The Chronicles of Thalia

Chapter 8- An Undiscovered Truth

So we walked all the way to the Ford of Beruna. We get there and you'll never guess who we met. 

You guessed it. Telmarines. Fancy meeting them there, right?

So we walked all the way back to the River Rush and here we are standing on the edge of the cliff- again. Have I ever mentioned I hate walking? It's not helping that Peter's still being a prat, Lucy gone silent, and Trumpkin is being... well, Trumpkin. Edmund and I are not currently speaking to each- or acknowledging each others existence for that matter. Susan's the only one who will actually hold a civilized conversation with me. And I love Susan, but conversations with her tend to get repetitious these days. The going topic? Prince Caspian. She's worried about trusting a Telmarine. I don't really blame her- we were never on the best of terms with the Telmarines. But really, Su. Move on. We cross that bridge when we come to it. Speaking of bridges, we could really use one right about now. 

"Where was it you thought you saw Aslan?" Peter asks, looking at Lu.

"I wish you'd all stop trying to act like grown up." Lucy says, clearly fed up with the lot of us. "I don't think I saw him, I know I saw him."

"I am a grown up." Trumpkin protests, but Lucy ignores him.

"It was right....." A scream and Lucy was gone. Right off the cliff. 

"Lucy!!!" we all cry out collectively.

"Here!!!" Lucy's voice calls out to us, and we rush over to see her sitting on a little shelf on the side of the cliff. There was a little path, leading right down the side off the cliff. 

"A little faith and trust..." Edmund says as we make our way down.

"Don't forget the pixie dust." I say.

Edmund rolls his eyes. "I wish you'd stop being so ridiculous."

"And I wish you'd stop lecturing me about my faith. It's none of your business." I shoot back at him. Edmund doesn't respond, and my heart sinks a little. Those were the first words we'd said to each since that morning and they were venomous and mean. But I don't apologize. I didn't do anything wrong.  

Finally, we make it to the bottom and begin to make our way across the river. Not wanting to deal with Ed, I position myself between Peter and Lucy. I steadied Lucy and Peter steadied me and the whole arrangement was much more comfortable than arguing with Edmund. One final leap and I'm on the opposite side looking up the jagged side of the cliff. I was never very good at rock climbing.

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When we set up camp at dusk that night, the only thing that's changed is Peter's pride has gone down enough to make speaking to him tolerable. He walks off in the woods after camp is set up. I know he probably wants to be alone, but I chase after him anyway. I catch up to him.

"Peter!" He turns around. "About what I said this morning... I really am sorry. I didn't mean it." I say awkwardly.

He smiles. "It's alright. I know you didn't. We're all grumpy and saying things we don't mean."

I sigh. "I suppose that true." We walk a little ways farther before Peter flops down on the ground. 

"I think I'll just stay here for a bit." He says. I laugh and sit down next to him.

"They'll wonder what happened to us." I say.

"Let them wonder." Peter waves his hands dismissively. "I don't really feel like dealing with them at the moment."

I smile. "Do you ever think about it?" I ask. "The Golden Age."

Peter shrugs. "I try not to."

"I do. All the time. It helps a little, I think. It hurts a little less than pretending it never happened. I'd much rather feel the pain of missing something, than the pain of the emptiness of something I chose to forget. So I think about it. The picnics and eavesdropping on all your meetings."

Peter gives me a surprised look. "You eavesdropped on my meetings?"

I nod. "It was Edmund's idea originally, you know when you were being introduced to the duties of being the High and Mighty King. I carried on the tradition later. And then only the important ones."

"Do you remember anything from those top secret meetings you weren't supposed to know about?"

"Not much. At least not anymore. But I do remember trying really hard not to laugh I found out you had a crush on me."

Peter goes red. "You knew about that?"

I grin at him. "Lucy and I joked about it a lot. She was really disappointed when nothing came of it."

"Ah, yes. The crush ended quite abruptly when I met... that Archenland girl. I don't remember her name now."

"Alice."

"Yes, that's the one. Anyway, it's probably a good thing I got over it. You and Edmund were too close for me to have any hope."

I laugh. "Oh, yes. That was the rumor wasn't it? King Edmund and Thalia Rose, destined for love. Those poor old gossips never did get the satisfaction of being right."

"No. They just never got the satisfaction of you two realizing it."

I turn and look at Peter, "What are you saying?" 

He gives me a mischievous smile. "I'm saying that a certain undiscovered truth is going to slap one of you in face someday and it'll be all downhill from there." With that he gets up and walks away. 

"Hold on a minute." I call out, scrambling after him. "You explain yourself to me right now. What do you know that I don't." But Peter just smiles at me and keeps walking. 

"Peter Pevensie, I just want you to know that I hate you." I declare.

"Don't worry. The feelings mutual." He assures me.

Now it's my turn to give him the mischievous smile. "Ah, but it wasn't always was it?" Peter's face goes red but before he can say anything I'm halfway back to camp.

More Peter and Thalia. Honestly, idk where any of this is going but I came up with the idea for that particular conversation a couple of days ago and had to write it. It was just to hilarious for me not to. So here ya'll go. I promise I'll get back on track with the next chapter. I'm planning on bringing Prince Caspian into this and everything that happened in the movie. But I'm honestly having a lot of fun with these characters so bear with me.

>>Adry Grace