23

JUST GRASS AND SKY

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The three continued in light conversation between them as they ate. Both Narnians seemed so interested in what Alexandra had to say and asked plenty of questions about both the 100 Year Long Winter and the Golden Age.

"This bread is so stale," the dwarf, who she had learned was called Nikabrik, commented and banged the bread on the table to hear a hollow noise emit from it.

Alex contained her laughs and held in her own comment that she had prepared.

"I'll just give him the soup," Trufflehunter, the talking beaver, thought out loud and poured a large bowl of soup for Caspian, "He should be coming around soon."

Nikabrik scoffed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, "I don't think I hit him hard enough."

"Nikabrik, he's just a boy," his friend corrected him.

"He's been out for hours, I think you did hit him hard enough," Alex scorned and rubbed her temple out of annoyance of their bickering. For some reason, Nikabrik and Trufflehunter reminded her of how Mr and Mrs Beaver would quarrel and dispute - like a married couple.

"He's a Telmarine, not some lost puppy. You said you were going to get rid of him."

Alex raised a brow at those words, she hadn't discussed getting rid of Caspian at all and she wouldn't allow it. The two Narnians must have debated it whilst she left the home to collect some wood for the fire that she currently sat by.

After 1302 years, all she wanted was to feel the heat of firewood burning. And she did. One of the things that she thought would have stayed the same was her inability to feel temperature, but even now she could feel the flames of the fire against her palms and the chill of the night riding up her spine.

"No, I said I'd take care of him," Trufflehunter demanded as he started to near the bedroom where Alex could see Caspian now attempting to hide behind the wooden walls, very badly she thought, "We can't kill him now. I just bandaged his head. It would be like murdering a guest."

"What? Am I after him?" Alex asked and directed her eyes to her axe that still lay on the table beside the dwarf who had slowly inched closer and closer to it over time.

He turned to face the girl with a scowl before speaking up, "How do you think his friends are treating their guests?"

"Are we going to punish him for the crimes of his ancestors and his people? This isn't the Narnia that I knew," she chucked into the conversation and continued to let the flames dry the edges of her skirt that was still slightly damp from the river. She debated asking them for any clothes but knew they wouldn't fit.

Trufflehunter agreed with her ever so slightly, "Trumpkin knew what he was doing. It's not the boy's fault."

That's when Caspian took his chance; he jumped out from behind the wall and went for his sword for protecting, not caring that he barged into the beaver as he did so. Yet, Nikabrik beat him to it which left the Prince to take a fire poker from beside Alex as she watched it all unfold from the sidelines, ready to interject him needed.

"Stop! Stop!" Trufflehunter shouted to stop their fighting as the fire poker and sword slashed against each other.

Alexandra groaned and opened her palm, all three watching as the axe flew into her open hand and held it between them. The fighting halted as they watched her eyes glaze over with the faintest tinge of blue for the smallest split of a second before resulting to their grey.

"I told you we should have killed him whilst we had the chance," the dwarf scowled and made moves to attack again, only for the Knight to shove her weapon between them again with a bored look.

"You know why we can't!" the beaver replied and thrust his claw to his friend as a warning.

"If we're taking a vote, I'm with him," Caspian motioned his head to the beaver who still looked upset over the spilled soup over his rug.

"We can't let him go! He's seen us!"

The dwarf hit the fire poker with his weapon once more and watched as he fell backwards but held his protective stance as Trufflehunter interfered once more, "That's enough, Nikabrik! Or do I have to sit on your head again? And you, look what you made me do! I spent half the morning on that soup."

Alex would have smiled if she wasn't trying to stop the two from killing each other, she watched as he started to try to clean the food from the floor but failed. "If it's any consolation, I thoroughly enjoyed it."

The grin that appeared on Trufflehunter's face was worth it. If he didn't have fur to cover his face, he would have blushed a bright pink.

"What are you?" Caspian asked and glanced between the two Narnians unknowingly.

"You know, it's funny that you would ask that. You think more people would know a badger when they see one," he replied as he walked away without a care.

"No. No, I mean.. you're Narnians. You're supposed to be extinct."

Alexandra let a laugh leave her lips as she lowered the axe to help the badger clean, ignoring his paws waving her away so he could do it alone. "And I'm supposed to be asleep eternally. Are we going to waste our time stating obvious things?"

"Sorry to disappoint you," Nikabrik muttered and hobbled back to his seat as Trufflehunter brought a fresh bowl to the table, noting the importance of how hot the food still was to his guests, "Since when did we open a boarding house for Telmarine soldiers?"

"Rude," she whispered at how he included her in the comment.

Caspian finally stood after falling over moments ago, "I am not a solider. I am Prince Caspian. The tenth."

"There are ten of you?" Alexandra laughed loudly before starting to comb through her hair, "Did Telmar run out of original names or something?"

Trufflehunter and Nikabrik both realised their mistakes in assuming that he was a Telmar soldier and in fact not the heir to the Telmar throne. Perhaps the dwarf even felt a bit guilty for what he had done and how he had acted towards him and Alex.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

Caspian swallowed before answering, he even placed the fire poker back before staring longingly into the flames for answers, "Running away. 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."

"Oh... That changes things," the beaver muttered incoherently.

"Yeah," Nikabrik turned around on the table as he lost interest in listening to Caspian's origin story, "It means we don't have to kill you ourselves."

"You're right," Caspian nodded before making his way to the door where the Knight had hung all his jackets and outer clothing previously.

Alexandra's brows furrowed for one of the many times that day before she stood up to join him. Ernest and Cornelius had left the Prince in her care and she wasn't going to betray the men that freed her from the pain of her tormenting slumber.

"Where are you both going?" Trufflehunter asked with a sad smile on his face as he watched Caspian not even acknowledge the hot food he had left on the table for him.

Caspian started to button up the leather armour around his chest, "My uncle won't stop until I am dead."

"But you can't leave!" he protested and brought something from the table into his paws, letting the warm orange of the fire light up the object for all to see, "You're meant to save us. Do you know what this is?"

Caspian nodded his head slowly and watched as Alexandra stared at the ivory of the horn, the very gift that belonged to one of her closest friends. Susan would miss the present dearly if she were here, it brought such pride to her face knowing that she was the holder of the call; the very thing that had saved Narnia countless times.

"Of course we know what it is, I more than most," she remarked and turned her head so that she didn't have to look at it anymore, the sheer image of Susan smiling with the horn and the countless amount of times that her siblings teased her for it caused too much pain, "Look, I owe Cornelius and Ernest my life, I promised that I would help them and that is what I will do. Even if that means taking down Miraz and anyone who stands in my way so that our people can go free."

"And what of us? What of all the Narnians hiding beyond these forests and waiting for your orders?" Nikabrik asked her solemnly and stabbed the tip of his blade into the wooden table. The action didn't go unnoticed by his friend who sent him one more glare.

Alex rested her hand upon the door handle, "I'll be back for you."

Just as she was about to turn the metal of the handle she heard the beaver speak up to stop her, "I thought you were Crimson Knight? The Eternal Flame? The Knight of Narnia; Protector of all land and sea? The one who defeated the White Witch?"

All the names that the books had given her in her disappearance were all true. In the Golden Age she would remember being called them in passing; when she would walk through the garden, a centaur or faun would shoot the words her way and bow or even wave with a smile. The names were supposed to restore her reign and her hope.

But nothing could.

Not when he wasn't at her side.

"Consider this flame extinguished," she spoke clearly and exited the comfort of the home and returned to the chilled air of the woods with Caspian behind her silently trailing after her, too scared to ask her a question.

They went on like that for almost an hour. Just stalking through the shrubs and under the canopy of leaves without a word. It was almost comfortable to say the least, strolling aimlessly through the trees of Narnia. She did, however, miss how they would dance in the wind that carried a somber tune.

"Do you even know which direction we should be heading?" Caspian asked to break the silence, with each of his words he brought her back from her troubled thoughts and back into reality.

"If this was a different time then I would have asked the trees," as she said that she ran her hand down the bark of one and attempted to feel the rhythm of their words, "But I guess not."

Caspian let out a low chuckle directed at her, "You're kidding, right?"

"No, not at all. Years and years ago, walking in the forest alone was the safest thing someone could do. The trees would guide over you and protect you from harm, they would talk and give guidance. Narnians would thrive and work together to defeat a common enemy. Narnia would thrive," she responded with a light smile, "But now look at it. The trees are stationary, not a Narnian in sight and Narnia as I knew it no longer exists."

"Narnia is still here-"

A scoff left her lips, "Is it? Look around, Caspian. Narnia was much more than just the land that we walked on. It was the magic that would flow in the air, the energy passed around in the smiles of centaurs or fauns or conversation with a horse. But everything that made Narnia is no longer here. Now, this is just grass and sky."

The Prince regretted asking her to elaborate on what she meant. Seeing such a beacon of hope from the legend in such a depressed and robotic state didn't make sense to him. From what his professor had told him about the Crimson Knight, he had pictures the most powerful of all women; an army of mystic creatures following her every order. A sight that each would look up to for counsel and leadership.

He didn't imagine that such a person could become so broken.

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Okay, I can't believe that three chapters are already out of the way and we haven't even had a single conversation about Peter