Eliza giggled and splashed water at Lucy, who shrieked and returned the favor to her sister. The two continued to splash one another, until Eliza was suddenly lifted up off her feet, causing her to scream. Edmund, with his arms locked firmly around his older, but smaller, sister, laughed maniacally and pulled Eliza out of the water with her protesting loudly.
"Put me down Ed!" she screamed, a wide grin taking over her face.
He shrugged and dropped her on the beach, making her yelp. Eliza pushed herself to her feet and glowered at Edmund jokingly, her brother only laughing at her in amusement. He looked around at their surroundings, looking up towards the cliffs around them and furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.
"Where do you suppose we are?" he questioned absently, still staring at the cliffs. Peter glanced at his brother in confusion, grinning.
"Well, where do you think?" he asked sarcastically, chuckling.
Edmund gave his brother a look before returning his gaze to the cliffs.
"Well, personally, I don't remember any ruins in Narnia," he informed them.
The other four followed his gaze to the top of the cliff, where, sure enough, ruins sat untouched for 100 years.
Eliza touched a stray stone that sat as high as her waist, looking around the wide expanse of broken stones.
"Who do you think lived here?" Lucy asked curiously, following Eliza and sitting on the tall rock.
Susan bent down suddenly and picked something up from the ground.
"I think we did," she answered in a hushed tone. Eliza looked over her sisters shoulder to see a golden knight chess piece held between her fingers.
"That's mine!" Edmund exclaimed, taking it from his sister and examining it. "From my chess set."
Peter cocked his head in puzzlement. "What chess set?" he asked.
Edmund gave his brother an 'are-you-serious' look. "Well, I didn't exactly have a golden chess set in Finchley, did I?" he said sarcastically.
Eliza heard Lucy mutter, "It can't be" from behind her, and she turned just in time to see Lucy running away from them.
"Lu!" Eliza cried.
Lucy turned to the four others, eyes wide and tears threatening to spill over.
"Don't you see it?" she asked in exasperation. Peter's eyebrows furrowed. "See what, Lu?" he asked gently.
Lucy sighed and moved Susan, Peter and Edmund into a line, before standing in position herself. "Imagine walls," she explained, moving her arms to either side of her to gesture toward the open air where walls could have been. "And columns there...and a glass roof."
A moment of chilly silence came over them, and Peter suddenly murmured, "Cair Paravel." Susan's hands went to her mouth and Edmund paled suddenly. The five siblings looked around, four surprised, the fifth staring at them in confusion.
"What's Cair Paravel?" she asked, feeling slightly foolish. Lucy looked at her older sister and gave her a strained smile.
"It's the capital of Narnia," she explained, like an adult explaining to a young child. "We were corinated here, and this is where we lived."
Eliza looked around before walking over to a large boulder that looked out of place. "This doesn't look like it was a part of the building," she realized, looking around at all the other large stone pieces that looked more like they were a part of the actual ruins.
Edmund walked up beside her and caught her eye, both of them thinking the same thing. "Catapults," they said together suddenly, making Susan, Peter and Lucy look at them in confusion.
"What?" Peter queestioned.
"This didn't just happen," Edmund told them. "Cair Paravel was attacked."
"Attacked?" Lucy cried, worry shining in her eyes. "Bu whom?"
Peter straightened suddenly with a determined set of his jaw. "Well, we best find out, shouldn't we?"
He and Edmund shared a look before making their way over to a wall that had, strangely, remained standing, pushing back a large boulder together to reveal a wooden door. Eliza hurried forward to help her two brothers break the door down, kicking and throwing her weight against it until it gave away with a groan. "God, guess that training at school did you some good, didn't it Liz?" Peter teased, nudging his sister with his shoulder. She rolled her eyes, rolling up her sleeves and pulling back her hair. "You didn't exactly help much," she reminded him, "seeing as I beat you almost all the time at wrestling and fencing whenever you insisted on teaching me."
Peter frowned as the rest of his siblings laughed along with Eliza.
"Very funny," he grumbled, ripping off a piece of his shirt and twisting the material around a thick stick.
"I don't suppose you have any matches in there?" he asked Edmund, pointing to the pack still on Edmund's back. Ed grinned, rifling through his bag.
"Would this help?" he mocked, pulling out his electric torch. Peter rolled his eyes and shook his head, smiling.
"You might've mentioned that sooner," he said in exasperation.
Edmund shrugged.
"You didn't ask," he pointed out.
The five siblings laughed and entered the tunnel, following Peter and Edmund as they ventured through. Eliza passed an opening, glancing at it briefly before turning forward once more. Something that glittered inside the room caught her eyes however, and she backtracked to see inside.
"Oi!" she called out to her siblings, who were a few yards ahead. "Check this out, you lot."
Lucy makes it to Eliza first, eyes widening at the sight of the treasure chamber. She grabbed Eliza's hand and hurried down the stairs to the chamber.
Five chests sat in a circle around the room, and all the Pevensies except Eliza, who only looked around in wonder, hurried over to their respective chests.
Lucy pulled a dress out of her chest, giggling.
"I was so tall," she said in wonder. Eliza glanced over at her younger sister, smiling motherly. "Well," she said, placing a hand gently on her sister's shoulder, "from what you've told me, you were older than."
Susan caught Eliza's eye and nodded before pushing around in her trunk some more. "Curious," Eliza heard her mutter.
"What is it Su?" Lucy asked absently, still going through her chest.
"I can't find my horn," Susan replied, looking up with furrowed eyebrows. "I must have left it on my saddle the day we went back."
Eliza gave her sister a sympathetic look at Susan's disappointed and distant look. She made her way to the fifth, untouched chest, running her fingers over the gold patterns lining it. Glancing up, she spotted a carving of herself, holding a dagger between her hands and staring regally forward. To her left, she heard the scrape of metal and turned to spot Peter removing a glittering sword from its sheath. Words shone along the blade, and Eliza, who had made her way behind him, read aloud over his shoulder, "When Aslan bears his teeth, winter meets its death..."
"And when he shakes his made, we shall have spring again," Lucy and Peter finished in a hushed whisper.
Eliza turned to see Lucy standing with tears brimming in her eyes. "Everyone we knew," she whispered, a single tear trekking a path down her pale cheek. "Mr. Tumnus, and the Beavers...they're all gone." Susan put an arm around Lucy's shoulders and pulled her into her side, looking up at Peter and sharing a pained look with him. Eliza glanced at all her siblings, so connected to the home they had belonged to for years until they had been ripped away without warning. She wrapped her arms comfortingly around Peter from behind, burying her face in his chest. His hands enveloped hers in their place around his stomach.
Eliza pulled away slowly, turning back to the chest that belonged to her.
"Why is this here?" she asked softly. "I didn't even go to Narnia."
Peter walked up beside her. "Aslan knew you would one day," he answered gently. "So he saved this for you. It has some clothes."
Eliza looked up at her twin with a small smile. "No dresses, I hope," she joked, earning a laugh from all of her siblings.
"I don't believe so," Peter replied, still chuckling. "Aslan seemed to know you just as much as we do."
Eliza opened the trunk to see a couple pairs of what looked like riding breeches, some pirate-style shirts and one dress. In addition, there were several throwing knives, a dagger with rubies lining the hilt and a thin sword stuck firmly in its sheath. Eliza grinned happily at the weapons and pulled out a throwing knife, holding it the way she was taught and flinging it at a piece of wood across the chamber. With a dull thunk! the point dug itself into the wood, trembling slightly at the force. Eliza's grin shifted into a smirk and she looked at her awed family.
"What do you say we go find out what's happening around here, yeah?" she asked them casually, the mischievous glint in her eye sparkling and another throwing knife twirling between her fingers.
The other four Pevensies looked around at each other, the relief clear on all of their faces—it was nice to have their sister finally on their side about their home.