The New Warrior (Book 1)

Chapter 9 When He Shakes His Mane

We splashed around in the clear, warm water for a while, enjoying the feeling of being away from our world. I shrieked as Edmund swung me around and we both landed on the cream colored sand. I let my head fall back, squinting as the sun beat down on my face.

"Ed!" Lucy called after awhile.

"What is it?" Peter called to him.

He looked up, confused. "Where do you suppose we are?"

Peter scoffed, "Well where do you think!"

"Well.. I don't remember any ruins in Narnia."

We all looked up quickly and I frowned as I noticed the look of confusion that had crossed everyone's face.

"I want to go have a look." Peter broke the silence.

"How do you suppose we get up there?" Susan asked.

I looked around swiftly and noticed a small opening in the trees. "There's a trail. " I point out.

"Brilliant!" Peter smiled, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the trees.

***

We walked for awhile through the thick brush of the severely over grown trail before finally reaching the top. Lucy and I walked leisurely towards a lush apple tree and plucked two apples.

"It might be all ruins, but I still think its quite orphic." Lucy said as she looked around, taking a bite of her apple. I nodded in agreement and tossed the half eaten apple into the bushes.

"That's mine!" I heard Edmund exclaim as he walked up to Susan and took the gold chess piece from her hand. "From my chess set."Lucy and I hurried towards them, arriving the same time as Peter.

"Which chess set?"

"Well I didn't exactly have a solid gold chess set in Finchly, did I?" Edmund rolled his eyes at Peter.

"Lucy?" I asked, noticing the astonished look on her face. She said nothing and dashed by us all, up the small hill, Peter on her heels. She froze when she reached the top and turned to Peter. "Don't you see?"

"What?" He asked. She grabbed his arm and pulled him over to a stone. "Imagine walls-"

She adjusted Susan's arm. "And columns there."

Finally, she led Edmund to a spot near Susan and pointed up. "And a glass roof."

"Cair Parivel." Peter mumbled, staring off in the distance. Everyone stood, silent, before Edmund began walking towards some rocks. "Catapults. " He said aloud, kneeling down and brushing his hand across the smooth stones.

"What?" Peter asked, joining him.

"This didn't just happen. Cair Parivel was attacked." I shook my head and stepped back, attempting to absorb all this.

"Guys!" Susan called, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Look."

Peter dashed over and began pulling rotten wood and vines away from a door I hadn't noticed before. He began to tear off pieces of his shirt, when the door was cleared, and wrapped them around a stick. "I don't suppose you have any matches do you?"

"No." Edmund replied, digging through his bag. "But would this help?" He held up a flash light.

"You might have mentioned that a bit sooner!" Peter laughed, tossing the stick and piece of his shirt into the bushes and stepping back and holding his arm out for Susan, Lucy, and I.

We all smiled and began down the stairs behind Edmund. I stood back quietly, watching them each look through the contents of the beautiful trunks that lined each side of the lion statue.

Lucy turned to me, beaming. "I was so tall!" She held up a long, white dress.

"Well, you were older then." Susan smiled.

"As opposed to hundreds of years later, when your younger." Edmund joked.

"When he bares his teeth, winter meets it's death." Peter quoted, gazing at his sword, suddenly.

"When he shakes his mane," Lucy started, grabbing our attention. "We shall have spring again. Everyone we knew, Mr. Tumnis and the beavers, they're all gone?"

Peter looked at her for a moment. "I think it's about time we found out what's going on. "