'Twas the mid of night. Everyone in the castle is supposed to be sleeping at this time. Everyone was sleeping, excluding everyone important (to unbeknownst Zola's surprise). And, excluding Zola. Zola was reading about the wonderful land of Narnia under her sheets. If they found out, they'd kill her. Zola's uncle was severely against the Narnians.

            Zola often escaped the castle to go to Narnia, simply to help the Narnians. She'd bring them food, help them rebuild their homes. The only one who knew was her boyfriend Jameson, she could trust Jameson and she did.

            She didn't even tell Caspian. No matter how much Zola loved Caspian, she thought he wouldn't have understood. Caspian was supposed to become King soon and he could not have the trouble of communications with Narnians. Telmarines hate Narnians.

            Zola's head popped up from under her sheets after hearing a knock on the door. She hid her book under her pillow and got up to open the door. Behind the door stood Jameson, his skin glowing in the torch's fire.

            "Hey," Zola said. "What're you doing here so late?"

            Jameson kept his eyes on the floor as he came into the room, Zola closing the door behind him. She noticed how he was trying everything in his power to not look at her, trailing along the books and other stuff on her table.

            "Are you quite alright?" She asked, getting closer to him to touch his shoulder. Zola let go of his shoulder when he tensed up at the physical touch. "James?"

            He turned around. Jameson's eyes were filled with tears to the brim, Zola was surprised his vision wasn't completely blurry yet. His face scrunched up when he tilted his head, something Jameson would always do when he cried.

            Zola's eyebrows furrowed. "I'm so sorry, Fran." Jameson whimpered.

            "Sorry about wha—" Before Zola could finish her sentence, she felt a sharp object entering her side. She didn't exactly feel what was going on yet, but when Zola looked down to see a knife stuck in her stomach and blood pouring out of it, she knew. She looked up at her boyfriend, regret written all over his face.

            A tear escaped Jameson's eye, looking at his girlfriend. "They made me, I'm so sorry." He turned around, his hands on his head and talking to himself.

            It was obvious this wasn't his choice, but for Zola it was also obvious he had to kill her. If she didn't act now, she might not ever leave this room. With Jameson's back facing her, Zola attacked him.

            She jumped on his back to strangle him from behind, because Jameson was too tall for her to do it standing. Zola tried to ignore the fact that it pushed the knife deeper into her skin.

            Jameson bent forward, letting Zola fall on the ground. He straddled her, pinning her wrists against the floor. "Stop, Fran! You're making this hard on both of us!" Jameson pleaded.

            But Fran wasn't about to stop. She wanted to live, she didn't even know why this was happening. Had she done something wrong? Had her uncle maybe found out about the Narnians and become so furious he'd make Jameson kill her?

            Zola kicked Jameson in his gut with her knee. In the moment he doubled over in pain, she got out from under him. Zola stood up, standing over Jameson rolling over the floor.

            Jameson was incredibly strong, but he couldn't endure any pain. Because of this, he could never have become a soldier. When Zola was taking a small breath, he tripped her, still on the floor.

            He changed places to sit on her again, except this time Zola wouldn't let her hands be pinned so soon. She pushed back, but she knew she wasn't going to keep up with this forever.

            To throw Jameson off his balance, she promptly put her hand down. As she expected, his pressure got less, causing an opening for her. Zola grabbed the knife in her stomach and pulled it out swiftly, crying in pain, to stab it in Jameson's heart.

            The life slowly drained out of Jameson's eyes as Zola dropped his body to the side. She sobbed silently. Jameson might have been sent to kill her, but he was still her boyfriend and he was still dead.

              Zola got up to tear a piece off of her sheets and bind it around her torso. It was an attempt to stop the bleeding. A poor one, but still, it was an attempt.

            The further commotion in the castle was taunting Zola to look outside her window. There weren't supposed to be this many guards. What the hell was happening? Zola needed to talk to the Professor about this. Maybe he knew more than she did.

            She grabbed her cape and put the hood over her head so the guards would not recognise her. Zola was limping because of her injury, but that didn't stop her from running through the halls.

            Normally, you'd have to knock at the Professor's door, but this time, Zola chose to neglect that rule. She ran inside, the Professor looked up from his book, gave the bandaged torso one glance and said. "It's happening."

            He grabbed a cape also and then Zola's hand. "Come, child, we must hurry." For an old man like the Professor, he was still mobile.

            The Professor chose not to run, because he said it attracts guards. And he was right, they arrived at Caspian's bedroom quite easily. Zola had expected at least as much guards inside as outside.

            The Professor gave Zola a glance and put his finger in front of his mouth to make sure she knew to stay quiet. He put his other hand on Caspian's mouth, waking him up.

            Caspian's relaxed breathing turned into gasps immediately. His eyes were wide, but when he saw the faces of the people in his room, he relaxed and took  the Professor's hand off of his mouth. "Five more minutes."

            "Five more minutes and you're dead." Zola whisper–yelled at her brother, who'd turned to the other side of his bed.

            "You won't be watching the stars tonight, my prince," The Professor added. That got Caspian's attention. "Come. We must hurry."

            He dragged Caspian out of his bed, Zola going after them. "Professor, what's going on?" He asked drowsily.

            "Your aunt has given birth," the Professor stopped momentarily in front of a closet to hold the siblings' hands. "to a son."

            "Oh, boy." Zola let out a deep sigh. What she couldn't quite understand about the situation was the reason she'd have to be killed then too. It was Caspian who was the heir, meanwhile she was just a girl. No girl had ever ruled the Telmarines.

            The Professor opened the door to the closet, urging Caspian and Zola to come in. They went in, but Caspian kept the double door open by a crack. Zola and Caspian could look through the gap at Caspian's bed.

            A group of at least twenty soldiers surrounded Caspian's bed, their crossbows ready to shoot, general Glozelle in the middle of them. One by one they shot through the curtains of Caspian's bed, at the place where his body laid a minute ago. Zola grabbed her brother's hand in reassurance that he was still beside her, Caspian squeezed her hand to comfort her.

            They shot so often that there was nothing left of the curtain and it was only then that they realised Caspian wasn't in that bed.

            "Not again!" General Glozelle screamed. "Look for them! Search every inch of this castle! Do not spare your arrows on them."

            The soldiers all left the room, the Professor led Caspian and Zola downstairs to the armoury in a swift tempo. Caspian grabbed his sword and Zola grabbed hers.

            Zola's sword had a silver handle with her initials carved into it. In the cold metal was a writing engraved on both sides. "Memento mori," It said, remember you must die. It was a sword famous all over their land.

            Zola also grabbed a sack she could swing over her shoulder and fill with all kinds of things. She filled it with daggers, but mostly stuff to later tend to her injury with.

            She was lucky to have been awake still and not have changed, otherwise she'd still have been in her sleeping gown. Instead, Zola was in yesterdays clothing, a white blouse, tucked into a pair of brown leather trousers fitting loosely around her waist and legs.

            Zola and Caspian followed the Professor to the stables, where two horses were waiting on them. Finley, Zola's permanent horse, was one of them. They were saddled up and ready to go already.

            The two siblings got in the saddles, but Zola couldn't get up as smooth as normal, which caught Caspian's attention. She had that big cape in front of her, blocking his vision of seeing anything strange.

            "You must make for the woods." The Professor advised.

            "The woods?"

            "They won't follow you there," Zola saw the Professor get something out of his pocket and give it to Caspian. "It has taken me many years to find this. Do not use it except at your greatest need."

            Caspian clipped the thing onto the rim of his trousers. "Will we ever see you again?"

            "I dearly hope so, my prince and princess," The Professor smiled. "There is so much more I meant to tell you. Everything you know is about to change."

              "We're coming back for you, promise!" Zola yelled, already going towards the drawbridge. A soldier was shouting that they needed to close it, so time was running out.

            They galloped over the courtyard, killing any guards in their way with their swords. Once outside of the castle, fireworks exploded behind them, making Zola look back at the sounds.

            What she could also see while facing back were many soldiers coming after them on horses. Time was really running out.

            Once you're out of sight from the castle, there is a big field of grass before entering the woods. At the edge of the forest, all the soldiers stopped their horses. Zola thought it might help to stop looking back at them and actually look at where her horse was headed.

            They crossed a river, and went through more woods. The woods were miles long, there was no ending them. Caspian was right behind Zola, so he could keep her in his eyesight. He did not want to leave her now.

            Zola bent forward to dodge a big, low hanging branch. As she bent forward, the reminder of a blade having been put in her stomach made a comeback. So much that she couldn't get back up straight.

            Luckily, Finley was a good boy and allowed Zola to lay forward on his neck. Her vision became blurry and she began to feel dizzier every minute.

            That's the last thing Zola Francesca remembered before blacking out, with no clue that Caspian was no longer behind her.

author's note !!
why did i actually like this??

my poor baby, its the first chapter and shes already gone through all this man

im also changing the ages to what i at first believed them to be, so
peter—
tltwatc - 14
pc - 17
tvotdt - 19

susan—
tltwatc - 13
pc - 16
tvotdt - 18

edmund—
tltwatc - 12
pc - 15
tvotdt - 17

lucy—
tltwatc - 9
pc - 12
tvotdt - 14