Chapter Twenty Three
Return of the Wolves
"The two of you will be staying with me while your brother has a tent to himself," Elizabeth told Susan and Lucy while she lead the three siblings to her tent. "I'm afraid this is a girls only tent so we can't have any boys staying in here!" Elizabeth smiled at them as they entered her tent. The Pevensie's all looked amazed at her tent, even though it wasn't all that big and there was hardly anything in it, it was hard to believe that this girl lived in this tent as her daily life while they were living in the Professors luxurious mansion.
Susan and Peter couldn't help but stare at Elizabeth ever since they first saw her. She seemed so familiar to them but neither one of them could put their fingers on it. Besides, who was this girl and how could a human just like them also be in Narnia. From what it looked like, this girl had been in Narnia for a long time too. The girl seemed to be around Edmund's age but she was quite beautiful. Her blonde hair rested in soft waves down her back and her eyes were stunning.
Elizabeth went straight to her closet and dresser which contained numerous dresses and different styles of medieval clothing. It was about time the siblings had changed considering they had been in the same outfits since they had arrived to Narnia and had been swimming in their outfits only a couple of hours before. To say the least, their clothes were quite worn out. Elizabeth pulled out a long and slightly bigger dark green dress along with a light blue undergarment dress. This dress contained little slits above the elbows so that the undergarment color could shine through and compliment the dress. Another dress she pulled out was a pretty blue one with long droopy sleeves along with a tanner looking undergarment dress, this one was much smaller than the green dress and smaller than Elizabeth's other dresses.
Back when Elizabeth was first brought to Aslan's camp and was in need of clothes, the fauns that were making her clothing never took her measurements and therefore made a couple of dresses that were too big and too small that Elizabeth was never able to wear. Thankfully for the Pevensie sisters, Elizabeth had held onto these dresses and they were now of some use to the siblings. Elizabeth handed the green dress to Susan and the blue one to Lucy. Surprisingly, the two dresses fit really well on the two sisters, not too tight but not too lose that they were falling off. Elizabeth herself was dressed in a darker blue dress than Lucy's.
She smiled at the sisters and nodded towards their dresses. "I'm glad they fit so well on the two of you! I've never actually worn them seeing as they don't fit and I haven't grown any either so I can't even grow into the dresses," she said with a fading smile and then turned to Peter. "Sorry I don't have an outfit for you, but the fauns I'm sure are working on one for you."
Peter nodded his thanks and Elizabeth guided the siblings out of her tent and back outside. She then motioned to the tent beside her own. "This is where you will be staying," she motioned to Peter. "You can be right beside your sisters so it shouldn't be hard to find them." Elizabeth then faced all the siblings with a smile on her face and folding her hands in front of her. "I'm so glad all of you have made it to camp and welcome! Please be sure to make yourselves at home and if there is anything you need feel free to let me know."
Peter nodded his head in thanks while Lucy gave a big toothy grin to the blonde girl. "I'm sorry we haven't formally met yet," Peter said with a slight frown on his face before giving a warm smile towards Elizabeth. "I'm Peter, and these are my sisters Susan and Lucy," Peter introduced as he gave an outstretched hand towards Elizabeth.
Elizabeth froze for a moment with a frown and tilted her head as she stared at Peter's outstretched hand. What was he doing? While she stared at it the realization suddenly dawned on her and her face lit up with a smile as she took his hand and shook it. "I'm so sorry! Shaking hands isn't exactly a thing here, I can't even remember the last time I've shaken someone's hand before," she said her face lit up with happiness and excitement. "It's so strange and wonderful to finally have people like me back in Narnia. Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry! I'm forgetting my manners, I'm Elizabeth," she said as she let go of Peter's hand. "Elizabeth Kirke."
Susan and Peter's eyes grew wide and Peter's mouth dropped as Elizabeth said this. "Kirke? As in the Professor's younger sister Elizabeth?" Susan exclaimed as she stared at the girl in disbelief. Was this really the Professor's younger sister that had gone missing some forty years ago?
Elizabeth furrowed her brows at this as she watched the siblings. "Um, I'm not sure I know of any Professor? I have an older brother named Digory though?"
Peter gave off a big smile at Elizabeth's words. "That's the Professors name, Digory Kirke! He lives in the family mansion now after his father passed away. He lives alone now that he's retired, we've been staying with him until the war ends and we can go back home. I can't believe I didn't see it before, you look just the same as you did in all those pictures we saw in the upstairs room and the Professors office."
Susan frowned as Peter was reminiscing as she thought everything through. "But if you disappeared almost forty years ago, how do you still look to be the same age you were when you vanished?"
Lucy just ignored her sister's question and smiled up at Elizabeth. "Well, I think you look quite pretty no matter how old you might be."
Elizabeth didn't share the same smile as she listened to Peter. Her face was filled with confusion and her mouth was agape as she listened to them. Her mouth then started to curve into a frown and her heart seemed to beat a little faster. "What war . . . ?"
"Oh . . . um," Peter paused as he realized that Elizabeth had no idea of what had happened back home ever since she left, basically, everything he was telling her was new knowledge to her. The group then stood in silence as the siblings were thinking through the best way to break news to the girl while Elizabeth was reviewing everything she had just been informed.
Quinten then ran up to the group, breaking the silence after he took a quick moment to catch his breath. "Your Majesty," he said to Elizabeth. "Aslan has requested that I take Peter to him. He wishes to discuss something with the boy."
Elizabeth nodded and Quinten then took Peter with him up to a cliff-side where Aslan was supposedly located leaving Elizabeth with the sisters. "Um . . . okay, well how about we go and wash the two of you off a bit?" Elizabeth said changing the subject with a small smile.
The sisters gladly nodded and followed Elizabeth away from the camp. Along the way, they passed a hillside that overlooked the entire valley, stretching far beyond the camp, the sea, and off in the distance you could see the castle. Lucy seemed to be observing the castle which looked like a small grapefruit from where they were standing and stopped walking as she pointed off to the distance. "What is that?"
Elizabeth stopped and stood beside Lucy following where she was pointing. Once she found the spot in the distance she gave off a small smile remembering the first time she ever went there almost sixty years ago. "That is Cair Paravel, the first castle city of Narnia. It was built on an island at the mouth of the Great River of Narnia. The Great River of Narnia is the current capital of Narnia and has been for some time now. We can't go there now though because the White Witch's castle is in the northern branch of the Great River of Narnia, so we try and stay clear of there. Cair Paravel is also known as the castle of the five thrones. In some of which we will sit as Queens." Lucy's face lit up in excitement while Susan's face grew big out of shock. "I know just how you feel," Elizabeth said told as she turned to face her. "You doubt the prophecy."
"No. That's just it," Susan exclaimed before shaking her head. "We're not who you think we are."
Elizabeth shrugged her shoulders before turning back to face the castle. "Susan and Lucy Pevensie, formally of Finchley." Elizabeth could then feel the sisters eyes staring at her and couldn't help the small smile creeping on her face.
"Beaver also mentioned that Peter planned on turning him into a hat."
Susan then started to get a small smile as she realized that the beavers had already told Aslan and Elizabeth all about them, it made sense, while Lucy was in a fit of giggles remembering the incident. "Susan," Elizabeth started becoming more serious. "There is a Deep Magic, more powerful than any of us, that rules over all of Narnia. It defines right from wrong and governs all our destinies. Yours and mine," Elizabeth explained as she looked back to Susan.
Lucy then grabbed a few flowers from the hillside and turned to Elizabeth. "Can I do your hair?"
Elizabeth laughed at the little girl and a little heat rose in her cheeks. She had forgotten what it was like to be around others like her. She had a feeling she was going to enjoy the Pevensie's company and become great friends with them. "As long as you make me look pretty," she said with an eyebrow raised to Lucy who smiled big up at her.
"You already look beautiful." Elizabeth's mouth dropped at this comment but before she could say another word, Lucy had pulled her onto the ground so that she was sitting and started to do her hair.
The girls sat here for a few minutes while Lucy worked on Elizabeth's hair and Susan and Elizabeth talked about Narnia. Susan was quite curious about Narnia, for one, she still struggled believing all of this and Elizabeth shared with her some of the stuff she had learned during her time in Narnia. She even talked to Susan a little bit about her sister Sybil and how Susan reminded her of her sister. Like Susan, Sybil was very intelligent and had a hard time believing such things like this existed without a detailed explanation with science.
Once she finished working on Elizabeth's hair, Lucy must have gotten tired of the history lesson and she turned to Elizabeth with a hand on her hip. "You are taking us to a creek right?" She said with a bit of sass and Elizabeth smiled down at her.
"You're right, it's just down this way," Elizabeth said to Lucy with a pat on the shoulder as she guided the two down to the creek she was at a couple of days ago to practice her magic. Lucy had pulled part of Elizabeth's hair into a braid and turned it into a makeshift headband from the braid. Then Lucy had taken the flowers she had gotten from the hilltop and put them into Elizabeth's braid. If Elizabeth could have seen it, Lucy was sure she would be proud.
Once they arrived at the creek they found a small tent of Aslan's, the familiar red and gold with a table underneath. At the table the girls found towels, fruit, and Susan's lion horn. Elizabeth came down to the creek so often that the dryads or wood nymphs would constantly be bringing down towels for when Elizabeth's magic would have gone sour and she would have gotten soaked as a result of the food because sometimes Elizabeth would spend hours down by the creek that she would lose sense of time and just eat down by the creek. Elizabeth walked up beside a tree located right along the creek and climbed up one of the limbs sitting down on a branch. She didn't want to be too close to the water and figured she would just watch from up here.
Lucy and Susan, however, went right over to the creek standing on the rocky bed beside it. Lucy looked at Susan with a long face as she observed her sister. "You look like Mum," she said with a small voice and Elizabeth could tell Lucy missed her mother. Unfortunately, Elizabeth knew exactly how she felt.
"Mum hasn't dressed this way since before the war," Susan said softly observing their clothing.
"We should bring her one back. A whole trunk full!" Lucy exclaimed beginning to get excited.
"If we ever get back," Susan said as her smile faded and she remained to stare at the creek water below.
Elizabeth, who was listening in on their conversation got the same frown on her face from earlier. There it was again, this so called "war". What could they possibly be talking about? The civil war? But that was in America, and even then it was a years before they were born. Of course, they could be talking about the war that was going to happen soon but Elizabeth highly doubted that was what they were referring to. "Excuse me," Elizabeth pipped up and Susan and Lucy looked up at her in the tree. "What . . . what war is it that you keep referring to exactly?"
Lucy frowned up at her and tilted her head to the side, she thought everyone knew about the war. "The second World War of course," she exclaimed while Susan looked at Elizabeth with a sad face.
"After you left there was a war that last for about four years involving countries in Europe, Asia, and North America and it used to be known as the Great War. Until now that there is another one similar to the last, the Great War is now referred to as World War I. Just as before, all the countries are fighting again and because of it we had to flee our home and are currently taking refuge in your brother's house. That's actually how we found this place, in the upstairs wardrobe," Susan explained to Elizabeth as the blonde's face became very still thinking everything over.
"The wardrobe . . ." Elizabeth murmured remembering when she too found Narnia in the wardrobe. But something still wasn't adding up. She knew that when Aslan had once told her that the gateway to the wardrobe had shut and time would continue on without her that it could be years from now on the other side when the wardrobe opened back up. The only question was, how long had it really been since she left? "So, my brother is a Professor now?" Elizabeth asked Susan who nodded at the question.
Elizabeth bit her bottom lip thinking it over. "Digory now owns the house because m-my father died, right?" Susan nodded again but a bit slower now knowing it had to be hard for Elizabeth to hear all of this. She had been gone for years not with her own doing and because of it had missed out on all that had been happening on the other side of the wardrobe. She couldn't help that all of this had happened, but she still was stuck dealing with the consequences. Elizabeth took a deep breath knowing the question she really wanted answered but was still actually scared of what the answer was. "So . . . what year is it exactly? You know, over there . . ."
"1940," Susan said in a small voice while Elizabeth's eyes grew huge.
"1940?" She exclaimed as she stared at Susan in shock. "You mean I've been gone for almost forty years? Wow," Elizabeth said with shock as she took it all in. Her brother really was old now, he must be in his fifty's, and her father had already passed away. If she ever returned back to England, it certainly was not going to be the same place she remembered.
"How did you find Narnia?" Lucy asked curiously and Elizabeth gave her a big smile from up in the tree.
"Just like you did actually. My older brother, Cedric, locked me in the wardrobe and that's how I stumbled across a world of snow. I returned and continued coming here until one day I brought my brothers and sister with me. It really was quite wonderful until . . . well, I found Aslan and have been here ever since!" Elizabeth explained to Lucy who's eyes lit up at this.
But Susan didn't share the same feelings as Lucy. Instead, she let out a sigh. "It seems we'll be stuck here as well," she said with a long face and Lucy turned to her sister with a sad look on her face. "I'm sorry I'm like that," Susan said as she saw the sadness in Lucy's face. "We used to have fun together, didn't we?" Susan said starting to get a small smile on her face.
"Yes," Lucy said in a sad tone. "Before you got boring," Lucy laughed as Elizabeth laughed along with her. Lucy and Susan reminded her a lot of her and Sybil, her sister.
Susan got a funny look on her face and smirked at her sister. "Oh really?" She asked before digging her hand in the water and cupping a big handful that she then splashed onto Lucy.
Lucy let out a big gasp before getting her own handful of water and throwing it on Susan. The two then got into a huge water fight, laughing and giggling while Elizabeth watched from above in her tree. Lucy then took some water and kicked it up at Elizabeth whose eyes grew huge and she let out a huge gasp as the water came near her out of fear. Her eyes turned a bright blue and she quickly flicked the water away with her hand and the water immediately responded to her command as it flew back and landed onto Lucy. Elizabeth's eyes then returned back to their normal hue as she gripped the branch she was sitting on and breathed heavy. Susan's eyes were huge as she watched this while Lucy just stood with her mouth open as she wiped the water off her face. "Whoa," Lucy exclaimed as she looked back at Elizabeth in amazement.
"I'm sorry," Elizabeth said having realized what she just did. Sure she didn't like water but she shouldn't have just flung it on Lucy, then again Lucy did throw it at her first. "I'm afraid of water," Elizabeth said with a small smile of apology to Lucy who just shrugged it off.
Susan started to understand putting the pieces together of what she remembered about Elizabeth. That her mother had drowned when she was only eleven and Elizabeth had watched it happen. Susan also remembered the Professor telling her and Peter that Elizabeth became afraid of the water after that and would never get into the water because of the accident. No wonder she reacted as she did when Lucy flung it towards her.
"It's alright," Susan assured Elizabeth as she stepped out of the creek with the water dripping off her dress. "It was about time we cleaned off anyways, I don't fancy my clothes soaking wet."
The Pevensie sisters then walked over to the tent where one of the towels was hanging up and Susan grabbed a towel that was hanging on a tree limb. Once Susan pulled the towel down, there was a loud bark from behind and Susan was greeted by Maugrim on the other side. Susan and Lucy let out two loud screams while Elizabeth froze from up in the tree. She remembered Maugrim's face, how could she forget? Even though it had been almost sixty years since she last saw him, it's hard to forget someone who tried to kill you.
"Please don't try and run," Maugrim snarled as he etched closer to the girls. Susan and Lucy stumbled backward until they were standing back in the creek, the water once again covering their ankles. "We're tired. And we prefer to kill you quickly," Maugrim continued as Susan searched frantically around for something or someone that could help them. They were starting to notice that Maugrim was not alone and there were other wolves with him.
Susan's eyes caught Elizabeth's from the tree and they were both silent. If they were lucky, the wolves hadn't seen Elizabeth and didn't know that she was above them. Elizabeth put a finger to her lip and then motioned to the horn that was laying on the table underneath the tent. Susan knew what Elizabeth was referring to and turned back to face Maugrim. She then looked back to Elizabeth who held up three fingers. Elizabeth then started counting down with her fingers and mouthing the numbers. "Three, two, one," she motioned before her eyes turned a bright green.
Elizabeth then lifted her arms into the air and the roots of the tree she was in popped out of the ground. Then, with a quick pulling motion, the roots wrapped around a pair of wolves legs and ripped them backwards with the roots. Susan didn't wait and threw her towel at Maugrim's face to momentarily blind him before running towards the tent to fetch her horn. Elizabeth yelled Lucy's name who then looked up at her as she lowered her hand towards the little girl from up in the tree. Lucy reached up and grabbed Elizabeth's hand as she then pulled Lucy up onto the tree limb beside her.
Five loud blasts echoed throughout the woods as Susan had fetched the horn and blew it to try and get help. "Susan!" Lucy screamed at her sister and Susan then dropped the horn running for the tree where Elizabeth and Lucy were. Maugrim, who had now shaking the towel off his face, snapped at Susan. But with bright blue eyes and a quick whipping motion of Elizabeth's hand, a strip of water from the creek came up and whipped Maugrim across his face. As Maugrim winced from the pain and let out a yelp, Susan made it to the tree and Elizabeth and Lucy let down their hands to pull Susan up.
They were safe for now in the tree, but the tree wasn't that high up to save them for long. As the girl's feet dangled from the tree, the wolves jumped up trying to snap at their feet. Lucy and Susan let out small screams while Elizabeth's heart was pounding and she tried to think of a plan. She had trained for something like this for years but was really taken by surprise when all of a sudden this was just happening.
Luckily, Peter must not have been far away because he was sprinting from across the creek and ran through the water to the other side underneath the girls till he stood face-to-face with the wolves. "Get back!" He screamed at them, ripping his sword from its holster pointed straight at the wolves just as before on the ice.
"Peter!" Lucy cried out to her brother and the wolves hissed and backed up a bit from the sword pointed at them.
The wolves then started taunting Peter and began to walk in a circle around him. "Come on," Maugrim challenged him. "We've already been through this before. We know you haven't got it in you," he growled at Peter who just stared at the wolves keeping his sword pointed at them.
Honestly, Peter hadn't thought it through this far. Actually, he hadn't thought this through at all. He just sort of leaped into action and now had no idea what he was going to do.
"Peter! Watch out!" Susan warned him as a wolf snapped at Peter and he pointed his sword back at that wolf.
Elizabeth took a deep breath after having come up with a plan. She had a feeling she was going to regret this later. Before getting any other thoughts of doubt, she leaped down from the tree swiftly on her feet beside Peter and stared down the wolves looking specifically at Maugrim. "What about me?" She exclaimed in response to Maugrim's earlier statement towards Peter as stood in a stance with her palms facing Maugrim and a scowl on her face.
Maugrim let out a cold laugh as he stared at Elizabeth. "Now this really is interesting," he said watching Elizabeth, he remembered exactly who she was. "Fancy seeing you again, I'm sure my Queen would love to meet up again and reminisce with you."
"She's not my Queen," Elizabeth practically snarled the hate boiling inside her at the mention of Jadis.
One of the wolves prepared to lunge at Peter and Elizabeth but Aslan appeared out of nowhere and with a roar jumped on the wolf and held him down with his paw. Now it was a fair fight between the sides with two on two. The rest of the camp, or part of the camp, came to the rescue as well from across the creek with Oreius in the lead. Oreius let out a battle cry as he pulled out his sword prepared to challenge the wolves but Aslan let out a quick roar at Oreius. "No! Stay your weapons," he instructed and Oreius held his sword out as a gate to block the tell the rest of the soldiers to stay back. "This is their battle,"
Aslan nodded towards Elizabeth and Peter who were now standing back to back as the wolves continued to circle them, Elizabeth and Peter circling with the wolves as well.
"We're going to have to work together," Elizabeth said quietly to Peter who was still pointing his sword at Maugrim. "You'll have to trust me." Peter didn't say anything, only nodded that he understood but since Elizabeth had her back to him, she could only assume he understood.
"You may think you're a King," Maugrim taunted Elizabeth standing in front of her. "But you're going to die . . . like a dog," he barked distracted her as the wolf facing Peter then lunged for him.
"Look out!" Lucy screamed as she watched horrified from above.
"Duck!" Elizabeth screamed realizing what was happening as she turned to face Peter right when he had dropped to the ground on her command. The wolf that had lunged for Peter ended up jumping above him and with a flash of red eyes, Elizabeth swiped to the side with her hands and the wolf was thrown with a gust of wind to the side and hit the tree trunk that Lucy and Susan were in. The wolf hit the tree so hard that it killed him instantly. You could assume that this only made Maugrim more mad, his pack as well, and now with Elizabeth's back facing Maugrim he now lunged for her. Since Elizabeth was unaware of what was happening, Peter lifted his sword at Maugrim just in time and the wolf ended up landing directly on top of Peter, the sword impaling and quickly killing Maugrim.
The pair stood still for a couple of seconds, Elizabeth with her palms still raised in the air and Peter still with his sword raised on the ground. Susan and Lucy jumped down from the tree embracing the two in tight hugs. Elizabeth let out a big breath she didn't even know she had been holding as Lucy hugged her. Aslan broke up the little hug fest though when he let go of the wolf he had been holding on to and the wolf with a bark took off into the woods. "After him," Aslan ordered as he turned to Oreius. "He'll lead you to Edmund."
Oreius gave a curt nod before taking off with the rest of the army behind him as they went after the wolf.
"Peter," Aslan then called out, and Susan lets go of Peter as the four turned to Aslan. "Clean your sword," he instructed. After doing as told, Peter knelt on the ground with the girls standing behind him and Aslan placed a paw on Peter's shoulder. "Rise, Sir Peter Wolf's-Bane, Knight of Narnia," Aslan smiled at him.
Peter's sisters let out laughs before hugging their brother and Elizabeth smiled and nodded her appraisal at him. Peter returned a curt nod of thanks to her as well. If it wasn't for Elizabeth, he might not even be here right now. They made a good team.
Aslan then turned more serious and looked to Elizabeth. "Elizabeth, Kael is waiting for you and I want the two of you to catch up to Oreius' party on the retrieval of Edmund. I'd fell much better if you were with them when they find the boy."
Instead of saying anything, Elizabeth was quiet as she watched Aslan for a moment before nodding to him that she understood. As she turned to leave, Lucy ran up to her and pulled her into another hug. "Please bring my brother back," Lucy said with sweet eyes as she looked at Elizabeth.
Elizabeth gave her a small smile as she returned the hug. "I'll do my best Lu," she assured her before turning on her heels and running to find Kael so they could be on their way.
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A/N:
Actual footage of Peter when Elizabeth asked him about the war.
Actual footage of Lucy and Susan when Elizabeth used her magic.
Man, that was a jam-packed chapter! The siblings finally got to have real conversations with Elizabeth and real tight relationships are finally starting to form! And it's about time cause WE KNOW HOW LONG WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS!!!
But now Elizabeth is off to save Edmund!! GO GET YOUR MAN GIRL!!!!
Lol, even though you don't even know he's your man yet.