𝐒𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄 || Narnia x The Hunger Games Crossover

Chapter Twenty-One

Edmund's sour mood saturated the courtyard until the shadows lengthened into afternoon, but Lucy barely noticed, the thrill of real dragons, real magic still swirling in her head, singing in her blood as Aravis led them out through the courtyard and further up into the impossible monolithic stone of another world.

They climbed a set of steep stairs into a taller, maze-like layer of ruined castle walls, and only then did the topic of conversation shift at last to careers.

Or, more specifically, how to kill them.

"You're the one with all the bright ideas," said Edmund, "What's your plan?"

"I don't have a plan," said Lucy, pulling her mind reluctantly from its tangible daydream, "not yet—"

"Oh, incredible, I just love allying with everyone under the sun for absolutely no reason—"

"I said not yet."

"Okay, and how do I know you'll actually kill them when you couldn't even kill her?"

"They're careers," snapped Lucy, "it's different."

"How?"

She racked her mind for an excuse. "Well for one thing, I don't like singling people out."

Edmund motioned exasperatedly toward Aravis. "She chucked a spear at my face!"

"And missed," said Lucy, pressing on before Edmund could argue again. "They've been training all their lives. If we can kill them, it's almost their own fault. They're the ones who signed up for this. We didn't."

Edmund squinted at her. "Okay, fair point, go on."

She looked ahead at Aravis. "What did you mean when you said this place was dangerous?"

The girl turned a corner and climbed through a broken gap in the wall, speaking without glancing back. "Pits, tunnels deeper than you can see, twisting down into the mountain. I think if you tried to follow them you'd just fall to your death. At least I certainly haven't tried. But something lives down there. You can hear them screaming sometimes, at night."

"Them?" asked Edmund. "What kind of them?"

"Don't know. Don't wanna know. I stay up here. Just watch your step, not all of this is as sturdy as it looks. And don't leave food out, the scavengers 'round here are something special."

"What kind of scavengers?" asked Lucy.

"Oh, I'd call them... dragonish, I guess, in the loosest sense of the word. Fat little vultures, more like, but they've got teeth on 'em, and no wings that I've seen. Mostly I stay off the ground when it's dark."

Lucy glanced around reflexively, but only the sun-bleached stone looked back.

"And of course you get intruders of the curious human variety."

"You mean besides us?" asked Caspian from the back of the group.

Aravis pointed to her right, though a crumbling wall interrupted their view. "The Sevens are camped up north a ways. They came by here, looking for water I think, but moved to the stream a couple miles off."

"The Sevens," echoed Lucy. "You got close enough to see who they were?"

"You can see just about anything from here if you're in the right spot. Saw you coming up all afternoon."

Lucy glanced at Caspian, though uneasiness now swirled vaguely in her gut. "We'd have the element of surprise."

"What, are the careers just going to conveniently stumble up here?"