Susan

"Come on Lucy, come ride with me, do! We'll have ever so much fun together!"

Lucy sighed theatrically at her sister.

"Very well Susan," she acquiesced. "But we'd better go along the beach or else!"

Her sister giggled at the half-hearted threat Lucy issued.

The two Pevensie sisters escaped to the stables of Cair Paravel's eastern wing and saddled their favoured steeds: for Susan, a sweet and gentle young mare called Jubilee, and for Lucy, a spirited filly by the name of Mirum With the two horses ready with their harness and tack, the royal sisters mounted and headed out of the courtyard at a trot, the hooves of the animals beating out a steady tattoo in the crisp Narnian spring air.

"Ahh, Su, I can't tell you how glad I am to be away from all those stuffy courtiers with their stupid protocols and such. I'm 16! Surely I should be allowed to let my hair down every so often? I mean honestly!"

Lucy's sister gave a light, tinkling laugh. "Lucy, my dear sister, are you forgetting that you are a Queen? Because of your station in life, you are expected you are expected to conduct yourself with more decorum than your average teenaged girl. Besides, Aslan knows some teenage girls ought to conduct themselves more respectably than they do, especially when they are around our brothers!"

The two young queens shared a grin at that. It was well known throughout the kingdom that the High King Peter and his younger brother King Edmund were both quite the catch. Peter was a confident, handsome young man, his face the very picture of vitality and warmth. Edmund, on the other hand, exuded a quiet, brooding air that was not sullen so much as just… thinking. Both kings received almost daily requests from young daughters of lords for their hands in marriage; all had been politely declined. The four siblings only ever wanted none but each other for company throughout their lives.

The sisters soon reached the long bay, with its lovely white sand and scintillating azure water. They turned their horses to the shallows and eased them into a gallop. The pair were soon flying over the beach, golden sprays of water showering like sparks in the late evening sun. As they reached the end of the bay, Lucy began to grow uneasy, though she was not sure exactly why. Perhaps it was the lengthening shadows in the trees behind the dunes (though she had never been afraid of the dark). Or perhaps it was the fact that she could see a rip current up ahead (though she would not normally be wary of such a thing, as she knew that she and her sister could easily leave the water for that stretch of the beach)… It was then that she realised her sister was no longer beside her.

With a startled gasp, Lucy turned Mirum around to see her sister being dragged off her steed by a person clad in the traditional garb of the people of the southern isles. Lucy could see the face her sister wore – one of abject terror. She urged her horse to close the gap between them and bent low in the saddle to decrease air resistance – anything to let her reach Susan faster.

As Lucy neared the struggling pair, she slowed her mount and leapt off, rolling onto the packed sand and rising to her feet almost immediately, setting of at a sprint towards the brigand. The man released her sister and doubled over at the well-placed kick Lucy sent to his stomach. Continuing forward, the young royal stepped closer to the man and pinched the vein in the man's neck. Instantly, he sagged to the ground, unconscious.

"Lu! Oh Lu, thank you -"

"Su, my lovely sister, there is no need to thank me. I just did what anyone would do: help their sister when they're in need."

Susan smiled gratefully at her intrepid young sister. "Now," Lucy said tenderly, "Let's get you home so our esteemed brothers can fuss over you for the rest of the day."

"What about – him? I mean, what are we going to do to him? We can't just let him go." Susan's voice was still shaky and tearful.

Lucy's smile was just this side of feral as she suggested that: "I hear our dungeons are particularly cold and horrid at this time of year, especially to attempted assassins of the crown."

Susan laughed, and Lucy grinned triumphantly at the happy sound. She heaved the limp body of the bandit onto the back of her steed (quietly apologising to her for the added weight), and swung herself lightly onto Mirum's back, Susan mirroring her action on Jubilee.

"Let's go home, sister."

And the two young women cantered lightly back to the castle of Cair Paravel.