I don't own Narnia or the Pevensies. I just stick them in situations where they have to talk to the kind of people I really despise.


"I'm going to tell you how we came to be here," began Susan, "but I must ask that you don't interrupt me, no matter how much you doubt us." When Perick grudgingly nodded, she continued. "More than four years ago, we were living in a place called England where there was a war going on. I'm sure you understand this. We lived in the city with our mother, and our father had gone off to fight, but the attacks were too dangerous and Mother decided to send us out into the country so we would be safe. An elderly scholar took us into his home.

"While we were there, Lucy found a portal much like the one you described to us. We entered this world through it, and were planning on just staying for a little while, but Edmund was…kidnapped." Edmund looked resolutely at the table, and Lucy was unsure if the tinge in his cheeks was from shame, or gratitude towards his sister. Susan offered him a small smile before going on. "Obviously we couldn't leave then, but through a series of incredibly odd exchanges with the most unlikely of people, we were told that there was someone who could save our brother from this woman who called herself Queen. We went to him, and he showed us where our paths would lead us.

"Edmund was rescued from the false Queen's camp. Already, her hold on Narnia was weakening, but it came down to one great battle. It was a terrible struggle but we all lived, and Aslan – he was the one who saved Ed – killed the White Witch. Her army was scattered. We four became joint rulers of Narnia, and for four years we've had peace and plenty, but now some of the citizens say her army is gathering again, and that's why we're here. We're trying to see if it is true.

"Your presence is a huge surprise, frankly. There are humans in neighboring countries; we were the only ones in Narnia for all this time, and we had no word that there were others. We don't wish to expel you in any way, but you seem not to know a great deal about our country. And this has led to a certain…upset of the environment."

Perick stared at her skeptically.

"And what do you mean by that?" he asked gruffly.

"The trees," Lucy cut in tightly. "You can't just go around killing the trees, it's murder." She felt strange and angry inside, but tried to suppress if for fear of embarrassing her siblings. Perick's face achieved a new level of incredulity.

"Now you've really lost it," he scoffed. "Trees are just trees. I would have thought someone your age would understand that, but apparently I was wrong. I'm through listening with your delusions, children. I expect you're orphans or something, living with the centaurs since your parents died, but I have my own family to look after, so if you'll excuse me…"

At that moment, a door at the edge of the room flew open, the swift pattering of light feet sounded and a small figure hurtled into Perick's side, burying its face in his shirt sleeve. A thin woman appeared at the doorway, balancing a baby on her hip and looking distraught.

"Elle, leave your father alone, he's got company," she pleaded. But Perick had already pulled the girl away from him, looking her in the eyes with a soft expression the four monarchs hadn't seen yet. He smoothed her hair worriedly, oblivious to their gazes.

"What's wrong, love?" he asked gently. She cast a glance towards the visitors, lower lip trembling and eyes brimming with tears. She could not have been more than seven. Perick looked up at them, face hardening and the hostility creeping back up into his voice. "Do they scare you, Ellie? Do they make you frightened? I can make them leave if you're scared, don't cry, Daddy will make them go away."

"I'm hungry," the girl whispered. Her voice was hoarse.

"Of course, love, go next door and ask Dilly for some bread, I'll come with you. Here, take my hand…" Perick stood up, grasping his daughter's arm and shooting the Pevensies a wary look. "I'll be back. If you even think of disturbing my household while I'm gone, I'll…" He faltered as his eyes met Elle's, and hurriedly pushed out of the door. The room was left silent and uncomfortable.

"Forgive my husband," said the woman, moving across the room to take his place across the table. If it was at all possible, she looked even more worn than Perick. "The war, it…it changed him. Please understand, he means no harm." She shifted the baby into her lap.

"We understand. War is awful," said Susan sympathetically. There was a lull in the bare-boned conversation.

"We meant to speak to your husband about something," Peter said finally. "I don't know if you heard us talking before, but…"

"Oh, I did," said the woman. "I know Perick doesn't believe you, but I cannot help but hope. Are you really Kings and Queens?" Her voice held a sort of wistful air.

"Yes," said Edmund.

"Can you prove it?"

"Not at the moment, I suppose. We've left all the things you would expect Kings and Queens to have back at the river mouth. We sailed here, from the castle Cair Paravel on the Eastern shore."

"A castle? What is it like? Do you have servants?"

Lucy noticed that the woman's eyes had brightened and she was leaning forward eagerly, a strange sort of hopeful greed on her face. She frowned.

"Yes," Susan said slowly, carefully. "But we do things ourselves much of the time. They're not slaves or anything."

"But if you're a Queen, couldn't you tell them to do anything? You wouldn't have to do any work, would you? You could just tell them to do everything for you, and they'd do it?"

Lucy's frown had passed on to all of her siblings now. Susan was fidgeting with the sleeve of her dress uncomfortably, glancing at Peter for some sort of guidance.

"That's beside the point," he said curtly. The woman appeared put off by his tone and stiffened slightly, a sour look crossing her face. "We must speak to you about the forest, Mrs.…"

"You may call me Gedra," she said.

"Thank you, Gedra. As you heard before, Narnia is a place unlike any other world that we know of. Animals here are not all dumb, like I would expect they are in your world, but some are Talking Beasts with what we would consider humanlike minds. They are essentially people in the bodies of other creatures. In addition to this, there are many kinds of half-humans, such as the centaurs we arrived with. Elsewhere there are also such creatures as fauns, mermaids and sirens." Edmund bit back a grin at this, while Peter looked disapprovingly worried.

"Dryads," Peter began again, "are tree-spirits. They are linked in body and soul to the forest. You may already have begun to see why we're mentioning this - your people are welcome in Narnia, but you cannot simply barge in and begin logging. As Lucy said before, it's…well, murder. The dryads are dying."

Gedra looked from Peter to Lucy with an expression of mild upset, but none of the shock and guilt that they'd expected.

"You'd place half-humans above your own kind?" she asked. Edmund made a vaguely disgusted noise in the back of his throat.

"We'd place the lives of our people above the luxury of ignorant foreigners," he said.

"Luxury?" Gedra said suddenly, loudly. "You call this luxury, this shack? Perick worked weeks to make even this, and now you're telling us we can't even cut down trees for fear of endangering some fairy tale creatures? While you live in your grand old castle at Care Pavarel, or whatever it is?"

"No!" Lucy shouted, standing up. "You don't understand it at all!"

There was a stunned silence. Lucy remained where she was, shaking with suppressed anger.

"You're killing the forest! You're killing a part of Narnia! You killed the dryad, and you don't even care!"

The baby in Gedra's lap woke and began to wail, and as she shushed it, she shot a filthy glare towards the youngest Pevensie.

"Now look what you've done," she snapped. But Lucy did not. With her siblings' shocked eyes on her the whole time, she turned on her heel, stalked straight to the door, wrenched it open, and left the house.