A Daughter of Aslan

VI : A Queen in Waiting

The people whooped and cheered at this closure and returned to the camp leaving Elizabeth and Malaki alone. She ran over to her friend and when she reached him dropped to her knees giving him a tight hug. "How was it Malaki?" Elizabeth asked the fox and noticed something red Malaki was carrying in his mouth. "What do you have here?" She asked frowning and taking it from him.

"I found it when we passed the northwestern territory of Narnia. It was hidden behind a tree." Malaki said sitting in the grass beside Elizabeth.

Elizabeth frowned at Malaki and furrowed her eyebrows. "You guys went all the way up there? I wonder why Aslan sent you that far." She then looked back at the red material Malaki had brought back. When she looked at it in her lap, it appeared to be a scarf.

"He sent us to look for more people to recruit for the army, but I smelled this in the woods near a lamp post. I went to find it because, well because it smelled like you." Malaki said looking at the scarf with confusion plastered across his face wondering why it would smell like Elizabeth when he didn't think she had even been to the northwestern part of Narnia before.

"You said you found it near a lantern?" She asked Malaki looking over at him. Malaki just nodded at her confirming her question. She then just stared down at the scarf letting out a small smile that disappeared as soon as Malaki had caught sight of it. "I used to go up to Lantern Waste every day because of a faun who went by Mr. Tumnus was my teacher. He taught me how to use magic, it must smell like me because I was at his house for so many years that my sent must have gotten stuck to his scarves," She said with a slight laugh before looking sad at the scarf.

Malaki furrowed his face, still confused while he was looking at Elizabeth. "You went there for years?" He asked and Elizabeth gave a slight nod still looking at the scarf. "Then how come you stopped going?" He asked tilting his head to the side.

Malaki regretted asking the question almost as soon as he did because the light from Elizabeth's eyes shut off and she began to look really gloomy and heartbroken. He had a bad feeling he had brought back an uncomfortable memory. Nuzzling her arm he buried his face in her lap looking up at her with sad eyes. "I'm sorry," he told her and she looked over at him giving away a small smile.

"It's alright," She said as she then stroked his fur behind his ears. "It was a while ago anyways, almost five years ago now."

"Elizabeth!" Oreius called out to her, causing the two to pause and look towards the camp to Oreius. "Aslan needs to speak with you." Elizabeth stood up and left Malaki, lifting her skirt up she begins walking back towards the camp to see what Aslan wanted. It must have been important if he was asking right now.

"He's waiting beside your tent," Oreius told her when she passed him. She nodded at him and then walked over to where she saw Aslan sitting.

"Oreius said you called?" She asked him.

Aslan tilted his head to the side motioning for her to sit. In doing so she sat beside him and looked across at the camp laid out before them. The two just sat there for a couple of minutes just watching the scene laid out ahead.

"I heard you taught Jaelyn how to properly use her sword before you became distracted and she disarmed you," Aslan stated breaking the silence.

Elizabeth smiled remembering what happened. "Indeed, I was actually very impressed. She was the first to do so in a long time."

Aslan continued to look forward and went back into silence for a few more seconds. "I brought you up here because I wanted you to see these Narnians. I wanted you to see what an impact you've made on them and how they look up to you. These people are willing to lay their lives down for you all because they believe you are the one who has come to save them."