High Queen Crystal: First, I gotta help out my boy Peter and say "down girl" lmfao your review made me smile, so, thanks for that! I also wanna thank you for reviewing each and every chapter I put up, I really appreciate that. :) Dude, I'm so happy that you like how Susan is portrayed in my story! She is, often, written as kind of a bitchy character and i LOVE Susan. She's my second favorite Pevensie, so I really didn't want to go that route with her in this story. :)

Rockhardfairies: yeah, it really has completely overrun my mind. hahaha it's good for Narnia readers, but baaad for my Indiana Jones readers (ALTHOUGH, IF ANY OF YOU ARE READING THIS, I HAVE A CHAPTER IN THE WORKS! haha). And REALLY REALLY bad for Dark Knight readers - I haven't touched that one in months :( it's terrible. haha Yeeeah, Zooey's mom has an effed up past, man. I, actually, felt really bad writing Zooey's thoughts about how she wasn't something that her mom loved or wanted. It's sad, yes, but it'll all turn out in Z's favor, in the end, I promise. :) For once, I want to end a story happy! I always kill people off - it's really bad habit. haha And I hafta thank you, too, hon! You always review, and give me lengthy feedback! love ya xxx

I was completely taken by surprise by how much better I felt after having spoken to Susan about the whole thing. Being able to finally feel comfortable around her was such a big relief for me and to know that she believed that everything would be fine - that I would be able to fight back against whatever plan the White Witch had for me - was so unbelievably motivating. I held Susan's opinion in high regard - perhaps because her approval was the most difficult to obtain - that I didn't want to let her down. I made a silent promise that, no matter what happened, I would never give up hope, I would never give in.

However, as inspired and courageous as I felt now, I knew I was avoiding thoughts of my Mother. I could deal with my destiny. I knew, in time, I would be brave enough to face the White Witch if that moment ever came to pass. Facing my Mother, however, knowing what I now knew, was something that was much too painful to consider. I hadn't yet figured out how I would ever be able to look at her the same way: without questioning her affection toward me. What kind of daughter questions whether or not her Mother loves her in the way that she should?

Then again, what kind of Mother - no, what kind of person - births a child knowing that they would grow up to be a murderer?

It was too messed up.

Going home, going back to her, leaving Narnia, leaving my new friends - those were things I refused to address until the time came when I absolutely needed to deal with them. The moment Aslan came to me to tell me 'It's time', that's when I would face those impending realities. For now, I wanted to enjoy the time I had left here.

Once Lucy was finished exploring, the three of us returned to the camp. We found Peter sitting amongst the Narnian's, already making a brilliant first impression on them, as well - I could tell by the way they were looking at him. They were starstruck - although, I guess meeting the famed Future King of Narnia would be a pretty big deal to some. Later on, I would be proud to say that I knew Peter before he was a King.

He spotted us and stood up, smiling, "How are you feeling?" He asked. I noticed that he, too, had changed his clothes and cleaned up. I wondered briefly where he had gone to wash up, but the thought quickly passed.

"Better, thank you." I cast a sidelong glance at Susan.

"That's good..." Evidently, Peter didn't share his sister's curiosity about my discussion with Aslan...either that or he was much better at hiding it than she was - just too polite to ask. When I caught him frowning down at me thoughtfully, I decided that it was probably the latter. He pointed over his shoulder in the direction of a centaur - I quickly recognized the creature from before, when we'd first met Aslan. "Oreius just offered to teach me to fight." Peter explained, changing the direction of our conversation.

I frowned, "Fight?"

"Peter..." Susan sighed in a scolding manner.

"What?" He shrugged his shoulders, "It can't hurt to learn, right?" I noticed Oreius nodded his head once in agreement when Peter looked to him for back up.

"Well, I suppose, but -"

"And suppose we have to fight to get Ed back when we find him - it would be easier if we actually knew what we were doing, would it not?" He gave his sister a confident grin.

"That's what the army is for, Pete." I interjected carefully, not wanting it to come off like Susan and I were ganging up on him. Although, in a way, we were. It was just that the whole idea of Peter fighting with so little experience made me queasy. I didn't like it - I didn't like the thought of anyone fighting. If at all possible, I would have totally loved it if there was no fighting what-so-ever. Somehow, I didn't see that happening...

"Can I watch?!" Lucy interrupted, quite deliberately, beaming up at Peter with bright, excited eyes. She was clearly uninterested in any more confrontations between her siblings - from what I'd heard so far, it was such arguments that had gotten them here in the first place. By here, I meant in this whole situation with Ed being missing and all that jazz.

Peter grinned back at her, looking just as excited to learn as she was to watch, "I don't see why not!"

Lucy turned on Susan and I, looking back and forth between us, "Will you come, too?"

"Sure!" I blurted. Unfortunately, I was actually kind of interested to see Peter and Oreius fight. I mean, if it was just practice, there was no risk, so, I didn't have to worry about anyone getting killed -

Yet... my mind added cynically.

I'd only seen sword-fighting in the movies. Was it actually called sword-fighting? Swordplay? Maybe there was a better term that would be used to describe it...Swordsmanship! Right? Clearly, I was very uneducated on the subject of Medieval-style warfare. Should have paid better attention in History...

Susan shot me a cold look of betrayal when she heard the edge of excitement in my voice. I felt my cheeks turn red in shame. "What?" I asked, growing defensive.

"Don't encourage him!"

I opened my mouth to make excuses as to why I was, as she put it, 'encouraging him', but Peter and Lucy were already following Oreius toward the forest and she and I were getting left behind. I settled for a shrug and an apologetic smile before I ran to catch up with them. Susan followed, as I assumed she would, although she didn't look too happy about it. I raised an eyebrow at her, my way of saying 'now who's encouraging him?'

"I just want to be there to say 'I told you so' when he loses." She explained shortly, although we could all tell she was teasing. There was an unspoken challenge hiding in her words and Peter turned to her.

"We'll see." He laughed - he looked confident enough, but one look at Oreius told me that Susan would be the victor this time.

"I dunno, Pete, he's a pretty big guy - uh - centaur...being...?" I had a hard time deciding what noun would be best used to describe Oreius. He just snorted at my struggle, shaking his head with a quiet chuckle. I took that to mean he really didn't care how I referred to him, so long as it wasn't demeaning.

"Not to mention he already has much more experience!" Lucy added.

"I'm a fast learner."

"Ha! Not that fast!" Susan laughed, "He's twice your size!"

"Which makes him a bigger target!" Peter pointed out.

"Yeah," I laughed along with the girls, "You keep telling yourself that."

"One thing I have learned in my years, young friends," Oreius spoke from ahead of us. I was surprised that he had actually been paying attention to our conversation at all, "is that one must never underestimate their opponent based on his size. I've known many brave fighters smaller than King Peter."

"A-ha! See?" Peter might as well have stuck his tongue out at us for how smug he was at that statement. I smiled - this was the most at ease I had seen Peter since I'd met him. Joking around with his family, teasing, smiling - actually, genuinely smiling! It seemed like we all needed a little break from reality - it was nice to just be able to relax and joke around for a bit.

I squinted into the sun when we stepped out of the trees into an open, empty field. Orieus trotted to the center and Peter followed while Lucy, Susan and I found a spot on the grass and made ourselves comfortable, eager to watch. My eyes widened marginally when the centaur drew a sword that was probably damn close to being as long as I was tall! Or, at least, from here, it looked like it was absolutely massive.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.

"What do you mean?" Oreius asked, twirling the weapon back and forth lazily.

"Well, I mean - " I turned bright red as he stared down at me curiously, "That's a real sword." I explained lamely.

He looked confused, "Yes."

"Well...someone might get hurt." Namely Peter, since I was fairly sure Pete wouldn't come close to getting a hit on Oreius.

"She makes a valid point." Susan agreed, nodding her head.

Oreius simply laughed at us, "So little faith! I should hope that, by now, I have the ability to control a weapon properly. King Peter is in no danger with me."

I blushed even more at how blunt he was being while discussing my concerns for the eldest Pevensie. "Right." I muttered. "Carry on, then..."

Peter drew his sword and already Oreius had to correct him. "Widen your stance - better for your balance." Peter did as he was told, "Good. Now, grip the hilt closer to the guard...Better!"

It continued like this for the first while. Susan picked at the grass absently, determined to show how unimpressed she was with the whole event, but my attention was captured, as was Lucy's. As time progressed, I could easily see that Peter was quickly improving. He hadn't been kidding when he'd said he was a fast learner. However, the combat was paced slower than an actual fight, I was sure, and Peter still failed to block many of Oreius' attacks.

"He's getting better." I pointed out after we'd been watching for a while.

"Isn't he?!" Lucy smiled, proud of her big brother.

Susan sighed before also admitting that Peter was doing quite well, considering this was his first time using a sword.

I jumped when Peter flopped down onto the ground in front of us. He laid back, obviously drained, "That's harder than it looks." He admitted, laughing.

"I thought you did very well." Lucy pointed out.

"Thanks."

"Are you finished?" Susan asked, watching as Oreius bowed in their direction before heading back through the trees toward the camp.

Peter propped himself up on his elbows, also looking after the centaur. He shrugged, "I suppose so."

"Can I see that?" I asked, pointing to where Peter's sword lay forgotten on the ground beside him.

He turned his gaze on me, "Sure."

I hopped up, brushing the dead grass off my skirt. Grinning, I gripped the hilt and lifted the weapon of the ground. "Holy crap!" I blurted in surprise, gawking at him with wide eyes, "It's heavy!"

"What'd you expect?" Peter laughed.

Lucy, too, was laughing at me shamelessly. Susan, at least, tried to conceal her snickering.

"I don't know - no offense, Peter, but I really didn't think you were -" I looked down at him, looking him over once while he quirked an eyebrow at me, waiting for me to finish my thought. I had been about to say that Peter didn't really look that strong, but, after careful inspection, I changed my mind, "Never mind." Until now, I hadn't really seen much of him, considering most of our time together had been spent wearing massive fur coats. Not that I'd been looking to see more of him or anything - because I hadn't. This was the first time I really, truly checked him out. On purpose. Not that I did it "accidentally" before, because I didn't!

I started getting uncomfortable. I really hoped I wasn't turning red - it was awkward for me to be thinking about checking Peter out when he was sitting right there with his sisters. I cleared my throat, "Alrighty," I held up the sword in my best imitation of a battle stance, "How does this work?"

I pouted when Peter laughed at my attempt. He peeled himself off the grass, walking over to where I stood. I made sure to hold my position while he fixed whatever he felt was wrong with it. Since Oreius had left us, Peter was the closest thing we had to a knowledgeable fighter. Mostly, I was just messing around with the sword - I mean, come on! Who hasn't wanted to handle a sword in their life? - but, given our situation, it probably couldn't hurt for me to at least learn how to carry a blade.

I stumbled in surprise when Peter nudged my legs further apart with his foot. "Remember: wider stance means a greater center of balance."

"Gotcha."

"Does that look right, Su?"

"I think so," Susan observed my new battle stance - Peter knew his sister well and knew that, even though he had been the one getting the lesson, Susan was probably the Pevensie who paid the most attention to the details. "You're holding it all wrong, though, Zooey." She pointed out.

I looked at my hands, confused. It looked alright to me. I looked over my shoulder and watched as Peter walked around to stand in front of me. He studied my grip for a moment, frowning, "You are holding it kind of odd."

"What? No, I'm not!"

He moved to stand beside me to get a better perspective. "Ah!" He reached over to grab my hands and adjusted my grip on the hilt. "There." He admired his handiwork before looking to Susan for her approval, "Better?"

"Much."

"I thought so."

I felt kind of bad ass, with the sword and all, in my neat little Narnian attire. Kind of Warrior Princess-like. It was pretty cool, actually. I grinned, "I think I could take you on, Pete." I was totally joking. I was fairly sure that he would destroy me.

It was pretty obvious that I was just messing with him, and he simply grinned, crossing his arms over his chest, "Really?"

I swung the sword back and forth a couple of times, "Yup."

"Well, then, it's too bad we only have one sword. However will you prove yourself?"

I shrugged, keeping a straight face. "I'll let you off this time. I'm merciful like that."

"Why, thank you."

"Meh, no big deal." I shrugged, holding the blade up and admiring the way the sun reflected off it's metalic surface, "We'll have our duel some other time."

Ugh

this chapter was the devil.

it was such a hard one to get out because i was so out of muse and it was like a wall of writers block.
but i successfully wrote a filler chapter. woot!
sorry, it's probably not my best or most exciting chapter. but it did it's job: some time passed, some relationships were built, more of Zooey's feelings were revealed/established.
all in all, I consider it a success. haha
more action next chapter, though, hopefully. we're getting close to Zooey's action packed/angsty plot time. :P

review, please?