I can't stop writing this story! haha It's making me feel bad for not updating my other ones - but the evil Narnia plot bunnies have invaded my brain and won't let me stop! hahaha i guess that's good for those of you who like this story :P
i will still do my best not to rush the plot. I need to have more Peter and Zooey time in order to make their friendship/romance later on believable so I can't really rush into my original plot - because that plot will make it very hard for them to be friends - let alone something more - and I want them to be pretty good friends by that time. sooo. yes. haha Also, I'd like to thank people who review and tell me that I am successfully making my story somewhat original - that's awesome to hear! :D
"I don't think you'll be needing those coats anymore." Mrs. Beaver pointed out.
I looked around me and gasped, wiping away the tears that remained on my cheeks and I laughed, so unbelievably happy to see the snow around us melting at an alarming speed and to see beautiful pink flowers blossoming of the branches of the trees around us. I threw off my coat gleefully, turning to beam at the others. I caught Lucy's eye and she darted forward, jumping into my arms and I lifted her off the ground, spinning her 'round while we laughed. It was spring again in Narnia - something that signified that we were getting closer and closer to ending the reign of the White Witch and finally meeting Aslan! I set her down and she went ahead with the Beavers, looking at the trees in awe and I couldn't stop smiling. Peter and Susan came up beside me, also watching their younger sister. I noticed that they, too, had unstoppable grins on their faces. We were all so grateful that she was alright.
"It's beautiful here." I muttered.
Peter nodded his head in agreement and Susan went off to follow Lucy. I noticed that she didn't apologize to Peter at all for making him feel like everything that had happened to their family thus far had been his fault and I frowned. She was complex, and I couldn't figure her out. I looked over at him and he saw the look on my face and shrugged.
"It's best not to bring it up, trust me."
I nodded my head once, eyebrows raised and lips pursed, "Right." I hesitated. "You know, she's -"
He chuckled, "I know."
"Okay..."
"She's complicated. She never says it, but I know when she's sorry."
I nodded my head in understanding, and we started forward, walking through the trees with the others running a little ahead of us, "And...is she?"
"Not yet, no." He grinned over at me.
"Oh. It kind of sucks that you get blamed whenever something goes wrong, though..." I pointed out, stuffing my hands into the pockets on my pajama pants.
His jaw clenched and he looked at the ground in front of us, and I realised that I'd crossed a line. See, sometimes I get to talking and I don't really realise that maybe I'm going into personal territory and it just ends up...awkward. Ever been in one of those conversations where it's just kind of like you're talking to yourself but you can't stop? Yeah. Kind of like that. But I wasn't going to to do that this time - oh no. I'd already put him through that during our last conversation. The last thing I wanted was to have another of my companions hate me.
"New topic, okay. Where are you guys from?" When in doubt: ask him about himself.
"Finchley."
"Ah, cool." I nodded my head, "Do you like it there? I've always wanted to visit England - it always looked like a great place."
"It's alright. I'm not sure what it would be like...in your time."
We were both quiet for a moment before I snickered, "That sounds so weird."
He laughed, too, "Yes, it does. It's so unbelievable, isn't it?"
"Yeah - How old are you?"
"Eighteen, why?
"Woah," My mind was just officially blown, "You'd be..." I thought about the numbers in my head, estimating what year it was in Peter's - uh - 'alternate universe'. Math was never really my strong subject, so I gave up on trying to get an exact number, " - almost ninety, in my time!" He wrinkled his nose in distaste, clearly not fond of the idea of being so old. Ever. I laughed at the look on his face, "We all gotta grow old sometime, right?"
"Well, yes but..." He trailed off, still looking a little creeped out.
"It's weird."
"Exactly."
"No argument here."
"I may be old in your world, but you don't even exist in mine." He pointed out.
"And yet here we are talking to each other!" I beamed over at him, "You gotta admit, it's kind of cool, right?"
"Cool?" I kept forgetting that they didn't use the same slang back then. He was probably trying to figure out why the hell this was cool - in the literal sense. Especially since it was actually fairly warm out, now.
"Neat." I corrected. "'Cool', in my time, means like...'awesome'."
"Got it." He grinned, "It's very 'cool'..." He trailed off looking at the floral trees surrounding us. We walked in silence for a while - surprisingly, it was a comfortable silence. However, as the silent grew longer and longer, I noticed the smile on his face fading as he was left with his thoughts, the look of worry that had been on his face for most of our journey was quickly returning. I assumed he was thinking about Edmund - at least I'd successfully kept his mind off it for a little while, right?
"You're worried about your brother, huh?"
"Of course I am." He mumbled - I noticed that he wouldn't look at me when we discussed his brother, or anything else personal.
I sighed, "You can't keep beating yourself up over it, Peter."
He just shrugged, "It's not that simple." He mumbled, shaking his head and looking up to watch Lucy when we heard her giggling from somewhere ahead of us. "Look, I don't expect you to understand -"
"Oh, that's nice." I snorted, getting a little offended prematurely.
"Let me finish!" He raised an eyebrow at me - perhaps I was being a tad over-sensitive. I muttered a quick apology before gesturing for him to continue, "Thank you. What I meant was I don't expect you to understand because you weren't there before all of this. You weren't around to see how I treated him...I might have been unfairly strict with him."
"Sometimes you need to be strict with kids."
"He's not much younger than I am." He reminded me.
"Oh." I pursed my lips in thought, "Well...Isn't that what brothers do? They fight, it happens." He was right, of course. I didn't know their story before Narnia. I liked Peter, though, and I never like to see my friends upset. My goal at the present time was to try to make him feel better.
He gave me a weak attempt at a smile, "I suppose." One thing I'd learned about Peter was that he wasn't good with hiding his emotions. Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair, ducking under a low hanging tree branch.
"Sorry, I could've shoved over." I muttered, moving more the the left so he wouldn't have to walk under the trees.
"S'alright." He was back to staring straight ahead and avoiding my gaze completely, so, I took that to mean that he had more to say. "It's just...it's my job to protect them and I - "
"There it is!" Beaver called back, excitedly.
I hadn't noticed the trees beginning to thin out around us, but, sure enough, soon after Beaver spoke, we stepped out into a clearing filled with tents and hundreds - if not thousands - of what looked to me like fairytail creatures wondering around, carrying weaponry, food, supplies - all sorts of things. I could help the tiny gasp that escaped my throat. Lucy and Susan waited with the Beavers at the edge of clearing while Peter and I caught up with them.
"After you, your Majesty." Beaver said, looking up at Peter. I didn't think I'd get used to hearing my friends being called 'Majesty'. It was surreal.
Peter, however, didn't show any hesitation. He walked into the camp with his head held high - I had to admire his poise. Susan and Lucy followed side by side. I hung back, leaving the shelter of the trees only after Mrs. Beaver told me that I could walk with her. The fear hit me like a brick wall as I stared out at all these creatures. Animals that could rip me wide open with one swipe of their claws, Centaurs who were nearly twice my size...they all stared as we walked through the camp. Murmurs came from all around us - I was actually surprised that no one had thrown anything at me during out little procession. The dirty looks I received served as a big reality check for me - you know, for a moment, I'd forgotten that I was kind of the bad guy...
I averted my eyes, staring at my feet. We stopped once we reached the front of the camp.
I heard the sound of a sword being drawn: "We've come to see Aslan."
I was shaking now. What if Aslan sent me away? What if he had me killed? I felt Mrs. Beaver rubbing the back of my lower leg soothingly and I smiled down at her, conveying my appreciation for the comforting gesture.
"There he is!" Beaver hissed in awe.
I dared to look up through my lashes as he spoke. I whimpered when I saw a great lion standing before us, his voice booming out over the crowd. I lowered my gaze once more, trying to stop the pounding in my chest. Oh, God, I'm going to die. "Welcome Peter, Son of Adam, Lucy and Susan, Daughters of Eve. Welcome, Beavers. You have my thanks. But one is missing in exchange for another." I could feel his eyes on me. I had to clench every muscle in my body to try to control how much I was shaking. "And who might you be?" His voice was still warm, yet it terrified me and I flinched at the sound.
"It's alright, dear!" Mrs. Beaver whispered, gently pushing me forward.
"C'mon, Zooey." Peter muttered reassuringly and I saw him reaching out to me. Having something to hold on to - some contact to just remind me that I wasn't alone - was comforting, and I quickly took his hand when I could no longer feel Mrs. Beaver's paw.
"What is your name?" The great lion asked.
I gripped Peter's hand tightly as I tried to find my voice, "Z-Zooey Parker."
Aslan nodded his head once in my direction, "Welcome, Zooey Parker." I waited for the rest - for him to condemn me and send me away. I knew Aslan knew who I was - I knew he knew the second Prophecy. I'd completely forgotten the reason why I'd come to him in the first place. My head shot up in surprise, however, when he spoke next: "Where is your brother?" He spoke to the Pevensies and my jaw dropped. I frowned at him, in awe that he hadn't mentioned anything about me. He glanced at me meaningfully, and I understood that he was not done with me yet. He just had the decency to speak with me in private, and for that I was grateful. At least I wouldn't have to be publicly humiliated.
No one else harassed me or objected to Aslan dismissing me as a subject of the conversation - no one dared challenge him. I breathed a small sigh of relief, loosening the death grip I had on Peter's hand.
"That's why we're here -" Peter spoke sadly.
Susan stepped forward, "We had a little trouble along the way."
"He's been captured by the White Witch." Peter explained, sending a fresh wave of horrified murmurs through the crowd.
Beaver chose to speak up at this moment, "He's betrayed them, your excellency!"
I turned, shocked by the outburst. You big mouthed little shit! One part of me was screaming at the little creature, while the other, more reasonable side of me was saying, You know he's right. The reasonable side was losing and I glared down at the brown furball.
"Then he has betrayed us all!" A large voice cried, causing me to jump out of my angry trance and face forward once again.
"This isn't going well." I breathed, I wasn't sure if Peter had heard me - if he did, he didn't react.
"Peace, Oreius." Aslan spoke. The crowd went silent.
"It's my fault, really," Peter admitted, "I was too hard on him."
"We all were." Susan added, giving her brother a small smile. There was the hidden apology he'd been talking about earlier.
Lucy stepped forward on Peter's other side, "Please, sir. He's our brother."
"I know, little one." Aslan sighed sadly, "And that makes the betrayal even worse." He paused, looking down upon the four of us, "This may be harder than you think."
woot.
this was all about getting some Peter and Zooey interaction in there haha
what'd you think? aka: Review. :P