Narnia's Lover

Chapter 4: Who are you?*

Elizabeth was the first one up the next morning. She sat up and looked around at her sleeping friends, snoozing away peacefully- wait! Where was Lucy? Elizabeth got up and walked over to where Peter was sleeping, nudging him until he woke up.

"Mm, what is it? It's too early." Peter grumbled out, his voiced laced with sleep.

"Peter, Lucy's missing." Elizabeth told him worriedly. She tried to keep her voice down so she wouldn't wake the others yet. Peter's eyes widened and he sat up, now fully awake with the news of his sister missing. The two began to look for any sign of where the young girl might have gone. 

"Peter, over here! Lucy's footprints lead that way." Elizabeth called to the boy. She had indeed found fresh footprints from Lucy that led deeper into the woods, away from anywhere they had walked yet. Peter quickly followed the prints at a jog, Elizabeth following right behind him. Peter came to a sudden halt, turning to Elizabeth and gesturing for her to be quiet. Peter turned back around and crept up behind Lucy, putting his hand over her mouth and pulling her down behind the bush. He motioned to a figure ahead of them. Elizabeth focused her eyes in the direction Peter had pointed and saw a Minotaur! Wow... she thought, what a beautiful creature.

The young King quietly crept up behind the Minotaur, leaving the two girls behind the bush where they couldn't get hurt. Just as Peter was about to bring his sword down upon the Minotaur, a boy came running out of nowhere and blocked Peter's blow. The two boys began fighting each other, the dark haired one seemed to be immature in his swordsmanship. Peter, though he had many years of practice, was studying the boy's style, how he moved and where he aimed the hardest hits. The boy, however, was too focused on hitting Peter to pay attention to anything else.

Peter managed to knock the boy's sword out of his hand and went in for the final blow. Unfortunately for Peter, the boy ducked and Peter's sword embedded itself into the tree behind the boy. The boy kicked Peter away from his sword and tugged desperately to get the sword out of the tree. Peter picked up a rock and hurried back over to the boy. Peter raised his arm, rock in hand, ready to strike.

"No, stop!" Lucy cried out. The boys stopped their fight to look around them, Peter dropping the rock in awe. Elizabeth let a smile cover her face when she saw all the Narnians that had come to the rescue of the dark haired boy.

"Prince Caspian?" Elizabeth asked, stepping out from behind the bush and walking closer to the boy, studying his face. 

"Yes, and who are you?" Caspian demanded. A look of confusion had come over his face, certainly he had not expected anyone to know who he was; especially not human strangers.

"Elizabeth! Peter!" Susan cried as the rest of the group caught up to everyone. Caspian looked back and forth at the five children and the dwarf, desperately searching his brain for any knowledge of who they were.

"High King Peter." Caspian let the shock filled words slip from his lips. Disbelief covered his face as he stared in amazement of Peter, the High King, right in front of him.

"I believe you called." Peter said smoothly, with a smirk on his face.

"Well, yes, but, I thought you'd be older." Caspian admitted to the young looking king.

"Well if you'd like, we could come back in a few years." Peter retorted, annoyance written plainly across his face. Elizabeth tried to calm Peter down by placing her hand gently on his arm, Peter smiled slightly at her as if to reassure her he was fine. Caspian's eyes widened with fear at the thought of the Kings and Queens leaving him on his own with the Narnians.

"No! No, that's alright, you're just... you're not exactly what I'd expected." Caspian said, his gaze moving to study the other three children who still stood behind the bush. Caspian's gaze lingered on Susan, who blushed as she shyly smiled back.