[five: you're the kings and queens of old?]

Two soldiers row down the river rush, one rowing heavily whilst another stares at a dwarf they had captured only the night before who was bound and gagged. The dwarf known as Trumpkin was indeed noble, having sacrificed himself to the Telmarine soldiers so that Nikabrik could capture Caspian which held the horn in his hand - unwilling to let it go. Trumpkin was, however unamused by being tied up in a boat so resulted in staring attentively and threateningly at the soldiers.

"He won't stop staring." One states as Trumpkin's eyes land on him, unwilling to blink as he tries to intimidate the soldier to let him go.

"So don‟t look." The other says as the dwarf continues to stare.

"Here‟s fine." The first speaks again as they come to a stop in the middle of the river. They both lift Trumpkin and are about to drop before an arrow hits the side of the boat and all attention is on the six children who run up and draw their weapons - little Ron holding the dagger Genevieve had placed in her bag not long before. Whilst they stare intently, Susan quickly puts another arrow to the string.

"Drop him!" Susan screams and Genevieve shakes her head for a moment as she sighs, that'll go down well with the dwarf.

"Drop him?" The dwarf muffled against the soldier as he tried to move around before The soldiers drop the dwarf into the water. 

One of them then picks up a crossbow and is about to aim before Susan shoots him and knocks him into the river. The other jumps into the water and swims away - likely to warn Miraz about the mysterious six that were somehow in Narnia. The dwarf sinks to the bottom of the river, and Peter dives in and pulls him to shore whilst Edmund and Genevieve pulls the boat in. Lucy and Ron both cut the dwarf's bonds with their daggers until the dwarf is able to pull the gag from around his mouth.

"Drop him?! That's the best you can come up with?" He asks in a disbelieving tone as Susan scoffs towards him as she puts her arrows in her quiver.

"A simple thank-you would suffice." She says towards him and Trumpkin just rolls his eyes at the girl.

"They were doing fine drowning me without your help."

"Maybe we should have let them." Peter says and the dwarf rolls his eyes again, his eyes landing on Genevieve who gives him a small smile.

There was something familiar about her.

"Why were they trying to kill you anyway?" Lucy asked and Trumpkin's eyes snapped up to hers.

"They're Telmarines. That's what they do." He stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world whilst Edmund's eyes widened in confusion.

"Telmarines? In Narnia?" He asked.

"Where have you been for the last few hundred years?" He asked sarcastically only for the six to share a look.

"It's a bit of a long story." Lucy admits as Susan hands Peter's sword back to him. Trumpkin notices the hilt on the sword and looks up at Peter. 

He surveys the six of them.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me. You're it? You're the kings and queens of old?" Trumpkin asked and the majority nodded whilst Peter just held out his hand to the dwarf.

"High King Peter... the Magnificent." He introduced himself and Genevieve chuckled slightly whilst Ron watched the interaction with inspired eyes.

"You probably could have left out the last bit." Susan admitted and Trumpkin chuckled.

"Probably."

"You might be surprised." Peter said as Trumpkin turned to Genevieve and bowed to her - something he refused to do to the others.

"And you your majesty, we dwarfs owe a lot to you." Trumpkin admitted and Genevieve looked at him with a confused smile.

"How so?" She asked as everybody else watched the interaction in confusion.

"You didn't discriminate against us dwarfs during your reign even though we helped with the White Witch. Your so- " Trumpkin watched Genevieve shake her head with pleading eyes as his focus turns to Edmund quickly before hers again as he changed his wording. "- heir always made us feel welcome and for that I am grateful."

"Well you shouldn't judge someone based on other people's mistakes and I stand by that." Genevieve said as a sense of pride flooded through her body, happy that Oliver had done some sort of good during his reign as King.

It is then, Peter draws his sword.

"Oh, you don't want to do that, boy." Trumpkin warns as he eyes Peter who only laughs.

"Not me. Him."Peter looks at Edmund who draws his sword.

 Peter hands his sword to Trumpkin. He takes it and then the sword drops in the sand. Edmund smiles at Peter. Then suddenly, Trumpkin knocks Edmund's sword away and swings. Edmund ducks, and Trumpkin hits him in the face before Edmund backs off.

"Edmund!"

"Ed!" Genevieve shouts worriedly as he eyes her for a moment before sending her a wink and turning back to Trumpkin, unaware of the pink surfacing on the young girls face.

"Aww, you alright?" Trumpkin asks sarcastically and Edmund only rolls his eyes.

They circle around and continue fighting. Trumpkin slashes at Edmund's feet, but he jumps with both feet off the ground so that the blow goes under them. A few seconds later, the Dwarf's sword flies out of his grip and Trumpkin stares, and falls down in the sand. As Edmund only smirks before turning towards Genevieve, briefly meeting her eye before she tears her eyes away with a small smile on her face.

He felt accomplished.

"Beards and bedsteads! Maybe that horn worked after all." Trumpkin muttered before Susan's head snapped to meet his.

"What horn?"

+++

Caspian's eyes flutter open, an unfamiliar smell filling his nostrils as he sits up, removes a bandage from his forehead and tries to stand despite the small roof of the den he was being kept in. Upon looking around he saw a dwarf conversing with what he assumed to be a badger, eyes wide in alarm as he watched them talk.

"This bread is so stale." The dwarf states as he throws a piece of bread back into a bowl, the moulded green sticking out like a sore thumb.

"I'll just get him some soup then." The badger says humbly as he walks over to a pot and grabs a bowl before filling it with some sort of soup, or so the badger recalled.

"You said you were going to get rid of him."

"No, I said I'd take care of him." The badger corrects before the dwarf rolls his eyes at the humble badger.

"Well, I don't think I hit him hard enough." The dwarf exclaims.

"Nikabrik, he's just a boy!" The badger says as he addresses Nikabrik who gave him an unamused look.

"He's a Telmarine, not some lost puppy!" Nikabrik states as he sits down.

"We can't kill him now, not after bandaging its head. It would be like murdering a guest." The badger says, trying to get it through Nikabrik's head that the boy was not to be killed.

"Ah, and how do you think his friends are treating their guest?" Nikabrik asks as the badger freezes for a moment and takes a breath before picking up the bowl of soup that was finally prepared.

"Trumpkin knew what he was doing."

Amidst their conversation Caspian bolts for the door, making the badger drop the bowl of soup he was holding with a sad look on his features. Nikabrik stands in Caspian's way as Caspian pulls a hot poker from the fire and blocks Nikabrik's blows as he tries to hit with with a sword.

"See? I told you we should've killed him!" Nikabrik sneers as he finally stops dueling Caspian who looks at the two in bewilderment. 

"You know why we cant!"

"If you're taking a vote, I'm with him." Caspian states as he points towards the badger.

"We can't let him go! He has seen us!" Nikabrik shouts as he swings his sword a few more times, but Caspian blocks him each time in retaliation.

"That's enough, Nikabrik! Or do I have to sit on your head again?" The badger humbly threatens as Nikabrik stops.

"Now, look what you made me do! I spent half the morning on that soup." The badger says solemnly as he tries to clean up the mess that was on the floor.

"Wh-what are you?" Caspian asks as he eyes the badger warily who only chuckles.

"It's funny. You'd think more people would recognize a badger when they saw one." He says as Caspian shakes his head, not being the question he meant.

"No, I mean... You're Narnians. You're supposed to be extinct." Caspian states and Nikabrik rolls his eyes as he sits down at the table. 

"Sorry to disappoint you." He murmurs as the badger returns with more soup.

"Here we are. Still hot." The badger states as he hands a bowl to Caspian who eyes the soup warily.

"Since when did we become a boarding house for Telmarine soldiers?" Nikabrik asks and Caspian only glared at the dwarf.

"I'm not a soldier! I'm Prince Caspian... the tenth." He says and the two Narnians look at him in confusion.

"What are you doing here?"

"Running away." Caspian states simply before running a hand through his locks. "My uncle has always wanted my throne. I suppose I have only lived this long because he did not have an heir of his own."

"Well, this changes things." The badger says excitedly.

"Yes... It means we won't have to kill you ourselves." Nikabrik states.

"You're right." Caspian agrees as he gets up and starts putting on his armor.

"Where are you going?" The badger asks the Prince worriedly as he gets dressed.

"My uncle will not stop until I am dead."

"Wait, you're meant to save us! Don't you know what this is?" The badger asks as Caspian stares at the horn in the badger's hands.

Why was he so important?