Third-Person POV
Narnian Year 2303
One starry night in a faraway land, in a cold dark castle ruled by an evil untrue man, Lord Miraz. The right King was his brother, but he mysteriously died one day, leaving his only heir, his son, Prince Caspian, to rule when he came of age. But the boy's cruel uncle wanted to throne for himself, but there was an issue, Miraz had no heir, which meant Caspian was safe until tonight. The cry of Miraz's wife, Prunaprismia, floods the castle halls as the pain of childbirth rips through her body; before the maids know it, the baby is born. The head maid hands the child off to the Queen, who quickly checks if her baby is a boy or a girl. Sighing in relief, the Queen lays back down with her baby resting on her chest. She has a baby boy, meaning Miraz has a son and an heir, leaving Prince Caspian's life in danger. General Glozelle goes to his Lord to tell him the good news.
"Lord Miraz?" The general questions. "You have a son." He mutters, nodding to the man whose prays have been made. Sighing heavily in relief, the Lord had an evil grin taking over his face as he turned to face his general.
"The heavens have blessed us." Glozelle shifts on his feet, knowing what he and his men must do, but he feels reluctant to execute his gruesome directions. "You know your orders," Miraz says happily, finally knowing he will be rid of his nephew, but when the general doesn't move, he raises an eyebrow. "General Glozelle?" The slight sharp tone in the Lord's voice snaps the normally righteous man from his stance, nodding to the Lord.
"Yes, my Lord." The man replies in fear before going to gather his men.
As Glozelle heads to the armoury, he misses the cloaked figure that glides through the halls past him, heading toward the Prince's chambers. The masked man enters the sleeping boy's room, creeping closer to his bed and opening the curtain to take in the view of Caspian before he places his hand over his mouth, suddenly waking the now frightened Prince, who quickly calms seeing his Professor.
"five more minutes." He lazily says, rolling over, but the older man has none.
"You won't be watching the starts tonight, my Prince." Caspian turns to the rushing man. "Come, we must hurry." As the older man turns to walk away, Caspian follows, mostly confused at what is happening.
"Professor, what's going on?" Caspian asks as the man drags him out of bed.
"Your aunt has given birth... to a son." The Professor says sadly, know now the Prince will understand what this means for himself. Caspian stands shocked for a moment before seeing the shadows of the guard heading to his room. The boy hides with the Professor peeping through his wardrobe as his uncle's guard enters the room. They surround his curtain-covered bed, all holding crossbows where the Prince would usually be resting. Caspian watches in suspense as many of the guards whose families work for his father and that we grew up with fire round after round of arrows into his bed and, to their knowledge, into him. It is only after they are all out of arrows that the feathers clear, and it becomes apparent that Caspian isn't asleep in his bed.
The boy in question follows in a rush the wise man down the secret passageway leading from his bedroom to the stables where his horse lies in wait. Gathering a sword and more substantial clothing before mounting his horse, Caspian turns to his Professor. "You must make for the woods."
"The woods?" Caspian questions, knowing of the horrific tales that are told of the woods.
"They won't follow you there." The Professor answer knows the men also have fears of the tales known to the Dark Woods. Rummaging around his satchel, the man finds what he is looking for, wrapped tightly in a woven cloth. "It has taken me many years to find this." He says, handing the mysterious object to the Prince. "Do not use it except at your greatest need." The Professor warns wisely, knowing what the magical object can bring to their world.
"Will I ever see you again?" Caspian asks sadly. After his father's death, the Professor was all he had.
"I dearly hope so, my Prince." The older man says. "There is so much more I meant to tell you. Everything you know is about to change." Caspian frowns, wanting to ask more questions, but the shout of a guard stops them.
"Close the drawbridge!" At hearing the cry, the Professor rushes the Prince along.
"Now, go." He whispers, trying not to draw any unwanted attention, whipping Caspian into gear, and off he gallops through the cobble entrance taking down waiting guards as he goes. Rushing over the bridge as fireworks burst in the sky, showering down on the town, celebrating the new son's birth. Caspian stops for a moment but hurries as he hears the hooves of the many horses after him. Dashing as fast as possible, Caspian heads into the dark forest, which, to start, many of the guards firstly refuse to go into, but after Glozelle's threat, they follow him inside. Trying desperately to catch up to the Prince, but at the same time, he desperately tries to further the distance between them. Once Caspian rides through the rough waters, the guard's horse loses his trail. Not knowing they aren't on his back anymore, Caspian continues riding more profound and deeper into the winding woods until he slips from his horse, falling to the ground in a heap after unhooking his ankle from the stirrup. As he disappears into the distance, Caspian takes note of his surroundings, slowly sitting up before calming, knowing he's alone. Then suddenly, out of the trunk of a tree comes two dwarfs, both holding large daggers.
"He's seen us." The dark-haired one says. As Caspian looks at his sword, the ginger one dashes forward, intending to kill the boy, but seeing the horn carved into a lion's head, he stops. As the sound of the guard approaches, the ginger dwarf turns to his friend.
"Take care of him." Before dashing off to take care of the others. The dark-haired one moves closer, about to kill Caspian, but the Prince grabs the horn, quickly blowing into it, ignoring the dwarf's warning. The sound echoes through the woods before the dwarf knocks him out, silencing the sound.
1941 London
The sound of a car honking stops Lucy in her tracks. As she walks across the road without looking, the man driving calls out to her.
"Watch yourself, love." The man shakes his head as Lucy apologises and runs off to find Susan before the matter grows. Susan flips through the newspaper as slowly, and the boy next to her creeps closer, gradually gathering the courage to ask the girl a question.
"You go to Saint Finbar's?" He asks, making Susan look at him slightly.
"That's right." She quips before returning to her paper, but the boy continues, not registering her uncomfortableness.
"I go to Hendon House. Across the road." Susan says, trying not to encourage him, but he again doesn't notice. "I've seen you...." Susan smiles slightly, glancing up at the boy. "Sitting by yourself." That put an immediate damper on her already dull mood.
"Yes, well, I prefer to be left alone."
"Me too. But there's sometimes another girl there with you." Susan rolls her eyes, knowing exactly what the strange boy means.
"If you want to talk to her, go talk to her. Not me." Susan snaps. Tilly had matured a lot in the past year, and unfortunately for the older girl, she had not. To Edmund's dismay and Susan's annoyance, this meant that many boys wanted to get to know her. Which four out of the five understood. Luckily for the raven-haired boy, Tilly always turns down any advances as she is happy with Edmund, even if they keep their relationship a secret from everyone besides his siblings.
"Oh, no." The boy quickly jumps in, sensing Susan's adverse reaction. "I didn't want to talk to her. I want to talk to you." Sighing, Susan lets him continue. "What's your name?" He asked, trying to be friendly, but Susan still wasn't in the mood.
"Phyllis." She curtly replies, but unfortunately for the older girl, the sound of her sister screaming her real name blows her attempt to hide from the boy.
"Susan!" As Lucy approaches the two, the boy's face falls, realising she is lying to him. Susan glances at him for a second and feels terrible, but Lucy's puffing and words snap her back to the real world.
"You better come quickly," Lucy says, out of breath, as Susan returns the paper and runs with Lu to the train station, where Edmund, Peter and Tilly should be waiting. But the tone of Lucy's worried voice and the urgency tell Susan it will not be as simple as that.
The crowd of kids yelling the word 'fight' repeatedly signals what she's in for to the eldest girl. As they grow closer, pushing through the crowd, they see Peter being tossed around by two other boys. The tearing of his uniform is clear as day, even though the yelling. As he turns, locking eyes with a panicking Lucy and a disappointed Susan, the other two boys push him into the wall before slamming their knees into his stomach.
"Hey," Tilly screams, ripping herself clean from the two guys who were holding her back before trading on their feet, elbowing them to their guts and then kicking them in their balls, making both of the boys twice the size of her fall to the ground in a heap. "Don't touch me again." She bellows, spits flying onto them as her anger rises. "Get off him!" She yells, kneeing two boys in the stomach and punching another.
"Tilly, get out of here." Peter groans, making the girl roll her eyes at him, momentarily taking her attention away, allowing one of the boys to tackle her to the ground, causing her to wince, which Peter catches. "Don't touch her!" He screams quickly, pushing two boys away to get to Tilly, but a cry from Lucy and a figure dashing past takes out the boy on top of her.
"Edmund." Sighing, Tilly stands, going to help the two brothers, but the sound of a whistle stops her, and in a split-second decision, to get the three of them out of trouble, she acts hurt, and the innocent girl wound up in men's problems because that's all she is meant to be.
As the two soldiers come to break it up and the crowd disperses, the two boys are ripped off of Peter as Edmund goes over to Tilly to check she's okay.
"Hold on, Ed." She snaps at him, hearing the officer talk to Peter.
"Act your age." Walking over to the officer and Peter, Tilly uses her best innocent voice.
"Oh, officer. Thank you for that, but it wasn't Peter's fault. It was mine." She shakes her head, looking down. "One of those boys tried to touch me, and I told him to leave me alone, but he wouldn't, so Peter jumped in to help. I really am sorry." The two officers nod as Tilly whips fake tears away.
"Oh, don't be sorry, dear. It's not your fault, and neither is it your boyfriend here. He clearly was only trying to help. We'll make sure it doesn't happen again. But in the future young man, come for us instead of getting in a fist fight." Peter nods, clenching his jaw.
"You could have hurt your lovely little lady here." The other officer says, now making Tilly's jaw tighten.
"Thank you again, officers." Tilly smiles, turning away, looping her arm with Peter to play off the act.
"Thanks for the save, but I could have handled it," Peter grumbles as the two walks over to the others. "But, really, are you okay?" As much as Tilly was putting on tears for the officers, the story was true and exactly how it happened, but she didn't add one tiny detail.
"I'm fine, Pete. No need to worry."
"Well, I do. Why didn't you tell the officers what the boys really did." Sighing, Tilly stops Peter from walking.
"Peter, in this world, if a girl says a boy slapped her butt and then squeezed her boobs after she yelled at him to 'fuck off, she's seen as the one in the wrong because of what she is wearing or something stupid like it." Peter grinds his teeth at her words. "It's honestly not worth it. As long as they don't do it again." Slowly her gaze focuses on her feet, but Peter lifts her head back up.
"Don't worry, it won't." Tilly smiles lightly at the boy's sweet words but shakes her head.
"Thanks, Peter, but you can't promise that." She says before walking back to the others, where Edmund was staring at them but turns back to Peter. "Also, can you make a different excuse for why that whole thing happened? I don't want Ed killing them." Peter sighs, nodding gently as they walk to the bench.
Edmund stands pacing back and forth, his finger tapping his arm as he watches Tilly and Peter deep in conversation.
"Ed, come sit down. They'll be over here any minute." Lucy says to her older brother, but her words seem to hit a brick wall until the two turns and make their way toward them. Then Edmund pretends to not be watching them. Peter sits down on the bench with Tilly following him as Edmund puts down his and Tilly's cases before squishing next to her.
"You're welcome," Edmund says sharply, causing Peter to lean forward and snap back.
"I had it sorted." He replies, standing up and walking to the edge, but Susan stops him.
"What was it this time?" She asks, assuming it was another petty thing Peter couldn't let go of.
"He bumped me," Peter says, glancing quickly at Tilly, which only Edmund seems to notice.
"So, you hit him?" Lucy asks worriedly, making Peter sigh.
"No." He snaps lightly. "After he bumped me, they tried to make me apologise. That's when I hit him." Susan shakes her head at her brother's words.
"Really. Is it that hard to just walk away?" Peter's jaw tightens, hating the fact he's being reprimanded by his younger sister for something that didn't happen.
"I shouldn't have to. I mean, don't you ever get tired of being treated like a kid." Edmund snorts, making Tilly hit his knee.
"We are kids." He tells his brother, but it just makes Tilly sigh feeling back for making Pete go through with this.
"I wasn't always. For god sake, you and Tilly were turning 30 and getting married." The two in question glance at one another before looking down at the ground. "It's been a year. How long does he expect us to wait." As Peter sits down, Susan starts to lecture Peter.
"I think it's time to accept that we live here. It's no use pretending any different." She says with a slightly snarky tone as she folds her arms tightly over her chest.
Tilly gets up walking away from the others rubbing her wrist, which she fell on. Edmund follows her, catching her shoulder before she can go too far away.
"Hey," Tilly turns to face the worried boy she loves as he looks at her wrist to see if anything is wrong. "It should be fine in a day or two, only bruised, I think." Ed trained with some of the war doctors and nurses back in Narnia, so he knew what to do if someone was hurt in battle, but he managed to keep his knowledge for this world. "What going on in that head. I saw the look Peter gave you when he told us why he hit that boy." Taking her hands in his, Edmund looks down into her emerald eyes. "It wasn't the truth, was it?" Sighing, she shakes her head, biting her lip to keep a few tears at bay.
"He touched me, and Peter lost it." Tilly bares Edmund the details, knowing it would do him any good.
"Oh, Darling," Ed mutters, wrapping his arms around her waist, bringing her close to his chest. "I'm sorry I wasn't there." He leaves a kiss on his forehead, squeezing tightly.
"It's not your fault, and you shouldn't have jumped in there like that. You could have really been hurt. You are okay, right?"
"Yes, Darling, I'm fine. They barely touched me before the officers came over. And I jumped in because they touched you." Edmund holds his hands up, knowing he will get the 'I can take care of myself speech' "Before you bite my head off. I know I don't have to jump in, but if someone touches my girl, I will either beat the crap out of them or watch you do it. Okay?" Tilly nods gently as a blush rises on her cheeks, making Edmund lean in to kiss her nose. "You're too cute." He mutters, staring lovingly at her.
"We should go back," Tilly says softly, taking Ed's hand and leading them back to the group, where Susan was panicking and waving her arms around.
"Oh, no." She mumbles to herself as she sees the boy from early coming their way. "Pretend you're talking to me." The four frown as Ed pulls Tilly into his lap, holding her close as there is no room on the bench. Even though they were trying to keep their relationship quiet, they weren't hiding it, and people just assumed Edmund was just an overprotective best friend.
"We are talking to you," Ed says, confused why his sister said such a stupid thing, but it only made Susan scoff.
"Ow!" Lucy screams, her voice echoing in the tunnel, making Susan snap.
"Quiet, Lu."
"Something pinched me!" She says, pointing at the bench.
"Hey, stop pulling," Peter says, looking at the couple beside him, who both frown.
"We're not touching you," Edmund says, throwing his hands up, then back beside Tilly's thighs.
"Edmund Pevensie! Watch those hands in public." Tilly sheiks standing up after feeling a nip on her bottom.
"Darling, as much as I would do that." Ed turns to his older siblings. "We all know I would." His comment makes Tilly hit his chest. "But that was not me, I promise.
"Would all of you just... What is that?" Susan tries to stop them but joins in when she and Edmund also feel the pinch.
"It feels like magic," Lucy says with a smile on her face. Tilly glances at the younger girl, both sharing the same thoughts. Narnia. Aslan.
"Quick, everyone, hold hands," Susan says as she grabs Peter and Lucy. Tilly takes Ed's but the youngest brother protests at holding the other hand.
"I'm not holding your hand!" He yells over the sound of the train pulling into the station. Sighing, Tilly lets go of his hand, Squishing in between the two grabbing their hands tightly as the train whizzes past, the lights sway, and tiles crumble from the walls. As the wind picks up, a part of the tunnel caves in. As the five stand together, watching their surroundings change around them as everyone else carries on, across the other side of the train, the wall of tiles flashes as the train keeps moving, turning into a crystal clear turquoise ocean.