~Shooting Stars~

Chapter One: The Start of Two Journeys

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~Cambridge, England~

"I'll come back quicker than you think," Peter whispered, hugging Lucy and Edmund. Lucy smiled and wiped away her tears. Peter had stayed two months with them at the Scrubb's house in Cambridge, and now he was going to the country to study for exams into college with Professor Kirke. They had never been separated like this before, besides the bittersweet parting with Susan, in their lives.

"I know, but we'll worry, and, you'll be alone for the first time. . ." she trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished because none of them wanted to bring up what they knew they were talking about.

"I'll be fine; just because I'm going to the place where everything began doesn't mean I can't look out for myself. I was doing that for a long time you know, before you became concerned," Peter said, smiling at her.

"Well, try not to wander off, whatever you do." Edmund grinned reminiscently as he remembered Peter telling him that, the first time.

"I will. And you, try not to let mullet mouth get under your skin. You're a king; you've fought wars and led armies; I don't think a little boy who hasn't lived as long you have will be much of a problem," Peter advised, resting his hand lightly on Edmund's shoulder.

"What're you saying? That I should try and forgive him everything he's done– what game are you playing?" Edmund looked at his older brother suspiciously.

"No game, just remember: everyone deserves a second chance, even when it seems like they don't. Don't doubt his value– we tend to do that too much," Peter answered wisely, removing his hand and reaching for his bags. Edmund stopped, recalling when he'd heard a similar concept. Fine; he'd try– but only because the High King was telling him to, otherwise, the kid was toast.

"Tell Digory we miss him! And that we need to all get together soon, to talk about old times!" Lucy called as Peter stepped onto the bus, destined for Mr. Kirke's house. The blonde young man nodded before the doors hissed closed behind him. The two siblings stood on the sidewalk long after the bus had rolled out of sight. There is something painful about parting from a friend and a relative. They did not like to be reminded of that feeling again.

"Doesn't it seem like we've lost two older siblings now?" Edmund commented as they walked back up the front path to the house.

"Yes, it does, very much so. I wonder how Susan is and how Caspian's coping with Narnia. Oh, this will be such a dismal year, staying with. . ."

"Eustace." Both uttered the same name at the same time, looking grim.

"After you, Queen Lucy," Edmund whispered, opening the front door and smiling ever-so-slightly. She shared a knowing smile with him as she walked past. Upon closing the door, they were met with an annoying figure.

Eustace Clarence Scrubb.

"Done saying goodbye? Well then, Alberta wants you to fix dinner, Lucy. Edmund, she wants you to set the table as well." Eustace liked giving orders, it made him feel superior to everyone else, and besides, he rather had the right, it being his house and all. Edmund scowled; but, keeping in mind what Peter had told him, he went about the task he'd been given.

~|:Xo0oX:|~

After a week of Eustace, however, diplomacy was beginning to wear thin on Edmund's part.

"Eustace, please, give me the book," Edmund requested through clenched teeth, wishing he were anywhere but here.

"No, I want to see what's so special about this journal anyway," the blonde boy retorted. Fingering the gold clasp in the shape of a Narnian fire-flower, he was surprised to note that it refused to open.

"What is this, some sort of prank?" Eustace whined, looking at the sixteen-year-old.

"No, it just doesn't like you." Edmund smirked, looking at the gold and brown leather book in his cousin's hands. Aslan had prepared for everything, it seemed; now, if only he could figure out what the journals were for.

"Rubbish. But I shouldn't expect anything less from you. You were always immature," Eustace declared snidely, putting the book back on the table where he'd found it.

"Thank you for the compliment; I'll never grow up – don't believe I want to – you, on the other hand; well, you'll miss out on many things if you do." So saying, Edmund picked up the book and walked out, leaving a flabbergasted Eustace in his wake.

~|:Xo0oX:|~

After that little run-in, Eustace tried to make Edmund's life miserable; he could say anything to his mother and father and they would believe him, never having liked Helen or her children in the first place. Little digs at him, such as:

"Edmund, Mother wants you to go get this" or "Edmund, Mother wants you to do that." "Father says you should work on this" and "Father says you have a problem with that." Were starting to drive Edmund insane; not even Lucy was enough to ease his resentment.

She began to get worried; if Edmund was continually provoked like this he'd do one of two things: something rash and without much clear thought or injure Eustace in a way that he would remember all his life. Edmund was the Just King, but he also had an uncontrollable hatred and anger, that, if allowed to grow, would be fearful to see. He was the king who had given no thought to keeping hostages, could care less about his opponent's pain, and fought to the death. Powerful leadership abilities in Narnia, but deadly characteristics here in England.

~|:Xo0oX:|~

"Lucy, what fun does he get out of making our lives miserable?" Edmund muttered, looking at the painting on Lucy's mantle from where he was lying on the floor. They were talking in her room, in the time of the day when they had an hour or so to themselves.

"I don't know, Edmund; what I do know is you're not responding to it like the Just King I know you are. If you think about this from a Narnian point of view, you're almost fourteen hundred years older than him– couldn't you act it?" she begged, looking down at him from where she sat on her bed. He frowned.

"You're giving it a valiant effort, sister, but it's just not working. I can't stand it any longer, being tormented by someone younger than me! I tried following Peter's advice, and it's working, but hardly enough to show." They sat in silence for some time, thinking about how dreadful these past two months had been, when Edmund spoke again.

"I like your painting."

"Yes, so do I. Aunt Alberta hates it though; that's why it's up here in this room, so she won't have to look at it."

"She didn't think of throwing it, or giving it, away?" Edmund asked casually, focusing more on the ship than on the conversation, an idea forming in his head.

"No, she can't really; it's a gift from a neighbor, Mrs. McCleash, for her wedding, and the woman obviously has some sort of standing here so she really can't do anything with it, other than hide it, I suppose," Lucy replied.

"Fascinating; simply fascinating," Edmund answered absently, thinking more of his plan to rid himself of Eustace and this house than what his sister had told him.

"Are you all right?" she asked, looking down at him in concern, he sounded. . . off.

"Fine, just smashing." He grinned, before standing.

"All right, I believe you, I think," she said as he left. "Oh, Edmund!" she called, suddenly remembering what they were supposed to do tomorrow.

"What?" he asked, opening the door and leaning into the room a bit.

"Tomorrow we're to go grocery shopping, don't forget!"

"Excellent!" he ejaculated brightly, closing the door and walking off. Lucy frowned; she couldn't remember any time in both her lives when he'd said the word 'excellent' without it meaning something more.

"Oh, Peter, I wish you were here to help me with him." She sighed, looking at the painting on her mantle again. Abruptly she stood and walked over it; she could've sworn the water moved and the ship changed position. Shrugging her shoulders, she left to go fix supper.

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~ Narnia ~

"She's marvelous! For the first Narnian ship in thirteen hundred odd years, she's lovely," Susan declared with enthusiasm, looking over the vessel from where she stood on the docks. It had been too long since she'd last seen a Narnian ship.

"Thank you. Now, if only I could find someone to sail her for us," Caspian said, coming up next to her.

"Hmm, what about that sailor. . . Drinian, I think you told me his name was? He seems to know a great deal about the sea, couldn't he captain her?" Susan asked, glancing over at her husband.

"I don't know; truthfully I was thinking about it, but the question of does he want to, still remains."

"Have you even asked him?" Susan smiled as she spoke. "No, I haven't," Caspian admitted, looking away.

"Well, when are you?" She looked at him expectantly, waiting for an answer. He shrugged in an offhand manner. "Soon. Tomorrow? I don't know."

"Are you afraid that he'll take offense, is that why you keep putting off asking him? He's a sailor; no sailor I've ever met could turn down the offer of captaining a ship! Just because he's Galmanian doesn't mean that he thinks differently from us."

"I know, Susan, I just don't know if I should go now. I don't feel like sailing to the edge of the world and leaving you and Rilian. It's been barely a year since the war with Calormen. I don't want to leave all the responsibilities of rebuilding Narnia upon your shoulders."

"Darling, you worry too much; Cair Paravel is nearly half finished and Trumpkin has already told you he's tired of you coming around worrying over minor things. Calormen pays us tribute, I don't think they want a repeat of the beginning of last year, I'm fine, Rilian's fine, there's not all that much to worry about– and who said I'm staying?" she finished, raising a dark eyebrow and looking over at him, waiting for a reply.

"I didn't think you'd be going."

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Because I didn't think you'd want to; sailing across the sea for a year doesn't sound like something that would interest you."

"Me? I've just been through a war; danger, excitement, why would I not want to sail the Eastern Ocean? I thought you were merely going to find out what happened to the lords, not go on another wild adventure. Or is that the reason you don't want me to come?"

"Susan, you, of all people, should know that everything here in Narnia becomes an adventure, or, sudden death," Caspian said reasonably.

"I'm your wife; I will not let you go off sailing a sea filled with mermaids and magic! No, I don't care what you say, I will not stay here. Just because I'm female doesn't mean that I'm weak. You of all people should know that," Susan retorted, straightening her five feet six inches and glaring up at him. He smiled.

"You're more than I know how to deal with. How did your brothers manage? Fine, you may come, perhaps." She looked at him uncertainly for a moment before slowly smiling as well.

"I knew you wouldn't say no. If you had– well, I'd think of something," Susan replied, pretending to look thoughtful. He just laughed and put his arm around her waist.

~|:Xo0oX:|~

"Rilian, come to Mother! Come here little one," Susan called from where she sat on the floor. The baby looked up at the sound of her voice before crawling over to his mother.

"You know mother loves you? Yes she does," Susan murmured quietly, touching her forehead to her little boy's. The baby giggled and tugged slightly on her hair as it fell over her shoulder. She smiled. "You enjoy playing with mummy's hair? Well, you're rather like your father in that respect." She brushed her son's black hair back from his face with her fingertips. He cooed softly while looking up at her, staring back at her with eyes as blue as her own.

"My sweet little boy," she whispered. With all the love of a mother she hoped nothing unfortunate would ever befall him as it had her niece and nephews.

~|:Xo0oX:|~

Susan brushed her hair out slowly; there was to be a ball tonight celebrating the first year of peace and also to celebrate the fourth year of a freed Narnia. She put down her brush and stared off into the mirror, not really looking at her reflection. It would be coming on four years since she'd last seen her siblings. She wondered how they were and how much time had passed back in their world. She wondered how Lucy was.

"What do you find so sad?" Caspian asked upon entering the room, having come to look for her.

"Nothing– I'm just thinking of my brothers and sister. I hope they're all right." She proceeded to twist her hair up into a style from the Golden Age; she really fancied such styles more more, and besides, they were ingrained into her memory.

"I know what you mean." He didn't mention Amalia or Serene, and he didn't have to, both knew who they were talking about; names weren't needed.

"Yes. Now, what is it you've come looking for me about?" Susan asked, trying to brighten the setting.

"The guests are arriving; I can't welcome them without my queen," he admitted with a smile.

"I know, I'm running just a bit behind schedule; Rilian didn't want to go down for his nap. He is getting so stubborn; I wonder who he gets it from?" Susan looked at him in the mirror.

"You're not implying he ha inherited such a trait from me? Because, if I recollect correctly, you don't give in so easily on many subjects either."

Susan laughed. Standing, she came and stood by his side, slipping her arm through his. "Our guests are waiting."

"See, you refuse to admit! Now who's stubborn?" he insisted as they walked down the stairs.

"And you refuse to let the subject drop," Susan pointed out.

"Well then, I believe we could safely say he's received this trait from the both of us." Caspian smiled as they reached the final step, clearly bent on proving his point.

"Fine, you're right, but for now, let's welcome our subjects; we'll argue after they depart." Both laughed as they walked down the hall.

A/N:

I know this is short, only 2000+ words, but, well, the first chapter is always the shortest.

A few things need some explanation.

Remember the part where Lucy is thinking about Edmund and how Eustace is provoking him, and it mentions that Edmund is the king who gives no thought to keeping hostages, or his opponent's pain, and will fight to the death?

Well, I don't know if that's necessarily true, but I also don't know if it's untrue. In the Prince Caspian film, when Peter is challenging Miraz and the man asks for a respite, Edmund shouts to him: "Now is not the time for chivalry, Peter!" Meaning that, if it were Edmund fighting, he would've just killed the man.

When it comes down to it, I believe Edmund doesn't give a damn about the people he fights. He retains an impersonal attitude toward them, treating the enemy as merely things instead of people. Something worth having as a king, but in England, where he's just an average person, it's something that could be looked upon as extremely unusual.

I liked writing a scene where Susan interacts with Rilian, I thought that it would bring something different to her character in these books; it also helps me look at her as a more motherly, adult character, not the young lady I picture from the movies (using movie-verse, she's nineteen or twenty ,by-the-way).

ILoveFanfiction:

Well, since I've moved on to the next story, I'll answer your review for Star Crossed on here.

I'm glad you noticed the way Edmund fights! I've always been very interested in that, noticing it in all the movies.

I'm glad you're now all right with the way I ended the first story. I was thinking the same thing about Daniel as well. So, I made the extremely difficult decision to only bring Serene back in the end o all my deliberations. I decided not to bring him back because of the very reason you mentioned, so I guess it's worked out fine after all.

I know the grey hair was a rather big letdown, but I remembered when I started writing it, how Susan didn't fight in many battles, and she probably wouldn't have received it from being in battle.

The way she got that scar is a lot less funny than the way she told it, I was thinking of doing a one-shot to fully understand how she acquired it. I think it would help my readers and it would also give a bit of insight as to why she cares about cosmetics and all that stuff in the later books; the reason she stops believing I guess you could say.

I'm pretty positive all the Stars, including Liliandil, will have a large part in this story, but I'll just have to see. . .

MCH:

I've heard that somewhere, the bit you mentioned about C.S. Lewis said about Susan. I'm glad you enjoy these altered Chronicles of Narnia!

Let the Journey begin. . .

WH