My! I'm sorry I haven't updated in, well, forever! I was slightly astonished that anyone would actually read my stories much less want more. I had nothing more to give just then. And Summer happened. But now I have more! Also! If anyone would care to Beta read for me, I'd be deeply appreciative :)

"You mean to say that in all this time you've been ruling over Narnia and you've never been to the Lone Islands?" Miri asked.

"No, there was all sorts of other things going on. We had to subdue the Northern Giants and arrange alliances with the Calormanes and Telmarines. And besides the Lone Islands always sent over plenty of ambassadors and lords and ladies."

"So then, by extension-"

"'By extension'. Lovely. Learn that from Peter, did you?"

Miri smiled, proud of having used it correctly. "Yes, I did! By extension you've never had their food?"

"No."

"Well then! Aren't you in for a treat!"

"Miri?" Edmund asked, his eyebrow raising skeptically. "What, in all of Narnia, is that?"

"Oh, it's just a shellfish."

"No it's not! What shellfish has tentacles?"

"That one."

Edmund shuddered and dropped the thing into Miri's basket. She grinned at him and continued through the market, poking, prodding, and collecting what seemed to Edmund a rather random assortment of items.

"Miri!" Lucy skipped up beside the girl as she bent over a booth of vegetables. "There are some Calormane traders that way," Lucy pointed further into the market. "They have chocolate! Can we get some?"

"Chocolate?" Miri turned a questioning gaze to Edmund.

"Don't they have chocolate in the Lone Islands?" He asked her. She shook her head, no. "Well, then!" He exclaimed, imitating her from earlier. "Aren't you in for a treat!"

Dinner that night was, to say the least, interesting. The four monarchs invited the entire castle to come and try the wide variety of food Miri had made, with the eager help of the kitchen staff of course. The Narnians had never had such food before. Oh, they had seafood, naturally. You couldn't live at Cair Paravel or in the surrounding vicinity without having fish with at least one meal. But never fish of the exotic and rather ridiculous variety that Miri presented them with that night. Nor had they ever had anything so flavorful! The cooks had been much aghast at the amounts of spices Miri used when cooking. But once their mouths got over the fire they heartily enjoyed themselves. Many were the compliments that the girl received that night, along with questions after recipes and would she kindly make such things again, sometime soon?

And as for Miri herself. Well. She loved the taste of her old home once more. It brought to her mind the memories of times that had been good, in an overall life of things that had been bad. It brought to mind warm kitchens and kindly cooks who made sure she had enough to eat, of warm hands that soothed her aching muscles and rubbed ointment into her shoulders when the master had his whip out. She recalled old stories and songs, sung in the low, soothing tones of the old mother cook who sat her days by the hearth, stirring the soup or turning the spit. Perhaps Miri had put a bit more spice than she meant, but it set her mouth a burning in a way that was familiar and made her quite happy.

And the chocolate? She loved that. It was smooth and rich, bitter and sweet all at once. She loved it as much as the spice, if not more. For here was her new home, her good home. She would find new foods to fill it with and give her more memories, but also the old foods, lest she forget all she had left and lost, and also all she had gained.