The group of Narnians, now accompanied by the legendary rulers, marched in a line of two or three abreast towards Aslan's How. Peter and Glenstorm, who were deep in conversation, led the parade, while Caspian walked alone in the back. His eyebrows were furrowed in a surly scowl, and he was so deep in thought that it took Tempestra three times to get his attention. When he finally heard her call out his name, he started in surprise. She had stopped by the side of the line; when he caught up to her, they continued their pace.
"Okay, spill." When Caspian stared at Tempestra uncomprehendingly, the young woman raised her eyebrows. "Tell me what's been bothering you," she explained. "Ever since the Pevensies joined us, you've been sulking. I know you want to rant, so do it. I'm probably the only one here besides you who doesn't worship them." Caspian pressed his lips together, silent, and Tempestra smiled wryly. "What, you don't want to talk about how much you hate Peter?"
"I don't hate him," the prince replied quickly.
"No, but you're angry that he took control of this whole operation from you."
"High King Peter has the right to be leading the Narnians," Caspian remarked, shrugging. "He was the ruler during the Golden Age."
"And that gives him the only right?" The Telmarine glanced quizzically at Tempestra, who gave her own shrug. "Look, he may have been king of everything a thousand years ago, but this isn't just his fight. You're the one who has to unite the Narnians and Telmarines. Only you can bridge the two groups. You can't just let Peter step in and take over."
Caspian looked away.
"The Narnians will only look to the ancient rulers," he insisted.
"I think you'd be surprised how many of them won't," Tempestra countered. "Weren't half of the Narnians here enemies of the Pevensies way back then? You know, black dwarves, minotaurs, and everything? They don't seem to forget old alliances."
The Telmarine glanced sideways at her.
"What do you want me to do, challenge King Peter?"
Tempestra snorted.
"Ha. No, nothing like that. You'll only make enemies that way. Just don't let him shove you aside when the decision-making happens. You have every right to have an opinion."
Caspian looked at the young woman thoughtfully. When she raised her eyebrows in question, he shook his head.
"Why are you doing this?" he asked, perplexed. "Why are you helping me?"
Hearing Glenstorm call her name near the front of the line, Tempestra began to quicken her pace.
"Because we're the two outsiders here," she told Caspian. Giving him a dry smile, she jogged ahead. As she passed by Queen Susan and Queen Lucy, the younger sister caught her hand and squeezed it quickly. Tempestra turned, startled, to see the little girl smiling at her warmly.
"It's good to see you again, Julia," Lucy told her cheerfully. Susan was smiling kindly at her as well, as if they were old friends. Unnerved by their casual affection for her, Tempestra gave them an awkward smile and moved on. She was still feeling disconcerted when she caught up to Glenstorm, who strode next to High King Peter. The young man glanced at her, his jaw clenched, then looked away. Tempestra turned away from him stiffly to look at Glenstorm.
"You called?"
The centaur general nodded gravely and began sidling away.
"I leave the both of you to yourselves," he remarked, and before Tempestra could open her mouth in protest, he made a hasty retreat, leaving her walking side by side with Peter in an uncomfortable silence. When Tempestra glanced back to send him a withering look, she saw that Glenstorm had pulled the group back a couple yards to give them relative privacy.
"This isn't how I imagined our reunion to go," Peter said abruptly. His hands were linked tightly behind his back, and he stared straight ahead, his expression determinedly wooden. Tempestra snorted.
"Well, you're not the only one," she replied. "I didn't really think signing up for all of this would include getting an unknown ex."
"You really can't remember anything?" the young man asked, glancing at her. "How we met, how we departed, anything?"
Tempestra shook her head.
"I think I'd remember spending fifteen years in a fantasy land," she said dryly. "And my whole life is accounted for, so…" She shrugged. "I still think all of you have the wrong person."
"I'm not wrong about this," Peter insisted. "I would recognize you anytime, anywhere. You're younger than you were when we left, but it's you. It's definitely you." Tempestra looked away, and he continued, "Maybe you became younger like us when you came back to Earth. We – Sue, Ed, Lucy, and I – we de-aged fifteen years when we went through the wardrobe back to Earth."
"How did it happen?" Tempestra asked, curious in spite of herself.
Peter's face was grim.
"We were on a chase," he explained. "We found the lamppost and the wardrobe, and fell back to Earth from Narnia. We've spent the last year at boarding school. We didn't mean to leave," he quickly added. "It was an accident. Believe me, I wouldn't have left Narnia on purpose."
"Didn't you miss your parents while you were in Narnia?" Tempestra said doubtfully. "Your home?"
Peter smiled ruefully.
"Cair Paravel became our home," he replied. "Narnia, our kingdom, was our home. You were my home." She looked away again, and he added quietly, "I became a boy again, no longer a king. You can't imagine how that changes a person."
Tempestra was silent. He was right – she couldn't imagine the kind of emotional and psychological trauma that would be involved in de-aging fifteen years. She didn't know what kind of person she would be in fifteen years, but she probably wouldn't want to relive her teenage years. Growing up once was enough.
"I'm sorry about what happened to you," the young woman said slowly. "And you probably want to go back to the way things used to be." Peter looked at her and opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. "But I don't remember any of that. The other Narnians told me about the Golden Age and all the victories and everything, but that wasn't me. That couldn't have been me."
"So what are you saying?" Peter asked irritably. "You want me to act like those fifteen years didn't happen? Like we're strangers?" Tempestra's silence was answer enough, and the young man looked away with a heavy sigh. Meeting her gaze again, he reached out to touch her shoulder, but dropped his hand and anchored it behind his back once more as if to resist the temptation. Tempestra adopted a kinder tone.
"Try to imagine what I'm feeling now," she told him firmly. "When we first met, we probably didn't get along right away. Just try to imagine we're starting all over again."
Peter clenched his jaw.
"Fine," he said finally, but the tone of his voice made it obvious that it wasn't. "But Julia-" He stopped walking, and she did the same, waiting. The high king swallowed hard, and for a moment Tempestra glimpsed his older self behind his eyes. He looked weary. "Try to imagine what it's like to lose everything, and even when you return, you can never get it back," he said quietly. "Try to imagine that, and you'll know how I feel." He gave her a deep bow and strode away, leaving her standing by the edge of the line, staring at his retreating back.
"My lady."
Tempestra turned, still slightly dazed, and saw King Edmund standing beside her; he'd come up without her noticing. He was the one that the Narnians called The Just: a dark-haired boy who had once betrayed his family when he was manipulated by the White Witch, but who had changed afterwards and become a fair ruler. He was the third sibling, the black sheep.
Edmund motioned to the line of Narnians trooping by them. He was smiling as if sharing a joke with her. "Will you walk with me?" he asked. Tempestra nodded, and they fell into step.
"You know I'm not a lady, right?" she remarked after a moment of comfortable silence. Edmund smiled again to himself.
"That's what you said every time I called you one," he replied. "But I never saw you complain when you pulled rank on people." Tempestra gave a small smile, but it was wiped away when she remembered Peter's words.
"Did you lose everything when you left Narnia?" she asked. Edmund grew somber.
"Pete said that," he said, more of a statement than a question. When Tempestra nodded, the young man sighed. "I don't know you as well as Peter does," he remarked, "but I bet you asked Peter to forget everything between you two." He glanced at the high king's figure up ahead. Tempestra's silence was enough to answer his question.
"Sue, Luce, and I can start over with you, but Peter? That's a lost cause." Edmund shook his head, his eyes still on his older brother's back. "You didn't see him the whole year since we came back through the wardrobe. He wasn't just upset because we'd left Narnia and couldn't get back; he was upset because he thought he'd never see you again." Tempestra looked away.
"He didn't have to be so intense when I first met him," she retorted. "He shook me like he thought that would help me remember or something." But her argument was half-hearted; Peter's words and the raw pain in his voice had shaken her.
Edmund snorted.
"Look, he spent a whole year grieving, and when he finally did see you again, you attacked him and claimed that you didn't remember anything about your years together."
"But it's true-"
"It doesn't matter if it's true or not," he interrupted, waving her protest aside. "You might not remember anything, but Peter does. Ever since you walked into Cair Paravel and warned us about that rebellion by the White Witch's supporters, you made an impression on him. He remembers everything that you've done together. Every battle, every dinner, every ball – he treasures all of it."
The young man glanced at her. "You two were pretty in love at the time," he remarked. "For Peter, it's as if one moment you're pledging your love to him, and the next moment, you're acting like a stranger." Tempestra pressed her lips together mulishly, and Edmund shrugged. "I'm not saying you have to pledge your love to him again. I'm just saying you should keep that in mind." His voice became soft. "He doesn't tell me, but I know he's been grieving. He just takes it out in the wrong way."
It was noon by the time the group arrived at the edge of a large grassy field, at the back of which squatted a large stone structure. It reminded Tempestra strongly of a pyramid, though without the tip. Nearby trees and plants grew around and on top of the crumbling structure, adding to its old and worn façade. Directly in front of the entrance was a small circular area laid down in stone, circled by fallen slabs of rock and framed by two rough square archways. It all gave the impression of a place that had once been in full glory and seen better times, but which now was nothing more than ruins.
Caspian moved to the front to stand alongside the Pevensies, Tempestra, and Glenstorm.
"Welcome," he announced, "to Aslan's How."
Tempestra eyed the edifice doubtfully. It looked hundreds of years old, and not fit to be a defensible headquarters for a rebellion. Yet the Pevensies did not look disappointed; indeed, they looked reverential. As they group approached the stone building, they were greeted by two columns of centaurs flanking the stone path leading to the entrance. The centaurs all had unsheathed swords raised to form an archway for the royalty, and without any hesitation, the Pevensies entered.
Prince Caspian faltered for a moment, letting the Pevensies enter first. When Tempestra stopped and looked back at him, she saw that the prince's face was one of uncertainty and insecurity. When she raised her eyebrows as if to say, 'are you coming or not', he nodded and followed her inside.
A/N: I decided to flesh out the characters a lot more in this novelization, mainly because there was a lot of potential for character development that was only lightly touched on in the movie itself. So you'll see how Peter reacted to leaving Narnia in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and a little bit how his siblings did as well. Caspian's resentment about Peter builds up a little here, too, so it makes more sense when he and Peter fight later.
I almost entirely rewrote the original version of this chapter because it never sat well with me, and I'm a lot happier with it now.