Disclaimer: the day I own Narnia is the day I win the lotto, and since I don't ever plan on entering the lotto, I think it's pretty safe to say Narnia is not mine.

This is a story that happened in Narnia and Calormen and the lands between, the the Golden Age when Peter was High King in Narnia and his brother and two sisters were King and Queens under him.*

In those days, in the heart of Calormen on the edge of the Great Desert was the city of Tashbaan, the jewel of the empire. Tashbaan resided on an island in the middle of a great river, and so was surrounded by water on all sides. The city itself rose in great tiers, going from least to most important; from the docks and the slums near the water's edge to the highest point of the city, where the Tisroc resided in his enormous palace.

Now Amareena was not very important at all. In fact, at least in her opinion, it was hard to find anybody in Tashbaan less important. While her father was Calormen, her mother had been from Galma, and so, as it turned out, Amareena was often told that she didn't look Calormen enough, but neither did she look enough like a Galman. And in Calormen when you don't look like you're from Calormen, you usually end up getting called a barbarian. The irony was that Amareena had been born and raised in Tashbaan, which was more than some Tarkaans and Tarkheena's could claim. Nevertheless, Amareena was somewhat of an outcast.

After Amareena's mother died, her father, exclaiming that she looked too much like her mother, wept at the sight of his seven-year-old daughter. With great haste he struck a bargain with his old friend the Eastern Harbourmaster, who was always looking for cheap labour. If Amareena would come and work for him, he would feed her and clothe her until she was of marriageable age and her father came to collect her. At which point all the pay she had earnt (of which she would see not a coin), would become her dowery. It seemed to Amareena's father a fair bargain, and so the deal was struck. (Of course, neither considered whether or not it was fair to Amareena). And so Amareena was sent down to the docks to work in the warehouses that store the strange creatures brought in by boat from every corner of the empire.

It was reasonable work, as work goes, though Amareena was little more than a slave. She found, however, that living and working on the docks was not nearly as bad as she had first supposed. This was because she soon discovered that the docks were the best place to hear all kinds of stories and tales from far away lands. And if Amareena loved anything, it were the stories her mother had used to tell her at night before she went to sleep. Just as stories had been her favourite part of her old home, now stories became a favourite part of her new home.

"Did you hear about the spectacle in the Tisroc's gardens yesterday?"

Amareena pricked her ears. The horse she was supposed to be tacking, a chestnut mare from the south, huffed politely. She refocussed on her task, pretending more convincingly not to eavesdrop. There would be a punishment if the Harbourmaster heard she was lax.

"The Barbarian Queen? Oh yes," the Tarkheena was scornful. "Apparently she danced with every man and…creature, in her entourage before she danced with Prince Rabadash."

"Oh then you have not heard the worst of it," her friend said coyly.

"Go on then, Maavis. What could possibly be worse than snubbing a prince at his own party?"

"Well, you say she did dance with the Prince, but I met with an acquaintance just this morning who was there. She says that the Queen managed to avoid dancing with him - " Maavis paused for emphasis " - at all."

"How can that be?" Her friend accused, "It is no small feat to avoid a man who wishes to dance with you at a party. As the poets write, 'foolish is the man easily distracted from his prize'."

"Yes, but do not they also write 'wise is the woman who has many friends'? According to my acquaintance, the Barbarian Queen improvised a clever ploy. Her brother the King, along with others in their party, all insisted they dance with the Prince first, claiming it a Narnian custom."

"Surely no one of noble birth would be fooled by such a base ploy."

"Oh, verily, it is most doubtful even the meanest of slaves at that party believed the blatant lie, but, it being very discourteous to disprove it and shame them publicly (though they much deserve it), and our Prince being of high birth and most noble manners, he chose to play along. By the time the Prince had danced his way through her royal brother, their entourage and retainers, the Queen claimed exhaustion and the whole group of barbarians left."

"And without conceding to dance with him even once?"

"Not even once."

"I fear the Prince's suit is doomed to failure then," said Maavis' friend, but before Amareena could catch the end of the conversation, she heard her name bellowed out across the docks. Wincing, she finished tightening the girth strap and led the mare over to the Tarkheena.

"Mistress Tarkheena, here is your mare," she told the woman, eyes down and bowing slightly.

The reins were taken from her and her services dismissed, so Amareena set off, running barefoot across the docks to where she knew the Harbourmaster would be waiting to set her another task. Inwardly, however, she delighted in having collected a tale about a Queen. From Narnia! She had barely ever heard tales about people from there before. She couldn't wait to share the story with Peppi!

* unashamedly copied from the opening lines of HHB because I read that in preparation and now I have a plan to make my tales internally congruent

Author's Note:

YAY I'm here! I'm gonna do it this year! I really want to write a prompt every day even though maybe I'm overestimating my capabilities (work, study, life are big commitments to balance).

Also, what do you think of Amareena? The idea is that she hears all the stories from someone else so I'll be able to make this a continuous story. And who knows? Maybe she'll have an adventure in Narnia of her own!

Anyway, the prompt was "A King, Queen, or warrior of Narnia is forced to improvise a weapon" and I wanted to do something where the improvised weapon was social somehow, specifically Susan trying to avoid Rabadash, and then I thought meat shield (rpg term for using people to shield you) but then I had an idea and I think it worked, but let me know.

Also, it's not too late! Join the challenge! The forum is called 'Adventures in Narnia' and I highly recommend - heaps of great people having heaps of fun :)

Blessings
Trix