Disclaimer: I do not own Chronicles of Narnia. I'm the wrong gender and several decades too young to be C. S. Lewis, at least.
Summary: See previous Chapter.
A/N: I'm really sorry for the lack of update, but I'd nearly finished this chapter when my computer managed to delete most of the file, then my document recovery program refused to co-operate.

Chapter Three

Caspian knew that he would need all of his strength the next day, but sleep still eluded him. Finally, he rose as quietly as he could and walked a little way, trying to clear his head. Gazing over the still woods, and the sea beyond them, Caspian felt, more than saw, someone come up from behind him. "It's strange, you know. I always wanted to travel Narnia, to find out if the legends were true. Now that I have my wish, I can't help thinking about the way things were before."

A small hand slipped into his own, squeezing lightly. "I know what you mean. I always knew we'd come back to Narnia one day, but now everything has changed. The trees used to talk and dance, but now they are asleep and won't wake, everyone we knew is dead, and I don't even know how many of the Old Narnians, as you call them, still even exist."

Caspian glanced at Lucy, standing beside him, seeing the sorrow etched on her young face, but tempered by the hope and faith that he knew would never truly leave her. Somehow, her belief comforted him, and he sank down to the hard earth, pulling her with him and leaning back against a tree. "There are always memories, though. Tell me what Narnia was like before, when you and your siblings ruled."

Lucy smiled at him, her eyes warm. "It was hard, at first. The others didn't believe me when I said that I'd found an entire new world, and had tea with a faun. I know it sounded fantastic, but I was sad at how quickly they laughed it off. Finally, we all came through, only to discover that the whole land was under a curse, and we were the only ones who could break the curse and defeat the White Witch. I was still a small girl when I was crowned Queen, and I was so scared of doing something wrong, and it hurt so much when we were called back to our world.
"I never stopped loving Narnia though, and I never forgot all the things we did. There were battles, and the occasional Narnian who remained loyal to the White Witch, but there was also nights filled with the naiads singing in the waves below Cair Paravel, and dancing in the woods with the nymphs and fauns. Oh, Caspian, you would have loved it! Flying on the wings of a great eagle, dancing until daybreak with the birch dryads while the oaks and the beeches looked on, riding with the centaurs…It's nearly impossible to get a straight answer out of them, but they are some of the wisest and most noble creatures you will ever meet."

As she spoke, Caspian felt as though he were traveling back in time, until he could almost see the things that Lucy spoke of. "It must have been hard, going back to your world after being a Queen of Narnia. I don't know if I could do it."

A quiet laugh. "It was a bit of a change. Aslan said 'once a King or Queen in Narnia, always a King or Queen'. It's nice, but it isn't much help when you find yourself a grown woman, one moment, then an ordinary child the next. I remember being a Queen, ruling over fauns, dwarves, dryads and talking animals, with kings and princes asking for my hand, but to the rest of the world, I am only a silly young girl, not worth a second glance."

Caspian could hardly envision the young Queen as a 'silly girl', but the topic seemed to be upsetting her, so he changed the subject. "You said that the trees used to dance. How? Did they pull their roots out of the ground, or link branches, or…"

This time her laugh was more genuine, filled with amusement. "No, no, no! I meant that the dryads used to dance. They look more like people than trees, though there is a sort of 'woody' feel about them. The birch trees are like slender young girls, with silvery voices and a love of dancing. Rowan trees are like young men, competing with each other for attention. Then you have the beech trees, gracious and stately ladies of the forest, or the oaks, who look like hearty but very old men."

That was a sight that Caspian would love to see, and Lucy's wistful tone clearly said likewise. "If we manage to free Narnia, perhaps the trees will wake up again. Surely someone from Old Narnia can convince them to return."

Lucy leaned against him drowsily, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. The night was cold, after all. "Oh, I do hope so. If they can't, I'm sure Aslan will help."

With sleep finally creeping up on him, Caspian nodded. In Doctor Cornelius's tales of Old Narnia, everything always became all right again when Aslan appeared. "I'm sure he will."

Caspian really should have remembered that Cair Paravel was on the Eastern Sea. He woke with the sun glaring into his eyes, and two irritated young men glaring pointedly at his arm resting around their baby sister. Caspian hastily removed it, accidentally waking Lucy up in the process.

Lucy smiled at her brothers as she rose and went to wake up Susan. High King Peter looked as though he were about to speak, but was forestalled by King Edmund. "If we have to fight to save Narnia, you're going to need some proper armour. There should be something in your size in the treasure chamber."

Caspian and Peter were roughly the same size, so it was a safe bet, and King Edmund had a point. Caspian's metal studded jerkin might have been good while he was on the run, but in a fight he was going to need something better.

Caspian had a slimmer build than Peter, so the search took a little longer, but a few minutes search in the treasure chamber yielded a finely made shirt of dwarven chain-mail. The two kings had offered a sword as well, but the Narnian swords were different to the Telmarine broadswords, and they didn't have time for Caspian to learn a whole new fighting style.

Besides, with everything that had been going on, Caspian needed something that was still familiar to him.

The five of them set off after a quick breakfast of apples and fresh stream water, they had barely made it down to the beach, however, when they caught sight of a boat, rowed by two soldiers. Thanking the gods that they were still amongst the trees and out of sight, Caspian heard Susan whisper to the others. "What do you think they're doing here? If they were looking for Caspian they'd be scouring the woods, not rowing a boat."

King Edmund seemed about to offer a suggestion when the two soldiers stopped rowing and carefully stood up, holding something that kicked and struggled. King Peter drew a startled breath as Queen Susan fired a warning shot into the boat. Unfortunately, this had the added effect of making the soldiers drop their burden straight into the river.

King Peter instantly dove in after it as Susan fired another arrow, hitting one of the Telmarines and causing the other to dive overboard and swim for it. Deciding to worry about the second soldier later, Caspian and Edmund splashed into the river to catch the drifting boat, pulling it up onto the bank as the two Queens ran up to them and King Peter staggered out of the water, pulling what appeared to be a dwarf with him.

Queen Lucy instantly ran over to the bound and gagged dwarf, pulling her dagger to cut him free. "Are you all right?"

Caspian glanced into the boat, only to discover a large badger, also bound and gagged. Carefully lifting the beast out, Caspian carried him over to Lucy, who was calmly looking over the spluttering and outraged dwarf, checking for more serious injuries. Choosing to remain quiet for now, Caspian took in his first real sight of Old Narnians. Doctor Cornelius was part dwarf, of course, but the tutor had freely admitted that it was an entirely different thing than pure dwarfs. By now, the badger had also been cut loose. "Thank you, miss."

Though he really should have been expecting it, Caspian jumped slightly. Somehow, it was easier to believe in the existence of fauns, centaurs and dryads than it was in talking beasts. Naturally, this behaviour gained him several odd looks and a glare from the dwarf. "What are you staring at, boy?"

Caspian shook himself slightly. "What?... Are you?... I mean…"

The dwarf only rolled his eyes as the badger pulled himself upright. "You know, it's funny; you'd think more people would recognize a badger when they see one."

Lucy unsuccessfully tried to smother a giggle, as if at an old, personal joke, and Caspian pulled himself together. "I'm sorry. It's just, you're Old Narnians."

The dwarf gave him a withering look. "And you're a Telmarine. You don't see us staring, do you?"

The badger gave the dwarf a reproving look. "Do be quiet, Trumpkin! The poor boy can't help his ancestry." He turned back to the humans. "You saved our lives, so we might as well introduce ourselves. I'm Trufflehunter, and you may have already gathered that my friend here is Trumpkin."

King Peter inclined his head in greeting, but before he could say anything, Trumpkin caught sight of Peter's sword as Susan handed it back to him, staring in a kind of mild horror. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me. You're the Kings and Queens of old?"

Thankfully for all concerned, King Peter did not repeat his introduction of last night. "Some of them, at least. I am High King Peter, and these are my siblings, Queen Susan, King Edmund and Queen Lucy. As you have guessed, this is the Telmarine Prince Caspian. To change the topic, how did you two get here?"

The dwarf scowled. "A renegade dwarf escaped from Miraz's castle and told us that he had given the Telmarine prince Queen Susan's Horn. Then a naiad said that she had heard it being blown when she was swimming near the sea. The Centaurs claimed that whoever answered the call would probably come either here, at Cair Paravel, or to Lantern Waste, where you first entered Narnia."

The badger took up the tale. "We sent two others to Lantern Waste, and were on our way here when those Telmarines you saw captured us. Apparently, their commander thought that it would be a great joke to leave us here to be 'eaten by ghosts' or some such nonsense."

King Peter and Caspian exchanged glances. "It looks like things are moving faster than we thought."

Caspian nodded. "We had best get to the Old Narnians as soon as possible. Can we all fit in the boat, do you think?"

It was a tight squeeze, but eventually the whole group did manage to fit into the boat and they took turns rowing back to the mainland. It was very hard work, and by the time they pulled up Glasswater Creek, everyone was ready to collapse.

No one was awake enough to light a fire, and even a meal of apples (though Caspian was beginning to think that he would be happy to never see another apple in his life) felt better than taking the effort to catch or shoot anything. After a little silent munching, they all curled up at the roots of four large beech trees and fell instantly asleep.

Caspian's last thought before he drifted off was that of gratitude that the next leg of their journey would be on foot, and that they might find something to eat that didn't involve apples.

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A/N: Chapter Three up and hopefully Chapter Four won't take nearly as long to post.

Just as a reminder, I am using artistic license and making the Pevensies a few years older than they are in canon. Meagan, a reviewer, has informed me that the Pevensies are 14, 13, 11 and 9, but I'm aging them up three or four years, as described in the previous chapter.
Constructive criticism is more than welcomed and flames are laughed at and used to cook until the repairman comes to fix my oven. Chapter One had nine reviews, Chapter Two had three reviews, and hopefully Chapter Three will have more.

Thanks,
Nat.