A/N: Sooo Having nearly finished The Faun, The Witch and The traitor, I,m trying to figure out another story to write. I've done one chapter of this and one of The Just and The Orphans. Which ever had the most views / reviews / likes I'll go ahead with as I've tried to write two at once before and it doesn't work - one always suffers!

Let me know what you think please. My stories lives are in your hands!

To go through or to not go through – that is the decision!

... So, they lived in great joy and if ever they remembered their life in this world, it was only as one remembers a dream, or the dream of a dream. And one Mr Tumnus brought word that the White Stag had been seen in the Western Woods (The White Stag that could grant you wishes if you caught him.) And so; Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy rode into the Woods to follow the White Stag.

And they saw the Stag enter a thicket where their horses could not follow. "Come on," said Peter. "Let's follow on foot. By Aslan, this Stag is Magnificent!"

Edmund and the girls smiled at Peter's enthusiasm. "Just what do you want to ask the Stag for that makes you so enthusiastic Pete?" asked Edmund.

"Perhaps he's hoping to ask for a Queen!" suggested Lucy mischievously.

"Oh Yes!" added Susan. "Let's all wish for a Queen for Peter! At least then we would be spared all the vacant Princesses who flock to Narnia in search of a husband!"

Peter rolled his eyes at his teasing siblings. "Come on!"

Entering the thicket after Susan, they found her staring upwards, her brow puckered. "What on earth is this?" she asked. "It looks like an iron tree!"

"No look" answered Edmund who had looked higher. "There's a lantern on top!"

"Well. That's strange" put in Peter. "Why would anyone put a lantern here where no one can see it among all these trees.

Lucy rolled her eyes at her eldest brother.

"I know Ed and Susan are supposed to be the smart ones, Peter." she said. "But can't you see that the post is old, and the trees are younger? They must have grown up since the post was put there."

Looking contemplatively at the post she continued.

"I feel as if I've seen this post before. In a dream maybe, or in a dream of a dream." The others nodded thoughtfully. "I think" Lucy went on "that if we keep going something strange will happen!"

"I think so too Lu" Edmund said a worried frown on his face. He turned to Susan and Peter. "Perhaps we should go back."

Peter smiled at him.

"Come on Ed, it's an adventure – what harm can come of following a stag?"

Before they had gone a dozen paces, they all remembered that the thing they had seen was called a lamp post, and before they had gone twenty more, they noticed that they were making their way not through branches, but coats.

A moment later found them falling through the wardrobe door into the Spare Room at the Professor's house, children once more.

"Nooo!"

With a wild rush Edmund headed back towards the wardrobe. He couldn't leave Narnia. He had too much there to live for. He could not be a boy again not when …

With a heartfelt howl Edmund leapt into the wardrobe. His siblings who were of no mind to stop him, none of them wishing to leave Narnia either, rushed after him.

Moments later found the Kings and Queens back in the thicket in Lantern Waste, adults once more, Kings and Queens once more. Pushing out of the thicket as fast as they could go, away from the lamp post, away from the wardrobe door, away as quickly as they could from anything that would tear them from their beloved Narnia, they staggered to a halt.

"Where are our horses?" asked Lucy.

For indeed the horses were gone, no longer tied to the trees where they had left them.

"Strange" murmured Edmund. "Your horses may have gotten free and strayed, but Phillip … Philip would have waited for me!"

"It is strange" agreed Peter. "Something must have happened. He turned to Edmund.

"Don't worry, Phillip can look after himself. There must be a good reason he left. We can ask the trees to carry a message to the Cair. Someone can send new horses and tell us what happened to Phillip."

"Very logical brother" said Susan with a grin. They were all shaken with their brief return to England, their narrow escape from leaving Narnia. If they hadn't immediately turned around, what might have happened? How long might they have been away?

Lucy who had been attempting to speak to several of the trees nearby, returned, a worried frown on her face.

"The trees, they're not answering me!" she said.

Susan spun to her sister.

"But that's impossible, they always answer, especially when it's you … they love you!" she paused. "Are you sure they're Trees not trees that you're taking to?"

Even as she said it Susan knew that she was grasping at straws. They had all grasped very quickly after coming to Narnia the difference between 'Trees' which had the spirit of a Dryad in them and ordinary 'trees' with none.

Lucy rolled her eyes at her sister and did not credit Susan with an answer, indeed Susan didn't blame her, she had known that it was a ridiculous suggestion even as she said it.

"I think we should go and visit Mr Tumnus" Lucy said instead. "He lives nearby, and he'll know what is going on and we can be comfortable while we figure everything out."

"Good idea Lu" approved Peter.

It was only minutes later that they approached Mr Tumnus's cave. They rounded the last corner before the cave …

That's when the ground collapsed.

The four found themselves in a pit, which had been hidden from view by a covering of branches and leaves.

"What in Aslan's name …" muttered Peter.

None if his siblings had time to answer as at that moment a bottle was tossed into the pit. A bottle which broke releasing a gas into the pit. A gas which immediately rendered the Monarchs unconscious.

A heavily accented voice growled from the lip of the pit.

"Bring them!"

It was some time later when the four awoke to find themselves chained in a dungeon. A dungeon which looked strangely familiar. After they had assured each other that they were well and uninjured they peered around the dark room.

"Why" exclaimed Peter. "I do believe we're in the old wine cellar of Cair Paravel!"

A bitter voice growled from a dim corner.

"And what would you know about Cair Paravel … human."

The voice spat the last word as if it was a curse.

The Pevensies squinted into the corner, they could just make out the form of a centaur, but the armour was all too familiar.

"O … Oreius?" Peter stammered shocked.

"Maybe … maybe not" the centaur general spat back defiantly. "Why should I tell you?"

Peter was speechless, but Susan answered softly.

"Oreius it's us … don't you recognise us?"

Orieus let out something that sounded like a growl and muttered a curse under his breath.

Edmund had had enough. There was no way the General did not recognise them, why they had seen him only this morning. There had to be some sort of game or trick about. But game or no, General or no … no one spoke to his sister like that!

"Watch your tongue General" he barked. "We are your Monarchs as you well know!"

Oreius let out a bitter laugh.

"Would that it were so!" he declared. "My Kings and Queens are missing and presumed dead these five years!"