Disclaimer: ALL THE RIGHTS TO CHRONICLES OF NARNIA BELONG TO C. S. LEWIS! EXCEPT FOR MARIA WHO IS MY WONDERFUL CHARACTER!

I laid my head on my pillow looking up that the roof of my tent unable to find enough peace for myself to fall asleep. The festivities we had after the Witch left the camp had finally came to an end earlier and my body was exhausted. I pretended to have fun for my friends' sake even though deep down I knew what was to come. I just prayed that it wouldn't happen anytime soon that my father would give himself to the White Witch in Edmund's place.

I started tossing and turning trying to find a more comfortable position when I ended up looking back at the ceiling of my tent when my eyes started to get heavier. Time seemed to slow as everything around me became so familiar once more. I was no longer in my tent but outside. Trees rustled and leaves crunched underneath the footfalls of three figures. Two human, on Lion. It was that that moment that I had used astral projection (which was the gift my father had given me and I figured out the name by doing some research in my uncle's library back home).

I saw Susan and Lucy walking at my father's side with no words spoken to each other, I followed them for a while when my father stopped in his tracks.

"It is time" My father proclaimed, "From here, I must go on alone"

"But Aslan…" Susan protested.

"You have to trust me, for this must be done" My father told them, "Thank you, Susan. Thank you, Lucy. And farewell."

My father walked on ahead leaving Susan and Lucy behind him. My projected self walked behind him knowing that he couldn't see me and easier to follow him. I heard squeals and low growls up ahead and when I saw torches being carried by the White Witch's followers I knew where he was heading, The Stone Table. As he got closer I saw the White Witch standing on top of the table holding a black dagger in her hands, I realized that this is where my father came to die. I tried to close my eyes and hopefully be back at my own body in my tent but when I opened them up again I saw my father walking up the steps to the Stone Table. I tried again and again making myself wake up from this nightmare that was happening in front of me. At this point I was standing at the bottom of the steps to the table looking at the events that were about to unfold without my control.

"Behold. The great Lion." The Witch said in mockery and all of her devotees began laughing.

A Minotaur slowly walked up to my father wielding his axe, and poked him with the knob of his axe earning him a low growl from my father. With one look the Minotaur gave the Witch as she gave a small nod in approval, he knocked my father on his side using his axe. I gave out a small gasp as a small cringe pained my heart. I silently pleaded to my father to fight back which I knew he had no intention of doing.

"Bind him!" The Witch ordered.

Her subjects began to tie up my father with no hesitation and without any struggles from my father. As I hoped that they would leave my father alone, the Witch spoke out.

"Wait" The Witch paused, "Let him first be shaved"

The Witch's dwarf servant, who I recognized from when I rescued Edmund from her camp, pulled out his curved dagger and grabbed a fistful of my father's mane in his hand as he began cutting it off. Once he was done he raised a chunk of my father's mane as if it was a trophy making his comrades cheer before more of them began to continue to shave off the rest of my father's mane. My heart began breaking more as tears started to form in my eyes looking at how defenseless my father was.

"Stop!" I began sobbing even though no one could hear me, "Leave him alone!"

At this point my father's beautiful mane was all cut off.

"Bring him to me" The Witch ordered.

Some of her subjects began pulling on the robes that were tied to my father dragging him up the rest of the steps to the Stone Table, not caring if they were hurting him or not. The crowd began to get louder and more reckless until the White Witch signaled for everyone to be quiet which they immediately did. The was a small moment of silence until vulture-like creatures began pounding their touches on the ground slowly getting the crowd railed up again. I moved myself closer when I saw the Witch crouch down to my father and began whispering to him.

"You know, Aslan, I'm little disappointed in you. Did you honestly think by all this you could save the human traitor? You are giving me your life and saving no one." The Witch chuckled, "So much for love"

She stood up looking down at my father before she began looking all around and looked at all of her subjects.

"Tonight, the Deep Magic will be appeased!" The Witch declared, "But tomorrow, we will take Narnia forever!"

Cheers began overflowing as I saw her gripping the black dagger tighter in her hand. My heart began tightening up as more tears fell down my cheeks. I looked at my father as he was looking around knowing that his life will soon be over until it seemed like he had locked eyes with me as if he knew I was there.

"In that knowledge, despair…" The Witch raised her hand gripping the dagger, "…and die!"

The Witch stabbed my father right in front of me and I was frozen unable to move as I saw life leaving my father's eyes before he died.

"The Great Cat… is dead!" The Witch announced.

"NO!" I cried out and began sobbing when I noticed that I was back in my tent. I was sat up and curled in a ball as I began crying my heart out. I was going through denial in my head hoping that this was all just a horrible nightmare and not my reality. I wiped the tears from my eyes and pulled my blankets off of me and quickly slipped on my shoes before I ran out of my tent to my father's. I entered his tent to find it completely empty. The wave of bad emotions came to me as I sobbed once more and I collapsed on my knees.

"You promised" I said out loud as if my father could hear me, "You promised you would always be there"

I couldn't take the pain and sadness so I stood up and ran out of the tent to the one person my heart was calling out to. I ended up in front of Peter and Edmund's tent and I entered it without any hesitation. I saw Peter and Edmund still sleeping as I knelt down to Peter's sleeping side.

"Peter. Peter." I called to him with tears falling from my eyes and I shook him awake, "Pete, please wake up!"

I saw Peter slowly open his eyes and began rubbing them, "Maria?" Once Peter noticed that I was crying he jumped out from his bed and knelt down beside me, "What's wrong? What happened?"

I didn't say anything but burying my face in his chest as I began sobbing uncontrollably. I felt Peter wrap his arms around me pulling me closer to him as I cried even more.

"Shhh, it's okay, Ria" Peter whispered soothingly in my ear and hold me tighter, "I've got you"

"Oh come on!" I heard Edmund grumble sleepily and heard movement as if he was sitting up from his bed, "Maria? What's wrong?"

My cries started to die down into sniffles and I lifted my head from Peter's chest wiping the remaining tears from my tear-streaked face.

"It's my father. He-" I began to explain until a bunch of swirling pink petals surrounded the tent. Peter drew his sword immediately while pulling me closer to him. I grabbed Peter's wrist softly making him put down his sword as the petals formed into a female Dryad.

"Be still, my Princes" the Dryad told the boys gently holding up her flower-petal hand, "I bring grave news from your sisters."

A couple of hours later, Edmund, Orieus and I were standing in front of my father's tent with a table of battle plans in front of us. We saw Peter exit from my father's tent with a grave, grief stricken look on his face.

"She's right" Peter said gravely, "He's gone"

We all became silent mourning the loss of my father and Orieus placed his hand on my shoulder knowing how close I was to him.

"Then… you'll have to lead us" Edmund told Peter.

Peter and I both turned our heads surprised by Edmund's maturity and when I turned to Peter I saw fear and doubt in his eyes.

"Peter, there's an army out there" Edmund continued, "And it's ready to follow you."

"I can't" Peter protested leaning his hands on the table.

"Aslan believed you could" Edmund countered, "And so do I"

"Peter" I spoke up and went to Peter's side softly placing a caring hand on top of his hand. When Peter turned to look at me I could see the same fear and frustration from earlier, "I believe in you. You could do this and we all are behind you." Peter gave my hand a soft squeeze and a small smile as a thank you which made me give him a smile in return.

"The Witch's army is advancing, Sire" Orieus informed, "What are your orders?"

Peter looked down at the battle plans with a serious face, "Is there any way we can find out how large the Witch's army is?"

"We could have a soldier scout the area before the battle" Orieus suggested.

"Send a gryphon, they could get a better view from above" I added, "As for how large the army is, that is another story entirely"

"We have to figure out a way to deplete the numbers" Edmund pointed out.

"Well it's not like we could bomb them" I muttered under my breath.

Peter looked up at me, looked back at the battle plans and faced me once again, "Maria, you're a genius!"

"Huh?" I was confused.

"We could bomb them, just like what the Germans did back in London" Peter pointed out.

"Peter, you do realize that bombs are a tad outdated here" Edmund added.

"Excuse me, Your Majesties, but what is a bomb?" Orieus asked.

"It's basically a- a- really big fire" I struggled on trying to explain, "Caused by a very big boom"

"We do not have such…. 'big booms' here."

"Then what about boulders?" Edmund glanced up. "We could drop the boulders on their heads?"

"It may not go 'boom' but it does go 'squash'." I chuckled at the thought.

"That is an excellent idea, Your Majesty." Orieus complemented Edmund whose face lit up with gleam as the centaur bowed his head slightly towards the younger king,

Peter interrupted Edmund's moment of accomplishment. "It was a team effort."

I scooted closer to the war table "Well then, now that we got all that settled. We should start preparing for battle. Orieus, summon Margaret to my tent please"

"Margaret is ready for you already, Your Highness" Orieus told me, "And Gerald is ready for His Majesties"

"Always thinking one step ahead, Orieus" I praised before turning to Peter and Edmund, "See you both later"

I turned around and headed toward my tent. Once I arrived, Margaret was waiting outside my tent for me.

"Good morning, Princess" Margaret curtsied for me,

"Morning, Margaret, let's get started" I greeted and she open the tent for me and allowed me to enter the tent first where I saw my armor displayed in front of me, held up by a wire mannequin.

Margaret noticed my reaction and spoke, "Your father knew that you hated chainmail so he had the fauns design you something to your liking"

I walked closer to the armor admiring every detail of it from the leather bound chest plate to the leather armored shoulder pads and the silk cream colored sleeves to the leather armbraces. I felt tears sting my eyes as I thought of my recent departed father and I took a deep breath wiping away my tears and I turned to Margaret.

"It's time" I told her.

Margaret nodded and she helped be out of my dress and slip before I had put on cream colored trousers on. I slipped on the silk top and put on my knee high brown boots. Margaret helped me with my chest plate making sure it was nice and secure before strapping on my shoulder pads. I put on my armbraces and strapped my Sais around my waist. Margaret did my hair by pulling it back into a French braid ponytail leaving a few curls to frame my face. Once she was done, Margaret pointed to my bed showing me my bow and arrows, and a longsword.

"Which will you choose to take into battle with you, Your Highness?" Margaret asked.

Before I had a chance to answer, I heard someone clearing their throat outside of my tent.

"Maria?" It was Peter, "Are you decent?"

"You could come in, Peter" I answered.

"I was just wondering if you-" Peter walked in the tent then stopped in his tracks the moment he laid is eyes on me.

I smiled softly and looked at Margaret, "Thank you, Margaret, I'll take it from here"

"As you wish, Princess" Margaret bowed to me and Peter before exiting my tent.

Peter couldn't keep his eyes off of me and I felt my face feeling hot from his gaze. I looked at Peter in his knightly attire that looks like it was pulled straight out of a history book covered with a mixture of chainmail and plate armor with a red tunic over it with a symbol of a lion on it.

"You look very knightly" I told him knocking back to reality.

"And you look beautiful" Peter said looking directly into my eyes.

I knew I was blushing madly as I turned back to my bed picking out my longsword instead of my bow.

"Was there something you needed to tell me?" I asked strapping the sword on my back.

I turned around to see Peter looking down really nervous as he couldn't figure out what to say next. I walked up to him waving my hand in front of his face.

"Pete, what's wrong?" I asked him.

Peter looked up at me and I could see the worry in his eyes, "Look, if anything happens-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence" I scolded him turning around walking away from him towards my bed and stopping midway taking a deep breath.

I felt Peter's presence right behind me and he put his gauntlet hand on my arm gently, "Ria, look at me"

I turned around slowly keeping my head down unable to look at Peter because I was already feeling myself tear up. I saw Peter putting his hand on my chin, the cold touch of the gauntlet sent a shiver down my spine as he lifted my head to look at him. Once I made eye contact with him I felt tears going down my cheeks. Peter wiped my tears away with his metal hand and then left his hand cupping my cheek.

"Look, you know more than anyone how unpredictable the battlefield is, you almost died trying to save Edmund, but this is bigger than that" Peter explained.

"I know that, Peter" I told him placing my hand over his, "but the only way that we'll get through this is to not dwell of the negatives. The Witch is trying to get into our heads but I'm not letting her. She already took my father away from me, she's not taking anything else"

Peter took a deep breath and placed his forehead against mine, "I love you"

I smiled and pecked his lips, "I love you too"

Peter stood up straight and smiled nervously, "Are you ready, Ria?"

I nodded fixing my straps, "Let's show the Witch what we're made of"

(A/N: I'M SOOOOOOOO SOOOOORRRRRYYY! I'm a sorry excuse for a writer! I know that I said that I would update sooner but I have no internet at my house anymore so now I'm using my friend's internet to update this story! I promise now that I for sure have free time in my hands I will have this story updated more frequently! I apologize once again and I hope that you all enjoy this chapter! PEACE AND LOVE! -BubblyKristiStyles)