Chapter 9, so unless I can squeeze a chapter in before then, Happy St. Patrick day. I don't own anything Narnia.
Kathryn sat upright in the bed; her sore eyes replayed the beautiful dance, while the building tore itself violently apart around her. She sat in the dark cabin; she began biting her nails, a habit she had got into when she was trying to think.
Unknown to the restless girl, the dwarf was hidden in her wardrobe, and was watching her with hated filled eyes, ready for the right moment. While she was too busy puzzling her dream, he quietly approached her with a rusty black blade in his hand. Kathryn saw the shadow of the dwarf. She turned her tired head. His light amount of teeth shone in the haunting moonlight as he advanced. Her eyes now alert looked between the dwarf and her own weapons beside the window. She knew she needed a distraction, but the black dwarf was beside her bed. His rusty dragger posed to strike above his head. She gulped loudly. But saw her chance. She awkwardly right hooked the dwarf. She heard a bone splitting crack but ignored the pain in her hand as she used this to jump for her weapons.
But the dwarf grabbed her ankle as soon as she left the bed, causing her to land with a thud. She stretched out her arms, hoping for something, anything she could use to defend herself with. Her injured hand grabbed the first thing her finger touch; a hot water bottle. Good Invention by Queen Susan she thought as she poured the semi hot water over him, only burning him a little. He let go of her ankle and the knife to hold onto his face, a shriek escaping his lips.
Up on deck, Matthew and Lorious had been playing cards to pass the time. Matthew both respected and befriend the centaur and found him easier to talk to then his father. Matthew smirked as he looked at his hand, a royal flush. Before any of them could present their cards they heard a women's scream from Kathryn's chambers. They unsheathed their swords as they ran below deck.
They burst through the door to see Donabrik on his knees on the floor and Kathryn towering over him. Her sword drawn and ready to kill. Her white nightdress ripped at the knees and shin, half of the small rusted dragger could be seen projecting from her left shin, while blood poured from the wound. Matthew stepped forward to kill the dwarf but was stopped by Lorious.
"This is Kathryn's kill." Kathryn looked with a blood thirsty façade at the dwarf; she kept her sword at his throat but replied.
"I think your father will enjoy pushing him." The dwarf was pulled away as Kathryn fainted. The rest of the journey was quiet, Kathryn continued to throw up, but was struck in bed in order to recover, her knuckle was broken, she had been taught once by her father how to right hook, but failed miserably. The injured in her shin was too deep, but she was still required to stay in bed in order to heal it. Donabrik however remained in chains under deck.
The ship soon ported at Archenland. Kathryn and Mathew were met with a carriage, which Kathryn was relieved with given her injured leg. Kathryn found the country beautiful, it was more mountainous than Narnia, and the trees were more sparely planted, on the way to Anvard. Before they reached the capital, Matthew took out a small red velvet box.
"What is that?" Kathryn asked, he silently handed the box to her. She opened it to revel a sliver band ring with a red lion with a golden crown carved into it. She saw the same ring on his thumb, her shocked eyes raised to meet his. "What?"
"It's your hero ring; you can't expect us to show up without showing who we are." Matthew could be very arrogant and proud most of the times, and this was no exception. Before Kathryn could protest the carriage stopped outside a castle, it looked like Cair Paravel as it conceitedly stood against the blue sky.
Kathryn did her best to walk with grace with her limp. They were escorted into the throne room, where a king, with fair hair, who was around twenty five, and his queen a women with long black hair about the same age sat on the two thrones. They two young humans bowed before the royal. Kathryn faked a smile, concealing the pain in her leg.
"Your Majesties, his Lordship Matthew Evans, and Lady Kathryn Gavan, the Heroes of Narnia." One of the men at the court introduced as they stood in front of the two royals. Kathryn felt many eyes on her, but they were soon shoed away by the king.
"Welcome to my court. It is wonderful to hear from Narnia after all this time. I pray tell me of King Edmund and Susan." The king surprised Kathryn, she had expected him to be a snob as most kings are, but he was more than happy to stand in front of the two, shaking hands with Matthew and kissing Kathryn's pale hand.
"The Kings and Queen left Narnia eight years ago." Kathryn sheepish replied. The warm smile on the king's face dropped a little.
"Oh, well I'm being rude. I'm King Cor and this is my wife, Queen Aravis." He pointed to the raven haired women, who stayed put on her throne. Kathryn noted the thrones weren't as beautiful as the four in Cair Paravel. "I hope you enjoy you stay in Archenland." He kissed Kathryn's left hand again, causing her checks to redden.
Her and Matthew were escorted to their own rooms, unlike Narnia, the servants within the castle were men and women. Kathryn guilty limped straight to the wardrobe, with was full of Archenland dresses. She smiled as she picked a long pale cream dress, with large floral patterns. The bodice was a grass green with purple flowers, this pattern continued onto the skirt, the dress had purple scraps. It was lovely. She changed into the dress and heading for the giant gardens.
Unknown to Kathryn and Matthew, two visitors from Telmar were also present in the Anvard castle. One was a boy the children's age while the other was a man that would stop at nothing to further his own position.
Kathryn limped down the white steps in the garden, on the last step she slip and fell. But before she made contact with the ground, the young visitor from Telmar caught her. He was a few inches taller than Kathryn, not as tall as Matthew, with dark almost black brown eyes and dark hair.
"Thanks." Kathryn mumbled and smiled when she was back on her feet. "Who are you?" she blurted out "I mean what's your name." She tried to be gracious.
"Caspian Trastámara." His father barked to the boy, his father had the same hair and eyes, but a thick beard and added age. The son reluctantly followed after his father, leaving Kathryn alone in the gardens. She walked around for a bit, trying not to put too much pressure on her leg. She scrambled through the tall grass until she found a bench, she relaxed down on it, kicking off her comfy cream ballet pumps.
"Mind if I join you." She looked up to see the King standing beside her in the sun. She hastily got up and bowed before him, her face grimacing as she moved her legs. He waved it off, commanding her to get back to her feet. He sat down on the little wooden bench and patted off the girl to join him.
The two talked, Kathryn learned everything about Archenland and the how Cor was forced into slavery and his journey to become a king. Kathryn also informed the King on her life, her life paled in compassion to the young king. But he protested finding it interesting; Kathryn found it easy to talk to the king.
They were laughing in their own world as the Queen appeared wearing a long halter neck roman style blue dress with a beaded collar and jewels, as well as her massive crown on top of her raven head. She stood beside the couple on the bench, her blue heels signalling her discontent.
"Your majesty." Kathryn breathed as she bowed low, despite the pain. The Queen waved her off, signally for the girl to leave. She hurried back into the castle, leaving the two royals alone in the gardens.
A week had passed since the two youngsters had arrived in Archenland. A masked ball was held in their honour to celebrate their visit. Kathryn had several ladies-in-waiting to help her get ready for the ball. She had chosen a long silver dress, with a floral pattern on the bodice, with off-the-shoulder see through silver sleeves, small green heels and a green and silver mask matched with silver dangle earrings. Her maids attached extension to her hair and pinned two sides up and fashioned a bun decorated with diamonds, while the rest of her hair lay in curls.
The party had already begun downstairs in the huge hall room; it was full with thousands of Archenland nobles. They were all dressed beautifully and dancing in an Archenland court dance in which the ladies would dance in a circle on the inside, while the men create a large circle outside, the large group would break off into smaller groups of six, the women would then dance around stationary men, and then hold hands and take two steps toward and two steps back in a line. The couple would repeat it over and over again.
Kathryn watched from the side lines as the nobles finished their dance. She had been given dancing lessons since arriving, and loved dancing. She had practiced any chance she could get to perfect her skills.
An upbeat song played from the band at the front of the room, Kathryn noted it in her head that it sounded like an Irish tune used for Celtic dancing. (A/I'm Irish.) Many of the nobles clapped to the beat, as two dark-skinned masked dances began dancing in the middle of the room. They did the own twirls and moves that Kathryn recognised as the Ceilli. Kathryn started clapping as a blonde noble asked her dance. She accepted and smiled as he led her to the floor.
The joined the two skilled dancers and a few others on the large dance floor. The dance consisted of a low bow from each partner, before the blonde male spun his partner round 360 degrees. Both partners worked in sic, with their right feet sliding across the ground to balance behind their left, both would jump a little before pressing shoulder to shoulder in 180 intervals. Their left foot would cross over their right and jump a little again. Kathryn did her own part of the dance in which she would do her own twirl, her ankles were showed off as her dress would all ways be held up throughout the dance. Her right hand twirled the piece of material in her hand to the fast beat. Her feet then tap across the ground eight times before traveling back to her partner. They faced each other and side stepped left for eight counts and clap before repeating it with the right. The blonde Male spun Kathryn around again as the dance came to an end.
Both partners were out of breath at this point, as the dance required stamina and energy. Her and her Partner separated ways as another song started; Kathryn however went to get another drink as Matthew entered the dance hall, he was dressed in blue and quickly joined in the dance with a brunette Lady. The dance was a slower one compared to the Ceilli. This dance the men and women danced in line with only hands held and a few spins.
The music stopped as the King and Queen dressed in red entered the dance. The dance floor cleared as the royals danced a slow song, the music was that of a beautiful lullaby with slow notes. The Queen jewelled red dress with ruffs shone in the ball lights.
"Thank you for joining me in the celebrating the visit of the Heroes of Narnia. Lady Kathryn and Lord Matthew. To the Heroes." The king toasted as he raised his glass. After that many dances took place. Both slow and fast, some unique to Archenland and other used in both countries.
A slow song came from the band, it was beautiful and the lyricist sung in an old Narnian language.
"May I have this dance?" a masked man in all black asked. His black outfit matched his black hair and almost black eyes. Kathryn accepted. She only vaguely knew the dance; it was like a waltz, but without touching. The couple performed the dance using the same steps as a waltz, beginning with small turns their hands almost touching at their chests. They repeated this a few times and as they got to the waltz part of the dance, an intruder cut in.
"Can I cut in." the man dressed in red ordered. The mysterious dance partner had no choice but to hand Kathryn over, the man in red waltzed with the girl, twirling her around as the mysterious black stranger and the rest of the court look on, they continued to dance until the end of the song. After the dance the partners bowed to each other as the rest of the guest went back to their own partners.
"Can I talk to you." The masked figure asked her, he placed a hand on her back and led her to a small room beside the dance floor. He took a seat in the royal red armchair and removed his simple red mask, revealing his true identity of King Cor. Kathryn bowed low. He pated to the seat beside him, she removed her silver mask and sat down.
"Your majesty. What is it you wanted to talk to me in private about?" she inquired.
"I'm sorry, but my wife can be a jealous woman, especially considering me talking to a beautiful woman." The King used his charm on the girl.
"I'm not beautiful your highness."
"You are."
"Please can you say what you brought me here to say?"
"I will accept greatly on the matter of peace. I'm still in debt to the kings and queens for their help, I also have great respect for them and you and I know as a ruler myself the great burden that you will suffer. I also have a gift for you."
"For me." She asked as he removed his large circular black ring and slid it onto her right ring finger. The black stone set in gold reflected in the light. "Thank you your Majesty. But I not worthy."
"Of course you are. It is a gift for a noble and a symbol of the peace between our countries. She bowed and returned to the party.
A/N: Ok, good bad, what did u think? I liked to know, dresses are up on my profile. The first dances, is my own creation as is the Celli, but the inspiration comes from The Tudors and vampire diaries. Aravis I decided to make a jealous character, just for this story, so please don't hate on me. Also I'm changing the setting of my story, it was set a year after the Pevensies, and it is now set eight years. If you have any questions about the story or dresses or music mentioned, asked away.
