The Prince and the Pompous Ass

We had been walking through the woods with the so-called 'kings and queens' for maybe an hour. They were on some mission but decided that it wouldn't be right to leave us lost in the woods, and asked us to accompany them. Everything had been fine and dandy. We were sharing stories and telling each other about ourselves when Bryce gave a startled yelp and threw himself against Grace. The nine of us stopped and whirled around, with Edmund and Peter drawing their swords defensively. But when we looked to see what had scared our friend, we all died laughing. A midget…about three-and-a-half feet tall was standing beside Bryce, looking up at him through droopy eyes. The look on his face said 'I've been walking alongside you for the past hour, dimwit'.

"Where in theheck did he come from!?!" Bryce said, backing into Grace even further.

"Where in the heck have you been? I've been walking beside you this entire time." The midget said nonchalantly.

The four young monarchs just looked on the scene with amused grins. "I'm sorry," Lucy said as she tried to hold back her giggles, "but I don't believe you've met Trumpkin."

Bryce was looking down at him nervously, chewing his bottom lip and rubbing his arm. "I'm sorry…I just…" he paused, looking down at his feet. No worries, though. Grace finished for him.

"…he's afraid of midgets."

This time all of us snorted except for Trumpkin and Bryce. The midget just looked up at him through flattened brows. "I'm a dwarf."

"You must know that Trumpkin is a friend. He will not let any harm come to you," Lucy said, patting a small hand on Bryce's leg to comfort him. Bryce just nodded slowly and gulped, slowly prying himself off of Grace so he could walk ahead of the dwarf. For a moment the dwarf watched him, then shook his head and continued on.

As we walked, the dwarf told us that we needed to find some place called 'Dancing Lawn'. But to do that, we had to cross a rushing river…which would prove to be a challenge. Anywhere we tried to cross the water was either too deep, or the crossing was too high from the ground and too dangerous. At one point we were on the edge of a cliff looking at the cliff across the river, and Lucy shouted out something about 'Aslan', which I later remembered was the lion that pretty much posed as God in the books. The sad thing is, when we all looked, there was no great lion to be seen. The poor girl pretty much looked like a loon in that case. So then Peter ended up acting like a know-it-all ass and led us around a circle for about another hour trying to find a safe place to cross…which eventually led us back to the same place after Lucy insisted that she had seen Aslan there. She figured that maybe he was giving them a sign that it was a good place to cross. When we got back to the cliff, she fell through the ground, which just about caused each of us to go into cardiac arrest…which would have given me some pretty good experience considering I want to become a nurse. But as soon as we realized she had found a small stairwell carved into the side of the cliff that led down to the river, we also realized she must have been right about Aslan's illusion. The river was much lower and easier to cross there, and by the end of the day we found ourselves on the other side, setting up a small camp for the night. When Grace realized she was going to have to sleep on the bare ground, she nearly had a conniption fit.

"I effing HATE camping!" She shrieked as she sat Indian style in the grass. She crossed her arms and huffed.

I sighed, leaning against a tree nearby as I looked down at her. "Grace, we've been camping for the past two days, and I've never once heard you complain."

"Yea, but we had sleeping bags…and a tent," she looked back down at the ground and cried, "EFF MY LIFE!"

Edmund looked up. "I promise you that it's not as bad as you think. Narnia isn't as polluted and dirty as our world is." That seemed to shut her up, and she sprawled out on the amazingly fluffy grass. It didn't take long for her to be out like a light. Bryce was sleeping flat not too far from her. I was curled up in a ball on the other side of the campfire near Lucy, and to my right I could see Meredith curled up asleep. I also noticed that not far from her Rico was sleeping. He had evidently noticed the 'High King's" appreciative eye for her earlier and decided to keep close. Rico always had to make himself the protector.

It seemed, at least to me, that the sun had risen as soon as I fell asleep. And once the sun is up, I can just kiss sleep goodbye. When I looked around me, everyone else was still asleep all except for little Lucy, who had gotten to her feet and was looking around.

"Lucy!" I whispered as loudly as I could without waking everyone up. Her head whipped around and when she saw me she smiled slightly. "Where are you going?"

"I had a dream…would you like to come?" She asked quietly, pointing to the woods behind us with a short, slender finger. I shrugged, knowing I wouldn't be able to sleep anyway, and got up to follow her. We didn't get far until we heard a loud roar and ducked beneath a bush. I seriously thought I had gone off in the deep end when I saw a minotaur, but I then reminded myself that I was in Lewis's world now. We both gave a start, though, when a hand landed on each of our shoulders. We both whirled around to see it was only Peter, and he motioned for us to stay quiet. And before I even knew what was going on, he was creeping toward the minotaur with his sword at the ready. However, none of us anticipated the brown and green blur that came out of absolutely nowhere, clashing into Peter. The two of us remained frozen where we sat, not knowing what to do. The two men swung at each other until Peter managed to knock the other's sword out of his hand. We thought he had him until his sword got stuck in the tree behind his opponent…and I seriously thought he was screwed. But, Peter found a pretty big rock behind him and almost rammed the guy in the head with it. I daresay that would have done the job…

But Lucy, being the gutsy little thing she is, ran out there and cried for them to stop. They both stopped, and the rest of our party ran out to see what the commotion was about. Not only did the rest of our party come out, but as I looked up I could see tons of animals looking down at us in outrage, some holding weapons.

Peter looked up at them all with wide eyes. When he looked down at the man who had attacked him, he squinted his eyes. "Prince Caspian?"

The man narrowed his eyes as well and straightened up, making him look at least a few inches taller than Peter. "Yes…and who are you?" The prince removed his gaze from Peter just long enough to scan over the rest of us, and his eyes fell upon Susan. I looked to see Susan meet his gaze and then blush slightly, looking back to Peter. The prince looked back to Peter in confusion and then at the sword in his hand before his eyes brightened in recognition. "You're High King Peter…"

Smugly, Peter answered, "I believe you called."

The bewildered prince looked back the four young monarchs who were standing in front of us. "I did…but, I thought you would be older," he said as his dark eyes landed on Lucy. Beside me Grace leaned into Bryce's ear and whispered, "He's not that old himself…" I also heard Bryce reply, "…but he's a prince."

Peter lifted his chin and looked back at the prince. "Well if you like, we could come back in a few years."

"No! No, it's all right. You're just," he paused as his eyes roved over to Susan again, "you're just…not exactly what I expected." Grace was looking at Susan in an odd way…I figured she probably had the hots for the prince and was jealous that he was eyeing Susan. He looked like the pretty type; right down Grace's alley. He had the whole shoulder-length hair thing going on, and it was a dark brown. His eyes, from what I could tell were brown too. He also had that strong bone structure that normally would have made us both go wild, but I just wasn't feeling it for this guy. Don't ask me why…maybe it was because I was too busy admiring the blue eyed, sandy haired king beside him.

In front of me, I could pretty much picture the look on Edmund's face as he said, "Well, neither are you." It's funny, I hadn't even known the guy a day and I could already pinpoint his expressions. I'm amazing. When Edmund said that, the prince looked up at him. I thought a staring contest was about to ensue, but this thing that definitely had to be a badger wobbled up on his hind legs and spoke. Yes…it spoke. No, I wasn't under the influence of any harmful or illegal substances. Again I had to remind myself that I was in C.S. Lewis's world. The badger sidled up between Peter and the prince.

"A common enemy unites even the oldest of foes," he said in a warm, matured British accent. Okay, at least I thought it was British. Maybe it was a Narnian accent, I don't know. Out from the bushes came striding forward a mouse about the size of a cat, holding out a miniature sword. Around one of his ears was a gold loop with a brilliant red plume protruding from it. He came and stood in front of the prince and faced Peter, giving a low sweeping bow in respect.

"We have anxiously awaited your return, my liege. Our hearts and swords are at your service." His voice was also warm and sounded British, but his voice implied a more authoritative power. Regardless, though, I wanted to scoop him up in my arms and squeeze him. He probably would not have appreciated that much, though. Apparently Lucy had thought the same thing, because in front of us she leaned over to Susan and said, "Oh my gosh…he is so cute!"

The mouse spun on his heels, brandishing his sword defiantly. "Who said that!"

"Oh…sorry," the young queen said shyly, looking down at her feet in shame.

When the mouse saw that he had upset her, he lowered his sword and gave a low bow. "Oh, uh…Your Majesty, with the greatest respect, I do believe courageous, courteous, or chivalrous might more befit a knight of Narnia." Lucy smiled down at him and nodded softly, earning a smile…or at least what I think was a smile…from the mouse.

Peter raised an eyebrow at the mouse in slight amusement. "Well, at least we know some of you can handle a blade." Behind him the prince's face took an expression of insult and his thick brows rose. His lips pressed together in a firm line and I could almost smell the gunpowder from the fireworks that were sure to burst forth from the two any moment.

However, the mouse was totally oblivious. "Yes, indeed, my liege. And I have recently put it to good use securing weapons for your army, sire."

"Good," Peter turned to face the prince with a look on his face that pretty much said 'you're pointless…why don't you go practice with your sword somewhere…maybe you'll learn the proper way to handle it' and said, "because we're going to need every sword we can get." I knew the prince was bound to have some fire in him, and I was just waiting for him to throw something back at Peter since he was being such a jackass. And sure enough, the prince didn't disappoint.

He looked at Peter full on and said, "Well, then you will probably be wanting yours back." I had to bite down on my bottom lip to keep from laughing. Bryce and Grace snorted beside me and I gave them warning looks out of the corner of my eye to keep silent. The last thing I needed was the five of us getting into a brawl between a highly egotistical teenage king and an equally conceited prince. I had to give the guy kudos, though. I probably would have said much worse to Peter had he insulted me. Actually, it was lucky he hadn't said it to any of us…Grace most likely would have just kicked him in the nuts.

The high king took the sword form the prince and I could see the dislike each held for the other in their eyes. I knew at that moment that as long as we were in this fantasy world, those two would make it interesting.


A/N

Well, there's another chapter. Let me know what you think.

Peace,

Rhythmic5