AN: I'm sorry If this chapter comes across as a little confusing/fact-paced I did the best i could (honest I did) and the story just didn't seem to work any other way.

Nikabrik the dwarf stood at the bend in the dirt road, he had been scowling only a little while ago-angry and cross and thoroughly displeased-but now a smile had actually come onto his face. It was, in fact, the first time he had smiled since his beard had been cut off (he still blamed Susan and Lucy for that even though they wouldn't have had to cut it off at all if he'd managed to keep himself out of trouble). The reason for the smile now was that he thought himself quite alone, alone enough to open his latest sack and admire their contents in the last few rays of the sunlight. Though he was not at all the sort of person who had any appreciation for beauty, he did know what wealth was, and he loved to gloat. Surely no one would be coming this way at this hour. At any rate, it was a fairly seldom-used road. Beaming smugly, he opened the sack and dumped its contents onto the ground.

Tons and tons-perhaps even a thousand if they were all counted up-of glistening precious stones and gems; emeralds, rubies, diamonds, topazes, pearls, aquamarines, crystals, sapphires, amethysts, and large stones a dark yellowish colour which was in general called, 'Fay's gold' because most humans, dwarfs, centaurs, beasts, and other creatures had never even seen this kind of jewel, never mind actually owned one, landed on the ground with almost musical-sounding clinks. Nikabrik grinned down at his booty, feeling very pleased with himself.

Though it hardly seemed possible, the sack was not yet empty, which Nikabrik well knew. At the bottom, there was a small jewelry box which he thought-hoped-contained the four most valuable pieces of jewelry in all of the Narnian Universe. No where, not in Archenland, Calormen, Ettinsmoor, or even in the secret places far beyond the Lone Islands, did there exist objects so powerful as these that the dwarf desperately wanted to possess along with all his new-found wealth. Rubbing his dirty, coarse, greedy hands together, the dwarf took the box out into the open and flung off the lid. Peering in he saw there were chains of gold and ropes of pearls so milky-white they glowed like the moon itself; he hastily moved these aside. Yes, with all of this he could buy a pleasure palace and hire servants and live comfortably, but he'd already known he could have all of those things just from the glittering stones in this sack and the other two like it he'd taken. What he wanted was something even more special. They would be amongst the rings, surely, he decided-cheering up a great deal when he noticed the box did contain a fair share of rings, all different shapes and sizes.

His expression became bitter again when he saw that none of these rings were the rings, the ones the two royal fay brothers had so cleverly managed to keep hidden from him. None could have been because, though there were golden rings, they weren't the right hue of yellow. And though there were indeed a good deal of emerald rings, they were not the correct tint of green. Or maybe they were; quickly, looking both ways, Nikabrik slipped a golden ring onto his middle finger, concentrated, and shut his eyes. Nothing happened.

Grunting furiously to himself, he pulled the ring off and flung it into one of the nearby caves. "Stupid! Useless! I hate those stupid fays, I hate them!"

Coming around the bend, completely unprepared for the sight their eyes would meet when they reached the turn, were Susan and Lucy. Lucy was still a little cross over not being permitted to go and speak to Edmund and the other cloaked figure in the market place so she wasn't saying much to Susan. Susan thought her little sister was simply being sulky and overly dramatic-the way young children get when they aren't given their own way-let the walk pass in silence, certain Lucy would get over it soon enough and be her normal, happy, chipper self in no time. But they soon forgot their thoughts, dazzled by the heaps and heaps of valuable gems spread out all over the road as if they were ordinary rocks and stones.

"Oh my!" exclaimed Susan, quite at a loss for words.

"Gosh, isn't it lovely?" Lucy breathed, watching the almost-setting sun cause the gems to cast rainbow lights all over the side-caves.

Then they noticed Nikabrik, who in turn, noticed them, too. He was not at all pleased to see them, already in a foul mood over not finding what he wanted in the box.

"Where did you get all these?" Lucy couldn't help asking the dwarf, unable to shift her gaze off of the beautiful jewels even for a moment.

"None of your business!" He snarled, coming towards them with a dangerously fearsome look on his face. "I've had enough of you two getting in my way."

"Getting in your way?" Susan repeated incredulously. "We've saved you three times; without us, you would have been caught for ever, or else drowned, or even carried off by that griffin."

"You are too stupid; you goose-heads don't even know what's going on here! If you think your sorry selves to be helping me, why did you harbor my greatest foe in your home? Why did you tear my coat and cut my poor beard? Eh? Bad luck to you clumsy hussies!" Nikabrik howled and raved like a lunatic and though Susan felt she really must grab Lucy and race back to the cottage-getting away from the mad dwarf-as fast as possible, she could not stop herself from continuing to stand there gaping at him in confusion.

"I'm going to teach you a lesson!" Unexpectedly and completely uncalled for, Nikabrik suddenly lunged at Lucy and grabbed onto her right arm, twisting it around her back so that it hurt terribly. She let out a cry of pain and Susan kicked at the dwarf, demanding for him to unhand her sister immediately.

When he didn't let go and Lucy kept on crying out, certain that her arm, and very likely her wrist as well, would be broken if the dwarf carried on like this for much longer, a very strange thing happened. Bounding out of a small wood-like cluster of trees in the distance from the other side of the deserted bend, came a large black bear-roaring and growling his whole head off.

Gulping, Nikabrik turned around and faced him, still holding onto poor Lucy's arm. "You!"

Though the dwarf seemed to expect the bear to answer him in speech, the bear did not, rather he just growled louder.

"Don't do this!" The dwarf cried out suddenly attempting to sound like a piteious victim after he had just attacked a poor little girl who had never done him any harm for no reason at all. "You don't want to do this."

The bear paid him no heed, he just growled and roared all the more until finally, Nikabrik, at the end of this collective wits by this point, thrust Lucy in front of himself. "Eat her, leave me alone!"

The bear actually paused for a moment, raising an eyebrow as if to say, 'Are you kidding me? You can't be serious!' and cocked his head to the side in such an almost tame fashion that Lucy, looking up into the beast's eyes-which were blue-recognized him.

"Peter!" She gasped excitedly, wondering what was going on. Why didn't he speak? Why did he just roar and growl and fuss like that? What was he trying to do?

Susan came closer, meaning to rescue her sister from both the dwarf and the bear-whom she didn't know for the same bear who had stayed with them that winter, not yet having seen him up close enough to recognize his eyes. Picking up one of the gems, a large diamond about the size of a golf ball, she flung it as hard as she could at the bear.

"Ouch!" The bear exclaimed, looking over at her with an expression that was somewhere between happy to see her and deeply annoyed.

She hadn't identified him yet but she realized from the 'ouch' that he must have been one of the talking bears, probably meaning no harm to Lucy, only to the dwarf. Blushing slightly from embarrassment she called out, "Sorry!"

The bear lifted his paw to swat Nikabrik with, he would have done so already but he feared hitting Lucy by mistake and had to be more careful about which way he aimed.

This caused Nikabrik to launch into a full-on panic screaming, "Kill me last! Kill me last! Kill me last!"

The bear hesitated and Nikabrik almost dared to hope he still hadn't found the strength to do away with him just yet until he finally spoke directly to the dwarf. "It ends now."

"No!" screamed the dwarf. "It will never end, the 'dwarfs for the dwarfs' will rise and defeat you, you'll never win! You fays wont have the power ever again! Your time is up, we will destroy you!"

"Nobody hurts my girls." The bear said in a tone so serious, final, and deadly that no one upon hearing it would dare to protest or argue. His paw went flying as swiftly as an arrow, killing Nikabrik instantly.

"Why-" Lucy blinked up at the bear for a moment before Susan grabbed her arm-not the one Nikabrik had hurt-and started running, trying to get off the road, back in the direction of the cottage.

"Wait! Susan, Lucy, I'll come with you." A voice behind them called out.

This time, Susan recognized Peter's voice and stopped mid-step, giving poor flustered, traumatized Lucy a chance to catch her breath. Slowly, both girls turned around to see the bear coming towards them. The strange thing was that he looked different, very different, smaller somehow. The closer he got to them the more he seemed to look less and less like a bear until at last he appeared to be nothing but a slim figure, presumably a young man, covered in a large winter fur coat. When he stood panting at their side, the coat seemed to become more like a cape held together with a copper clasp; two white hands came out from under the cape and undid it. Flinging it off his shoulders, he revealed himself.

Susan felt faint from the mere shock of it all and had to steady herself on her little sister's shoulder for a moment, trying to remember to take deep slow breaths. Standing in front of them was what looked to her like a young Narnian lord dressed in a glistening golden tunic.

The corners of his mouth turned upwards. "Hullo."

"Who are you?" Susan blurted out, taking a step backwards.

"Susan," there was a ring of laughter in his voice. "It's me, Peter!"

"Don't be sil-" she started to argue but when she looked a little harder at his face, she realized he was telling the truth; whatever form he was in, surely this was the very same person who had been with them that winter. "Oh, it is you!"

"Why did you kill the dwarf?" Lucy had to ask. If he had been protecting her, couldn't he have done it without killing anyone? She just hated the idea of someone having to lose their life because of her.

"I had to." Peter shook his head sadly as if he wanted her to understand but didn't expect her to. "He...did something to me...a long time ago...well, not just to me...but...it's sort of hard to explain...and then you...and well...I..."

Peter's stammering was cut short by the sound of hoof-beats; a unicorn with two riders covered by black cloaks-one of whom Lucy already knew was Edmund-on his back, came galloping towards them. The first rider, dropped from the saddle and pulled his hood off, that one was Edmund. He seemed a little surprised to see his brother in his true form instead of a bear-unlike Susan and Lucy, he knew what that really meant.

The other rider, Eustace, came down and took off his hood, too. Bowing to Peter, he said, "Your majesty!"

"Majesty?" Susan nearly choked on her own spit.

"You were finally able to bring yourself to kill him, Pete?" Edmund spoke the words like a question, but somehow Lucy got the idea that it wasn't actually one that needed a full answer.

"He was hurting Lucy." Peter explained, gently reaching over and nudging Lucy's slightly bruised wrist forward.

"That little son of a-" Edmund started before a sharp glare from Susan shut him up. He was instantly at Lucy's side, examining her hurt arm. "Lucy, are you alright?"

"I-I think so..." said Lucy, her eyes filling up with tears, though she wasn't sure why.

"All right, what is going on here?" Susan folded her arms across her chest, arching both of her eyebrows.

"The griffin warned us that Nikabrik was on this road and we were a little concerned; or rather, he told Eustace," Edmund nodded over him. "who came into the market place to tell me. We...we didn't think this would happen though...Peter could never actually bring himself to kill him before."

"What will the rest of the 'dwarfs for the dwarfs' do now that their leader is dead and Peter is himself again?" Eustace wondered aloud, nervously fidgeting with his fingers.

"I don't know." Edmund had to admit, looking very grim, although a little less grave than he normally would have in that sort of situation, pleased about his brother's freedom from the enchantment after so long.

"Someone had better start explaining!" Susan insisted, stamping her foot and looking over at Peter sort of shyly, unable to look quite as firm as she meant to.

When he caught her looking over at him, he got this sort of demented-looking smile on his face and proceeded to stand there beaming back at her wordlessly.

Needless to say, it appeared that it was up to Edmund to try and explain everything to Susan and Lucy. "Well you see, it's like this-"

Before he could tell them the whole truth about what they had all been through and why all of these weird things were happening, a group of dwarfs, the very same ones who had wanted to kill Lucy that night in the forest, came out of one of the caves. At once, they saw all the jewels on the ground and Nikabrik's dead body laid out a little ways away from them.

Edmund stood protectively in front of Lucy; Peter, in front of Susan. Eustace stood at their left, holding his sword out a little unsteadily. The unicorn snorted and stomped his left front hoof on the road threateningly.

The dwarfs pulled out their swords and took a step closer to them. "The dwarfs are for the dwarfs!"

"The dwarfs are for a piece of fruitcake." Eustace muttered sarcastically under his breath.

"The curse is over," Edmund told them, scowling at Ginarrbrik who stood at the front of the line. "Peter is the rightful high king over Narnia, you know that, I know that, so let's drop this little charade before someone gets hurt."

"Your brother killed Nikabrik, we want repayment." wheezed Ginarrbrik. "Give us the rings and spare our skins and perhaps we will call it even."

Peter laughed bitterly. "Taken leave of your senses, have you? Ginarrbrik, only a fool would let something like that fall into the hands of someone like you."

"I know Nikabrik must have had 'em, that's why you killed him, right?" One dwarf in the middle demanded.

"No, he killed him to protect Lucy." Edmund told them. "You and your children's children will look and look for those rings and you will never find them; Nikabrik never did."

"What rings?" Susan tapped the back of Peter's shoulder to get his attention. "What are they talking about?"

"It's a long story, I'll tell you all about it later, I promise." Peter whispered shortly, not because he was cross but because he wasn't sure of the exact moment the dwarfs might try a full-on attack. Certainly they had the advantage of greater numbers on their side at the moment.

Thinking quickly of a way to protect at least one of the sisters, Edmund flung his black cloak all the way back on, stationed himself behind Lucy-leaving her vulnerable for no more than a half-second, and threw the edges of the cloak over her shoulders. When he was ready, the cloak turned him invisible. Because Lucy was under there with him, she seemed to vanish, too.

"Where's Lucy?" cried Susan, frightened that the dwarfs might have somehow done something to her sister and the dark-haired boy, though what they could have possibly done from that distance away from them, she didn't know.

"She's fine." Peter whispered in her ear, wishing he had an invisibility cloak, too. The only one he had was the bear-skin cape laid out on the ground a few feet away which he doubted that would be of any help whatsoever. "My brother's got her."

Meanwhile, in the background, Edmund was leading Lucy over to the unicorn, careful not to let the cloth of the cloak slide off her shoulders even a little bit.

Unwilling to wait any longer, the 'dwarfs for the dwarfs' charged. Peter took out his sword (which was the finest one Susan had ever seen before, inlaid with jewels on the hilt and a saying about the great Lion Aslan carved into the blade in deep gold-leaf lettering) and started defending himself, Eustace (who's cloak, although it looked rather like Edmund's was not the same and could not turn him invisible), and Susan. He was swift of foot and clearly a fantastic swordsman-he must have been taught very well-more than equal to any of the dwarfs. However, they were soon out numbered and there was no hope of Peter and Eustace winning. The dwarfs, unfortunately knowing Peter's weakness, didn't keep on attacking them, rather they cleverly steered them away so that Susan was briefly unprotected. Vulnerable for one second, then two. A minute, two minutes, three. At last, when the opportunity arose, four of them grabbed her by the waist and pulled her down into one of the caves.

By then the unicorn was already thudding away with Edmund and Lucy on his back, leaving only a distraught Peter and Eustace behind.

Susan screamed, trying desperately to cling onto the sides of the cave so as not to get pulled all the way in, but she couldn't hold out for long.

Peter called after her but there was nothing he could do, the dwarfs circled around him and Eustace prevented either of them from rushing towards the cave and rescuing her.

Edmund had managed to see all of this happening over his shoulder and felt sick to his stomach. There was nothing he could have done; the cloak hadn't been big enough for three and if he hadn't grabbed Lucy and ran off, both sisters would have likely been captured. Still, he felt more than a little guilty about his choice. Choosing between two people you care about is never easy but Edmund's conscience plagued him with the notion that perhaps he had selected Lucy to be the saved one simply because he liked her a little better. And that wasn't at all fair to poor Susan who must have been absolutely terrified when the dwarfs grabbed her and took her away.

When they were far away, deep in the forest (of course the unicorn hadn't stopped at the cottage, but had continued right on passed it) Edmund was finally able to safely take the cloak off of himself and Lucy.

Weeping hard as she was helped down onto a moss-covered boulder, Lucy looked at Edmund with so much fear that he nearly hated himself for being part of the cause of it. "What's happening? Why are they doing this?"

Unable to do anything else, Edmund sat on the boulder with her and put his arms around her shoulders. She leaned forward and sobbed into his chest.

AN: Please review and tell me what you thought.