of his plot finished, he now had a son to be his heir. Miraz nodded his head to one of his men waiting patiently at the door for the orders to kill Prince Caspian the tenth. The man left the room and led his troops to Caspian's chamber.
The young Prince lay in his bed, sleeping soundly with a panther curled up beside him. His door opened and he awoke immediately to a shake from Doctor Cornelius. Caspian's eyes shot open, the doctor pulled him out of the bed and woke the panther while doing so. "We don't have time, your Uncle has been given a son," Doctor Cornelius said, looking at Caspian and then the panther.
With a quick yawn, the panther leapt off the bed and followed the Doctor and Prince to a secret exit from the room. Caspian closed the closet door just as Miraz's troops blasted into the room with crossbows. In the hall to the stables, Caspian turned to the panther, "Come on Widow! We must hurry."
Widow, the panther, rolled her amber eyes and lightly jogged after the Doctor and Caspian. Already in the stable was Caspian's armor and sword, as well as a horse for him to escape on. He mounted the black stallion and looked down at the Doctor. "Will you be alright?" the prince asked.
"I will," Doctor Cornelius replied, reaching into his pocket. "Head to the woods, they won't dare to follow you there. Take this, only blow on it if you are in danger." He handed Caspian a sleek white horn, and then he looked down at Widow. "Keep Prince Caspian safe."
"Why do you keep telling the cat that? She can't speak back, and I can take care of myself if I need to," Caspian sighed, shaking his head.
The panther nodded and purred softly as the Doctor patted her head slightly. Caspian flicked the reins of his horse, it broke into a run and the panther chased after it only tail length behind. The panther was long and thin with a scar on her back, from right shoulder to left hip. She had lived with the royal Telmarine family for many years now, though they were never counted. Widow glanced over her shoulder when she heard the shouts of Telmarine soldiers following them. She hissed at the thought of Caspian getting caught be them and turned back to the horse in front of them.
The woods weren't far, she could see it on the horizon line as dawn began to break. A cold breeze blew, shifting the black fur on her back to the left. Caspian glanced back at his once loyal soldiers, he couldn't understand why they would hunt him since he was the rightful heir to the Telmarine throne, but his uncle was a marvelous persuader. The great pines of the forest approached and the prince flicked the reins again for the stallion to pick up the pace, he was loosing distant between the soldiers behind him. Widow picked up the pace as well, but a sharp pain began to rise up her spine, causing her to slow back to her previous pace.
Caspian's horse broke through the front line of trees and Widow wasn't too far behind him. The soldiers stopped at the trees, wondering if they should go through to continue the pursuit or go back to the castle. An order was shouted for the soldiers to continue on, so much for what the Doctor said.
Widow had no choice but to pick up the pace, despite the pain in her spine; she rather deal with that than death. Now, she raced along side the horse as the river approached. Water, Widow thought, leaping onto the back of the horse when the water was close. Caspian looked back at her, thinking that one of the soldiers had caught up to them. "You scared me," he muttered, looking back at the river as the stallion crashed into the calm waves.
The panther kept her paws and tail by the center of the horses back, not wanting to get wet. Her eyes gazed back at the soldiers as their horses crashed into the water and began to trudge forward. Some of the horses collapsed at the weight of the water on their legs, causing the a few others to retreat to the shore while Caspian and Widow emerged on the other shore. The back stallion galloped deeper in to the woods, hoping to get far enough away from the Telmarine's before they got to the shore.
Widow jumped down from the horse's back, happy that she had crossed the river without getting a drop of water on her pelt. She dashed after Caspian, hearing the Telmarines approaching. Unfortunately, neither of them had noticed the low tree branch in front of Caspian. The prince's skull collided with the branch, knocking him off the back of the horse which continued on as if it was alone. Widow stopped beside the dazed Caspian, her neck fur bristling as the Telmarines appeared at the top of the hill.
Caspian looked at Widow and then at the large tree, there was a door at the bottom of it. His puzzled look was increased when the door opened and two dwarves and a badger came out. The dwarves were armed and thinking that he was going to be killed, he blew the horn Doctor Cornelius handed him moments before they left. Widow's eyes widen, and felt as if the sound waves from the horn were pushing at her flank trying to knock her down. She looked at the further most dwarf, the closest to the Telmarines. She opened her mouth to yowl for the dwarf to look out, but instead words came out, "Look out!"
It was too late, a Telmarine had already snatched up the dwarf in a bag and started to head off. Widow hissed at the other Telmarines, standing in a crouch in front of the still dazed prince. The other dwarf launched a arrow at the Telmarine, pinning him right in the chest. The soldier flicked the reins of his horse and road off after the his colleague. Widow's neck fur flattened and she turned to Caspian, he was unconscious. "Caspian!" she exclaimed, nudging his shoulder hoping to wake him up.
The badger looked at her. "You are a Narnian! Why with a Telmarine?" he said, raising an eyebrow.
Widow laughed. "I haven't classified myself as a Narnian for many years," she replied. "I am a friend, I mean no harm to you."
The badger nodded and turned to the other dwarf. "Nikabrik, help me get the Telmarine into the house. I want to help him." He turned to Widow. "Will you help? Guardian of the Telmarine."
"I have a name," Widow muttered. "It's Widow, I would like to be called that."
"Trufflehunter," the badger said, introducing himself. Trufflehunter, Nikabrik and Widow carried Caspian into the house. While the badger bandaged Caspian's head, Nikabrik and Widow kept watch for any Telmarines.
-x-
A crowd of teenagers chanted "fight" as a brawl between Peter Pevensie and some guy went on. Edmund was trying to separate them, but failed because of his size. The boy fighting Peter, pushed Edmund to the side and went to punch Peter in the head, but Peter ducked and got out of the way. Another kid pushed Peter forward into the wall, just as Susan and Lucy walked down the steps to see what was happening. "Peter!" Susan shouted, pushing her way through the front of the chanting teenagers. Her voice was drowned out by an officer who pulled apart Peter and the boy.
"Act you age!" the officer said, when the chanting kids ran for cover all except for Susan, Lucy and Edmund. The officer walked away and Susan shook her head and walked down to the platform to catch their train to their boarding school. Edmund did the same, taking Lucy with him.
Peter came up to them, placing his suitcase down next to theirs as they waited.
"What was it this time?" Susan asked.
"He bumped me," Peter grumbled.
Susan looked at him in disbelief. "So you hit him?"
"No, he asked me to apologize, then I hit him," Peter explained.
"Still! This is the third fight this week!" Susan exclaimed. "You need to start getting used to the fact that we aren't in Narnia, we aren't Kings or Queens."
Peter looked away, he didn't like her bringing up the Narnia topic when they fought. "Amber would have torn him to shreds," he muttered.
"No, Amber would have done nothing! She couldn't tear him to shreds, and she's not here. You need to get over it Peter and start becoming used to the fact that we aren't going back!" Susan hissed.
"It's been a year Susan, you can't possible say that," Peter snapped.
Lucy stepped in between them. "Stop it! Stop fighting!" she pleaded. "It's not helping anything."
"Lucy…" Peter started, but drifted off when he received a death stare.
"Peter, we know that this has been hard for you, but it's been hard for us as well. We spent fifteen years in Narnia and then come back and we're back to the same age that we started as," Lucy said. "Aslan must have a reason as to why he hasn't called us back. One day, we will get back."
Peter sighed and looked away at the coming train, not wanting to talk about this anymore. Every single day since their return to Narnia, he thought about the one thing he left behind and he had promised that he'd never leave. He thought about her, the one who died saving his life.
The train kept speeding forward, not even stopping. The wall behind them start to flake apart and Lucy exclaimed, "It feel's like magic!" She was right. The wall tile broke off completely and rock replaced it. A light shown where the exit for the trains should have been, it was sunlight. A childish smile stretched across Lucy's face, she knew that they would come back even after what she said to Peter. She ran out ahead of her siblings, jumping into the sunlight. Edmund and Susan followed her, dropping their jackets in the sand. Peter was the last to follow, he gazed around as he stepped into the light; he couldn't believe that they were back. He ran over to his siblings, throwing off his jacket.
They ran into the ocean, splashing each other and laughing. It felt good to be back. Edmund stopped and asked a stupid question, "Where do you think we are?"
"Narnia, of course!" Peter replied.
"I don't remember there being any ruins in Narnia," Edmund stated, point up the cliff at the vine covered stone pillars. Peter looked up at the ruins, shocked that they were actually there. Susan and Lucy looked up as well, starting to trudge back to the sandy shore. The boys followed, both in wonder as to how ruins got there so fast; it had only been a year in their minds.
The siblings climbed their way up to the ruins, trying to remember where this was seeing as the terrain had changed a bit. Lucy looked around, saying, "I wonder who lived here."
Susan walked around, looking down. She stopped, seeing a small golden object glistening in the sunlight. "I think we did," she said, bending down to pick the figurine up. It was a small golden horsemen, it belonged to Edmund's chess set.
"What happened here?" Peter asked, agreeing with Susan that this place was once the Cair Paravel that they lived in. He stood where their four chairs had been, imagining the rows of pillars and the walls that had surround them. "This place looks like it's ancient," he added, stepping down to go over to where his siblings gathered.
Susan shrugged, there was no way that they would know since they had been in England when this happened. They continued to search the area, hoping to find some food as well as some part of the castle that had survived the assumed attack. Edmund called Peter over after ten minutes of looking around, he stood in front of a large boulder that blocked what looked like to be a door. Together, they moved the boulder to the side revealing a door to be there. Peter knocked the old door down with a single push. The staircase down was pitch black. Susan and Lucy joined them moments later, wondering which room this lead to.
Edmund handed Peter the flashlight that he had in his messenger bag and he followed his brother down the stairs with his sisters behind him. Peter glanced around at the walls, trying to remember where this led to. It led down so all the bedrooms were out. His foot hit the ground and he moved the light around the room. There were torch sticks lining the walls and he took a match from his brother and lit them all, brightening the dark room to reveal its contents. It was a treasure vault, a place where they had kept their most valuable items. There were four indents in the wall, each with a statue of one of the Pevensies standing over a sealed chest. Lucy went over to the one below her statue and opened it, Susan and Edmund did the same. Inside each of the chests were their weapons and clothes from when they were in Narnia.
Lucy picked up her belt that held her Fire-flower juice and dagger, that had been given to her by St. Nicolas. She picked up one of her old dresses and said, "I was so tall then!"
"You were also a lot older too," Susan added, lifting up her bow and quiver. "My horn, it isn't here."
"Amber must have put these down here after our disappearance, maybe she kept the horn for herself," Edmund said, picking up what was in his chest. Then he realized that mentioning Amber wasn't a good idea at the moment. Him and his sisters turned to Peter as he approached his chest.
He lifted it up and he lifted out his sheathed sword. He pulled the sword from the sheath and found that tied to his blade was a note, it was held down by Amber's necklace. "Why would she leave this?" he asked openly, untying the necklace and taking the note. Susan took it from him and began to read it:
"Dear Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy,
"By the time you read this message, it would be many centuries since you left this world. Narnia was attacked back a civilization of people known as the Telmarines, we were no match for them and many of us are most likely dead now. I've sealed this room so when you do return you could lead the remaining Narnians into getting their land back. I do not know if you will find me, or if I will be still alive when you read this…
"It's faded, I can't read anymore," Susan said.
"Centuries, she said," Peter replied, snatching the note from Susan to read it himself. "We've been gone for centuries!"
"Peter, calm down," Susan said, taking the note back from him and handing it to Lucy.
After reading the note, Lucy looked up at her siblings. "Everyone we knew, the Beavers… Mr. Tumnus! They're all dead," she said, trying to hold back tears. She looked back at the note again, eyeing a small drawing in the bottom right hand corner; a black widow spider but instead of a red hourglass, a read line was drawn diagonally from right to left. "What does this mean?"
Edmund looked over at it. "Maybe the symbol of a Telmarine?" he suggested.
Peter looked back at his chest and picked up something else, something that didn't belong to him: Amber's swords.