༄ 𝑇𝐻𝐸 𝑃𝐻𝑂𝐸𝑁𝐼𝑋 𝐴𝑅𝐶𝐻𝐸𝑅（𝐿𝑊𝑊）༄

Chapter 22- Final Day As Kids

Aslan had been correct in His assessment, not that I doubted it. After spending another day in bed I was finally able to get up and walk about the room. I felt neither dizzy nor nauseous and was glad I could finally do something. It was boring being stuck on bed rest and I grew restless, even though I was exhausted. Lucy visited frequently to keep me company, but it wasn't the same. I was never ine to rely on others for stimulation and I rarely found myself sleeping the day away. Even living in hiding I tried to keep myself busy. Now that I was better, I could wonder around and actually do something.

Once everyone knew that I was officially better—with a physician's approval as the Pevenies were leery otherwise. They refused to take my word for it—the coronation was planned. While they Narnians had been decorating the castle and figuring out what food would be served, there was no set day for the crowning. They had everything rehearsed or prepared for a few days. All guests and seating had been arranged—no foreigners from neighboring kingdoms yet so they didn't have to worry invitations. But with a clean bill of health, the date had been set for the following day. I wanted to spend time with the Pevensies before they were crowned. It was that last time that we would be equals, even though we technically had not been before.

I changed out of the clothes I had been wearing for who knows how long and headed out of my room in search of them. I wandered down several hallways without any luck and I frowned, wondering where they could be. Unlike the others, I hadn't had a chance to wander the halls and explore Cair Paravel. They could've been anywhere and I wouldn't have know where to even begin looking for them. Before I had to go ask a Narnian for help, I found Lucy. Or rather, she found me since she approached from behind. I turned at the sound of her footsteps though, preventing her from even attempting to scare me—although her actions indicated she wasn't planning on it.

"Ana! You look pretty," she smiled.

I looked down at what I was wearing, realizing I had just grabbed a random dress from the wardrobe, and smiled back up at Lucy. She looked far more beautiful than I ever thought I would. It wasn't something I heard often and it made me feel a bit awkward, though I knew it was merely a compliment. But instead of saying anything about it, I siimply returned the favor. "Oh, Lucy. I could never be as beautiful as you," I said.

She giggled. "Thank you. I'm so glad to see you. I've been looking all over for you ever since I found out you weren't in your room," Lucy continued.

"I decided I had enough rest and took a walk. I was actually looking for you. Well either you or one of your siblings," I told her.

She laughed again at my clumsy attempt while I smiled and then Lucy led me to her siblings. They had gathered in the library and had been talking amongst themselves before their sister burst. Licy flung the door open and just barged in, causing them to all turned in shock and possibly a little surprise. She only grinned wider at their expression while Susan tried to chide her for making so much noise. But the girls succumbed to laughter and their brothers followed not a moment after. I wasn't quite sure what was so funny, but it was infectious and I soon found myself laughing as well.

After we all calmed down, Lucy explained that her rambunctious actions were due to excitement. She blamed her excitement on me, much to my disdain, which caused all of the Pevensies to laugh a little again. I smiled but found myself unable to actually join in this time, for whatever reason. Finally, they grew serious enough that we could have a discussion. It was decided that since it was their last day as 'kids' they wanted to have fun. After tomorrow they would be Kings and Queens and there would be a lot expected from them. They would be under a lot of pressure and probably be provided very little down time until they got into the swing of things. I knew I would help where I could but I also wasn't sure how much I could do. But today, we decided to just enjoy ourselves. Those were worries for another day, another time.

Peter and Edmund decided that they wanted to practice their sword fighting skills. Lucy said she wanted to watch them so Susan and I ended up following them all to the practice field. After watching two boys beat themselves with swords and shields for a bit, Susan decided she wasn't interested. She suggested we do something more fun than watching people duel. I nodded, not really caring either way and finding the duel rather interesting. Though I had no interest in actually fighting with swords, one could learn a lot from just watching. But I also knew Susan was growing bored and wanted to do something fun, so I tried to figure out what we could do instead.

We finally agreed to practice our archery skills and Susan and I headed back to our rooms to retrieve our weapons. We promised to meet up at the archery field and ended up arriving at the same time. Susan asked a faun to arrange the targets and we shot a few arrows at the targets, each hitting their mark. It wasn't long before I noticed that Lucy had joined us. She said she wanted to watch and maybe practice throwing her dagger at the targets. Lucy's arm was good, but she needed to work on her aim a bit. The faun from earlier was more than willing to help and not only did her aim improve, but so did her slill. This faun would go on to teach Lucy future fighting skills and techniques. It was long after that we found she excelled almost every skill the faun would teach her, including archery and sword fighting. Most only mastered one or two skills, but Lucy tried to master as many as she could and did well in all.

One of the centaurs came over to teach us different ways to shoot, noticing that we weren't being challenged. As I watched, I remembered seeing some of the techniques before, but couldn't figure out why. Were they part of those memories Aslan said I was subconsciously remembering? Some were difficult to master, but it made practice more interesting. By the end of practice, Susan and I were both tied in our skills as archers. Missing and hitting the same kind of shots. We obviously weren't the best yet but it was something we both promised to strive to be, although only one can truly be the best.

By the end of the day, everyone ended up talking about things. Whatever came to mind. They told me about England and some of the events that had happened, like the war. I was also told about how they came to Narnia which I thought was kind of funny. Mostly it was just story telling so I told them a few things about me, like where I came from—well what I knew. It was then I realized I hadn't told them much, if anything, about me. When I mentioned having no idea who my parents were or how I ended up on my own, they looked sad. I also explained what I used to do in the summer a century ago, before the long winter.

We talked and laughed late into the evening. Food had been brought at somepoint but I was to engrossed in a story to know when. The sun had set hours ago when Lucy yawned and her eyes started to droop. She protested that she wasn't tired and eventually it was Peter who yawned and declared they should go to sleep. No one wanted to stay up much later. It was a big day tomorrow. But I still had one question on my mind. What was Aslan planning for the coronation?