A/N: Hey, you guys! I'm not going to keep you waiting for long, other than to let you know that I am sooooo glad you all have been reviewing! Just as a reward to those who have and incentive for those who haven't, starting with this chapter, I am going to post the names of all of the people that have reviewed my story. So far, these people have reviewed:
Hella Monetza, RedHillsTop, Narnia and Harry Potter 4 EVER (the story's biggest fan!), Daisy 54154, Cherry, Guest (I don't know your name since you're a guest, sorry!)
If you'd like to see your name up here, REVIEW! Ok, so let's get on with the story. Here's Chapter 6!
-Chapter 6-
I saw the look on Caspian's face, and I didn't like it. Not one bit. His face turned several different colors in half-second intervals, and after awhile I actually began to get a bit concerned for his health. However, he eventually recovered, leaving me with an angry cousin to tend to.
Caspian fumbled around in his brain for words, and I again began to get concerned. I'll bring him a dictionary if he wants one… I think. But I doubt a dictionary is what he wanted. Finally, after only a few long minutes' wait, he speaks.
"Avaline, I-" he began.
"Caspian, I'm so sorry! If I had been able to stop it, I would have, but I couldn't," I explained, trying to make him understand. Ashamed, I look down at my feet.
"Avaline, why are you apologizing to me?" he asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Why are you sorry? Liking someone of the opposite gender shouldn't entitle you to give an apology," he told me calmly.
"But Caspian, you were always so protective of me, and back only a few years ago you were telling me never to fall in love, and it will lead to nothing but trouble."
"Caspian," I called, looking over to him. He was leaning against the wall outside the ruins of Cair Paravel, his arms hugging his knees. It was dark out, and it was late. We had had our supper, and were just having our reflection time as we do every night. Basically, it's just a time to allow our food to digest before we say our prayers and go to sleep.
"Hmm?" he murmured, glancing at me. I sat up from my slouching position, sitting Indian-style across from him so we could easily make eye contact, therefore ensuring a decent conversation.
"What does it feel like to fall in love?" I asked.
My question apparently took my cousin off guard, for he stuttered his answer slightly. "A-Avaline, what kind of a q-question is that?"
"I don't know. I have just always wondered about the feeling of such strong emotions for another being," I answered truthfully, though there was more to my question than that. Recently I had been pondering the term 'love'. I was thirteen years old, and it had been three years since we escaped my father, but yet I still remembered all the gossip and talk the maids would spread back at the castle. I remembered one time in particular; when the maids had been talking about Balmia. She had just met the man that she would later marry, Lord Jeffrey. The maids had been whispering in the halls about how they had talked to her, and laughed at her ridiculous speech of 'that thing called love'. Ever since that day, I had wondered what that 'thing called love' was, so when I asked my cousin what it meant, I was being serious.
"Well, it feels like… like the world only revolves around that person. You'd do anything to make the person that you love happy," Caspian told me. "Anything they wanted, you'd give it to them, and you wouldn't even hesitate to risk your life to save theirs."
"Is it really that strong?" I asked. He nodded in answer. "You act like you've felt it before."
"No, I haven't. Lord Jeffrey once told me how it felt when he came to the palace to visit Balmia," he said. "Please, promise me you'll never fall in love."
"Why?"
"Trust me, it will lead to nothing but trouble. You will end up with a broken heart and crushed spirits, or at least that is what nurse told me."
"Oh," I replied, and that's the last I heard about love for a long time.
"Avaline," Caspian said, snapping me back to the present. "That was three years ago. You weren't mature enough to handle love back then, and besides, even if you could, who were you going to fall in love with when we were alone in the middle of nowhere?"
"I don't know. Does this mean you're not mad at me?" I asked.
"Of course not! As a matter of fact, I hope that it will work out between the two of you." A smile began to spread across my lips at his last words. "But I will get mad pretty quickly if we don't get in bed. We have a long day of travel tomorrow, since we didn't go anywhere today, and if you want to have any energy for that then you need to sleep."
"Yes, Prince Caspian," I said, mocking him.
"Is that a joke?" he asked, grinning.
"Yes, your Majesty."
"I think I'll let it slide just this once. Now go get some sleep, you," he teased, poking my side playfully and making his way back to his tent. I did the same, and in a few minutes I was sound asleep.
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"Good morning, sleeping beauty!"
"Ah!" I screamed, jolting upright into a sitting position and searching frantically for the trickster that woke me. Then I found him. "Edmund!" I complained, grabbing my pillow and whacking him with it a few times.
"What? Unhappy with my waking methods? Don't worry, so are the others," the king said, smiling evilly.
"Ugh! Did you have to wake me up? Can't I just have five more minutes?"
"Yes I did, and no you can't. And if you don't get up now, I'll have to make you."
"And how exactly do you plan on doing that, may I ask?"
"You really don't want to go there," he said. I lay back down in the bag, and he raised an eyebrow, but I simply smirked at him just to show him that he can't make me do anything. "You asked for it." He shrugged and picked me up. Edmund threw me over his shoulder and ducked out of the tent, only to continue carrying me over to the others.
The two queens and Caspian were laughing uncontrollably at my predicament while the oldest king fought off a smile. When we reached them, Edmund set me down.
"What, you didn't even let her change?" Susan asked, looking me over. I realized I was still in my nightgown.
"I, uh, I'll be back!" I called over my shoulder as I ran back to the tent. I searched through the bag until I found the green dress with the gold stitching and a pair of metallic gold flats. I quickly undressed and changed into the new clothing, brushed my hair, braided it in a crown around my head, and washed my face. As a finishing touch, I used some candy pink lip dye before heading outdoors.
"As usual, someone is looking beautiful!" Susan announced, smiling at me. Lucy nodded her head up and down in agreement before adding a comment of her own.
"Where in Aslan's name do you get your dresses made?" the youngest queen asked.
"Um, I don't know. My mother had them made for me years ago," I answered.
"And they still fit?!" Susan asked incredulously, her eyes wide.
"My mother bought me lots of dresses in different sizes so that I would be able to wear them as I grew older. I grew out of some of the ones I brought with me, and I have a few that are a little too big with me, but this one fits just right," I explained. I had brought with me from the palace three dresses in different sizes so that I wouldn't ever be dress-less.
"Well, whoever made them is a very talented dressmaker, and he or she certainly knows what colors flatter you," Lucy commented.
"Thank you," I said graciously.
Susan and Lucy discussed dresses with me for a few minutes before the High King interrupted. "Well, if you girls are done being girly, I think it's time we get a move on."
"Yes, I think that is a very good idea," Caspian said in a very kingly fashion. Edmund nodded in agreement, and then Caspian said, "Then it's settled. Gather up the others please, Avaline, and tell them it is time to go."
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Finally, everything is gathered and packed, and everyone is crowded around the six of us; me, Caspian, Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy.
"I believe, unless anyone has any last minute things to do here, that it is time to depart from this location and move toward Aslan's How," Peter announced in a loud voice to the people gathered around. No one spoke up, therefore we left with a good idea of the direction we were going and strong faith of winning this nonexistent battle.
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"So, were you courting someone back home?" I asked, grinning.
"No," the Just King answered, playfully poking me in the side in slight embarrassment. "And we don't call it 'courting' there. We call it 'dating.' Have you ever courted anyone?"
"No," I admitted, blushing. But I sure do you know who I want to. I think. The idea was ridiculous, really, but I just couldn't help fantasizing sometimes about Edmund. He was just so darn fantasize-able!
"What are you two jokesters talking about now?" Peter asked, sneaking up on us.
"Oh, nothing much," Edmund said, turning his head to the right to wink at me.
What does that mean?! I wondered. Does he like me back? Hey, a girl can dream, right?!
"Alright, well you both need to keep moving and don't be getting into too much trouble," the High King replied, walking a few steps ahead of us and returning to Caspian. They were probably talking about battle plans and fancy swords, while me and Edmund were behind everyone in the group, chatting about our lives and learning more about each other. It was quite fun, actually. At first, I had been in front behind Peter and Caspian, talking with Susan and Lucy, but when they began talking about their world, something that I know nothing about, I decided to find Edmund. I knew he wouldn't talk about anything that made me uncomfortable or unsure.
"We're here!" a voice shouted from the very front of the line. We were all walking in a line, the minotaurs and centaurs in the front, the other creatures in the middle, and the six of us royals bringing up the rear.
"Really?" Lucy exclaimed, dodging through various different Narnian animals and creatures until she reached the centaur at the very front of the line, Glenstorm. "We're here?!"
"Yes," I vaguely heard him reply. "Don't you see?" he asked, pointing out something ahead of him.
Lucy said something that I couldn't make out, and then we all walked into a large clearing, and though I didn't know her exact words, I had a pretty good idea. "Wow," I whispered.
Directly in front of all of us was a beautiful building made of brown stone. It looked very old; it had a few patches of grass growing between the cracks of the stone walkway, along with a tree growing on a large slab of rock on the second story.
"Wow is an understatement," Edmund said beside me. I looked over to see him staring at the building with a look that showed much greater understanding than I've probably ever had in my whole life. He looked at the stone structure as if he had seen it before, in a past life. "Susan," he called.
"Yes?" Susan asked, turning around and walking toward us.
"Is that-"
"Yes," she answered again, only this time it wasn't a question. "That's it."
Now I don't know about you, but at that point I was feeling extremely confused. "What is it?" I asked.
"The stone table," Edmund said. He stared at it for a second more, and as if in a daze, he grabbed my hand and we slowly jogged over to Peter, Caspian, and Lucy, now at the head of the line. "Hey," he greeted them.
"I think it is safe to go in," Caspian said, walking forward and leading the group forward. The rest of us followed slowly. When we got closer, I saw around twelve centaurs standing on each side of the stone pathway leading up to the entranceway of the building. Caspian turned around and motioned for me to walk next to him, so I scooped up handfuls of my skirt so I wouldn't trip and ran to him. "Walk with me," he told me quietly, and I nodded in answer.
When we reached a large archway a couple of yards in front of the entrance, everyone suddenly slowed their pace. I noticed that everyone had stopped before the arch to allow us, the six royals, to go first. When we slowed our pace, we allowed ourselves to take everything in, from the centaurs waiting for our entry, to the stone pillars of the structure made of the same stuff, everything about this old place was charming, yet magnificent.
Caspian looked over his shoulder to Peter. "Go ahead," the High King whispered to him. So my cousin turned back around, looked at me, positioned at his right, and began to walk. I matched his pace perfectly, and we gracefully made our way down the inclined path to the building, nodding greetings to the centaurs and both of us feeling somewhat like royalty again. The four kings and queens of old followed, and once we were inside, Caspian led the five of us through a few different passageways in the underground fortress until we reached a wall with ancient art painted on it.
Susan, standing next to Caspian and I, gasped quietly. "Peter, you may want to see this."
Peter, flanked by Edmund with Lucy following close behind, appeared next to us. He stared silently at the artwork, and Edmund stood next to him with his eyebrows furrowed, as if trying to figure some hard algebra problem.
"It's us," Lucy whispered.
What? I wondered, and that's when all of the missing pieces fell into place.
There's more to this story than they're letting me in on.
A/N: How did you guys like it? REVIEW REVIEW!
