"The marks humans leave are too often scars."
― John Green

The sun was about to set as The Just King rode his horse with his two guards through the forest. They were on a very important mission to visit the Kingdom of Archenland. Inside his pocket was a letter that might be the thing that would change the future of his life, for better or for worse. As The High King and The Just King of Narnia were now of age, they were about to share an open invitation to few noble ladies from neighboring Kingdoms to live in Cair Pavarel, in the hope of strengthening the kingdoms relationship in a reunion one day. They trusted King Lune of Archenland would be a wise judge of character for he would be choosing which noble households would get the opportunity to represent his kingdom.

Edmund did not have much say in this invitation as Aslan himself was the one who gave the order about this arrangement. Edmund never thought much about marrying yet. Although he understood that as a King he has a whole kingdom to think about and marrying for advantage would be inevitable one day. Edmund let his thoughts wandered until suddenly his horse jumped startled, almost knocking him down.

Shots of arrows flew across from the trees upfront. Edmund skillfully ducked in time, letting the arrow only grazed his arm. He pulled his sword up and eyed his surroundings warily, as both his guards did the same. Six men jumped in front of them with loud thuds, and Edmund could not help but smirked as his day just got more interesting.

…

Edmund knew that they were outnumbered, but being the skilled warrior that he was, he put up a good fight. These men were barbaric and brutal, clear signs that they had been living in the wild. They fight like they had nothing to lose, most likely that they were a bandit group, living and hiding deep in this forest. It was something that The Just King needed to discuss with King Lune if he were to make it out alive.

The constant shot of arrows from the trees up front was certainly not helping his chance to win. It was hard enough to fight two men at once, but having to dodge the arrows all the while doing so was just impossible to do.

From the side of Edmund's eyes, he saw an arrow flew upfronts to the tree, followed by loud thuds. Another arrow flew in towards the other sides, and another one follows. Distracted by his curiosity, Edmund noticed a second too late that one of the men he was fighting charged toward him from his back. But before the sword strike Edmund's body, the man's eyes suddenly were wide and he fell over. Edmund jumped away just in time and focus on the other man he was fighting. As they were fighting, another arrow flew and hit his opponent's back.

Edmund looked around and shared a confused look with both his guards. A cloaked figure suddenly appeared from behind the trees. "This area is not safe, there's a lot of bandits around, you better go on your way before it's getting darker," said the figure in a sweet but authoritative voice.

"She's a woman?" Edmund thought.

As Edmund stepped curiously towards the cloaked figure, a sharp pain appeared on his side and he crouched down in pain. He saw blood from the side of his body, seeping through his white shirt. His adrenaline must have clouded his pain all this time, making him unaware of the wound on his body. His vision started to get blurry and he fell unconscious.

"Your Majesty," shouts the guard, running to his aid. "He's bleeding a lot, we have to get His Majesty to the Kingdom of Archenland right away," said the other guard as he tried to hold the King up.

The cloaked figure ran toward them, "Stop, don't move him. You need to slow his bleeding or else he's not going to make it."

The figure looked around and picked a few leaves from the bush nearby. She crushed the leaves on her hand before applying it to Edmund's wound. "Hold this against his wound," she ordered the guard as she reached inside her cloak to rip the hem of her skirt. She bandaged the fabric skilfully around his body and kept the leaves pressed on his would tightly.

Edmunds groaned as he started to gain his consciousness. He looked up to see the cloaked figure hovering on top of his body. She had a mask covering half of her face, but he could see that she had beautiful brown eyes. She bore a worried expression on her eyes as her hands worked cautiously in tightening the fabric around his abdomen.

"Who are you?" asked Edmund hoarsely as he tried to blink away the blurriness in his eyes.

She looked down into his eyes and hold his gaze for a moment before looking away toward one of his guards, "The herb should help to slow down the bleeding a little. You should be able to bring him to the castle now. Go! Quickly!"

After recuperating from his wound and convincing King Lune of Archenland that he was well enough, King Edmund the Just was finally on his way back to Cair Paravel. Throughout the way back, he could not stop thinking about the mysterious cloaked lady who saved his life.

As he was half-conscious when they met face to face, all he could remember about her was her big brown eyes, dark royal blue cloak, and a black mask covering her face. He could vaguely remember a crest pin holding her cloak, but he could not picture exactly what it was. Edmund could only wish that he might be able to see her again. The air of mystery about that girl captivated him. He could not help but wonder what a lady would do in the middle of the forest, knowing well that it was a dangerous area.

Author's Note:

Welcome to my first story. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let me know what you think.

The OC will be introduced on the next chapter

xxx