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Note: This chapter isn't as bad as the last one, I promise!
Tales Of The Treader
Chapter 2. Growing Up Quickly
The next few days, both Edmund and Lucy grew faster than typical. Eustace woke up one morning and couldn't believe they were his cousins. Edmund was on constant guard of Lucy, considering they were on a ship full of men, and she was looking more and more like a woman every day. You would have thought she was 14 instead of 12. The same with Edmund. You would have thought he was 16 instead of 14.
The clothes situation was hard, but luckily Edmund fit in Caspian's clothes, and as for Lucy, she could no longer fit in her dress, and even if she could you would have thought she was more dryad from the length of the dress. So she muddled through with one of Caspian's shirt's yet again, and eventually they found a pair of pants that fit her. This came as no shock to Edmund, considering Lucy looked exactly the way she had when they had ruled the first time, and it came as no shock to Lucy as Edmund looked exactly the way he had when they had ruled the first time.
One morning at breakfast a thought came to Lucy. "You don't think we're going to grow this quickly in England, do you?" she asked Edmund.
"I hope not. But you never know." he replied.
"LAND!" someone cried out.
Caspian, Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace all ran to the side of the ship to see.
"Felimath! Doorn!" Lucy cried out.
"Where's Avra?" Caspian asked.
"You can't see her yet." Edmund replied.
"Should we land here?" Drinian asked.
"Would it do any good? Last time we were here, only sheep were kept, and it looks that was now." Edmund replied.
"Oh, but it would be nice to walk around." Lucy said.
"It would be nice." Edmund said in agreement.
"Whatever get's me off this boat faster!" Eustace said.
"Then we shall stop." Caspian said.
And so they did. They hadn't been walking long, when they saw a few men up ahead. Edmund could see one of them was already eyeing Lucy.
"Stay... by... me" he whispered in her ear.
"Yes Peter." she joked.
"Shut up." he mumbled.
"Hello!" one man called out.
"Don't tell them who we are, understand." Caspian said.
"Why not?" Lucy asked.
"They may not be friends of Narnia any longer. It could very well put us all in danger." Caspian replied.
"He has a point Lu, it's best to keep it to ourselves." Edmund said, seeing Caspian's reasoning.
"Hello!" Caspian called out in reply.
"Care to sit for tea?" the man asked.
"Oh, thank you, but no thank you." Caspian said.
"Please, sit, eat." the man said.
"What do you think?" Caspian asked turning to the others.
"We just ate, but I suppose we could." Lucy said.
"I don't know." Edmund said, eyeing the man who was eyeing Lucy.
Caspian noticed this. "We'll be fine, we have our weapons." he said.
"Alright, I suppose, but like I said, stay close to me." Edmund said, pointing the last part at Lucy.
"Yes Peter." she said again.
"Come on Lucy, I'm serious." Edmund said.
"Alright, I'll stay close." Lucy said.
"Thank you." Edmund said.
They all sat down around the table, and before they had proper time to do anything they were disarmed, and in the grips of rough looking men. Edmund's worst fear had come true as he realized the one that had grabbed Lucy was the one that had been looking at her funny. And he was touching her in more places than necessary.
"STOP TOUCHING HER!" Edmund screamed, struggling to get free. He could see she was terribly uncomfortable, and it was nothing he was going to put up with. The man acted as though Edmund said nothing.
"STOP THAT!" Caspian screamed. He was just as mad as Edmund at this point. Eustace said nothing, just stared, eyes wide. He still wasn't sure as to what had happened.
"Stop." the first man said, and the man holding Lucy stopped.
"You control them?" Caspian asked.
"Control them, pay them. It's about the same thing." the man replied.
"Well I don't appreciate what he's doing to her!" Edmund said.
"Apparently." the man said, rolling his eyes "Take them to the boat."
"It's rude for him to touch a woman in such a way!" Reepicheep said. No one responded to him though.
The men started leading them when somewhere, and soon a boat came in sight. "Pug!" someone called out.
"Yes my Lord?" the slaver, as he was now called, said.
"I see you have a few new slaves here?" the man asked.
"Yes my Lord." the slaver, who's name was apparently Pug, replied.
"How much for that boy?" the man asked pointing at Caspian.
"Three hundred cresents." Pug replied.
"To high. I'll give you one hundred and fifty." the man said.
"Please! Don't split us up!" Lucy cried out.
"I am sorry, my dear girl, I cannot buy you all. Now give me the boy Pug!" the man said. The man that was holding Caspian's ropes untied him and let him go over to the other man.
"You know I just realized somethin." one of the slave holders said.
"What's that?" Pug asked.
"This boy" he said pointing at Edmund "Looks alot like King Edmund in one of the pictures I've seen of him." the man replied.
One of the slave holder's started laughing hysterically. "You mean King Edmund The Traitor?!" he said still laughing.
Edmund's head hung a little lower after that.
"Traitor? Are you kidding? He's such a goody two shoes!" Eustace said, but Lucy was turning redder by the second.
"SHUT UP! YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT! KING EDMUND IS A WONDERFUL AND HONORABLE MAN! HE'S KIND, LOYAL, FUNNY, SARCASTIC, has a little temper at times, AND DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE JUDGED BY SOMETHING DONE OVER THOUSNAD'S OF YEARS AGO! SO JUST SHUT UP YOU BIG IDIOT!" Lucy yelled, out of breath by the time she was finished.
Edmund could feel a knot in his throat, but held back the tears. He had never heard Lucy so mad, and she was mad because someone had called him a traitor. Caspian's eyes were wide.
"Does she always do that?" he asked Edmund.
Edmund cleared his throat and replied "No. Never" in a slightly shaky voice.
"Oh and how would you know that?" the man asked, trying to intimidate Lucy, but she had faced worse, and she wasn't backing down.
"Read all the story's, listen to the legands, and you will see. Go to Narnia, meet King Caspian the Tenth, he'll tell you. Find High King Peter, he'll vouch for him. Find Queen Susan, she'll tell you story's of her own about him. Find Queen Lucy, and she'll defend him. And find King Edmund, and meet him for yourself." she said her voice lowering in determination on the last sentance.
"CiCi, you can stop now." Edmund said.
Lucy looked over at him and smiled. She knew he was trying to cover up her name by CiCi. But what could she call him, then she remember a nickname that had lasted about a week when she was 7. "Whatever you say DiDi." she replied.
"Didi?" he mouthed.
She just smiled.
"Didi, who the heck is DiDi? And CiCi?" Eustace asked.
"It's us silly. You must have hit your head." Lucy said, giving him a look to shut up.
"Alright, that's enough! Get on the boat!" Pug said.
"Listen, take care of them. They do remind me of King Edmund and Queen Lucy." the man who had bought Caspian said.
"Of course my Lord." Pug replied with a bow "I shall treat them like my own children." he said touching Lucy's cheek, but she moved away, and tried to bite him.
Edmund smiled when she did. He knew she wasn't going to take being touched as long as she could handle it.
"Oh, now none of that!" Pug said.
"Then stop touching me." Lucy said through gritted teeth.
"I'd listen to her. She can nock me out." Edmund said with a sly smile. But as the men started leading them farther away from Lucy, all of them felt a little less confident. Lucy cried a few lone tears, not knowing what was going to become of Caspian.
"Now now now, let's not have crying, you'll spoil your looks for tomorrow." Pug said.
"Her looks?" Eustace whispered to Edmund, but Edmund was to busy focusing on what was going on in front of him.
"Don't cry, my dear girl, and you won't have anything to cry about. But if you do... then you will." Pug said.
Edmund tensed up at the threat. But they went where they were told, and hoped and prayed Aslan would help them somehow, someway, well Edmund, Lucy, and Reepicheep did anyway.