Chapter 2 - Return of the Kings and Queens of Narnia

Elizabeth barely even noticed the light twin swords at her hip now, finally having gotten the feel of them after several days of training sessions with Aideen, Devlin and Balor. It was Aideen who had chosen that she should fight with two swords instead of one sword and a shield, even if she did fight better with a spear or staff of some kind, they were just easier to carry. The centaur had said it was because she had so little natural strength that a shield would only assist in knocking her flat, and at least with a sword she could knock away the blow easier and still be able to deliever an attack. Her aim apparently wasn't too bad either, although it would take allot more practice before she could even begin to compete with Devlin, who was, hands down, the best marksman of the group, he very rarely missed his target.

Despite her reluctance at first, Elizabeth had changed her clothes for something more 'Narnian'. She now wore: a white cotton shirt, close-fitting trousers with a waist-jacket of a similar colour, knee-high boots and a belt across her chest to hold her swords diagonally across her back.

"You're not particularly strong," muttered Devlin, chewing on a lump of bread "we could work on it, but that agility of yours is quite something, it may be all you need, but I still don't want to risk it..."

"Yes, I quite agree!" nodded Balor "I daresay she moves as swiftly as I! A cat!"

"Oh be quiet and finish your food will you?" snapped Aideen, she had perfect confidence that Elizabeth would develop into a fine warrior with time, despite the girl's insecuities about it at the moment "We need to discuss something." the centaur lay down her plate and looked at them all, a deadly seriousness in her eyes "I have recieved a message from my kin, they say the rebel forces have begun to gather"

"Gather where?" asked Novan

"Not far west of Cair Paravel."

~ Cair Paravel ~ A few days later ~

Carefully, and with coordination that surprised no one more than it did her, Elizabeth passed the long staff from one hand to the other as she span it round her and struck invisible enemies. Everyone but herself, Balor and Novan had gone looking for other Narnians, which would no doubt be very difficult to do as they had all gone into such effective hiding that the Telmarines believed them to be extinct. They'd had to stay and watch camp while they went and looked.

Elizabeth swung round, stock-still, when something moved out the corner of her eye, it was tiny, but she'd seen it. She stepped carefully through the trees untill she could see where it opened out onto the beach. There were four children, one of them about her age, the other two older and one younger, all playing on the beach, laughing and splashing each other. They all wore similar uniforms - although most of it was cast about on the sand - and she was pretty sure they were human, siblings at a guess.

There was a twinge just behind her navel as she watched them and she tensed, feeling slightly ill. It took her a moment but she pulled her eyes away and went to fetch Balor - she'd been specifically instructed to tell them if she saw any other humans aside from herself and Devlin (Although he was part mountain elf so he didn't really count?).

~S~

Edmund looked round, slowly taking in the sight of the beach and the cliffs, it all felt so familiar, but so different. He cast his eyes up to the ruins at the top of the cliff. "Where d'you suppose we are?" he asked his siblings

"Well, where d'you think?" asked Peter, laughing at his brother's supposed slowness

"Well, I don't remember any ruins in Narnia" he pointed out calmly, unfased by his brothers mocking. Following his gaze, they all looked up at the over-grown ruins at the top of the cliff, all of them trying to remember where they'd seen it before. They quickly made their way up to the ruins, keen to investigate the site.

Trees and other plant life had easily sprung up between and inside the ruins, making the remainder of the white stone structure even less recognisable for the nagging feeling that they'd been here before. Susan saw her sister out the corner of her eye, she was staring out over the beach "I wonder who lived here?" asked Lucy, as Susan's foot caught a small lump of metal with a 'chink' sound, she bent down to pick it up and examined it for a moment.

"I think we did" she said, looking from the small golden centaur to her sister.

"Hey, that's mine," said Edmund, shocked "from my chess-set"

"Which chess-set?"

"I didn't exactly have a solid-gold chess-set in Finchley did I?" he pointed out, as he carried on walking stopping and kneeling down by a small boulder that didn't look like it belonged there "Catapults..." he muttered

"What?" asked Peter

"This didn't just happen, Cair Paravel was attacked" he pointed out, earning a shocked and scared silence from his siblings, before a doorway hidden by vines and branches caught Peter's eye. He immediately marched over to it and began pulling away the vines.

~S~

Balor and Elizabeth swiftly followed the four children while Novan stayed a guarded the camp. They'd decided to keep their distance until Balor was sure of the theory of his that he wouldn't explain to Elizabeth, so they watched silently, consealed behind the ruins, as the four investigated and steadily realised that they were in the remains of Cair Paravel and began talking about how they used to live here. Eventually the unveiled a consealed doorway, after they'd decended the staircase behind it Balor ducked out of his hiding place, going over to the doorway and waving her over.

"Stay here and keep guard" he whispered "It'll be easier if I follow"

Elizabeth turned her back to the doorway, leaning against the wall and watching half-heartedly for any sign of movement. She was sure they were siblings now and for some reason it sickened her to watch them, it made her stomach clamp up in uncomfortable knots and fill her with a sense of hate.

~S~

Balor followed excepionally silently behind the four, his gentle paws padding the floor with barely more than a whisper. He was so sure he was right about these four, there were no faulting his instincts on things like this. Two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve, all with about the right age gap between them. The salvation of the forests and the ancient kings and queens of Narnia. Either this was all too good to be true, or everything was going to be worse than he first thought. Because, if this much help was appearing from the other world, then things were probably going to be pretty bad here.

"I think it's time we found out what's going on." said the oldest of the four, the man he could only guess was High King Peter

"Your Majesty," said Balor, stepping out of his hiding place and making them jump in surprise. He bowed deeply and swiftly "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Balor-"

"he's so cute" cut in the youngest - Queen Lucy by his guess - to her elder sister - Queen Susan - in a low whisper

"You are quite the beautiful young lady yourself my queen," he said flatteringly bowing to her "but there are graver matters at hand." he turned back to High King Peter "There are-" the clash of swords that reached his highly-sensitive ears made him stop, though he doubted they heard anything "Elizabeth..." he muttered, before darting up the stairs.

~S~

Bored, Elizabeth planted herself on the ground and made herself comfortable, hardly expecting them to come out any time soon, she had no idea how deep this stairwell was, they could be gone for hours. Sighing, she took her book out of her satchel and began to read where she had left off. Much to her disappointment, she hadn't been able to find much time for reading while in Narnia, because, due to her promice, she was working her hardest in every availible minuet to become an able fighter for this war they often spoke of, and by the time she went to bed it was too dark to see the pages.

Suddenly dark clouds moved quickly over head, effectivly blocking out the sun and causing Elizabeth to huff in annoyence, not only was it now too dark, but it looked like it was going to rain. Glumly, she put her book back in her bag and shuffled inside the doorway as the temperature dropped too what was surely below freezing. An unearthly mist creapt over the ground, steadily in her direction until it was almost impossible to see the approching figure. A knight dressed in all-black armour drew steadily nearer to her, there was an odd, eerie aura about him that made Elizabeth shiver, the clanks and clinks of his armour echoed in the uneasy silence, his movements slow and jerky, like he hadn't moved in thousands of years. She jumped up and drew one of her swords as he drew his. Despite his slow appearence, his first strike was so quick it nearly swiped her head clean off before she could block it with the flat edge of her sword, the loud clash resounding in her ears.

The following blows were so rapid and merciless she could scarcely keep up with them, not getting the chance to land any of her own, or even attempt any, so she drew her second sword and allowed her self to relax into 'a-state-of-warriors-instinct' as Aideen had called it. She tried to contain her own shock as her movements matched his without trying, like he knew what he was going to do. It got to the point where she scarcely heard Balor cry her name in shock and worry, but the sword in her free hand had already spand the sword and driven it upwards underneath the gap in his breast-plate. He stumbled back slightly and she drove the blade in further. There was a moment when everything around her seemed to disappear and she could no longer hear or sense anything but the knight. She looked up into his helmet and... she froze. Horrified, she lost concentraition for a moment.

Abruptly, he swang his arm to it her solidly in the stomach and knocking her back from him and crushing the wind out of her. Angrily, he yanked the sword out of his chest and threw it to the ground as Elizabeth gasped for breath. Despite her blurred vision, she spotted one last desperate help, although there was a slim chance it would work. Drawing on what little strength she had left after that insanely strong hit, she stood upright and swung round. The flat of her foot colliding strongly with his chest, she knew it wasn't enough to do any damage, but it was enough.

~S~

Completely on edge, Balor had to restrain himself from diving in to save her, because even if she had been only been learning for a little longer than a week, she seemed like a proud woman and would probably never forgive him if he destroyed her dignity as a warrior like that. Although it was strange, it seemed that fighting seriously in a life or death situation had brought out the best in her, where in most it could bring out the worst.

She was moving with surprinsing rapidity and her foot work was nimble and quick, he daresay she may just be able to hold her own against the best of swordsmen. The Kings and Queens visibly fliched - as did he - when she took that blow to the stomach, knocking the breath out of her. Balor placed a hand on his rapier as he became sure that this knight was a deamon, no one could take a sword through the heart like that then rip it out as if it was nothing but a splinter, but a hand was held out in front of him. It was King Edmund, he had a strange look in his eyes, like he recognised something. Just as he was about to ignore King Edmund's restricting hand, Elizabeth picked herself off the ground and swung her leg round, planting her foot firmly in the center of his chest. What was she doing? Wasting the little energy she had left on such a fruitless attack... The knight stumbled, unbalanced suddenly, then he noticed. The knight was already dangerously close to the edge of the cliff, it had only taken her kick to unbalance him enough to make the rubble slide precariously beneath his feet, and surely enough, he tumbled backwards down the cliff and crashed into the sea. Only moments later did the mist and clouds clear and the temperature return to what it had been before.

Elizabeth flopped down onto the ground and crossed her legs, trying to get her breath back. Balor bound towards her "Mi'Lady, are you alright?" he asked, looking up at her, concerned. She was shaking slightly and had one hand placed over her eyes. Gradually her breathing calmed enough for her to speak.

"Well, that was exhilarating" she laughed light-heartedly. "Was it wrong to slightly enjoy that?"

Dumb-struck, Balor simply blinked at her for a moment, before bursting into a grin (or whatever the cat equvilant is) and clapping her on the shoulder "Your first tatse of a proper fight! You are a natural born warrior if that was anything to go by," Balor would of continued, but he was intrupted.

~S~

Edmund looked at the girl with the strawberry-blonde hair, despite the look of shock on her face at what she'd just accomplished, she was laughing. He looked over to where the knight had thrown her sword and went to pick it up. Because of his years in Narnia before-hand he could tell that this sword had been made quickly and cheeply, there was already several chips in the blade and it didn't even look that old yet. Still examining the blade as he walked, he went over to where she was sat and held it out to her, handle first. Staring dumbly at it for a moment, she eventually took it from him, muttering a small 'thanks' and glancing up at him briefly. Her eyes were a deep forest green and she was quite pretty - at leat, Edmund thought so.

After sheathing both her swords she looked up to see his hand still offered out to her, and slowly, she took it, allowing him to pull her off the ground. "Th-thanks," she muttered again.

"Edmund Pevensie by the way," he introduced before letting go of her hand

"Um... E-Elizabeth R-Richards," she stammered, still not looking at him. Swiftly turning on her heel and walking away from them. Although no one noticed because she wouldn't look at any of them and she had become adept to controling it, she was shaking again, but not from laughter this time.

"Did I say something wrong?" he asked the cat, wondering if she'd offened her in some way. The cat simply shrugged.

~ Later ~ Back at camp ~

When Balor had led the siblings back to their camp it was beginning to get dark and the rest of the group had already returned to camp.

"Where's Elizabeth?" asked Aideen instantly, not caring for the Pevensie's

"She wondered off ahead of us, I would of thought she'd come back here." said Balor, looking round for the girl

"Well she clearly hasn't!" replied Aideen angrilly. As a result of Aideen's loud scolding Balor had eventually surrendered and gone to look for Elizabeth, Braeden had volenteered to go with him. "Stupid cat." she hissed once he was gone, before turning her attentions to the Pevensie children. As if on cue, Lucy's stomach rumbled and she blushed "Let's get you fed first, then you can talk" said the Centaur

~S~

With his supirior sense of smell, Braeden quickly found Elizabeth, she was in a tree.

"Mi'Lady!" called Balor "Won't you come down?" When she didn't respond, Balor climbed the tree to sit next to her. She was sat sideways on a thick branch, leaning against the trunk ith her eyes closed.

"What is it?" he asked

"I don't like people..." she murmered tiredly "I can't talk to them right..."

Balor opened his mouth to speak before he realised something and changed his mind "You seem to talk to me and the other's perfectly well" he pointed out

"I guess it's because I thought I was dreaming the first time I met you all. I can talk to people I know, but people I don't... it's not so easy."

~S~

"So Elizabeth is from England too?" concluded Susan, having had Devlin tell her the entire story of how Elizabeth got to be here

"But do you know why she walked off like that?" asked Edmund

Devlin looked thoughtful for a moment, folding his arms "She always seemed quite friendly to me, if not a little shy at times, but I can't think why she'd walk off like she did."

"Maybe that was just it though" said Novan "It wouldn't be unusual to be a little more than shy in the face of royalty"

"Yes but she didn't know that did she?" snapped Aideen angrilly, she'd become gradually more agitated the longer it took Balor and Braeden to get back .