08

THE REAL PROPHECY

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The two weapons clashed against each other loudly with sparks flying from each blade at the harsh contact. At the end of the axe, the white-haired girl smirked playfully towards Peter who held the sword timidly.

"Come on, Pevensie," the girl grinned even wider before one brow twitched upwards, "Don't hold back on me."

"I'm not!" he insisted and struck again, only she could tell how cautious he was being on her left side due to the claw marks but there was no way that Alex was going to let that stop her from winning a fight.

Peter's brows shuddered at the size of the grin on the girl's face as the axe came quickly towards him with great power that she thought could take down an entire tree with one strike, and he was right. Not only did the axe return to her side when beckoned, but the might of the strike was also amplified.

"Why are you smiling so widely?" he asked as he blocked the attack at the last second but was met as she circled around on the heel of her foot before slashing the blade to his feet, "Are you going to talk?"

"Peter, I know that you aren't exactly the most skilled knight, but usually there isn't this much discussion during a battle," she laughed out as his blade blocked hers once more. For someone who hadn't even held such a weapon until a mere few days ago, he was a skilled swordsman.

"Really? I thought I had to ask permission before attacking," he sarcastically snickered and earned a playful glare in return as the two weapons continued to clash on each other for what felt like an hour until both had sweat dripping from their heads and their muscles ached.

"Your arm," Peters unoccupied hand reached out to brush her skin where the wound had been just a few hours earlier but was no replaced with three thin, blue scars, "It's healed, how did that happen?"

Alexandra used the perfectly shiny surface of her axe as a mirror to look at her wound, or what used to be her wound, to find that it had indeed healed into scars that could appear to be months old.

Alex continued to stare at her scars that blended in well with the others on her back that Peter had hardly even seen, his eyes had only been met with the ones on her neck and cheeks but not the abundance on her spine, "We should go back to camp, we did enough work today," he smiled her way and she nodded as they started to walk peacefully back to the array of tents.

"Hey," Peter muttered and looked her way after a complete journey in peace, "We should do that again sometime and maybe you could tell me more about Narnia, you know so much about these lands and I know nothing."

"We have still have time to talk now," she pointed over the hill where the tent poles were just coming into view, "What do you want to know?"

"How about those flowers? The ones that you stopped Lucy from touching and smelling. I think you called them... Sleeping- No, Tired-"

Alex cut him off with a small echo of a laugh before correcting him, "Drowsy Pudina, they are a very lethal species of weeds that plague the forest regardless of the weather or location. With one smell, a human or Narnian could be put into an eternal sleep with no warning," she clicked her fingers, "Just like that."

"They are pretty for a bunch of weeds," he stated as they neared the tents even more so that they could hear the chatter from the Narnians as they worked, "How about the Regals? You've mentioned them once before."

"Ah yes," she smiled before she slowed down her walk so they could talk for longer, something that he didn't pick up on, "A Regal is an omnipotent source of unknown energy, self-sustaining to be exact. Before Narnia, there was a tree. Just the one. This tree made Regals through the pure energy that flowed through her roots until there was no power within her anymore and she was just a pile of ashes. There were only three Regals to ever exist; Tatiana, Zahra and Faye. Each Regal had a distinct trait to their abilities and only two remain free to roam Narnia and Earth alike. However, one was caught just over one hundred years ago by Jadis. Tatiana was taken and forced to power the wand that the White Witch holds, therefore becoming the power source and giving Jadis the energy that she holds over the land now."

Peter stayed silent as he took it all the information in. The Pevensie found it extremely interesting to learn something new about Narnia every day, especially when Alex was the one to tell him about it. There was something about the way that she talked so lovingly about the land that interested him even more.

"Now, Aurora was the life of Narnia through and through. It was the very roots of that tree that the land itself was born and all the power within it came from Aurora one way or another. So when she died, Narnia became susceptible to all the evil and destruction that exists now. Aurora was made by Aslan through his mighty roar and from there, they have both worked in unison," Alex finished up quickly with a slight skip in her step as they finally reached the camp to see General Oreius stop in front of them before motioning his head behind him.

The two followed his glance to a small mound of earth where they saw Aslan and Edmund not too far yet it was far enough that they couldn't hear what was being said between the two. It wasn't long until the other half of the Pevensie group arrived, the two girls were shocked to see their brother.

"Edmund!" the youngest cried happily to gain not only her brother's attention but the Lion's too. She made a move to run to Edmund but was stopped by Peter with the simple move of his hand so that the two could speak in privacy.

Minutes of anxious waiting and awkward silence later and they were finished. Edmund trailed down from the rock with Aslan behind him carefully on his four paws to join the Pevensie children but more importantly to talk to Alexandra in private. They had much to discuss yet so little time to do so.

Upon their arrival, all four of the humans could notice the bloodied lip and bruised eye on Edmund along with his depleted expression that was purely built of embarrassment and anxiety of his sibling's reactions to his arrival and apology.

"What's done is done. There's no need to speak to Edmund about what is past," Aslan spoke deeply before he turned to Alex, "May I speak with you?"

Alex nodded and watched as Aslan stepped aside to talk to General Oreius. Her grey eyes landed back on Edmund as she placed a soft hand to his shoulder, "It is good to have you back, Edmund. We can formally meet later on but now, you should spend time with your brother and sisters and get some rest."

Edmund nodded with a weak smile due to not wanting to reopen the wound on his lip but all four Pevensie children watched her saunter away to Aslan's tent as he spoke to the centaur in hushed tones, most likely about the battle or Edmund's return.

As soon as she passed the red curtains that lead into the room that was much bigger than what the exterior had suggested, her glance set swiftly on an opened book in the centre of the table that had multiple maps, battle plans and history books. There was something within the girl that told her not to walk over and to read what the readied page had been showing the previous reader. If only she had listened to that feeling.

With a quick glance around the tent before her fingers skimmed over the page as she read the golden calligraphy that swirled neatly with each letter. But she found that she had seen these words and heard them plenty of times before. Or at least half of them.

'When Adam's flesh and Adam's bone sits at Cair Paravel in throne, the evil time will be over and done. But when the crimson knight departs alone, a new era will have begun'

At the sound of heavy footprint outside the tent, she moved. Alex made it appear that she had been staring at the map of Narnia the whole time but she hadn't. Her mind as solely depended on trying to decode the prophecy or more importantly why it had been kept from her this whole time and how.

"Goodmorning, Alexandra," Aslan greeted as he rounded the circular table and the book magically shut without being touched, "I wanted to ask a favour of you, of course, you may say yes or no because this is a choice."

Alex nodded her head sceptically and removed her twitching hands from the circular table so she could focus on the conversation that seemed to take a much more serious turn than expected.

"I wanted to ask you to help General Oreius train the Pevensie siblings. Whilst the General has the experience and agility, you have the skill and knowledge. With your help, I expect that Edmund and Peter will be skilled swordsmen by the battle if it goes forward, Susan will be the best archer ever to walk in Narnia and hopefully, Lucy will be prepared to heal and be brave to hold their bond together," his golden eyes softened at the mention of the young girl and Alex knew why. Aslan saw a bit of Alexandra within Lucy, a scared little girl who was dragged into a mess at too young of an age.

"I would be honoured, Aslan," Alexandra respectfully bowed her head to the lion and made a motion for the tent exist as if expecting that it was over.

"Alexandra-" he stopped her abruptly and made the girl turn to face the majestic lion, "How did you do it? Out of everything I have observed in my long lifetime, I have never witnessed a brave soul such as yourself sustain as much as you have yet you are still here and you won't stop fighting until the end."

There was a long pause as the girl genuinely thought of an explanation for how she was still alive. There had been many times when thoughts filled her mind or the Witch was as ruthless as everyone knew her to be. Yet, she was still breathing. It was a miracle. It was luck. It was courage.

"Well, if I pretend that it doesn't hurt me then after a while it doesn't hurt as much."

Aslan removed his glance from the girl as if the carpet was much more important but she saw the look that he gave her, he was sorry. But what for?

"If only I had seen the signs of it all then none of this would be happening," he muttered and walked around the table to be directly in front of the girl who refused to move, "There were plenty of times that I could have interfered and got you out of that situation-"

Alex shook her head, "No, there was no way for you to help. Even if you had got me out of that castle, there would still be this ice in my heart and this curse on my body. Regardless of what happened in the past, the future is in our hands."

"You are wiser beyond my years," Aslan smiled sincerely to the girl who reciprocated the expression with a matching one, "You will be the one to save us, Alexandra, I can feel it."

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I know that I am adding in some stuff from my own ideas that may not be factually correct for certain story points like the creation of Narnia or Jadis' weapon but it doesn't necessarily crash with anything so far so let me know if it does!