Unaware of their little sister's danger, Peter and Susan ran around the professor's house searching for Lucy.

"Anything?" Peter asked as he reunited with Susan. They were playing cricket outside when Lucy went inside the large mansion they were staying at for some water. That had been over two hours ago, and now they were getting worried. They'd decided they needed to split up and search the house as best as they could from top to bottom, but he hadn't found any sign of where his youngest sister could be.

"No. Where is she hiding? Is she still mad at us for not believing her about her make-believe world?" Susan said, a little irritated. Lucy had come running in after begging Peter and Susan to play hide and seek with her, only to announce she'd been gone for hours when she'd only disappeared to hide several minutes ago. Lucy then went on about finding a magical world in the wardrobe.

She loved her sister dearly, yet Lucy drove Susan insane with her constant talking of this world of snow and ice, an evil witch who's the queen and the friendly faun she'd met called Mr Tumnus. At first, Susan tried to entertain her sister's imagination, listening to her story and pretending to search for the mysterious doorway to this magical world through the wardrobe, but as the days went by. Lucy's infatuation grew, and Susan and Peter finally had enough of their younger sister's antics. She snapped, shouting at her sister to stop speaking about this world, that it wasn't real and a figment of Lucy's imagination. Lucy looked like Susan had slapped her, but at the time, Susan didn't care; she wanted Lucy to stop talking about Narnia, and she did. Her sister became quiet, staring off into the distance whenever she was with her siblings, lost in another world, that world. Peter's idea to play cricket was meant as a distraction for Lucy to draw her out of her make-believe world and into the real one. It seemed to work until Lucy went inside, and now they couldn't find her.

"Did you check the wardrobe?" Susan asked. Lucy was obsessed with that thing, and if their sister had hidden away, she might be in there.

"I looked inside, but I couldn't see anything," Peter said. With a sigh, Susan ran upstairs to the empty bedroom with the large wardrobe inside. She could hear the thundering footsteps of Peter as he chased after her. Susan opened the wardrobe door and found nothing but fur coats hung up in a row.

"Lucy," Susan said, pushing the coats around, feeling for her sister, reaching into the empty space. The wardrobe seemed to go further back than she first thought. Perhaps it leads to another room where Lucy's hidden away. With another sigh, Susan stepped inside, pushing past the fur coats and ignoring her brother calling her name. Susan moved deeper into the wardrobe until the wooden floor gave way to the soft crunch of… snow? Susan's eyes widened as she took in her new surroundings: the ground covered in white snow, trees on either side of her standing tall and proud. The cold breeze washed over her as if she'd stepped outside on a crisp winter morning, not the warmth of spring she knew it should be.

"Susan!" Peter shouted before he came tumbling out of the wardrobe. Peter stared, stunned, just as in shock as Susan was.

"It's impossible," Susan said. Her eyes still couldn't take in the wonder of the world before her.

"We owe Lucy a massive apology," Peter said. The mention of their lost sister snapped both Pevensie's siblings out of the stupor and into the reality that whilst the imaginary world they thought their sister had dreamt about was real, their little sister was still missing. Potentially lost in a strange and, if the evil witch queen was real, cruel world.

"We need to find Lucy," Susan said, marching out into the forest, looking for any small glimpse of their sister. Peter turned back, reaching into the wardrobe and plucking two fur coats from the hangers; if they were going to search this world for their sister, they'd need some kind of protection from the harsh winter.

Peter and Susan wandered through the dense forest, calling their sister's name, but they heard no response. At one point, Peter suggested calling for Mr Tumnus, the faun Lucy met the first time, just in case she went to him, but to no avail. Peter tried to ignore the panic slowly settling in; they had no idea of the dangers in this world and what lurked out there. The longer they searched, the chances dwindled on how likely it was that they would find Lucy; they had no idea how big this world was.

"We should head back? Maybe we've missed her and Lucy's returned home," Susan suggested.

"Maybe you're right," Peter said. They followed their tracks back until they entered a small clearing and stopped; the harsh winter and constant snow covered their footprints.

"Now what," Peter said, irritated.

"We need to think about this logically," Susan said.

"We need to think about this logically," Peter said, mimicking Susan's voice, "what part of this is logical? We're in another world, hidden inside the wardrobe, looking for our missing sister."

"Well, we can't leave her here. When Mother and Father sent us to the countryside, they wanted us to look after each other. We find Lucy, then get out of here," Susan said, "First, we need to find the wardrobe one of us goes through to check if Lucy returned and if not, we start again, this time leaving a better trail back."

They continued walking, each looking for any sign of the wardrobe, but saw nothing but trees and snow.

"Psst!" A voice said. Peter turned round but found nothing.

"Did you hear that?" he asked Susan, who nodded. Moving in the direction the 'psst' came from, the bushes rustled; Susan shared a concerned and scared look with Peter as they peered closer and out from the bush came a beaver.

"It… It's a beaver," Susan said, dumbfounded.

"Here, boy," Peter said, clicking his tongue and fingers, holding out his head, "Here, boy."

The beaver seemed to stare at his hand before sitting upright.

"I ain't gonna smell it if that's what you what!" the beaver said. Peter jumped back, staring at the beaver in shock.

"Oh! Sorry," Peter said because he wasn't sure what else he was meant to say to a talking beaver.

"Um… Mr Beaver, have you seen a little girl wandering around? Short brown hair, wearing a brown dress and a cardigan," Susan said, looking just as unsure as Peter was.

"I've heard of one. Come on further in," the beaver said before hurrying off. Peter goes to follow him when Susan grabs his arm.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"He said he knew about Lucy; maybe he can take us to her," Peter said, pulling his arm out of Susan's grasp.

"He's a beaver. He shouldn't be saying anything!" Susan said, and whilst Peter knew he should listen to Susan, they should find Lucy on their own without dealing with talking beavers; he knew deep down that they had no chance at finding Lucy when this world was so foreign to them.

"Everything all right?" the beaver asked.

"Yes. We were just talking," Peter said.

"That's better left for safer quarters. You can't tell which trees are loyal to her," the beaver said. Peter stared at the surrounding trees as if he'd see large tree-like ears growing out of them.

"Come one," he said to Susan before following the beaver.

Peter and Susan followed the beaver through the forest across cliffs, giving the Pevensie siblings a scope of the world's size. They had no hope of finding Lucy by themselves, and from the look on Susan's face, she was having the same realisation. They finally approached a dam in the middle of a frozen pool with smoke rising from the chimney.

"Ah, blimey! Looks like the old girl has got the kettle on. Nice cup o' Rosy Lee," the beaver said as he opened the door.

"Beaver, is that you?" a voice said from inside, "I've been worried sick! If I find you've been out with Badger again, I…"

Peter's eyes trailed around the small home, trying to take in the madness he was living. The Beaver's home consisted of a small sofa in front of a lit fireplace and a round table behind it. Despite the strangeness of it all, Peter felt at home. Mrs Beaver stood before them, her face (if Peter was reading the Beaver right) shocked at the sight of them.

"Oh! Well, those aren't badgers. Oh, I never thought I'd live to see this day," her eyes then narrowed in on Mr Beaver, "Look at my fur. You couldn't give me ten minutes warning?"

"I'd have given a week if I thought it would've helped," Mr Beaver said, chuckling.

"Please sit down; we'll get some food into you," Mrs Beaver said, gesturing to the seats at the table. Peter looked at his sister before sitting down.

"You said you knew something of our sister, Lucy?" Peter asked, not wanting to delay this conversation any longer.

"Tumnus warned me about her just before they took him. Rumour has it a human child wandered into Narnia and caught the attention of the White Prince. They've taken her to the Witch's castle, Tumnus too for helping her, and you know what they say. There's few that go through them gates that come out again," Mr Beaver said. Peter stared in horror at the beavers; an evil witch had taken his little sister. How could he have let this happen? If only he believed Lucy, he could've come with her and kept her safe like he was meant to.

"What does that mean for our sister?" Susan asked, "How do we get her back?"

"Aslan. Aslan is on the move, and he'll save your sister," Mr Beaver said. Peter and Susan shared another confused look.

"Who's Aslan," Peter asked.

"Who's Aslan? You cheeky little blighter," Mr Beaver said, laughing as if Peter told a funny joke; he only stopped when Mrs Beaver elbowed him.

"You don't know, do you?" he said.

"Well, we haven't been here very long," Peter snarkily said. He was annoyed that Mr Beaver assumed they knew everything about this world.

"Well, he's only the king of the whole wood. The top geezer, the real King of Narnia!" Mr Beaver said as if that explained everything.

"He's been away for a long while," Mrs Beaver added.

"But he's just got back! And he's waitin' for you near the Stone Table," Mr Beaver said.

"He's waiting for us?" Susan said, again extremely confused.

"You're blooming joking! They don't even know about the prophecy!" Mr Beaver said, and Peter was annoyed that they weren't fully explaining themselves, "Look. Aslan's return, Tumnus' arrest, and Lucy being taken. It's all happening because of you!"

"You're blaming us?" Susan snapped.

"No! Not blaming. Thank you!" Mrs Beaver said as if that would clear everything up - it didn't.

"There's a prophecy. 'When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone sits at Cair Paravel in throne, the evil time will be over and done," Mr Beaver said.

"You know that doesn't really rhyme," Susan said because, of course, at a time like this, she has to nitpick.

"Yeah, I know it doesn't, but you're kinda missin' the point!" Mr Beaver said.

"It has long been foretold that two Sons of Adam and two Daughters of Eve will defeat the White Witch and restore peace to Narnia. The White Witch had the White Prince to stop the prophecy ever happening, believing that his birth would somehow invalidate it," Mrs Beaver explained.

"Are you sure there isn't a fourth one of ya?" Mr Beaver said.

"There was, but James was kidnapped as a baby, but that doesn't matter. You think we're the ones?" Peter said this had become ludicrous. All they wanted was to find Lucy and get out of there; they wanted nothing to do with some war.

"Well, you'd better be, 'cause Aslan's already fitted out your army," Mr Beaver said, and Peter gulped at that; there was no way someone was trusting them with an army; they're just kids.

"Mum sent us away so we wouldn't get caught up in a war," Susan said, trying to reason with Peter.

"I think you've made a mistake. We're not heroes, we're kids. All we want to do is get Lucy and leave. I'm sorry, but we want nothing to do with your war," Peter said.

"That's the problem. The Witch took her as bait; she wants all four of ya," Mr Beaver said. Peter knew it was a trap from what he'd heard, but that didn't mean they could leave their sister to the Witch's torture.

"Why?" Peter said.

"To stop the prophecy from coming true! To kill ya!" Mr Beaver said, "Listen, only Aslan can save your sister."

Peter looked at Susan; they didn't really have a choice, it was either ask Aslan for help or abandon their sister in this world, and Peter knew he would never take the second option.

"Then take us to him."


~Three Hours Prior~

They waited until they had the girl before moving in on the traitorous faun. They watched for a whole day, planning their attack for when he dropped his guard, believing his crime would go unnoticed again. Thought that they would never realise he was fraternising with humans, the treacherous of it, but it didn't matter; one more of Aslan's sympathisers would be dead long before the lion could call for an attack.

Edmund waited outside, hiding amongst the trees, watching the unsuspecting faun head inside his cave. He can sense Maugrim and the other wolves circling the cave; they wouldn't attack until he gave the signal. Ten minutes passed, giving the faun enough time to settle in and relax.

"Now."

The Wolves pounced out of the trees, two smashing down the door as they swarmed inside. Edmund closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of screams as the wolves tore at the faun, the crashing of furniture and breaking of plates. Opening his eyes, Edmund summoned an icicle with his magic as he stepped inside the cave. The faun lay on his back facing the door, but he didn't see Edmund's approach as his arms covered his face.

Lunging forward, Edmund shoved the icicle into the faun's leg, basking in his screams. Oh, Edmund would have so much fun with the faun when they returned to the castle.

"Faun Tumnus, you are charged with High Treason against my mother, Her Imperial Majesty, Jadis, Queen of Narnia, for comforting her enemies and fraternising with humans," Edmund said, twisting the icicle deeper into the faun's leg, "What nothing to say to defend yourself?"

"Aslan will end the witch's reign; with the Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve, you will be done for," the faun spat out. Edmund smirked.

"Haven't you heard? That human you tried so hard to protect is now rotting away in our prison. We'll take you to her and make you watch as we tear her to pieces," Edmund laughed, a large grin stretching across his face, and he grabbed the icicle in the faun's leg and ripped it out. "Take him."

Edmund lets Maugrim drag the faun away, with the other wolves bringing up the rear. They'd make a show of Tumnus' arrest, reminding the Narnians what happened when they committed treason against his mother. Pinning the declaration of Tumnus' arrest to the door with the same bloodied icicle, Edmund followed the wolves. He hoped more humans would come wandering into Narnia, for the Narnians so loyal to Aslan to have hope that they'd be free from his mother's enteral winter and for them to fail. Edmund wondered whether they would hold a public execution for the human girl and have all of Narnia gather to watch their saviour die.


Returning to the castle, Maugrim took the prisoner down to the dungeons. His mother was occupied elsewhere and wouldn't care about a traitorous faun when they'd already captured their prize. Edmund followed Maugrim down to the dungeon, opened the door to the one that held the human and watched as Maugrim dragged the faun inside.

"Mr Tumnus," the human said, crawling as far as she could with her arms and legs shackled to the floor.

"Lucy," the faun said, reaching out to her before being yanked away and shackled in his own cell.

"What do you want with him? You have me," the human said. Edmund moved over, grabbing a chuck of her short hair and dragging her up by it until her face was in line with his.

"He betrayed my mother when he didn't hand you in the first time. No traitorous actions can go unpunished, no matter if we have what we wanted in the first place," Edmund said, shoving the human to the floor. It screamed as her body hit the ice floor, but Edmund didn't care; a little bump was the least of the pain she was going to experience here.

"Maugrim, tell my mother that we have the faun. I'm going to have a little fun with them," Edmund ordered the wolf. Maugrim bowed his head.

"Of course, Your Majesty," with that, the wolf left the dungeon.

Edmund waited until he knew the wolf would be out of hearing range before saying, "I do pity you; my mother wants to secure her reign of Narnia; it is the only reason she had me a hundred years ago. You will be an example to the rest of Narnia for what will happen to them if they protect any humans who wander into this world; I am sorry for that."

"Then help me, help me get out of here. Let me go home, and I'll make sure no humans can come here again," the human begged.

"I wish I could help you, but I can't; she'll kill me for even thinking of betraying her. You will die; I can't prevent that. I can't promise it won't be painful, but eventually, your suffering will end; that is the only thing I can promise you," Edmund said. A stricken look appeared on the human's face, and the faun remained quiet, watching over the human.

"I am sorry," Edmund added as he turned to leave.

"Wait," the human said. Edmund turned back to look at her, "Why do you look like that?"

"Like what?" Edmund asked.

"You said you're a hundred years old, but you look only a little older than my brother Peter, who is thirteen," Lucy said.

"To secure her reign's protection, my mother needed me to stay young, to not age or die. 81 years ago, when I turned nineteen, my mother made me immortal, and since then, I have not aged a single day. I may be one hundred, but I will forever look nineteen," Edmund explained. His age had never mattered to him before, only a number to count to keep track of how long he'd been alive.

"Don't you get lonely, watching the people you love grow old and die," Lucy said, looking upset at the thought.

"What is love? I've never heard of the word before?" Edmund asked,

"What? You've never had anyone tell you that they loved you?" Lucy said, looking even more upset that Edmund had never heard of a word than she did about him never growing old. Edmund shook his head.

"Love has many different meanings; you can love and experience love in many ways. Romantically, platonically, a love for one's family or a love for something you enjoy doing. Romantic love is a strong feeling of affection towards someone you are romantically attracted to or the feeling that a person's happiness is important to you and how you show it. Platonic love is where you bond closely with others but don't experience that romantic attraction. Love is pure and beautiful and comes in many different forms," Lucy explained. Edmund froze, looking at her; he'd never experienced what she'd described. He's never loved someone or been loved in return.

"It sounds horrible being weak like that to another person," Edmund lied. He had no idea what to think about this new word.

"Love isn't a weakness," the human said.

"It is to me," and with that, Edmund left the dungeon. He's spent far too long down her, letting her spew her poisonous words, trying to change where Edmund's loyalties lie. He was loyal to his mother; a stupid human wouldn't change that. She will die, and they will continue to rule Narnia.

"Your Majesty," Maugrim's deputy said. Edmund glared at the wolf.

"What?" he snapped.

"We have word on other humans. The trees heard a beaver taking a Son of Adam and another Daughter of Eve to his dam," the wolf said. Edmund grinned; maybe he'll get something to release his pent-up anger.

"Get the others; it's time to go hunting," Edmund said.

"Yes, Your Majesty," the wolf said before taking off to rally the others. Edmund met the wolves outside, Maugrim leading the group. They set off, Edmund on his horse, the wolves tracking ahead. His mother loved her sleigh, but Edmund preferred either riding on his horse or running beside the wolves. They charged through the woods, the trees whispering directions as they moved. They soon came upon the dam, smoke rising from its chimney.

"Looks like they're home," Edmund laughed, sliding off his horse, "Take them."

The wolves descended on the dam like starved animals, clawing and biting at the wood. Edmund watched, amused for a second, before approaching the dam himself. Calling forth the air that serves him, Edmund blasted a wave at the wall, puncturing a hole in the wood big enough for him to step through. The wolves piled in first, with Edmund following behind. The place was empty; Edmund cursed under his breath; his mouth wouldn't be happy if they let other humans escape. One of the wolves starts pawing at a door; it swings open to reveal a tunnel.

"After them," Edmund ordered. The wolves descended into the tunnel.

"Let's leave a surprise for the Beavers if they decide to come back," Edmund laughed to himself, summoning a large flame in the palm of his hand. Rising his hand, Edmund drew the large flame to the wooden structure; the flame jumped from his palm to the wood, spreading through the dam. Edmund jumped into the tunnel, leaving the blaze behind.

He quickly caught up with the wolves as they burst out of the tunnel into a small clearing filled with traitors turned to stone, his mother's trip out earlier.

"Your Majesty," Maugrim said. Edmund turned to look at the wolf; they were circling around a fox,

"Greetings, gents. Lost something, have we?" the fox said.

"Don't patronise me! I know where your allegiance lies. We're looking for some humans," Maugrim said. Edmund approached as the fox laughed.

"Humans? Here in Narnia? That's a valuable bit of information, don't you think?" the fox said. Edmund motioned his head, and one of the wolves pounced on the fox, grabbing him in his jaws and holding him to the ground.

"Where are they?" Edmund said, an icicle forming in his hand. The fox hung his head and pointed.

"North. They ran north," it said. Edmund looked in the direction it was pointing.

"North, huh," he said.

"Smell them out," Maugrim ordered his wolves. The wolf holding the fox dropped it, and they ran off. Edmund whistled for his horse; it's trained to track him even underground. His horse trotted into the clearing and up to Edmund's side. Edmund looked down at the fox lying in the snow.

"Be this a warning for lying and for those to see what my mother is capable of," Edmund said, plunging the icicle into the fox's heart. The creature let out a silent scream before it died. A gasp and a shush came from above him, but Edmund forced himself to ignore it and pretend he hadn't heard it. Instead, Edmund mounted his horse and took off after Maugrim; a single tear slipped down his cheek, and as he brushed it away, Edmund could only hope he did the right thing.