Disclaimer: I own nothing of C.S. Lewis' work, and I only beg a small claim to the wonder of his fantastical world by creating this parody.

Chapter Quote: "Since then, I've been mainly trying to keep them from not killing each other."

Note: Character Index is located at the end of this chapter.

Chapter Nine

A Royal Reception

A nymph led the boys to the armory. The two Campbell boys had strode eagerly after the long-legged centaur with Elizabeth bringing up the rear. Elizabeth started to hum one of her many favorite opera's and the nymph chatted aimlessly with the boys about what she knew of swords and such.

"Have your brothers ever used swords?" The nymph asked Elizabeth, who regarded her with raised brows.

"Not that I know of." Elizabeth replied.

The slightest of sighs passed through the nymph's lips as she turned, her face lit up by a patient smile, to the boys. "Well... I imagine events could become a little... rowdy... if they aren't watched."

Elizabeth nodded and looked ahead, her eyes narrowing as she realized the boys were no longer walking before them. There were a sudden series of shouts and the high-pitched giggles of her brothers from the bend in the corridor just ahead. The nymph and Elizabeth exchanged glances and, with Elizabeth shouting the boys' names frantically, they broke into a run.

Fania led Grace, Maria, and Cecilia to a nursery where the children of those who worked in the palace were kept. Watched by two very large tigeresses, there was an assortment of Narnians in the room from little beavers to large bear cubs. Grace delighted herself by playing with a small, paint centauress, who softly whinnied instead of laughing when she was happy.

While Maria and Cecilia quickly became acquainted with a pair of lion cubs, who were playing with a ball of yarn. They stayed until the babies were put in bed for naptime before they continued on with their explorations.

They heard a loud crash somewhere up ahead as Fania led them down another corridor and, with their curiosity roused, they all broke into a jog (Fania trotted) to see what had happened up ahead.

They came to an large opening in the hallway that led under a magnificent set of stairs, and to a large hall beyond. And, on the other side of the opening, Maria spotted Anthony, Tyler, and Elizabeth watching a scene before them by the end of the staircase.

Actually... Elizabeth was mainly just watching the boys as they kept swinging medium sized swords around. And, upon closer inspection, the girls noticed that Elizabeth was holding a cloth bag of ice to her head.

"What happened?" Asked Maria curiously.

Elizabeth glared at her brother. "Anthony thought the swords were plastic-" She removed the bag of ice to show a large bruise forming just under her eye. "- luckily they were still dull." She winced at the memory.

"So where did you guys go?"

Elizabeth glanced again, warily, at the boys- who were still jousting with each other and still didn't seem to realize that the swords really weren't plastic. "To the armory... and then to the infirmary for ice." She replied, sighing. "Since then, I've been mainly trying to keep them from not killing each other."

Fania was staring at a large crowd of Narnians that had gathered at the bottom of the staircase, her head cocked curiously. "Do you know where Alysia and Michelle are?" Asked Grace, Cecilia had started cheering on the boys as they fought.

Elizabeth shook her head and glared again at the boys as they resumed their sword play Jedi-style. "They went down the south hall... remember?" Elizabeth sighed again and rubbed her forhead. "We probably should have thought of a meeting place... this palace is huge."

"Elora would have." Maria added thoughtfully.

But Elizabeth wasn't listening any longer, now her attention had been drawn to the crowd of Narnians assembled across the opening from them.

"I'm going to see what happened." Fania stated perkily, trotting over to the crowd with a curious expression on her face.

"Hey guys-" Grace interrupted slowly. "Isn't that Alysia over there?"

The three fell silent as they turned to look towards the crowd. "Lizzy... that is Alysia." Maria breathed softly. "And there's Michelle- standing right next to her!" Continued Grace, her voice rising to an excited pitch.

To the girls' astonishment, Grace was right. There was Alysia, standing miserably in the center of the crowd with a stormy look on her face as she glowered at the floor while two, rather large bears, stood on either side of her growling loudly at the others.

The Narnians were all in an uproar and Michelle, who was standing next to her sister looking both mortified and enraged, was yelling back at the others with flashing dark eyes and enflamed cheeks.

Anthony made a few sound-effects resembling the snap-hiss of a lightsaber and Tyler murmured something about the 'force'. Elizabeth pushed the ice to her eye again and sighed.

"We're going to be in soooo much trouble." Maria breathed.

Somehow, no one managed to disagree.

So that was how eight of the Campbell Children met the second king of Narnia, Edmund. You would have been surprised by his appearance just then- for Edmund wasn't really the same scrawny looking boy he had been when the children had seen him in the movie. Rather, we was tall- still slightly gangly looking, and looking to be about fourteen or fifteen.

And, Edmund being Edmund and Peter being Peter were, of course, not at all as upset as some of the Narnias. (Though Edmund was clutching at his stomach a little funny and wincing every so often which someone jostled him.) The Narnians couldn't believe that someone would actually try to slide down the banisters. And they were in a general uproar because they also couldn't believe that the foreign strangers would try to assassinate their king.

Of course, Alysia hadn't been trying to assassinate Edmund, or anyone for that matter. But, contrary to her talkative nature, Alysia found that she had very little to say concerning the matter at all as her cheeks flushed into something that looked like a blush whenever she caught sight of the dark-haired king.

For most of the children, seeing Edmund came as a bit of a surprise. Being that he was older now, his personality had changed and he was quite a different sort of person then the children could recall from the movies. He was actually much more confident now- and appeared to be very little like the boy who had betrayed his siblings to a witch, though none of the children would dare to say as much.

While Peter calmed down the enraged Narnian crowd, Elizabeth temporarily confiscated the boys' swords and humored Tyler in his request to be known as 'Anakin. (She didn't want their rather violent tendencies to be mistaken for yet another 'assassination' attempt.)

Apparently, Elora was up now too. A faun had come racing in at some point during the confusion and told them that the eldest Campbell Child was awake and would be joining them shortly. So far, it seemed like Elora hadn't heard the latest news yet and none of the children were looking forward to her reaction.

Eventually things calmed down and Peter, looking a little haggard, suggested that they meet in the dining room for a 'talk'.

"Are we in trouble? Whispered Cecilia to Grace.

"I hope not." Answered Grace. "How do they punish troublesome children in Narnia?"

In all honestly, they couldn't help but wonder how far a Narnian king's hospitality could be stretched. Even the boys were silent now. Anthony sat quietly next to Grace and 'Anakin' was staring at a chandelier handing from the ceiling over the table.

Peter was pacing at the far end of the room and Edmund was seated silently at the table, staring hard at the mahogany wood and avoiding the downcast gaze of Alysia- who sat just across from him.

No one spoke and no one moved to introduce themselves to the Narnian king. All in all- it was an awkward situation made even worse by the silence in the room.

After a while, Peter's pacing came to an end and his gaze drifted to the door as footsteps could be heard slowly approaching it.

It would have been nice to say that the children missed Elora dreadfully and were delighted to have her returned to them. However, it appeared that she had gotten word of recent events somehow and when her tall figure appeared in the doorway- her face had a sort of pale green hue to it. Dressed simply in a dark blue dress, she walked in supported by Marcus, the old faun.

It would have also have been nice to say that they had eagerly awaited her arrival... but the Campbell Children didn't always think of the most polite things. And right now... all of them had an image of roaring bears and enraged centaurs fixed rigidly in their minds. So only Tyler seemed to be oblivious enough to actually get up and say hello to Elora as she made her way to the table. She smiled weakly at him and it took an additional amount of time for the children to realize that she was leaning, rather heavily, on Marcus as she walked over.

"Hey guys." She said slowly, wincing just a tad as the faun helped her to near the table. The children murmured their happiness at her feeling better- but the awkwardness hung about the room still like a thick smog- most unpleasant and works sufficiently to clog your lungs.

Still no one spoke and still no one knew exactly what to say- so, all in all, it was an awful business altogether. Peter moved into action and, striding across the hall, he bowed slightly to Elora and offered to help her to the table.

Looking a tad bewildered and losing her green color to be replaced by a tomato red, she couldn't do anything less then to accept- though the children could have sworn that they say her knees buckle beneath the folds of her dress as Peter slipped his arm around her waist.

Elora's chair was at the far end of the table and, once seated, she now looking thoroughly flustered. You must realize that Elora and Peter had not yet been properly introduced before and, once they had exchanged polite greetings and made their introductions (which Elora seemed to have a difficult time with at first) they began their meeting.

The table itself was very long and, with Peter on one end and Edmund to his right, and the children stretched out along all the edges, and then, of course, there was Elora at the end opposite to Peter. Standing proudly, and most majestically, next to Peter was his advisor, General Orieus- who looked even better in real life then he did in the movie. The table was quiet for a moment and- still looking sickly and slightly disoriented, Elora found she had little to say as she looked up at Peter and met those wonderfully blue eyes.

She turned pleadingly to her siblings- begging someone to pick up the conversation. Elizabeth quickly took note of her plea and cleared her throat.

"Ah- so what exactly has this meeting been called for?" She asked simply, and Elora smiled gratefully at her in relief. Elora hated starting conversations and, having years of experience, Elizabeth had learned when her older sister needing a helping hand.

Peter and Edmund exchanged a swift glance and then Peter spoke. He really did have a magnificent bearing- so royal and elegant. (Not to mention how handsome he was.) He seemed to gather that Elora was something of the leader of the group as he addressed her first.

"Well, your siblings have caused a bit of excitement in the palace today, Lady Elora."

"Just Elora." She said softly, looking rather wide-eyed and dreamy as she stared at the king. Anthony sent a well-aimed kick at her shins and, fidgeting weakly in her seat, she regained her composure and answered him. "Uh... yes. So Marcus was telling me-" Her sentence droned off into silence, her brows met thoughtfully, and she cocked her head. "Are you... erm... is everyone here... acquainted with... each other?" She asked hesitantly.

Being ill has its setbacks (besides the physical ones), and Elora hadn't gotten in on the whole story of their rescue. Fleetingly, she wondered all that had taken been going on while she was asleep. Marcus had filled her in on what he could, bu their was no Narnian in the whole castle who could explain everything that had happened to the children so far during the course of the day- or why Elizabeth had a black eye.

"We met King Peter at breakfast." Cecilia announced happily, she thought this whole ordeal was incredibly funny now that she didn't seem to be in any sort of trouble.

"Yes, we have been introduced." Peter said lightly. "Your siblings have explained to me everything they could." He then quickly introduced Edmund to them (whom everyone already knew- but it simply wouldn't due to be rude), who in turn rose, bowed, and greeted them all.

And then they settled down to business.

If you have ever been in trouble before- then I think you can imagine what it was like just then for the children. And Elora, who was starting to feel as though she had missed out on an awful lot, started to get paler and paler as the events of the day were unfolded before her. She glanced weakly at Michelle and Alysia. "You slid... down a banister?"

"It was very big." Cecilia added excitedly, though she seemed to wilt visibly under Elora's mortified gaze.

"But perhaps it wasn't such a ... good... idea." Michelle added uneasily. Luckily Elora wasn't in a bad mood, but now she looked worse then when she had first entered the room. Her face didn't even color with anger. She just sat there, slowly easing the horrified expression from her face and glancing weakly at Peter.

"I apologize for the actions of my siblings..." She hesitated, unsure of how to address them. "... your majesties." She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "But I can assure you... all of this has just been a big..." She glanced pointedly at Alysia,

"...misunderstanding."

A/N: I loved everything about Alysia's accident. And I will be poking fun at her just to get to my sister, whom Alysia is based on. :)

Character List:

Elora: Oldest, clumsy, writer, age: 16

Alysia: 2nd oldest, Boy Crazy, likes to talk, Age: 15

Elizabeth: Singer, Boy Crazy Age: 14

Michelle: Boy Crazy, More Reserved, Loves Romance Age: 14

Anthony: Hates Chores/Work, Likes to Play, Has a fresh mouth, Leader of the Brat Pack Age: 13

Grace: Very Pretty, Shy, Trips a lot, Age: 12

Maria: Smart, Cute, Likes to make people laugh Age: 10

Cecilia: Saucy, Rides Horses, Member of the Brat Pack Age: 8

Tyler: Youngest, Doesn't speak well, Finder of Narnia, Member of the Brat Pack Age: 7

Mom: Beautiful, Smart, Everything a mother should be. Age: Perfect

Dad: Handsome, Strong, Smart, Everything a father should be Age: Perfect

Uwey: Senile, Old, Likes to Bite horses, Age: Ancient