Born For Better (A Peter Pevensie/ Narnia Fanfic)

Chapter 25- Laughter and Memories

Annabelle's POV

I thanked Caspian again for bringing me my weapons when we reached the How before I headed down one of the tunnels, searching for this memorial that Caspian had spoken of.

Passing by several Narnians, who all bowed their heads to me, I finally came to a room covered in carvings and paintings of me. At the end of the room was a statue of me as a 29 year old, clothed in a Narnian dress,  holding a large stone plate that was empty. Realizing that was probably where my weapons had once laid, I continued to look around the room. A large chest sat to the right of the statue.

I carefully opened it up, dust flying up into my face. I sneezed loudly, dropping my axe onto the stone floor. The sound echoed loudly against the walls. I froze as footsteps came running down the tunnel and I looked up to see a young female centaur with bright red hair standing in the entry way.

"Are you alright, your majesty?" She asked, her eyes wide. I sniffed and scratched my nose.

"Yes, just a bit dusty." I said. The centaur noticed my axe on the ground and dust billowing into the air.

"Oh!" She said, starting to laugh. "Sorry, your sneeze just sounded like a dying cat." I opened my mouth, offended, but I couldn't keep a straight face for long as the centaurs laugh was contagious. She stepped fully into the room, wiping a tear from her eye as she took a deep breath before erupting into another laughing fit. I cracked up with her, holding my sides. I tried to take a breath, but watching the centaur cackling sent me into another fit of laughter.

When we finally died down, breathing heavily, I held my hand out.  She grasped it tightly.

"What's your name?"

"Brielle, your majesty." She said.

"Please, call me Annabelle, I think we've reached that point." I said chuckling. Brielle joined me next to the open chest, looking at the items with me. She pulled out my crown, staring at it in awe.

"It's beautiful..." she murmured. I smiled, pulled out a set of leather armor. Brielle set the crown back down, helping me find a tunic and trousers to go with the armor. I turned away from the chest, walking to the other side of the room to change while Brielle continued looking through my things.

"What is this?" I heard her say as I pulled the tunic over my head. I wandered back over to the centaur, securing a belt around my waist as I looked at what she was holding. Gasping, I took it the necklace from her hand, inspecting it closely.

"It was my mother's..." I whispered. "I thought it was lost in the siege."

"What does it do?" Brielle asked, tilting her head to look at it.

"It...helps. To control my visions. I didn't really need it when the kings and queens left, my visions stopped. But now..." I put the necklace on, clasping the pendant tightly in my hand. It glowed slightly and Brielle's eyes widened.

"Amazing!" 

"Thank you." I said, putting on my armor then strapping my swords and axe to my back. "How do I look?" I asked, spinning around.

"Beautiful. But if you don't mind me saying, you need to take a hairbrush to that mane of hair." She said with a smile, pulling out a brush from the chest. I laughed and took it from her, properly brushing through my hair for the first time in a ling time. Brielle helped me get all the knots off, and even trimmed it a few inches, twisting it into a long braid. 

I then spent the next few hours walking around the room with Brielle, recounting each story that was painted on the walls. She kept the conversation light, not pushing me to delve deeper into the memories that I had a difficult time telling. 

We parted ways in the earliest hours of the morning and I found the room that had been designated mine. There was a simple bed and a desk along one wall and that was it. I sat down on the bed, feeling the soft blanket between the fingers. Slowly, I laid down on the pillow, savoring the fluffiness of it.

I closed my eyes, instantly thrown into a vision. I couldn't make out what was happening around me, but the sounds of battle filled my ears. Chanting of "long live the king!" echoed all around me. A fearsome roar drowned it all out and I sat up in my bed, trying to catch my breath. 

"Bad time?" I looked over to the doorway to see Edmund standing there, his hand on the door as he had just walked in. I looked passed him to see he was alone.

"Edmund." I greeted with a nod of my head. The just king walked further into the room, as I swung my legs over the side of the bed, planting my feet on the ground. "What is it?" I asked as he leaned against the desk. 

"May I?" He motioned to the spot on the bed next to me. I nodded and moved over slightly. Edmund stepped forward and sat down. He didn't say anything at first, just sat there in silence as if he was trying to figure out what he was going to say. 

"Did you ever... think about me? About Narnia?" I asked when Edmund still hadn't said anything. He immediately turned his gaze on me.

"Of course we did! We never stopped thinking about you." He assured, but then he looked away, locking his eyes on the blank wall ahead. "It's just...you don't...exist back in our world." He finally told me. 

"I don't exist?" I turned to look at him, but he continued to look straight ahead at the wall. He pursed his lips and hung his head. 

"After we left Narnia, you were gone from our world. The professor and Mrs. McCready, they didn't remember you. And since you didn't have any family with you, we couldn't really talk about it to anyone  except ourselves. We kept you and Narnia alive in our hearts and minds, but we didn't know if we'd come back. We kept moving forward with our lives, time didn't just stop for us either."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked. Edmund sighed and looked at me. And I was shocked with how much he seemed to have grown in just the year he had lived.

"I want you to know that, yes you were alone for nearly 13,000 years, and I'm not disregarding that. But we also had our own struggles. We went from kings and queens to just a bunch of kids from Finchley. We were forced to think that you didn't exist. That Narnia and Aslan weren't real. You're not the only one who lost something the day we went back."

"You have known idea what I have been through." I snapped.

"I know. But you also have no idea what we've been through."

"You can't compare my hell with your one year vacation." Edmund shrugged. 

"Maybe not, but I know that I would have given anything to have stayed in Narnia with you. And I know Susan, Lucy, and Peter would say the same thing." He stood up to leave, but I grabbed his arm and pulled him into a tight embrace. He froze for a moment before hugging me back just as tightly.

"I missed you, Edmund. Susan and Lucy too. But it will take me a little longer to forgive Peter for what he did." Edmund chuckled.

"Understandable."