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　　 𝐈𝐓 𝐓𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐒𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 for the sounds of nature to come back to life and for the morning sun to break through the clouds in streaks of light. There was an odd serenity which before was greatly appreciated, though now it felt odd after what had happened.

Kiano searched with his hands instead of his eyes to the nearest rock that wasn't there. His mind was spinning since losing his adrenaline rush and his whole body began to cave in. His muscles lost its strength from overworking as it only took a few steps before he inevitably dropped himself onto the moist ground.

The cold was a nice contrast to his heated body. He felt such a need to breathe rapidly that his mind spun more and he started to become dizzy. His heart hammered in his chest, beating so hard that he could even hear it. With every breath he took, he inhaled harmoniously with his heart even hiccuping in the same rhythm. He closed his eyes from the pain in his head and stomach, his hands plucking the grass underneath them.

Lucy slowly walked towards him, mindful of the dozens of wolves that were resting around him. None of them seemed to blame Kiano for killing their own kind. They had simply accepted their new leader and their new fate.

The wolves let Lucy approach him, but they kept a watchful eye on her. She knelt down beside him to get a better idea of the state he was in. He'd fought so hard when he didn't have to. His scraped-open knuckles made Lucy's stomach tie into a knot of guilt. If she still had her cordial, she could've healed him in an instant.

She opened her small briefcase that contained most of the first aid supplies they'd brought with them. She took out a light-blue cloth and without warning, she gently dabbed it against Kiano's jaw that was smudged with moss.

Kiano flinched and his eyes shot open towards Lucy. His tense muscles relaxed at the sight of her and he let her clean the dirt off his face. He was too tired to do it himself and the smoothness of the cloth felt pleasant with the gentle care that Lucy was using it with.

As Lucy watched Kiano's eyes doze off, she smiled. She lightly squeezed into the cloth to contain her happiness since she wanted him to rest. He'd fought so bravely and with no restraint and whatever the reason was, Lucy was forever grateful to him for keeping her family and friends safe. She carefully picked up one of his hands to clean it and found it remarkable when Kiano didn't react in the slightest when she disinfected his knuckles.

She placed a hand on his heated forehead once she was done caring for his wounds and frowned with worry. She took out another cloth, dampened it with water and lay it on his forehead before gently pressing on it.

'How is he?'

Lucy turned her head to look up at Victoria's towering statue behind her. She'd regained her posture, the elegance that she carried radiating from her like before, though her face showed nothing but concern. She couldn't hide her distress, not when Kiano and Alexis both needed medical aid and had reached their limits.

'He'll be alright. It's a miracle, but nothing's broken and he has no wounds except for his hands, but those are superficial,' Lucy spoke as she averted her attention back to Kiano. 'The bruises will heal in time too. He just needs some rest.'

Victoria nodded and turned when she felt a hand resting on her shoulder. There was slight relief to know that Chrys wasn't injured which lessened the ache of her heart that beat too hard in her chest. Edmund and Raiden appeared from behind her as she took Chrys' hand in her own and removed it from her shoulder.

'Your eyes are different,' Edmund said once he got a good look at Victoria's face.

'How so?' Victoria questioned him.

'They used to be just light-brown,' he said and walked closer to her. Her eyes were the colour of glittering bronze with darker rays fanning out around the bottomless pit of an iris, swirled with caramel crescent moons and trapped by a thick, hazy, black limbal ring. Though now, within those oceans of swirling brown colours, the brightest of blues was swimming through its currents. 'They're blue too.'

Victoria was trapped in Edmund's stare, until his words dawned on her. She blinked a few times, but her eyes felt the same as they'd always been.

Raiden stepped past Edmund to cup Victoria's face in his hands to examine her face. 'It's the same colour as those words that were alight on your skin before. I wish I'd remembered the runes so we could've deciphered it from ancient Narnian.' He frowned as he tried to sort out his thoughts aloud and softly stroked her cheek with his thumb. 'You can't feel anything on your skin out of the ordinary either.'

Edmund cleared his throat next to him and Raiden immediately dropped his hands as a result. He mumbled a quiet apology to Victoria, whose cheeks had flushed in surprise by Raiden's sudden touch.

Chrys tried to make sense of it all in her head, but she couldn't. Whatever spell had hit Victoria was forceful enough to knock her out in an instant and yet, she seemed like nothing had happened. There were no visible scars or bruises on her and aside from her concerns about Alexis and Kiano, nothing about her seemed unusual.

However, the spell that Victoria had fired, Chrys could sense it deep down in her very core. It was foreign and yet familiar. She couldn't quite explain it, not even to herself.

Erin's presence returning to the others was not as calm as it had been before. There was no danger lingering around them and no game to hunt, so she finally managed to shake the seriousness off her shoulders and enjoy the feeling of being surrounded by nature. She walked towards Alexis, where a cauldron with boiling water hung above a small fire.

Hermione was curiously bowed over the cauldron, though quickly straightened up again once Erin had come back. 'Did you find everything?' she asked.

'I did,' Erin spoke euphoniously and smiled at Hermione. She counted the plants and herbs in her hands and dropped some of it into the cauldron to boil.

'So you just know how to make treatments for different injuries?' Hermione asked again as though she was back in her school desk at Hogwarts.

Erin chuckled at Hermione's curiosity. 'Someone needs to make a treatment for Alexis' wolf bite,' she answered in a teasing tone, which made Hermione blush in a rosy hue.

The huntress stirred the contents of the cauldron as the witch eagerly kept on watching. The water soaked in the pigment of the different plants in a slow circular stream in which Erin kept stirring.

Peter rubbed the sweat off of his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt as he hammered another stake into the ground. While he loved Narnia's warm and sunny weather as opposed to the rainy days he'd often see in England, the heat wasn't much appreciated when he needed to do some physical labour.

Though he wouldn't slow down any time soon. Alexis needed a place to rest and so did Kiano. He couldn't leave them on the ground, hidden within the grass that was undoubtedly tickling their ears and cheeks.

Caspian and Florence were the only ones helping him, the others either aiding Alexis and Kiano or taking a moment to recover themselves. Peter was thankful for them and Erin, who helped make sure that Alexis would be alright. She'd almost fainted from the pain in her arm that was more excruciating than she was letting on and Peter knew that.

He paid enough attention to her to notice that she hadn't moved her arm since the wolf had released it. Her short glances skyward and her eyes squeezing together from the pain made Peter set up the tents as quickly as he could.

He searched through his bag and took out the finest blankets that he'd brought with him. He balled one of the blankets into a makeshift pillow and prepped everything within the tent for Alexis' stay before emerging from the tent again and walking over to Erin. 'The tent's ready for her,' he said as his gaze found Alexis laying next to her.

'Why don't you carry her there with those strong muscles of yours?' Erin asked. She didn't look up at him since she was too busy stirring and thus missed Hermione's frown, though Hermione had been frowning for most of the time while watching Erin create a treatment for Alexis.

Peter crouched down beside Alexis and carefully slid his arms underneath her neck and knees, before rising with her in his arms. He held her as close as he could while carrying her to one of the tents. He almost didn't want to let go of her again when he laid her down on the soft blankets.

While Kiano was still burning with how exhausted he was, Alexis felt cold to the touch. He covered her in one blanket first and then added one more to make sure all of her was covered except for her arm. She was still fast asleep just like Kiano not far away from her.

Erin entered the tent after Peter had sat with Alexis alone for what seemed seconds to him, but was in fact fifteen minutes. The moist leaves were done boiling and had cooled down completely. She held Alexis' arm and undid the bandages that were wrapped around her disinfected arm.

Peter looked at Alexis' wounds in shame. The wounds itself looked incredibly painful and disgusting and could make stomachs churn in seconds and yet, Peter's eyes were glued on it. He wanted to see it, he wanted to remember what he'd done by being stupid enough to walk into those traps and for scaring her away in the first place.

Erin gently covered each wound with a leaf or two and wrapped the bandages back around her arm. 'Now it's up to nature to heal her,' she mumbled. She got up, though got surprised when Peter stayed seated.

'You go. I'll keep an eye on her,' he said. As she nodded and turned, Peter called out her name again. The two locked eyes and Peter smiled at her for the first time since seeing her. 'It's good to see you again.'

'It's been a while, High King Peter the Magnificent,' she replied with a grin as she mockingly imitated him and walked out of the tent.

'Still mocking him about his introduction to you?' Caspian asked her and rose up from the ground after checking whether the stakes of Kiano and Alexis' tents were secured.

Erin chuckled once and cocked her head backwards to look at him. 'I'll never let him live that down,' she answered triumphantly. 'You of all people should know that, Caspian.'

Before Caspian could respond, their attention got caught by Harry's loud and angry voice. Charlotte crossed her arms in retaliation whereas Hermione let out a long sigh. Aiden was the only one not participating in the discussion the three were having, instead fully focused on his own thoughts and formulating a right strategy for once they'd reached the Western Wild.

He was staring in front of him, completely zoned out. He didn't even realise he was biting his nails that were already shortened so he wouldn't be as likely to bite them. His brain could focus incredibly well, to the point where he wasn't even aware of anything around him anymore. Voices muted in his head, his vision turned into a picture that he needed no attention for.

He'd figured out several strategies for the several theories they'd come up with, but he had trouble remembering a strategy once he'd thought of it. Normally, he'd go over his strategy time and time again until it had perfected in his head, but flashes of memories kept interrupting his thoughts.

Memories of who they thought would be waiting for them and as soon as he'd successfully gotten rid of those painful recollections, he'd be reminded of Chrys. He desperately wanted to talk with her and would occasionally glance over at her. The last she needed now was for him to apologise to her.

She was clearly overwhelmed with worry for Kiano and Alexis and kept visiting them with Victoria, who was another person that Chrys was concerned about. She continuously looked over to Victoria, studying her as much as she could without Victoria minding it too much, even when Chrys invaded her personal space.

He snapped out of his train of thought by Hermione's shrill voice striking one of his nerves. His eyes shot towards her and her hand that pushed her bushy hair behind her ear so it would stop tickling her nose.

'The Dark Lord could be a lot of people, Harry, not just Voldemort,' she argued. 'There have been several Dark Lords throughout history.'

'Exactly. I find it hard to believe that it's him. He's gone, remember? We've defeated him,' Charlotte added.

'He'll never truly be gone,' Harry scowled, his hands balled into fists by his sides. 'But you two don't understand. You may have lost one or two people that meant a lot to you, I lost all of my family because of him. I sometimes still see him when I close my eyes, he'll never leave me alone, ever!'

Angry tears burnt in his eyes as he clutched onto his head. Though he was avidly pacing back and forth, he stopped when Victoria laid her hand on his shoulder. She put gentle pressure on it so he would sit back down and with a slight nod, Harry felt understood.

'Who's Voldemort?' Chrys asked and sat down next to Aiden in the small circle the four Hogwarts graduates sat in.

Florence stretched, her muscles a bit sore from sleeping on the ground for days, and slowly walked around the circle to get rid of the soreness. 'Could be me, but that's a terrible name for a baby,' she retorted and kicked a small rock away.

Erin, Caspian, Lucy, Eustace, Raiden and Edmund gathered around their circle too, their interest piqued by the odd name and the distress on the four faces. Raiden sat down with Lucy on one side of Hermione and Eustace on her other side. Edmund stood next to Victoria, shifting his weight from one side to the other which caused their hands to brush against each other. Erin and Caspian opted to stand instead, the two Telmarines rather curious, though the answers that they received didn't make it any clearer than before.

'The greatest dark wizard who ever lived.'

'Someone who wanted to rule over all and didn't care for the costs it brought along.'

'A heartless monster. . .'

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Hii everyone,

I have moved! This past week I've been busy moving back in with my in-laws due to several circumstances. This means that writing has taken a bit of a backseat, obviously, which was mega sad.

I've been living here for a good three days, so it's all still some getting used to. I have to get used to the fact that I now live with several people so I can't write wherever I want. This also means that I have to socialise a lot more than before, so less time for myself.

AND I'm going to an interview this afternoon for a new part-time job to earn some money, cause I'm running out. . .

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading loves!

xx Theresa 

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