Chapter Thirteen~
The day the Pevensie children were to leave for school Jessie would join them at the train station to see them off. Mrs. Pevensie dropped them off at the station unable to see them off since she had finally been able to get a job as a secretarial, a job that was hard to come by. With the Pevensie children in their school uniforms, Jessie and Lucy where across the street while Peter and Edmund had gone to get the tickets for them all. Susan was at a newsstand while Lucy and Jessie wondered what was taking Peter and Edmund so long.
"Should we go find them?" Jessie said sounding worried so that Lucy nodded holding her suitcase as the two entered the train station only to hear a commotion going on. It was Jessie who noticed the blond haired figure fighting and felt a wave of anger fill her as she turned to Lucy saying,
"Go get Susan!" so that Lucy raced off to get her older sister as Jessie raced into the fray to help Peter who was in the middle of a fight. Several bullies where beating him up as Jessie jumped into the middle as the boys 'oohed' with one saying,
"What are you going to do girlie?" making Jessie snarl as she twirled on her heel and side-kicked him in the left side so that he went flying into the wall instantly knocking him out. With the other boys amazed and annoyed, they moved to jump her as a black haired boy came to her defense and a familiar voice called,
"Edmund!" as he took the blow meant for Jessie in the side of the face. This caused Peter to snarl as he moved to punch the offender as a whistle blew making the crowd of children turn to see two soldiers coming running over to break up the fight. As they torn the fighting children apart they said to Peter,
"Act your age!" then turned to Jessie and said,
"And stay out of fights girl!" making her snarl as she whipped away some blood from a cut on her lip. As the soldiers moved away pulling a few of the bullies with them the Pevensies moved to a bench as Susan, Lucy and Jessie sat down with Peter standing and Edmund saying to Peter,
"You're welcome."
"I had it sorted." Peter snapped back so that Susan had to ask,
"What was it this time?" making Peter turn to her and staring coldly at his sister say simply,
"He bumped me?" so that a confused Jessie asked him in wonder,
"So you just hit him then?"
"No, after he bumped me he tried to get me to apologize. That's when I hit him." Peter told him in an annoyed tone looking away making the logical Susan ask,
"Why can't you just walk away?" so that Peter actually rolled his eyes telling her,
"I shouldn't have to! Don't you ever get tired of getting treated like a kid?" making Edmund say from his spot on the bench in honestly,
"Uh, we are kids." but Peter told him waving a hand as he said,
"Well I wasn't always—it's been a year—how long does He expect us to wait?" he sounded wounded, almost as if his pride had been hurt as Susan crossed her arms saying sounding strong,
"I think it's time to accept the fact that we live here now. It's no use pretending any different." then she looks up and sees something making her say turning to them all,
"Oh no, pretend like you're talking to me!"
"Uh, Susan—we are talking to you silly." Jessie said waving a hand in front of her face so that she moved it away as suddenly Lucy jumped from the bench crying out,
"Ow!"
"Be quiet Lucy." Susan says in annoyance yet she says,
"Something pinched me!" pointing to the bench as then Jessie stands saying also,
"Ouch!" followed by Peter saying,
"Stop pulling!" only Edmund turns to him telling him,
"I'm not touching you Peter!" so that then Susan jumps up wondering aloud as she looks around,
"What is that?!"
"It feels like Magic!" Jessie says sounding excited as a train starts passing by at near lightning speeds so that Susan says to everyone,
"Quick everyone hold hands." yet Edmund says to Peter annoyed and grumpy,
"I'm not holding your hand!" only rolling his eyes Peter grabs his hand as the train continues to pass as in snippets each of them see a landscape; an ocean of crystal clear waters, a beach of pure marble like sand, a beautiful blue cloudless sky above. Suddenly the bricks and tiles one by one are pulled away into themselves as if being sucked into a void the luggage, benches, heck the whole train station in a blink of an eye completely vanishes and when they look down following the train they find it disappearing out of a cave so that they find themselves inside said cave. Yet it's what's beyond the cave that makes them all grin in pure utter joy; the beach of crystal clear waters, pure marble like sand and a beautiful blue cloudless sky above! Stepping slowly out from the cave, Lucy and Jessie share a glance before the two break free first running towards the beach followed by the others. As the others follow them they kick off their shoes, take off their socks and ties and jackets before leaping into the warm waters of the ocean. Splashing and kicking and even falling into the waters, they laugh and giggle feeling free and joyous at long, long last. It's only when Edmund looks up that Edmund wonders,
"Where do you suppose we are?" making Peter laugh outright as he says,
"Where do you think?!"
"Well, I don't remember any ruins in Narnia." Edmund says pointing to a cliff where ruins of some structure await them making the joyous children stop what they are doing to look. Confused, each of them share a look before they all decide to go explore the ruins. It takes a while, but they finally reach the top of the cliff and as they wander around Lucy finds an apple and takes a bite saying as she and Jessie look out over the ocean,
"I wonder who lived here?" as Susan, holding a golden chess piece of a centaur,
"I think we did."
"Hey, that's mine from my chess set!" Edmund says coming over so that Peter wonders,
"Which chess set?" making Edmund chuckle as he tells them all,
"Well, I didn't exactly have a golden chess set in Finchley now did I?" then Jessie and Lucy look over at what in their mind trigger a very strong memory so that it's Lucy who says,
"It can't be!" as she grabs Peter's hand as she drags him over towards the ruins and tells them as she places them in position,
"Don't you see?"
"See what?" Peter wonders so that Lucy continues,
"Imagine walls, and columns there—and a glass roof!" then it hits them with a sickly deadly force so that it's Peter who says,
"Cair Paravel." as they all stare out over what had once been their home in the Golden Age, their capital and center of Narnia, its Jessie who falls to her knees sobbing softly as Peter goes to kneel beside her and comfort her.
"Oh Aslan, what happened to our Narnia?" she whimpered as she closed her eyes and leaned into Peter's hold as he hushed her as Lucy, Susan and Edmund shared tearful expressions. Never before had they felt such sorrow, such anger and bitter concern for the sight before them. Whatever had happened—was because they had left—and hadn't been here to protect their Kingdom, their Home. When Jessie stopped crying she stood slowly saying in a strong powerful voice of a true Queen,
"We have to find out what happened here. For Narnia." nodding, Peter took her hand and gave it a squeeze before they went in search of how this terror had befell Cair Paravel. It was only when Edmund found something that he said,
"Catapults, this didn't just happened, Cair Paravel was attacked."