White Lion

Chapter Ten

"Peter!" Susan's voice hadn't gotten any less authoritative.

"Susan," I smiled, hugging her as well. Then Edmund. And Lucy.

Peter looked at Caspian and saw the horn, "You called?"

"You're younger than I thought," Caspian frowned.

As a joke, Peter laughed, "We can always come back in a few years."

"No, you're just not what I was expecting," Caspian looked at them.

"Neither are you," Edmund eyed the Minotaur curiously. The last time he'd seen a Minotaur, it was with my mother.

Trufflehunter stepped forward, "A common enemy can unite even the oldest of foes."

"We've gathered an army," Caspian said, not bothering to hide the pride in his voice.

"Good," Peter replied, "We're going to need every sword we can get."

Caspian nodded, pulling Peter's sword out of the tree, "Then you'll be wanting yours back."

Peter had changed. Last time he was here, he hated the thought of war, and now he was ready to go, claiming credit for an army he hadn't even raised himself.

Well, it had been over a year.

"We should get moving," I pointed out, "We have a long walk ahead of us."

I shifted into a lion, making use of my strength and pulling one of the crates of supplies. The others walked alongside me.

"So when did you get back? And how?" Susan asked.

"I was at a train station," I said, "And suddenly the tiles vanished. I picked a fight with a bunch of Telmarines and ended up in a cell for a few weeks. Maybe a few months."

The Pevensie siblings remained silent after that.

We arrived to see centaurs in a line, raising their swords to make a sort of tunnel. There was this one adorable little girl who couldn't quite lift her sword as high.

Her father pulled it up for her. I wished I'd had parents like that sometimes. Ones that were there.

Instead I got a psychotic murderous queen for a mother and a lion who was never there for a father.

But I supposed he had his good moments. Like the fact that I could morph into a lioness.

We dropped off the supplies and walked through the tunnels. I shifted human again as we walked along.

"It's us," Lucy traced her finger across the engravings on the wall. They were of the Kong's and queens, the defeat of my mother.

I saw one of an army and a lioness poised over a dead witch. The white witch. My mother.

"Is that you?" Caspian asked.

I nodded silently. It felt like so long ago. Here, it had been a thousand years, but in my world, only one.

Though I was beginning to wonder which world I truly belonged in.

"What is this place?" Peter asked.

"You don't know?" Caspian answered a question with another question as we walked into another room.

He lit a pyre with his torch, which he then hung on the wall. The fire spread throughout the room.

Around the room were scenes from Narnia's history, the defeat of the white witch. At the back, an engraving of Aslan himself.

But the center of the room made my breath catch in my throat.

The stone table, broken. Red blood- my blood- stained on it.

"Madi," Lucy grabbed my hand, "She's gone."

"Sometimes it doesn't feel like it."

I ran my fingers across the edge of the table, then around the depiction of my father.

"Is it strange that I miss her?" I suddenly asked, "After all this time, after all she did, I sometimes wish she was still here."

Caspian didn't understand, but the others did. To some extent, at least.

"She was your mother. I'd be concerned if you didn't," Susan finally said.

And now Caspian looked beyond confused, but I couldn't explain. Not here, not now. I couldn't relive it, her staff going straight into my heart on that table-

I could barely even think about it.

"I've gathered a meeting," Caspian said, "They'll be here soon."

Everyone nodded silently. We just stood there for a few long moments.

I started shaking uncontrollably, flickering between the human and the lioness. Then, I couldn't breathe.

"I can't do this- I can't be here. I need air," I said, rushing out of Aslan's How and sitting on a rocky ledge overlooking the clearing and the woods beyond.

I got my breathing under control, but my hands were still shaking a little. I grabbed my dagger and stabbed the ground.

I shouted in fury, snapping between an angry human's screams and a true lion's roars.

Then, I flopped onto my side and curled up into a ball, settling into my lion form, and resting my head on my paws.

When I woke up, I shifted human and grabbed my dagger. Someone was shouting at me.

I leapt off the ledge, using my lion form to break my fall before shifting human again.

"We're raiding the palace," Caspian informed me, "You're with the griffins."

I nodded, walking over and mounting one of the griffins. They leapt into the air in the dark, soaring silently to the palace.

When I was dropped onto the roof, I knew what to do. I took out all the sentries with perfect stealth and waited for the signal for the gates to open.

The gate opened, a little later than planned, but the army raced through. The strange thing was that the Telmarines knew we were coming.

So when the shouts of retreat came and everyone rushed out of the gate, I kept fighting.

There was a horrible screech as the gate closed, followed by the cries of Narnians being slaughtered by the archers above.

"Hold your fire," Miraz was the booming voice from above.

The king who would kill every Narnian in existence. Why not me?

My question was soon answered.

"This one's human," he added as soldiers surrounded me. I couldn't escape, but the look on their faces would be worth it.

They thought I was human. Oh, they were so wrong.

"What makes you think that?" I made sure I shifted slowly, watching the surprise in their faces.

"Like the legend of Aslan, the mighty lion," some started to say, "How-"

Of course. Aslan was a myth to them.

I cut them off, "Simple. I'm his daughter."