"Having fun?" I asked Edmund with a smile in between sucking my bleeding fingertip, from where I had attempted to help Lucy with the mending. She had watched me do it about ten times before pushing me off to other things with a laugh.
He lifted the sword he'd been picking barnacles and other such things off of, catching the light off the polished end. "Well, depends how you look at it," He smiled up at me. "What'd you do to your finger?"
"Needle," I held it out and he very sweetly took my hand and placed a kiss in the end of it. Smiling, I hopped up onto a crate beside him and watched as he returned to his work. Licking over my lips, I reached down, picking up broken off piece of coral and picked at it for awhile until I heard Edmund's chuckle. "What?"
"What are you doing?" He asked looking up at me.
"Nothing," I shrugged.
"Are you bored?"
"Nope, actually I'm very content," I spoke honestly. "Honestly just being around you right now, I'm happy."
He gave a wide smile, "me too." He leaned up as I met him in the middle for a soft kiss. Leaning up more, he deepened the kiss, moving his hand up into my partially loose hair. Savoring it and just the taste of him, I only pulled away once my lungs were begging for me to do so, but stayed in place, just leaning my forehead against his.
Suddenly, a commotion caused us to pull away and we looked over watching Eustace scramble across the deck with a large knife.
"Is he alright in the head?" I whispered getting a chuckle from Edmund.
"Trying to run away? We're on a boat you know!" Reepicheep said running along the rail then swinging out on a rope in front of him.
"Look? Can't we just discuss this?" Eustace tried to talk his way out of whatever he had done.
Reepicheep sliced a line in Eustace's shirt, revealing the orange under and solving the mystery. "That was for stealing," he then stabbed the orange to pull it out ", that was for lying, and that," he used the orange to slap Eustace "was for good measure." I let out a small giggle at the scene.
Eustace's hand twitched with anger for being struck before he swiped the knife at Reep. However Reepicheep seemed overjoyed by this development. "Ah ha! That's the spirit!" He flipped over Eustace. "We have ourselves a duel! Catch," He flung his sword, causing the orange to fly off and right a Drinian, who caught it. "Now come on. Take your best shot!" Reep encouraged igniting the fight over the deck of the ship.
Every time Eustace swung the knife Reepicheep corrected his posture or the way he held his 'weapon'. "Stop flapping your wings like a drunken pelican!" Reep admonished. "Poise, keep your blade up. Up," He instructed, actually giving him advice. Eustace tried again, flailing around, but actually trying with good measure as Reep continued his instructions and encouragements. Suddenly Reep, 'lost' his balance and flipped back before climbing back up the shrouds, unbeknownst to Eustace.
Eustace worriedly looked over the edge to see where he was but I'm sure couldn't find as much as a ripple in the water from him. Only when Reep poked his shoulder did he turn around.
Reepicheep came around behind him and kicked him forward and off balance, onto the deck of the ship. "And that…is that!" Eustance flew into a basket and over the cheering I heard a high pitched scream. Jumping up, I walked over and crouched down removing the covering, showing to girl who timidly looked up at me as she crawled out. Pursing my lips, I held up my hand and helped her up as I recognized her as the daughter of Rhince. Standing up, I saw that Lucy had moved up beside me.
"Gael?" Rhince moved forward completely surprised. "What are you doing here?"
She looked up at him timidly and protectively he moved forward pulling her into a hug. Old fussy face, Drinian moved between the men and looked down at her, most likely scaring her to death. "Looks like we have an extra crew member," He spoke and presented her the orange. The girl smiled thankfully at Him.
With that Lucy and I stepped forward, "welcome aboard," Lucy smiled.
"You're Majesties." Gael said curtseying.
"Call us Lucy and Eres," Lucy laughed slightly.
"Come along," I smiled and motioned as Lucy took her under her arm and we led the girl to her to our room, as Drinian ordered everyone back to work.
oOo
I moved around the ship when suddenly two arms wrapped around my waist. Smiling I flipped around and wrapped my arms around Edmund's neck. "Finished?" I asked about the sword.
"Not yet, but I'm almost there," He smiled then something caught his eyes. Slowly one hand came up and took the chain of the necklace I always wore. He pulled it up gently, so the ring which was usually hidden under my shirt was over his pointer finger. "You still have it?"
"Of course I do," I furrowed my brow.
"It took me forever to find this," He smiled, "I worried so much that you would hate it."
"I love it, and not just because you gave it to me," I smiled and pushed up, kissing him. I felt the ring drop back against my chest as his arm went back around my waist. Moving my arms, I wrapped them around his back as I laid my head on his chest, savoring the feeling.
I didn't want to think of what might happen if this were to end, though in the back of my mind I knew it would. I knew that I might not ever actually get to wear that ring for its actual reason again. I felt his arms tighten around me as he moved his head down to rest on mine, taking in a deep breath and I knew instantly that he was thinking about the same thing.
"What's your life like back there, now?" I whispered.
"Eres," he whispered with a small sigh.
"I just want to know what everything is like now, what about Susan and Peter? What is going on?"
"Well," he pulled in a breath and shifted around slightly before sitting down and smiling down to him slightly I sat down on his lap. "Well, Susan's in a different country with Mum and Dad. That's why we're staying at my Aunt and Uncles," he ended with a small huff, making me giggle slightly. "However, she likes it over there, there are plenty of guys to oogle all over her, so she's happy."
"Oogle?" I teased.
"Yes," he muttered. "And, Pete, well he's studying for exams for University at Professor Diggory's."
I nodded, knowing that Professor Diggory was who they were staying with when they first discovered Narnia. I also knew that he, along with Lady Polly Plummer was there when Aslan first created Narnia. "And university is a sort of school?" I guessed at the thing I didn't know and he nodded.
"It's kind of…well the top level. You go in order to get a degree and then a job," he explained simply and for some reason, I felt like a child. A bit useless and even dumb even though he would never mean for that. It was just so different, such a separation. "Like I'd like to go in order to learn more about law and then I could become a sort of a council member there." He explained, brushing back my hair slightly and I pushed out a smile, though as I looked to him, I couldn't help but feel even more out of place.
Now more than ever I was beginning to see an attachment to that world. When he had come back last time, they all had been striving to get back here, but now as I looked to him and listened to him talk about, I could see it.
"What does Peter want to go for?" I asked softly.
"He wanted to study medicine," He answered.
"He'd been a good doctor," I grinned.
"I think so too," he grinned back and leaned in, pressing a small kiss to my cheek.
"Edmund, Eres," Lucy suddenly called, causing both of us to look over. "They see something on the horizon."
oOo
Focusing in on the lush green island through the telescope, I scanned for some sort of life but found nothing. "It looks uninhabited," I stated handing it over to Caspian.
"But if the lords followed the mist east they would've stopped here." Caspian said holding it back to his eye.
"Could be a trap," Drinian said.
"Or it could hold some answers. Caspian?" Edmund spoke looking up at the other King for his view on the subject.
"We'll spend the night on shore," He said handing the telescope back to Drinian and moved off towards the lower deck, "and scour the island in the morning."
oOo
I rolled onto my side as the snore of Eustace filled the area. As soon as he had laid down he was out and slowly murmurs of other crew members had quieted until there was just a few left.
Edmund mimicked my move and rolled from his back onto his side and without speaking he held up his arm as I moved in and curled one of my arms up under my pillow and head as he did the same. The moonlight provided just enough light and he reached up brushing back the few stubborn pieces of hair that wouldn't stay secured back in my braid.
"Ed, what about other girls?" I whispered.
"What about other girls?" He asked in confusion.
"Back there, in England. Do the girls oogle you?" I hid my insecurities behind a teasing tone.
"As far as I'm concerned there really aren't any other girls," he grinned. "You hold my complete and total attention. You hold my heart." I smiled slightly and moved in closer tucking my face into his chest as his arm tightened around me, but it didn't change the fact that he had a future planned out.
Closing my eyes, I swallowed the lump in my throat and wished more than anything that I hadn't brought up the topic. It was like opening a box that caused everything that I didn't want to acknowledge to spill out and now I couldn't possibly stuff them back in and lock it back up. All those facts that I didn't want to think about were at the fore front of my mind with the biggest thought being that what the ring around my neck symbolized wasn't going to happen to me again, some other was going to take its place. And…I was going to be left here with absolutely nothing.