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After a quite uneventful and quiet breakfast, the next morning. The Pevensie's had retreated to their chambers and had been playing games together all day. Whilst the siblings were about to play hide and seek, Artemis was outside in the pouring rain for hours already. This was the weather she preferred, rain, thunder and lightning. It reminded her of all the stormy nights in Narnia, how she used to get scared of the flashes of bright light, how she would crawl into her fathers bed out of fright, how she would always feel safe around him. And now she's the one always finding comfort in those lightning flashes.
''By Aslan, I dont want to go back inside. I don't want to have to act nice around them. I just want to jump through a tree and get back to Narnia. I cannot stay here any longer. It's taking too long'' Before she had even finished her sentence, she had reached the door. She unlocked it and walked inside, shivering slightly because of the sudden temperature change, she moved over to the stairwell to find her room, so she could make a change of clothes.
Artemis could hear the eldest Pevensie counting ''93... 94...'' She quietly danced over the steps, and stood in the corridor, to check where Peter was. It didn't take her long at all, as she saw him sit on the floor, his head down whilst he was counting out loud. ''95... 96...'' The red head then walked through the corridor and on to the next one, where she could clearly see Edmund's feet sticking out under the low hanging curtain. ''97... 98...''
She leaned a little to the side and warned him, "you might want to pull your feet back a little'' before carrying on her way to her room. ''99... 100! Ready or not, here I come!'' Peter called out, at exactly the same time, Lucy rushed out from a spare room: her hiding place. ''It's all right! I'm back! I'm all right!'' She announced happily as she came running toward Artemis, knocking her onto the floor with her wet clothing and objects from Narnia she was holding. That was something Oreius had been doing for years now, already. Every year on her birthday, he and Aslan, the true King of Narnia, would send her some kind of gift from her real home. And today just happened to be her birthday. Her thoughts were soon interrupted, though, by all the footsteps around her.
Edmund peeked his head between the thin fabric of the curtains. ''Shut up! He's coming!'' He yelled in a whisper tone. Artemis looked up from her position on the ground and saw Peter turning the corner to where the three of them were located. ''You know, I'm not sure you two have quite got the idea of this game''
Artemis rolled her eyes, those siblings had so many rules amongst them, she hated it. Every second of the day they were breaking some rule. She sighed lightly to herself as she lifted herself up and started getting all the items she had found back together. ''Weren't you wondering where I was?'' The small girl asked, her eyebrows creasing together. The Narnian girl looked at her with a little pity in her eyes, before she spoke to her. ''That's the whole point of the game. That's why he was seeking you''
Susan joined the group in the hallway, asking them with a smile on her face: "Does this mean I win?'' Peter turned his head to his younger sister by one year, "I don't think Lucy wants to play anymore'' He sadly stated and shook his head, there was a small hint of disappointment, somehow. Maybe he really enjoyed playing these kinds of games with his siblings, no matter how much they got into arguments. Lucy's eyes lit up a little, before she started explaining, she seemed so excited and happy, yet so confused. ''I was gone for hours!'' She claimed, before Artemis turned to the nine year old once again. ''You were gone for approximately 90 seconds. As it takes at least up to ten seconds for you to find out a hiding spot and leave the room completely.'' The four of them looked at her, they all shared a strange look. ''What? Just because my childhood wasn't the best, that doesn't mean I never played any games.''
Lucy shook her head again, not wanting to believe that she had only disappeared for 90 seconds, and only for the purpose of the game. ''No, but- but I was gone!'' She started, and her eyes glistened a tad bit more than usual as tears were beginning to form. Artemis had already bent down again, collecting the last few remaining objects that were dropped with her. ''There is another world! I found it in the wardrobe in that spare room!'' She pointed her index finger to the room behind her. Artemis' eyes widened and she dropped divers items from her hands.
This couldn't be, could it? There was no way Lucy could have found a way to get back home. It couldn't be real, she had been looking for so long, yet never found a single trace of anything Narnian, at all. Lucy's voice softened. ''Please, you have to believe me! It was there.'' Artemis nodded, before quickly stuffing the various items in her pocket. ''Then show them'' She wanted to see proof of it. She wasn't just going to blindly follow a little girl with an enormous imagination when she says she's found a world in a wardrobe, no matter how much she wanted to.
''I have to change out of this, anyway, so why don't you show your brothers and sister where you saw it. Maybe if they see it, they will believe it.'' She instructed the young one, before stepping out of the circle they had unconciously formed and headed back to her chamber to finally change clothes. She realized that a normal human would have been freezing, by now, figuratively, of course, so Artemis had to play it off as if any part of the situation was bothering her. She sat down on the edge of her bed and reached into her pocket, pulling out various glowing stones, and a small leather patch. She removed the string around it and opened it. She turned it upside down over her bed sheets, emptying the inside.
A silver ring tumbled out of it and bounced on her bed. Her hand moved to it quickly, immediately holding it tightly in her grasp. She'd recognize this piece anywhere; Oreius had made it for her when she was younger, but she had lost it when they were out training in the woods. She never thought she would hold it in her hand again. Oreius made the ring with the thought in his mind that the young soldier would have to leave her world behind to live and grow up safely. He made it for her so that when she left, she had something with her to remember everything. Of course, he knew she had to leave from the moment she was born;
