unanswered questions

                           ☆.。.:*.。.:*☆

Before they had left Cair Paravel, or what was left of it, Lucy gave Estelle one of her dresses from when she was 'older' and Peter made sure that he armed her with one of his spare daggers. Of course, she had almost no knowledge of how to use it effectively, yet the fraction of safety it brought was enough for her to accept the blade and strap it to her thigh, concealed by her skirt.

The Pevensie's tried to explain their tales in Narnia to the girl on their journey. They briefed her on their battle with the White Witch -which left Edmund shuffling his feet-, the immense power of Aslan and their coronation as the Kings and Queens of Old.

They had also attempted to explain the time differences and how they grew to be old in Narnia and yet returned back to their younger selves as if only 2 minutes had passed. Estelle had never felt emotions quite as mixed as she did in this moment. Firstly she was in awe, she had been best friends with royalty for months without even the faintest idea, but she also felt grief at the current state of the land, almost as if she had known it in its glory.

Before Lucy could finish her story about a fawn named Tumnus, the five found themselves bolting towards a river at the sight of a man tied up on a boat. Susan almost instantly drew her bow,
"Drop him!"
Estelle winced at her poor choice of words and hoped that the captors would be too frantic to notice the slip-up. They weren't.
Without delay, they threw the tied up man -who Estelle came to realise was a dwarf- into the water, not anticipating his survival.

Susan finished off the soldiers whilst Edmund went to pull in their boat and Peter fought against the current to rescue the dwarf. Lucy practically threw herself at the man and freed him from his restraints once he was on land and luckily still alive, stepping back so he could remove his gag and expel the water from his lungs.

"Drop him! thats the best you can come up with?!" He snapped.
"A simple thank you would suffice" Susan tried to reason.
"They were doing fine drowning me without your help!"
"Maybe we should've let them" Estelle muttered causing Edmund to glance over at her, but only briefly, in an attempt conceal their amused smirks.

"Why were they trying to kill you anyway?" the youngest asked innocently, not wanting to anger the small man anymore than her sister already had.
"They're Telmarines, it's what they do"
this piqued the interest of the Pevensie's.
"Telmarines? in Narnia?" Edmund questioned.
"Where have you been for the last few hundred years?"
"It's a long story" Lucy said with a hint of guilt lacing her voice but a shy smile fixed across her features.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me-"
"-You're it? you're the Kings and Queens of Old?" The dwarf said.

Peter held out his hand and introduced himself as "High King Peter, the Magnificent" like it was a reflex for him. An obnoxious reflex nonetheless.
"You probably could've left out that last bit" Susan aired all their thoughts.
"Probably-" the dwarf snickered at his overly inflated ego.
"-But there's five of you, just who might you be?"

Estelle suddenly felt all eyes shift to her, she didn't know what to say. After all, she was just Estelle Amore, she didn't serve a purpose in Narnia, nor could she explain why she was even there in the first place.
"oh erm- I'm Estelle Amore"
A look of disbelief planted itself onto the dwarfs face.
"It can't be" his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes drew to a squint, contemplating the likelihood that this was really her.

This only worsened the girls pondering. He seemed to know something that she didn't.
"You might be surprised" Peter taunted the man as he drew his sword.
"Oh, you don't want to do that boy"
"Not me, him" he gestured to his younger brother, Estelle could recall one of Edmund's earlier comments, something about being the best swordsman in Narnia, something she was about to witness for herself. Her nerves were slightly calmed when she saw the dwarf fall forward at the weight of Peter's weapon,  however they only doubled when the small man tripped the Just and hit him in the face.

"Edmund!" Lucy gasped.
"Aww, are you alright?" the dwarf teased disingenuously.
Estelle subconsciously rested her hand upon the dagger on her thigh incase she had to step in, not that she could deal much damage but she was willing to try if it meant saving her friend a few injuries. Besides, Edmund hadn't fought in over a year. Despite her worry, he really was a talented fighter, his effortless swings creating the illusion that the pair were merely dancing. Less than a couple of seconds later, she saw Rhindon fly out of the man's grip and him fall to the ground with a triumphant Edmund hovering over his small frame.
"Beards and bedsteads! Maybe that horn worked after all"
"What horn?"

After a short explanation from the dwarf (who's name Estelle learned was Trumpkin) the five found out that a Telmarine prince known as Capsian X had blown Susan's magical horn to summon the Kings and Queens of Old, and it was now their duty to find him.

The Pevensies, Trumpkin and Estelle all boarded the boat that held the dwarf as a prisoner just minutes ago, and rowed down Glasswater river. Estelle had noticed Lucy longingly staring at the trees as if she was silently willing them to do something.
"they're so still" she spoke quietly enough that if you weren't paying attention, you wouldn't hear.
"they're trees, what do you expect?"
Estelle had grown accustomed to Lucy's unceasing imagination however she couldn't help but agree with Trumpkin, although this was Narnia after all and with the stories that she had been told, sentient trees weren't all that farfetched. 

"They used to dance" she replied, finally tearing her gaze away from the land.
"It wasn't long after you left that the Telmarines invaded, almost made us Narnians extinct."
"And those that survived?" Estelle pressed, she felt a pit in her stomach, urging her to learn more about Narnia and what happened to its inhabitants, hopeful that some were okay, even though she had a feeling she already knew what was coming.
"Well those that survived retreated into the woods. And the trees, retreated so deeply inside themselves that no one has heard from them since" The children all lowered their heads in mourning for those lost, either physically or mentally, because of the actions of the Telmarines.

"I don't understand, how could Aslan have let this happen?"
the Amore girl had heard Lucy talk highly about the lion multiple times now and could only hope that one day she would have the privilege of meeting the omniscient being.
"Aslan? thought he abandoned us when you lot did"
Well the chances of that happening seemed significantly lower now.
"We didn't mean to leave, you know?" Peter rushed out defensively.
"Doesn't make much difference now, does it?"
"Get them to the Narnians, and it will" She urged.

The Pevensie's couldn't possibly be more grateful for Estelle in this moment. They had accidentally brought her to a magical world that only they knew of, now full of danger and war, and yet instead of freaking out, she was eager. Sure, she had read a lot about adventures in remarkable lands, but nothing could've prepared her to actually fight for one. They had wanted to tell her about Narnia but were unsure of what her reaction may be. Maybe she wouldn't believe them or think they were crazy and stop being their friend, however none of them could've imagined her willingness to help restore it. Perhaps that was just in her nature, she would happily put those she loved above her no matter the consequences for herself. She truly was like Jo.

Once they had finally reached the shore, Estelle had begun assisting Trumpkin in tying the boat down when they heard Lucy introducing herself to someone.
"Hello there- it's alright, we're friends!"
"What is she doing?" Estelle questioned under her breath, not wanting to be too loud and possibly provoke the creature.
In front of the youngest girl, stood a bear, one far larger than any Estelle had read about, and one that appeared far angrier than any of the beasts that she was told inhabited Narnia. Trumpkin seemed to notice this too as he warned her to stay still.

Unfortunately this warning didn't help the situation as the bear charged towards Lucy with no intention to stop.
"Stay away from her!" Susan drew her bow and pointed it directly at the creature, although some reluctance was obvious in her posture, now was not the time to worry about the animal.

"Susan, shoot!" Edmund urged.
The bear was almost completely on top of the girl until it fell limp with a dagger in its chest. The group turned around to see a panicked Estelle with her arm extended. She rushed over to Lucy and pulled her into her side, mentally checking over her small body for scratches or bites.
"Lucy, are you alright?!"
"i'm okay, thank you"
"are you sure?"

"Good aim" Trumpkin stood amazed, this was definitely her. Estelle too was impressed, she'd never wielded a weapon before in her life.
"Why wouldn't he stop?" Susan asked breathlessly.
"I suspect he was hungry"
the rest of the group hurried over to the two and Peter offered them both his hand to regain their balance, he then pulled the dagger from the bear's chest and handed it back to Estelle.
"He was wild" Edmund spoke as he pulled the girl behind him, as if the bear would suddenly wake and pounce on her.
"I don't think he could talk at all" Peter added.
"Get treated like a dumb animal long enough, and that's what you become." Trumpkin trailed off as he dug his knife into the animal, causing Lucy to turn into her eldest brother for comfort and Estelle to wince and lock her glassy blue eyes with Edmund's.
"you may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember."

"I don't remember this way at all"
"That's the problem with girls, you can't carry a map in your heads"
"That's because our heads having something in them"
Estelle followed behind the ever-bickering Pevensie's closely, hardly contributing to the conversation. She was confined to the cell of her mind once more and part of her wished that all it did contain was a map. Questions of who she really was and why she was here were circling her brain and rattling her skull, leaving the girl with no answers and a throbbing headache.

"I wish he'd just listen to the DLF"
"DLF?" Edmund questioned on behalf of both himself and Estelle.
"dear little friend" Lucy explained between giggles, stopping Trumpkin in his tracks.
"oh that's not patronising is it?"
Edmund noticed his friend's distant behaviour and pulled her up onto the ledge he was currently walking on. She didn't even need him to say anything, she could see the 'are you okay' written in his eyes, and so she just nodded. The two friends always had the ability to converse without saying anything at all.

After Trumpkin and Peter had a small confrontation over which way they were headed, Edmund casually pulled a distracted Estelle back from the edge of a gorge with a dramatic eye roll, a drop that went unnoticed by her and would no doubt have killed the girl.

"Over hundreds of years, water eroded the earths soil-"
"Oh shut up" Peter cut off another one of Susan's attempts to appear intelligent over her brother.
"Is there a way down?"
"Falling" Estelle and Trumpkin voiced at the same time, after a brief glance and a suppressed smile from the former, Trumpkin continued.
"Come. There's a ford at Beruna, any of you mind swimming?"
"Anything's better than walking"
Estelle had full heartedly agreed, not only was she thrown into unknown territory in the midst of a war, she was also thrown into walking for miles on end, something she hadn't done in a while thanks to her newfound friendship with the Pevensie's and their train journeys.

"Aslan? It's Aslan, it's Aslan over there!"
Estelle had spun around so fast she was surprised at the lack of whiplash, although she hadn't seen the aforementioned lion in full, she had spotted a fleck of gold hair walking in the opposite direction.
"Well, can't you see? he's right-" the youngest turned back around, now holding the attention of the whole group, and yet, there was no Aslan.
"-there" she finished.
"Do you see him now?" Trumpkin teased as he watched the smile slowly fade from the Pevensie girl's face.

"I'm not crazy. He was there! He wanted us to follow him!"
"I'm sure there are any number of lion in this wood, just like that bear" Peter tried to reason with his over imaginative little sister.
"I think i know Aslan when i see him"
"Estelle, what is it?" Susan had caught the girl gazing into the woods blankly with an unreadable expression on her face.
"I think I saw him too" she uttered under her breath.

"Look, i'm not about to jump off a cliff after someone that doesn't exist"
"The last time i didn't believe Lucy, I ended up looking pretty stupid" Edmund said in an attempt to bring the glow back to his sister's face.
"Why wouldn't I have seen him" There it was, Peter's entitlement, it was only now that Estelle knew of his royalty that it made sense to her. He was used to being the most important in the room at any given time.
"Maybe you weren't looking"
"I'm sorry Lu"
And with that (and much to Estelles disappointment) the five found themselves walking once more towards Beruna.

☆.。.:*.。.:*☆

word count: 2365
A/N
sorry for the slow chapter! i felt like it was needed to make the plot make sense to those who maybe haven't seen the films in a while. I tried to make it as different as possible as to not bore you. I promise the next few chapters pick up a bit as the story progresses! Also i am god awful at writing convincing dialogue scenes lol

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