༄ 𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝑃𝐻𝑂𝐸𝑁𝐼𝑋 𝐴𝑅𝐶𝐻𝐸𝑅（𝐿𝑊𝑊）༄

Chapter 13- Peter and the Wolves

Shortly after the girls left, I decided I didn't want to be left to my thoughts and would like to have some fun instead. But if I planned on joining them, I figured it should be in something a little more comfortable. Though my clothes had dried from the previous day, they were flithy and stuck to me. I figured it would be nice to refresh myself and put on some clean clothes. Once that task was finished, I smiled, glad that they had at least invited me. Then I went to join them at the river.

As I approached, I overheard Lucy and Susan's conversation.
"You look like mum," Lucy said.
"Mum hasn't had a dress like this since before the war," Susan replied.
"We should bring her one back! A whole trunk full!" Lucy excitedly suggested.

When I was visible to them, they both glanced at me but I stayed off to the side, not wanting to interrupt their conversation. It felt as though I was intruding. Glancing over, so as not to appear to be eavesdropping, I noticed Susan's quiver and horn on a nearby table along with Lucy's cordial and dagger. It never even crossed my mind to bring my weapons. I knew they would be of little use to me since I had never used them before. I was more experienced with daggers and setting traps than anything.

"If we ever get back," Susan negatively answered, after a quiet moment and Lucy was crestfallen. As she stared depressingly at the water, I walked closer to them and Susan seemed to realize what she had said.

"I'm sorry I'm like that," she apologized. "We used to have fun together, didn't we?"
"Yes..." Lucy stated, longingly, "...before you got boring." She giggled.
"Oh, really?" Susan replied with a smirk before splashing her sister with water.

Quite quickly, it turned into a water war between the two. Lucy in the process of splashing Susan back managed to splash me. She looked nervous for a moment, like I would be mad at her. Susan stood silently, trying to gage my reaction. I approached Lucy with a stoic expression and when I got close enough to the water, I adopted a mischevious grin before splashing her back. She laughed and then proceeded to throw water at both me and her sister.

We continued for awhile, just enjoying the chance to have some fun and not worry about being killed. Enjoying our chance to just be kids for once. Once we stopped, we had gotten pretty wet, but not soaked. Nothing that using a towel wouldn't fix. grinned. Laughing at each other, we walked away from the water's edge and headed for the towels hanging on a nearby branch. When Susan pulled on her towel, Maugrim and another wolf appeared behind them. She screamed in surprise, echoed by Lucy.
"Please don't try to run," the first wolf said.
"We're tired and we prefer to kill you quickly," Maugrim finished.

Susan looked behind me, to her left, and I followed her gaze. She was looking at her weapons that laid on the table far from us. My eyes flicked between her and Lucy, trying to send a silent message. Susan subtlety nodded and turned back to the wolves, slowly backing away. Our plan was to get Lucy safely away first. We'd worry about ourselves if we could. Both of us knew that we'd never have a chance to fire the bow before the wolves were on us.

I wasn't even prepared when Susan threw the towel in her hand at the wolves, but I grabbed Lucy nonetheless. As she ran towards the table with her weapons and horn, I pulled Lucy towards a tree and helped her climb up. A horn sounded behind me, informing me that Susan had signaled for help. I turned to check on the wolves as Susan dropped her horn and made a run for the tree.

The two wolves trying to untangle themselves from the towel could've been comical had the situation not been so serious. But I barely had time to process that before I started climbing after Susan. She wasn't even safely located in the tree by the time I heard them snapping after us, finally managing to navigate the towel. I knew I should've climbed up sooner—not waited for Susan—but I needed them in the tree first.