Reviewers:

High Queen Crystal: 1. I like your username. haha ;) 2. I will do my best to make this chapter a longer one. :)

Dearheart: Let me begin by saying that I have read and re-read your review multiple times and (honest to God) it makes me smile every time. I mean, when I started I knew that the plot idea is TOTALLY overused on this site but I, originally, just wanted to write this story as sort of an easy piece to get the creative juices flowing when I'm stuck on my much more original stories...but then my mind kind of went haywire and now I have this huge elaborate plot for Zooey and it all just blew up in to a much bigger story than I had originally intended so, now, I'm trying to make it as original as possible even though the idea itself is very unoriginal.

And I'm so happy to hear that you like Zooey so far! I promise, I will do everything in my power to keep her far away from Mary Sue territory - I even took an online character test to see if she would be considered a Sue. (She wasn't, thankfully haha). And, trust me, Peter will not be falling at her feet anytime soon. I wanna take my time with them - friendship first, then romance. At least for him. You know how guys are...haha plus, I love the awkward, crush stages of relationships. Those get skipped too often and the romance becomes too easy and that's no fun. :P

And you are absolutely right about the movie dialogue. My goal this chapter is to use as much original dialogue and events as possible. :)

Thanks so much for your review - I love getting lengthy feedback on my stories.

Rockhardfairies: Yay! haha Thanks - I kind of liked the tunnel bit, too. We do tend to be very easily distracted...

And I love the fox. he's probably one of my absolute favorite Narnian characters in that movie. I might have to change his fate and bring him back later - he rocks my world. haha

GothQueen13 and Tetraforce:Yeah, I thought I was going a bit fast in the beginning, too. I'll definitely work to slow it down in this chapter and have the characters get to know Zooey a little better and vise versa. Thanks for your feedback! :D

And with all that mess aside (sorry for the long ass authors note. haha), I shall begin writing...

I had no sense of time in Narnia - I knew it was different from time back home, considering the fact that it was night at home when I was pulled in to Narnia, but it was at least mid-day when I found myself in the forest and met the Pevensies. It was very confusing and, now that I didn't have raw terror to keep me awake, I was starting to feel just how exhausted I really was. It was getting darker - thankfully - so, I didn't feel guilty about asking if we could stop to rest. Once we found a good area to stop, the Beavers quickly went to work building a fire to keep us warm. The Pevensies sat up talking amongst themselves while I tried my best to get comfortable on the frozen ground. I needed to sleep, otherwise there was no way I'd be able to keep up on our journey to find Aslan. Sleep came quickly, but it was a restless sleep. I drifted in and out of consciousness, rolling over and shifting my position on the ground constantly. I heard bits and pieces of the conversation around me - at one point I noticed that Lucy, too, had managed to fall asleep. She, however, seemed to be getting more rest than I was, seeing as she was curled up amongst her siblings, her head resting in Peter's lap. I imagined that she was much warmer than I was...

"We're just going to find Ed, then we'll go," Ugh - there was no way I was going to get much sleep...

"But..." Susan paused, "We have to be careful, Peter. You heard what they said about that girl - she's dangerous! Who knows what she's capable of!"

Yeah, definitely not sleeping now. I was hurt that Susan didn't trust me...but I knew I shouldn't be offended. She didn't know me, she was only being smart about the whole situation.

No matter how much I kept telling myself that, I still felt the sting of her distrust.

I listened as Peter sighed - he was beginning to sound tired. Stressed. "We can't just leave her alone, Susan. The fox said - "

"Oh, Peter!" She hissed, "The fox? Are you listening to yourself?! You'll take the word of some animal over your common sense - some girl we don't know just happens to show up in this world at the same time as us and none of the Narnians trust her. You don't find that the least bit odd?"

My heart was beating faster with every word that came from Susan's mouth. I knew she was right - they shouldn't trust me. If I were in their position, I probably would be saying the exact same thing. But I didn't want to be left behind. I didn't want to be alone here. Where would I go? Aslan was the only person I knew of that could help get me home. I wouldn't know what to do...

"Well, obviously. This whole situation is odd!" Peter snapped. He was silent for a moment and took a deep breath and lowered his voice before speaking so as not to wake Lucy. "This shouldn't be possible, but it is happening, whether you like it or not."

"She's meant to work with the Witch, Peter! The same woman who has Edmund right now - the woman who wants us dead! I just don't think it's safe to..."

I stopped listening. I knew what my Narnian destiny was, but hearing it from her just made it hurt even more. I knew that she was right. None of us knew what I was doing here, really. Even I didn't know what I might be capable of. It was frightening and it had never completely sunk in that I was a danger to these people until Susan spat it out so bluntly. This Witch that I was meant to help wanted them dead. Dead. The word seemed so unreal - even though nothing had ever been so real. Their lives were in danger - more so every moment they were here. Hell, more so with every moment that they spent in my company. Maybe there would be a day when I would lose control over myself - maybe the change in me was inevitable. My mind was running wild with these horrible thoughts and, without thinking of how it might humiliate Susan, I stood up without a word and walked away from the group.

"Well done, Susan! She heard you!" That was the last thing I heard from the camp.

I didn't go far - I was much too frightened that I might getting lost. I stayed close enough that I could still see the fire through the trees. I could feel my chest constricting and my legs shaking and I quickly found a place to sit with my back against a tree. I knew I was going to cry and I let myself. My whole body shook with the sobs. I just wanted to go home. As I shivered, I longed for my warm bed. I missed my mom more than I ever had - she would have known how to comfort me. She always did. She would rub my back and mutter soothing words that would somehow make everything alright again...

I heard the snow crunch behind me and I quickly wiped the tears away. I groaned, seeing smudged mascara on my hands when I pulled them away. I ran my fingers under my lower lashes, hoping that I'd managed to clean up most of the running make-up. I hated when people saw me cry. It was embarrassing.

I didn't look up at the person who stood next to me.

"Are you alright?" Peter asked. He didn't sit down - just stood back and waited for me to answer.

I nodded my head, smiling. I didn't trust myself to speak up - I knew that my voice would crack or I would just start bawling again.

"Look, I'm sorry you heard that. She can be a little..." He paused, looking for the right word.

"Smart?" I finished, smiling over at him even though I felt another tear slip.

"That wasn't what I was going to say."

"It's alright. Seriously. She's right, if you think about it." I was crying again. I felt humiliated and ashamed of my stupid tears and I tucked my knees up into my chest, staring ahead of me. I thought maybe if I avoided eye contact he'd go away...

To my dismay, he didn't leave. He sat across from me and I was grateful for the distance between us. He looked uncomfortable - he probably didn't want to have to deal with some crying girl that he'd just met. I felt bad for him. "You don't have to stay." I pointed out with a reassuring smile.

He shrugged, "I don't mind." Liar. "She doesn't hate you, you know." He insisted awkwardly, trying to redeem his sister in my eyes.

"Oh, of course not." I sniffled, "She just doesn't trust me. Why should she, right? After all, apparently, I'm just some random girl who just happened to show up here and turned out to be some lethal weapon of mass Narnian destruction. I totally get it - I would hate me, too!"

"But she doesn't -"

"I just wanna go home." Oh, shit. I was rambling. Poor guy didn't know what he'd unleashed by staying. He was totally out of his element here. "I didn't ask to come here! I don't want to be here!" Stop talking. "This kind of stuff doesn't happen to me! I go to school, I go home, I read, I sleep, then I repeat that routine. That's my life! I don't live on the edge, I don't fight evil, human-slaughtering Witches!" I looked up and saw him tense up at that remark. I'd totally forgotten about his brother in my distress. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean...that was super insensitive. I'm sure he's fine..." I gulped. Now he probably wouldn't be so quick to defend me against his sister.

He gulped, taking a moment, before he nodded his head, "It's alright."

I buried my head in my hands, groaning, "No, it's not alright. I just...I kind of forgot that we're in the same boat, ya know? I mean, the same thing is happening to you right now - Hell, I think you've got it worse than I do!"

He snorted, "Oh, thanks." He chuckled sarcastically.

"I'm sorry." I repeated. I was really not doing so well with this whole conversation thing. I wiped at the remaining tears again. I was beginning to regain my composure a little. I looked over at him and I felt awful for dumping my issues on him. He was dealing with everything so well and I knew that he had more reason to be freaking out than I did: He was the oldest of the Pevensies. I could see how he would consider himself responsible for the safety of the others...and one of them was currently in the clutches of a homicidal ice queen. I cleared my throat, "How about you? How are you holding up?"

He frowned at me, shifting uncomfortably. Guys in my time weren't good with discussing their emotions, why should I have expected Peter to be any different? "Me?" He looked completely surprised that I'd asked. He probably hadn't anticipated that when he'd come over to check on me, "I'm...fine."

"Fine?" I repeated.

He raised an eyebrow at me. That raised eyebrow said everything for him: to me, it said 'obviously not fine.' I got a vibe off of him that said he wasn't in to talking about it just yet.

"We don't have to talk about that if you don't want. Just thought I'd ask." I explained, leaning forward. I spotted a stick on the ground beside me, picked it up, and starting drawing shapes in the snow in front of me. Peter didn't leave. I glanced up at him and he appeared to be deep in thought. I didn't know him well enough to know what he was thinking about or why he didn't head back to the camp. Not wanting to force him to talk to me, I waited to see if maybe he would speak up. He did, eventually.

"Do you draw?" He asked, gesturing at my doodling. We were getting down to awkward small talk. I was okay with small talk at this point. While, usually, it would have made me so uncomfortable, the random topic of conversation helped to wipe away my previous discomfort over pouring my heart out to Peter.

I laughed, "God, no. Clearly, you must not be able to see it very good from there."

Grinning, he pushed himself off the ground, crawling forward and laughing when he got a better look at my little drawing, "Clearly." He agreed, looking past me back at the camp. I peeked around the tree trunk and saw the small silhouette of Lucy sitting up, definitely awake. She was looking around, probably looking for Peter. He looked back over at me, "Are you ready to go back?"

I was touched that he'd bothered to ask. Most guys I knew wouldn't have even come to check on me. But I guess that was one of the many differences between guys then and now...

I nodded my head, dropping the stick, "Yup."

He stood up, brushing the snow off the back of his coat before reaching down to help me to my feet. I looked at his hand for a moment before I took it and let him pull me up, "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

That was the first and last time that Peter and I discussed coming to Narnia. When we returned to camp, Susan avoided looking my way and I felt a pang of guilt. I shouldn't have left so dramatically. I'd probably totally humiliated her - she would never speak to me again, I was sure. I made a mental note to apologize to her later - in the morning, perhaps. Lucy, however, smiled at me, her blue eyes showing a deep understanding of what had transpired in the woods. She was much too observant for a girl her age. I knew she could tell that I had been upset and I wondered if maybe I still had some make-up smudged under my eyes...or maybe it was just that obvious. I snuggled back onto the ground, curling myself into a ball and hugging my fur coat tightly for warmth. My eyes were sore and tired from crying and soon fell shut as I drifted back into my restless, uncomfortable sleep.

well...it was a bit longer than usual! haha
and entirely my own. i'm pretty 'meh' about the chapter. i always like to have a bit of action in my chapters and i sometimes forget that slower, character developmental chapters are also necessary. haha

and (sorry! but) i have to defend how i wrote Susan here BEFORE possible reviews come about how mean she was being: i didn't mean for her to come across as mean. She, unlike Peter and Lucy, is being much more defensive and (shock) smart about the situation. The way she sees it, she doesn't know Zooey and all she knows is that this chick is not someone they are safe with. So, really, the smart thing to do would be stay away from her. Susan relies more on thought and logic whereas Lucy and Peter (to me) are both more emotional and more likely to empathise with Zooey as an individual rather than see her as a pawn in some prophecy. So...yeah. hopefully that kind of made sense.