A/N: I must really like you guys if I'm posting a new story and a three part update in one day. =] Happy Reading.
Chapter Two: A Different Land
The world was black for the longest time. Deep earthly smells filled her senses but she felt the lightest she had ever felt in her life. Kristen groaned as she opened her eyes feeling a sharp pain in her head from a nagging headache. She grumbled, her eyes completely fuzzy from feeling like she hadn't opened her eyes in a long while. She groaned again only this time louder, her eyes opening slowly as she caught a glimpse of daylight...through trees? There was a terrible ache in her body she sat up and looked around, the feeling like someone had ripped her right out of her body and stuffed her back in again. Needless to say it wasn't a pleasant sensation.
Kristen was now in the middle of the forest. Gasping she held a hand to her head, expecting to find it bleeding only to find it healed and intact. In fact all of her was intact when the last memory she had was almost being crushed by a traffic light.
"Hello?" Kristen called out but there was no answer but the crowing of birds overhead. She looked down at her clothes...they were to say the least, still normal.
She grunted as she hauled herself to her feet, stretching out her arms and legs. Carefully she took a few steps around some trees, looking around. It didn't look like anything she remembered of Narnia...for this forest was much colder.
Then the familiar scents of the woods hit her, so that means she must be in the Lantern Waste. Turning around she darted back into the forest and went in a familiar direction. How could she not know where she was, if this was Narnia then these woods were as familiar to her as the back of her hand.
But as she searched, she had begun to loose hope that she would never find that lamp post. And upon further searching she found none and decided she was not where she thought she was and the Waste was not it. Returning back to the place she was she spotted something in the distance along the edge that looked to be a building. She smiled and broke out almost into a run, the forest not minding her and she not minding it. She stopped when she thought she had reached it, but was soon greeted with the sights of ruins overlooking the beach. Her smile fell as she looked around and knew that this was home, but not as she left it. "What happened?"
She started forward, seeing remnants of old hallways she used to run down with Lucy or old bits of glass that were burnt and shattered. Those windows had been enchanted and used to dance telling their story. Kristen knelt picking up a jagged piece of glass and looked at it her heart filling with a great and painful sadness.
"Dryer!" she called as she tossed the glass aside and started running about searching for signs of anyone. "Mr. Beaver! Mrs. Beaver! Tumnus...Ara?"
She was only gone for a year, and how could this happen?
As she searched her foot stepped on something hard and she looked down at something golden in the high grass. Tucking her hair behind her ear she bent down and picked up a golden piece in the shape of a centaur.
"Ed's chess set? Ed?" she looked around more and then noticed a familiar place close to the throne room. "The treasury!"
She sprinted for it, and stopped once seeing that the wall had been somewhat intact but the secondary wall had been removed and the hidden door broken down. Her heart sped up as she dashed down it, having done so many times. She had a few mishaps almost falling down them because they were missing a step but she soon found herself in a lit chamber. A torch was held in it's gate by the stairwell and Kristen saw the statues of her family lining the circular chamber.
The royal chests had been opened, and things had been rifled through. Kristen looked at the dust stained floor to see four sets of footprints, all bare. It would have been odd but Kristen knelt next to Lucy's chest and saw a small foot that could only belong to someone who was barely an adult.
"Lu." she pressed her fingers to the footprint and then smiled. They had been here and recently. Kristen stood and then bent over and began to sift through Lucy's clothes seeing what was missing. Naturally her dagger and cordial was gone and further inspection of the other chests she found that Peter's sword and armor were gone, as well as Edmunds and Susan's bow and quiver was missing as well. Only they would take such items.
"Well, Ed, sorry to take your things." Kristen said as she went and started picking out pants and a tunic that would fit her when something sparkling at the bottom of his chest caught her eyes. "Hello, what are you?"
Her hand reached it and clasped the sheath of something and she pulled it out to reveal Lhug-Nar. It seemed to hum in response to her and she smiled as she unsheathed it and held it up in the light. It shimmered the elvish script glinting at her as she read it.
They had kept her things as well, in the royal treasury none the less. Kristen then went to Peter's and at the bottom found her circlet, at the bottom of Susan's some of her finest elvish clothes and war armor, and at the bottom of Lucy's her bow and quiver that had been gifts to her from Ruen and Handaf. Kristen paused, in her joy, thinking about her elvish friends. Had they survived this atrocity?
Quickly dressing in her Narnian wear she pulled her hair back with a leather chord and placed a silver traveling cloak around her shoulders. She was about to put the circlet on but instead gently settled it on top of Peter's chest.
"I don't need you anymore. I have no one to impress." she said to the sparkling jewelry.
Strapping the last of her armor to her and her weapons she climbed back out of the vault and back out into open air.
"Now if I were them...where would I go?" she asked herself as she looked about. Her time in Narnia had made her an excellent tracker, and her knowing the Pevensie's as such would come to an advantage. But the land had changed, and no Narnian's were in sight. She had to factor that into her choice in direction. "I'd find the Narnians. When in doubt, follow the water." she reasoned with herself.
Kristen found the river easily as she tracked along side it. She found no evidence of people having been through here recently so she concluded that if the Pevensie's had come this way they had gone by water...which meant they had a boat.
The longer she walked the darker the world had started to become and the colder it was. She didn't remember Narnia being this harsh at night. Sighing she decided to find an area to make camp for the night. She had gathered wood and set up an area for a fire. She had no flint or the very least some matches on her so she decided the next best thing was to try her magic. She hadn't used in a year but she extended her slim hand out and concentrated and suddenly the wood burst into flames, crackling merrily. Pleased with her handy work she spotted the stream and walked over peering into it. Taking off her cloak and shoes and rolling her pants up to her thighs she waded in the water very still.
She remembered when Edmund had taught her to fish with her bare hands. He had told her there was nothing more rewarding than being still for so long and snatching up that prize that would provide you with sustenance. He said it made you feel apart of something, made you feel nature. He had taught her how to take care of herself in the darkness.
Kristen found herself missing the Pevensie's more and more with each thought.
Out of impulse Kristen snatched the fish right out of the water and threw him up onto the bank. Walking over to it as it flopped about she grabbed it again and smacked it on a rock stunning it before taking her knife and quickly began to gut it. It wasn't a glamorous process but it was food and that's all that mattered. Cooking it in strips above the fire on a stone slab she ate and then washed her hands off before putting her boots back on and pulling her cloak over her as she lent against a boulder. Closing her eyes, but still very alert, Kristen fell asleep.
Kristen didn't dream of much as she slept, just foggy bits here and there. She awoke however to the smells of a long burnt out fire and the promise of a new day hung in the air. She stretched and yawned and then looked about. Gathering her things she quickly strapped them to her and then kicked dirt over her fire pit trying to erase as much evidence of her being there as possible.
Then with a sense of determination she headed off along the river bank, hopping over rocks and branches that were in her way, the forest from behind looking as if it was swallowing her whole.
Meanwhile in another part of the forest a lone Telmarine Prince had woken from the worse slumber of his life. His head was throbbing and he was in a small strange place lying on something rather uncomfortable. He looked about, blinking a few times before swiping the bandages off his head.
This young man, was about the age of nineteen with a head of brunet hair and dark chocolate eyes with perfect tan skin. This young man's name was Caspian the Tenth and he was on the run now from the place he had called home for the longest time.
He heard voices down a small stairway and got to his feet as he crept over to the wall.
"Ugh this bread is so stale." Nikabrik, a black dwarf said as he started to chew on some bread on the table.
"I'll just go get him some soup then." Trufflehunter then made his way to the kitchen as he was ladling soup into a small bowl.
"You said we were gonna get rid of him?" Nikabrik gestured towards the stairwell and Trufflehunter sighed in frustration at his friends ignorance.
"I said I was going to take care of him."
"Well I don't think I hit him hard enough." Nikabrik took some of the stale bread and chewed on it once more as he then took his cup and took a sip of whatever drink he was drinking.
"Nikabrik he's just a boy!"
"He's a Telmaren soldier not some lost puppy!" Nikabrik growled.
"We can't kill him now, I just bandaged his head, it would be like murdering a guest!"
"And how do you think they're treating their guest?"
"Trumpkin knew what he was doing, it's not the boys fault."
At that Caspian took his chance seeing the door and trying to make way for it but Nikabrik was quick as he took his sword and swiped it at Caspian whom, out of instinct, took up the fireplace poker and started wielding it around blocking off the dwarfs advances.
"I told you we should have killed him!" Nikabrik growled.
"You know why we can't!" Trufflehunter retorted as he looked about ready to stamp his little badger feet onto the rug he was standing on.
"If we're taking a vote, I'm with him." Caspian said as he looked to Trufflehunter and then back to Nikabrik as he fended him off again.
"We can't let him go! He's seen us!"
"Enough Nikabrik or do I have to sit on your head again!" Trufflehunter threatened and Nikabrik made a more than unsavory expression as he backed off lowering his blade. "And you, look what you made me do! I spent half a morning on that soup!"
"What are you?" Caspian asked as he stared at the badger strangely and Trufflehunter scoffed as he picked up the dropped bowl and waddled over to the kitchen where he began to ladle more soup into it.
"That's funny, you think you'd know a badger when you saw one."
"No I mean, you're Narnians."
"So?" Nikabrik eyed him and Caspian lowered his weapon slightly.
"You're supposed to be extinct."
"Sorry to disappoint." Nikabrik then settled his sword on the table as he hopped back up in his chair. Trufflehunter came back over as he settled the soup on the table and gestured to it.
"There you go, still hot."
"What are we a boarding house for Telmarine Soldiers!" the dwarf asked angrily as he glared at his friend and Caspian stood up straighter and more proudly. He wouldn't be mistake for some soldier, even if he was on the run from his home.
"I'm no soldier. I'm Prince Caspian!" he declared.
"What are you doing out here?" Nikabrik asked.
"Running away." he said defeated as Caspian walked back to the fire and gently placed the poker back on it's stand. He looked into the fire as he thought, the realization that just a few hours ago he had narrowly escaped death. "My uncle has always wanted my throne. I suppose I have only lived this long because he did not have an heir of his own."
"Well that changes things." Trufflehunter said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, it means we don't have to kill you ourselves." the dwarf smarted and Caspian turned looking at him and nodding. Spotting his things that looked very out of place in such a small setting, he walked over to his armored vest and started to put it on over his shirt.
"You're right." he stated.
"Where are you going?"
"My uncle wont stop until I am dead."
"But you can't leave!" Trufflehunter put out one small paw as if to stop the Prince from leaving. "You're meant to save us. Don't you know what this is?"
Until now, Caspian had not noticed that Queen Susan's horn was settled on the table in front of Trufflehunter as the badger now held it in his small paws.
"It's a horn." he said as he strapped his sword to him and his cloak.
"It's not just some horn boy. It's the horn of Queen Susan. It was saved from her things at Cair Paravel and was supposed to be taken to the Lantern Waste and buried at the base of the lamp post, but I see that the Telmarines got their hands on it as well...like everything else." Nikabrik scowled.
"I don't see it's importance."
"Legends say that one who blows the horn will call the Kings and Queens back from their age and into ours." Trufflehunter said wisely. "At least, that's what Lady Kristen prophesied and her word back then was as good as Aslan's."
"The elven maiden that lived with the Kings and Queens?" Caspian asked now intrigued. He had heard stories about the Kings and Queens, but his Professor seemed to almost hold this legendary White Lady in reverence. As if she were as sacred as the Great Lion himself.
"Hardly and elf boy. She was a human warrior from the lands of Auburn and was taken into the castle after a journey had left her ill." Nikabrik filled in. "The Kings and Queens had become so taken with her that she remained and even caught the fancy of the Kings themselves. She was beautiful and a force to be reckoned with and very real."
"Yes, power fell to her after the disappearance of the Kings and Queens, and then she herself went missing soon after. Not shortly after she was gone, that the Telmarine's invaded and Cair Paravel was without true leadership. It held for thirteen days before falling."
Caspian took the information in and then looked down sadly at the Narnians.
"I have to go, but I give you my word I will not let anyone know you are here. Goodbye, and thank you for you're assistance. I appreciate it far more than I can convey."
And with that Caspian turned, opened the little small door and crawled out into the forest he had been knocked out hours earlier. He sighed looking about and spotting the trail he had been on the night before and started off, the sun already brightly ahead of him.