Semi-trigger warning.

You fell to your knees at the bank of the river, tears streaming down your cheeks as you clutched helplessly at the ground, not caring that the ground was muddy and wet and you would probably get a whipping from your mother for this when you went back home.

"Is this how the world is?"

A few meters away, a young man watched from a copse of trees, a badger and a mouse at his side. The latter pair had been keeping watch over you for years, providing you with the comfort and kindness you never received from your blood family, and now, with a plan being concocted to take Miraz off the throne, they thought you could be a useful ally- they just hadn't expected to find you in such a state, sobbing and talking to yourself in grief.

"To be beaten and betrayed and then be told that nothing changes? It'll always be like this?"

Your sister, the only person in your family you'd ever loved, had died this morning when a stranger from a nearby village attacked her because she wouldn't 'please' him. The man got off scot-free and to your further horror, your father apologized to him for the 'inconvenience' and offered you as a reconciliation. You were to leave tomorrow morning with this wicked man, never to return to your Narnian friends in the forest, unable to even attend what pathetic funeral service your parents arranged for your sister- or so you thought.

"Y/N?"

You turned your head, holding yourself in a tight hug, to see Trufflehunter and Reepicheep gazing at you in your pitiful state with worry. A young man you'd never seen before stood with them and, to your surprise, he seemed just as concerned despite never having met you before. Shivering, you gathered what little dignity you had left and slowly rose from the sodden riverbank, mud caking your lower half.

"I don't know what to do."

Inspired by "If It's True" from the Broadway musical Hadestown ()