Author's Note: Okay so I'm again (as usual) very sorry for the late update. But some of my major exams came up which spread over ten successive weeks so there was no chance to write anything. I got back like five minutes ago and immediately got started with the story. From now on there will be, hopefully, a quicker pace for updating.
Anyways many of you expressed some confusion over what happened but let me tell you that your confusion will be removed as the story progresses.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Chronicles of Narnia. C. S. Lewis does.
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Peter shouldered the luggage that he was carrying and winced slightly at its heaviness. Behind him Susan was ranting on and on about his responsibilities and duties to himself, his health and so on. Honestly she was more overbearing than his mother. Come to think of it, his mother was rarely around anymore, she seemed more like a ghost than a real person. What had happened to her? She was no longer an intricate part of the family.
"Peter, are you listening to me?" Susan paused in mid-sentence and glared at him. Catching his expression, concern came over her face. "Are you alright? You look strained."
"I'm alright, Sue." Peter hastened to assure her. He glanced around them and then knelt closer to her. "Listen, I want to tell you something. Something that happened at the station."
Susan listened intently to his recount of what Adam's grandmother had said to him. She looked troubled and exhaled a gush of breath. "Oh Peter,…" She began. "I don't think… Aslan said we would-"
"Never come back, I know." Peter cut in, his blue eyes icy. "But what if Narnia's in trouble like Sarah said? What if Aslan or Caspian are trying to send us a message."
Susan stared at him skeptically. "Peter, I know you want nothing more than to go back but think of the facts! I mean, even if it is a message from Aslan how are we supposed to go to Narnia? You know the wardrobe won't connect us to Narnia anymore. There's no way to go back. At least not for us."
"Sue," A hint of desperation came into his voice. "But how did Sarah know? She's not been to Narnia or we would have known."
"Ii think that it's a coincidence." Susan hesitated. "Now Peter don't get mad but I think you are… a little too desperate to go back. Isn't it possible that you-?"
"I didn't imagine it." Peter said flatly. "Just because you are so narrow-minded-"
"Oh come on, Peter." Susan snapped angrily. "Don't act like a child. The only reason you want to go back is because of Isab-"
She stopped short and the colour drained out of her face as Peter's expression turned cold and icy. "Peter… I didn't… I mean… Oh Peter, it's just-"
"It's fine." Peter told her but his tone conveyed his fury to her. "Where are Ed and Lu?"
"They might be running a little late." Susan said anxiously. "But they'll be here soon. They wouldn't miss this for anything."
"It's fine." Peter repeated. "I'm going. I'll be late. Tell them I said goodbye."
"But Peter-" Susan began and promptly shut up from the look he gave her. "Oh, alright. Take care of yourself. Don't forget to-"
Peter had already moved away and huffing at his moodiness, Susan turned around and almost collided with an old lady. Reaching out to steady her, Susan apologized, aghast.
"I'm very sorry." She picked up the old lady's belongings that had scattered over the station floor. "I wasn't looking. Please-'
But the words that she was saying died in her throat. Susan stared down at the chess piece. A memory flashed through her mind: the day when she had discovered another chess piece in the ruins of Old Cair Paravel. Surely, this couldn't be.
She glanced up and saw the old lady's hazel eyes flash. "Aslan asks you to believe."
Momentarily taken aback, Susan said: "Excuse me?"
The old lady, presumably Sarah, repeated. "Aslan asks you to regain your faith. Or you will lose everything that you hold dear."
"What? How? How do you know this?" Susan asked fiercely. "I don't know how you found out about Narnia but it-"
"I come from Narnia." Sarah said softly. "I am a Narnian. And I come with Aslan's dire warnings. Do not lose your faith."
Susan wanted to ask her more questions but with a final look of utter desperation in her direction, Sarah was gone muttering again and again her parting words.
Stunned, Susan stared after her, her lips open but the words she wanted to say were not forming properly and she was left there, gaping and holding a faded chess piece.
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The carriage thudded over a depression in the muddy ground and it's occupants shrieked both at the unmerciful jerking and the lightening that flashed overhead.
"Girls, kindly keep your voices down." The matron snapped, her fingers clenching in her lacy black gloves. Her face was lined severely and with a final glare in their direction, she leaned back comfortably and dozed back into her disturbed slumber.
Lucy was not so lucky. She was crammed in the corner of the carriage and pinned against Vanessa Hathaway, the daughter of a Countess, who seemed to think that the very world had been made for her.
"Wretched school… Can't even arrange proper transport." She was muttering as her friend, from another prestigious family, giggled. Lucy stared away moodily, her long red hair hanging down the sides of her pale face.
She hated this. All of this. She wanted to be back home with her siblings and her mother. She wanted to be in a warm and safe place and instead here she was thudding around in a precariously creaky carriage, rolling down a muddy, uneven pathway to a boarding school located in far south of England: a school for young ladies, to train them in the art of femininity.
"I'm a queen." She thought to herself. "I don't need to be taught how to handle cutlery or how to walk in a skirt."
It was miserable. And it didn't get any better as Vanessa leaned over, a sneer on her lovely face, and whispered to her so that the matron could not hear.
"What's Aslan, Lilly?" She paused and added with a malicious smirk. "Your imaginary friend?"
"My name is Lucy." Lucy said quietly. "You think that after knowing me for five weeks you would actually know my name."
Vanessa's face turned red with surpressed rage. "Don't try to be smart with me. You don't know who I am. Tell her who I am." She snapped her fingers at the girl next to her who, looking alarm, recited in a quick voice.
"This is Lady Vanessa the third, daughter of Count Mart-"
"I don't need your ancestry." Lucy turned her face away again. "Ii don't need any of you."
"Just who do you think you are?" Vanessa hissed. In her five weeks at the boarding school, Lucy had heard teachers and students alike gush over Vanessa's beauty but just at the moment she looked like a swollen frog.
"I'm not interested." Lucy said in a detached tone and curled up into a fetal position against the corner. "Will you please let me sleep now? Unlike some, I actually prefer to appreciate the morning glory."
Vanessa turned her nose high, haughtily and settled back, her expression vicious as she spoke to her friends. No doubt she was insulting Lucy with every nasty word in her vocabulary.
Lucy sighed and pushed back her ringlets, staring out of the tiny window of the carriage side door. The terrain flowed past as they rolled forwards. The storm made everything blurry like a poorly done painting.
The branches of the trees were clawing out in a wild dance as if scratching the faces of imaginary monsters. In their midst Lucy saw the unmistakable glint of animal eyes. Lion's eyes.
Heart racing she sat up. Was it possible that Aslan was-? Or maybe these were just wild lions. After all they were in the middle of a forest.
"Mrs. Blake." She burst out without thinking. The matron woke up with a start and glared daggers at her. "I'm sorry for waking you up. But I thought I just saw a lion outside."
"A lion?" Mrs. Blake repeated, expression bemused as Vanessa let out a cackle. "You stupid girl, why would lions be out here in the middle of nowhere?"
"But I thought-"
"Well you thought wrong then didn't you?" The matron snapped angrily. Her anger was most probably as a result of her lack of sleep. "Do not disturb me again for such petty nonsense."
Disappointment washed over Lucy as she sat back staring again out of the window, hoping against hope to catch sight of the same pair of glittering eyes.
"Little Lucy," Vanessa crooned in her ear, pinching her arm. "Seeing things are we? Was it your imaginary-"
Her sentence cut short as the carriage rattled, gave a mighty shudder and swerving around began rolling madly.
Vanessa shrieked and was joined in by her friends. The matron, no longer awake, was muttering prayers the names of countless saints.
With a great moan, the carriage sank into the ground and collided with the ground. The matron swept up, fixed the girls with a withering glare and marched out to see the damage. Curious, Lucy followed her, her steps light.
It was raining worse than ever and as Lucy stepped outside there was a piercing flash of thunder that shook the very earth. Shading her eyes Lucy glanced up at the sky and her eyes were suddenly blinded with light. In an instant she was no longer where she was.
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"I'm gonna beat you up for this!"
"Yeah, if you can even catch up to me" Edmund grinned and ducked as a fist shot at his face. The boy to whom the flabby fist belonged was currently glaring at Edmund with barely suppressed rage. Jumping up, Edmund began running down the long alleyway that led to their school: the boy roaring like a bull as he chased him, folds of fat dripping out of his blue blazer.
"Pound him to shreds!" He screamed to his gang of friends, who took off after Edmund without any hesitation.
Thundering down the lane, Edmund paused only to stick his tongue out at the bullies. "Hurry up!" He called at them, putting on his most annoying smirk.
What he was doing was suicide but who cared? He had no friend here and most of the teachers hated his quips. He would be overjoyed if he was expelled. At least he would be able to go home.
It was worth it to see Big Ben and his cronies huffing as they tried to catch up to him. Overstuffed elephants, Edmund thought angrily, Who do they think they are anyways?
He was so fixed in his thoughts that as the lane ended to a dead end instead of spinning around and jumping away from the broken side wall, Edmund kept on plummeting forwards. By the time he realized that there was no way forward, it was impossible for him to stop.
Cursing himself for his lack of attention, Edmund tried to control his speed and ended up flailing down the alley, desperately trying to stop.
He was going to collide with the wall unless he stopped. Falling over, he rolled down, the steep gradient of the street causing him to accelerate.
"I'm going to die." He thought. "Or at the very the very least end up in a coma."
But instead of crashing into the stone wall, he crashed through it ending up an open field. When he finally thudded to a stop, his aching body blistered and bruised, he looked up.
What in the name of Aslan?
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Peter lunged out from behind the tree he had been using as cover and forced himself on top of the enemy soldier, narrowly avoiding the bullet that was shot at him. Pushing him into head-lock Peter forced the man to kneel as one of his comrades came out from his hiding spot and shot the struggling man dead.
"Why don't you use your gun, Peter?" He asked, holding up his own rifle. "There's a reason why we are given these, man."
Breathing heavily Peter could only nod and the man turned away without another word, shooting at another enemy who had appeared out of nowhere. He held up his rifle, staring at the intricate design. This.. this machine had the power to take lives.
In his heart he knew why he wasn't using this. It didn't feel right. He was used to sword-fighting, wrestling, even archery but not this. It felt frightening to aim from fifty miles away and hit the person with a deathly shot.
He preferred coming face to face.
"Narnia spoiled you." He thought ruefully to himself. "Can't even handle a stupid rifle."
From one corner he saw an enemy soldier barreling out, gun held up spraying out dozens of bullets before Peter could even aim his. Ducking away behind a huge boulder, Peter struggled to hold up his own weapon.
It was pointless. He hadn't even paid attention when the instructor was teaching them how to use these. How was he going to assemble the cartridge let alone get a proper aim?
"Guess you're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way." Peeking out from one side, he saw that the soldier was holding his gun ready for fire. If he came out, he would be killed in an instant. His best hope was distraction.
Edging out a stone from beneath the boulder, Peter threw it over the other side of the field all the while keeping an eye at the soldier.
It worked. In the two seconds that it took for the soldier to look back and forth between the pebble and the boulder, peetr was already at him, whacking his gun, using it as a sword of sorts. A rather clumsy sword.
The man was not dead, just unconscious as he fell onto the ground like a limp doll. No doubt his commander would be fit to be tied when he heard that Peter had done this. It was un-soldierly, he would say, wagging his finger at Peter who would only nod and apologize.
What else could he say?
He had a second's warning before someone collided into him from the back propelling him to the ground in a painful thud. Peter struggled against the iron arms and felt chain mail scratching at him.
Wait, chain mail? Twisting around Peter got a better look at his assailant. It was an uncommonly short person, bearded and thickly built but otherwise strong. A dwarf. What was a dwarf doing in England fighting a World War?
Around him he heard the soft hiss of deadly arrows and the sound of blade on blade.
The dwarf pinning him down gave a sudden gasp and rolled away, a short dagger sticking out of his chest. The person who had struck him looked at Peter, grim pleasure in his face that dissolved quickly into stunned surprise.
"Peter?"
It was Caspian.
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Okay so this chapter was kind of monotonous but I wanted to give proper explanation of how each of them returned to Narnia. (Yes they returned). I wanted to give more detail but thought it might be extremely boring. Not much action. But the next chapter is much more exciting. It will be uploaded soon, sometime around the weekend. Thank you for your patience and eagerness. Comments and criticism welcomed!
L. Potter