Chapter Ten: The How

"And then there were two," Lily muttered to herself while smiling slightly. A small silence fell over the two as they stood next to each other, unsure of where to look.

A minute must have passed before Lily cleared her throat before speaking. "So what is this place exactly?" she asked, speaking over her shoulder as she started making her way towards one of the many stone sculptures that lined the room. They were all excellently detailed and Lily could only assume that each one had taken at least a few months to get just right. A few statues had been made in her image over the years when the Pevensie's ruled over Narnia. She could remember all the different appointments she had had, just standing there as a reference for the artist. Given the option, she would much rather have to portrait painted than pose for a statue any day.

Caspian remained where he was, standing near the entrance to the room, but answered her question in a loud voice so he could be heard over the long distance. "The Narnians call it either Aslan's How or just simply The How. From what I've been told, it was built a few hundred years ago."

"Interesting," Lily mused to herself, moving from one section of sculptures to the next where a unicorn, a faun, and fox stood together. "Is this the only room that leads off from the main opening or are there more tunnels and rooms?" she asked while studying the face of the unicorn.

"We have found a few other tunnels that lead off into different rooms. There is more than enough room to house High King Peter's army." Although there was a bit of a distance between them, Lily could pick up the distaste Caspian had for Peter and couldn't help but shake her head as a small smirk appeared on her lips.

"Why Prince Caspian, surely that isn't malice I detect in your tone. You are speaking of the rightful King of Narnia after all." She kept her back to the young Prince in order to hide her smile, unable to help herself from teasing him.

"Oh, of course not," Caspian stuttered, not wanting the protector to get the wrong impression of him. "I would never speak ill of his Highness."

Incapable of holding it back any longer, a small giggle passed Lily's lips. Turning around, she faced Caspian and let her smile be seen. "I'm only jesting with you, dear Caspian. I understand that Peter isn't always the easiest to get along with… at least recently anyways."

Caspian stood there, a bit shocked. It was just so strange to him, interacting with the people who had once been nothing more than characters in his history book. Hero's of legend. Seeing them so young and fresh-faced was one thing, but to have one of them joke around with him. He still had it in his mindset that they were going to be much older and more serious. It was definitely going to take some getting used to.

Lily waited for the Prince to say something, but nothing passed his lips. Wanting to break the uncomfortable silence that had filled the room, she stepped away from the sculptures and crossed the room until she stood directly in front of him.

"Would you mind showing me some of these other tunnels that you have found?" she asked before quickly adding, "If you don't, I might end up getting lost. I don't have to best track record with large and unfamiliar environments."

She really wasn't one for large places with many rooms or passageways. It had taken her the first two months of them living at Cair Paravel to learn her way around. And even then she still had a hard time navigating the hallways. More than once she would get careless and end up walking into a broom cupboard instead of someone's study or show up late to a meeting because she found her way down in the kitchens somehow. Of course, it didn't help that there were many secret passages hidden in that castle. But it was only ever in the castle that she had troubles. Leave her in the middle of the woods somewhere and she would be able to find her way back home in a matter of hours depending on how far away she was.

"We wouldn't want that, now would we?" Caspian said with a small shake of his head. Placing a smile on his face, he held out an arm for the girl and waited for her to take it while saying, "Follow me."

Lily smiled as well, happily looping her arm through his.

They started in the forge, Caspian pointing out the different stations as they passed. On their way across, they spotted Peter and Edmund standing next to large dark centaur that immediately reminded Lily of Oreius. Her face once again fell at the thought of her dear friend and mentor, though she was quick to push away the expression before Caspian could see. As they walked, Peter followed the pair with his eyes, a scowl tugging at his features when he saw Lily's arm looped through Caspian's. It wasn't until they had disappeared down another set of tunnels on the other side of the room, and Edmund speaking his name, that he turned away and returned to the conversation he had been having about weapon production.

Next, Caspian decided to show her what she had asked about, the different tunnels that branched out from the forge and the rooms that they held or led two. Most of them were being used to either store food or house finished armor and weapons. Though a few of them had been cleaned out and converted into privet living quarters. Those were all down the same tunnel so Caspian took the time to point out each one to her. His was the very first opening and was covered by a dark gray bit of cloth that acted as a door. Then there was the one that had been prepared for Edmund and Georgie, which was behind a dark red cloth. After that came the slightly larger one that her, Susan, and Lucy would be sharing behind the blue cloth. And finally, being High King, Peter also got his own room at the end of the tunnel, which was covered by a bright red cloth with the gold crest of a lion stamped in the center.

Lily bit her tongue and kept quiet over the fact that Peter, in fact, would not be getting the room to himself.

After the tunnels, the two decided to take a quick stroll around the How so that Lily could get a better feel for the place as well as a better look. During this time they talked about many things, a friendship forming as they learned more about one another. Caspian told Lily about his life and how his Uncle was trying to kill him so that he could become King. When he was finished, Lily told Caspian all about her and her brother's training so many years ago and what it was like being a protector. After that, they discussed the different types of weapons that they were trained in. That led them into the topic of who was the better fighter as they reentered the forge.

"I'm sure you are very skilled, Prince Caspian. But I do believe that I have been fighting longer," Lily insisted.

"Oh, Lady Lillian, you can't possibly be telling me that you think age is the sole defining factor of ones skills," Caspian challenged, a smug expression stretching across his face.

Lily stopped walking and squinted her eyes at the prince. "I think this calls for a duel then. We'll see who the better fighter is." Over Caspian's shoulder, she spotted her brother approaching, a bored expression on his face.

"I guess this conversation will have to resume at a later time," Lily muttered before tuning to her brother. "What's wrong, Georgie? Where are Susan and Lucy?"

A sigh escaped the young protector's lips as he met his sister's gaze. "They are in their room resting. Good thing too because I was about to impale myself with my sword."

"Why would you do that?" Now Lily was really confused.

"Because I've just spent the past hour listening to our good friend Susan spouting out facts that I really didn't need to know. I mean, I really don't care about how you carve a sculpture or the types of tools you use. She does realize that we have all seen it done before, right? I mean, we've all had sculpture's made of us."

Laughter spilled from Lily's mouth. She should have known that her brother, who was always getting into trouble at school for not paying attention, has never been able to spend large amounts of time with Susan without wanting to harm himself. He once started knocking his head against a table when she had talked about some historical fact for more ten minutes after one of their history lessons.

Georgie glared at his sister. "It's not funny," he grumbled, his arms crossed over his chest. "It was terrible. Truly awful."

Caspian stood slightly off to the side, turning from one sibling to the next as they spoke. He wore a confused expression, not really understanding what was going on, as he had yet been able to spend an extended amount of time with Susan.

Lily continued to laugh for a few more seconds before straightening up and looking at her brother. She was just opening her mouth to tell him that he just needs to learn how to tune her out when a faun came running into the forge, heading straight toward Peter and Edmund who stood only a few feet away. The three watched as Peter's back straightened as the faun started to speak to him.

"I wonder what he's saying," Georgie said, his eyes squinted slightly in concentration. "It doesn't seem to be good news."

The faun had finished reporting his news so it was Peter's turn to speak. The High King's message was short, however, because the faun was soon nodding and hurrying off. Peter then said something quick to Edmund before the two brothers started to make their way towards Caspian, Georgie, and Lily.

"I guess we're about to find out," Lily said, watching the two approach.

Author's Note: I really like this chapter, I added to it a lot so you can get a better feel of the How as well as show some bonding. I mean, someone should be nice to Caspian, and who better than Lily! Plus there was just a hint of jealous Peter so that's a lot of fun! There will be more of that in the next couple of chapters. Like always, thank you so much for your reviews Kate07! I love hearing how much you enjoy this story, it makes me smile :) Thank you everyone else for the follows and favorites, I'll see you all next Monday with the next chapter!