A/N: Sorry for the short delay, was busy the past 2 days! Anyway this was a super hard chapter to write so I apologise if it's not up-to-quality

Chapter 14: Badgerville

Lucy's POV

After we crossed over the fallen tree trunk, which was actually easier than I thought it would be, it was only another hour's walk until we reached Badgerville.

I had been here a few times, though out of all us Edmund came here the most. It was a really cheery village, not too big with only around 100 badgers occupying it. They lived in tree-trunk houses which I always found adorable, and had their own little village centrepoint as well where the young would play and the old would chat.

As we watched the village from behind the trees, I smiled, adoring how cheerful everyone seemed to be as they went about their daily lives.

I always loved seeing the creatures of my kingdom being safe and happy.

But then, a worry sprung to my mind.

"Keladry, no one can know my situation. The Badgers are going to be rather curious seeing their queen creeping around their village with a stranger."

As I whispered, Keladry continued scanning the village, as if looking for something or someone.

"Don't worry, I know a badger who owes me a favour. He can hide us until tomorrow morning."

I bit my lip, looking up to see the sky already a dark purple. I had no idea how much time it took for this curse to take over me, so that meant every second was crucial. I hated the idea of wasting an entire night instead of continuing on to find Coriarkin, but there was no way I could complete this mission without a wink of sleep.

"Found him!"

As Keladry exclaimed, I tried to follow his line of sight and spot the badger in question, but unfortunately there were too many of them bustling around.

"Which one?"

"There, that one by the log bench eating berries."

I scanned through the playing children and the roaming adults and finally found the log bench he was talking about.

Well, he looked innocent enough, just casually enjoying his snack.

"Ok, next problem, how do we get to him without everyone realizing you're Queen Lucy."

Good point.

I looked down, wracking my brain for any ideas. In all honesty, it seemed like a pretty hopeless and impossible situation. For a moment I considered whether we even had to do this in the first place, but then I remembered as a queen it was probably not wise for me to just sleep in the middle of the jungle with some odd man.

Aslan forbid anyone found us.

"I have an idea."

I snapped out of my thoughts and glanced at my partner, who was looking back at me hesitantly.

"What?"

"I don't think you'll like it."

And that was how, 5 minutes later after some heated debating and me finally giving in, I found myself being carried bridal-style by my brother's attempted murderer, using his chest and the hood of my cloak to cover my face.

How mortifying.

We also figured it would have been suspicious of us to come bearing 3 weapons so we left our weapons hidden in a tree trunk, deciding to pick them up the next morning. A part of me was concerned whether anyone would find them, but it was a pretty strategic hiding place as the hole of the trunk was covered with vines and fungi anyway, so it looked like just any other tree.

As Keladry entered the village, I couldn't see anything, but I could still hear fine.

"Oh! Hello there, what brings you to badgerville good sir?" A warm feminine voice sounded.

I noticed immediately that the bustling toned down, and I was pretty sure everyone stopped what they were doing and was watching us intensely at the moment.

Great.

"Good day Ma'am, my wife and I were on our way to the Eastern shores when we lost our horse which also carried our supplies. She's awfully sick as well and I was hoping I could find my friend here who could help us."

"Oh no! Well let's have a look here, what's wrong with her?"

Keladry moved a step back and gripped me tighter, making my heart race for some reason. I knew it was just because he did not want the badger to see me, but it still made me feel a little strange.

It was probably because no one had ever carried me this way before, and not for any other reason.

"That's alright, we don't want to cause any fuss or bother, I'm just-"

"Keladry!"

Another voice, this time a very raspy male one, boomed out and I assumed this was probably the friend he was talking about.

"Kent! It's good to see you, I don't mean to bother but-"

"Oh nonsense nonsense it's no bother. It's alright everyone, go back to your lives, I'll take care of them. He's my old mate."

"Oh, you sure you can take them yourselves Kent? We can always-"

"Yes yes Rosie, my friend so my responsibility. It's fine!"

"Yes Ma'am, we really don't want to cause any fuss. We'll be alright with Kent."

"Alright, Kent, you better take good care of these two. Give her some medicines and make them some nice hot soup-"

"Yes yes, gosh Rosie just because you're the oldest around here doesn't mean you're my mum. I've got it all covered."

"Alright alright no need to be snappy. Anyway, you're welcome to stay as long as you like dear. And I hope that wife of yours gets better. If Kent here actually does a good job in taking care of you two, hopefully we can see her up and about properly tomorrow!"

"Thank you Ma'am." I felt Keladry's chest rumble as he gave an appreciative chuckle before he started walking forward again, making me turn my head more to make sure my face was completely covered.

I could hear the bustle start back up, which made me rather relieved that the plan actually worked and no one insisted on looking at me or talking to us.

After a few moments, I felt Keladry bend down, dipping me gently as well, which meant we had finally entered Kent's treehouse.

Once I heard the door firmly close and locked, I lifted my head and loosened my grip around Keladry's shoulders as he set me down on a bed.

I took a quick look around the cozy home, reminding me a lot of the beavers' home from all that time ago, when we first came to Narnia.

There was a crackling fire, giving the whole place a warm, amber glow that made me feel relaxed. There were little knick-knack's sprawled everywhere, making it clear that Kent was not a very organized individual. But nonetheless, the place was still clean.

"Alright, spit it Keladry. There's no way on earth you're married. Why are you really- oh my!"

My head snapped to the badger standing at the foot of the bed I was currently on, staring at me in disbelief.

"It's nice to see you too, old friend."

Keladry, who was currently standing beside me, did not get any response from the dumbfounded badger. I started to feel rather awkward at how he was just staring at me with his mouth open.

"Hello there."

"It's… it's Queen Lucy!"

I smiled, glancing up at Keladry with slightly furrowed brows as I knew this was not going to be very easy, explaining everything to him. Keladry looked at me with an amused smirk, and then back at his friend.

"Keladry… you brought Queen Lucy into my home!"

"It would seem I did, yes."

"Your Majesty…" Kent walked up to my side so that he was right in front of Keladry, but looking at me, and immediately dropped to his knees.

"No no! It's alright, there's no need for all of that." I shifted my legs over so that I was now sitting on the edge of the bed and bent down, lifting the badger back up to his feet.

"Just Lucy is fine, it's nice to meet you."

I knew Narnians still weren't accustomed to hand shakes, but it was just a force of habit. Kent looked confused at my hand, which made me giggle and just stroke his furry head.

He was pretty adorable.

"Kent Badgerin, it is an honour to be in your presence my liege."

Kent dipped his head in a bow once again and smiled pleasantly at me, before suddenly turning to Keladry and punching him in the shin.

"Ow! Kent!"

"What is wrong with you? You show up after 5 years with a Queen and you don't even warn me? You always warn a mate of these things, don't you know that?"

Keladry pursed his lips and rubbed his shin, taking a seat next to me on the bed which made me scoot over a little bit to give him space.

"Sorry, but I can't really control unforeseen circumstances. We're not here for some ordinary visit unfortunately."

"The details are confidential." I jumped in, looking pointedly at Keladry.

I did not need news about my curse being spread around, and I could not take the risk of divulging everything with Kent no matter how trustworthy he could have been.

Keladry caught onto which direction I was going in and nodded.

"Listen Kent, I have some urgent matters to settle and Keladry is helping me. It's a very sensitive operation which is why I can't have people recognizing me. You mustn't tell anyone about me being here, no matter what. If you do, I'm sorry but, I will consider it treason and you will be punished under the law."

I felt bad sounding so grim, and watching Kent turn absolutely terrified and nervous did not help either. But at the end of the day, I had to make sure he understood the seriousness of the situation and how important him keeping this a secret was.

After a moment, Kent nodded his head determinedly.

"Of course, Your Majesty. I will tell no one, I swear upon my mother's grave."

Keladry placed his paw over his heart and lifted his chin, making me smile appreciatively at him.

"Don't worry, Kent is one of the most noble and trustworthy people I know."

"Coming from you?"

I could not help but spit that out and turn to Keladry with an arched brow, making him clench his jaw and look away, as if in shame.

Even if he was ashamed, it still did not erase what all he did.

"Um…"

Kent looked painfully confused again, and I almost felt bad for him, for how he suddenly found himself in this situation with such a big, burdensome secret to hide.

"Nevermind. Listen, Kent, I really appreciate you helping us, but we'll only be staying here for the night. We're pretty short on time so we'll be leaving at the crack of dawn tomorrow, so that none of the other villagers see us as well."

"Yeah, I wish I could stay longer and catch up with you, but Lucy's right. If it's not a problem, we just need some supplies like food and a map and compass. And then we'll be off."

Kent looked like he had a billion questions, and I was sure he did, but then he paused and simply nodded. He probably understood that we already told him whatever he needed to know and what all we were willing to share.

"I understand. Don't worry, I can give you whatever supplies you need. But for now, I don't really know what mission you both are on, but I can see you're tired and probably hungry. So I'll get some food prepared."

"I'll help," Keladry spoke as Kent started to walk away. He got off the bed and joined his friend in the little kitchen just a few feet away.

As I sat on the bed and relaxed my feet, I watched Keladry and Kent catch up, at some points looking very serious and at some points laughing away. For the first time, Keladry actually looked like just a regular guy chatting with his friend.

While it made me smile, I also knew that was not the case.

Once upon a time, I used to think he was the most handsome and chivalrous man ever. He would make me blush by just looking at me, and my heart would flutter just hearing his name.

All of that was gone now of course. Whatever dreamy impression I had of him died the day I saw him put an arrow through my brother.

Considering Keladry's story, it made me sad to think he may not have actually been the monster I painted him out to be since that day. But no matter how much I tried, I simply could not bring myself to completely let go of the grudges I held against him.

If there was one thing I could not easily forgive, it was betrayal.

Especially after Craig and Camilla, it took a lot for me to trust someone from outside the family. But Keladry came along and I was able to trust him so easily for some reason, which was clearly a mistake.

That night, as we sat around the table and ate a nice meal of pumpkin soup with deer meat, I decided to just remain quiet and let Keladry and Kent talk with each other. Kent probably also knew it would be pointless asking us anything more about our mission, and he also seemed nervous to talk with me.

In all honesty, I was just waiting for either of them to bring up Keladry's family, or at least something significant about his past leading up to him working for Jadis. For a while they just talked about petty topics like their memories from younger days.

They were currently laughing over a stupid prank Keladry had played on Kent years ago which resulted in Kent's mother not feeding him for days. I could not really understand what all they were talking about, but just the situation of them laughing and joking around made me laugh as well.

Suddenly, Kent went quiet and serious for a moment, making me hold my breath in anticipation of whether he was going to talk about what I wanted to hear.

"Listen, mate, it's really nice to see you again and don't get me wrong, I love our laughs. But you know I'm going to ask about what happened to you. After your mum died, you and the little ones went completely off-radar. 5 years and not a word."

Keladry, who was laughing so openly just a few moments ago, was now staring at the table with his jaw clenched, a painful look in his eyes.

"It's a long story, Kent, I don't really want to talk about it."

"Don't want to talk about it? Mate, you disappear for 5 years and suddenly come back, and you expect me to just not try to find out what happened? We were best pals, you know you can tell me anything."

"No Kent, there are some things I simply can't. I'm sorry."

"What's happened to you, Kel? You used to be so open, used to wear your heart on your sleeve. Why're you shutting me out?"

"People change, Kent! I already told you, I don't want to talk about it and I won't. Now please let it go."

Keladry's snappy reply to Kent made the badger recoil a bit in shock. The blonde boy still continued staring at the table, his shoulders rising and falling from his deep, fumed breaths.

I would be lying if I said I didn't feel completely awkward in that situation.

Of course it was wrong for Keladry to snap at his friend like that, but I could also tell he was hurting really badly from remembering whatever it was exactly that happened.

I glanced at the hurt badger and felt a pang of pity for him.

"Hey Kent, how about I help you clear the table?"

I tried to sound nonchalant and happy, but I was sure the hesitation in my voice was clear. Kent looked at Keladry for a moment more before turning to me.

"There's no need Queen Lucy. I'll clear it myself. Best for me to stay out of the way anyway."

There was an obvious dash of bitterness in his tone, but he still managed to reply me respectfully and pleasantly. He looked awfully hurt and I glared at Keladry, hoping he would not just leave things as they were.

As Kent started to take the plates, Keladry sighed.

"Kent, look, I'm sorry. I should not have yelled like that. We've come here seeking your help and you've been so hospitable to us, I have no right to get angry at you. Truth is, after Mother died, a lot of terrible things happened. And I changed, not for the better. I did… so many horrible things," Keladry glanced at me for a second as he paused, and then continued, "maybe one day I'll tell you everything. But right now, I just… want to spend whatever little time I have with my old, dear friend, catching up and being happy."

Kent didn't respond once Keladry was finished, and I feared he was still too hurt from the previous words to patch things up.

But finally, he chuckled and looked back at Keladry.

"Should've just said that in the first place, mate."

Keladry smiled and returned the chuckle, reaching out and doing some weird fist-clap-bump-thing which I assumed was some special habit in their friendship. I too couldn't help but grin at how quickly they were able to patch up and Kent was able to forgive Keladry.

He really did seem like such a good-hearted, noble badger.

I made a mental note to invite him to the castle and honour him if all of this ended well and I returned home.

If…

A/N: Once again, I apologise if the chapter was not written that well! I tried my best but it was rather hard to write just because i could not make it too long! Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you to those who have left such pleasant reviews previously. Your support means a lot to me :)