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CATALINA LOOKED AROUND in awe. She gazed up at the toweringly, tall Narnian trees as King Peter rowed his siblings, Catalina and the dwarf down Glasswater river. The girl's damp hair and clothes were quick to dry under the warm rays of the sun. Catalina sat beside Susan quietly, controlling all her pending questions.
"What did they tell you happened to your brother?" Susan asked out of pure curiosity, making a pang of pain ricochet through Catalina's heart as looked up at the queen.
The girl scrunched her eyebrows together in thought. "They claim I sold him to the Narnians during the break of dawn." She answered honestly, her fidgety hands clasped together on her lap.
"-and that's not true at all is it?" Lucy asked curiously, directing her attention towards the Telmar Princess quite like her siblings and the dwarf.
"Not at all..." Catalina replied, "I do, however, believe Caspian is strong and if he left Telmar on his own accords then he had a good reason for doing so."
The Pevensies nodded silently while Trumpkin didn't utter a single word. They all sat quietly, the only sounds being the birds singing and the river flowing. Catalina basked in the radiance of Narnia, it was ever so calming and serene.
The silence was soon broken by Lucy, as she looked up at the trees in sadness. "They're so still." She whispered forlornly, making the dwarf look up.
"They're trees." Trumpkin grumbled, "What do you expect?".
"They used to dance." Lucy answered softly, making a smile grace Catalina's face. Dancing trees? Never in her life had she heard of something so absurd but heart-achingly true.
"It wasn't long after you left that the Telmarines invaded. Those that survived retreated to the woods." Trumpkin explained, refusing to meet the eyes of the Kings and Queens, "And the trees have retreated so deeply inside themselves that no one has heard from them since."
Catalina looked down in shame. Her people-her kingdom had caused this. Telmar wasn't meant to be a corruptive kingdom, it was meant to be a working town where the people were friendly and loving, but the Telmar told in Trumpkin's Narnian tales was far from the girls recollection of home.
Lucy looked baffled to say the least, "I don't understand. How could Aslan have let this happen?" She questioned.
"Aslan?" Trumpkin scoffed in reply, "I thought he abandoned us after you lot did."
Edmund seemed to roll his eyes as his fingers tapped on the hilt of his sword, "We didn't mean to leave, you know." He said defensively.
"Doesn't make much difference now, does it?" Trumpkin remarked grumpily, making Catalina frown sorrowfully.
"Get us to the Narnians and it will." Peter responded steadily, as he rowed the six down the river.
They finally reached the shore and climbed out of the small boat. Peter offered Catalina a chivalrous hand out of the boat, which she gladly took, allowing herself to clutch to the High Kings hand as she gathered her dress and stepped out of the boat onto the rocky surface.
She stretched out her limbs as Peter and Edmund pulled the heavy boat onto land, so that Trumpkin could tie it down. Lucy had wandered off unbeknownst to the rest of the group.
Trumpkin suddenly swore loudly, "Don't move, your majesty!" He ordered, Catalina turned just in time to see a black bear charging towards Lucy, as the younger girl scurried backwards to the others in fright.
Susan put an arrow to the string of her bow but was hesitant to shoot. "Stay away from her!" She yelled, trying to avoid shooting the bear. Edmund looked around in panic as Peter drew his sword and getting ready to run forward, Catalina felt useless but all she could do was watch in horror.
"Susan, shoot!" The younger boy cried out, as the bear continued charging, Lucy screamed loudly and just before it reached her, an arrow lodged itself into the bears side and it fell over onto the rocky beach surface.
Catalina looked behind her to see that it was not Susan who'd fired but it was Trumpkin. "Why wouldn't he stop?" Edmund asked, Trumpkin grimaced and placed his bow down,
"He's a bear, he isn't supposed to stop." Catalina said softly. Things had obviously changed a lot since the Golden Age, she couldn't help but feel bad for the young Kings and Queens of Narnia who returned to a crumbled and defeated homeland.
"I expect he was hungry." The dwarf answered, ignoring Catalina's answer.
Susan, Peter and Edmund all ran to Lucy, while Catalina followed a small distance behind. Peter picked his sister off of the rocky ground. Edmund pointed his sword at the bear's body. "He was wild." The boy stated in disbelief.
Catalina joined the five's sides with a look of worry laced across her face. Peter held Lucy tightly, "I don't think he could talk at all." He added, his eyes wandering towards Catalina who frowned sympathetically.
Trumpkin sighed, "Get treated like a dumb animal long enough and that's what you become." He responded, drawing his knife. You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember."
The dwarf roughly stabbed his hunting knife into the bears stomach, making Catalina turn her back to the morbid scene. The girl rubbed her temples in discomfort, her stomach churning at the sight while Lucy's soft cries echoed through everyone's mind.
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"IF YOU DON'T mind me asking, where were you for all those years?" Catalina queried, her brows furrowed together, as she plucked a vibrant, yellow flower from the forest floor.
Peter rolled his shoulders back uncomfortably, "We went back home- back to our other home..." he tried to explain, as the two walked side by side ahead of the others.
"My professor once mentioned a place you were from- I think it was 'Spare Oom', did you return there?" The girl asked, letting all her unanswered questions flow freely.
The boy laughed, " 'Spare Oom' was just the spare roo-" Peter stopped mid-sentence upon seeing the hopeful, almost childlike wonder plastered across the princess's face. "Yes, we returned to 'Spare Oom' "
"That does sound marvellous- not the leaving Narnia part, but the ability to walk freely between countries without boundaries." Catalina said wistfully, her fingers tracing the flowers indents, "In Telmar, it was like I was a prisoner of the castle."
"I can't seem to decipher whether you like Telmar or despised it." Peter observed, glancing down at the girl, "They way you talk about it sounds like two different people speaking."
Catalina sighed, "I guess that Telmar is-was my home. I grew up behind those protective walls, but after mother and father's passing, the rules grew stricter and harsher." She admitted.
A flush of pink crawled over Peter's cheeks, "I'm so sorry- I didn't realise your mother and father had... do forgive me." The boy mumbled.
"No need to be sorry." Catalina smiled softly, "It was a long time ago, and although I miss them everyday, I still have Caspian..."
Peter nodded at her words, "I couldn't imagine what life would be like without my parents, let alone a life without my siblings..." he continued.
Catalina took a small breath in, "Having someone who understands your day to day life is definitely helpful." She replied, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"It really does." Peter smiled, as they walked through a cluster of worn rock, that formed arches above them.
"I don't remember this way at all." Susan piped up from behind them, Catalina looked up expectedly at the young King, who kept his head high,
Peter turned around to face his sister, "That's the problem with girls." He said in a teasing manner, "You can't carry a map in your heads."
Lucy scoffed, "That's because our heads have something in them." She snapped back, making Catalina cover her mouth and hide her laughs from the King who looked a bit taken aback.
"I wish he'd just listen to the DLF." Susan huffed, making Catalina tilt her head in complete confusion.
"DLF?" The youngest king, Edmund questioned, turning back to face his sisters, who smirked and glanced down at the dwarf.
"Dear Little Friend." Lucy answered, trying to suppress her mischievous giggles.
"Oh, that's not patronizing, is it?" Trumpkin muttered lowly. Peter stepped into a rock passage and stopped abruptly in his tracks, Catalina stopped beside him, looking to him in doubt.
"I'm not lost." Peter said trying to convince his siblings and the princess but failed miserably, making his siblings groan in frustration.
Peter turned to the dwarf, "You said you last saw Caspian at the Shuddering Wood, and the quickest way there is to cross at the river Rush." He scrunched his eyebrows together trying to remember.
"But, unless I'm mistaken, there's no crossing in these parts." Trumpkin shrugged, raising a knowing brow.
"That explains it then." Peter said cockily, "You're mistaken." They continued walking until they came to a gorge. Catalina stood close to the edge and looked down at the rushing water below, upon seeing the raging currents below she gulped and eagerly stepped back away from the drop.
"Over hundreds of years, water eroded the earth's soil..." Susan recited, eliciting groans from all her siblings, while Catalina merely stayed quiet.
"Oh, shut up!" Peter interrupted, as his eyes never left the water below, as it crashed against the rocks.
"Is there a way down?" Catalina spoke up, as she looked down at the Trumpkin, making the others turn to her and the dwarf.
"Yeah, falling." Trumpkin stated, subtly rolling his eyes, "Come. There's a fjord at Beruna." Catalina nodded and began to follow the dwarf, who was soon overtaken by Peter, who began to lead them in yet- another direction,
"It's Aslan! It's Aslan over there!" Lucy exclaimed loudly, making the entire group turn and look in hope, only to be met by nothing, "Well, can't you see? He's right..." She spun back around and her shoulders droop as she saw nothing, "... there." Her smile slowly fading.
"Do you see him now?" Trumpkin retorted, shaking his head at the mere thought that such being was actually real. Catalina backtracked a step, her eyes scanning the cliff across the drop.
"I'm not crazy. He was there." Lucy insisted, "He wanted us to follow him.". Peter and Susan exchanged a look- one of which Catalina didn't need any knowledge to decipher, they so, very obviously didn't believe her.
Peter sighed, "I'm sure there are any number of lions in this wood. Just like that bear." He said slowly, trying to break it to the younger Queen gently.
"I think I know Aslan when I see him." Lucy stated, making the dwarf shake his head once more.
"Look, I'm not about to jump off a cliff after someone who doesn't exist." Trumpkin objected, Catalina looked down guiltily, as the younger queen was being judged.
Edmund cleared his throat, "The last time I didn't believe Lucy, I ended up looking pretty stupid." He said, silencing his older siblings for a moment.
Peter looked across the gorge "Why wouldn't I have seen him?" He asked almost as if yearning for some sort of hope that this land hadn't changed as much as he'd thought. Catalina looked at the older boy sorrowfully, and although she would love for Aslan to be real, she would have to agree with Trumpkin, she wouldn't risk her life for a fairytale.
Lucy frowned, "Maybe you weren't looking." She whispered, only to be met by the sceptical eyes of Susan and Peter.
"I'm sorry, Lu." The older boy apologised, obviously not swayed by what the girl claimed to see, before turning around and beginning to walk the trail ahead of them.
Catalina followed him, her arms folded over her chest as she walked. She just couldn't wait until she was back and reunited with her brother. As annoying as he could be, Catalina really missed Caspian, he was the rightful heir to the throne and Catalina had no doubt that he would be an amazing king, and live up to their late father. She just hoped he was okay.
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#CETER OR PETALINA what do y'all prefer?!
Love y'all so much,
This is prewritten and NOT EDITED!