Where the Sidewalk Ends

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except Kristen, my very own, customize as you wish character.

Chapter Eight: Responsibilities and Hostilities

((Thanks again! I want to hit 40 reviews for this chapter so...everyone review that reads it! This is going to be an interesting chapter, guaranteed!))

Everything was still a blur when the ball rapped up. Attendants at the ball had come up to congratulate her and give her their best wishes. Even Isabel had come up and given her an extra big, extra long hug, her bright green eyes often flickering to the beautiful crown on Kristen's head. It didn't take someone intelligent to see that Isabel was completely jealous of her. But then again, she was Queen Kristen the Brilliant.

After everyone had said goodbye and the hall was clean, the 5 royals of Narnia trudged up the stairs 4 levels and into their respective bedrooms, each door shutting as the owner entered. Kristen had the longest walk to the end of the hallway and as she turned to shut her door, she saw Peter looking out his door and down the hallways towards her. He smiled. She smiled back. They some how shared a mutual understand of each other after only one day. He had her back when she needed him. She had his when he needed her. No strings attached. She had helped him out with Isabel, something that not even his two sisters could have done. She sympathized with him when she turned out to be an ass, and she kept everything quiet. A friend doesn't get much better then that.

He smiled again and shut his door, changing into his sleeping clothing and sliding himself into his bed. He was exhausted, physically and emotionally. The ball, Isabel, and getting a new Queen had worn him out and he needed some well deserved rest. He said his prayers and blew out his night candle, a dark silence washing over the entire room. He looked at the door one more time and then shut his turquoise eyes, falling under sleep's spell in a matter of seconds.

Down the hall, the situation was a different story. Kristen had carefully taken off her dress, placed her crown in jewellery cabinet and put on a sleeping gown that she had found in the closet. She pulled herself back into her unmade bed from her afternoon nap and blew out her candle, the room falling under darkness. She was drained. She'd fallen into a mystical world. She'd broken her nose. She's screwed up her knees. She'd been declared Queen of a nation she didn't even know existed. Yet she couldn't fall asleep.

I can't stay. I have to go home...go back to school, go to work. I have responsibilities. How do I get out of here? What if I can't get out of here? she thought as she fidgeted in her bed. Minutes passed and she still couldn't fall asleep. She stayed in her bed, staring out the window into the quiet, peaceful surroundings of Narnia. Maybe what I need is some fresh air, she said in her head as she threw her covers back and grabbed a bathrobe. Pulling it on and tying a knot around her waist, she tip toed out of her bedroom and quietly shut the door. She walked silently down the hallway, straight to the stairs. But instead of going down she turned away from the stairs and walked to a set of clear, glass doors. She opened them up and stepped out onto the cool, slate tiles of the outside balcony floor. The warm, yet cool breeze of the spring/summer transition gently greeted her face and she took a deep breath, inhaling the sweet scent of the great outdoors. She rested her elbows on the pretty marble boundary ledge and looked out into Narnia. As far as she could see, nature was a dominant feature. No massive, mega-size malls. No 32 story apartment buildings. No subdivisions. Narnia wasn't like that, maybe because it was about 100 years behind the real world or maybe because the residents like it the way it was. No one was bothered by the fact that everything was cooked by fire. No one was angry that their houses had to be lit by candles. Everything was perfect.

Huge, tall trees sheltered the ground below and the moonlight was reflected by the huge, dark, still lake. The lake was so still and the reflection so perfect that some people wouldn't be able to tell which one was real and which one was the reflection. She heard some crickets chirp and she took another deep breath. This what she loved. This is what she wanted to be surrounded by. This is where she wanted to live.

"Perfect isn't it?" a voice said as another figure entered the balcony. Kristen looked over her shoulder and was greeted by a sleepy looking Peter, who had a black robe tied around him with black matching slippers on his feet. He walked over next to her and rested his elbows on the ledge as he looked out into the horizon. ((A/N -Don't worry, this is not going to be a cheesy love scene. I repeat, no cheesy love scene))

"Why are you up?" Kristen asked as they both continued to look into the wilderness. She heard his deep breaths and turned to look at him, his face still pointed towards the trees.

"You woke me up when you closed you door. And my bedroom has a window that was open so I heard you breathing. I'm a very picky sleeper" he explained as he let out a laugh as he finished his sentence. He sensed her eyes on him and he turned to look at her, a smug smile on his lips. They locked eyes for a few seconds and then Kristen looked away, a small smile playing on her lips. Half her face was lit by the moonlight while the other half was in shadows and he carefully studied her, making notes of her behaviour.

"Well sorry for that. I just have a lot on my mind" she said simply as her eyes focussed on the forest clad scene infront of her. Her head was a mumble jumble of thoughts. Should she stay? Should she go? What will happen if she does either?

"Such as?" Peter asked again, his eyes carefully tracing the outline of her face. He noticed the slightest of a bump on her nose. He noticed that he lips were thin. He noticed that in the moonlight, her eyes seemed a greenish tint. He noticed that her eyes shined in the moonlight and twinkled when she looked at the moon.

"How am I suppose to go home? I have to go home don't I? I mean people will notice if I'm gone. But at the same time...this is what I love. The wilderness, the outdoors. How can I leave a world in which everything is perfect?" she asked aloud to no one in particular. She continued to stare into the horizon, her eyes now focused on the moon. It was large and full, and even with the naked eye the large craters could be seen. Disrupting her focus was a laugh, which cut through the silence like a knife. Her head whipped to the side and Peter remained laughing, a happy go lucky smile on his face. He looked at her, visibly amused. Obviously this girl knew nothing about Narnia.

"Kristen, it's not like humans drop into Narnia everyday and we make them Queen. You're here for a purpose, as are Susan, Edmund, Lucy and I. Aslan brought us here because he needed us here. You're here for a reason, not just because you stumbled across this place. If that's how it was, humans would be everywhere in Narnia. But us 5 are the only humans in this place" Peter explained, his accent thick on the words Queen, Narnia and reason. His eyes sparkled and he smiled at her, cocking his head to the side.

Kristen raised an eyebrow. Call her a skeptic, but she hardly thought she had any purpose here. If she didn't have a purpose on earth, who said she'd have one here?

"The great lion brought me here to serve a purpose? Ok Peter. Whatever makes you sleep at night" Kristen said as she laughed and looked into the lake. She knew he was looking at her and it was making her nervous. He was a handsome, strong, heart throb worthy teenager, while she was a tall, strong, intelligent but average looking, with no outstanding facial features to attractive the attention of others. She hated having such low self esteem, but when you are raised in a society where if you weren't popular you were an outcast, you couldn't blame her for feeling the way she did.

"Ok, be a skeptic. But you won't be leaving here until your purpose is fulfilled. Once Aslan's reason for bringing you here is through, you'll go home. And your life will be exactly where you left it, not a second forward or after" Peter explained as he continued to look at her. He found this all too familiar. Peter had been just as sceptical as she was when Aslan first explained things to him. But eventually he accepted things and he knew Kristen would eventually too. It would just take some time.

Kristen turned and faced him, examining his eyes and facial features for any obvious signs that he was bullshitting her. But from what she saw, he was being honest, although the smug smile on his face didn't seem that way. After a few seconds she tore her eyes away and laughed, staring back into the forest. Seconds later, faint sparks flew up in the distant, distant horizon, hundreds of miles away. They caught her eye and she focused in on them, her expression turning from humorous to serious. Who was sending up sparks and why?

Another set of sparks when up and she nudged Peter's arm, pointing in the direction of the light. Without a word he followed the direction of her eyes and seconds later, more sparks went up. She felt him freeze.

"Go wake the others" he ordered, looking at her. His facial features were so hard they could have been set in stone. His eyes were steely and his mouth was set in a grim expression. Something was wrong, she could feel it.

She obliged and quickly ran out of the balcony, running through the hallway and waking up the 3 other Pevensie children. One by one they lazily exited their rooms, rubbing their eyes and stumbling as they followed Kristen.

"Kristen, what's going on! Aslan?" Edmund asked as he stopped rubbing his eyes. Kristen turned around and found the great lion walking down the hallway aside of Peter, who still was looking fierce. Everyone seemed to forget the sleepiness they had been suffering from and looked at the lion. They finally reached each other and the all huddled in, waiting to hear what the devil was going on.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your sleep but I was just inform on something that I think we should discuss" the lion spoke slowly. Kristen tiptoed over to a candle and lit it, bringing it back to the huddle, light now reflecting off of everyone's faces. Susan looked scared. Lucy looked ready. Peter looked fierce. Edmund looked determined. Kristen looked bamboozled. Did the sparks mean something bad? They were just sparks...how bad could they be?

"Minutes ago 3 sets of red, blue and green sparks were sent up in the Western Wood" Aslan said finally. Lucy gasped, Susan sucked in a breath, Edmund let out a cry and Peter stayed silent. There was obviously much more to the sparks then Kristen had previously perceived.

"He can't be back, can he?" Susan asked breathlessly to the lion. Kristen's eyes played table tennis, flickering from Susan to the lion, then to Lucy, then to Peter, and then to Edmund, the whole cycle starting over again. What was going on? She stayed silently, hoping as more information was divulged the situation would become clearer.

"I'm not sure. Baldur's followers have dark, dark magic. I've never heard of anyone awaking the dead but I wouldn't underestimate him. You all know how evil he can be" Aslan replied as Susan sunk to the floor. She crossed her legs and held her head in her hands, staring furiously at the candle which was placed on the floor.

"What should we do?" Edmund asked, his dark eyes baring intently into the lion. Aslan seemed to be searching for words and then finally he replied.

"He's at least 4 days from here if he's on the move. At dawn, we'll prepare an army and move west, towards them. We don't want them getting any closer to the palace. I've alerted the guards already and by morning we should be ready to set out," Aslan explained as the Pevensie siblings all nodded in comprehension. Army? Baldur? What was going on?

"Some one care to explain?" Kristen interrupted as she looked expectantly at Aslan. She still found it confusing that a lion could talk, but then again she had fallen through a sidewalk stone to an imaginary world. Narnia was far from average.

"Baldur is in short, an evil, evil wizard. For the past few years he's frequently tried to attack the palace but he's never succeeded. At the last attack Susan hit him with 3 arrows and from what everyone knew he had died. But Red, Blue and Green sparks is his sign, his mark. They are always sent up before one of his battles" Aslan said quickly and hastily. He was growing as panicky as a lion could and he sat down, his front legs still perched up. Peter had fallen to one of his knees, Edmund was sitting crossed legged and Lucy was resting against Susan's shoulder. Kristen was the only one left standing.

"Ok, but I don't—" Kristen started. Things weren't clicking. Why couldn't they just send an army and hope for the best? Why did they (namely she) have to get invovled?

"Kristen. Does it not all fit now? Do you not understand your purpose now?" Peter interrupted her rudely, speaking up finally. Her brown eyes tore off of Aslan and pierced into Peter's. She glared at him expectantly. Why was she here?

He sighed and his expression softened, his eyes dropping to the floor and then back up to her's. They had regained their natural warmness and he gave her a sorrowful, weak look. Finally he spoke.

"You're here because of him. You're here to help us defeat him, once and for all"

Of course she was.

((Author's Note- See I told you. No cheesy love scene. I'm against cheesy love scenes. If I ever write a cheesy love scene, you all have the right to internet slap me. Anyways, fun chapter. Major things a head. Someone PM-ed me and said I should have this huge battle and Kristen should save Peter's life. Hello can you say cliche? I liked the battle part obviously. But that's not how things are going to go down. Read and Review!))