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NINETEEN | THE QUEST OF THE WARRIOR

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PETER PEVENSIE COULDN'T HELP BUT FEEL LOST!

Since the moment the Magnificent King had stepped into Narnia he knew something didn't feel right. He just had a gut feeling, something clawing at his chest telling him that the Narnia he knew was long gone and that it wasn't safe anymore.

It had been something that had been bothering him, angering him and plaguing him and what made it worse was that the King knew exactly who was causing this and yet he himself refused to believe it and believe that Aslan would allow her to stay in Narnia.

Angelina Murphy was someone that Peter would never understand.

On the surface, he knew she was a good person. He could see the pain and regret in her eyes, the way she tried to push herself away from everyone but the Narnians who had never shut her out. He also saw how she opened up to his brother, how the two shared their experiences and needed each other to move on.

But the problem was, he knew she couldn't.

He held no ill will towards Angelina in anyway, for he knew if the Enchantress had taken over someone else he and Angelina could have been good friends but that wasn't the case. Angelina was a threat, and Peter hated to admit that because he knew she didn't want to be and would do anything to stop herself from being a threat.

And yet, Aslan could have saved her.

Peter wondered whether Aslan had attempted to save her and she had neglected the help or whether he just hadn't bothered at all. In all honestly, he believed the latter more because Aslan had neglected to help the four Pevensies since they stepped foot back in Narnia this time round. It honestly baffled him greatly as Aslan had been the one to defeat the White Witch, not the Pevensies and they were practically rendered useless last time they were in Narnia.

And Peter couldn't help but feel lost at his absence.

"You're lucky, you know." Peter told Lucy as she sat down next to him at the stone table, Lucy following her brothers gaze to the marking of Aslan at the wall and noting the frown on his face.

"What do you mean?"

"To have seen him." Peter breathed out in defeat as he quickly turned to Lucy and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "I wish he'd just give me some kind of proof."

"Maybe we're the ones who need to prove ourselves to him."

There had been silence for a moment, the two Pevensies staring at the Aslan carving in mutual agreement before the sound of rushed breaths and footsteps interrupted their thoughts. The two turned to look at their left, where Edmund and Angelina ran into the room with distressed looks on their faces - the two clearly out of breath from running as they skirted to a stop in front of them.

"Pete, you'd better come quickly."

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The tension in the air could be cut with a knife.

With the sight of Miraz' army gaining in on the How, the Narnians were short on time to concoct a plan to free Narnia to its former glory. Nobody was more stressed than Peter had been. The Magnificent King knew that he was short on time and Peter had no choice but to finally give in to Lucy.

Now Peter would never admit to be wrong, he was too prideful to do so but he knew that he had to listen to his sister. He had underestimated her before and it was his arrogance that led to the night raid being a fail. If he had listened to Lucy perhaps they wouldn't have failed.

Maybe if he had listened to Lucy, he could have been a better king.

"Cakes and kettledrums! That's your next big plan?" Trumpkin asked in bewilderment, looking up in at the Magnificent King in anger. "Sending a little girl alone into the darkest parts of the forest alone?"

"It's our only chance." Peter insisted, Susan nodding as she turned her head to look at Trumpkin.

"And she won't be alone."

Trumpkin let a small scoff leave his lips, the dwarf not believing that this plan could work and worried for the safety of the young girl he had taken under his wing. He remembered when Angelina was around Lucys age, remembering the fear of losing the girl he had promised to protect and look after as if she were his own.

And even though she was older and wiser, Trumpkin would always protect his daughter.

He saw a lot of Angelina in Lucy and perhaps that had been the reason that Trumpkin cared so deeply for the young Pevensie girl who was a good friend to him. The thought of sending a little girl out into the woods to meet a mythical lion he had never met was ridiculous to the dwarf and he couldn't help but count the things that could go wrong.

The risk was too high for the dwarf to take.

"Haven't enough of us died already?" He asked softly, the sadness in his voice silencing the room as they refused to meet the dwarfs eye.

"Dad!" Angelina whispered to the dwarf, Trumpkin looking up at her and holding his hand out to her so that he could squeeze it.

"Nikabrik was my friend too, but he lost hope." Trufflehunter spoke up as he smiled at his friend, the badger speaking calmly though there was still a hint of sadness in his voice as he thought of his late friend. "Queen Lucy hasn't and neither have I."

"For Aslan." Reepicheep spoke as he lifted his sword into the air, the other mice following their leader as they vowed to the great lion.

"For Aslan!" Bulgy bear spoke up, Peter turning to look in the bears direction with a small smile on his face.

Trumpkin, still not convinced that their plan would work, let go of Angelinas hand and walked to stand in front of Lucy.

"I'm going with you."

"No, we need you here." Lucy told him with a small smile, an idea forming in her head as she looked behind the dwarf and at the blonde girl who stood alongside her brother. "Angie could come with me."

"I'm sorry Lu but I have other business to attend to later." Angelina said quickly, a frown forming on Lucys face while everyone turned to look at the girl in confusion.

"Other business?" Edmund asked as he squeezed their interlocked hands, the girl refusing to look at him for a moment as her gaze remained on Peter who had raised an eyebrow at her.

"Like what?" Peter questioned the girl, Angelina sighing as her gaze fell to the ground in defeat.

"I can't tell you." Angelina had reasoned, pulling her hand away from Edmunds and crossing them over her chest as she took a couple of strides towards the Magnificent King.

"Angie?" Trumpkin whispered to her in confusion, the girl ignoring him as she stood in front of Peter and gave him a serious look.

"Peter," She said softly as she looked sternly into his eyes. "I need to do this or we can't win. Please."

For a moment Peter just looked at her, scanning her eyes for the truth and saw it laid before him. He then listened to her words, his eyes looking to Edmund who was staring at Angelina in confusion before Peter sighed and turned his head to look back at Angelina.

"Then go," Peter told her with a nod, Angelinas smile widening. "I believe in you."

"Thank you!" Angelina rushed as she wrapped her arms around the King quickly, the King clearly took back at her actions as he lightly patted the girls back before she abruptly pulled away.

"What business?" Edmund asked in a whisper as Angelina settled herself next to him again, the girl sending a small smile his way as she interlocked their fingers and gave his hand a small squeeze.

"Just trust me."

Edmund didn't trust the softness of her voice, the suspicious nature of her words nor did he trust the clear sadness that laid in her eyes as her smile barely reached her lips. He could tell that something had been bothering her and he had known that even since she woke up after her last encounter with the Enchantress and sobbed wildly into his chest. Even when spending time in Pixie Hollow, Edmund could tell that she was acting stand offish.

Almost as if she knew what the future held.

"We have to hold them off until Lucy and Susan get back." Peter told the group of Narnians, Angelina glancing a quick look at Caspian who had stood up from his spot next to Cornelius and was approaching the center of the room.

"If I may..." He spoke softly, facing the Narnians as an idea struck his brain. "Miraz may be a tyrant and a murderer. But as king, he is subject to the traditions and expectations of his people. There is one in particular that may buy us some time."

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The plan was set in stone.

With the belief that had been granted on her by the Magnificent King, Angelina Murphy was finally ready for the inevitable to take place. Heeding Aslans offer and her rejection of it, the blonde girl of sixteen was fully aware that she had lost her last opportunity to change her fate and now she would have to live with the consequences.

The girl truly didn't know how to process it. Her decision had been made in a moment of naivety, in a moment where she had the opportunity to be completely selfish by embracing the fell of love.

And unfortunately, it had its price.

"Please be careful!" Angelina told Edmund as she fixed the chain mail in his tunic, the Just King getting ready to visit Miraz at his camp and propose a duel so that Lucy could successfully find Aslan.

"Am I hearing this right? No sarcastic comment." Edmund asked in a jokey tone, a small chuckle leaving his lips at his own words but his laughter halting when Angelina didn't even smile.

"Now's not the time." Angelina sighed as she placed one hand to his cheek and gave him a small smile. "Please promise me you'll be careful."

"Angel? What's wrong?" Edmund asked as he placed his own hand on top of hers, his eyes searching hers for a sign of what was wrong with her but her eyes only held gloss, as if the girl were holding in tears.

"Just promise me." Angelina whispered as she sent him a small smile and interlocked their hands, bringing them down from Edmunds face. "Please?"

"I promise."

"Your majesty." Glenstorm interrupted the two, bowing his head in apology to the King as he held the scroll of parchment in his hand, holding it out to Edmund. "It's time."

"I'll see you when I get back?" Edmund questioned her, Angelina nodding as she gave the king a tight lipped smile.

"Where else would I be?"

Accepting her answer as the only one he'd receive, Edmund leant forward a pressed a small kiss to her cheek before stepping back and following Glenstorm out of the How. Angelina followed shortly after him and waited at the exit of the How, watching as he and Glenstorm walked through the field and into Miraz' camp.

The girl sighed as she leant herself against the stone wall of the How, wondering how her life had drastically changed in a matter of days and how much it had changed her future. She found herself thinking of how different things would have been had she had never been abandoned in the woods.

Would the Narnians still have the same chance at survival that they do now? Would Aslan have come to aided them sooner? Would Nikabrik have betrayed them or would he have survived?

She wished she knew the answers to those questions rather than the consequences of her current actions.

"I can see right through your act." Someone spoke up beside her, Angelina sighing as she looked to her left and saw Lucy was stood next to her and was gazing out onto the camp like she was.

"What act?"

"Something's wrong," Lucy stated, Angelina sighing at how obvious it had been. "something's troubling you."

"It's nothing." She insisted, looking down at her rune covered arms and the black streaks of her damaged hair in denial.

"If it were nothing then you wouldn't be lying." Lucy told her softly, Angelina sighing as she perched herself down on thee ground and lent herself against the stone wall.

"I've made a terrible mistake." Angelina whispered, Lucy sitting down cross-legged next to her as she looked at the girl in confusion.

"I'm sure Edmund would be glad to hear that," Lucy joked as she nudged the older girl. "I've never seen him grin so much."

"That's not what I meant," Angelina managed a chuckle as she smiled at the young girl next to her. "I've made a terrible decision."

"That's okay, we all make those." Lucy insisted as she smiled at the blonde. "Aslan will fix whatever's wrong."

"Not this time Lucy," The blonde sighed as she wrapped her arms around the young girl in a much needed hug. "he already told me that."

The two had remained that way for a few moments, rethinking their decisions and wondering how they even got here in the first place. Lucy didn't know it yet but this wouldn't be the first time these two girls would be sat together this way, contemplating their lives and wondering how they ended up this way. Only next time it would be different and Lucy would have to come to turns with something she could never imagine.

And Angelina wished she could prevent it.

"Where are you going?" Lucy asked the girl as Angelina stood up and brushed the dirt of her dress, extending her hand to Lucy to pull the young queen up from the ground.

"I have important business to take care of." Angelina told the girl bluntly, Lucy raising an eyebrow at the blonde as a frown settled on her lips.

"Susan can find Aslan," Lucy assured her as she smiled up at the blonde in concern. "I can come with you."

"As sweet as that is Lucy, I need to go alone." Angelina smiled at the young girl who merely stared up at her in confusion, Lucy immediately wrapping her arms around the girl as she buried her face in her chest.

"Please be safe." Lucy begged her, Angelinas smile falling as she saw a single tear fall from Lucys cheek - the girl immediately wiping it as she knelt down in front of her a smiled.

"You too."

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If you had told Angelina Murphy a month ago that she would be following the trail she had left behind six years ago she would have laughed in your face.

With her decision final and fate sealed, Angelina Murphy had no choice but to finally accept that her life was about to change whether she liked it or not. She hadn't anticipated a month ago that she would do what she did, that she would once again fall subject to the naivety she once held as a child when she made the first decision that would ruin her life. The funny thing is, she never thought she would be naive enough to fall in love with the idea of love.

But as fate would have it, he walked into her life.

Angelina sighed as his cautiously walked out into the barren glade, the air melancholy as she stopped in her tracks and observed the damage. She wondered why she had decided to come back here of all places and why she hadn't just gone somewhere random with a supply of water she could use.

Perhaps it was the past she had here, the history that buried itself in the burnt out soil that was reminiscent to Angelina. Though it looked completely different to how she remembered it, the glade still filled her with the same sense of fear that it had the last time she was here. She wondered what had happened after that night, where Natalia had disappeared to and what fate came of her parents. Did they survive?

All Angelina knew was that it was her fault.

Full of guilt but determined not to cry, Angelina settled herself down into the burnt out grass and found herself situated right in front of a puddle. Taking a final moment to look around the glade Angelina sighed as she looked over the water into her reflection, closing her eyes as she spoke her name.

"Pandora. Pandora. Pandora."

Angelina jumped back in fright as the Enchantress appeared before her in her reflection, Pandora sighing in annoyance as she glared at the blonde girl before her.

"Rude much, I was trying to choose an outfit." Pandora whined in annoyance, Angelina raising an eyebrow at the Enchantress as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"You seriously decide to dress that way?" Angelina asked in confusion.

"Do you seriously decide to dress that way?" Pandora shot back immediately, Angelina struggling to keep the smile of he face as she stared down at the Enchantress with a smile.

"Well played."

"You made a mistake." Pandora spoke eerily as she looked at the blonde whose smile suddenly fell, the topic being something that Angelina had hoped to leave for as long as possible but the Enchantress knew better.

"Yes."

"You want me to fix it for you." She continued as she turned her head to look up at the girl with a smirk.

"No." Angelina spoke softly, Pandora raising an eyebrow at her in confusion as she stared at the blonde girl in alarm.

"No?"

"I made a mistake and must now live with it, hold accountability and wait." Angelina sighed as she played with the ends of her broken hair.

"Then why child have you come to me?"

Pandora of Charn was confused to say the least.

Never before had she anticipated such civil company from the girl of whom she had ruined the life of. In all honesty it baffled the Enchantress how Angelina seemed so calm about everything when she knew that she had signed her life away the night before without a second thought. Pandora wondered why there was such a change of heart and why Angelina hadn't just set herself free and gone off to Aslans country without a care in the world.

Why hadn't she chosen the right option?

"I can't give you what you want, though it's inevitable that I one day will." Angelina spoke calmly, the girl taking a few short breaths with her eyes closed before they snapped open to stare intimidatingly at the Enchantress. "I want to bargain."

"Do my ears deceive me?" Pandora asked as a wicked grin, not truly believing her ears. "Why would you want to bargain with me?"

"Because you're going to win." Angelina exasperated, the thought of the end result springing tears to her eyes.

"I know," The Enchantress spoke directly, a confused look forming on her face as she looked up at the blonde. "so what do you want?"

And the answer was simple.

"Time." She said simply.

"Time?"

"I'm sixteen years old. You have burdened me for ten years and all I ask is for the chance to be normal." Angelina cried out angrily, allowing all her built up emotion to break out in the presence of her captor. " I need time without you."

"You know full well you cannot get rid of me now." Pandora told her with a scoff, shaking her head at the girls foolishness.

"I know but I need all the time I can get before I... we..." Angelina stuttered, tears now falling freely down her cheeks as she felt the guilt fill within her for what she had to do.

"I can never truly part from you," Pandora warned her in a soft voice, something Angelina had never heard before. "you know that don't you?"

"But you can give me the freedom I need by leaving for as long as you can."

There was silence for a moment, the Enchantress contemplating the girls words and wondering whether the bargain was good enough or not. In all honesty Angelina thought it was fair, a small bit of freedom in exchange from completing the quest she was destined to start ten years ago.

"The heart is useless to me now," Pandora sighed as she gave the girl a stern look. "the damage remains done."

"I know," Angelina whimpered as a tear fell freely down her cheek. "I can feel it."

"It's funny."

"What is?" Angelina asked in confusion, staring at the Enchantress in her reflection who was staring at the glade from the water.

"How you brought us back here." Pandora told the girl with a smile.

"Well this is where it all started," Angelina chuckled as she looked around her reminiscing. "this very spot."

"You were so young, naive." Pandora whispered, remembering the six year old girl she met a decade ago in this spot and looking upon how much had changed - both through Angelina and the village that once occupied this glade.

"I know."

"I can grant you time, but you know the cost." Pandora warned her, Angelina nodding as she looked at the Enchantress with a small smile.

"Consider it paid." She told her, holding her hand out to shake. "Do we have a deal or not?"

Pandora smirked up at the girl as she slowly reached out her hand, which had slowly broken through the water in the puddle so that it outstretched before Angelina. The blonde girl stared at it for a moment, contemplating whether or not she should do this for the last time but found that she had no other choice.

So she shook Pandoras hand.

The sound of thunder grew loudly in the sky, a bolt of green lightning piercing down into the ground before Angelina and into the puddle where the Enchantress had laid. A cackle rang in the air, the darkness surrounding Angelina as she felt herself becoming tired and her skin burned from the contact.

Then suddenly it stopped.

Angelina opened her eyes as she looked at herself, gasping slightly as she looked at her own reflection and saw that she looked herself again. Her hair was no longer black or broken, it was long and blonde and full of life - far better than it had been before it was destroyed. She then looked to her arms, the runes that had once imprinted themselves there slowly fading until her arms were bare once again.

Then Angelina began to cry, the sheer happiness of finally feeling free being something she had never experienced before. She could do anything without consequences now and the Enchantress would never show until the final moment.

But then she looked to her right hand, the hand she had shook with and felt a burning sensation within it. She watched as her hand was carved out of thin air, forming words that made Angelina cry upon reading them as she realised what she had done.

I'LL BE WATCHING WARRIOR, UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN - P

The warrior had finally accepted her quest!