Chapter Eighteen: A Look Into The Past III (aka Maugrim)

"Are we there yet?" Lucy asked. Her head lolled back and forth, reddish-brown fringe shaking with each step. Her heels dragged against the slushiness of the snow. "I'm tired." She slowed to a stop and fell to her knees, dropping her hands to her lap to look up at her siblings and friends. "Can we just sleep here?"

Peter looked at her incredulously. "We can't stop here, Lu," he said, voice gentle. A contrast to the expression on his face. "We're out in the open. We have to get somewhere safe so that the Witch doesn't catch up to us."

But Lucy stuck out her lower lip, twisting the hem of her dress in her hands as she continued to look up at her eldest brother. Brielle smiled gently, suddenly reminded of the times she'd spent with her father, often using her 'puppy dog face' to get her way when he tried to contradict her or tell her 'no'.

"Lu, don't start…"

"We probably should wait," Brielle spoke up. She turned her gaze to the sky, noting the stars that continued to dot the skyline was different compared to the ones back in England. Brighter, somehow. More…lively. "The Witch isn't going to follow us at night? She'll just send her wolf pack after us again. She wouldn't come herself."

"We don't know that," Peter insisted.

Brielle lifted an eyebrow. "Witches have to sleep, too." The wind blew around them and she hugged her jacket closer to her. "Besides, these jackets aren't going to keep us warm much longer," Brielle added. "The more we subject ourselves to the cold—"

"—They're fur jackets," Peter reminded her. "They're going to keep us warm as long as we have them on. We have to keep going!"

"And we'll walk straight to our deaths if we do!" Brielle remarked. She held up her arm. "These furs aren't real. They're synthetic. For aesthetic purposes." She waited for Peter to notice she was speaking the truth. But he simply pressed his lips together stubbornly. "The small amount of warmth is coming from the heavier fabrics, the down inside, the heaviness of it. The fur isn't doing anything." She folded her arms once more. "We need to make a fire, now, or the temperature drop from this winter—however much longer it'll last—will freeze us to death before we can blink. And I don't know about you,"—Brielle flipped her hair over her shoulder—"But I don't really think a 'creamy white complexion' of freezing to death is a good look for me or you."

Peter shook his head and moved to his sister's side, pulling Lucy's jacket tighter around her shoulder. An unspoken sign he at least had taken in a little bit of what she'd been saying. Stubbornness, Brielle realized, was one of his strong suits.

Nevertheless, she wondered why she was following them so closely, listening to everything he was saying and suggesting, as they ran around Narnia. Trying to evade this Witch that…she'd never seen. The idea of being torn to shreds by wolf teeth wasn't exciting but…she also didn't know what to do if she didn't listen to them.

Where she'd go, how she'd get back home…

If there even was a home to get to. They were in a different world, a different earth, probably on a different planet if it were even possible. She barely paid attention to the ramblings of her nerdier classmates who tried to talk about the possibilities of different dimensions.

But she should've paid attention.

What else did it mean to end up in a world filled with talking creatures, witches who were trying to hunt them down to keep a winter going, Santa Claus….

That's it, Brielle realized. I drowned in my bathtub. I didn't end up on a beach in another world. I drowned and I'm hallucinating.

Whap!

Brielle shrieked, feeling something cool and wet and mushy strike her in the face. Gasping at the sudden, sharp sting of cold, she looked up to see Peter standing over her, brushing snow on the side of his trousers from when he'd playfully tossed some snow at her. "Hey space cadet, are you going to just sit there or help us build a fire?" He was then smacked in the side of the face with a handful of snow from Susan.

"Grow up, Peter," she said while Lucy giggled quietly, hugging her coat closer to herself. Susan went to Brielle and grasped her hands, hauling her to her feet. "Come on, Brielle, let's go find some firewood."

"And how are we supposed to light it?" Peter grumbled.

Brielle shrugged and gestured toward Lucy, "Maybe the stuff in her fire flower potion is flammable. I'm sure all that hot air you've been spewing would set it alight in no time." Peter made a face back at her and took Lucy's hand to lead them off in the other direction. The beavers looked back and forth between them before running in a third direction, moving to collect their own wood and food.

"I'm sorry about Peter," Susan apologized as they walked along, hugging their jackets closer to them as they walked. "He can be really…" She shook her head. "He just tries hard to…." She let out a long breath. "Things haven't been the same since dad left. He and Ed worked hard to try and keep things the same. Or, maybe mum pushed that on them. On us…" She tucked her hair behind her ears. "It's all very hard."

"You had to grow up fast, huh?" Brielle asked her. She tilted her head, back in the direction of Peter and Lucy. "You have to take care of your brothers and sister?" Her nose wrinkled when Susan nodded. "How old are you?" Susan told her, Brielle's eyebrows flying up. "You're younger than Peter, I reckon?" She shrugged and gave a wry smile. "I thought you would've been the older one."

"That's what a lot of people say," Susan said with a laugh. She stooped to pick up a log hidden like a bump beneath the dusty snow. The snow slushes off, dripping back to the ground in chunks. The air was getting warmer and colder, the winter fading, but still holding its temperature due to the darkening night. "I guess I'm just more sensible."

"Sensible." Brielle chuckled to herself. "That's what my professors always told me; that I needed to be more sensible. To stop caring so much about my friends and parties…" She then knelt to grab a fallen log, easily hefting it into her hands. "But I still got good grades, so what did they know?"

Susan laughed lightly. "Maybe I should've been more like you, my professors always said I needed to relax a little. To not worry about my grades so much. About what I was learning…"

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to learn. It's just…not the only thing life is about. There's friends, and parties, and the new fashions…" Brielle sighed heavily. "I can't believe I'm missing my big shopping trip. My mates and I were going to take all the allowance we'd gathered for the last six months and have a right rager in the shoppes downtown and then have a clothes swap later."

"Yeah, I guess the war has really changed things for everyone," Susan said kindly. "I think the hardest part was having to give up hanging out with my mates. It wasn't safe to be out so late at night with the threats of a bombing. And I miss the sweets, we had to ration our chocolate." She laughed to herself. "You should've seen Ed's face when he heard…" her laughter cut short, fading away as her pillowly lips pressed together.

Brielle tapped her fingertips against the log in her hands. "Tell me about your brother," she prompted. "You all have been saying you're looking for him. That the witch has him…what's happened?" She watched as Susan took in a deep breath.

"Ed's…" Susan trailed off, working to find the right words. The two continued to move along, picking up firewood as they went. "Ed's been troubled since our father went to the war. I think he was the most affected by his having to leave. Before…he never left our father's side. And it didn't help that he started at a new school recently." Her eyes flickered toward Brielle when she added, "A boarding school."

"Ah."

"Things haven't been easy for him. He lashes out a lot, constantly teases and pokes fun at Lu…he likes to have attention, and to be right, but doesn't really know how to go about it. So he pokes fun at her. Then Peter tries to protect her and then that makes things hard between him and Peter, because as much as Ed doesn't like to admit it, he looks up to Pete. And Pete…" Susan waved her hand, stooping to pick up another log. "It's a whole thing."

"And what about you?" Brielle looked over, noticing Susan's hesitation. Noticing her eyebrow raise. "Where do you fit with everything? Peter's kind of the dad," she gestured with her hand. "Obviously." She rolled her eyes. Susan chuckled. "Edmund and Lucy get on each other's nerves, or, I guess she gets on his. Lucy's been nothing but sweet. And you…"

"I guess I don't really know where I fit," Susan admitted. Then she frowned. "I mean, I try to help mum as much as I can. I try to stop Ed's and Lu's fighting; I try to keep Ed from being so…nasty. I try to keep Pete from being so hardheaded. I like ease and comfort, and the others seem to want to go straight into the things that would bring the opposite of that." She kept speaking before Brielle could ask Susan about her position of being the peacemaker, seemingly to her own detriment. "I guess it's true that common sense isn't so common anymore."

Brielle laughed to herself. For a short while, they continued to walk around, picking up more and more logs as they went. Lapsed into a comfortable silence before heading back to the area they were calling camp for the night. Peter and Lucy had dropped their gathering of logs into a semblance of a pile that Mr. Beaver was using his tail to knock into place while Mrs. Beaver passed around some of the food they'd brought along.

Susan made a low humming sound, placing her logs onto the pile as well. "I guess its not so bad we decided to take some of the food and preservatives that Mrs. Beaver offered to us, huh?" She shot Peter a smug smile.

Peter held up his hands defensively. "Okay, okay, I admit it," he said. "I was wrong. Okay?" He looked to Susan and Brielle then to Lucy. "Okay?" He smiled when Lucy giggled back, bringing up her hands to cover her mouth. Or to hide her mouth as she ate some of the food that Mrs. Beaver had offered her.

Brielle smoothed down the bottom of her jacket to be beneath her as she sat on the snowy ground. She crossed her legs and rested her chin in her hands, watching in rapt attention and fascination when she saw Mr. Beaver do some sort of a trick—a quick movement of a thin piece of wood between his paws that erupted in a large flame that quickly engulfed the pile.

Warmth spread across Brielle's face, making her roll back her shoulders to ease the tension that seemed to rest there. Allowed all the muscles in her back and shoulders to ease up and give a sense of relief to everything that'd been going on. Bringing up her hand, she pressed her fingers to the brooch that Father Christmas that had given her. Again, it felt warm to her touch, compared to the coolness of the stone against her throat.

The warmth of the stone was warmer than the fire that roared in front of her.

The group ate dinner before slowly drifting off to sleep. Lucy was the first to konk out, the minute she leaned over and rested her head on her brother's leg, she was snorting quietly. Mr. and Mrs. Beaver then curled together, resting their heads on their paws as they fell asleep. Susan had turned over to sleep and, at some point, Brielle realized she'd fallen asleep as well.

Or, rather, was aware that she was somewhere between being awake and asleep.

Where she could feel herself lying on the cool ground with the fire raging beside her, keeping her warm all the same. But her mind also wandered, seeming to be pulled rather than drift off in certain directions before ultimately landing where they were. She felt that familiar pull, there when she'd fallen through her bathtub, a sort of pinch and a guiding hand.

Then it turned into a tug, a sharp tug that yanked Brielle and her consciousness in a direction so fast that when she sat up, she wasn't sure if she'd even managed to fall asleep. Or if she'd been smacked in the face with a handful of snow once more. But when she did sit up, she looked around and noticed everything was the same…but different.

The darkness and shadows around seemed to have deepened to an almost inky black color that had a life of its own. Twisting and turning along with the crackling flames that danced above the campfire. Tilting her head to watch the smoke raise into the sky, Brielle noted how the sky seemed to have taken on a life of its own. It brought a strange sort of comfort toward her.

The sound of the snapping of the logs in the fire caught her attention. But only for a moment, before she realized that the sound hadn't come from the fire but from the other side of it. Something coming through the woods toward her. For a moment, fear gripped her, screamed at her to yell for Peter, Susan, and the others. But when she opened her mouth, she found she was unable to speak. Her eyes widened, her hand coming to her throat.

Then her eyes shifted around the fire, for the first time realizing she was alone. Peter, Susan, Lucy, and the Beavers were gone. The cracking sound came again, and her eyes went back to the source, seeing a pair of glowing eyes come toward her.

The form slowly revealed itself, slinking out from the bushes and went around the side of the fire until it stopped a few feet from her. Lowered itself to its stomach and brought its paws forward.

"So, it's true," Maugrim commented. His ears twitched, eyes flickering over Brielle's face.

Brielle stared at Maugrim, felt that familiar pinching-pull once more, this time, in her throat. Her eyes widened when she gasped quietly, then, hearing the sound of her gasp, she hesitantly spoke. "What's true?"

Maugrim's ears flickered at her voice. "Jadis allowed me to come see you. But I could only see you at night. She said I would understand…" His eyes narrowed briefly. He got to his paws and started toward her once more. Slowly encircled her. He watched silently as Brielle whipped her heard around, searching for the White Witch. "She's not here."

Brielle shook her head, moved to push herself away from him. "She's trying to track us down."

"She's trying to track them down." Maugrim tossed his head in the direction the Pevensies had been before, and sat near her again. "Not you. You're not a threat to her reign, but the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve are the ones who could stop everything." He reached up with his paw and started to scratch at his ear.

"What do you want with me?"

Maugrim paused in his movement and looked back at her, his gold eyes flickering over her face as if trying to determine whether she was telling the truth. Then his lips pulled back into what looked like a snarl…but didn't appear threatening. At least, not to Brielle. It didn't feel threatning.

It felt warm…familiar…

"I wanted to see for myself," Maugrim finally replied. "My queen said you're so much alike. Now I understand." Lowering his paw back to the ground, Maugrim stepped toward her. "You need to wake up."

He barked once, making her jump and close her eyes.

Brielle sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes flying open. Immediately seeing the fire before her, she winced and turned her head away. Then, when her eyes adjusted, she opened them once more, her lashes fluttering. Another cracking sound.

Sitting up, Brielle looked around the fire, gasping when she spotted the Pevensies and the Beavers sleeping quietly, curled up in their jackets as close to the fire as they could. The ground beside them having dried out, the snow melted away as they slept. Brielle's eyes searched through the bushes around them, looking for Maugrim's glowing eyes, but found nothing.

She turned her gaze to the sky, frowning, seeing it wasn't as black as it had been before. That the shadows weren't as long or anxious as they'd been previously. Bringing up her hands, she brushed her hair back from her face, resting her fingertips on the back of her neck, breathing heavily.

For the rest of the night, Brielle stayed awake. She watched the stars in the sky slowly disappeared with the brightness of the sun that peaked over the trees. Waited for the others to wake up and stamp out the campfire before they started walking once more.

As they went, Brielle continued to find herself looking to the trees that surrounded them, trying to catch a glimpse at what might be following them.

Wondering if she'd get any answers to her unasked questions. Most importantly, wondering why it was that once Maugrim revealed himself, she was no longer afraid.

A/N: I bet a lot of you were waiting for a chapter/scene like this and I've been dyyyyying for it! I'm so glad I was finally able to get here! Especially since I haven't really been able to do much with it since chapter…3…I think? Anyway, let me know what you guys think.

Cheers,

-Riles