A/N Sorry about any confusion about the last chapter guys: the last chapter was accidentally repeated: my computer spazzed out when I tried to update -.- Anyway, I wanted to update today because tomorrow I'm away on a camp for a week. *sad face* but the camp is EPIC so that's good for me at least. There are going to be about two or three more chapters left of this story, and then there will be a little break before the sequel! Yay! Answering some reviews then!

IwannabeAnnabeth-Awww! Thank you so very much for your reviews! They mean a lot, and I mean A LOT!

Princess of Narnia 1192-That's good that you get it now! I'm sorry it confused you, but it's all good now, right?

MaskedNarnianQueen-Thank-you so much! And you're not repeating yourself (I don't care if you do!) just thanks for reviewing! I'm so happy that you did, because it encourages me to write faster and update sooner

Emma-I see where you're coming from…I know that my first few chapters were worse than the future ones, but I'm glad that you read on and read the better ones

Anyway, thank you all for reviewing, and on with the show!

Chapter Twenty-Five- New Responsibilities

Rachel's Pov

"Mmph," I groaned, "Ahhh." I opened my eyes and looked at the sky, and then that was blocked by faces.

"You're alive!"

"We're alive!"

"We were amazing!"

"It's over!"

I heard all of these voices at the same time, and they kept on babbling on and on and on…it was seriously starting to give me a headache, which reminded me that I was stiff and sore.

"Guys!" I said sternly over the noise. The Pevensies were quiet, "Thank you. Now help me stand up."

Pete took one arm and Ed took the other and the pulled me to my feet, "Jeesh," I grumbled, rubbing my arms, "remember I'm a girl: we're meant to be delicate, gentle creatures."

"Well…" Ed started, "you aren't particularly delicate."

"Or gentle," Pete continued.

"Or a-"

"Watch it Pevensie," I warned playfully with a smile. These two boys and myself seemed to be having more sarcastic and playful moments like this. I looked around me and saw Deimos' still body, which was oozing-black blood?-from various points in his body. Black blood…incredibly strange, and incredibly disgusting to look at.

"Is he-?"

"Yes, I don't think he could have survived that," Su stated. I smiled to myself, but a question popped up in my mind.

"What happened during the battle?"

"Well…Aslan came back to life miraculously." Ed said.

"We were there!" Lucy piped up, pointing to herself and Su.

"And he killed the Witch and…" they explained everything that was left to fill in.

"And what happened to you?" Pete asked, "I watched you die….right in front of my eyes," he finished, slightly sadly. We had all started walking back towards the canyon.

"Well I went back to the Twenty-First century-as you do when you die," I added, to make them laugh slightly, "and it turns out I was in a coma. I thought that Narnia was all a dream because of that. My aunt and uncle super sad that I was dead; I mean, who could miss this beautiful face? And then when I was allowed out of hospital, I went to my grandmother's house and she told me that Narnia was real, and if I smashed a small vase she gave me, I would come back to Narnia, and it turns out she was born in the nineteenth century," I looked at their faces, which held expressions of shock, "I know, it's almost impossible for that to happen, but don't ask, it's very complicated. I smashed the vase after some consideration, and boom! Came back here to," my face distorted into one of disgust as I glanced up and down their bodies, "you guys."

I laughed slightly through my 'ow's' and 'that hurt!'s' while they shoved me from one sibling to the other, "Alright, alright! I've had enough bruises for one day…and I died!" I playfully punched the Pevensie closest to me, which was Pete.

"Hey!" he said in surprise, "that hurt!"

"Well then I hope you die from internal bleeding," I retorted quickly.

"That's not very nice!" Lucy said.

"Sozzles Lu, but he deserved it."

"Sozzles?" Su asked.

"Slang for 'sorry.' I forgot you guys don't understand Twenty-First century language…I also say sozzleburgers as well," they all looked at me strangely, "yeah...I'm pretty normal," I told them, pronouncing every letter of 'pretty.'

"Uh huh," Ed mumbled.

I slapped his arm, "You're not supposed to agree!"

"Sozzleburgers," he replied. We all laughed lightly.

We entered the small canyon that Pete had led the army into not even half a day ago, and Aslan, Orieus and Ronny were just coming towards us. We all stood there motionless for a moment, before moving towards each other. I ran forward and hugged Ronny, "You are such a stupid bird you know that?"

"Yes I do mistress. And do not call me a bird, it is insulting to my species," I just laughed. I pulled away and saw Oreo.

"Yeah…"

"Umm…."

"Well done. For, you know, staying alive."

"Something that you didn't manage to do soldier!"

"You can hardly talk! These guys," I said, using my thumb to point at the Pevensies behind me, "told me that you got turned into stone." I heard him mutter things under his breath and I let a smile cross my face.

"Let's just do what we have to do and move on," the centaur said to me. We went to hug each other, but then pulled away just before we could get our arms close to each other.

"Here," I said to him, holding my hand out to him, "Congratulations, on you know…not dying," he looked at my hand and wondered what to do with it, "oh, you shake it." He reached out and shook my hand firmly.

"To the future."

"To the future," I replied.

I looked over at Aslan and kneeled down in front of him, out of respect, and I also wanted to talk to him quietly.

"Come, Guardian," he said before walking away from us. I followed him and we were about ten metres away from the rest of the group, "your mind is troubled. What do want to ask me?"

"I just want to know why you abandoned us when we were in danger."

"I did not abandon you: I merely trusted you."

"You-you what?"

"I trusted you. I knew that I had awakened the sleeping magic within you and the Pevensie siblings, and I also knew that you would be able to defeat him."

I nodded my head, knowing that I had found out all that I wanted to. I was about to turn away before I thought of one more question, "Why couldn't I release my magic like the Pevensies did? Why was I last and why did the other Guardians have to help me?"

"You see, the Guardians are peace-loving beings, and they all wanted to end this war. But they couldn't decide on who would be them one to destroy the last enemy, so while they were debating, the magic that the Pevensies had built up was released, and yours was not because of the battle inside you. Your mother finally got them to settle down by letting them all be present during the last attack, and when that happened you shot into the air, because you had charged up so much magic and the debate inside you was resolved: that's what made you use your magic. So, in other words, because of the battle inside you, it stopped your magic from working."

"Did the battle inside me cause the pain I felt?"

Aslan lowered his head slightly, "Yes."

"Well, what's good is that I'm alright," 'Just about' I thought to myself, "and the war is over. We won! Narnia is safe…" I stood there for a moment before turning away from the Great Lion, "I'd better get back to these guys. We've gotta start celebrating!" I took off towards the siblings, leaving Aslan behind.

"They'll need you Rachel…something they won't realize until they don't have you anymore…" The lion thought to himself.

"Hey guys!" I shouted over to them, "wanna party it up Twenty-First century style?"

They all cheered and I started to teach them the Macarena. It took them a while at first, but they picked it up quickly, "Eh Macarena!" I called out at the end. We were all smiling, and I looked over at Oreo and Ronny. Ronny was covering his beak with his wing and Oreo was pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. I just laughed at their expressions.

"Dame Lustor, Dame Lustor!" I heard someone call. I turned around and saw a faun coming towards me with a bundle in his arms.

"Mr Tumnus!" Lucy called.

He was now in front of us and bowed, "Your majesties."

I groaned, "Don't call me that. I'm just Rachel-plain Rachel thanks."

"As you wish," he replied, almost bowing again, "anyway, we were patrolling the area and we found these things," he placed them into my arms and I gently put them on the ground. There was a bundle of fabric and five stones. The five stones were the same colours as our magic, so we automatically took our designated coloured stones. I lifted the white stone, and I felt something enter my mind.

"This is the result of dark and light powers combining. The Guardians and I will always be with you, but this is a physical representation of us. A part of our power and yours has been locked within this stone, and I'll always be here for you, to talk to, like any other mother would. But remember, just because this stone is white, does not mean that it is pure…darkness lies within…but I want you to know this always: I love you so very much." My mother told me as her image appeared within the stone. I smiled at her, although I was slightly confused about the 'white-isn't- pure-darkness-within' part.' I just let it slide.

The Pevensies were looking at their stones in awe, and I picked up the pile of fabric. They looked familiar…

"My clothes!" I exclaimed in happiness. The pile of fabric had actually been my clothes from the Twenty-First century. I felt something heavy in the pocket of my jeans, so I shook them upside down and out came-

"My IPod!" I said in the same tone as I had before, clutching it to my chest, "this is epic!" I started playing it, but then Aslan did something to it, and instead of being an old IPod that couldn't play music without the earphones in, it was more like an IPod touch, that could play music out loud without the help of earphones. I played some really cheesy music from the Twenty-First century and taught them the moves.

No-one bothered to look back at the battlefield.

Therefore no one noticed that Deimos' body was gone.

We journeyed back to the camp after doing the Cha Cha Slide and the Macarena a couple of times. Juel and Seb had joined in as well, but Juel still wasn't very steady on her legs, so she fell a couple of times. They both had a few bruises and cuts, but were otherwise fine. After Ed and I had left the archery regiment, they both took over, and did a fantastic job as well. Apparently they had been able to heal a couple of the wounded soldiers with their own magic, and Aslan was very pleased with them. After the battle they had told me about some tricks they wanted me to learn with my own magic, including changing my hair, eye colour and how to erase someone's memory from the past few seconds of their lives. That was going to be very interesting.

Just before we left Beruna some of the fauns and satyrs offered to take some of our armour with them. I took my shoulder pads, bracers, tunic and top part of my chainmail off. It was quickly replaced by a white shirt with puff sleeve and a 'U' shaped neckline. It wasn't low thankfully. Pete and Ed had done the same, but they had long sleeves. They looked quite pirate-y actually.

Tia had survived the battle, just the large wound in her leg was a reason to worry. She couldn't take me back to the camp on her back due to that, so back at the battlefield arrangements for us had been made. But she did tell me that my old sparring partner Zahor and a couple of other people who I had come to know had died as well. I felt upset about this, but I brightened up a little bit when she told me that about sixty-five to seventy percent of the army was alive. Anyway, back to what forms of transport we were taking to get back to the camp.

Su and Lu had been fine just walking, mainly because Lu wanted to talk to Mr Tumnus and Su wanted to keep an eye on her sister. There was one horse left between Ed, Pete and I, so I let the boys take the horse. The whole thing ended up in an argument over who should take it, so we finally decided that we should take turns.

We were about half way there and I was exhausted. I had started to get tired a little while into the journey back, and that stunt with the magic didn't help. Right now, I wanted to kick fatigue where it hurt. Ed was quite far ahead of us, because he wanted to talk to Oreo, and Pete was on the horse now. He looked over at me, and I couldn't blame him for saying what he did. I looked a mess! My eyes were drooping, I was slouching and I was practically dragging my feet along the ground.

"Rach, you really should take my turn."

"Nah, it's your turn, I'm" I yawned at the worst possible time, "not tired at all."

"Come on, I don't mind walking."

"No seriously," I said during a yawn.

He sighed, "How does this sound: We'll both go on the horse but I'll stay at the front and you can relax at the back," he shrugged his shoulders. I saw that the sun was getting quite low in the sky and the moon was staring to come into view. Due to the fact that I would have fallen down on the ground and gone to sleep there, I nodded and mounted the horse. I mentally panicked about how I was going to stay on, but I was so tired that I threw my pride away and wrapped my arms around his waist and put my chin on his shoulder. He was really warm and his back was well-muscled…

"What are you thinking Rachel!" my conscience yelled at me

"Sorry…I think about weird things when I wanna go to sleep…" I mumbled aloud.

"Hmm? Did you say something Rach?" Pete asked me. But I was already half asleep. I fell asleep to the rhythm of the steady rise and fall of his body when he breathed.

Sunlight hit my face and woke me up. I groaned and rolled over on my side, only to discover that I was lying in my bed back at the camp.

"Wow…I wonder how they got me here?" I thought to myself as I pulled the covers over my head again.

I felt something come in contact with my head, "Rachel, Rachel! It's time to get up, and we have a really big day ahead of us!"

I reluctantly pushed the covers away from my head and rubbed my eyes, "Lucy, it's too early to get up…let me sleep," the last part was slightly muffled because I had already pulled the covers over my head again.

"But…Rachel, it's past lunchtime."

My upper body shot straight up, "What?"

"It's the afternoon. You slept through lunch."

"And breakfast? You have got to be joking me."

She just shook her head, "No," she said quietly.

I got out of bed incredibly quickly, well, almost falling out of it because my foot had become tangled in one of the sheets. This made Lucy laugh, but I didn't shoot her a glance back or laugh with her…I just rushed around looking for clothes to wear.

I went to the bathroom, hoping to have a quick shower, until I discovered that I stank of sweat and dirt, and some blood covered my body. And then it dawned on me: I had been sleeping in the same clothes that I had worn when I came back from the battle yesterday. After rubbing my skin raw and making it the most attractive shade of redish-pink (sarcasm), I got out of the bath, dried off quickly and put my plain light green dress on, I shoved my hair up in a ponytail and sprinted towards the dining tent.

But while I was running, I felt really stiff and sore, undoubtedly from yesterday's events. I entered the tent just as the kitchen staff were clearing up. Fortunately, there were some leftovers, which I scarfed down immediately. There was only one word to describe what I felt right now: famished. I ate that food as if someone was going to take it off me, and before long I had eaten it all. I swear I eat like a guy and it was starting to show, but it was healthy fat, or so I told myself.

I found Lu a little while after I had left the tent, and she grabbed my arm and started to drag me. I just let her, and the only words I heard were "…now…battle…Witch…carriages…Susan…thrones!"

We both entered Aslan's tent, and Pete, Su, Edmund, Aslan and a few old dudes were standing in it. I looked around at everybody and pointed at the old dudes and before I could speak, Aslan started to talk to everyone.

"The members of the newly resurrected Council of Narnia and the Chosen Ones, it is my great honour to be within your presence this day. This is the first day that Narnia has been free from the One Hundred Year Winter, and in a few days, we will enter a glorious new age, ruled by these Daughters of Eve and Sons of Adam."

An old badger with glasses spoke up, "And that is what we wish to speak with you about Aslan," he sounded English, but he sounded stuck up and pompous. Plus, the way that he sounded like he had some sort of nasal problem didn't help either, "Cair Paravel is the castle of four thrones, not five. We cannot allow another throne to be placed in the Narnian's beloved structure."

"Ah, but what if the fifth throne highlighted the High King's superiority? That would make him look even more powerful than his co-rulers. And it does not have to be built into the structure-it can be moved around as needed."

A small sound of agreement went around some members of the so called 'council', "But there can not be three queens and two kings. The Narnians would think that we would prefer queens to kings."

"That is where you are wrong, dear Blinddug, for there will not be three queens: there will be as the prophesy states."

"Then what of this one?" Blinddug asked, pointing at me. If Aslan had not been there, I would have defended myself, but he seemed to have it all planned out.

"She will become Princess of Narnia, and that is only because she has fought on the right-hand side of our future High King during the battle, done all she can to ensure their safety, helped defeat the last standing soldier of the Witch's army and quite a bit more. She is not entitled by blood, but because she needs and deserves to have this title. Would you rather that she ran off and left our kings and queens unprotected?" he looked over at me and said quieter than he had before, "she needs it for her duties to the people in the future." He sent me this weird look that obviously meant something, something important, but he just turned his face away from me, "Do you refuse my proposition?"

"Well…it's just that…maybe if she was crowned…the Narnians…"

"Would be very happy and would not go against what I have said?" Aslan added, tilting his head slightly. I laughed to myself quietly about this: nobody could refuse Aslan, mainly because he was their creator, and he could swallow them whole (not that he would though).

The members of the council seemed to agree with this, and even Blinddug, who looked as if he would retaliate, reluctantly agreed.

"We must make haste! For the palace must be ready for the coronation in less than a week!" One of the members, a centaur said. They quickly left the tent, leaving me slightly confused.

"Rachel, you are to become a princess and become a ruler alongside your friends," the Pevensies smiled at me, but Lucy's was obviously the biggest. She hugged me, and I grinned down on her and stroked her red-brown hair. I had a funny feeling that we had done exactly the same thing a little while ago.

"Cair Paravel had been uninhabited for a century, and now the Narnians are helping to restore it to its former glory. You are the ones that need to make them proud and happy, and you are the ones that need to rule over them fairly, gain their trust and fight off intruders. You must do everything in your power to help Narnia become the great country that it once was. And you all have your duties in order to do that. Lucy, I must talk with you first and privately." We all exited the tent and sat quite far away from it until it was our turn.

After about ten minutes the little girl emerged from behind the flap smiling. She ran over to us, "Edmund! He wants to see you now!" Edmund grew visibly paler, but who could blame him? After that incident with the Witch he had every right to be nervous. He walked slowly over to the tent flap and opened it cautiously.

"What did he tell you to do Lu?" Susan asked.

"Well since I'm the youngest, he didn't want to make me do things that I clearly can't do, like things to do with government. He said that he wants me to 'do what your gifts have enabled you to do.' So I'm in charge of going around Narnia and talking to everyone, making sure that they are happy and safe."

"So like, you're in charge of the peoples' welfare?" I asked.

"Yeah! At least I think I am…what does welfare mean?" I laughed as Susan explained it to her.

Ed came out of the tent a little while later. He had an expressionless look on his face, but as he got closer, you could see that the corners of his mouth were pointing up slightly, "So what has the mighty marshmallow slayer been commanded to do?" I asked him, only to be rewarded with a slap on the head. I pointed to my skull, "Hello? Precious cargo on board?" He just ignored this.

"I've been told that I'm in charge of battle tactics and issues concerning war," he said proudly, "along with a little help from Pete, but not much hopefully," he was rewarded with a small punch on the arm from his brother. Su had already gone towards the tent.

"Oh my gosh! I completely forgot!" Lucy exclaimed.

"What is it?" I asked, thinking that it was something very important.

"Once we've been talked to by Aslan, we have to go and start getting fitted for the coronation!" she said excitedly, "we have to go now!"

Ed groaned as his sister tugged on his arm, "Do we have to?" But Lucy had him on his feet within seconds and dragging him away from Aslan's tent, leaving Pete and I alone. Pete was clenching and unclenching his fists uncontrollably.

"Hey, stop that," I said to him softly, hesitantly, putting one of my hands over his, "if you keep on doing that, they might just stay like that," he gave me a small smile but went back to squeezing the life out of his invisible stress toy. I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Honestly, stop it Pete, you're making me more nervous than I already am!"

"Well if your just nervous how do you think I feel then?" he snapped at me. I held my hands up in surrender.

"Whoa, calm down mate!" I said.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, "Sorry, it think I'm just getting all worked up over nothing."

"Well it's not exactly nothing is it? You're going to become the High King, and I think that having power over everybody except Aslan is a pretty big deal."

He sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, "I just don't-" He was cut off by Su yelling over to him about how Aslan wanted to talk with him. He got up and gave me a small smile before walking off. I turned around and looked at Su, "so what about you?"

"I'm going to be the one that plans parties, formal events and just to make others feel welcome. Kind of like a hostess."

I smiled and nodded and Su, although I was really starting to not only worry about Pete, but kind of selfishly, about what Aslan might want me to do. In other words, my mind was elsewhere, "Yeah, that's really good Su."

"I'll see you later Rach," she said as she walked away. I turned my attention back to the tent, and after sitting there for ages and making a huge butt indent in the ground, Pete came out. He didn't come towards me like the others had, but he looked around himself. His movements were very jerky and he looked…kinda scared. I saw his head turn towards me, and then he ran off towards the beach. My legs chose to run after him before my brain had the chance to register what was going on.

"Pete!" I cried, "Pete!"

"He is fine, Guardian, he just needs time for his responsibility to sink in," Aslan said from behind me. I had run past his tent when I was running after Pete and Aslan seemed to know where I was.

I kept my eyes on the horizon, hoping to spot him, "Come Rachel, we have to discuss what role you play in this kingdom. He will be fine."

"Yeah, you're probably right," I said quietly before reluctantly tearing my gaze away from the horizon. We quickly got back to the tent and he started to talk.

"Now Rachel, you must not let anybody now about what I am about to tell you. You must only tell them about what you are going to do for the kingdom. Now, when the time is right, during your reign a letter will appear and what you must do is…"

My eyes were bulging out of my head after he had told me this, and I was really worried as well because he had told me so much and I had to do everything he had told me to do. When I emerged from the tent, I started walking towards another tent in which my dress for the coronation was to be made. I have to admit, and usually I'm not the kind of girl who would wear dresses and be excited for it, but I was ecstatic about it! Every time I thought about it, I got butterflies in my stomach and felt so light I could float away…but the last time I felt like that it was to defeat a crazy man who could have destroyed Narnia…it's a little bit different from that to be honest (sarcasm alert!).

Because my mind was still buzzing from what Aslan told me, I almost forgot about Pete. I was just about to turn around before what the Lion himself had told me echoed in my mind.

"He will be fine."

"He will be fine," I repeated quietly. I rushed off towards the dressmakers before I could change my mind, and I didn't even look back, because I knew if I did, I would run and find Pete.

I entered the tent and saw Su and Lu being measured for their dresses. They were on a sort of pedestal with a mirror to the side of them, and the room was littered with brightly covered fabrics, shiny buttons, sparkling stones and a lot more, "Hello Rachel!" Lucy said cheerfully. I waved over at her before I was taken by a female faun, centaur and a…mouse?

"So Dame Lustor, what do you wish your dress to be like?" The centaur asked.

"Well, um…" I looked over at Su and Lu, "what are you two thinking?"

"Well Su's going to have a lovely green dress with little golden buttons, and I'm going to have a really nice light blue one." Lucy smiled.

"So that rules out those two colours then…" I thought to myself. I shrugged, "What colour do you think would suit me?" I asked them both. They looked at each other for a second.

"Dark blue," Su said.

"Red," Lucy said.

"Oh, I don't know what to pick!" I exclaimed.

"Why don't you have both?" Su said. I raised one eyebrow, "Get two dresses made. One blue and one red, and when the day of the coronation comes, you can choose then.

"Great idea Su!" I smiled at her, "but that's way too much work for these guys…"

"It doesn't matter. We will serve our future rulers," the centaur bowed.

"Alright then," I rummaged through the blue fabrics, and after a while, I came across one that was midnight-blue with silver details all over it, "this one."

"I'll take that from you and we'll get you measured. Whilst I'm getting you measured, these two will pick out shade of red for you." I smiled at the centaur.

The faun rummaged around the fabrics, looking for the right shade of red.

"That one is nice," Lucy said.

"That's what you've said about every shade of red so far!" Su exclaimed.

I looked at the fabric back and forth. It was a really dark red, but I scrunched my nose up, "Nah, not the one I'm looking for." The faun took it off me and the centaur handed me a piece of scarlet fabric. The same happened again. As the centaur was putting something back, the little mouse appeared, "Nesora! Look at this!" she squeaked happily to the faun before diving underneath the pile of fabric. I heard a little bit of movement before she popped her head up again, "Put your hand in where I am!" The faun did as she was told, and when she brought her hand out again a beautifully coloured fabric came out with it.

It was red, but it was more like a copper-red that gave off the same sheen that Lu and Su's gave off. It had darker red designs in it, and when you looked closely, the designs were in fact little intricate flowers and swirls: it made me fall in love with the fabric. I put my hand underneath the fabric, which had a really silky feel to it, and lifted my hand up to the two girls, "Hmm?"

Lucy's face brightened up into a huge smile and Su's lips turned into a grin, "Yes!" They both said together. I smiled at them and then at the fabric that I was running through my fingers.

It was late in the afternoon when I finally left the dressmakers tent, "Okay thank-you!" I called over my shoulder as I was leaving, "Yeah I'll be back here tomorrow. Ten o'clock? That's great! See ya!" My conversation with Nesora had ended and Lu and Su were still in the tent getting their own dresses sorted. I turned away to come face to face with Oreo.

"Soldier, you haven't seen Peter anywhere have you? He's been gone for a long time and his brother is starting to get worried…"

This wasn't like Pete, "Um….no, sorry Oreo. The last time I saw him was when he was coming out of Aslan's tent."

"Thank-you Soldier," he said, galloping off.

"But wait!" I called out to him, but he had already left, "he went towards the beach…" The thought of Pete being missing entered my mind so I decided that I would try and go and find him. I put my hands on my thighs, grabbed some of the material of my dress and ran in the direction of the beach.

I ran for about twenty minutes and I'm telling you: when people say 'feel the burn!'…yeah, they ain't kidding.

I had to stop to get my breath back when I saw a figure sitting on the grass near the beach. I walked towards the figure slowly, just in case it wasn't Pete, but as I got closer I discovered that it was him.

The slight breeze was blowing through his hair and he had one leg up in his chest while the other was outstretched. He was wearing a poofy blue shirt with criss-crossing strings across the neckline and tan-coloured legging-type trousers with brown boots. Rhindon was securely fastened around his waist.

"You know you don't need to keep carrying him around," I said lightly, referring to his weapon. He looked around at me and motioned for me to sit down beside him.

"Force of habit," he replied.

We sat in silence for a little while before I spoke again, "Why did you run off earlier?"

He sighed and dipped his head down into his chest whilst shaking it, "It's just that, everybody seems to be happy about this whole coronation and ruling Narnia except for me," he turned and looked at me, "why is that?"

I filled my cheeks with air and slowly let it out while playing with my hair, "I honestly don't know Pete but…maybe it's because you're the only one of your kind," he looked at me quizzically, "y'know, 'cause you're the only High King, heck, you're the only one with High in their title."

"Well you're the only princess."

"Yet," I said quietly.

"I heard that!" Pete said. He shivered, "for goodness sake, I'm not even a king yet! Marriage is something I can do without for a while."

"Same here!" I said with a laugh.

"But the day after the coronation, it'll be 'roll on the marriage proposals,'" he said quietly.

"Ugh," I fell back on the grass, "having to dance with the most stuck up and annoying people we'll ever meet. Can't wait!" I replied sarcastically. He smiled a little bit.

"You do know that's going to be our lives from now on, don't you?"

"Yeah: courters, corsets, meetings, endless documents, debates and diplomatic affairs…" I flayed my hands around for a little while trying to find the right word, "ew," was all I managed.

"Ew?" he questioned.

"Shut up! It was the only word I could think of," I replied smiling, bumping my shoulder into his a little bit, "besides, I won't be the first one to be eligible to court."

He heard what I said and bumped into me even harder, "Well, I'm not the only one of my kind, remember? Princes galore for you."

"Women that have to get a pneumatic drill to remove their makeup and a crowbar to get them out of their corsets for you." I was about to laugh before I saw the look on his face, "oh, right, you don't know what those are…"

"I can guess, and those women just…ew." We both laughed.

"Everything's going to be different in a few days, isn't it?" I asked Pete.

He nodded his head, "Yes, I suppose it will be."

"Ah well, we'll get used to it," I told him lightly.

"Let me ask you one question though Rach, no wait, two questions."

"Okay, I'm listening."

"The first is: if you didn't have to become a princess and could do anything you wanted to, what would it be?"

I tapped my finger on my chin a few times, "Hmmm…I think I would travel all over Narnia, and then to any other countries in this world. I think that it'd be pretty fun. You?"

"Anywhere with my siblings. We'd probably travel too: Lucy would love to see meet new people and we'd all like to see new countries and I know that Lucy couldn't bear to see you leave without her."

"Lucy's like, my best friend. It would be nearly impossible to leave her, I couldn't do that to her."

"Would you miss the rest of us?"

"Hmmm…well Su definitely, but you and Ed…I might." He shoved me a little bit and I shoved him back, and before long we were rolling down the hill and onto the beach together. I had laughed so much today! When we finished rolling we both sat up again and watched the sun dip low into the sky.

"So what exactly did he tell you to do?" I asked Pete.

"Foreign affairs, government, army, the people…a lot of things actually. You?"

"He told me to watch over you guys, and to be there for you guys to help you with your jobs and to be a friend when you need one, so I'm basically I'm everybody's assistant. I also need to guard you cause, well, it's in the title, 'the Guardian' and tell you to take a break every once in a while!" I nudged him, and he knew that I was talking about him.

"Anything else?"

"Well, just to do what Aslan tells me to, and help Lucy with the Narnian people and foreigners. And also not to be sarcastic to visitors or people I don't like…and to try and be nice to men who want to court me. "

"Hmmm…I don't think that you'd like the courting process, or people that want to court you."

"Hey! I haven't even met them yet! How do you know I won't like them?"

"Because you don't seem to be the kind of girl that would love someone because they're rich or have great social standings, like princes and other people like that. I think you would…follow your heart and love somebody who is your best friend: regardless of what job they do, their background or their past."

"That's really nice Pete," I said softly, "and I wouldn't go for some arrogant rich man who just wants to love me for my title. To be honest, I don't think that I would love, or marry, a prince or something like that. I'd love somebody who understands me the most, and loves me for who I am," I took a deep breath in, "phew that was long. Come on, we'd better head back, it's gonna be dark soon." We both stood up and walked side by side, talking the whole way back to the camp. In no time at all, we had arrived at my tent.

"I'll see you in the morning Pete. Nighty-night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite!" I said through a yawn.

"You know, what you said back at the beach about…courting, I think that it would have to be the same thing for me too."

"Huh?"

"I mean that, the person I'd…love, would have to know the real me, not just King Peter. I'm more than that…I know I'm more than that, and it nobody could tell me otherwise."

I nodded my head, "And it doesn't help that you could have them beheaded either!" I laughed, gently putting my hand on his arm, "you'll be fine Pete, I know you will be." I took my hand off his arm and went into my tent. And that's when the conversation between Aslan and I about what I have to do for the kingdom in the future flooded into my mind. As it did, my eyes started watering.

"Why Aslan, why? Why do you want me to do these tasks?" I thought sadly.

"Why do you have to tear me away?"

A/N I know that Rachel sounds a little bit like a spoilt brat having two dresses instead of just one…but all will become clear in the next few chapters. Oh, and about the stone she has found: the Pevensies ones are normal stones (for the time being) and Rachel's stone contains some of the Guardian's magic and her own, but something else as well…he he he…she can also use it to communicate with her mother. Okay? Good. I'll see you guys in a week! Reviews are very much appreciated.

Xx Elemental Angel xX