A/N Sorry about the late update guys! I promise you that I will not be dropping this story soon and I promise that I will update, no matter how slow progress may be! I wanna thank you guys for your undying support and I hope to have the next chapter up soon!
Chapter Nine ~ Horse riding
"Okay, then we'll have the decorations here, and then the food table will go in that corner. The stage is perfect and then the musicians' instruments will go there." I told a female centaur standing next to me. A few hours had past since the tiger-panther attack, and I was planning a party for everyone.
I had done my share of practice that day, so the remainder of time I had until dusk (which is when the party will start) I had worked on putting this together. Luckily, Aslan's camp had many cooks and dressmakers, so they would have everything prepared for later.
I sighed with relief when I had gotten all the preparations finished and I went to my tent. I saw the dress I had designed for the dressmakers to create for me earlier on that day. It was a purplish-blue colour and went to just above my ankles. It also had a rose accessory.
It was made from silk, and it was extremely soft on my skin. There was a translucent material over the actual dress in the same colour. It had small straps and there were a pair of small purple wedges that I designed myself. I slipped the dress and shoes when Lucy came in.
"Hello, Lucy." I said to her, cheerfully.
"Hi, Rach."
"What are you doing here? I thought that you and Susan were coming to get ready here later."
"Well, we are, it's just that I need to tell you that the future Royals of Narnia are meant to have an escort to parties like this." I swallowed. I've never been to a party that we had to be escorted to! Usually, boys tend to stay away from me.
"So, who are you going with?"
"Well, I'm going with Edmund and Susan's going with the leader of the centaurs."
"What about Peter?" I said, my pulse starting to quicken.
"That's a very good question. I think Edmund told me that he wasn't going to go. I think he still feels bad about what happened…"
I nodded. He know I'm fine and have been ever since I cast that spell on myself, but is he really being so silly that he still blames him self?
"It was a training accident!" I said out loud, raising my voice slightly, causing a few Narnians to stare. My face heated up again, this time in embarrassment.
"Rachie, what are you talking about?" Lucy asked, perplexed.
"Sorry Lu. I was in Rachel -land for a minute there.
" I gave her a small smile. "Hey don't worry! I'm not going mad! That happened a long time ago." I grinned at the youngest Pevensie, who was laughing.
"So… should I go ask him now?"
"I think that would be the best thing to do."
"Okay Lu! Let's go find Peter"
Although, I changed out of my party dress into an baggy long-sleeved white shirt that went half way down my thighs and a pair of black leggings with dirty gold knee high lace-up boots. Therefore, off we trekked, towards where the boys were practicing.
We found them sparring (again) and Lucy let me go and see them in private. When they saw me, they stopped immediately. Both of them gave me a warm smile and I couldn't help myself but smile back. I had my hands behind my back, concealing the presents for Edmund.
"Hello Rach." Peter greeted me.
"Hiya. I hope I'm not interrupting anything important, but Edmund said earlier that he'd take me for a ride so I could get used to Narnia?"
"I did say that to her Pete." He nodded his head.
"Hey, would you mind if I came with you? I need some help with my horse riding."
"Sure." I replied.
"What have you got behind your back?" asked Edmund.
"Nothing much." I said, making him curious.
"Well, you've got something! Show us."
"No, no! it's nothing exciting." I looked at the ground for a minute, then caught his eye again. I smiled slightly. I was getting better at lying, but with Ed and Pete, it wasn't too easy.
"Let me see it!" he told me, menacingly, lunging for the items behind me.
I laughed as I dodged him, and we ran around, him chasing me until he rugby tackled me.
"Let me see them." He said under his breath
"I would, but you're preventing me from doing that."
Peter ran over to us as Edmund was getting up. Peter was a pure gentleman as he grabbed my hand and helped me to get back on my feet.
"Okay, well here you go! Father Christmas gave me mine and in doing so, yours as well. Which reminds me, did something happen to you on your way here? Because everyone else seems to have gotten their presents before you."
As I continued, his face seemed to drop every second. He inhaled to speak, before a faun came over to us and announced to us that our horses were ready for us. We walked over to the stable in silence and as Peter and Edmund mounted their horses with great speed, I couldn't think of the first thing on how to ride. I had ridden horses before, but they were pony treks with people guiding the horse, and after trying to mount one a little while ago, I don't think I would be ready to ride: neither was the horse I tried to mount!
"How do I… how do I…" I trailed off when I thought of how stupid I was being. I mean, it looked easy enough, so why should I bother anybody else on a matter that was so small? So I swung myself up on the horse, but my footing slipped and I fell back on the ground. I saved myself from further humiliation by landing on my knees. I hissed from the pain.
"Ow!" I whispered to myself, while I wiped the dust off my knees. Fortunately, they weren't cut.
"Do you need any help?" asked Peter. "No, I'm fine. It's just I've never gotten up on a horse. Don't worry about me, I'll get up there some how!" I tried getting up again, but fell back down on the ground, landing on my backside.
I tried again and pulled myself up, but I kept slipping. Before I lost my footing completely, I felt warm hands around my waist, helping my down. I suddenly felt utterly safe as I let myself be lowered down.
I turned around when that n my feet touched the ground, and I saw that it was Edmund that had helped me down. He went over to my horse and instructed me on how to get myself up. We were going without the saddle, and it was a lot harder than with one.
I eventually got my right leg over the back of my horse and was now sitting on-top of a shiny, jet black mare with a white star on its head. Peter had pointed out that the horses' coat looked rather like my hair. I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult.
"Now, all you have to do now is dig your heels into your horse."
I was slightly confused.
"What do you mean 'my horse'?"
"All the royals have horses. But she doesn't have a name."
"She? Hmm..." It took me a minute, but eventually it came to me.
"How about Tia?"
"I like it. My name's now Tia." said my horse. I was slightly taken back when she said this, but I wasn't really surprised. Maybe I'm getting more used to talking animals and moving trees.
"So do you know how to ride?" asked Tia. I said no. "Well, for now, I'll help you. Take the reins and lightly dig your heels into me. Lightly." She told me, adding emphasis over the word 'lightly.'
So I took the reins, tightened them around my hands and dug my heels into her. She reared up and neighed, and I held on for dear life, but I trusted my horse, so when her hooves touched the ground again, we took off.
I could hear the pounding of Edmund's and Peter's horses hooves behind me. I looked over my shoulder, the wind blowing through my hair. It blew into my face, but I saw Edmund and Peter smiling at me. They were on either side of me, and we were running across a meadow. I saw Peter and Edmund turn to the left, so I followed them. I thought I had to do something but then it dawned on me that this animal wasn't like the ones back home. I knew that Tia already knew where to go.
I saw that there was a forest ahead of us. I could hear Tia panting, her hooves hitting against the grass of the meadow we were galloping across. We guided our horses into the forest on the edge of the grassy plain (well, Peter and Edmund did) and we rode until we came to a clearing. It was a small, rough semi-circle on the edge of a cliff, overlooking the glistening ocean and the grand, white building that was Cair Paravel. We slowed down and dismounted our horses. I looked in complete awe of the beauty that was this small clearing. Our clearing.
I sat down on the ground, not caring if I got dirty. I brushed away some of the leaves and saw that there was grass underneath, so I pushed several of them away and cleared a space for us to sit on. The two boys sat down on either side of me, staying silent and taking in the views. We sat in silence for a while before Edmund breathed, "Wow…"
I laughed lightly.
"I didn't know you were a mind reader as well, Eddie!"
He laughed a little at this.
"Wow… I didn't know you could be sarcastic!" he said.
"Me? Sarcastic? Never." I smiled. Peter was laughing as well.
Peter started telling us a story about how one of the boys at his boarding school tried to climb out of his dorm window in the middle of the night to talk to his girlfriend at St Finbar's after curfew and ended up falling face first into horse dung and getting caught by his headmaster.
We were in fits of laughter by the end of it, and so the story telling began. Ed told us of the time he and his friends were in science and in the middle of an experiment his partner added too much of a substance into his testube and it managed to blow up in his face and set the school's fire alarm off. We went back and forth between the stories and for a while, the stress of the upcoming war was forgotten.
Ed was hungry, so he went to find some fruit to eat and myself and Peter were alone. That was my cue to start the awkward conversation of me asking Pete to be my date to the party. I took in a deep breath and said 'Peter' at the same time he said 'Rachel.' I blushed a bit, because he only used my proper name instead of my nick name if he was being perfectly serious.
"You go first." We both told each other at the same time. There was some nervous laughter and then Peter finally spoke.
"Rachel, I know I've only known you a few days and um… I was just wondering if you would em… you see I was planning on going but um… maybe if I went with someone, maybe you or a female faun or something but-" I cut him off by putting my finger to his lips.
"Yes I will go with you to the party!" I exclaimed, "but this doesn't change anything, does it?"
"No! Of course not!"
I saw the familiar colour in his cheeks. We heard some rustling behind us and Edmund emerged, with an apple in each hand. He was eating one before he sat down.
"Don't offer us some or anything…" I asked teasingly, before grabbing the one in his right hand and taking a triumphant bite out of it.
"Oi!" he complained, pushing me lightly.
I laughed before offering Peter some, who took another bite out of the other side. I was still munching on the apple before offering it back to Edmund.
"I don't want it now! It's been poisoned!" he looked at it disdainfully, then smiled and took it back.
We sat there for a while and before I knew it, my arms were wrapped around their waists and Peter and Edmund had one of theirs around mine. I switched from having my head on Edmund's shoulder to Peter's, but then I realized that we must have been sitting there for a long time. I slowly got up, groaning in pleasure as I stretched.
"Come on guys, time to go."
They stood up as well, and we found out horses eating some grass nearby. I got to mine first and hoisted myself up.
"Bet you can't catch me!" I yelled over my shoulder playfully. "Come on Tia, let's show these boys how its done!"
Tia reared up and neighed, before galloping away quickly. I looked over my shoulder and saw them about fifteen yards away.
I laughed in delight as the wind played with my hair and the sun hit my skin. We galloped faster and faster, until we eventually slowed down near the stables.
"There's a good girl." I said to Tia, patting the side of the face.
The two boys rode in seconds after, smiling.
"Ha ha! I win!" I said triumphantly.
They both hit me lightly over the head, and I pretended that it was painful.
"Oh, the pain! I think I'm going to DIE from it!" I said, putting on a silly voice.
We all laughed. Edmund gave me a sugar cube to give to Tia, who ate it greedily.
"I'll see you both later guys!" I shouted over to them, before leaving to get ready for the party.
I stopped off on the way to my tent to see the beautiful decorations in the tent. There were sparkling gold and red banners across the ceiling, bales of hay for people to sit on, a small table for food and drink, a big space for everyone to dance and the small stage for the band to play was all set up with their oddly shaped musical instruments.
I skipped off happily towards my room, grinning. I was in my room for barely a few seconds and my grin subsided. My head started pounding and I clutched my skull. I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from screaming and I felt myself falling. I was about to hit the ground, before my vision went into a white tunnel, and an image appeared at the end.
A/N I'm so mean aren't I? Anyway, another cliffy! Sorry progress has been slow, but I have gone back to school and I've been insanely busy oh well, until next time my faithful readers!
Xx Elemental Angel xX