A/N: Hello. Here's a chapter. Enjoy ;)

Chapter 21: The Moon and the Dragons

Peter's POV

It was 3 days to the wedding.

3 more days and I would be a married man.

3 more days till I wed Serena.

I was pacing up and down my room, thinking of how I would phrase what I wanted to say. It was rather ridiculous actually, how I was still so nervous when it came to this. By now, I should have been able to talk to her without having to rehearse the content, but for some reason, I always found myself speechless when I was with her.

Is this what love is really like?

How did Ed, Cas and Lo ever survive?

I took a deep breath and finally decided to stop being a coward and pull myself together.

I was going to be a husband, it was about time I started acting like a man.

I briskly walked over to Serena's room and knocked on her door three times firmly. There was a rustle followed by a thud from inside, until the door abruptly swung open, revealing a rather dishevelled-looking Serena.

"Oh, hi, um is everything alright in there?"

I tried peering into her room, wondering if there was anyone inside, but Serena made sure her door was just open enough for her to stick her head out.

"Oh yes, I was just looking for something and I dropped a book. Clumsy me." She giggled nervously, and I knew that was probably not the story.

"Is someone in there?"

Serena's eyes widened a bit and she let out a nervous chuckle again.

"Who would possibly come to my room Peter, of course not!"

I raised an eyebrow but decided not to dwell on it; after all, I had other things on my mind.

"Right, anyway, Serena as you know, our wedding is in 3 days and I was wondering if you'd like to go for a ride with me later? It'll just be through the Shuddering Woods, and we could talk and enjoy the beauty of the evening. What do you say?"

I was rather proud of myself, for how confident and even somewhat poised I came across. In all honesty, I was jittering on the inside, dreading the possibility of her turning me down and causing a sour start to our marriage.

Serena smiled, and that made my heart calm down.

"I'd love to."

Edmund's POV

"Dada!"

I whipped around, my eyes wide and my breath held.

There she was, my little girl, standing in her crib, smiling gleefully at me, a twinkle in her eyes. The wind was blowing softly, causing the little tufts of hair on her head to wisp around gently, and the frills of her frock also blew gently around her pudgy legs.

"What did you say?"

I walked towards her, not wanting that to be just a trick of my imagination. She watched me, her smile never faltering, and giggled a bit.

"Dada!"

I let out a laugh of disbelief and picked her up.

"Ella! Come quick!"

I mounted her on my hip and couldn't take my eyes off how adorable she looked, her little nose slightly red and her lips glistening. Her voice was like sweet music to my ears, and the most precious thing I ever heard.

Plus, I won the bet!

"Ella! Get over here now, you won't believe it!" I shouted out.

I glanced over to our bathroom, where my wife was currently on the other side of the closed door. It was quiet, which was strange since she always yelled back a response whenever I called out to her.

"El?"

Finally, the door opened, and she slowly emerged, looking down and holding the side of her head. I frowned in worry and walked over to her, still carrying my little squirmy toddler.

"You alright?"

Ella looked up at me, and I could see beads of perspiration on her forehead. She was slightly pale and her eyes were droopy, but there was worry etched all over her face. She was breathing heavily, and her brows were knotted as ever.

"Remember how I thought I was going to get a vision when I was having that bad headache?"

I nodded, readjusting Talina onto the other side of my hip as she started playing with my hair.

"Well I was right."

Peter's POV

"And that's when I realised, I have a huge phobia of spiders!"

Serena couldn't stop laughing, which meant I was laughing uncontrollably as well. I had never opened up to someone about myself this much before, I always thought it made one weak and vulnerable- to share secrets. But with Serena, it just became so easy and natural, and it felt almost right to share such details with her.

But then something occurred to me.

I was talking so much about myself that I realised I still didn't know much about her. I knew her background was supposed to be a secret, lord knows why, but I didn't know much about her fears or her dreams, or likes and dislikes.

And that just wasn't right.

"Hey, enough about me! What about you? What's your biggest fear?"

Serena's laughter died down and she appeared thoughtful for a moment. There was this period of silence as she thought, just the sounds of our horses' hooves slowly clucking on the undergrowth of the forest and the slight rustle of leaves in the breezy night accompanying us.

Finally, she looked up and took a deep breath.

"Disappointment."

I arched an eyebrow.

Interesting answer.

"You mean, being a disappointment or facing one?"

"Being one."

She didn't really elaborate further beyond that, and I deliberated with myself on whether I should question her further or let it slide.

She seemed rather guarded about it, and I felt like it was something she didn't really want to talk about much, or was even ready to talk about.

So I decided to change the topic.

"The stars are out tonight."

She looked up, smiling at the little silver dots in the vast indigo sky. The moon shone down on her, and she had never looked more beautiful. She was radiating grace and wonder, her hair like a gentle halo of light enveloping her face. And in that moment, I knew.

I was ready to marry this girl.

I wanted to.

"I love the stars."

Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts as she glanced at me, and I tried to make myself look like I wasn't just staring at her like some creep.

"Oh? And why's that?"

Serena reached up to touch the pendant resting on her chest, which I only just realised was a silver star, small but delicate.

"My sister's up there."

Understanding filled me as I noticed her eyes gloss over in sorrow, and I berated myself for not being smarter when it came to situations like this.

I was never good at comforting and consoling people.

That was Susan's department.

"I'm so sorry."

Serena shook her head, as if to stop herself from thinking of something, and smiled at me, or at least, tried to.

"Don't be. I'm glad she's where she belongs. Besides, she's still with me."

She was still touching her pendant, and I felt rather touched that she was willing to open up to me about a sensitive issue like this. It must have been hard for her to remember her sister, but she was still here, talking to me about it.

Which was a good sign.

We reached an open clearing, and I realised where we were.

"This is where Edmund proposed to Ella!"

I recalled Edmund talking about it for weeks, planning every little detail even down to where he would lay out the mat in the valley, which gave the best position to view the shooting stars. It was the most beautiful part of Narnia in my opinion. It was one of the few places where you could see both the horizon and the vast sky so clearly. The moon was shining exceptionally bright tonight, which only reminded me once more of the impending occasion that was going to occur in a couple of days.

"It's gorgeous. It must have been the most romantic proposal ever." Serena commented wistfully.

I felt a bit sheepish in that moment as I realised even though I was marrying Serena, I had never actually proposed to her.

Well, it wasn't exactly a conventional marriage.

I felt almost guilty, as I recalled Lucy mention to me how every girl dreams of the perfect proposal, when her true love gets down on one knee and asks the special question. Serena must have had the same dream, yet here she was, being thrown into a marriage in the least romantic way possible.

The least I could do was try to make tonight romantic.

I got off my horse and walked over to Serena's, gripping her waist and lifting her off hers. She gripped onto my shoulders and watched me in confusion, but I refused to say anything. Instead, I just took her small, warm hand and guided her to the middle of the cliff.

I sat down onto the scratchy grass, and patted the spot beneath me, grinning up at her. Serena let out a little giggle and sat down next to me, quite close to me might I add, and crossed her legs demurely, reinforcing the point that she would make a great queen.

"It's official, this is my new favourite place in Narnia." She whispered, looking around and soaking in the tranquillity of my kingdom.

Narnia was magical in every sense of the word, and this particular location captured this essence perfectly. From the gentle waves lapping at the shoreline lazily, giving a soothing rhythm to the silent night, to the soulful trees, whispering sweet nothings to one another through the quiet winds, everything about this moment was perfect. And as I glanced at my future wife who was currently staring at the moon, I smiled.

For once, everything actually felt okay.

"Do you know the story of the moon and dragons?"

I tensed up a bit when she mentioned dragons, I wasn't exactly fond of those creatures who tried to destroy Narnia, but I didn't want to ruin the moment so I bit my tongue and let her continue.

"They say that the moon was actually an egg, long ago. And one day, it got too close to the sun and cracked from the heat. Then out emerged these giant majestic creatures. They soared high above the land, with the winds beneath the wings and the fire of the sun burning in their bellies."

Serena seemed really passionate as she talked, and there was almost a glimmer of excitement in her eyes. It was quite unsettling, how enthusiastic she was about this topic.

Perhaps she wasn't aware just how horrible her "majestic" friends were.

"Yeah, the fire in their bellies almost burning down this entire kingdom."

Serena's smile disappeared and she looked at me, a mixture of anger and sadness on her face which perplexed me to say the least. It was almost as if she was being defensive over them.

"Dragons are not evil creatures. That is a horrible lie being passed down as the truth."

My jaw dropped and I stared at her in shock.

How could she say that?!

"What is wrong with you? Are you actually defending dragons?"

"They are seriously misunderstood creatures, and so were their people."

"The Darlugans?! You're supporting them too?"

"Of course. The Darlugans and the dragons were peaceful people, not what your stupid legends play them out to be."

"And how, may I ask, could you be so sure of that?"

"I just am!"

"Serena, dragons tried to take over Narnia, being controlled by the Darlugans, and nearly caused my kingdom to perish! Do you not know about the great war that-"

"Yes I know everything about that damn war, I was there!"

I was about to reply when the meaning of what she said sunk it. I stopped and looked at her, and her eyes were wide, as if she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"W-What do you mean, you were there?"

My mind was filled with millions of questions, and at some point I was even questioning as to whether I had heard her right or my ears had deceived me.

"Serena, the war happened millions of years ago. What do you mean, you were there?"

Serena looked down, her gaze unable to meet mine, and her breathing had suddenly picked up pace. Her eyes were darting all over the ground, and she was gripping onto the grass beneath us.

"Serena?"

Suddenly, she jumped up and started pacing around frantically. I got up too, though slower as my mind was still wrapping itself around what she had just revealed.

"I'm sorry, please, let's just forget I said anything! Could we please? This conversation never happened! Yes, let's just pretend this conversation never happened okay?"

She was pacing around and talking hysterically, wringing her hands together as her eyes still refused to meet mine.

"No, Serena, I want answers-"

My tone was firm and rather angry to say the least, because by this point I was as confused as ever and I hated being in that state of mind.

Finally, Serena looked at me, and I saw those tears filling up her violet eyes even though I knew she was struggling to hold them back.

"I'm so sorry."

With that, she ran towards her horse and leapt onto it, kicking it to gallop away into the woods. As the sound of her horses' hooves became more and more distant, I yelled with all my might.

"Serena! Serena get back here!"

But there was no reply.

She was gone.

A/N: Some of you are really smart when y'all shared your guesses pertaining to the pervious chapter.

But if you want the truth, you're just going to have to wait ;)

Thanks to everyone who has still put up with my rubbish updating habits and are still nice enough to leave such wonderful reviews. You guys make me smile :)

Anyway, speaking of reviews, REVIEW! ;D