Our Long Awaited Return Book #8

Chapter 23 The Second Battle of Beruna

Verity's pov

I had expected this.

"Are you ready?" Peter asked me.

I nodded, "I wouldn't be if you hadn't made it."

"Be ready," Peter yelled, raising his sword.

I saw a soldier charging towards him.

"Peter!" Caspian and I both yelled.

"Watch out!" Andrew shouted.

Andrew unsheathed his sword, but our brother had already taken down the Telmarine. The Telmarines began to use their catapults, causing large craters in the ground.

"It's time," I ordered Andrew, who was already on a horse beside Caspian, who was also on one with Glenstorm.

They nodded and headed back to the how.

The Telmarines began to take charge.

"Archers to the ready!" yelled Susan and Leona. Susan, Ruth, and Beth got their bows ready while Leona pulled out her sword.

"One, Two, Three," Peter counted, and I joined in.

"Four, Five, Six," we continued; I could hear the roar of Caspian and Glenstorm and some of our troops beneath our feet.

"Seven, Eight,"

"Take your aim!" Susan shouted.

"Stay with them," Trumpkin and Ruth ordered.

"Ten!" Peter shouted, "Get Ready."

"Now!" my sisters and Leona cried.

The ground crumbled under the Telmarine's feet. A shower of arrows flew over us and onto the soldiers. A few soldiers that tried to escape from the big hole fell back in when they got hit by the arrows.

Edmund mounted a horse as our fight began.

"Charge!" Peter shouted.

A trap door opened from the ground, and out came Caspian and Andrew with some of our troops and Glenstorm behind him.

We seemed to be on a good start; I could only hope that my plan for the griffins would decimate the catapult numbers to zero.

As the rest of the Telmarine troops got closer, I turned to look at Peter. He stopped in the middle of the fighting and looked up to the sky.

There came the griffins, some with archers and the rest with rocks.

They made a desperate attempt to get rid of the Telmarine's greatest advantage. I saw a more menacing-looking machinery approaching.

"No!" I cried.

The catapults took down our griffins easily, and a huge arrow killed them off too.

"No...Those sly old foxes, they hid that machinery from us."

Peter turned to Susan, "Lucy?" he asked.

I saw my sister shake her head in despair. Ruth looked just as worried as our older sister.

With the army approaching, we had no other choice.

"Back to the how!" my brother shouted.

We all retreated. Peter and I ran back with our other troops. Huge rocks from the catapults hit our fortress.

"What will we do?" Ruth asked, frightened.

"Brace yourselves!" cried Susan.

The opening of the how enclosed with rocks, just as our first troops entered.

Peter and I stopped just in time. I looked around in horror. We might never make it out alive.

Leona's pov

As the rocks closed up the how, a tree gave way, causing Susan to fall.

"Trumpkin!" Ruth cried, getting on her knees and trying to help her, but Trumpkin reached her first.

Leona looked down to see Verity, Caspian, Andrew, and Peter looking up with concern.

All of a sudden, Trumpkin lost hold of Susan, and she landed on a stone.

"They might need you two down there," Trumpkin told Ruth, Sarah, and Leona, so they got down too.

They joined Susan, Peter, Verity, Andrew, and Caspian below. Leona looked around; their army was holding up pretty well, but the Telmarine army was just as good.

Edmund joined them, dropped his crossbow, and unsheathed his sword.

"Finally you're using it," Verity joked.

"You know a crossbow is not as good as a bow and arrow or sword."

"Key, you don't have to start an argument now," Ruth scolded her.

"I was just saying," Verity replied innocently.

They all looked at Peter as if he were the leader. Verity unsheathed her sword then.

The High King broke into a run, and they followed; Leona found herself right in the middle of the battle.
Verity's pov 
Now all that was left to do was fight for our lives and Narnia. I was with Peter and was about to get another soldier down when I came face to face with Lord Raven. 

"I got you now, cousin, there is no way to escape," he chuckled. 

I slashed my sword at him, but missed, and he pushed me into the hole. 

"Verity!" I could hear Ruth cry. 

He grabbed a crossbow and was about to shoot it at me when I saw him fall to the ground dead. Standing behind him was Peter, my older brother. He got down the hole and helped me up. I looked at my greatest enemy lying dead at my feet. My fear was gone, well, some of it. There was still a bloody battle to get through. Oh, and where was Lucy? 

3rd person 
Lucy didn't know where she was anymore; she had been riding for hours. She wondered if her siblings were alive or if they were all dead. 

She looked around and saw a Telmarine chasing her. 

"Faster, Destrya," she cried, "Faster." 

At that moment, she saw a lion appear, the greatest lion ever heard of. The High King of all High Kings of Narnia. 

She was thrown from the horse at her shock. 

The lion attacked the soldier, and in a moment, he stood, standing tall and straight. 

"Aslan!" Lucy cried as she ran over to him and hugged him. 

The lion laughed and lay on the ground, and she lay beside him, burying her head in his fur. 

"I knew it was you the whole time, but the others didn't believe me." 

"And why would that have stopped you from coming to me?" Aslan asked. 

"I'm sorry, I'm too scared to come alone," she admitted. "Why couldn't you show yourselves, why couldn't you come roaring in and save us just like last time?" 

"Things never happen the same way twice, dear one," the lion answered. 

Lucy's eyes lit up; it was the same thing he had said in her dream. 

"If I'd come earlier and everyone who died... could I have stopped that?" she asked. 

"We can never know what would have happened," the lion replied. "But what will happen is an entirely different matter." He got up and stretched. 

"You mean you'll help," Lucy asked excitedly. 

"Of course, and so will you," Aslan nodded. 

"Oh, wish I was braver," Lucy replied. 

"If you'd be any braver, you'd be a lioness. Now I think your friends have slept long enough, don't you?" Aslan told her, giving out a roar that shook the ground.