Chapter Seven – What Happens in the Woods, Doesn’t Always Stay in the Woods

//Even as a young girl
I was not the bashful type//

From the time when the new day had dawned things with the significantly sized group seemed to be running efficiently. They were making advantageous time on their trek to Caspian’s base camp and astonishingly - for once – Caspian was the one in reality leading the group, with no intervention from a particular domineering High King of old.

Buffy was walking – thanks to Reepicheep’s sword and some artistic cutting of her hemline – by herself and enjoying the solitude that went along with it. None of the Pevensies had endeavoured to join or invite her anywhere and even Peter had stopped looking at her – which, to her disappointment, was in point of fact causing more agitation than calmness.

She was on the other hand shocked when a Centaur came within reach of her, it was the one she had noticed often speaking to the Prince – Glenstorm. He did not speak to her at the outset, merely choosing to walk beside her in a contented silence.

“The stars tell me that you are a distinguished warrior who has travelled far to come to the aid of our Kings and Queens.”

Buffy said incredulously, “Do they now?”

“I would not have believed it from any other resource. You do not look like a warrior, of this world or any other. However the stars are not sufficiently expert at telling falsehoods.”

“You know... the last person I met that that talked to the stars, was insane.”

He expressed his amusement, not at all affronted by her comment. “I am not insane; my people are simply connected to the world and the things above it and can therefore comprehend – when they choose it to be so - what their messages are.”

“If they‘re being so convenient with their messages – do they say whether or not we’re going to win?”

“Regrettably they are not that specific,” he told her. “They do however say that you will be subjected to a significant hardship before the battle truthfully can begin and that you must triumph over it for us to stand a genuine chance at victory.”

“Oh joy!”

By the time that the respite for the midday meal had been organized, Buffy had driven herself crazy trying to figure out what in hell that Centaur had been talking about. Because to her it had the disastrous ring of prophecy about it and she detested prophecies with a passion.

It was times like these that she wholeheartedly yearned for the Scoobies. If she were at home right now Giles would be leafing through his numerous books, Willow checking the internet and Xander... well, he would be doing his best to distract her with his overworked clowning around and jokes.

Out of those straightforward thoughts, melancholy out of the blue beleaguered her and all of the feelings that she had been repressing over the past few days effervesced to the surface. She closed her eyes and attempted a crude form of the meditation that Giles had been trying to teach her all year, in a unsuccessful effort to stop the tears from falling.

Since she had not been completely triumphant she was thankful that she had chosen to sit unaccompanied. She never noticed that Reepicheep was approaching with his meal and an suggestion to keep her company or neither did she notice him scamper off to get someone more knowledgeable in matters such as these to console her.

Within minutes she was surrounded by the Pevensie girls. Without words the two of them just reached out and hugged her in an attempt to offer reassurance without interfering. Although the sentiment was appreciated, it was in reality making her a little more than uncomfortable.

As soon as she was physically able she put distance between them all. “Thanks – uh – I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s okay,” Susan replied perceptively. “We went through the same thing the last time we were here. You miss your family and friends, right?”

“Pretty much.”

“Don’t worry,” Lucy added. “You’ll see them again.”

Hours later she had recovered to some extent from her attack of girlishness, but was more than slightly humiliated that it had transpired and that it had been witnessed. Apart from when she was in horrendous pain, she hadn’t really cried in years – she hadn’t even cried when Angel had left to go get rid of The Judge’s arm – and to break down now when she needed to be on top of her game was inappropriate.

At least one decent thing had came to pass that day, Prince Caspian had announced – much to everyone’s relief – that they were approaching his headquarters and should reach it long before night fell. So at least she was not going to be camping out in the spine-chilling forest yet again, although she supposed the other lodgings could be worse.

As they continued their stride through the woods, the forest grew denser – unmanageable brush and overgrown trees – and melded together to form a virtually impenetrable wall around the group. A feeling of trepidation began to coil in Buffy’s stomach, the same one that more often than not resulted in catastrophe for her.

Part of her wanted to accept as true that she was just being paranoid and that nothing was going to come to pass, after all her senses had been a bit off since arriving in Narnia – how else could she rationalize the Peter incident. And even if she wasn’t mistaken, how could she explain to everyone that there was going to be an attack.

She was confident that Caspian would believe her, him being the only one privy to her secret, but there was still a complete army to persuade. She was still pondering with herself over her predicament when her slayer hearing picked up the sounds of horses, but she was unsure whether or not it was real or she was imagining it. Looking over at her new Minotaur friends, she saw that they were also on guard and that was when she realised that they were all in a lot of trouble.

She made up her mind swiftly after that; it wasn’t reasonable not to forewarn the others, in particular since the Minotaurs didn’t seem inclined to share the information. Buffy rushed towards the midpoint of the group to where Caspian was talking to Reepicheep and some of the other animals and pulled him aside not caring about his conversation.

“That was rude,” he said before she could even open her mouth. “Could you have not waited?”

“No,” she replied attempting to once again catch her breath. “Something is wrong.”

Caspian looked at her, “What do you mean?”

“Can’t you feel it? Something is about to attack!”

“Do not be ridiculous... we are absolutely safe.”

She shook her head at him, “If you don’t believe me... and you should. Take a look around at the others. Watch what the Minotaurs are doing.”

Caspian humoured her, even though he thought she was wide of the mark. What he saw rapidly changed his estimation of her insight and her senses. The Minotaurs, who more often than not segregated themselves to a great extent, were weaving their way through the group, spreading out in some sort of formation and had unsheathed their weapons.

“I will notify the others,” he told her starting to walk away. At the last moment he turned back, “Thank you and I am sorry. Next time I shall trust you.”

“Don’t worry about it. Just make sure everyone knows what’s going on.”

She watched him walk away and whisper something to the ones he had been conversing with before her interruption. Satisfied that she had done her duty of informing someone of the imminent trouble, she turned her consideration to her next task – finding herself a weapon – since there was no way she was going to actively stay out of the first chance she’d had to kick some butt since arriving.

Surveying the multitude, she caught sight of Asterius, the first Minotaur she had forced to make friends with her and headed towards his location. As she moved next to him, without word he handed her his second weapon, a large knife – not as functional as the swords the others had, but still better than being unarmed - and smiling at him she appreciatively accepted the privilege that he had bestowed upon her.

Buffy was examining her plaything when Peter came up behind her and grabbed her arm. “Come on, we need to get you to safety.”

“Excuse me?”

Peter did not let go or stop dragging her and as tempted as she was to thump him, she maintained her composed facade, only just. “Look, you need to stay with the girls. I can’t have you running around and getting wounded. You have no idea of how terrible battle can be.” She was unexpectedly thrust at Susan and Lucy as he departed with a simple, “Keep her safe,” to Susan.

“Did you hear?” Lucy asked her.

“Yes...”

“Don’t worry,” Susan told her, mistaking her stillness for apprehension over a certain High King. “Peter will be fine.”

“What a pity,” Buffy muttered; glowering in the direction he had stalked off in. “So why aren’t we allowed to fight?”

“Su’s the only one with a weapon and even she gets pushed aside when Peter’s in charge,” Lucy replied. “He’s just trying to keep us safe.”

The assault came just as was anticipated, though there were not as many Telmarine soldiers and the Narnians without doubt outnumbered them by quite a few. Even though they had the numbers advantage they had divided leadership once again, with Peter and Caspian both barking orders that countermanded each other and as a result allowed several of the enemy to penetrate the middle of the group and end up – coincidently – close to the girls.

Using her bow, Susan took out quite a few as they approached but one lone soldier came up from behind and in a spineless move went after Lucy. Buffy swerved around and kicked him clear across the vicinity into the middle of a fight between a Telmarine and a Centaur, flabbergasting Lucy. Without hesitation she threw the knife at an oncoming soldier, hitting him in the centre of his left eye and knocking him down to the ground, where he becoming weak with suffering while warfare raged on around him.

Adrenaline flooding through her veins, Buffy gave up all pretence of ordinariness and just let her slayer side take over. After having been repressed since she had met up with the Pevensie children, she had more than a sufficient amount of staying power to carry her through the bloodshed, as well as cause a reasonable quantity of her own.

Kicking, punching and a hotchpotch of martial arts moves that had been drummed into her over the years flooded to the surface. Within moments she had snatched the sword of the fallen Telmarine and was using it on his companions, with a grace that denoted her expertise with the weapon. She had just run through the last soldier with her captured sword when she looked up and found herself under the intense scrutiny of her fellow travellers.

“Uh – I can explain,” she said dropping the sword and facing them.

When her eyes met Peter’s, she froze, gone was the hazy look of attraction, replaced with a ferocity that could rival the most vicious of demons. “We’re waiting,” he replied his voice as frosty as the expression in his cool blue eyes.

End Part

Lyrics:

Kristy Lee Akers – I’m Little But I’m Loud

Notes:

Sorry it took so long, but I rewrote the darn thing like six times and I am still a little unsatisfied. That is always a problem with me; imagine it perfectly and expressly not so.

Also thank you to everyone who took time to read and review.