Our Past Life

Five

Sorry this took so long I'm a busy person :)

The clanging of hooves echoed around the courtyard as the three riders entered. As the guard stated there was one woman and two men. The woman was clearly the youngest, with windblown honey colored hair from the ride, and a cloak over her shoulders. The two men were opposites, one with dark hair and eyes, the other all fair. All three had joyous faces as they dismounted from their horses.

"Caspian! Susan!" The woman ran towards the darkling and queen, throwing herself in the queen's arms.

Contrary to the woman's excited reaction the men were more stoic in their approach, though no less happy.

The dark haired man embraced the general first, followed by the fair.

General Kirigan was the first to speak, "Your majesties it is an honor to see you again."

Alina, along with the gathered grisha picked up on his title for the trio, and understood their importance.

"As it is to see you, King Caspian," the brunette said with a deep bow.

The young woman detached herself from Queen Susan's embrace, "Now Edmund, do not poke fun. Though Caspian, I believe we can drop the formalities. One does not go through all the adventures we have, to remain distant."

With a wink the blond woman gave General Kirigan a hug like her companions. Throughout this Susan had pulled the two men into a hug. And both were arguing with her in low tones. Suddenly the blond man turned towards the grisha and the courtyard.

"Where are our people, Caspian? Where are the Narnians?"

Susan pulled on his arm, "Don't Peter, it could not be helped."

The blond man, Peter, looked back at her more angry already, "Could not be helped? When we ruled there was peace throughout all of Narnia. It faded after a hundred years of our absence. So what did we do? We returned! We restored the peace and left him," He pointed at Caspian, "in charge. Now we return again to not only foreign rule, but all--of--our--people. Dead."

Silence rang throughout the courtyard. The grisha continued to be baffled by the exchange. They knew that Kirigan was not King, he was simply general. These foreign rulers were clearly confused by what was going on.

Clearly Zoya thought she was the one to correct this confusion, "I do not know where you people are from, nor what country you rule, but do not put the loss of your country on the General. He has fought valiantly for us grisha, and we will not stand for the slander of his name."

She looked to the darkling for support or pride, but instead was faced with anger and that same sadness.

Before Peter or Kirigan could respond towards the woman with the anger that was clearly brimming to the top, the other man, Edmund, spoke, "Now I do not know about most of that, but I do believe there is much we don't understand Peter, words such as 'grisha' are new to me, and I do not wish to create an argument without most of the facts present."

He had such a soothing way of speaking, like his voice was gliding across glass. This dulled the shocking effects of learning he didn't know what a grisha was.

The blond woman stepped forward once more, "I agree with Edmund, we must make peace friends, I fear that our time away has made us ignorant to the changes this world has brought forth."

"Thank you Lucy, and I believe we should be heading inside to allow you a change of clothes and a warm meal. Let us step out of this cold," Susan said with an edge to her voice while looking at the other royals.

Kirigan finally spoke, "I want three chambers set up our esteemed guests," he then directly addressed the four royals, "we have much to discuss, please follow me."

As the group entered the palace Alina walked off with Nadia and Marie, the crowd around them dispersing.

"What was all that?" Nadia said, astounded, "I've never seen such a polite interaction turn so nasty.

Marie interjected quickly, "It reminded me of a family reunion, you know?"

Nadia giggled and nodded while Alina looked off toward the snow covered trees. There were so many strange things about the royalty that had arrived. Why was there so much tension between the darkling and them? Where did they come from that they were gone for so long? How are they so old without knowing what a grisha is? What was Susan's connection to them? And what was the darkling hiding?