Disclaimer: I don't own Narnia or any of the characters associated with it.

Hi Readers! So whilst fixing up my profile after quite a few years, I realised I never actually posted this whole story even though it's written, so I'm going to throw up a chapter weekly! :)

So enjoy! :)

"Are you thinking of bailing on us?" the King asks as I hesitate at the opening of the cave. It's not that I'm scared, just nervous at the thought of going into the unknown black pit.

"No, of course not!" I say shakily.

"You are thinking about leaving, aren't you?" Abby adds on slowly as she reads the expression on my face. I frown.

"No. I just had a moment of thought that led me to worrying about what we're going to find when we go in there, but I'm fine now, so let's go," I reply as I grab Abby's hand and pull her into the darkness.

Chapter 9: Three doors

The inside of the cave is a lot bigger than I'm expecting. It's wide and high and I'm easily able to stand up straight in it. In a cave like this you'd expect to find all sorts of creatures scurrying around, but we see and hear nothing. The torch light dances off the stony walls in interesting swirling gestures and I glace at them only to realise that the light has revealed some ancient markings and writings carved into the face of the walls. I gaze around at them in wonder. So this place did used to be occupied after all. I notice Abby take interest immediately as she eagerly runs towards a set of bluish markings.

"Wow, these carvings must be hundreds if not thousands of years old! Athalia, can I please stay here and study them for a while?" she asks as she runs her hand over the intricate patterns. I shake my head.

"I'm sorry, but no. We must go on, Abigail. I'm sure if you want to come back one day though, it would be okay with Mr. Hogelsworth – I mean Aslan," I correct as I find the High King narrowing his eyes at me. It wouldn't do for him to find out that we lied to him this early on in the mission. He shakes his head at me, as if trying to disable a thought, before he turns to his guards and brother and says something that I can't quite hear. They all laugh at the joke or whatever it is that he said as I roll my eyes at him while he has his back turned. Abby chuckles at me before she focuses her attention back to the cave markings.

With that circumstance put behind us, we walk forward for a little bit longer, occasionally pointing out pictures of particular creatures and plants. The King and I constantly have a large gap between us due to my decision that it wouldn't do for us to be too close to each other in such an enclosed space – especially after our row earlier. King Edmund and Abby are standing between us most of the time also, which helps my whole plan of staying as far away as possible from the High King. With King Edmund walking next to me, I'm taking the opportunity to talk with him. I figure out, after a few minutes, that I actually don't mind the young king. Unlike his brother, the High King, King Edmund is relaxed and laid back. I find out after a little while that he's also pretty funny. He tells me constant jokes and I find myself, along with Abby who had tuned in after a while, laughing out loud. The High King doesn't talk to me though and it's a little bit like the calm before the storm. I can feel a change in the atmosphere as we continue to walk down the straight path; it's almost like the older king and I are both trying to contain ourselves. I know he doesn't like me in the slightest after what I told him earlier, but we're doing a good job at putting up with each other.

Putting up with each other? I thought you two are just plain out ignoring each other.

Shut your trap, subconscious!

We walk straight, for what feels like forever, before I finally spy a bend in the path. Thank the Lion's Mane! As we round it though, the torches immediately go out. "That was strange," I murmur quietly, noting quickly that the air is still, before turning to the others. "Go back out; we need to relight our torches." I feel Abby grip my side in terror at the sudden darkness as we begin to head back out. Almost immediately though we hear the dreadful slam of something closing as the little bit of natural light that we had suddenly gets cut off. My eyes grow wide. Please don't tell me the rock just closed! I hear the heavy footsteps of the High King as he runs back towards the entry.

"The entrance is closed," I hear him report back a second later, his voice echoing off the walls. Oh no.

"Quick! Everyone down! Someone could be in the cave!" one of the guards yell out. There are a few screams coming out of Abby's small mouth as her grip on me tightens in terror.

"We're trapped in the dark, Athalia, with some psycho in the cave!" Yes, being in a dark and unknown, tight space is really not helping with her phobia.

"Are you scared of the dark? It's alright, Abigail! If you'd like to you can hold onto my hand," King Edmund offers just like a gentlemen should. She lets go of me then and I can hear her feet shuffling along the ground as she tries unsuccessfully to find the King. I sigh in annoyance.

"Alright, whose foot triggered something?" I question angrily. Oh like you don't already know…

"It wasn't me! Golly! Don't jump to conclusions, Athalia," the High King states from somewhere in front of me, obviously picking up on the fact that I am talking about him.

"Well it wasn't any of us and you're the only other person in here besides us," I argue back while taking a few steps forward in his vague direction. Clink, clink, clink. What was that? My head shoots up in surprise to the sudden noise. That sounded an awful lot like a trip wire being triggered. I blindly walk towards the sound when I'm suddenly surrounded in light. Oh thank Aslan! "Abigail! Your Majesties! Guards!"

"We can see again!" Abby cheers. I turn around only to see her jumping up and down next to King Edmund excitedly. He's blinking rapidly though; trying to let his eyes adjust to the sudden light. She skips happily over to me then before coming to an abrupt halt on my left. I hear her sigh happily to herself as the High King comes to a stand-still next to her. "By the Lion's Mane that was frightening for a moment there!" she murmurs quietly to herself.

"Did you find a light switch somewhere?" King Edmund exclaims suddenly while running towards one of the torches.

"By Jove, Edmund, Narnia must have electricity after all!" the High King continues as he too runs over to one of the candles. What are they rambling on about? Well, I suppose this is what we get for letting them come with us. I mean we've only been in the cave for three quarters of an hour and they've already gone bonkers!

"Your Majesties, it's just a candle," I say in an obvious tone.

"Please, Athalia. Candles can't just turn themselves on like that, plus they don't tend to let off that much light!" King Edmund argues back. Evidently, after a few minutes, they both look disappointed to find out that it is indeed just a candle.

"Your Majesties, what's electricity?" Abby asks after a second of thought. She loves learning new words, so, for her, this is a learning opportunity. We're on an adventure and she still finds a way to learn about new things. Why did I bring the smart one again? The High King smiles at her before replying.

"Electricity is something that we use in the other world – our world; England I mean. It's a way of powering and starting things up. Hmm…what's a good example –"

"Is it a bit like using fire to start cooking?" I can see that he thinks hard about her comparison before replying to her.

"I suppose in a sense it is, it's more getting things to move though –"

"Oh, so like a horse and cart?" I hear one of the guards suggest as he comes to stand next to Abigail. His deep voice reverberates throughout the cave and I smile at him.

"Yes! It's like a horse and cart. Thank you for that example, Poelliate. You could say that the horse is the electricity and that the cart is the thing it's powering."

"What do you use it for though if you don't use it for horse and carts?" Abby asks.

"We use electricity to light up things called light bulbs which produce our light and move things called cars and power things called radios and all sorts of different things." Happy with this explanation, Abby smiles and walks over to me. She gesture's me down to her with her finger before she whispers in my ear, "I think he's gone bonkers." I laugh out loud, not caring that the King is shooting daggers at me again.

"Don't worry; I think so too! But we mustn't tell him that. We wouldn't want the Kings to get angry with us." Too late! I smirk as she giggles under her breath and nods excitedly. I straighten myself up then. It's probably high time we moved on. Abigail grabs my hand, in case the lights go out again, as we follow the cave down. As we head deeper and deeper into the cave, it gets colder and colder. The candles on the sides become less and less too which means that less heat is let off into the crisp, cool air. I find myself starting to shiver unconsciously as I feel Abby starting to as well. Eventually, we have to stop and pull out our woollen cloaks from our sacks. Once we're rugged up and warm, we continue on.

"Can we take a break yet? I'm really tired!" Abby whines for the millionth time. Hold in your temper. Hold in your temper. We've been walking through this cave for a good two hours now. It seems to be a never-ending stream of candles and wall markings. After a while, Abby even stopped bugging me about the cave language – thank Aslan for that! – as for everything else though, it has been pretty calm. We haven't seen or heard from any other creatures at all, which still surprises me to no end, but I suppose it's a good thing if you ignore the fact that if something happens then there's no one else in here to help us. I'm not going to lie to you though; there have been a few spats between the High King and I which has now led to the two of us not even speaking. Silly, little, smart orphan for convincing me that it was a good idea to take them with us! I'm just about to lose my patience with Abby when I spy something at the end of the tunnel. It looks like an exit and I don't even bother to tell the other five before I'm running full force to it. "Athalia!" Abby screams after me just as I reach my target. I look around only to notice that there are three doors implanted into the cave wall. There's nowhere else to go, so I assume that we have to go into one of them. Each door has a different symbol on it which makes me nervous. This is not going to end well.

"Abby! Come here, quickly now!" I hear her feet on the rocky ground race over to where I am before she freezes just in front of me. She looks at the three stone doors before a look of pure desolation comes over her fair, facial features.

"I don't recognise any of these symbols!" she cries before looking up at me with complete grief. I hear the Kings walk up behind me before one of them taps me gingerly on the shoulder.

"What is it, Sire?" I snap at him.

"I just thought I'd point out the clue that's sitting over there on that pedestal. I'm sorry if that little piece of information has offended you in any way. I never purposely go out of my way to offend a lady." And with those words, he walks over to the wall and sits down with a sigh of relief. He then opens his sack and pulls out a little jar that contains some slushy liquid. He offers some over to Abby, who gently refuses, before he eagerly jugs it down. His brother follows suit, only he offers it over to the guards first. I roll my eyes as I go over and grab the rolled-up clue before I pull it open and skim over the words briefly.

'I kanria paim merinck gonal uamd meilandend mo aon fisenajjf hirt aon bjeajc…'

"Abigail, more decoding," I say as I wave the clue in her direction. She sulks over to me, her feet scraping along the gravely surface, before snatching the clue out of my hands and sitting down against the wall which is opposite the Kings. She's tired. We'll have to take a proper rest break soon. I hear her mutter the words of the clue to herself before she gingerly pulls out a quill and a jar of ink from her sack and writes on the parchment. Her hand elegantly moves over the page as she writes out the translation; Abby has beautiful hand writing, even better than mine.

"Abigail, can you do calligraphy?" King Edmund asks, obviously noting the movements of her hand. I look at him with my mouth hanging open just as Abby looks up from the clue with a look of disbelief on her face. How dare he even ask that!

"Of course I can, Sire! Who do you take me for? Someone in their first year of schooling? It's one of the first things you learn in Narnia!" she exclaims, hurt. If there's one way to offend some one in Narnia, it's to ask them or state that they can't do calligraphy.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Abby! I didn't mean to offend you," he apologies with a confused frown. Someone obviously doesn't know the rules. She doesn't reply though, like she usually would, instead she gets back to decoding. After around half an hour of the Kings, the guards, and I sitting around doing nothing, she manages to get it done. She hands the clue over to me silently with a look of angst.

"What's wrong?" I ask her. The expression on her face certainly is not comforting.

"Just read the clue, Alia," she states simply. I also note that she looks kind of pale, her face as white as a sheet of paper.

"Are you sure you're okay? You look as if you've just seen a ghost." I can't help the shiver that runs straight down my spine as I mention the word 'ghost'. Who knows who's down here? There may be ghosts watching us right now and we wouldn't even realise. She shakes her head slowly. "Sit down and tell me what's wrong." She wholeheartedly takes me up on the offer and eagerly takes a seat next to me on the floor.

"You'll know once you read the clue." I sigh at her before looking down and reading her elegant script.

"I bet you haven't paid any attention to the symbols on the walls…" I read out loud. I feel the blood drain from my face as I look at the three doors again. Oh no; we're doomed

"Alia! What are we going to do? We've muffed the quest already and we've barely started," Abby cries.

"No, we haven't, Abigail! We'll just go back and see if we can find the symbols anywhere."

"Or we coul – ?" the High King starts to suggest.

"We didn't ask for any of your suggestions, Your Majesty," I reply sweetly.

"Really? Well I suppose you won't want me to tell you that we're trapped in here either, would you?" Thank you, Mr. Obvious!

"I already know we're trapped, Sire!" I reply irritably.

"No, I mean there's a barrier that just came out of the ground and has trapped us in here with the three doors." My eyes grow wide as I look at where we just came from. Sure enough a large, stone barrier is up. Great! Just great!

"And you didn't think this was important information to tell us as soon as you saw it?" I question through gritted teeth. He shrugs.

"You wouldn't have listened to me," he states with a straight face. My face goes red now opposed to the white that it was a second ago. I'm angry, no, actually, I'm furious!

"I would've if you would've come straight out and said it instead of beating around the bush!" I scream at him.

"Athalia, please don't get into a fight with the High King again. Let's just choose a door and go through!" Abby intervenes just as things are starting to get heated. I let out a breath that I didn't even realise I was holding as I look down to her.

"You're right. Let's get a move on," I agree while standing; she stands too as does the King. We walk over to the doors then and look at each of the symbols closely. The first door has a simple symbol. Two circles attached to a square that's balancing on a triangle. The second doors symbol seems to be of a giraffe eating from a tree, well that's what it looks like anyway. The third door is a very complicated looking symbol. It's of a fish swimming under water, with some kind of strange shape above the squiggly lines which represent waves. I think over each of them carefully. So maybe the third door leads into something to do with water and fish, since that's what the figure is, and perhaps the second door leads to something that has to do with trees or giraffes. The first one though, I have no idea. I think the giraffe door looks the most promising.

"Let's go through the monkey door. I've always liked monkeys," the High King says while walking to the third door, causing me to look at him in wonder. What monkey door?

"Monkey's scare me, no, let's go through the bull door!" King Edmund cuts in. Bull door?

"No, let's go through the island door!" Abby states with determination as she walks over to the first one. The Island door? Oh no…As quick as a fox it clicks into place.

"STOP! Abigail! Your Majesties! Get back! We're all seeing different symbols on the doors!"

"What?" Abby asks as she jumps back and away from the door. The High King looks at me curiously, but thankfully backs away with his younger brother in tow. The guards stay as far away from the doors as possible, both of them looking worriedly at us.

"What do you mean, Athalia?" the King Edmund inquires as he looks at all the doors.

"I don't know! All I know is that I don't see an island door or a monkey door or even a bull door; just like I'm sure none of you can see a giraffe door or an ocean door," I explain.

"What are we going to do then? If we go through the wrong one then we could be in a lot of trouble," the High King says while weighing up our options. I shrug.

"Abigail, what do you suggest?" I question as I turn to look at her.

"Well, it's you decision ultimately. I don't understand any of these symbols, but I wonder if we can all see one door that is somewhat similar. Let's all look at the first one. What does everyone see?" I look at the first one.

"I see shapes stacked on top of each other," I say with a frown. "King Edmund?"

"It looks like a tiger. Brother?"

"I think it looks like a rock. Poelliate, what do you see?" The High King asks while turning to look at the tan furred centaur. The centaur lets out a deep breath.

"I see a tree cottage. What about you, Cauim?" The black furred centaur looks at the door in wonder.

"I think it looks like a penguin. Abigail?"

"Like I said before, it looks like an island. Hmm…so obviously it's not the first one. What about the second one?"

"A giraffe eating from a tree."

"A comb."

"A brain."

"A bee."

"A silhouette of a Queen."

"A dog. Right, well that doesn't match up. What about the third door?" the High King says. I sigh.

"An ocean."

"A bull."

"A monkey."

"A lily."

"A mountain."

"Well that didn't work. I see a bear. Has anyone else got any suggestions?" Abby asks. The guards both look the other way; as they say, ignorance is bliss. I nibble on my nails, a nervous habit, while the two Kings just stand there and think.

"Why don't we try opening each door to see what's behind them?" the High King suggests. That's an awful idea!

"Good idea, Your Majesty! Since you came up with the idea, why don't you pick the first door to check behind?" He smiles in reply before walking over to the third door and pulling on the handle. The door whooshes open, before something strange happens. The other two doors turn; as in they fully turn around so that the symbols disappear. The door handles also turn away from us and disappear into the stone wall. It looks untouched, like the doors have never been there. I glare at him.

"Thank you very much, Your Majesty! Your stupid idea has just taken away all of our other options! Now we don't have a choice!" I scream at him.

"Huh?" he replies, looking as if he just came out of some deep thought process. He looks genuinely confused when he notices my angry face. Without saying another word, I point to the now empty wall. He turns around to look at it before his eyes grow wide. He instantly turns back to me with an apologetic look. I almost believe that he's truly sorry. That would've been a shock! "I'm so sorry, Athalia! I didn't mean to get rid of the other two doors! I swear! I had no idea that that would happen," he apologises profusely. He does look sorry and his idea was actually good, if it wasn't for the doors disappearing into the walls and all. Say, maybe he's not as bad as I think after all…I let out a long and loud sigh as Abby grabs our sacks from the ground. King Edmund stands next to his brother as she does that, ready to hold him back in case we get into another fight I imagine. Abby hands my sack to me as I reply.

"That's okay. I suppose there's nothing we can do about it now. Let's just get on with it," I forgive. He nods regretfully before I push past him, frustrated, and walk through the doorway. It was a good idea. Why am I frustrated with the poor High King? Because he took away all of our other options just because he wanted to try his stupid idea.

I hear Abby's small feet follow me up then, before the two Kings and their guards join us. "Ready?" I ask without looking at them. They stay quiet in response to my question, so I turn around to find them all nodding shyly at me. I choose to ignore the way they're all looking at me and instead begin to walk into the dark stonework of the small corridor. We walk on for about five minutes, none of us daring to say a word in case a new argument fires up, before the loveliest thing happens. Hmm, that's nice…I feel a soft and gentle breeze flowing onto me in calming waves. Unconsciously, I begin to take slower and shorter strides, trying to enjoy the fresh new breeze whilst it's here. It feels delightful on my sweaty skin and I can't help the pleasant moan that escapes past my lips as the air cools me down. I hear Abby sigh behind me too as she begins to meander along also. Wait, there is no breeze in this cave system though, so how is there suddenly fresh air blowing onto us? I freeze at the sudden thought, making Abby bash into my back.

"Is everything okay, Alia?" she asks while my mind races a million times a minute. How…

"Yes, it's just, why is there suddenly wind in this cave when the air was still only a second ago?" I turn to face her slowly as I speak. I can almost hear the cogs in her head turning as she thinks over the question. Her face is blank and emotionless; obviously she's confused about this new discovery.

"There's only one explanation, ladies. We must be coming back out into open air." At King Edmund's mention of open air, I don't even take a breath before I'm racing down the tunnel excitedly. He's right! It must be the end of this cave already to be able to have a fresh breeze blowing onto us! I notice a corner coming up then and eagerly rush around. I almost cry with relief as I immediately spot the familiar yellowish light ahead. Finally, we're heading back into daylight!

I sprint towards it, my energy building back up again as my mind races with endless possibilities of what we're going to find out there when I suddenly feel extremely airy and light. Why do I feel like that? I look down, expecting to see the gravely rock surface, but my eyes grow wide instead. I scream as I realise that I'm falling down into a pit. I hear Abby's screams from above me as she falls too, followed by the High King's screams, which are then followed by the screams of the two guards, and another scream that sounds an awful lot like a girls, but I think it's actually King Edmund. I brace myself for what's sure to be a painful landing as I smack down hard into something sticky. I fight to hold my breath under the liquid as I try to push myself to the surface. A second later my head emerges and I gulp in lungs full of air. The first thing I find when I resurface are our sacks. Thank goodness they survived! I wait for the sound of someone else emerging then only to discover that it's silent around me. I slosh around in the thick, sticky liquid, trying to feel for a body or something. Bingo! I pull out the hard thing, expecting it to be a limb of either one of the Kings, the guards, or Abigail, what I find isn't any of them though.

"Ahh!" I scream as I throw the skeleton bone back into the liquid. So other people have gone to look for this prophecy and have fallen in here too then? Well that's good to know! But wait, does that mean there are dead bodies floating all through here – that's gross! I feel my skin crawl slightly or maybe that's just the sticky stuff on my skin. The idea that other people have died in this trench though makes my search for everyone else even more imperative. "Abigail! Your Majesties! Guards! Abigail! Your Majesties! Guards!" I shout out over and over again. The silence carries on though. I feel my eyes begin to water with unshed tears as an unfamiliar feeling begins to overcome all my other emotions; loneliness. "I'm sorry for everything I've said or done! Please come out!" I cry out, letting the rivers of tears run down my face. I go to wipe them away, but immediately pull my hands away as I notice the gross liquid sticking to my face. I feel defeated as I look around the dark trench hopelessly. I'm just about to lose all hope when, in the corner of my eye, I notice a few strands of brown hair floating on the surface of the liquid. "ABIGAIL!" I screech as I swim as fast as I can towards her. Her head flops up then, making me freeze for a second. It's not Abigail, but the High King. Fantastic! Now Abigail's missing and we're stuck with this idiot! Why, Aslan, why? He meets with me then, struggling to swim along in the liquid.

"I heard your shouting from underneath the tree sap. Are you okay?" I'm about to reply, but my mind suddenly processes a particular word he used.

"Tree sap?"

"Um…yes. I do believe so, only it's been watered down a little bit so it's not as thick as normal which is how we're able to sink in it." Well that would explain the stickiness. "Back to my question though, are you okay?" I sadly shake my head to answer his question as I suddenly remember Abby. I can't help the feeling of complete loss overcome me as I fall forward and begin to cry my eyes out.

"I'm such an awful person! I can't believe I made her do this! Poor Abby! Poor, poor Abby!"

"What?" he asks as ever as King Edmunds head pops up a few meters away.

"I'm alive! I hope everyone else is too!" he shouts out as he sloshes over to us. I frown.

"Your Majesties, Abigail's missing!"

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Catch you all next time!

- narnia and beareject fan 1 xoxo