The Chronicles of Narnia: The King and The Servant

~ Chapter 13: Rescue Mission's ~

Peter POV

"Wakey, wakey, Your Majesty! It's time for another beautiful day!" I hear a high-pitched female voice say. I groan and roll onto my side.

"Can I please have five more minutes?" I ask tiredly. Out of nowhere comes a very bright light. I groan again and roll away from the open window. Golly, these servants are so pushy!

"King Peter –" I cut her off then with my hand before turning over onto my back and looking up at her shining, blue eyes.

"It's just Peter for you, Kabella," I stress before rolling back onto my side. She sighs long and hard. I wish she would just leave me alone and let me get my well-deserved rest.

"Fine then, Peter, please get up so that Starstone doesn't kill me. I promised her yesterday that I would wake you up in time for your first court meeting of the day, so pretty please," she pleads. I roll my eyes and sit up.

"Nothing in the world is going to get me out of this bed until at least ten am. I haven't been getting very much sleep lately, as you already know, so I would appreciate it if you just left me now," I state unenthusiastically while falling back down onto the soft, heather mattress.

"But you have a meeting at sev –" I cut her off with my hand again. She groans and is about to leave when a very worried looking Malina comes rushing in. Her eyes are red and puffy and her breathing is extremely fast. She looks like she's been crying.

"Peter, Ashley's missing!" she exclaims in absolute alarm. I sit up and freeze immediately. Ashley's missing! She can't be.

"Malina are you sure she's not out in the town somewhere. You know planning the wedding," I suggest. She shakes her head.

"She's gone, I've looked everywhere and, besides, there's people who say they saw someone carrying something that was struggling out of the castle last night. They said that whoever it was headed straight to Owl Wood," she exclaims in absolute hysterics. Tears are flowing rapidly down her pale cheeks and landing on the floor with quiet drops. She wipes her eyes and comes to sit next to me on the bed. "Your Majesty!" she screams while putting her cold hand on my shoulder. There are guards everywhere in this castle. No one can possibly just walk in and take Ashley out of her bedroom without the guards outside my room knowing. I mean the door to her bedroom is well hidden as well. It blends in with the surrounding wall. It's so well hidden in fact that, when it's dark, it's almost impossible to find the door handle. I grab the hand on my shoulder and look her in the eyes.

"Come on, Malina! You have to show me where Owl Wood is," I say while getting up and throwing on some random clothes. She nods and grabs my hand before pulling me out of the room. Malina speeds me out the door and through the narrow streets of the town until we arrive at the edge of the light forest. From here she leads me due North until we reach a wooden sign post that reads "Owl Wood". She drags me into the forest and stops.

"This is it. Would you like me to com –"

"Yes!" I cut her off quickly. I am not exactly in the mood to be in some unknown place by myself. I need a clue, anything, to prove that she was here. I glance down, my eyes instantly being drawn to what looks like fresh trails. I walk forward and get down on my knees to closely inspect them. There are two sets. The first deposits are of hoof marks and the second set looks like drag marks. I tilt my head naturally. Something came through here. "Come on, Malina, lets follow these tracks." Her sniffles from behind me is all the answer I need. I stand back up and start to follow them. The tracks lead us deep into the forest; I have to jump over brambles and push through branches constantly. Eventually though, we reach an open space. I stop abruptly. The tracks have vanished. Hmm...I wonder if there's an underground cavern or something. I feel warm skin lightly touch my hand suddenly and I jump slightly before looking over my shoulder.