Author's Note: Thanks so much for all your reviews! Sorry this chapter took so long- I was busy and didn't have time to update. This chapter is special- for the first time, we get inside Minni's head, who is seriously going to become important. And we learn some things about her and Peter that we may not have known before. Anyway, I really hope you like this chapter!


Chapter Four

Her face was being shoved into the ground, making contact with the dirt, blood and dirt blending together until it left a bitter taste in her mouth. Peter panted and held her down as Minni grabbed at the rolling barrel, her face contorted with fear.

"Stay down, Susan. Don't move," Peter hissed, keeping her face in the ground.

Yes, because I can move with your heavy body on me.

Minni grunted, trying to hold the barrel close, but it kept slipping from her grasp. Susan heard footsteps as the blond-haired girl came closer.

"Rylyn!" someone with a Spanish accent barked, and the footsteps stopped. "Come here!"

Susan bit her lip, tasting more blood, and she felt woozy as the blood flow in her harm became steady. Minni's voice reached a squeak as she desperately tried to hold the barrel in front of them, but suddenly, Susan heard a large CRASH!

She knew what that was. The barrel running into something.

Peter froze, and Susan took the chance to lift her head. She placed her hand on her cheek, and felt it. Her face felt caked with dirt, and sticky.

"It's fine. It's all fine. They're on the ship," Peter whispered hotly into her ear, and Susan shoved him off of her, gulping in breaths of fresh air.

Minni gasped. "Susan, look at you!"

Susan rolled her eyes. "I know, Minni. I'm covered with dirt and my arm is bleeding."

Minni shook her head. "No, Susan! Here," she said, rummaging around in her pockets and pulling out a hand mirror. "Look."

Susan did, and indeed, her face was covered with earth. But she now knew why she had felt so sticky- she had a 3 inch gash above her eyebrow, and the blood was pouring.

"We need to get you to a healer or something, Su. You're bleeding everywhere," Peter announced, sounding for the first time that day like a concerned sibling. Susan, this time, did not buy it. He would just go back to being a furious man any second afterward. He didn't really care about her.

"I'll be fine," she said, but her voice was breathless, like she was growing weakened by loss of blood.

Minni sighed. "I agree with Peter. You need to see- OOF!"

Someone came up behind Minni and twisted her arms, covering her mouth with his hands.

Susan shrieked in surprise and fear when someone grabbed her wrists, pinning them behind her back and covering her mouth with a soiled cloth.

"If you do not protest, we will not hurt you," the man behind her hissed, his dark eyes peeking out from behind a metal mask.

Susan grunted and twisted her body, trying to fight his grip, but he held on tighter and smacked her across the face with his metal gauntlet. Susan gasped and fell to the ground, causing her gash to rip open even more, and blood to trickle into her eyes.

Peter's eyes widened and he kicked his captor in the groin. He staggered backward, and Peter rushed over to his fallen sister, grabbing her arm and pulling her up.

"Leave her alone!" he snapped, rounding upon the next captor. But before he could, the man had him pinned to the ground, and the other was lifting Susan up and throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of flour. Susan kicked and thrashed, but he held on tighter. Minni was the only one who stayed put, and refused to move.

The men dragged all three of them toward the half-finished boat. The man holding Minni shouted,

"King Caspian! We have discovered three spies!"

Susan gasped and shook her head quickly, trying to speak through the cloth but her voice coming out as a whine. She kicked her legs, trying to break free and run away, but she was growing so weak from blood loss that she hardly did any damage.

Caspian glanced up from speaking quietly with Edmund and Lucy, and shrugged.

"Bring them to one of the built cabins," he said quickly, obviously thinking of other things. "I will deal with them shortly."

The men nodded, and shoved Peter, Susan, and Minni into the nearest cabin, closing the door firmly. Susan coughed, blood falling into her mouth, and wheezed, slumping to the ground. Minni dove forward.

"We have to get her medical attention!" she said, her mouth pressed into a worried line. She stood up and rummaged through drawers, looking for something to help stop the blood flow. She glanced up at Peter and glared at him, who was just standing there.

"Help me!" she snapped. "This is your sister, you know! Don't you care about her health?"

Peter knelt down next to Minni, shuffling through the drawers half-heartedly while Susan lay on the ground, fighting for breath. The room started spinning, making Susan even dizzier than she already was.

"Help… me. Need… water…" she rasped, trying to spit out the blood that was now in her mouth. Minni looked up and glanced around, sighing in frustration when she saw nothing of the clear liquid that she needed so desperately.

"Minni… water," Susan hissed, closing her eyes finally to try and ignore the dizziness. But she felt like she was spinning in circles even with her eyes closed.

Minni glared at Peter. "Help her while I find some water."

Peter stood up quickly, concern flooding through his eyes. "Minni, you can't go out there. You saw those despicable people who put us in here."

Minni gaped at him. "I can't believe this," she whispered, her eyes wide with disbelief. "You care more about my well-being than your own sister's, who is currently suffering from blood loss, and if she doesn't get immediate medical attention, she'll probably DIE!"

Peter stood frozen in the room. Minni didn't want to look at him anymore. She turned and stalked out of the cabin, ignoring the voice inside her head saying that Peter was half right- she shouldn't be wandering around. But Edmund and Lucy were here somewhere, right? And the king Peter and Susan spoke of, who Susan may in fact fancy, was okay too, right? Minni knew Susan- she wouldn't like someone unless they were decent and kind.

Minni walked along the half-finished boat, taking in all the sights. It was so utterly beautiful- she couldn't imagine why on Earth Peter and Susan would want to forget this place, let alone leave it.

Minni was so immersed in the picture before her that she nearly collided with someone.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry!" she said, glancing upward. She froze. She was staring at the face that she had seen in the drawing. Or at least, the human version of the face in the drawing. She let out a nervous giggle.

Caspian raised an eyebrow. "Who are you?" he asked. Minni gulped.

"MINNI!" someone shrieked behind him, and they both turned to see little Lucy run toward her, and wrap her in a fierce hug. Minni smiled anxiously, and patted Lucy on her head.

"Hi… Lu-lucy," she stuttered, pushing back her strawberry blond hair.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, beaming. Minni frowned. She had to think of a lie, and she had to think of it quickly.

"I... um… fell in here. Yes, that's what happened," she said. Not a lie.

Caspian glanced at Lucy. "So you know this girl?" he asked quietly. Lucy nodded.

"Yes. This is Minni, Susan's roo-," she started, but stopped quickly when she realized what she was about to say, and who she was speaking to. She bit her lip and quickly said over it,

"This is Minni, a close family friend."

It did not escape Caspian, however. How could it when she had just spoken Susan's name?

Minni nodded her head. "You must be… ah… Caspian," she said, trying to remember the name Peter and Susan had told her.

Oh no, Susan!

"Is there any water around?" she asked, looking up at Caspian and feeling a strange fluttering in her chest. Maybe it was just the way his eyes looked- he looked like he was staring straight into her soul.

He nodded. "Yes, there should be some in the healing cabin. Lucy, will you show our guest the way?"

Lucy nodded, but Minni immediately shook her head. "No, that's fine," she said. "I know where it is."

Actually, she didn't have the faintest idea where it was. But she couldn't let Lucy show her. It was impossible for Minni to lie to Lucy. It was impossible for ANYONE to lie to Lucy.

Minni sped away, feeling their eyes on her back as she bolted toward the first cabin in sight. A white flag fluttered from the roof, and the door was unlocked. Minni saw a barrel filled with apple, a drawer filled with herbs and cloth, and a pitcher of water. She grabbed some of the cloth and the pitcher of water, and snuck out, stealing back toward the cabin that held Susan and Peter.

She stopped at the door and peeked through the window. Peter was staring down at his now-unconscious sister. A cloth was wrapped tightly over her elbow and her forehead, and both wounds seemed to have been clean. Her chest was moving steadily up and down, which made Minni realize that she wasn't unconscious- she was just sleeping.

She smiled a little and opened the door, setting the pitcher down.

Peter looked up. "Are you okay?" he whispered. Minni nodded, and sat next to Susan, silently stroking her lovely brown hair.

"She looks so peaceful," she whispered, watching her best friend sleep. She turned to look at Peter.

"Peter," she said quietly, looking down at her hands. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yes," he answered, staring out the window. Still avoiding his gaze, Minni said,

"Why did you leave Narnia? It's so beautiful and so amazing, why would anyone want to leave and forget it? What happened here that makes you want to forget everything, and never come back? You said Aslan told you that you couldn't come back, but I want to know why YOU don't want to come back."

Peter was silent for what seemed like centuries, until he finally turned and met her straight in the eye.

"Things have happened here, Minni," he said sternly, sounding like a wise man that'd been through many trials and tribulations. "Things you just wouldn't understand no matter how we try to explain it. Me and Su, see, we just want to forget some things. Narnia is really just part of our past, and we've both felt pain here. It's just not a place for us any longer."

Minni stared at him, wide eyed and innocent. "But… when Susan said she had found the portal, you had seemed incredibly excited. How does that work?"

Peter shook his head, and opened his mouth to say something. Minni waited expectantly, but Peter then snapped his mouth closed, sighed, and shook his head again.

"We need to check to see if her wounds are clotting yet," he said seriously, leaning over as Minni watched him in surprise.

She felt that he was keeping something from her. She KNEW he was keeping something from her. She just didn't know what.

Minni wondered if Narnia wasn't really a beautiful, amazing place. She wondered if that was just a façade, and the real Narnia was hidden- you just had to look for it.

She watched as Peter lifted the cloth and cleaned the wounds some more with the water, and smiled a little. She liked seeing Peter like this- she hardly ever saw it now. He was actually caring for his sister. Truly caring for her, and that made Minni smile.

Minni then thought back to when she had run into Caspian and Lucy. She thought back to the fluttering in her chest, and how she had gone speechless. She gulped. She had felt that same way before, and she felt it for a long time around Peter before she had gotten to know him. Minni had been in love with Peter for a long time, and that was how being in love with him had started- the speechlessness, the fluttery feeling. She couldn't help but wonder, then, if she was soon going to fall in love with yet another man she could not have.

She could not have Peter because he was her best friend's brother. And she could not have Caspian because that same best friend loved him with all her heart- she just wouldn't admit it.

Minni wondered if this was how it was going to be forever- her lusting after guys who were attached to Susan- all the guys she could just never have.