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: A few people have asked if there will be romance in this fic. At the moment, no; in the future, possibly. With apologies to the movie purists, I think that Susan/Caspian has a snowball's chance in the desert of ever working out.

Chapter Four

Much to everyone's dismay, breakfast was apples again, and how Lucy managed to be almost cheerful about it, Caspian had no idea.

After a quick breakfast, the small party was about to set off again when they realized that no one had any idea which direction they were supposed to be going. It almost looked like things were going to descend into a fight, when King Edmund said that King Peter had something called a 'pocket compass' and that all they needed to do was keep going northwest until they crossed the Rush river at Beruna, and they would be at Aslan's How in only a few hours.

Trumpkin and Trufflehunter agreed, and Queen Susan said that anything was better than just standing around. Although the Queen's words were hardly a ringing endorsement, she did have a point, and they resumed their journey.

It seemed like it was destined to be one of those days where everything went wrong. First, the trail kept vanishing on them, and if Trumpkin, Trufflehunter and the Kings hadn't had experience with woods before, Caspian didn't even want to think about how lost they would have been.

Next, they had been walking only about half an hour before they were attacked by a bear that had gone wild. Although this was not entirely bad, as bear-meat would make a wonderful change from apples, it was hardly an appreciated occurrence, either.

Finally, the sun came out of the mist and everyone's spirits began to rise. Now the only problem was that they had yet to find the river Rush. The travellers were just starting to get worried when they came to a small cliff, with a river at the bottom. On the other side, the cliffs rose much higher. King Peter let out a long breath. "I'm sorry. It's my fault for bringing us this way. We're lost. I've never seen this place before in my life"

Trumpkin whistled as Susan gave a very put-upon sigh. "Oh, do let's go back and go the other way. I knew all along that we'd get lost in these woods."

Caspian thought that if this was so, then the older Queen might have said so at the time, rather than spending the past few hours wandering through the woods. Fortunately, he was saved from expressing this opinion by King Peter, who said much the same thing with pardonable sharpness. Lucy agreed with them both. "Don't nag at Peter like that, Susan. It's rotten, and he's doing the best he can."

Edmund frowned. "Don't you snap at Susan like that either, Lu. I think she's quite right."

Trufflehunter just sighed as Trumpkin spoke. "I'm not so sure that the High King is lost. What's to hinder this river being the Rush?"

Peter was obviously having some difficulty keeping his temper. "Because the Rush isn't in a gorge."

"Your Majesty says is," replied the Dwarf, "but perhaps you should say was. You knew this country hundreds, maybe more than a thousand, years ago. Mayn't it have changed in your absence? A landslide might have pulled away half of the hill, or the water may have deepened its course over the years, or there could have been an earthquake, or anything."

King Peter nodded. "I had never thought of that."

Trumpkin continued. "And anyway, even if it's not the Rush, it's flowing north, so it's bound to join the Great River at some point. So we'll go downstream, to our right, and come across the Great River eventually. Perhaps not as high as you'd hoped, but no worse than if we'd taken my way."

The group relaxed slightly at this possible solution, and they were about to climb down when Lucy cried out. "Aslan? Look, over there, it's Aslan!"

King Peter's eyes snapped toward his youngest sibling, and then to where she was pointing. "Do you really mean – "

Queen Susan was a bit more sceptical. "Where do you think you saw him?"

Lucy stamped her foot. "Don't talk like a grown up. I don't think I saw him, I did see him."

King Peter intervened to stop what looked to become a rather heated fight. "All right, Lu, but where?"

Lucy pointed. "Right up there between those mountain ashes. No, this side of the gorge. And up, not down. Just the opposite of the way you want us to go. And he wanted us to go where he was – up there."

King Edmund looked ready to believe her, but still wary. "How do you know that was what he wanted?

Lucy was starting to look annoyed with the lot of them; as if she couldn't believe that they didn't have her trust in Aslan. "He – I – I just know, by his face."

The tone of Lucy's voice caused everyone to look at her a bit more closely. Her eyes were fierce and she seemed taller somehow, and Caspian knew that he was no longer seeing Lucy, the youngest of four children and off to boarding school for the first time.
He was seeing Lucy the Valiant, Queen of Narnia, whose faith was the virtue of legend, and who was very convinced that she had seen Aslan, whether they believed her or not.

The others looked at each other in puzzled silence, until Trumpkin finally broke it. "Her Majesty may well have seen a lion – there are lions in these woods – but it needn't have been a friendly and talking lion, any more than the bear we ran into."

"Oh, don't be so stupid," snapped Lucy, "Do you think I wouldn't know Aslan if I saw him?"

Trumpkin only shrugged. "He'd be a pretty elderly lion by now, if he's the one you knew when you were here before! And if he is the same one, what's to have prevented him from going wild and witless like the others."

Lucy turned red, and if Caspian had not placed a hand on her arm, he felt it likely that she would have hit the dwarf. "You don't understand. I know Aslan, or at least a bit of him, and I know I saw him!"

Edmund sighed, cutting the two off before the disagreement could escalate any further. "There's nothing for it, then. We'll have to put it to a vote: up or down. What do you say, Susan?"

Susan shook her head. "Don't be angry, Lu, but I think we should go down. I'm dead tired. Do let's get out of this wretched wood as soon as we can. And none of us except you saw anything."

Caspian had been raised with the Telmarine belief that if you didn't have proof of something unbelievable, then it didn't exist. That was probably why almost no one else had believed in the stories of Old Narnia.
Caspian had never heard or seen sight of Aslan outside the stories that Doctor Cornelius and his Nurse had told him, causing belief to war with reason and logic. It was all a question of faith, he supposed.

But the stories had said that Queen Lucy was the first to discover Narnia, and in the few days he had known her, he had seen that she had enough faith for ten people. Her trust and faith in Aslan was unwavering, and while Caspian had trouble believing in anything right now, he trusted Lucy. If she was convinced, then that was good enough for him.

King Edmund looked uncomfortable as he cast his vote. "The last time I didn't believe Lucy, she was right, and I ended up doing something pretty stupid. Maybe this time we should listen to her."

Caspian could hardly miss the radiant smile Lucy had given her brother, but he had his own decision to make. If Caspian was to be King of Narnia, then it was his duty to obey the High King, and the other Narnians seemed to agree. On the other hand, it had been over a thousand years since High King Peter had been in Narnia, and the two Old Narnians had not really been focusing on the geographical layout when they were last here, so Lucy had just as much chance of being right as the others did. More so, if she truly had seen Aslan. "Queen Lucy claims to have seen Aslan. If He is guiding her, then I think we should follow."

Sadly, the others didn't seem to share this opinion. Peter paused for a long moment, and then finally took a deep breath. "Down. I'm sorry, Lucy, and I know that you may be right after all, but I can't help it. We must do one or the other."

Trufflehunter shook his head. "My duty is to the High King. I'm sorry, Queen Lucy; you may well have seen Him after all, but I vote for going down."

Trumpkin also shook his head. "I'm not about to jump off a cliff for something that only one of us has seen. I vote for going back the way I suggested."

Queen Susan let out a breath and began to climb down. "It's settled then; we go down by the river, and the sooner we're away from here the better. Come on, all of you."

If it was hard to miss Lucy's smile before, it was impossible to miss her expression of disappointment now. The group set off, with Edmund and Caspian dropping behind to walk with Lucy, who was struggling to hold back tears.

o

o

o

o

A/N: I am so sorry it took me this long to post, but Real Life kept getting in the way. I finished my TAFE course and am now dividing my time between writing whatever is in my current burst of inspiration, job-hunting, moving house and a course in Real Estate.

Anyway, this chapter is up, and the next one shouldn't take as long. Critique and suggestions in reviews help (hint, hint). Constructive criticism is welcomed, and flames are laughed at.

Thanks,
Nat.