Disclaimer: I do not own the Chronicles of Narnia or any of its characters or fictional land/lands; I am not C.S. Lewis, sadly. I only own the plot and characters not featured in the original books.

Author's notes:Thanks to k drama queen, DawnCat2476 and Effie Trinket for the reviews, I wouldn't keep uploading the next chapters without you guys, and those who have followed and favourite my story. Also, to Effie Trinket, a good story always leaves the reader longing for more.

After Edmund's departure, Ryder was sent up to her new bedroom, where she would get ready to dine with the Kings and Queens. The room was quite spacious and pretty, and was facing the Eastern Sea. It had a large oak bed with tall posts that had white, transparent curtains and a wash room off of her room. It was simply lovely.

Soon after her arrival in the room, four dryads came giggling into her room, arms full clothes and shoes. One hurried off into the little room and Ryder heard water running. The remaining three dryads were looking at her then at each other and whispering and then had an outburst of giggles.

"What's so funny?" Ryder asked suspiciously.

One of the dryads shook her head giggling. "It is nothing, my lady."

Ryder frowned at the three girls but ignored them. The other dryad appeared back from the little room and announced her bath was ready.

As Ryder was being groomed and cleaned, scrubbed and waxed, tugged and ragged about, the monarchs were sitting already at the dining table, King Peter and King Edmund in a heated discussion.

"You were seen in a very compromising… position with her." Peter exclaimed.

"I was tending to her bandages!" King Edmund shouted back.

Queen Lucy laughed while Queen Susan sighed. "Can't you drop it Pete? Edmund's love life isn't any of our business."

"I haven't got a love life; there is nothing romantic going on between me at that girl. Do you not remember how she attacked me? How we are always at each other's throats?"

"There's a thin line between love and hate." Lucy said smiling at Edmund.

"Shut up!" Edmund glared at his younger sister.

"Ed!" Peter said. "Don't take your feelings out of Lu."

Edmund directed his glare at Peter. "I have no love life, especially with her. Anyway, I've got more interesting things than love and women."

"Yes, like battles and your sword!" Lucy laughed. "I swear you'd marry your sword if you could."

Edmund made to reply back but Susan interrupted. "Let's drop it please. I don't personally care if Edmund wants to marry his sword or Ryder; I just want her to feel welcome here. After her acts of violence, I think she is resentful for her actions but I must say we as the Kings and Queens of Narnia didn't handle the situation that well. She jumped out of a window, for Aslan's sake, just to be free."

"I agree Susan." Peter smiled at his sister. "She may not have been the best guest but we haven't been the best hosts either. And we also have to take into account she can't remember anything, [1] Galena says that she must have hit her head while in woods, that's the reason for her wound on her head and probably violence against us, she is scared."

Lucy nodded in agreement.

Suddenly, the dining room doors swung open and a faun guard announced that, Lady Ryder had arrived. But the woman who entered wasn't the young girl the Wolves had found five days before, but someone who was clean and groomed. She was dressed in a long, flowing ocean blue dress with lace and embroidery on the corset; it was off of her shoulders with long, draping sleeves, the edges embroidered with tiny crystals. The dress over exaggerated her curvaceous body and the two Kings seemed to be mesmerized. The dryads had taken their time to braid half of her hair, with sparkling silver string, into a simple plait and had twist it into a bun at the nape of her neck with the rest of her dark her flowing down her back.

She was the vision of an angel, Edmund thought. The ocean blue dress brought out her eyes even more than they needed, she looked even more breathtaking than she was before all cleaned up and presented in fine clothing.

The two Kings rose from the chairs, in politeness, and Edmund watched as she gracefully and elegantly walked towards the table. She didn't look anything like the young fighter she was before but a proper lady. Ryder noticed the two Kings staring and suddenly felt very self conscious, more self conscious than she had ever felt in her life, well what she could remember, and the way the two Kings seemed to lose all dignity and stare at her with her acknowledgement, made her shiver. A memory flashed into her mind, a large ball room, and people dancing; Ryder, herself dancing with every man who offered his hand, like she had no choice but to oblige.

And then she turned on her heel and ran from the room. It took the two Kings a while to realise what was happening and when they finally shouted words of protest, Ryder had already run far from the room.

It didn't take Ryder long to find her way back to her room and when she did, she bolted into the room and locked the door behind her. She didn't know why she had run, possibly because of the memories that had flashed through her mind at that moment in time and that were still vividly in her mind, still.

She closed her eyes and let the fresh memory take over. She was in a grand ball room, in a castle, not anything like Cair Paravel though, it was darker and more medieval style, than the clean, bright, modern castle Cair Paravel was. In the hall were hundreds of people, packed around the side of the room as many men and women were up dancing. Ryder herself was stood at the side of the room with other pretty girls waiting for a man to take their hand a dance. Then a man came and asked Ryder to dance and she obliged. As they danced many men intervened and asked to dance with the young woman, not one single man got more than 5 minutes with her. And each one of them stared at her with evil, creepy eyes that made young Ryder self conscious. The current mans hands slipped further down, past her waist and then the memory went black and Ryder awoke sweating on the floor.

She stumbled up off the floor and tugged at her dress. It was too expensive, too beautiful for her, it made powerful, intelligent men like King Peter and King Edmund loose themselves. The corset's string wouldn't budge, they were tied to tight, so she moved her hands to her hair, she pulled and tugged at the braid and silver string in her hair, tearing some of her hair out in the process of it all. She ran into the wash room and washed the makeup that caked her face. She slid to the floor still tugging at the ties of her corset when she heard a key turn in the lock and a door swing open.

"Ryder?" A voice said. Queen Lucy had come to her room. "Ryder, are you in here?"

"I'm…I'm in here." Ryder called out, choking back tears.

Ryder heard quick footsteps and Lucy's face appeared around the doorway. Lucy took one look at the young girls face and fell to her knees beside her. "Oh my, are you alright?" Lucy pulled out a handkerchief and moped away the stream of tears rolling down Ryder's face. "Is there anything I can do?"

Ryder sobbed and nodded. "Get this dress off of me."

The request was not what Lucy had expected but she obliged. Ryder stood up and allowed Lucy to untie the corset. She shimmed out of the dress and kicked it to the side. Ryder walked back into the larger room and sat down on her bed in nothing but undergarments, Lucy following after her. Then Ryder once again began to cry, she was choking back tears and making horrible noises, Lucy unexpectedly wrapped her arms around the girl and held her, like her mother did when she was upset, and let the young woman sob into her shoulder. Slowly, Ryder hugged Lucy back, because she was the only person near and who really understood how the girl was feeling, being in a new place with no recollection of her past or how she had become to be in Narnia; Ryder had never been more terrified in her life.

[2] "Please don't leave me alone, I can't stand being alone." Ryder sobbed. "I just want to…I just want to be back at home, wherever that is, and to remember everything but I'm terrified of what I've been remembering and I think it's best if I don't either; though the thought of not knowing who I truly am scares me." Ryder wiped her tears and looked at Lucy. "Wouldn't you be scared of not knowing who you are or your past, because I am. I think what experiences you have in the past help to shape who you are today, don't you, Lucy? Don't you think you'd go mad if you couldn't remember yourself or who you once were?"

Lucy looked at the girl and thought about what she was saying. She completely opened her heart to Lucy, of how she was feeling but Lucy couldn't answer the girl because she had never felt like she'd lost herself or forgot herself, what Ryder was saying had deep meaning and she knew the girl was having an inner conflict with herself about her unknown past. "I think, Ryder, I would go mad if I thought about it too much, you shouldn't dwell on what is in the past, you should look forward and enjoy the days you have of being free of it, because you will go surely go mad with longing. And maybe forgetting your past is the best thing possible."

Ryder nodded and let go of Lucy. "I think I might sleep, thank you for being here. And could you say sorry to your siblings for me, I think I might have worried them again, they probably think I wanted to escape but I promise I won't, after what you said I think it's better if I enjoy my time here."

"I will Ryder. Sleep well." Lucy stood up and Ryder climbed into the bed. She drew the curtains on the windows for Ryder and then left, by the time she reached the door Ryder's breathing was shallow and quiet and her eyelids were shut. Lucy closed the door and then sighed. The young Queen had never looked older than she did now, with tired, anxious lines under her eyes and her eyes were now streaming out tears. She couldn't help feel sympathetic for Ryder; she'd never actually seen someone so scared of herself before.

Authors end notes: [1] Galena is a Greek female name for healer; I thought it was appropriate that Galena is the Narnian healer and if you haven't caught on she is a centaur.

[2] I know this bit might get confusing, I confused myself writing it and I had to edit a lot to make it understandable but if it isn't I'll just do a little explaining. Basically, Ryder ran from the room because of the memory in this chapter and partly the one in the dungeon, and I'm all going to leave you to your own minds to determine that part of Ryder's past. Also, what she is saying to Lucy is that she is terrified of her past, she figured that she is so scared of it she has made herself forget, but also, like Lucy states she's having an inner conflict with herself, though I haven't written much on that subject, I will in time, and her inner conflict is with the idea of remembering or not remembering, because Ryder feels that her past has something to do with her character (her ability at fighting) but she is scared of remembering in case it reveals her to be a bad person.

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