Peter's POV:

Edmunds call ended abruptly and Peter slipped his phone back into his pocket. He allowed himself to stand in a daze for all of five seconds before forcing himself to begin walking, feeling like a high king once more. That's what they don't tell you, when you get crowned. How sometimes people stop being worthy. How if you get treated like a dumb animal, sometimes you become a dumb animal.

Peter had just left a class on Accounting for International & Public Affairs and had decided that they could afford groceries today and wouldn't have to make do with the McDonalds dollar menu. It happened sometimes. Before he got halfway down the block his phone was buzzing, the screen telling him that Edmund was calling. "Hello?"

"Peter! Listen, there's not a lot of time to explain."

And this was how Peter found himself running around in a twenty minute perimeter of the area east of the end of central park that was nearer to their apartment. He had his phones map app to track what streets he had already frantically run down. Edmund didn't need to tell Peter that they had to be the first ones to find them, because if they weren't, they would never hear from their friends again. Peter had called Susan, telling her to search the west. She had taken it rather well, all things considered. All things being that talking animals and mythological creatures from the land that they were monarchs of had stepped into the land where last week Edmund made a chart about the maximum amount they could spend on pasta for the rest of the year. And everyone had considered it useful and informative.

Peter was coming up on Thomas Jefferson Park when he heard a woman in it say " .God." He decides to go see what she's looking at, torn between wanting to find them and not wanting them to be seen. The woman's voice he heard had come from the direction of the area behind the public restrooms.

His heart stopped when he rounded the corner. He's too late. She's already got her phone out, taking pictures of the extremely confused looking General Oreius and Captain Sepphora. He's so busy wondering why she hasn't screamed that it takes him a moment to realize what she's saying. "Your costuming is just amazing! Are you guys filming a movie nearby? I assumed they just did this stuff with like, animation or something! Is it robotic?" She thought they were actors. She thought they were actors!

He whipped out his phone and walked briskly up to them, staring at the screen as though he was reading something very important. "Mr. Smith, Ms. Brightly, they're ready to start filming again." He told the bewildered centaurs, before swinging his gaze over the woman and letting it drop to the phone as though he'd just noticed. His heart was pounding, he wasn't used to lying on the spot like this. It was something more suited to Susan or Ed. "Are you taking pictures? You're not allowed to do that." He said while attempting the tone of a micromanaging personal assistant.

"So what if I did?" She asked with typical New Yorker aggression.

"Delete them." Peter demanded. "Please, this is a top secret project." He added.

"No! They're going on Insta. What are you guys filming anyway?" She asserted, and Peter knew she wasn't going to back down.

"So you didn't use the cloud?"

"No. Why?" She asked in confused wariness. Peter gulped. He was ultra-aware of his arm reaching out and snatching the phone out of her hand. Hurriedly looking at it while Oreius stepped in front of the woman's way, he was vexed to see that in the transfer from her hand to his the screen had gotten locked. Only one thing to do, though he was reluctant to do it. Oreius was still blocking the woman's path no matter how she tried to reach Peter and her phone.

Peter dropped the woman's phone, hearing it clatter on the sidewalk at his feet, and brought his heel into it. Hard. Once, twice, three times. He ground the twisted remains with his heel. "We have to go, right now." He told his two friends and loyal subjects urgently.

The three of them took off running with Peter leading them. Get them off the streets is his only thought. He was ducking through every alley way he could before he allowed them to slip up the main street. The main street being somewhere along Third Avenue and E 116th street. Peter knew that there was a small store there that Lucy liked to go to sometimes that might have just what they needed. "Hide your selves, allow no one to see you. I will return shortly." The centaurs nodded their assent.

The bell on the door of the small dark shop jangled when Peter opened it and he knew he had to hurry. An old woman manning the counter looked up at the sound and gave him a sweet smile. "Hello you man."

"Hello. Do you have any really oversized pillow cases or sacks?"

"Oh, you've got some of those new big trendy pillows. My granddaughters got one of those on her bed. Looks nice, but it's like another smaller bed! We've got some of those right over here." She said and shuffled over to a shelf. "What colors did you have in mind?"

"Ugh… something either black or beige? If you don't have that maybe a navy blue. Two please." He pulled out his phone and sent a quick group text to his siblings to tell them that he'd found them, with some difficulties.

The old woman pulled out two black folded pillow cases and set them on the counter, typing on the cash register. "That'll be 20 dollars."

"Oh! And I need a large sort of squarish cloth, like a shawl, or a pashmina even."

"Maybe one of those right over there?" She said pointing with a wizened old finger to a rack of large pieces of cloth, covered in a print that brought to mind Arabian Nights. Peter hurriedly picked out an indigo piece, and saw that it did seem to be a large wrap of some sort.

He put it on the counter in front of the old woman who rung it up. "27 dollars please." He inwardly cringed at the thought of spending money on cloth. But what could he do? He had to them back to the apartment. Along this line of thought Peter handed her his credit card, going through the motions of the purpose. "Have a nice day."

"You to." He called over his shoulder as he stepped back into the bright sunlight. He looked over his shoulder before he ducked into the alley way with his bundle under his arm. "Oreius? Sepphora?" He whispered, before hearing the clip clop of horse hooves stepping out of the shadows. "Take off those bags and your swords and give them to me." The general and the captain hurried to obey, knowing their high king, for all he was different looking these days. They hand him first the bags and then the swords, and he wraps the all up in the cloth so that no one could see the weapons.

"Put these over your heads. It's a disguise, so people think you're carriage horses." It might not have been one of his better plans.

The centaurs might have been a proud race, but they knew that now was no time to uphold dignity. The transformation completed, and being the best he could do on such short notice, they hurried back onto the main street again, making better time. People still stared, but more in a 'What's with the horses?' sort of way. They sped down E 116the Street, passing the McDonalds and the Wendies and Peters never been more glad to see them. Finally he pulled them through the apartment buildings doors, muttering for them to duck their heads down. He pulled the hoods off but motioned for them to stay silent. They crept up the stairs together until they reached the Pevensie's own apartment. Peter fumbled for his keys, realizing his hands were shaking with adrenaline. He swings the door open and motions them in, relief flooding him when he finally closes the door and locked it.

The centaurs sweep into the bows they've been waiting to give. "Your majesty." Oreius started, but he seemed at a loss for words.

"Your majesty. Is king Edmund returning?" Jalur asked. Stepping out from behind the end of the couch that was against the wall.

"Not that I know of. He went to help Susan look for Tumnus I believe. I must go help Lucy find Lambert and Briony, excuse me." He told them firmly, knowing that they still had three friends in danger.