Chapter 3✨

Raina could not be more confused. She watched the Pevensie siblings gawk at their surroundings in a solemn manner. She looked around too, it became apparent that this 'Cair Paravel' was a palace or castle of some sort. The structure of the ruins clearly resembled an old, medieval castle. She started to wonder,

'If the Pevensies know this place well, it has to be because they lived here, right?' Raina asked herself.

'But that would mean that..oh my' Raina widened her eyes.

'Guys? How do you know this place?' Raina asked, wondering if her hunch would be proved.

'Well..' Peter began.

'It's a long story, Raina' Susan continued.

'Well I guess it's a good thing we have got time, right?' Raina remarked.

All four siblings looked to each other, wondering who would begin, when Edmund spoke up.

'We used to be the Kings and Queens of Narnia. Technically we still are, but we have absolutely no idea what has happened here. So that's what we need to find out.' He said bluntly.

Raina just blinked and decided to go along with it.

'When did you lot even come here?' Raina asked inquisitively.

'Well, in our world, we came to Narnia about a year ago. We spent 15 years in Narnia as the rulers too. But time moves a lot faster here than it does back home. It's almost as if time stops in our world when we come here. When we came back, it was as if no time had passed at all. We became adults in Narnia, but we came back at the age we left.' Susan explained.

Raina slowly took it all in. Some of it began to make sense, but it was a lot. The five of them began walking forward, perhaps to find clues as to what happened. As they were walking, Edmund shot a concerned look over at Raina, who just gave him a nod.

They walked over to the side of the structure, when Edmund stopped. He observed the ruins.

'Catapults.' he said.

'What?' Peter asked.

Edmund looked up.

'This didn't just happen.' he spoke.

Raina spoke up.

'Do you think this place was attacked?' She asked.

Edmund nodded. A silence fell over the five of them. Edmund and Peter walked over to a door like structure, overgrown with trees by this point. They removed some weeds and pushed what seemed like a stone door to the side, revealing an unkempt wooden door entrance. Peter managed to open the door, it being brittle, and him using his pocket knife.

He then tore off a piece of his already torn white polo, and wrapped it around a stick. The rest of them watched him, frowning. He looked up at Edmund, who was standing in front of him.

'Don't suppose, you have any matches, do you?' Peter asked.

Edmund rummaged through his bag.

'No but..' he began

He took out an electric torch instead.

'Would this help?' He asked, a small smirk on his face.

Peter looked annoyed before saying.

'You might've mentioned that a bit sooner!' He said with slight irritation, but he smiled nonetheless.

Edmund had a cheeky grin on his face. He walked forward, and Peter gestured to the girls to go first. They walked down a spiral staircase. Raina was a little scared as she was afraid of darkness in general. All of them were then atop a small room, with 4 marble statues, with large chests in front of each one. The teenagers made their way down and Peter opened a metal gate before remarking,

'I can't believe it, it's all still here.' he spoke, reminiscently.

Lucy was the first to come forward as she ran towards a chest in the corner, and opened it. Edmund and Susan followed suit with their respective chests too. Raina observed the marble statues. They were clearly much older in it. She admired the detailing, and maybe glanced at Edmund's statue a few moments longer than necessary.

Lucy took out a long gown, clearly not something she could wear at the moment.

'I was so tall.' she said, holding the dress up to her now smaller frame.

'Well, you were older then.' Susan remarked.

It still baffled Raina how they actually grew up to be adults, but then went back to being children too. The way time worked in Narnia was something Raina tried to wrap her head around.

'As opposed to hundreds of years later, when you are younger.' Edmund sarcastically spoke, earning a few laughs.

Raina walked around the room, taking it in. As she passed a corner wall, she felt a strange tingle in the back of her neck. She stopped dead in her tracks, as she tried to figure out why she felt that. Her eyes fell upon the wall, when she heard Lucy and Susan.

'What is it?' Lucy asked.

'My horn, I must've left it on my saddle, the day we went back.' Susan ruefully spoke.

Raina reached the wall by this point, as she observed it. There was a very precise crack in the wall, almost like a hidden compartment. She placed her hand on it and it crumbled apart, making her jump. Dust shot out, as coughing filled the air. As the dust cleared, there was an open space in the wall, some objects inside.

'What is this?' She asked, worriedly.

'I..don't remember that ever being here. That's strange.' Peter said doubtfully.

He came over and carefully took out the objects in the hidden compartment, which was nothing but a small object, wrapped in cloth and a piece of paper, clearly hundreds, if not a thousand years old. By this point, Susan, Lucy and Edmund had all come over to see what was going on.

'What is that?' Raina asked no one in particular.

Peter first picked up the paper. It had a sketch of someone in battle, mainly the back of their head but a small sliver of their face was visible.

'That's a woman, isn't it?' Raina asked again.

'It has to be, look at the armour too.' Edmund responded.

It was true, the armour wasn't similar to that of men, it has a feminine presence to it, but powerful nonetheless. For some reason, Raina was able to feel the presence of an unknown power just looking at the sketch.

'Pete, is that who I think it is?' Edmund asked slowly, something dawning on him.

'It is..' Peter trailed off.

Susan and Lucy's eyes widened, and as always Raina was confused.

'Who is it? What are you talking about?' Raina asked, a little bit of irritation in her voice considering she has absolutely no idea who it is, or what the rest of them were talking about.

'That's the Narnian Protector, Ranin. Everyone thought it was a man..' Peter trailer off again, causing Raina's eyebrows to shoot up.

'I'm sorry, why wouldn't it be a woman? Women are powerful, you know.' She said with a bit of power and control. Peter looked down in embarrassment. Susan, Lucy and Edmund snorted.

'No that's not what I meant, it's that when we lived here, we heard about the Narnia Protector and according to some alleged eyewitnesses, she was a man, but clearly not.' Peter replied.

The woman in the sketch had dark brown hair, which reached her waist. It was half pinned up. She held a sword in her right hand, which was lifted high above her head, pointed low at the enemy. Her left hand was stretched forward and it appeared to glow. It was a sight of true power and strength. Raina envisioned this woman in her mind and she had chills.

'Do you know what she looks like?' Raina asked.

'No we don't, but..' Edmund started speaking but trailed off.

'Ed? Is everything okay?' Susan asked.

Edmund went to his chest and pulled out what seemed to be an old tome. It was leather bound and had a golden scroll. He opened it and hurriedly flipped the pages. He opened a page which had another sketch, similar to the one they found earlier, only this time, a slightly larger amount of the woman's face was visible. It didn't do much, but they noticed that the woman had a mole next to her left eye.

'That's all we have to identify her. Look, according to the legend, The Narnian Protector is supposed to resurface when the Kings and Queens of Old return to Narnia. Back then we didn't know it was us because we were already Kings and Queens. So we assumed it was the previous monarchs.' Edmund explained.

Raina decided to bring up the question she's had in her mind ever since she set foot in Narnia.

'I would very much like to know why exactly I'm here. I'm not exactly part of this, am I? If you are the Kings and Queens, then what am I here for?' Raina asked bluntly.

Raina turned away and put her hair behind her left ear, but then she remembered something and covered it again. Edmund noticed this and he decided to ask her about it.

'Raina why did you cover that?'

She looked up and sighed.

'I have a mole next to my eye and some kids used to make fun of me for it, so I don't like showing it. Ideally I would use mom's makeup to cover it but she doesn't allow me to use it.' Raina explained.

The four Pevensies looked at each other, as if they were all thinking the same thing. They slowly turned their gaze on Raina.

'Um.. what are you doing?' Raina asked, confused.

Edmund walked over to her.

'May I?' He gestured to her hair which she covered her mole with.

'Uh... sure?' She said completely dumbfounded.

Edmund carefully tucked Raina's hair behind her left ear, and his hand lingered there after he was done. They stared at each other for a few moments before Edmund caught himself, and Raina looked away. Edmund found the mole and checked the sketch again.

'Wait whoa whoa whoa, hold on, you don't think I'm this all powerful protector, do you?' Raina asked in disbelief.

Edmund's hunch was confirmed as he stepped away from Raina and looked at Peter.

'Raina, I think I know why you came with us to Narnia..' Peter began.

Lucy's eyes were sparkling with excitement.

'Oh my god, Raina is the Narnian Protector! Oh! Maybe you can be a Queen with us too!' She said, excitedly.

Raina's eyes widened and she shook her head profusely.

'Oh no, no no, oh no no no. That can't be, I'm pretty sure it's just because I was standing with you guys at the train station. If I was a few feet away, none of this would have happened, I'm sure.' Raina tried to keep her voice levelled, but she couldn't agree with what she said completely.

'Raina I know this is a lot.' Susan spoke.

'Yeah, that it is.' Raina said with a little bit of sass.

'You have to understand that you don't come to Narnia for nothing. You came here for a reason.' Susan continued.

'But you can't confirm that I'm the Narnian Protector by something that could just be a coincidence, right? A lot of people have moles on their face. I could just be one of them.' Raina spoke, trying to sound rational.

'There is one way we can confirm if you are..' Edmund spoke.

'There is?' Raina asked.

He walked over to the hidden compartment and pulled out the small object wrapped in cloth. He carefully removed it and there was a box inside. It looked almost like a jewelry box. He opened the box to reveal a gorgeous necklace. The pendant was purple in colour, but since it was fairly dark it wasn't very visible. It was beautiful, nonetheless.

(A/N imagine it's not glowing yet)

'That is so beautiful.' Raina began.

'It's called The Imperium. It's Latin for power.' Lucy explained.

'The legend says that only when worn or held by Aslan, Jadis or the Narnia Protector, the pendant glows. Anyone else trying to wear it meets an untimely death.' Peter spoke.

'People died wearing this?!' Raina asked, terrified.

'Some have, but most people don't dare to wear it.' Susan explained.

Edmund held the box and looked at Raina. She knew what he was trying to say and she wasn't having it.

'OH HELL NO! You're trying to get me to wear a necklace that could literally kill me? Are you out of your minds?!' Raina yelled.

'You don't have to wear it. Just hold it, if nothing happens, we'll slip it back and no one will ever know.' Edmund reassured her.

'Has anyone died holding the necklace?' Raina carefully asked.

'Oh no, don't worry, we've all held it once.' Lucy reassured her too.

Raina took a deep breath and inched towards the necklace. She was terrified but she tried to maintain herself. Her hands were shaking. She looked at Edmund and he sent her a reassuring glance, she felt a little at ease. She carefully lifted the necklace from its case, and held it in both hands.

A few moments passed, nothing happened. Raina continued to stare at the necklace, whilst the Pevensies waited anxiously for any reaction. Raina looked up.

'Well, that's that. I'm not the Protector.' She heaved a sigh of relief but part of it was forced.

The Pevensies looked down, disappointed slightly, as they were hoping Raina was the one.

As she was about to place the necklace in the case, something crackled inside the necklace. She got a bit of shock too, making her jump back, still holding it.

'Whoa, what was that?' She screamed.

She looked at the necklace, and it seemed as though light was coming from inside it. Raina and the Pevensies stared at it.

'What is happening?' Raina asked, cautiously.

The Pevensies couldn't say a word, as they were fixated on the necklace. It was now glowing in Raina's hand. It was otherworldly, terrifyingly magical.

'Raina, I think you should put it on..' Peter said slowly.

She gulped and clasped it on. The light grew brighter, so much so she had to shield her eyes from it. It should've burned but, it didn't.

All she could see was white.

to everyone reading, i humbly ask you to vote on the chapters as it would really help my fanfic.