A/N: I. AM. ALIVE!
And the crowd boos.
Well, I don't blame you. :P I would boo too if I were you (Nice rhyming skills, right? :P ). But as it is, I just wrote this nice, shiny, new chapter for you, so maybe you won't be tooooooo mad at me? :D Pretty please with a pineapple on top?
Lol, well here are my replies to your reviews. And please forgive me if I forgot anyone. It's been a while since I've done this and I can't remember which ones I replied to and which I didn't. ;)
King of Kings' Daughter: Oh goodie! You liked the chapter! Lol, sorry if it's becoming a little bit Mary-Sue-ish. I wasn't trying to make it seem that way. ;D Ooh, but my grammar has improved? That is a VERY good thing since that was kinda my reason in writing the story in the first place. :D Hope you like this next chapter! PS: I am DEFINITELY going to read your next chapters of your fanfiction. I have just been really busy lately with college classes and stuff, and when I AM on it is usually to write my story. ;) Sorry for not reviewing in a while. I will ASAP! Promise, mi amiga!
Queen Lani Kaulitz the Hyper: Yes, I'm alive! Isn't it wonderful? :P Thanks for your prayers, I appreciate it. ;) I so hope you have fun reading the next chapter – it took FOREVER to write!
KZ and the Snazzy Plotbunnies: Haha! I guess I have tomato all over me then, huh? Well, I'm glad someone understands about procrastinating. That, along with classes, doesn't help my writing skills one bit! :P Hope you enjoy the chapter! Pretty please review for me, kay? XD
The Heck: Thanks for your review! :D I'm so glad I made you laugh – knowing that I've made people laugh makes me very happy. Probably because I like to laugh so much. :P But anyways, I'm really glad that my story inspired you to write one of your own! Good luck with it and happy reading!
Sarah Jackson-The Other: Heehee! I'm glad you liked the last chapter! Please let me know what you thought about this next one! ;)
pselpevensie: I'm so glad you like the story! :D Nope, I haven't really planned on anything happening between Eden and Peter. Alot of fanfictions do OC pairings with the main characters and they end up turning into Mary-Sues. :P I'd really like to avoid that happening. Peter and Eden are just going to have a brother/sister relationship at the most. ;) And yes! I'm actually looking forward, and yet dreading at the same time, the meeting of Reformed!Edmund and Eden. Anyways, I hope you like this next chapter! God bless!
QueenSu: Aww, thank you so much! :D You are so sweet! I'm very glad you liked the last chapter, and got the PB reference. ;) You are such a great reviewer: thank you again for being so faithful! :D I hope you like the next chapter!
Aim5: Glad you liked it! Happy reading the next one!
Bookits: Wow! Thank you so much for your review! I'm glad you think my story is cool – and I'm definitely planning on writing more! :D Although, just to warn you, it might take a while. But I hope you enjoy this next chapter! ;)
keelyequinelover: Thanks so much! I hope you like this next chapter as much as you liked the rest of the story. ;) And I love equines too. Aren't they awesome? :D
EDIT: Whoa, I totally forgot! There was a plot hole discovered by Queen Lani Kaulitz the Hyper that I never explained... She mentioned that in the first chapter I had mentioned Eden wearing a shirt with Lucy and Tumnus on the front, and that was true. She also brought to my notice the fact that the Pevensies would have totally noticed that when they saw me! I mean, if you saw your or your sibling's face on some stranger's shirt, you would freak out, right? So anyways, I don't really have a way to explain away that plot hole, except by... MAGIC! :P Just kidding lol, I actually went back and changed it so it would make more sense. Thanks QLKtH! :D
Weeeell, everyone, that's all for this extremely long author's note. :D I hope you guys have an awesome Thanksgiving!
I walked back towards camp alone, Aslan having parted with me at the flowery spot where we had talked. I felt so much more sure of myself after talking with Aslan that I nearly skipped all the way back to camp. Except for the fact that I wouldn't be caught dead skipping while I was in the presence of so many amazing creatures. Though I still have yet to figure out how a dead person could skip.
So I walked along, still holding the large bouquet of Narnian lilies that I had gathered, and held them up to my nose, inhaling their soft scent.
They smell so beautiful, yet almost... sad. I looked at the lilies and for some reason my eyes teared up. I shook my head. I'm being ridiculous. Can a smell even be described as sad? As one of my best friends would say, "Only by someone like you."
After leaving my bouquet of flowers in the tent, I approached the center of the camp, and my stomach started rumbling noisily. Och, Captain, I have a rumbly in my tumbly! This could get problematic. Where am I supposed to find food in an army camp filled with sweaty fauns and centaurs?
I glanced around, having no idea where to go for food. It's not as if they have an Olive Garden around the corner... Although that would be pretty awesome...
Seeing nothing edible in the nearest vicinity, I resigned myself to my fate: I had to find Mrs. Beaver.
But where did she go last night? Ugh... This is when photographic memory would come in handy. I mean, not necessarily like Jonas-Quinn-super-memory or anything, but just your basic see-something-important-and-remember-it-later-memory. Hmm... Come to think of it, photographic memory would be cool for alot of situations... YIKES! Except for that one time when my brother and best friend were looking at each other with eyes like a couple of hummingbirds drunk on nectar spiked with love poiso- er, potion... Ehgadz, there is no way would I ever want to see that image again.
Even with the wonderful remembrance of that sweet story, I still had NO idea where to find Mrs. Beaver.
"Eden?" I heard a British voice call from behind me. I whipped around and saw Lucy running towards me, clad in a slate blue Narnian dress that I remembered seeing in the trunk this morning. Er, it's STILL this morning.
"Lucy!" I called, relief flooding into my stomach. Hmm... I'm still hungry. Lucy stopped right in front of me with a small smile on her face.
"We've been wondering where you got off to." She told me, stopping for a moment and studying me. "You look different." I furrowed my eyebrows.
"In what way?" I asked her, hoping she meant 'better' and not 'worse'. Her eyebrows furrowed in thought.
"I'm not sure. You just look... more confident and... very Narnian!" She smiled brightly, and I shrugged, still not sure if that was a good thing or not.
"Well, anyway, it's time for breakfast!" She said, grabbing my hand and leading me towards the middle of camp.
"Breakfast!" I sighed happily, smiling back at Lucy. She nodded, seeming to be in a decent mood herself.
"They have toast and butter and jam, and even some eggs!" Her smile grew wide again, and I felt my mouth water. Ahh... The first decent food in... erm, a day. I mentally blushed, realizing how spoiled I was. I was prepared to give myself a firm lecture about the matter, but we soon arrived at the breakfast table and the smells of toast with butter, jam, and eggs clouded my mind and weakened my resolve. Scratch that, it DESTROYED my resolve!
I plopped down across from Susan, who was sitting next to Peter, who was sitting next to Lucy. I contemplated saying a cheery "Good morning all!", but forgot it once I saw the food that was heaped on my plate, instead shouting out a hasty "THANK YOU LORD, AMEN!" and biting into my toast.
Perhaps I could have been a little more reverent. I thought, my cheeks turning slightly pink. Sorry, Lord Jesus. And thank you for this food. I told my King, truly meaning it this time.
After wolfing down the remains of my toast, I found an odd silence hit my ears (I find that crunching toast is most effective in drowning out noise). I slowly looked up.
The three Pevensies sat staring at me, Peter and Susan with raised eyebrows, and Lucy stifling a giggle.
"Um, well, you see..." I stumbled over my words, trying to answer an unasked question as my cheeks burst out into a full on blush. "I was hungry!" I finished lamely, clutching a crust of toast in my hands and accidentally breaking it into pieces. "Whoops..." I muttered, watching it fall onto my plate. I looked up, suddenly hearing a giggle from the direction of Lucy.
She had her hand over her mouth and as I met her eyes, she started to laugh. I feigned a hurt expression, but she just laughed all the more.
"Do you always eat so... quickly?" Peter asked me, an amused light in his eyes.
"Not always." I answered, crossing my arms in a fake pout. Lucy giggled again, and Peter and Susan tried to hold back smiles (Unsuccessfully, I might add).
I shook my head, smiling to myself as I finished my breakfast. The Pevensies followed suit, but they all still seemed to have a case of the mental giggles.
"So what's going to be happening today?" I asked them, licking my fingers clean of jam and butter. I guess this works... After all, fingers don't fit in a dishwasher. Not that they'd have one in Narnia anyway.
Peter shrugged, "I'm not sure. I was hoping to talk to Aslan later." He didn't say what about, but we all knew he wanted to find out about Edmund.
"I guess we should just try and rest up some." Susan said softly, "We've been traveling for days. And who knows what might happen next?"
I sighed, feeling terrible for the Pevensies. If only I could take their minds off Edmund for a bit. But maybe that would be unfair – they do have a right to worry after all.
"We could explore!" Lucy exclaimed, ever the cheerful one. I smiled and nodded.
"Sounds great to me! There's this-" I stopped, deciding at the last moment to keep the beautiful flower patch to myself – it was special to me now and I didn't want to share it quite yet, as selfish as that may have been. "Well, there's this stream in the forest, and it's reeaally cold! Of course you guys probably already saw it and washed up and everything, but I still need to wash my other clothes, so I'm gonna go down there soon."
Susan looked confused, starting to reply, "Actually, we haven't washed up yet. We couldn't find the faun, Kirentus-"
"Kiremnus." I interjected, and she looked at me confused. "The faun's name. It's not 'Kirentus', it's Kiremnus. Or if you really want to make him wonder, call him Westley."
Her eyebrows furrowed even more and I almost felt bad for interrupting. Almost.
"Well, anyway," Susan began again, glancing at Peter, "We couldn't find Kiremnus so we decided to go ahead and get dressed. But if there's a stream nearby, we really should wash up."
"It would feel quite nice to get all this dirt off." Peter added, brushing the aforesaid annoyance off his knees after standing up. "But you girls can go first – I'm going to find Aslan." He put his hands on his sisters' shoulders and smiled, "I'll see you later, alright?"
Susan nodded quietly and Lucy gave him a quick hug. "Take care of each other." He told them, turning to me and slightly smiling. "And make sure Eden doesn't get herself into too much trouble."
"Aww, man!" I fake pouted, scrunching my nose and folding my arms. Peter shook his head, smiling ruefully, "Well, I'll see all of you later!"
After Peter left, the rest if us stood up as well, everyone having finished breakfast. "Alrighty, girls!" I exclaimed, grabbing an extra egg, tossing it in the air, and catching it again. "Off to the river we go!"
"River?" Lucy asked, her eyes growing wide. "I thought it was a stream!" I shrugged and looked back at her.
"River, stream – same thing!" I laughed, and skipped along down the path, forgetting my earlier promise not to do so. Susan and Lucy followed behind me and we reached the stream in record time.
After rolling up their sleeves and taking of their shoes, Susan and Lucy waded into the chilly water and I stood on the bank, promising to keep watch. Although I'm not really sure why, since there isn't really anything to keep watch for.
I looked around carefully, trying to find something worthwhile to spend my time doing while I was on guard duty. My eyes came to rest on a tall, leafy tree that stood close to the bank. Suddenly a thought popped into my head: "CLIMB THE TREE!". Of course I tried as hard as I could to push it away: "NO! I don't wanna climb the tree! I don't need to know how to climb stinkin' trees!"
"Why not? It's a good and decent skill to learn!" My mind, always the logical one.
"I don't wanna learn!"
"What if you get into another wolf situation? Huh? What then?"
"I'll run."
"Suuuuurrreee. You'll run and get killed by wolves and then where will we be?"
"WE? When did this become WE?"
"When we started saying we?"
"For cryin' out loud..."
I rolled my eyes at my lack of sanity and glanced at Susan and Lucy to see if they heard my little conversation.
Fortunately, they hadn't. They were still splashing around and whispering to each other. Hmm... I wonder what they're whispering about. And now they're giggling and looking at me strangely! I did wash the mud off my face this morning, right?
Ridding my mind of any other distracting thoughts, I stepped up to the tree and grasped a lower branch, preparing to pull myself up. "One, two, three-"
I hauled myself up, cringing as I felt my fingers slip. "Nooo, no! I WILL hold on. I WILL!" I clawed at the branch, trying to pull myself up enough to sit. I finally made it, looking down at the five foot drop below. Ooh, scary, I told myself sarcastically, trying to taunt my way out of my fear of heights. I kept looking down, leaning over to grab the next branch when I found out an unfortunate truth: there was no next branch.
Before I knew it, I had fallen five feet straight down – right onto my tailbone.
"EEEEIIIAAHHH!" I yelled, arching my back at the pain and scrunching my eyes closed. "That did NOT go as planned!" I cringed and rolled onto my side, finding it much more comfortable.
"Eden!" I heard Lucy shout from the stream. She soon appeared beside me, and Susan right after her. "Are you alright?"
I took inventory of my injuries, and though they were "mighty painful", none of them were life threatening. This time. "Yeah, I think so." I told Lucy, sitting up slowly.
"Maybe you should find something more... safe to do. " Susan suggested to me, looking slightly worried for my physical and mental health.
"Well, I was thinking... um, that I should learn to climb trees so I can get away next time we get chased by rabid wolves?" I sighed, getting to my feet and trying to stand straight without cringing.
Susan started to shake her head, when something strange startled me. I glanced around quickly, hoping that I hadn't heard what I thought I'd heard.
"Susan..." I began warily, and she looked confused.
"What is it?"
Another guttural noise came from the bushes a few feet away. That can't be good. Lucy saw my expression, and crept closer to Susan and me.
"Eden?"
I stepped closer to the bushes, picking up a large stick on the way. The two girls stood behind me as I reached forward with the stick and poked into the bushes –
I hit the ground hard, a sudden pressure on my chest and legs pinning me to the dirt. Waves of pain pulsed through my skull as the sky and trees melted around me into a springtime collage that shone blurrily with blue, green, and yellow. Ooh, pretty colors... Must be Easter...
The remnants of a scream brought me back into focus as my shocked mind started to process things again. Lucy? I tried to call for her, but found I couldn't speak as the pressure on my chest moved to my throat. I coughed as I tried in vain to inhale.
"You can't run now, can you?"
A familiar gravelly voice spoke over me. Way too close for comfort, I might add. I mentally groaned – this was so much worse than I had imagined. Elmo?
I opened my eyes and was met with the sight of Elmo's pearly whites. I grinned stupidly, suddenly feeling alarmingly giddy. Ooh! What whitener does he use? I should really ask...
"Good thing too, 'cause we're tired and we'd prefer to kill you quickly. But before I do, there is one thing you will tell me: Where is the boy?"
I snickered, not even realizing that the pressure had left my throat. "Ooh, prefer is such a gentlemanly word. Matches your nice teeth. What whitener do you use?" I asked, feeling suddenly sad as the pearly whites disappeared into a furry frown.
He snarled in my face. I coughed, noting the lack of fresh, minty breath that usually came as a result of teeth whitening strips.
"My dear fellow," I began, choking on the stale breath coming out of his mouth, "My high regard for you has fallen. Do you even BRUSH your teeth?"
My eyes watered as the wolf's sharp claws drove deep into my collarbone. "Okay, I get it! Stop!" I gasped, the pain jolting me out of my giddy state. Tears leaked from my eyes as Elmo smirked, retracting his claws from my skin.
"I'll tell you." I said, my lungs heaving as I started to hyperventilate and tried desperately to think of anything. It wasn't supposed to be this way. I'm supposed to protect the Pevensies, not give them away! But I don't want to die... I really, really don't wanna die.
"Hurry up, human. You don't have forever." The wolf snapped, and I faintly heard the cause of his worry: Susan's horn calling for help nearby. A flicker of hope shot through me and a memory came to mind – Crevan sneakily luring the wolves in the wrong direction. But would the same trick work twice? Elmo glared down at me impatiently.
"Peter's... in the woods. That way." I pointed directly away from camp, choosing the only option I had. Please, God, let this work...
An angry snarl set off alarms in my head (the ones that weren't already blaring wildly), and the wolf's gaze darkened as he pushed down on my windpipe, cutting off the airflow. I panicked, grabbed at his leg with my hands and... made no difference whatsoever.
"Don't lie to me, girl." Elmo growled angrily. I guess it really is true: the same trick never works twice. Unless you're playing it on your five year old sister who is the very definition of gullible.
"I," cough "am," choke "not lyin'!" I managed to get it out, smirking to myself at the irony of the statement. Unfortunately, the only thing I got for my effort was more pressure applied directly to my already half-crushed neck.
"Then I guess you're not needed anymore." Elmo told me, the wicked grin on his normally dead-pan face showing the pleasure he was taking in depriving me of air. My eyes grew wide as I struggled to breath.
"Noo-" His paw pressed down hard, too hard, and I begged my brain to concentrate.
Lord, please help me. It can't end like this. I don't want to die at the hands of Elmo! ELMO! I mean, come on! I'm gonna die because a furry, red puppet choked me to death. What a way to go... No, no, my mind is wandering. God, please keep me focused until help arrives. Keep Susan and Lucy safe... and Edmund... and Peter... Send someone...
This was NOT... how I had hoped... to end my weekend...
YAHOO! I finally, FINALLY, finished this chapter! I thought it would NEVER get finished! Heh... You guys probably thought the same, right? But I AM going to finish this story. There is nothing as frustrating as an unfinished fanfiction, and I can personally attest to that. The only thing more frustrating is a fanfiction that gets deleted by your computer while you are typing it... :( But other than that...
Anyways, the next chapter is in the works, and I will hopefully get it up soon! :D I love you all! Thank you very much for being so patient with me. I so appreciate all of your kind and wonderful reviews: you guys are the highlight of my day. :D
God bless and happy reading!
Eddie